FAQs for incoming graduate students to the
department of Computer Science,
Rice University

This is mainly a collection of the emails that were exchanged between the incoming graduate students and some of the students who were already studying in the department. Just for fun the sender and receiver of the mails have been kept anonymous !! There are also some links to other sources of information. You will clearly see that the largest number of mails were exchanged regarding the housing at Rice. I have tried to put in some other stuff as well but in case you have anything specific to ask then you can write emails to phdfresh@rice.edu




Some important links

Rice Graduate Apartments
Department Of Computer Science
Rice University Homepage
Information about Houston
Another page of information about Houston
Information about Texas
Graduate Student Association
Phd requirements (Informal)
Facilities available to graduate students

Archive of last years mails [Click on (blue ball) to return to top of page]

It's great to hear from you again. I appreciate the time you took for your response -- tons of good stuff. It sounds like you're happy there. The GradHouse sounds like a good place for me but I was hoping that an advantage would be getting to know other grad students who weren't in the CS department. The chances of that happening sound small. I'll be thinking about it and hope, perhaps, to hear some more stories.
I'm including the responses I've received in case a FAQ gets started. Several of us who were down there in February have been keeping in touch and I know that some of them would like additional information as well.

Darren sent your email requesting information abt the Grad House to us. I am a second-year grad student and haven't lived at the Grad House but I have lots of friends there, so I know something abt it.
The biggest problem is with the management who are very rude and rigid about rules. People have been fined for bringing bicycles inside and are reprimanded for making excessive noise, even though no other resident has complained, just because the asst manager couldn't hear his TV. They have excessive late fees for utility charges and rents and very short due periods. The rents are also rather high, for what are rather small rooms. Also, I think they have more expensive lease breakage fees than most apartment complexes.
If you have a car and are willing to stay abt 2-3 miles away from campus, there are lots of cheaper places that are just as comfortable. The disadvantages are that you won't have the free Ethernet connection and some of the minimal furnishing the Grad House supplies. You also get a free cable _connection_ (not cable TV itself). Plus there's the pool lounge and the TV room (with an awesome flat screen) downstairs.
I got lucky and found a 2/1 for $375 close to the Village, but I would rather be further away and not have to deal with the management at the Grad House, once I leave this place.

I haven't lived in the Grad Apartments but did paid some attention to it. Here is my 2 cents worth of opinions.
Good:
• Location: It's closer to Duncan Hall than the parking lot.
• Rent: It's much cheaper than neighboring apartment complexes.
• Net access:
Bad:
• Rent: If you are willing to drive 5 miles or so, you can find cheaper apartments.
• Lease term: As of a year ago, you had to sign a lease for at least 9 months. While in the old Grad House, you can sign a 4-month lease, then live month-to-month without surcharge. I believe a lot of the bad comments are from people who were used to the terms of the old Grad House.

I think that if the rent is within your budget, you should take the Grad Apartments.

Okay, this question keeps showing up in my mailbox, so I got in touch with the people at the Grad House, and finally found this: http://gradapts.rice.edu
It's not what I would call a great web site, but it has the floor plans, the prices, as well as the application form in PDF format.

So, in short, there's 5 different types of apartments: small efficiency, "big" efficiency, 1 bedroom / 1 bathroom (but I think there are very few of these three types of apartments, so it's unlikely you'll get one - I tried last year to get an efficiency one, when the Grad House hadn't even opened yet, and they were already gone...), 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom, and 4 bedroom / 2 bathroom.

The prices on the web site are coherent with the paper stuff I got from the Grad House an hour ago (the prices increased by $20-25 when compared to last year...). There's a $250 deposit. You pay for electricity and phone in addition to the rent.

Short description:
- - bathroom: tiled floor, bathtub, toilet
- - bedroom: carpeted, bed (full-size mattress, boxspring & frame, as they say...), student desk (something like 3 feet * 2 feet, with a drawer and two shelfs), one chair, nightstand, chest of drawers, bookshelf, plus big walk-in closet (except for efficiency units).
- - living room: tiled floor, one chair/bedroom in the apartment (I think).
- - kitchen: kitchen and living room are actually the same room, with a counter separating the two (see floorplan on the web site...). Stove / oven, fridge, microwave, dishwasher, sink, plenty of shelfs...

