CERN Accelerating science

Letter from the Editor

This NewsLetter may be a little thinner than usual, but I do not think it is lighter in the quantity and quality of the information it contains. I especially draw your attention to two chapters:

• a "special chapter", entitled "The `Year 2000' Problem", with three articles concerning this issue: a general article setting out the problem, and two articles on the consequences regarding the CERN Program Library and related software on one hand, and software based on Oracle on the other. It may seem to you a little early to speak about the "Year 2000", but we are just applying the French proverb:
  "Un homme averti en vaut deux"

  It was also a wish expressed by the Management Board to warn users as early as possible of this well-known problem and its expected consequences.

• the dedicated chapter on "Mail Issues", now a regular feature containing much useful information on this more and more complex service related to the Internet World. Our colleagues in the Mail team have made a huge effort trying to explain, as simply as possible, all the basic components related to that service, such as what is behind your different mail addresses (the PEM and GEM), how you should express it in a most efficient way, how our central MAILSERVer machine is evolving, how they will try to make the migration from QuickMail (and later on from msmail) as smooth as possible for the users.

An official announcement of a re-born User Support group also appears in this CNL, with a detailed description of the services provided, as well as some timely announcements on various items in Desktop computing, tools and software products.

To finish, let me hope you enjoy your reading!

Nicole Cremel, CNL editor (IT/User Support)