Pre Meeting Activities

Registering for the AstroGrid System

It is recommended that attendees register for a username and password to provide access to the current astrogrid system. Details of the current release v1.0 can be found at http://www.astrogrid.org/release-v1.0 - the actual portal is at http://www.astrogrid.org/release.

To speed things along, Catherine Qin, our system support manager, will email all attendees with a username/password in the week beginning Mon 27 Jun 2005.

AstroGrid Wiki and Bugzilla sites

The AstroGrid Wiki

In order to edit these pages (attributed) you'll need to register on the AstroGrid wiki - please use the page:

• TWikiRegistration

Once you have your wiki name such as NicholasWalton, you can set some preferences, for instance allowing sensible edit box sizes, look at NicholasWalton for an example.

The AstroGrid Bugzilla

In order to add to this you'll need to register:

• http://www.astrogrid.org/bugzilla/createaccount.cgi

Please report any bugs that you find into the 'product' "User Feedback"

Client Software

It is recommended that attendees bringing their own laptops ensure that a number of packages, including Java, are installed.

Web Browser

AstroGrid V1.0 is accessed over the internet using a web browser. You do not need to install any AstroGrid software on your computer.

However you do need an Astrogrid compatible web browser: recommended web browser is Mozilla >= 1.7.2 (Download Mozilla here).

Java and Java Web Start

Also, you will need to have Java Runtime Environment software (>= 1.4.2) installed on your computer (Download JRE here - choose: JRE 5.0 Update 3).

Note that JRE (>= 1.4.2) includes Java Webstart, which is software allowing you to launch applications from your web browser with a single click. AstroGrid uses Java Webstart to launch the Workbench (used to start the Science Services) and other applications such Aladin and Topcat.

If using java 1.5.0, please ensure you have the version Update 2 or Update 3 - the latest version available from Sun will be fine.

Similarly, if you're using java 1.4.2 and have problems, try getting the latest version of it from the Sun website.

There are some useful tips for working out what java version you are using here: http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/Astrogrid/WorkbenchWebstartTesting#Finding_Webstart_and_JVM_version

Science Cases for the Workshop

Have a think about the sort of science case you'd like to explore during the workshop. We list a few example cases that you could address from the wiki page at AgJul05SciCases

Provisional assignments to science area work groups for the sessions on Weds 13 Jul and Thurs 14 Jul will be listed at AgWorkshopJul05 at the beginning of July 2005.

-- NicholasWalton - 23 Jun 2005