All the bedrooms have a direct internet connection with Rice. There are smoke detectors in every single room, so if you smoke, well, tough, you'll have to go outside and smoke by the lovely-fountain-that-never- works... There is no swimming pool (for liability reasons, apparently, in case you try to commit suicide after Matthias gives you your first F).

The Grad House has a loan closet: you pay something like $20 (as far as I remember, I never used it...), and you choose whatever you want among what's available (tables, chairs, lamps, pots, etc... tons of second hand stuff for cheap). First come first served...

There is a laundry room on each floor (three washing machines + three dryers, $0.75 each), a computer room on each floor (three computers + one printer, free access), a common area near the entrance with kitchen, couches, one ping-ping table, one pool table, a TV room, an ice machine, etc... There are two bike rooms, and plenty of parking space (this is Texas, after all...). There are access codes on every door and a police officer at the entrance, at night.

The Grad House is close to campus (5-8mn walk, so you can get up at late and still be in time for your first class), there is a shuttle between the Grad House and the campus every half-hour (but I never use it, since it's faster to walk, the shuttle is mainly for students who work on the other side of campus and don't like biking during the summer). There is another shuttle every Saturday morning, every half hour between 10:00am and 1:00pm, that goes back and forth between the Grad House and a big commercial center (Fiesta, etc...), so you can actually survive in Houston without a car. The Rice Village is close to the Grad House anyway, in case you forgot to buy something...

Okay, the good and bad, now:

good:
• It's very close to the department, and hence very convenient for an overworked first year PhD student. There are plenty of other grad students around you, so you get to know quite a lot of people in other departments. It's brand new (opened last year). It's targeted at students (hence the shuttle, the direct internet connection, etc...)


bad:
• It's dead. Really dead. People know each other and you have quite a lot of small parties among friends, but there are almost no big free-for-all Grad-House-wide parties. I can remember only two of these this year, and the turnout was so dismal that we didn't even manage to empty the two kegs of beer (but we tried hard...). Most of the students this year were first year Master and first year PhD students, so people were quite busy and you won't see many drunk students crawling in the hallways (I know, this is very sad, but, as I said, nothing prevents you from having a party in your apartment with some friends, and that's what most people do. Besides, Valhalla is close by, the GSA organizes much better free- for-all parties, and the Village or Westheimer are not far away...). The situation might improve as we all become second-year students (yes !), but you've been warned: the Grad House is a very very quiet place.
  
• It's expensive: well, at least that's what some people say. It's true that I saw a week ago an ad for a $375/month garage apartment very close to campus, while you'll probably have to pay $400 or $450 to share a kitchen / living room with one or three other persons. On the other hand, after having talked with two students who actually looked for other apartments (I didn't, I'm too lazy to move...), their conclusion was: you can find cheaper and close to campus, but it will not be very decent, you can find decent and cheaper, but it will not be that close (but if you have a car, you might not care...), you might find something decent, close by and cheaper, but then call yourself lucky or be prepared to spend quite some time searching (there are quite a lot of students searching, after all...) Neither student moved... There's also a fair number of American students at the Grad House, so it looks like the price is actually acceptable even by American standards (not just by my standards of naive foreigner...)


My opinion (insert usual disclaimers here): it's very convenient, and if you don't like it, well, you can always move out.

> No, no, re-read the "good" part: "There are plenty of other grad > students around you, so you get to know quite a lot of people in other > departments." Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying ?

I was picking up more on the first line of the bad: "it's dead", which seemed to suggest that, even though there are plenty of students around, they aren't into socializing all that much.

> Thanks. If other people are looking for information, either forward > my blurb to them,

> Well, yes, I heard a story about a guy who was told not to bring his > bycicle through the main entrance/lobby or otherwise he would be fined $30. > But I have my bycicle in my room, I'm not the only one, and I never had > any problem, I just use one of the back entrances (which are closer to > campus anyway...). I never heard about anybody being actually fined. > There were also some people who got warnings from the police, because > they were locking their bikes to the stairs inside the complex, but I > think this was more for security reasons than anything else... All people > have their bikes in their room, or in one of the two bike rooms at the > back of the apartments...

This sounds much more reasonable than the previous poster was making it out to be.

