LAMONT COMPUTER USERS SURVEY by the CPC

    Welcome to the LDEO computer users survey conducted by the Computer Planning Committee of 2001. We are running this short survey to gather your thoughts on the direction of Lamont's computing over the next one to three years, as well as to learn about your computing habits and possible future requirements. We'll be publishing an analysis of the results of this survey on the Network Support Group web site http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/network. 

    Instructions: This form should take less than twenty minutes to complete. Answer as many of the questions as you deem appropriate. When you have completed the questions, click the Submit button at the end of the form. Thanks!


Date: 12/07/2001
I. Personal Information
Name (Optional) :
Email (Optional) :
What best describes your job category? Administive Secretarial/office assistant Other
IT Technical Scientist
Lab Technical Student
How long have been computing at Lamont? Less than 1 year
2 - 5 Years
More than 5 years
II. COMPUTER HARDWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEMS
What proportion of your workday is spent using a computer? Using MacOS:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using Linux:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using SunOS/Solaris:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2k:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using Other OS (Specify )
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using A Laptop:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using A Desktop:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%

Using An XTerm/Network Computer:
100% 50-100% 25-50% 0-25% 0%
List the computer(s) and operating system(s) that you normally use at work: (for example: Sun UltraSparc5 under Solaris, Mac G3 under Mac OS, Compaq Presario PC under Windows98, Dell Inspiron laptop under Linux)
How would you rate the overall speed performance of the lamont network when you are on site? Acceptable Not Acceptable
If you work at/from home, list the computer(s) used.
If you work from home, how do you connect to LDEO and/or the Internet? Dialin to CU
Dialin to LDEO
Internet Service Provider Cable (ISP)
ISP dialin
ISP DSL
Do you use a laptop when out of town? No Yes
If yes, how do you connect from out of town locations? Dialin to CU
Dialin to LDEO
National ISP Dial-in
Local ISP Dial-in
Local Internet Connection
If you do not currently own an laptop, do you intend to purchase a laptop in the next 12 months? Maybe No Yes
Do you operate a hand-held Personal Data Assistant (PDA)(Palm, Visor etc.)?        No Yes
If you do not currently own a PDA, do you intend to purchase one in the next 12 months? Maybe No Yes
Are you interested in wireless network connection now, or in the near future? Maybe No Yes
If yes, what type of wireless activities would you envision? Hand-held email Laptop roaming indoors Others
Hand-held sync Laptop roaming outdoors
What if any role should desktop videoconferencing over the Internet (NetMeeting etc) play in our future? Might use it Not useful Would use it if available
What if any role should streaming video (RealVideo, Media Player etc) play in our future? I would watch seminars and conferences live at my desktop.
I would watch prerecorded seminars and conferences at my desktop.
I think only special events should be broascast.
Video streaming is not useful.
III. SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS
If you are a Unix user, please look though this list of applications that are available on the network, and mark which ones you use. These applications run in a Sun/Solaris environment, a Linux environment, or in both. Applications available might not be the current versions.

(F) = Free
(I) = Institutionally maintained
(P) = Privately maintained

Compilers:
    gcc - Gnu C, C++, Fortran Use
    Java compilers (F) Use
    Workshop 
        Sun C, C++ Use
        Fortran77 Use
        Fortran90 compilers Use
        Debugger Use
        Maketool Use
        Source Browser Use
        X Gui builder Use
 
Data base management:
    Sybase  Database (I) Use
 
Data visualization:
    Data Explorer   - Data visualization from IBM (F) Use

    GrADS - public domain package for accessing, manipulating and visualizing earth science data (F) Use

    IDL  - scripting environment for data visualization (P)
    Use

    NCAR graphics   - Graphics subroutine library (I) Use
     
Document preparation:
    Frame Maker     - Text formatting and typesetting (I) Use

    Emacs, Xemacs   - Editing facility for document preparation (F) Use

    TeX (LaTex)  - Text formatting and typesetting (F) Use

     
File utilities:
    Adobe acroread, distiller - *pdf file viewing, printing and (I) Use
    ps2pdf - freeware version of Distill (F) Use
Unix Text Editor:
    vi/vim Use
    dtnotes Use
    pico Use

Conversion Tools:
    ghostscript/ghostview - Postscript viewer and output (F) Use

Graphics:
    gimp  - GNU raster graphics editor (Photoshop analog) (F) Use

    ice - image composition environment (Postscript and sun rasters) (F) Use

    ImageMagick     - graphics image display and conversion (F) Use

    Islanddraw/paint - Postscript/graphics file editing (I) Use

    Pbmplus  - Graphics conversion utilities (F) Use

    xfig - Facility for interactive generation of figures (F) Use

    xv  - Graphics image display, manipulation, and conversion (F) Use

    gv    - ghostview (F) Use

Graphs, and graph analysis:
    xmgrace - display and analysis of graph data (supercedes xmgr and XY) (F) Use

Exploration seismics and well logging:
    CogniSeis       - Geoscientific (Oil exploration) software (P)
    Use

