Newsletter No. 125

2 No. 125 19th April 1998 CUHK Newsletter VC Presents Long Service Awards F orty-six staf f who have served 25 years at the University wer e presented the Long Servic e Awards o n 28th March 199 8 as a token of thanks for thei r service . Prof. Arthur K.C . Li , vice-chancellor o f the University, officiate d a t the award presentation ceremony whic h too k place at the University Guest House. He said this year the celebration i s tripled as i t i s als o th e University' s 35t h anniversary an d the award's 10th . The lis t o f Term s o f Servic e A award recipient s wa s announce d b y Prof. Liu Pak-wai, pro-vice-chancellor . They eac h receive d a gold pi n an d a certificate. Th e Term s B lis t wa s announced b y hea d o f CUT A Mr . Winston Kan . The y eac h receive d a certificate an d a cash award or a gold pin. The occasio n ende d with a buffet lunch at the Guest House. Friends Gather at Art Museum for Annual Dinner A dinner was arranged at the East- wing Gallerie s o f th e A r t Museum fo r th e firs t tim e o n th e evening o f 20t h Marc h 1998 . Th e occasion marked the annual gathering of the Friends of the Art Museum and the completion of their docent training programme. It began with a tour of the exhibition 'Jade s of the Liangzhu Culture' led by the docents and a Chinese music performance by student s of the Music Department . A congratulator y messag e was then delivered by Prof . Arthur K.C. Li, vice-chancellor of the University, to be followed by the presentation of certificates to the docents by Mrs . Li . Som e 12 0 members of the Friends of the Art Museum an d guests a t t e n d ed th e function. Docents and other guests of the annual dinner 宣布事項 Announcements 教職員及配偶國粵語課程 Putonghua and Cantonese Courses for Staff and Spouses 新雅中國語文硏習所將於六月九日至八月十一 日於方樹泉樓再度爲本校教職員及其配偶舉辦下列 國、粤語課程，上課時間暫定星期二及四下午五時 至六時五十分。 (一）供外籍教職員及其配偶選修之初級國語課 程。 (二）供外籍教職員及其配偶選修之初級粤語課 程。 (三）供粤籍教職員及其配偶選修之初級國語課 程。 (四）供非粤籍教職員及其配偶選修之初級粤語 課程。 以上課程每班限額八人，按報名先後取錄，少 於四人不開班。學費全期港幣四千三百八十元，聘 任期不少於兩年之本校全職教職員及其配偶，若未 獲任何語言學習資助者，可獲大學津貼學費百分之 四十。 有意就學者請於六月二日前與該硏習所聯絡(內 線六七二七）。 The New Asia-Yale-in-China Chinese Language Centre will again offer Putonghua and Cantonese courses to the University's staff and their spouses from 9th June to 11th August 1998 . Th e followin g course s hav e bee n tentatively scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday from 5.00 p.m. to 6.50 p.m. at the Fong Shu Chuen Building: (1) Beginner' s course in Putonghua for foreigners. (2) Beginner ' s course in Cantonese for foreigners. (3) Beginner ' s course i n Putonghu a fo r non - Putonghua speakers of Chinese origin. (4) Beginner' s cours e i n Cantones e fo r non - Cantonese speakers of Chinese origin. The siz e o f eac h clas s wil l b e limite d t o eigh t students and the minimum number of students to form a class i s four. Enrolmen t wil l b e on a first-come-first- served basis. Basic tuition fee for each course is HK$4,380. The University wil l subsidiz e 40 per cent of the tuition fee for all full-time academic and administrative staff as well as thei r spouse s wh o ar e expecte d t o b e wit h th e University fo r a t leas t tw o years , an d wh o ar e no t receiving a language stud y subsid y fro m an y othe r source. Fo r enrolment , pleas e contac t th e Chines e Language Centre at Ext. 6727 before 2nd June 1998. 邵逸夫堂暫停開放 Closure of Sir Run Run Shaw Hall 邵逸夫堂將於五月十八日（星期一)至八月十七 日(星期一)關閉，以裝置新的觀眾座椅並開展維修工 程。 Sir Run Run Shaw Hall will be closed from 18t h May to 17th August 199 8 for renovation . 教職員貸款利率下調 Reduced Interest Rate for Staff Loans 總務處跟隨香港銀行公會之減息決定，宣布自 一九九八年三月三十日起，教職員貸款之年利率由 十厘二五減至十厘。 From the B u r s a r y : In line with the decision of the Hong Kong Association of Bank s t o cu t the prime rat e by 0.2 5 pe r cent , the interest rate for staff loans has been reduced from 10.25 per cen t to 1 0 per cen t per annum fro m 30t h Marc h 1998. 立教大學硏究獎勵計劃 Rikkyo University Research Fellowship Programme 1999-2000 日本立教大學現接受一九九九至二零零零年度 硏究獎勵計劃之申請。該計劃旨在促進人文、社會 或自然科學之硏究及學術交流。獲獎者可與立教大 學教師開展合作硏究。 獲獎者可得來回東京經濟客位機票，以及每月 廿六萬至卅五萬五千日元之生活、房屋及硏究津 貼，並得於一九九九年四月一日至二零零零年三月 卅一日期內開展爲期三至八個月之硏究。 申請者須爲教授、副教授、助理教授、講師或 導師’並於一九九九年四月一日時年齡爲四十五歲 或以下。 索取申請表格或査詢詳情可致電人事處(內線七 一九一/七二八八）。申請表格須於一九九八年六月 三十日前寄回立教大學。 Academic staf f of the University ca n now appl y fo r financial suppor t t o conduc t researc h a t Rikky o University, Japan, in the 1999-2000 academic year. The Rikky o Universit y Researc h Fellowshi p Programme aims at encouraging academic exchange and research in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Successful candidates can conduct research in collaboration with academic staff of Rikkyo Universit y for three to eight months from 1s t April 199 9 to 31st March 2000. The fellowship include s economy clas s airfare to and from Tokyo, and a monthly stipen d of ¥260,00 0 to ¥355,000 . Applicants should be full-time professors, associate or assistant professors, lecturers, or instructors, who are aged 45 or below as of 1s t April 1999 . All application s should reach Rikkyo University by 30th June 1998. Application form s and details of the programme may be obtained from the Personnel Office (Ext. 7191/ 7288). 