> Regarding price: see my previous email. Yes, the price seems high > if you only consider the size of the room. If you consider the whole > thing and how convenient it is, well, I think it's ok... But you > don't have to agree :-)

I'm beginning to agree. It sounds like a nice "package". I think that for a first-year student it wouldn't be so bad.

> I agree. Again, if you just look at the size of the rooms, it might seem > to be expensive. When you look at the whole picture, it gets better. That > doesn't mean you cannot find better, but it's not as bad as some people > seem to say.

I'll have look at the room sizes again and compare to what I'm currently living in. I don't have a good feel for spatial dimensions.

> I agree. I think the whole point is: how far from the campus are > you willing to be, and how long are you willing to search. You can > find good deals, but something close to campus, cheap, and decent > will be hard to come by. And when you add furnitures, internet access, > etc... you might end up with pretty much the same price...

The price doesn't seem all that unreasonable. I imagine that I could find something less expensive but I would rather wait until I've been around for a while before making the attempt.

> I know I sound a lot like a sales rep (and no, I don't gain anything > if you come to the Grad House), but as I said, it all depends on how > hard you are willing to search, and whether you plan to buy a car > as soon as you arrive or not. I'm not saying the Grad House is the > best thing in the world, it could be better (could be cheaper, could > be more life...), but it is actually very convenient, and I think > the service/price ratio is ok.

I appreciate your candidness. You're certainly the most in favor. I had thought the GradHouse to be a very nice place until I mentioned it to Matthias and he replied that I would probably be better off elsewhere. I'm thinking that he might have been taking my age (30) into account thinking that I probably wouldn't like living around so many younger, and perhaps less mature, people, but my frame of mind is definitely younger than that because I've been teaching high school students all these years.

I shall start on the CS PhD program at Rice in the fall. I read your comments about the graduate appartments and took the liberty of emailing you. I have a question which I was hoping you could help answer: How fast is the effective net connection we get in the appartments -- I know it will probably be a 10mbps connection but we have ethernet ports here in my undergraduate school but the conneciton is very slow (mainly because of congestion)

Get the graduate house application form from one of the web sites others have indicated, and mail it with your deposit. I don't think it's an emergency yet, but the sooner the better.
I sent some detailed information about the Grad House to two or three of you, some time ago. I can re-send the thing to this list if there is interest about third-party opinions.
Also, on a more or less related note, I don't know if you have received copies of the GSA Yellow Pages, but if you didn't, you can find an online version at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~gsa/ It contains quite a lot of information about off-campus housing (if some of you don't like the idea of staying at the Grad House), as well as about life in Houston in general...

A question for other international students, have you recieved your I-20 yet or are you still waiting for it? (They told me they will send something to me in mid-late May.) Thanks in advance for any info.

Amit, I recommend that you apply sooner because usually there is a big number of graduate students coming in for all of the departments. You might consider arriving here a little early and applying to the grad apartments once you arrive.
> >Will it be too late if we reach there and then apply for the housing. >This is because it is a real pain to make dolalr checks from here(Gurgaon, >India). I guess that housing should not be a problem in the graduate house >even if we decide to do that after goinf there.

Well, housing was not a problem at the Grad House this year: the Grad House had just opended when we arrived, there were empty rooms during the whole school year, and people could come and go quite easily. But this might not be the case next year: I think most of the people who are currently living at the Grad House will stay there, and a lot of the incoming students might want to live there too, so it might actually fill up, in which case you would end up having to find an apartment as soon as you arrive, which might not be that easy...

I discussed a couple of weeks ago with one the managers at the Grad House. It's pretty difficult to obtain reliable information from them (especially since they had just started at the time to renew leases for the students already living at the Grad House, and had not yet started dealing with the new applications), but the guy told me that he expected that they would run out of rooms sometimes in June. This is what he *said*, and I have no idea what worth what he said is, but I would advise you to apply as soon as possible...

I'll try to check with the guy again this afternoon, to see how many rooms they have left currently, and how far they are with the application process...

I've met some of you at the PhD info weekend, and I look forward to meeting the rest of you in Fall. I am also staying at the graduate departments. I sent my deposit in a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't received a lease yet. I think they must be pretty busy right now. See everyone soon!

