Over Past Year, Big Changes at HASCS

The "ship taking on water" has plugged many of its leaks.

Student computer users and staff of the Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) say the organization has engineered a dramatic turnaround from one year ago, when then-Acting Director Richard Steen described HASCS in a confidential memo as a "ship taking on water faster than it can bail it out."

A two-month Crimson investigation last February and March found that HASCS--which maintains the network used by student and faculty for everything from personal e-mail messages to research--was plagued by staff and space shortages, budgetary constraints and poor working conditions.

A lot can happen in a year, however.

Last May, Yale's Director of Instructional Computing Services Franklin M. Steen, no relation to Richard, took over as permanent director of HASCS.

Since that time, Steen has overseen an extensive overhaul of Harvard's computing resources, both machine and human.

In terms of computers, Steen created a main UNIX machine ("fas"), installed the 35 Hewlett Packard workstations donated last year, split the mail and newsgroup servers off from each other to increase the efficiency of both and purchased a Net-work Appliance Box to distribute files more consistently across the network.

Steen has also restructured his staff and greatly increased the number of user assistants in an effort to move assistance away from the Science Center and into the Houses.

"Frank is largely responsible for the improvement," says Eugene E. Kim '96, former president of the Harvard Computer Society (HCS). "He is a mover and shaker and gets things done quickly and efficiently."

"Frank Steen is surviving and progressing admirably," adds Paul Martin, dean of the division of applied sciences and co-chair of the Committee on Information Technology.

Although Kim credits Steen with greatly remedying HASCS's former situation, he says it could still be improved.

"I'm a very critical person and I think [HASCS is] far from even close to being perfect, but...comparing with last year, what they have done is remarkable," Kim says.

Users and staff members say HASCS tends to be defined more by its mistakes than its successes.

"No one notices that the news service has been up since February 24," says Thomas W. Heft, a senior UNIX systems programmer.

But everyone notices when the computers crash or the network goes down.

Steen says that in a complaint-driven business, there are many things to do at one time--and HASCS must choose between fixing small problems that bother a few users or preparing larger items for the future.

"New accounts and courses supersede stuff likefinger--there are priority items involved," Steenexplains. "We can't handle everything at once."

The director says the organization iscontinually on the move, preparing for the presentand the future at the same time.

Network activity is increasing by about 50percent a year, Steen says, "and we have toprepare for that. But at the same time, we have todeal with the current problems."

"We have to prioritize," Steen says, "but theremight be some dispute about what's mostimportant."

Steen was criticized earlier this year when hefailed to act promptly to shut down access to alog file which contained the names of students andfaculty and the files they had downloaded. Some ofthe students were teaching fellows who haddownloaded pornographic material.

Steen said at that time that closing the logfile was not a priority for HASCS because usershad not complained about its accessibility.

Some students still complain that HASCS'semployees maintain endless "to-do" lists and thatrequests for the most minor improvements sometimetake weeks to be implemented.

"Sometimes I ask for them to fix something likethe 'fortune' command," Richard B. Osterberg '96says. "It would take just half an hour to compileit on the three machines, but they just don't havethe time to do it."

Fortune is a command which gives usersdifferent fortune cookie saying every time theylog on.

Critic also say HASCS has several vacancies inthe organization, some in crucial positions.

Steen has not yet hired a UNIX systemadministrator; currently, two employees maintain asystem for 14,000 users.

UNIX Systems Manager Michael G. Burner, who byall accounts was the soul of HASCS's UNIX systems,resigned last summer to take an outside positionthat he "couldn't resist," according to Osterberg.

"Mike Burner...now that is one third of thebrain's behind the UNIX system resigning rightbefore the installation," Kim says.

Osterberg echoed Kim's sentiment.

"Burner was god-upon-god of Harvard Unixsystems," he says.

The reason for HASCS's inability to hire areplacement for Burner is unclear.

"It's hard to find someone who is qualified,"Osterberg says. "And it's hard to get them to takethis position."

"What do they say to them?" Osterberg asks."We'll pay you X amount per year, and it'll besheer hell for you."