    Geoframe        - Logging Data Interpretation (P)
    Use

    Geonet/IESX       -  Logging and reflection seismics interpretation environment. (P)
    Use

    Larson  - Print CGM files (P)
    Use

Languages:
    ICSBX  - X GUI builder (I) Use

    Perl  - Practical Extraction and Report Language (F) Use

    Tcl/Tk - Scripting environment and GUI toolkit (F) Use

    Workshop  - Sun C, C++, Fortran77, Fortran90 compilers, Debugger, Maketool, Source Browser, X GUI builder (I) Use
Mapping tools:
     GMT  - Generic Mapping Tools, data processing and display (F) Use
       
Mathematics, and numerical analysis:
    beasy  - Boundary Element Advantage in Analysis (P)
    Use

    BUGS  - Markov Chain Monte Carlo stats (Bayesian) modeling (F)
    Use

    FFTW  - Fast Fourier transform package (C libraries) (F)
    Use

    maple  - Interactive symbolic algebra, calculus, and statistics (P) Use

    mathematica  - Interactive calculation, visualization, and programming environment (I)     Use    
     
    matlab - "Matrix Laboratory" numerical computation, including Signal, Map, Neural_Network, Symbolic, Image, and Statistics toolboxes (I) Use

    R     - GNU version of S-plus, statistical modelling  (F)
    Use

    Octave - Matlab lookalike (F) Do Not Use Use

Network file utilities:
    Netcdf  - Network Common Data Format (F) Use
    Samba  - PC printer/file sharing (F) Use
    ssh/sftp        - Secure Shell/Ftp (F) Use
    Sunpc           - MS-DOS emulator (I) Use

     
Network mail and news:
    Netscape - Web/Mail/News viewer (F) Use
    pine   - Internet News and Email (F) Use
    tin   - news reader (F) Use
    trn - new reader (F) Use

Office environment:
     StarOffice - Office program suite (comparable to and
      compatible with Microsoft Office 2000 std. ed.) (F)
    Use

Remote sensing, GIS,  and image processing:
    Arcview, Arcinfo - Mapping and GIS software with spatial analysis capability (I)
    Use

    Envi - remote sensing data processing and analysis (P)
    Use

    ERMapper - remote sensing data processing and analysis
    (P)  Use

Seismology-specific tools:
    ah (F) Use
    Pascal Release (F) Use
     
Web browser:
    Netscape  - Web/Mail/News viewer (F) Use
     
Web site Tools:
    Amaya - Web edit (F) Use
    Apache   - Web server (F) Use
    Domino Application Server (I) Use
    Hotmetal - Web edit (F) Use
 
If you are a Mac or PC user, please look though this list of applications that are available for your environment, and mark which ones you use. Applications that are restricted to PCs are indicated. Applications available might not be the current versions.Abobe Page Mill (P) Use
Adobe Acrobat (full version)(F) Use
Adobe Framemaker (P) Use
Adobe Illustrator (P) Use
Adobe PageMaker (P) Use
Adobe Photoshop (P) Use
ArcView GIS (I - Windows only) Use
Envi (P) Use
ERMapper (I - Windows only) Use
Eudora (F) Use
Eudora Pro (P) Use
Fetch (F) Use
McAfee Antivirus (P) Use
Microsoft Excel (P) Use
Microsoft PowerPoint (P) Use
Microsoft Word (P) Use
Netscape (F) Use
Norton AntiVirus (P) Use
Norton Utilities (P) Use
Omni Page (P) Use
Putty (F) Use
Tcl/Tk (F) Use
Telnet (Pine) Use
Windows 95/98/ME/2000 (P) Use
Windows NT (P) Use
WinZip (F) Use
WS-FTP (F) Use
On a scale of 1(lowest) to 5 (highest) do you feel that the listed applications are comprehensive in covering your software requirements?  1 2 3 4 5
List and briefly describe any additional applications that you feel the Observatory should provide to  Lamont users.
Would you attend training in some or all of the listed applications?Local training
Maybe No Yes

Off Site training
Maybe No Yes
If you answered yes to the preceding question, give a ranked list of applications for which you desire training.
IV. Data Please answer this section, if you collect or generate digital data
How many MBytes of digital data do you have? How much is offline, nearline, online?
What kind of data is it?
What format is it in (NetCDF, Access, flat file, Sybase etc)
Suppose there were a project to catalogue all the data at Lamont. Data would not be stored in the catalogue, only a description. Guestimate the effort (person-months) to add the following information to this catalogue for your data Collecting agency logs,Description,Instruments Accuracy,Lat-long
V. Computer Support Group Web Site
Have you ever visited the computer support web site http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/NETWORK? No Yes
If yes, did you find the information you were looking for? No Yes
VI.General Obervations
Overall, on a scale of 1 [lowest] to 5 [highest], how do you rate the the Lamont computing
environment?		 1 2 3 4 5
Please provide suggestions on changes in hardware, operating systems, network and Computer Support Group that you would like to see  implemented at Lamont over the next 1 to 3 years.( Press enter at the end of each line)