I was wondering what my new mailing address will be. Do we get a mailbox of some sort from Rice as a permanant mailing address, or do we use the grad appts address? Would you happen to know when we are assigned this address. (I would like to leave a forwarding address at my school)

> > I was wondering what my new mailing address will be. Do we get a mailbox > of some sort from Rice as a permanant mailing address, or do we use the > grad appts address? Would you happen to know when we are assigned this > address. (I would like to leave a forwarding address at my school) >

Your new mailing address at the office will be:

Rice University, Dept. of Computer Science
MS-132
6100 S. Main Street,
Houston, TX 77005




Yes, if you have to leave a forwarding address to somebody, use the department's address, not the address of the Grad House: when you'll arrive at the Grad House, they'll give you a mailbox with a number that you can then use to receive mail, but as long as you don't know the exact number (which will be different from your apartment number) don't give the Grad House address, because there are just too many mailboxes (without names) for the mailman to know which one he should use for your mail... So in the meanwhile, use the department's address...

I received the lease several days ago, but I am wondering what to do next after I send back the signed lease. Also, I might come a bit later than the stated Move In Date (Aug. 15th), I hope that won't be a problem as long as I pay the rent on time. Thanks for sharing the information.

By the way, I am gathering information of those coming to Rice from China this summer. Please contact me at david.jutao@263.net, I will send you a mailing list soon.

>I received the lease several days ago, but I am wondering what to do >next after I send back the signed lease.

Well, the only thing left to do is to come here...

>Also, I might come a bit >later than the stated Move In Date (Aug. 15th), I hope that won't be >a problem as long as I pay the rent on time. Thanks for sharing the >information.

Not a problem at all. Just let them know when you arrive, so they can make sure everything is ready when you show up.

On a related note, business hours for the Grad House managers and assistants is 9:00am-12:00pm 1:00pm-10:00pm Monday-Friday, and something like 9:00am-12:00pm on Saturdays. So if you plan on arriving outside these business hours, you'd better warn them in advance so they can arrange for somebody to be there to give you yours keys. Last year I arrived on a Sunday late in the evening, and after travelling 12 hours, it's not fun to have to wait another half-hour until someone shows up to let you in... Assistants are reachable at the Grad House 24 hours/day, but if you don't warn them you'll arrive outside business hours, you might end up in front of a locked door, with no way to call the assistants inside to open the door... (In my case it's finally one of the campus police officers who helped me...)

Since it is quite difficult and time consuming to make a dollar check in India can I ask one of my friends presently studying in US to register on my behalf. I can give the postal address to which the lease will be mailed as my address in India , where all my other documents are coming.

Please respond quickly because my friends will be moving out after 11th of may for their summer internship.

> I am planning to book my room by asking a friend of mine in the US to fill up > the form for me and then send it to the grad apts. So it won't be having my > sign. Will that be OK. My passport number will however be there. I can of course > tell me friend to attach a handwritten letter explaining the situation.

I really do not know if they can accept this. Maybe you should ask them directly at their e-mail address (gradapts@rice.edu).

I would say that as long as you pay, they couldn't care less... But Daniel is right: contact them and ask them. Or if you are in a hurry, ask your friend to call them directly...

When will my accommodation be reserved by the Grad Apartments, is it after I received the lease contact or after I sent back the signed lease? It takes a quite long time for me to send back the lease from here by mail.

> >When will my accommodation be reserved by the Grad Apartments, is it after >I received the lease contact or after I sent back the signed lease? It >takes a quite long time for me to send back the lease from here by mail.

I don't really know, but I would assume that they reserve a room for you as soon as they send you the lease. There would be no point to send you a lease if it turned out later that there was no room left for you...

> When will my accommodation be reserved by the Grad Apartments, is it > after I received the lease contact or after I sent back the signed > lease? It takes a quite long time for me to send back the lease from > here by mail. >

I think you room will be reserved AFTER they have received your signed lease. I don't think they can reserve anything without an explicit signature.

My case is different as I have my next door neighbours studying in the US so they won't mind writing a check for me ( even if I do not pay them back) What I am more interested is does the initial form require my signature , can't someone else book a room for me. I can always ask my friend to write a supporting letter explaining the situation. Amit

> My case is different as I have my next door neighbours studying in > the US so they won't mind writing a check for me ( even if I do not > pay them back) What I am more interested is does the initial form > require my signature , can't someone else book a room for me. I can > always ask my friend to write a supporting letter explaining the > situation. >

the form is available for download from the web page of the Grad House:

gradapts.rice.edu/rice%20application.pdf

Even if it does require your signature, maybe the Grad House will accept someone else's payment. I will call tomorrow and find out.