But others argue that if Harvard were willingto offer a larger salary, it might be easier tofind a new administrator. Those with the requisiteknowledge are frequently wooed by the high pay ofthe computer industry.

Steen says this highlights the eternal tensionwithin HASCS between budget, technology andemployees.

In any other University department, an increasein workload by 50 percent (as happened at HASCS inthe past year) would necessitate a massiveincrease in staff.

Yet HASCS depends upon technologicalimprovements to enable the same staff to providegreater services to an increasing number of users.

"Of course I could always use more money,"Steen says. "But so could any other department inthe University. The question is, 'Can we make dowith what we have?"

Hiring employees isn't the easiest thing in theworld because of the cyclical nature of the job,Steen says.

The organization's workload is periodic: thefall will always be the worst time for HASCS, when1,600 new users arrive and some 5,000 old onesreturn expecting a resumption in their services.

"You come to work in September and leave inNovember," Ouchark says.

While network activity has been increasing at50 percent a year, the number of networkconnections rises by 300 percent, Ouchark says.

Steen says there is no easy solution to thefall crush.

"If you hired more employees, there would beslack for the rest of the year," he says. "We getaround it by planning and hiring lots of temporaryhelp."

"The fall will be chaotic," Ouchark says. "Weare doing everything we can to avoid it, but itwill be busy."

Steen says he has reorganized his staff inorder to make them more efficient and better ableto cope with the daily demands placed upon HASCS.

Because keeping the network and systems up is a24-hour a day job, being a HASCS employee can bemore stressful than any other position in theUniversity.

Last year, staff complained that morale waslow. Ouchark said he began his workdays aroundnoon and didn't leave the Science Center until 6a.m., when he got breakfast at MacDonald's.

But he says that HASCS and his sleep have bothimproved under Steen.

"Are there some days when I go to MacDonald'sfor breakfast?" he asks. "Sure, but much lessoften."

Instead of working 80 hours in good week,Ouchark says he now works 50 to 55 hours a week.

"In general, we're functioning," Steen says."We're working hard, getting something done."

"I don't believe morale is low," he says. "Ithink in some cases people aren't 100 percenthappy, but we have to keep an eye out for the badnews and deal with that."

Ouchark agrees that morale is better.

"Things have definitely improved. The peoplethat are within the group now are the same buttheir [responsibilities] have changed," he says.

"We are a service organization," Steen says,indicating that HASCS is shifting its focus to bemore responsive to users' concerns.

"Personally I'm impressed with the changes theymade," said David A. Sherwood' 95, a former userassistant (UA) for HASCS. "I think they becamemuch more responsive to the Harvard community bothin terms of attention they pay to user assistanceas well as the overall upgrading of the hardware."

Steen says HASCS has chosen to place a lot ofemphasis on its user assistance.

"We are trying to offer better round-the-clocksupport," Steen says.

Steen says that HASCS has increased both thetraining and the number of UAs.

"We have intensive discussions on how to dealwith certain kinds of problems," Steen says.

"Not everyone can know everything, but eachperson has to have a certain basic knowledge,"Steen says.

Kim says he has seen noticeable increase in theperformance of UAs.

"HASCS has really made large strides inimproving general user assistance," Kim says. Kimcredits recruiting and an increase in startingsalary from $7 to $8 an hour for that improvement.

"They now have weekly training meetings, andthey had a postering campaign to try to encouragemore people to apply and become a UA," Kim says.

Steen says HASCS has tried to improve the UAsystem by moving assistance out to the dorms andhouses so that users do not have to call in to thecentral phone hotline.

"The phone line has been swamped withrequests," Steen says. "This way, students can gethelp with problems without having to go throughthe central phone lines."

But Ishir Bhan '96, co-president of Digitas, astudent computer group, says he is not sure howmuch difference moving the UAs has made.

"I don't really know how much [the housesystem] has been used," Bhan says. "I haven'treally seen it publicized that much and I thinkthat people turn to their friends when they are intheir rooms or houses."

Students have recognized and appreciated anumber of the changes and improvements withinHASCS, but they are clamoring for more.

"I think publicity and educating its users isthe one area in which HASCS has shown the leastimprovement and understandably so considering whatthey are trying to do with the limited resourcesthey have," Kim says.

