Department of Mathematics

F.A.Q.

If your question is not answered on this page or you do not understand the answer, you can contact the Helpdesk for technical help.

Web

  • How do I reset my Math password?

    Have you ever forgotten your math password? Has your math password ever been reset due to that 120 day limit?

    Instead of waiting for Math IT to reset a forgotten or unknown password, you can now reset it yourself!

    All that’s required is that you provide the answers to some questions now. Later, when you wish to reset your math password, you’ll be asked those same questions and will need to provide the exact same answers.

    1. Pick and answer the questions on this page: https://www.math.purdue.edu/mathnet/securitychallengequestions/
    2. Forget your password.
    3. Follow the instructions on this page: https://www.math.purdue.edu/resources/resetpassword to reset your password.

  • How can I password protect a directory in my Math Web space?

    1. You need to create two files.
      1. ~/WWW/protecteddir/.htaccess
      2. ~/.htpasswd
    2. An .htaccess file can be used to specify webserver settings at the directory or file level. Here is a sample .htaccess file:
      • AuthName “Display name of protected area”
        AuthType Basic
        AuthUserFile /homes/ivetter/.htpasswd
        #require user ivetter
        require valid-user
    3. Your .htaccess file points to a file of usernames and passwords, commonly named .htpasswd
      1. To create your .htpasswd directory and place a user in the file on one of the departmental unix servers, run a command like this:
        1. htpasswd -c ~/.htpasswd username
        2. You’ll be prompted for the password twice.
        3. Voila! You should now have a username and encrypted password in the ~/.htpasswd file.
      2. To add another username to your .htpasswd file, run this command:
        1. htpasswd ~/.htpasswd username2
    4. Please note that your .htpasswd file can go anywhere in your home directory, but must be readable (but never writable!) by the ‘nobody’ user (or the world). Additionally, it’s best to not place the ~/.httpasswd directory under your WWW folder.

  • How to use www.mathjobs.org

    The Department of Mathematics is using the AMS backed mathjobs.org job application system for tenure-track and research assistant professors.

    Mathjobs.org provides nice documentation for Logging on, getting started as well as a User Guide and a short video introduction (in flash). Any question not answered by the available documentation can be asked of Math’s Web-Helpdesk.

    1. You should have received (yet another) password in an email to your math email account. Using that password you can Login to Mathjobs.org at https://www.mathjobs.org by clicking the “… as Faculty or staff at employer institutions” link (under the “Login to MathJobs.org” heading). Use your email address at which your received your temporary password for your username. Upon logging in, you will be asked to change your password. You must pick a password that does not include a “dictionary word”.
    2. Upon logging in, the list of applicants is displayed for our two open positions. TT is the Tenure Track Professor position, RAP is the Research Assistant Professor. (Please make sure both entries in *[RAP0018362007 TT0018372007]* are shaded green. If, for example, *RAP0018362007* is shaded gray, the listed applicants will not include those applying only for RaP’s. Click on either of these entries to go back and forth from green to gray.) Also, as the list of applicants grows, they will not all be display on the first page. Please click on the “ALL” button at the top (or bottom) of the page to display all applicants.
    3. Clicking on a name will open a new window with that applicant information. Here you can read the various parts of the application separately (cover letter, letters of recommendation, teaching statement, research statement, etc.). You can click on the “All” button at the very top (to the right of “Address“) to generate a single pdf file which is just like a complete paper application.
    4. For each applicant, one can assign Ratings, Refer the applicant to another faculty member, and even jot down private notes.
      1. “Refer this appl to“: You can select other faculty on the list (right to the left of this box) who you think should also read it and select “email notify” to have the system send email to that person. Note: to select multiple usernames, one must hold down the the command key on a Mac (Mac command key icon), or the Ctrl key on a Unix or Windows machine.
      2. Your Private Notes. These notes appear as “yellow smiley faces” right below the applicants name once you return to the main Application List and after you click on the list again to update the system. These notes are only visible to you and the “managers” of the system who are the Department Head, Sally Goeke and the Webmaster.
    5. IMPORTANT: Please make sure you click on the “submit” button at the bottom of the screen or else your work will not be recorded!
    6. A useful tool for finding applicants that match specific parameters is the “Search” link at the top of the mathjobs.org webpage.

  • How do I show my publications from MathSciNet on my “bio” publications list?

    If you want to update your Publications list from MathSciNet by
    redownloading a list from MathSciNet, here’s how:

    1. Go to MathSciNet (the Resources page on the web site links to Rice’s mirror, which is quite fast).
    2. Search for yourself in the “Author” search box and hit return.
    3. It will give you a list of papers, some of which will be by you. Find a paper with your name and click on your name. Ensure that the list of papers is really by you.
    4. In the upper left of the page, beside “Batch Download:” choose “Citations (BibTeX)”.
    5. If you have 50 or fewer publications, hit “Retrieve First 50″ to the right of “Batch Download:”. If you have more than 50 publications, then one will have to mark the checkbox besides all the publications and then click “Retrieve Marked”.
    6. Copy all the data in the typewriter font to a file; I’d name it username.bib.
    7. On one the Solaris math servers (ie bessel), run this command in a terminal window:
      /opt/csw/bin/bibtex2html -nobibsource -nodoc -noheader -nofooter -q username.bib
      This will create username.html.
    8. If all your papers are in MathSciNet, copy username.html to
      ~/WWWbio/Publications/index
      Otherwise you can use username.html as the start of a more extensive web page of publications.
    9. If you want to indicate that the publications are from MathSciNet as of a certain date, then add a line like the following example to the top of the file named index:
      <h2>Papers listed in Math Reviews as of December 8, 2008</h2>

  • How do I edit my math bio page?

    Documentation for Math Bio pages exists here:
    www.math.purdue.edu/resources/computing/webdocumentation/bio/.

  • How do I have my personal homepage not listed on Math's Web Directory?

    To stop your Math homepage from being listed in the Departmental Web Directory, you should not have any files named: ‘index.php’, ‘Welcome.php’, ‘Welcome.html’, ‘index.cgi’, ‘index.html’, or ‘main.html’ in your WWW directory.

    Any files named ‘mainindex.html’ or mainindex.php’ will be served as the default main/index/welcome page and will not be linked to from the Web Directory.

  • How do I have my personal homepage listed on Math's Web Directory?

    If your homepage is on the math servers (at www.math.purdue.edu/~username) and a file on your webpage is named ‘index.php’, ‘Welcome.php’, ‘Welcome.html’, ‘index.cgi’, ‘index.html’, or ‘main.html’, the Web Directory will automatically link to your webpage.

    If your personal webpage exists somewhere other than the Mathematics Department servers, but you would still like it listed in the Departmental Web Directory, you should place redirect file in your Math Web Space. Specifically a file named index.html containing the following:
    <html>
    <meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;url=http://www.yourhomepage.com/whatever” />
    </html>
    Please replace the url with your appropriate external url.

  • How do I put my webpage in my Math Web Space?

    Your Web Space exists at http://www.math.purdue.edu/~username You must replace username with your own username. To place content on your Web Space, you must create a WWW directory in your home directory. Everything within this WWW/ directory will be accessible from the web via www.math.purdue.edu/~username.