Does anyone know how fast the ethernet at the grad apts is? 100 base T? 10 base T?

Also, if anyone has gotten their lease yet, what's the averge delay between sending and recieving a form? a week or two?

The public PCs at the Grad House have 100/10 ethernet cards, but I think they are only using 10. I actually just tested, and downloaded a 28.2MB file from the Rice undergrad network (owlnet) in about 28s, which gives a 8.47Mb/s bandwidth... My guess is that the Grad House is using 10baseT for the internal connections between the machines and a main switch, and 100baseT between the switch and the Rice network, or something like that... But that's only a guess...

I'm one of those who have already received their lease. I really can't remember though how long it was after I returned my application and deposit. It was probably within a couple of weeks -- I don't remember being anxious that it was late.

I was surprised that there were no instructions on when/how to return the lease, so I emailed the GradHouse and they said to return it as soon as possible but still didn't say how so I mailed it directly to the GradHouse, Attention: Manager instead of the Rice Housing office.

I have returned the signed lease weeks ago, but do not know whether the Grad House has received it. Does anyone have any idea whom I should contact with?

>I have returned the signed lease weeks ago, but do not know whether the >Grad House has received it. Does anyone have any idea whom I should >contact with?

Try "gradapts@rice.edu" ... I don't know how fast they reply, though... If some of you used this email address, maybe you can comment on how efficient they are when using email...

Otherwise, you can try to call them: (713) 348-1000.

If you cannot get in touch with them, I can always ask them.

I have a friend now here in China who is also admitted to RICE this summer, he will be in Dept. of Chemical Engineering. He asked me about the fax number of the Grad House, so that he could send in his form on time. But I really don't have any idea. Could you tell me about it? Thanks a lot!

By request: the Grad House's fax number is: (713) 771-6552

I have booked into Graduate Apartments in a 2-bedroom apartment along with Anirban Mandal (another incoming student from my class). Sent the signed lease agreement. I am planning to arrive on 18th August with Anirban. I have also received the I-20 and other stuff.

I would like to know about the immunization and other medical requirements for students from India i.e. which shots/tests are necessary etc. Could someone please guide me?

> >I would like to know about the immunization and other medical requirements >for students from India i.e. which shots/tests are necessary etc. Could >someone please guide me?

Normally (well, at least that's what happened last year for me...) you have received or should receive from Rice a medical form that you will have to fill out. This form will tell you which shots are required, and you will also have to see a physician to sign the form, etc...

>I was reading through the rules, and I noticed one strange one: We aren't >allowed to put aluminum foil in the windows as decor or as insulation. >Even if it DID posess me to do such a thing, why is this rule in effect? I >cant think of a single reason why putting tin foil in a window would affect >anything. Any ideas?

Aesthetic. At least I think that's the "official" reason. But everybody at the Grad House knows that the real reason is because the Grad House is just a secret agency of the federal government, and that they are trying to control our brains using electromagnetic waves to force us to spy for them once we all go back home in our respective countries. They try to control even the American students, because they don't mind them spying on their own country, and the government doesn't trust them anyway. So the Grad House management doesn't want you to put tin foil on the windows because that would stop the waves. But we are more clever than that (we are Rice students, after all) and we figured them out and we are fighting the conspiracy, so don't be surprised if you see students at the Grad House sleeping under their bed with tin foil hats on... Or maybe I should stop drinking coffee.

I haven't recieved any thing from your department/university after my I-20. I have heard that I need a health form so I have downloaded the health data form from your university's web site. I wonder why I havn't recieved this form from mail. I haven't got the housing form by mail as well. (I downloaded that form and sent it as well.) I would like to know:
• 1. Is there any other forms I need for enrollment that may or may not be sent to me? Where to download them?
• 2. On the health form, it asks for my Rice ID number. Have I got a number or it is I will get it only after enrollment?
• 3. Any reason I didn't got those forms by mail?
I would greatly appreciate answers.