"They have to become more visible and take aclear stand on where they lie on issues of privacyand security," he adds. "They have to do a betterjob of keeping users informed."

"Publicity and awareness is a very difficultthing, and I think organizations such as HCS havetried to make up for it but in the end it isreally up to HASCS to educate its users and makethe students aware of its rules and policies," Kimsays.

Steen says HASCS is placing a renewed emphasison the issues of privacy and security. HASCS isreworking its guidelines on privacy, partly as aresult of the Crimson investigation into Internetpornography this year.

"Privacy issues are always on the table," Steensays. "The Crimson article certainly brought it tothe forefront."

HASCS is working on establishing akerberos-authentication scheme on the studentnetwork for next fall.

Right now, passwords travel unencoded acrossthe wires, and any knowledgeable user can view thenon-encrypted password. Kerberos would guaranteethat the passwords traveling over the network werescrambled.

Making passwords harder to break would mean itwould be more difficult to assume the identity ofanother user.

"You want to know when a message comes to youthat it's from the person who it says it is,"Steen says.

One sign that HASCS has become moresecurity-conscious under Steen is hisestablishment of a policy that undergraduates maynot have the root password, which enables itsholder to view everyone's files and email.

Two students have told The Crimson that theyheld the root password in the past year, but Steensays that its access has now been cut off.

"You want to restrict the number of people whohave the root password," Steen says. "That'spolicy."

"We try to restrict it to the absolute minimumnumber of people," he said. "It's a small numberof people."

Some have said that Steen's success in handlinghis staff and outsiders has hidden the fact helacks a technical understanding of HASCS'smachines and networks.

"Frank Steen doesn't understand the technicallimitations of the systems, he is more a peoplekind-of guy," says John E. Stafford '96, presidentof the Harvard Computer Society.

Digitas Co-President Jeff C. Tarr '96 agreesthat Steen does not have an extensive technicalbackground.

But Stafford says that Steen has been extremelysuccessful at taking over some of the Office forInformation Technology's responsibilities.

"HASCS needs to be able to [add many studentcomputer names] in the fall, and OIT just didn'thave the flexibility to do this," Stafford says.

Although Stafford says Steen has been able totake over some of OIT's responsibilities, he saidthat Steen may listen too much to the Committee onInformation Technology (IT).

"The IT [committee] had one big thing, thestudent network, but hasn't done much since,"Stafford says. "Steen may listen and follow the[committee] too much."

Tarr disagreed, saying he is happy with HASCSunder Steen.

"It has never been better, at least in the pastthree years," Tarr says.

Steen is certainly adept at handling people andthe media.

Instead of allowing reporters to talk directlyto his employees, Steen insists that they beinterviewed with him in his office.

After he assumed his post last year, sourcestold The Crimson that there was an unofficial gagrule in place on HASCS staff.

Whether Steen is really an adept technician orsimply a skilled manager, the changes he has madeseem to indicate that his ship is moving intocalmer waters.CrimsonEugene Y. ChangStudent Internet Accounts The HarvardArts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) hashad to respond to a significant increase in demandand network usage over the last year.

"New accounts and courses supersede stuff likefinger--there are priority items involved," Steenexplains. "We can't handle everything at once."

The director says the organization iscontinually on the move, preparing for the presentand the future at the same time.

Network activity is increasing by about 50percent a year, Steen says, "and we have toprepare for that. But at the same time, we have todeal with the current problems."

"We have to prioritize," Steen says, "but theremight be some dispute about what's mostimportant."

Steen was criticized earlier this year when hefailed to act promptly to shut down access to alog file which contained the names of students andfaculty and the files they had downloaded. Some ofthe students were teaching fellows who haddownloaded pornographic material.

Steen said at that time that closing the logfile was not a priority for HASCS because usershad not complained about its accessibility.

Some students still complain that HASCS'semployees maintain endless "to-do" lists and thatrequests for the most minor improvements sometimetake weeks to be implemented.

"Sometimes I ask for them to fix something likethe 'fortune' command," Richard B. Osterberg '96says. "It would take just half an hour to compileit on the three machines, but they just don't havethe time to do it."

