SSCC News for August 2002

Inside this issue...

Announcing SpamBouncer
Stat/Transfer and SAS for Linux
Reminder about Logging Off WinCenter and WinStat
Overview of SSCC Services and Hands-on Computing Sessions
Status Report on GUY's Retirement

Announcing SpamBouncer

Most everyone is familiar with the term “spam”, referring to unwanted bulk advertising email. You might even be interested in a way to limit the amount of spam email that shows up in your Inbox. SSCC is pleased to announce SpamBouncer, software which can filter your email and send most of your spam to another mailbox. The reason messages identified as spam gets sent to a special mailbox rather than deleting the messages is because occasionally genuine non-spam messages get identified as spam (the software is not fool-proof) and you wouldn't want these messages deleted. For this reason, it's important to monitor your spam mailbox regularly to make sure it doesn't contain legitimate email. If it does, you can fine-tune SpamBouncer to decrease the odds of certain mail messages being identified as spam and visa versa.

If you are interested in trying out SpamBouncer for yourself, you can find easy-to-follow instructions on SSCC's publication web pages. Or contact the consultant and we can help you set up SpamBouncer, or fine-tune it to better meet your needs.

If you’re curious how this sort of email came to be called “spam”, there’s information/speculation at http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/spam.html, or http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html.

Stat/Transfer and SAS for Linux

Some users have experienced problems using Stat/Transfer to convert Linux SAS files to other formats. To prevent these errors, please do not select Optimize target types in the Options(1) tab when converting Linux SAS files. While using this option is generally a good idea, it causes problems with this particular file format.

Reminder about Logging Off WinCenter and WinStat

Did you know that only fifteen sessions can be active on a given terminal server at a given time? Did you know that when you disconnect from your session rather than logging off that this does NOT free up one of these 15 allowable sessions? Be courteous to your fellow users and log off if you are not actively using the server. Exiting a terminal server is very similar to shutting down a PC. Click Start, Log Off {your user name}.

Disconnect rather than log off when you want to start up a long statistical job and then go do something else. This frees up the terminal for someone else to use but does still counts as one of the fifteen allowable sessions.

You'll find more information on using WinCenter and WinStat on SSCC's publication web pages.

Overview of SSCC Services and Hands-on Computing Sessions

Each year during the last week in August we offer orientation sessions to new Sociology graduate students. Orientation includes a 45-minute overview of SSCC services which will take place at 1:15 on August 28th in Social Science 8417. If you are new to SSCC or would like a refresher, you are welcome to attend (no preregistration is necessary). We also offer two-hour hands-on sessions on August 28, 29, and 30 which include an introduction to UNIX and terminal server (WinCenter and WinStat). There may be a few open seats available in one of these sessions. Contact Deb Brauer if you are interested.

Status Report on Guy's Retirement

This will be the last announcement regarding Guy's retirement. SAS was removed from GUY on August 4th and GUY will be retired completely on September 3rd. Any remaining version 6 data sets stored in /ssd04files will be backed up to tape and then removed from disk sometime in the next week or two.

Everyone is encouraged to use KITE for everything they used GUY for in the past.

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