I have a question for current graduate students: Could you please tell me what classes (or types of classes) one has to take as part of the Phd program requirements. I looked on the Rice CS website but the page I found seemed outdated -- it mentioned B exams http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/CSGSA/DeptInfo/handbook/enhanced/chapter2_5.html Also, what do you think one should keep in mind while choosing classes?

> I have a question for current graduate students: Could you please tell me > what classes (or types of classes) one has to take as part of the Phd

Requirements (Informal)

Finish the requirements asap, is abt the only thing I think you should keep in mind. If you are a CS major, you might find that many courses are repeats of stuff you have done in your undergrad, leaving you little choice as to doing something new. Some courses are worth doing again (notably, I have heard, COMP 311), but I found most others pretty boring if I had already done them once. Mainly, you should remember that courses can be a big drain on your time, and if you are looking for a quicker PhD, get done with your courses in a minimum number of semesters.


• --- Proposal ------------------------------------------------------------------
  Abandon the B exams in favor of a system based on coursework and research in the first five semesters. The rest of our graduate program's requirements (C exam, thesis proposal, and thesis defense) would stay as they are currently.
• --- Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------
  • The new system can be summarized by the following rules: To maintain good standing in the Ph.D. program, a student must complete...
    • 1. at least four courses with a minumum GPA of B+ by the end of the second semester;
    • 2. a Comp 590 project by the end of the third semester;
    • 3. at least eight courses satisfying the breadth requirements described below with a minimum GPA of B+ by the end of the fifth semester; and
    • 4. a Master's thesis by the end of the fifth semester;
    • A student who fails to meet these rules may still qualify for the M.S. degree.
  • A student who enters with a thesis-based Master's degree would be exempt from rule #4. At the discretion of the graduate committee, rule #3 may be relaxed for a student who enters with either a thesis- or a course-based Master's degree. In this case, the precise requirements would be determined as soon as the student has an advisor. (A Rice undergraduate who enters the Ph.D. program may also request this exemption.)
• --- Courses -------------------------------------------------------------------
  • The set of elgible courses consists of a few 300-level courses but mainly 400- and 500-level courses. They are divided into three super-areas:
    • Super-area 1:
      • AI/Robotics
        • Comp 440
        • Comp 450
        • Comp 540
        Algorithms
        • Comp 482
        • Comp 582
        Graphics
        • Comp 360
        • Comp 461
        • Comp 561
      • Super-area 2: Automata
        • Comp 481
        Languages
        • Comp 311
        • Comp 411
        • Comp 511
        Logic
        • Comp 409
      • Super-area 3: Architecture
        • Comp 320
        • Elec 425
        • Elec 525
        Compilers
        • Comp 412
        • Comp 512
        • Comp 515
        Systems
        • Comp 421
        • Comp 430
        • Comp 520
        • Comp 529
    • As courses are created, changed, or retired, the graduate committee will add/drop them from this list in consultation with the faculty.
    • Students must complete at least two courses in each super-area. At least two of these courses must come from different sub-areas. (So, a student must cover at least six of the sub-areas.)
    • The graduate committee will review the course schedule (including adds/drops) by students until their fifth semester.
• --- Comp 590 Project ----------------------------------------------------------
  The Comp 590 project must produce a written report. (The precise nature of this report is up to the advisor.) A student's grade on the Comp 590 project counts toward their GPA.
• --- Master's Thesis -----------------------------------------------------------
  The master's thesis should be thought of as a (research) paper that has been reformatted to meet the thesis style guidelines. It should have been published or judged publishable by the thesis committee. The extent to which the student is expected to add content to the paper, e.g., additional discussion of related work, is up to the thesis committee.
• --- Evaluation ----------------------------------------------------------------
  • The graduate committee will check each student's compliance with the rules at the end of his/her second, third, and fifth semesters. Failure to meet the rules at the second, third, or fifth semester will disqualify the student from continuing toward the Ph.D. The student may still qualify for the M.S.
  • In practice, the ultimate requirement for continuing in the program after the fifth semester is for the student to have a faculty member who will support him/her. In the simplest case, the master's thesis advisor will continue to support the student. If, however, no faculty member chooses to support the student after the fifth semester, he/she will be dropped from the program.