Fortune is a command which gives usersdifferent fortune cookie saying every time theylog on.

Critic also say HASCS has several vacancies inthe organization, some in crucial positions.

Steen has not yet hired a UNIX systemadministrator; currently, two employees maintain asystem for 14,000 users.

UNIX Systems Manager Michael G. Burner, who byall accounts was the soul of HASCS's UNIX systems,resigned last summer to take an outside positionthat he "couldn't resist," according to Osterberg.

"Mike Burner...now that is one third of thebrain's behind the UNIX system resigning rightbefore the installation," Kim says.

Osterberg echoed Kim's sentiment.

"Burner was god-upon-god of Harvard Unixsystems," he says.

The reason for HASCS's inability to hire areplacement for Burner is unclear.

"It's hard to find someone who is qualified,"Osterberg says. "And it's hard to get them to takethis position."

"What do they say to them?" Osterberg asks."We'll pay you X amount per year, and it'll besheer hell for you."

But others argue that if Harvard were willingto offer a larger salary, it might be easier tofind a new administrator. Those with the requisiteknowledge are frequently wooed by the high pay ofthe computer industry.

Steen says this highlights the eternal tensionwithin HASCS between budget, technology andemployees.

In any other University department, an increasein workload by 50 percent (as happened at HASCS inthe past year) would necessitate a massiveincrease in staff.

Yet HASCS depends upon technologicalimprovements to enable the same staff to providegreater services to an increasing number of users.

"Of course I could always use more money,"Steen says. "But so could any other department inthe University. The question is, 'Can we make dowith what we have?"

Hiring employees isn't the easiest thing in theworld because of the cyclical nature of the job,Steen says.

The organization's workload is periodic: thefall will always be the worst time for HASCS, when1,600 new users arrive and some 5,000 old onesreturn expecting a resumption in their services.

"You come to work in September and leave inNovember," Ouchark says.

While network activity has been increasing at50 percent a year, the number of networkconnections rises by 300 percent, Ouchark says.

Steen says there is no easy solution to thefall crush.

"If you hired more employees, there would beslack for the rest of the year," he says. "We getaround it by planning and hiring lots of temporaryhelp."

"The fall will be chaotic," Ouchark says. "Weare doing everything we can to avoid it, but itwill be busy."

Steen says he has reorganized his staff inorder to make them more efficient and better ableto cope with the daily demands placed upon HASCS.

Because keeping the network and systems up is a24-hour a day job, being a HASCS employee can bemore stressful than any other position in theUniversity.

Last year, staff complained that morale waslow. Ouchark said he began his workdays aroundnoon and didn't leave the Science Center until 6a.m., when he got breakfast at MacDonald's.

But he says that HASCS and his sleep have bothimproved under Steen.

"Are there some days when I go to MacDonald'sfor breakfast?" he asks. "Sure, but much lessoften."

Instead of working 80 hours in good week,Ouchark says he now works 50 to 55 hours a week.

"In general, we're functioning," Steen says."We're working hard, getting something done."

"I don't believe morale is low," he says. "Ithink in some cases people aren't 100 percenthappy, but we have to keep an eye out for the badnews and deal with that."

Ouchark agrees that morale is better.

"Things have definitely improved. The peoplethat are within the group now are the same buttheir [responsibilities] have changed," he says.

"We are a service organization," Steen says,indicating that HASCS is shifting its focus to bemore responsive to users' concerns.

"Personally I'm impressed with the changes theymade," said David A. Sherwood' 95, a former userassistant (UA) for HASCS. "I think they becamemuch more responsive to the Harvard community bothin terms of attention they pay to user assistanceas well as the overall upgrading of the hardware."

Steen says HASCS has chosen to place a lot ofemphasis on its user assistance.

"We are trying to offer better round-the-clocksupport," Steen says.

Steen says that HASCS has increased both thetraining and the number of UAs.

"We have intensive discussions on how to dealwith certain kinds of problems," Steen says.

"Not everyone can know everything, but eachperson has to have a certain basic knowledge,"Steen says.

Kim says he has seen noticeable increase in theperformance of UAs.

