NEWS

Welcome Back!

Now that the beginning-of-the-semester chaos is settling down (we hope!) we'd like to remind you of a few things you may have missed over the summer:

• As we move to Windows 10, we're also tightening security. This is a very important article for anyone who uses a computer managed by the SSCC.
• Zach Heise is currently on leave, but Mitchell Karam is filling for him.
• It's still not too late to renew your SSCC account if you find it's locked.
• Home directory quotas are bigger, you can reset your password via email, and the SSCC's satisfaction survey has been streamlined.

Training

We still have several training classes coming up, including introductions to R, NVivo, and EndNote. The NVivo training is a rare opportunity, as SSCC staff don't have the expertise to teach it and we're grateful to Tom Durkin of the Library System for doing so. We also have a workshop on the new tools in Stata 15 that allow you to write do files that create PDF files, Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets.

With SSCC training free to all of campus thanks to funding from the VCRGE office and the Graduate School, many classes are filling up. If you're interested in a class but see that it's full, be sure to sign up anyway and we'll put you on the waiting list. We're often able to accommodate most of the people on the waiting list, and a big waiting list lets us know when we need to add new sections (like the unprecedented five sections of Stata and four sections of R we're teaching this semester).

Let SSCC Staff Help You Purchase Your Next Computer

If you're looking to purchase a new computer for your University work, involving SSCC staff will ensure you get the best computer for your needs and that there won't be any problems using it in the SSCC environment. In addition to their general expertise in computer hardware, they're very familiar with the University's low-price computer bundles, and can make sure whatever you get will work well with SSCC's automated tools for setting up and managing computers. Working with them early will also make sure we know when your computer will be coming in so we can get it ready for you as quickly as possible.

Chrome Security Warnings

Later this month, Google Chrome will start giving a security warning whenever you enter information on a web page that is not encrypted. This is part of a larger campaign to encourage everyone to use encryption on the web.

As a user of the web, you do don't need to do anything right away if you see these warnings. A site is no less secure than it was before Chrome started warning you about it. However, if these warnings persist that does suggest the web site's owners are not taking security as seriously as they should.

For most web site owners, using encryption is as simple as making sure your links start with https rather than http (if they specify a protocol at all). If your site is on the SSCC's web server, we will do this for you: on October 23 our web server will start automatically converting all http requests into https requests. It will improve performance if you make the change so no conversion is needed, but it's not urgent.

The vast majority of web sites will have no problems with this transition, especially WordPress sites. You can test now by opening your web pages and putting https:// in front of the page address. If you do run into any problems, let us know. If necessary we can exempt your web site from the changes we're making.

For more details, see the Chromium blog.