FACILITIES FOR PhD STUDENTS (Need this only after arriving at Rice)


• 1. GENERAL RICE COMPUTING FACILITIES
  • http://www.rice.edu/Computer (Rice IT)
  • 1. Owlnet: mainly for undergrads; but useful for (some times necessary) for TA work and course work.
  • 2. RUF (Rice Unix Facility): for grad research work.
  • 3. Charon: needed for dialing in (PPP connection).
  • 4. CS: departmental account.
  • To apply for Owlnet, RUF, or Charon account, either login as "apply" on any public Owlnet Unix machine, or visit http://apply.rice.edu/. You will need your Rice ID.
  • For CS account: fill out the form in welcome package.
  • For any computing related problems, send an e-mail to problem@rice.edu or visit http://problem.rice.edu/. This web-page also has many useful FAQs.
• 2. DEPARTMENTAL PRINTING AND COMPUTING FACILITIES
  • * Desktop machines:
    • provided by the department in the first year and research groups later
    • servers to use with X-Stations -- public and owned by groups (use only the public servers)
  • * Printers (DH 3048)
    • - laser b/w printer: perox (Xerox N42) aka pumma or pori
    • - color paper printer: prissy (Apple LaserWriter)
    • - color slide printers: prim (Tektronics Phaser 560) and polaroid (old HP DeskJet)
    • No charge for printing, but, be reasonable.
    • Note: Owlnet also offers printing facilities on a number of printers spread around campus, for a price.
  • * Computer Lab (DH 3108)
    • - public Windows NT machine with HP scanner (undergoing reconfiguration)
    • - another laser printer (pala)
    • - a few Sun workstations
    • - department procuring a laptop for grad students for presentations
  • * Facilities provided by Research Groups
    • - desktop after the first year
    • - laptops (Programming Languages and High Performance groups)
    • - other research related hardware (e.g., Compaq alpha cluster, HP multi-processor, etc)
• 3. E-MAILS, WEB-SURFING, NEWSGROUPS
  • * Every user account has a unique campus-wide userid.
  • * Each userid has a unique mail-box (can be changed).
  • * No web-site filters, but, be prudent.
  • * Newsgroups
    • -- very important ("required") for course and TA work
    • -- very useful in keeping up with happenings in the department and Rice
    • -- e.g., rice.general, rice.comp.general, rice.market
• 4. DEPARTMENTAL NETWORK
  • * Recently upgraded to 100Mbps Ethernet.
  • * Each desk has two network ports.
  • * Three subnets -- trusted, semi-trusted, and untrusted (personal machines on semi-trusted).
  • * DHCP server to obtain dynamic IP addresses (may have to register your hardware address with problem@rice.edu).
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: NEVER LEAVE YOUR LAPTOP (OR OTHER VALUABLES) UNATTENDED IN YOUR OFFICE. Since Duncan Hall is publicly accessible during day time, it is not always safe. Always lock your door behind you even if you step out for only a few minutes. There have been cases of thefts in the past.
  • * Samba for printing and remote mounting from semi-trusted machines.
  • * Opening http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ in a browser will load the file /net/www1//public_html/index.html. CS web server logs are in /net/www1/servers/current/logs directory.
  • * To forward your mails, create a .forward in /var/spool/forward/ directory, _not_ your home.
• 5. OFF-CAMPUS COMPUTING
  • To dial-in, you need a Charon password, as mentioned before. There is no long distance toll-free number for students.
  • To login from an external network (outside rice.edu domain), direct unprotected rlogin or telnet is not allowed. You have two choices:
    • a) Use ssh version 2. I find this more convenient.
    • b) Set up s/key mechanism.
    • Both of these involve non-trivial setup steps (see man pages).
  • Just to check your e-mails from an off-campus network it is convenient to use:
    • a) TWIG (http://twig.owlnet.rice.edu/) -- available for owlnet, RUF; but not CS yet.
    • b) WING (http://wing.is.rice.edu) -- available for CS, owlnet, RUF.
• 6. NON-COMPUTING FACILITIES
  • * The Fridge: Contact Rachel Vincent (DH 2033) Tue 12:00pm-1:00pm. (snacks, cold-drinks, public-fridge, two microwaves)
  • * CS Coffee club: $5 collected whenever the club runs out of money. Rhonda sends an e-mail when this is due. If you drink coffee more then occasionally, you should pay the dues. (coffee machine in the mailbox room)
  • * Stationery: Free in the mailbox room.

Last updated on Jun 12^th,2001