訃告 Obituary 本校創校校長李卓敏博士的夫人盧志文女士於 一九九八年四月一日在美國加州柏克萊辭世，葬禮 已於四月四日在當地舉行。 Mrs. Sylvi a Li , wif e o f Dr. C.M . Li , foundin g vice - chancellor o f the University, passed away on 1 st April 1998 in Berkeley, California, USA. Beware of the Universal Y2K Problem At the turn of the millennium, all computer users in the world will face the same danger — the danger of having their computer systems not working properly. Cause and Scope In order to save disk storage and speed up program execution, most computer programs, especially those that have been around for a long time, use only two digits to represent the year, e.g. '97' fo r '1997 ' whe n dealing with calendar dates. The two-digit year field can be found in operating systems, microcodes, compilers, middlewares, application packages, in-house developed applications, screen formats, and databases. At the turn of the millennium, problem programs will not be able to interpret the digits '00' as year 2000 (Y2K), but will interpret it as year 190 0 instead. Subsequently, these programs, which we describe as 'non-Y2K compliant', will fail. To further complicate the problem, some programs do not recognize year 2000 as a leap year, and hence cannot handle '29th February 2000’ properly. In fact, the Y2K date problem is not confined to software. Hardware devices which use an internal electronic logic to handle dates may encounter the same problem. Examples include computer hardware (such as PCs and workstations), medical devices, automated systems, video cassette recorders, security systems, and fax machines. What Should Be Done? For a computer program or system to survive Y2K, you have to make sure that the computer hardware (e.g. PC, UNIX-based workstation) in which the program i s running, the operating system (e.g. DOS, Windows, AIX) , th e application softwar e (e.g. SAS, SPSS , Gaussian) , and your self-develope d programs are all Y2K compliant. There is no quick and easy solution. You must first identify all problem software and hardware items, then either fix them, e.g., modify program codes, or replace them with year 2000 compliant products. To start with, we recommend that you make an inventory of your existing computer syslem(s) according to the following: • Machin e type and model; • Operatin g system and its version number; • Tap e management system, if any; • License d application programs and their version numbers; • Publi c domain shareware/freeware and their version numbers; • Self-develope d programs with program logic to manipulate dates. Once you have finished taking inventory , you should check with you r software/hardware vendor s on the status of their product s regardin g Y2 K compliance. For licensed products, you may need to apply patches or to perform a complete version upgrade to make the product Y2K compliant . For public domain software, you will have to consult the author or check the source code yourself. For self-developed programs, you must locate the problem codes and make them Y2K compliant , test them, and finally pu t them back int o you r production environment. Act Now Beware that some programs will fail long before year 2000, for example, a program which handles dates one year ahead will encounter problems at the start of 1999. Therefore take action now. CSC/ITSU will provide technical information and render help as much as possible. However, CSC/ITSU will not perform the actual work for you. You must allocate your own resources to solve the Y2K date problem and replace with your own budget software and hardware items which cannot be made Y2K compliant. For furthe r information , refe r t o th e Y2 K we b pag e a t http:/ / www.cuhk.edu.hk/y2k/ , o r contact the following CSC/ITSU staff: Microcomputer systems and network: Mr . Roge r So , Ext. 883 6 Microcomputerapplications: Ms. Judy Cheung, Ext. 8920 UNIX-based systems: Ms . Carol Chiu, Ext. 8823 and Ms. Fung Suet-yi, Ext. 8832 Academic computing system applications (e.g . SAS , IMSL , M A T L A B ) : Mr . Thomas Tsui, Ext. 8844 Registryapplications: Mr. Chong Wing-kong, Ext. 8915 and Mr. Lawrence Leung, Ext. 8990 SAP accounting applications: Ms. Anita Kwong, Ext. 8872 and Mr. Edmund To, Ext. 8843 Newfunding model system: Ms . Leung Mei-yin, Ext. 8840 Admission system: Ms. Sally Wong, Ext. 8871 Personnel andpayroll systems: Mr. Michael Chan, Ext. 8809 and Mr. Edmund To, Ext. 8843 Nelson Ngan Computer Services Centre