Several Unix workstation clusters have been installed on campus for educational activities. All Duke students, faculty, and staff
are entitled to access these clusters. This document was prepared to acquaint you with policies regarding the usage of these clusters.
Please read it carefully, as you are responsible for proper usage of the computing resources. The Duke University Honor Code exists in
addition to the rules listed here. Class -specific policies of individual instructors may also apply to your account.
Failure to adhere to these rules may result in temporary or permanent termination of your account, and possible disciplinary actions by
the University. When in doubt the best course of action is to be considerate of the other users of the systems.
If you are a victim of harassment or improper system use by other users please record the identity number of the machine on which the
incident occurred (e.g., yours if offensive pictures were sent to your screen) and the date and time of the incident. You should then
report the incident to your Dean's office.
Purpose of the Public Unix Clusters
The acpub clusters as well as other public-access computing facilities are meant to be used for education and research. Services such
as electronic mail, news, access to nationwide electronic forums, and games can be used to further increase your computer literacy and
help you with your university -related work. Such usage of the computers, however, is of lower priority than use for classes and research.
User Behavior
Inconsiderate Behavior
By far, most infringements to proper use of the computers come from seemingly small actions. Playing computer games and refusing to
relinquish a machine to a user who needs to do class work, locking the screen of a machine for more than five minutes to preserve access
to it, using more than one machine console at peak times when others are waiting for access, and remotely hogging the CPUs of other users'
machines are examples of violations of the policy. Whereas no single incident of this nature will result in punishment, if reports by those
offended point to repeat offenders, machine access to the offenders will be restricted or permanently revoked.
Users of the acpub workstation system sending offensive e-mail or pictures to other users, as well as displaying such pictures during their
own workstation sessions, will not be tolerated. No action which causes others to feel offended, threatened, or harassed will be tolerated.
ANY ABUSIVE USE OF THE WORKSTATIONS INCLUDING SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF OTHERS WILL RESULT IN DISCIPLINARY ACTION. The Office of Information
Technology (OIT) can and will identify the offending parties, and refer such cases to the Judicial Board. Should good judgment and
professionalism not prevail, disciplinary action will ensure that all users' rights are respected.
Students who are victims of this type of behavior should follow the standard procedure outlined above, i.e., record the time of the incident
and the name of their workstation (or the name of the workstation on which this happened) and report the problem to their academic Dean.
Electronic Mail
Reading others' e-mail is an invasion of privacy and will not be allowed. It is equivalent to going to someone's mailbox on the street and
opening their letters.
News
The use of news to harass users will not be tolerated.
Chain Letters
Chain letters are extremely wasteful of scarce resources and are prohibited. Moreover, any chain letter that solicits the reader to send
money is a Ponzi scheme and is illegal. Do not send chain letters to anyone at this or any other site.
Inconsiderate Posting
It is important to remember that mailing lists and newsgroups are created for specific purposes. Be careful not to post off-topic messages
to such public forums, and especially be sure not to post messages to newsgroups or mailing lists of classes in which you are not enrolled.
Priority Use of Computers and Game Playing
The primary uses of the acpub system are instruction and research. OIT recognizes that not all machines will be in use for their primary
purpose at all times, and that there exists student interest in using the machines for non -instructional purposes. Such usage is permitted
so long as it does not interfere in any way with the primary function of the system. OIT would like our users to feel comfortable with the
system, and insofar as game playing, etc. furthers that goal, it is allowed.
Use Policy
There is no problem with users playing any game within reason on the acpub machines, provided that there are not other users waiting for
access to workstations for academic purposes. Because of the limited number of seats, please be considerate of others when playing games.
If a user is waiting to use a workstation while you are playing a game, the user that wishes to do work has first priority. If you continue
to play a game after you have been asked to quit, action can be taken.
Game Servers
Game servers will NOT be tolerated because they can create too much network traffic, obstructing the educational use of the machines.
Publishing game-servers to the Internet as a whole is a security hazard and can use up our limited resources. The potential for massive
network traffic through the system, as well as for heavy load on a particular workstation, threatens the primary functioning of the system.
Willful obstruction of the use of the network will not be allowed.
Commercial Use
Use of the acpub system for commercial purposes is not condoned and such use is not permitted without the express prior written
permission of the Office of Information Technology.
Excessive Noise
Excessive noise is defined as anything that interferes with the educational use of the cluster, such as loud radios or loud talking.
If users are disturbed by noise, it must stop. You will be asked to quiet down or leave so as not to bother other users. Noise is not a
problem as long as it does not interfere with users' work. There will always be some noise; however, excessive, bothersome noise must be
kept to a minimum.
Disk Space
Since we have limited allotted resources with regards to disk space, users should use their space wisely. We can slightly increase disk
space for legitimate reasons. Legitimate reasons include, but are not limited to, class work and research, but specifically do not include
storing games or graphic image files. For programs that produce large temporary data sets, we suggest using the /tmp directories since this
is their purpose.
acpub System Server Shutdown Procedure
Recognizing that the acpub public Unix clusters have become an important academic resource at the University, and recognizing that service
interruptions are therefore a sensitive issue, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has implemented the following policies to ensure
that necessary system downtimes proceed cleanly and with the least possible user inconvenience: