December
1998 v 1.3
Editorial
For all Aligarians November 1998 would be a month to remember.This month saw us making three forays in the world of information technology, ie in the bylanes of internet.First of all, we saw the much awaited and improved official Homepage of Aligarh Muslim University.The new look was promising enough and though the page is still under devlopment, with some broken links here and there, we find that we have much to look forward to.So this week AMU Post brings you an exclusive interview with Mr. Akhtar Khan, Systems manager ,AMU
Then of course, came the forum for Aligs on the net.Providing you the power to interact, so that our readers don't just remain silent spectators, but rather speak out what they think.And since its launch not only just its popularity grew, but we had a dramatic rise in the number of hits per day.It almost doubled [ :-)Don't go by the counter, it's out of order since last week. ].
Just a few days afterwards, the world witnessed the launch of yet another AMU page. I refer to the AMU Alumni Association of Northern California.They have a lot of content in quality and quantity and their promise of a monthly newsletter alleviates our fear of finding the site not updated regularly, ie we won't be served stale food.
P.S. :I must mention here that in another major development; the AMU Network, a mailing ist for the well wishers of AMU was launched.If you are intrested in joining Click here
NewsStudents fast enters fifth day
The fast unto death by AMU students entered the
fifth day on saturday.They claim there has been no move on the
part of the authorities to end the deadlock so far.
A joint action committee, compromising students from Jawahar Lal
Nehru University, Jamia Hamdard, Jamia Milia Islamia and Delhi
University has been constituted to support the struggle of AMU
students.
AMU to open faculties on 7th December
It's expected that the departments and
faculties will open again , and teachers would be back to work on
7th of this month. Meanwhile the Vice-Chancellor is
reported to have circulated a notice to the effect that the
closure may be treated as winter vacations.
The winter vacations were earlier supposedto be held from 22nd
December 1998 to 1st January 1999.
First phase of the Sir Syed University of Technology inaugrated
29 November 1998,New Delhi
The first phase of Sir Syed University of Technology was
inaugurated here, in a function presided by Mr. N.Vittal,
Central Vigilance Commissioner.Here is a detailed Report .
The inauguration of Sir Syed Institute of Informmation Technology took place on November 29, 1998. The Chief Guest who inaugurated the Institute was Mr. N.Vittal, Central Vigilance Commissioner. Previously he was the Secretary, Electronic Department Government of India. In that capacity he is credited with having brought about revolution in telecommunication in our country. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Javed Chaudhri, Secretary Revenue Department, Government of India. Among those who addressed the audience were Mr. Moosa Raza, Mr. Saiyid Hamid, Prof. Hamid Hasan and Mr. Khawaja Shahid.
Speaking to a packed house, Mr. Vittal observed that the Trust for Promotion of Higher Education have chosen the right project and the right time for initiating it . He went on to say that the 19th Century was the age of steam engine, 20th Century of the automobile and the high-way, and the 21st Century will be the century of information highway. He also suggested that a apart from giving training -subsidised incase of needy students- the Institute should embark on a number of ventures that will pay their way. He particularly commended the preservation of Urdu, Persian and Arabic manuscripts and books on C.D. ROM. The institute, he added should take full benefit of governmental programmes. It should also participate in the programmes on long distance learning. It should be operational throughout India. It can think of collaboration with National Informatic Centre in Delhi which has centres in 20 Indian cities.
Prof. Hamid Hasan gave a detailed account of the courses that
are being introduced. Mr. Saiyid Hamid stated that the Institute
that was being inagurated was a tip of the proverbial ice-berg.
What is actually visible is the tip; what is still to come forms
the corpus of the ice-berg. He mentioned that the project would
be implemented in three phases spanning a period of 10 years, He
referred to the difficulty being experienced in raising resources
of the magnitude of Rs. 250 crore. Mr. Moosa Raza introduced the
distinguised guests to the audience and gave a detailed account
of the project. The audience was also addressed by Mr. Siraj
Ulhuda from Toronto. Mr. Javed Chaudhri paid a tribute to the
galaxy of persons who were members of the Trust. he stressed the
need for entegrating the community's educational endeavour with
the modern educational system of the country.
Report Courtsey
NEW DELHI: The entire Opposition in the Lok Sabha staged a walkout on Friday to protest against the statement by human resource development minister Murli Manohar Joshi on the recent incidents in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) which resulted in its indefinite closure. The Opposition was also angry with the minister for not acceding to their demand for their removal of the vice-chancellor.
The opposition charged that the minister had sidetracked the real issues and was ``one-sided'' since it was the government's duty to maintain normalcy in the university but it was instead encouraging people who were allegedly involved in the recent incidents.
In his statement, Mr Joshi gave an account of the incidents which led to the AMU's closure and also appealed to members to ``lend their helping hand'' to restore normalcy in the university. Mr Joshi said the vice-chancellor had been advised to take suitable and urgent steps to reopen the university. The minister said he had also been asked to institute an inquiry into the whole series of ``unsavoury incidents'' with the help of a retired High Court judge. He also said that the Centre was in touch with the district administration and the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that the necessary environment for restoring normalcy through confidence-building measures among the students was created, he added.
Soon after the minister finished, agitated Opposition members were on their feet protesting the statement and demanded that the vice-chancellor's conduct should also be inquired into. M A A Fatmi of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) charged that the vice-chancellor was ``acting like a dictator'' while E Ahmed (IUML) disclosed that though he was an elected member of the AMU court, he had never been invited for a meeting.
The uproar lasted nearly 30 minutes as Opposition members
remained adamant but ultimately walked out when the government
remained unmoved by their protests.
Source:The Times of India
Mathura, Aligarh and Etah to be linked with internet
AGRA: Mathura, Aligarh and Etah districts of Agra division will be linked with internet services via Agra in January. At present, this service was available to the users in Agra and Ferozabad districts of Agra divsion.
According to the programme worked out by telecom department of Agra, the telephone consumers of Mathura, Aligarh and Etah will have the benefit of linking themselves to seventy countries of the world through a local call to Agra telephone exchange.
The internet service has become extremely popular in Agra as compared to rest of the cities of UP. At present, 400 odd telephone subscribers have linked themselves with internet service.
In near future, 2000 lines will be added to Agra telephone exchange through an extension programme at Bodla and Sanjay Place telephone exchanges. This will provide additional facility to the subscribers of Agra city and more people will opt to internet service.
An official spokesman of Agra telecom department said two mini telephone exchanges at Bodla and Sanjay Place will be connected with Semeans exchange, which will enable subscribers to have better facilities of linking themselves with 2 crore computers, installed in seventy countries of the world.
In the second phase, internet facility will be made available to subscribers in Bareilly, Moradabad, Meerut, Rampur, Varanasi and Allahabad besides the three districts of Mathura, Etah and Aligarh of Agra division.
According to the sources of the telecom department, the subscribers of Mathura and Aligarh will not have to pay anything extra for linking themselves with internet service. Only 5 per cent service charge will be applicable. Moreover, the students of these districts will not be entitled for any concessional rates.
Campus Poll: Results and Analysis
I have decided to finish up with the Campus Poll, for in the light of recent events, the question has become quite sensitive.So here goes the analysis
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The Vice-Chancellor has reasons to be pleased.Until the sine-die there was a definite swing in his favour and most voted him as excellent or good.After the closure however, we found people voting against as well and slowly the negative votes outnumbered the positive ones, though the margin was small.
Another amazing thing is that the Vice-Chancellor was rated outstanding by all voters, knowingly or unknowingly :-).Not a single vote rating him as average was polled.
An interview with Mr. Akhtar A Khan (Systems Manager, AMU)
Mr Akhtar A Khan is the Systems Manager AMU.He was approached by me on 25th of November .It was very kind of him to agree to our request.This interview is unique in the sense that it was conducted via email, harnessing Technology to its fullest.
AMUPOST:Tell our readers something about yourself .Where you a student at AMU ?
I joined computer centre in the year 1971 as Apprntice Programmer and then because there was no post available I continued it on till 1978. I joined as Lecturer in the year 1978. Then I was appointed as Systems Manager in 1985 and continuing on the same post. Yes I studied from here only. I have done my masters in Statistics and PG in Computer science from this university. In the year 1985, I was awarded a technical fellowship by British council and was working in Cambridge under CLASS project. This was an INDO-British joint project.
AMUPOST:An year ago conducting such an interview over internet would have been impossible .Would you list the advances the university has made in the last few years regarding information superhighway ?
In the year 1992, I was asked by the then Vice-Chancellor to develop E-Mail facility for the entire university. I started this service in the month of April 1992. In the year 1996, I submitted a proposal to the present Vice-Chancellor, Mr Mahmoodur Rehman, for providing Internet to the university community. He, then & there,accepted the proposal and the Internet service was started somewhere 1997. I do not remember correctly. In the begining, the service was started with a Pentium Pro 150 having 32 RAM and 2 GB HDD as the fund position was not sufficient enough to buy a big server alongwith other h/w. At the moment, the position is that we have a SMTP server, a proxy server and a RAS server, which is going to provide the dialup browsing to the university departments. I am waiting for the sanctions of the proposal submitted by me. The internet link is a VSAT one from NIC Delhi as they are the cheapest one in comparison to DOE/VSNL. The SMTP and RAS servers are borrowed one's from some departments of the university. The V.C. has already cleared my proposal for 5 more servers and a workstation for WEB server, FTP, SMTP and RAS.
AMU POST:By when do you think the development of official website would be complete ?
The WEB site http://amu.up.nic.in is on but under heavy constrution. Most of the faculties are complete. The Admission info is also there. If u can comment on the existing pages, it will be a great help to me as there is no body except me who can do it. The whole facility is looked after by me only. On several occasions I faced problems, when I wanted to go out of Aligarh and this is still going on. This is all just to tell you the reasons of this very slow process. The only thing I can assure is that It will I-Allah completed soon and will be visible with all its attractive features. In the mean time, I will request for your comments on whatever is visible.
AMU POST:We recieved a lot of questions asking if teachers at AMU are reachable by email.Are they ? (If yes)Where from can one get their addresses ?
The teachers who are having accounts for E-Mail, yes, they can be reached. To get the address for any teacher, if he has any, I may be contacted on aak@amu.up.nic.in or akhtarkhan@hotmail.com ,khan.akhtar@mailcity.com and umi4404@yahoo.com .
AMU POST:What kind of internet facilities do you offer to students? What has been their response ?
All the facilities which includes browsing, FTP, E-Mail and other related facilities are provided.The response from students are tremendous. The are being provided graphics as well as text browsing besides other internet facilities.
AMU POST:The VSNL has been promising a node at Aligarh since months.Now the government is going to issue licenses to private ISP's .Is that going to help bring internet to AMU.?
Your other query is about VSNL node. I just contacted the commercial officer and enquired about the node. He has no info about it. He is a friend of mine and takes help regarding INET facility for providing Internet by local P&T. So he can not hide, atleast, from me. Let us see about the ISP's coming over. Actually, if you compare the size of this university with any IIT which is having on the average three links. One from VSNL on leased line and two through VSAT's. We have got only one VSAT and that too, the browsing is available only from 8.00 AM to 9.30 AM and then from 1.00 PM to 6.00 PM. Actually they are closing the browsing from 9.30 AM to 1.00 PM in 24 hrs. We are starting 8.00 AM and closing 6.00 PM. So you can think of the slot available to users.
AMU POST:Your server is somewhat slow.And many complain they can't even get AMU site.Why is it so.Is there some time period ( in the day) when accessing you would be easier ?
The AMU server is slow because of the low bandwridth provided by NIC. At the moment, text browsing stations are around 40 and round 10 graphics. All the nodes are heaviliy occupied all the times. . As soon as VSNL provides a local node, I am planing to go for a leased line connectivity besides VSAT.
I am not going to tell you what is in store this month, but if you dare have the fun check it here.(Faint hearted need'nt !)
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