"HASCS has really made large strides inimproving general user assistance," Kim says. Kimcredits recruiting and an increase in startingsalary from $7 to $8 an hour for that improvement.

"They now have weekly training meetings, andthey had a postering campaign to try to encouragemore people to apply and become a UA," Kim says.

Steen says HASCS has tried to improve the UAsystem by moving assistance out to the dorms andhouses so that users do not have to call in to thecentral phone hotline.

"The phone line has been swamped withrequests," Steen says. "This way, students can gethelp with problems without having to go throughthe central phone lines."

But Ishir Bhan '96, co-president of Digitas, astudent computer group, says he is not sure howmuch difference moving the UAs has made.

"I don't really know how much [the housesystem] has been used," Bhan says. "I haven'treally seen it publicized that much and I thinkthat people turn to their friends when they are intheir rooms or houses."

Students have recognized and appreciated anumber of the changes and improvements withinHASCS, but they are clamoring for more.

"I think publicity and educating its users isthe one area in which HASCS has shown the leastimprovement and understandably so considering whatthey are trying to do with the limited resourcesthey have," Kim says.

"They have to become more visible and take aclear stand on where they lie on issues of privacyand security," he adds. "They have to do a betterjob of keeping users informed."

"Publicity and awareness is a very difficultthing, and I think organizations such as HCS havetried to make up for it but in the end it isreally up to HASCS to educate its users and makethe students aware of its rules and policies," Kimsays.

Steen says HASCS is placing a renewed emphasison the issues of privacy and security. HASCS isreworking its guidelines on privacy, partly as aresult of the Crimson investigation into Internetpornography this year.

"Privacy issues are always on the table," Steensays. "The Crimson article certainly brought it tothe forefront."

HASCS is working on establishing akerberos-authentication scheme on the studentnetwork for next fall.

Right now, passwords travel unencoded acrossthe wires, and any knowledgeable user can view thenon-encrypted password. Kerberos would guaranteethat the passwords traveling over the network werescrambled.

Making passwords harder to break would mean itwould be more difficult to assume the identity ofanother user.

"You want to know when a message comes to youthat it's from the person who it says it is,"Steen says.

One sign that HASCS has become moresecurity-conscious under Steen is hisestablishment of a policy that undergraduates maynot have the root password, which enables itsholder to view everyone's files and email.

Two students have told The Crimson that theyheld the root password in the past year, but Steensays that its access has now been cut off.

"You want to restrict the number of people whohave the root password," Steen says. "That'spolicy."

"We try to restrict it to the absolute minimumnumber of people," he said. "It's a small numberof people."

Some have said that Steen's success in handlinghis staff and outsiders has hidden the fact helacks a technical understanding of HASCS'smachines and networks.

"Frank Steen doesn't understand the technicallimitations of the systems, he is more a peoplekind-of guy," says John E. Stafford '96, presidentof the Harvard Computer Society.

Digitas Co-President Jeff C. Tarr '96 agreesthat Steen does not have an extensive technicalbackground.

But Stafford says that Steen has been extremelysuccessful at taking over some of the Office forInformation Technology's responsibilities.

"HASCS needs to be able to [add many studentcomputer names] in the fall, and OIT just didn'thave the flexibility to do this," Stafford says.

Although Stafford says Steen has been able totake over some of OIT's responsibilities, he saidthat Steen may listen too much to the Committee onInformation Technology (IT).

"The IT [committee] had one big thing, thestudent network, but hasn't done much since,"Stafford says. "Steen may listen and follow the[committee] too much."

Tarr disagreed, saying he is happy with HASCSunder Steen.

"It has never been better, at least in the pastthree years," Tarr says.

Steen is certainly adept at handling people andthe media.

Instead of allowing reporters to talk directlyto his employees, Steen insists that they beinterviewed with him in his office.

After he assumed his post last year, sourcestold The Crimson that there was an unofficial gagrule in place on HASCS staff.

Whether Steen is really an adept technician orsimply a skilled manager, the changes he has madeseem to indicate that his ship is moving intocalmer waters.CrimsonEugene Y. ChangStudent Internet Accounts The HarvardArts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) hashad to respond to a significant increase in demandand network usage over the last year.