========================== SSCC News, September, 1996 ========================== This is the SSCC News. This monthly electronic newsletter will keep you informed about recent changes on the SSCC computer networks. We hope this information will help improve communication between the SSCC computing staff and all of you computer users out there. Inside this issue... Welcome SSRI to the Coop Ultrix to be Retired September 30 - Make those Transport Files! Town Meeting September 20th at 1:00 Announcing WinCenter - X-term Software which runs Windows Applications SSCC Training Schedule Possible Downtime during Computer Room Air Conditioner Replacement Reduced Operator Hours ------------------------ Welcome SSRI to the Coop ------------------------ The Social Systems Research Institute (SSRI) of the Department of Economics has joined the Coop. This became official at the annual meeting last month of the Chairs and Directors of the sustaining member organizations of the SSCC. SSRI has approximately 100 faculty, staff, and advanced graduate students many of whom already have SSCC accounts through their affiliations with IRP or CDE. Among its contributions to the SSCC are funds used to assist in the support of the coop, a new public terminal room, and a new UNIX machine. The public terminal room is in 7413 Social Science and will have six X-terminals and a networked printer when it opens. Access to the room will be with the same door access system that is installed in the terminal room in 2470. As soon as physical plant completes installation of the door access system, the room will be opened, probably by the end of next week. The UNIX machine that SSRI is contributing has been ordered and should arrive and be configured by the end of November. It is a multiprocessor Digital Alpha machine comparable to NORMAN but is expandable to approximately four times the capacity of NORMAN. --------------------------------------------------------------- Ultrix to be Retired September 30 - Make those Transport Files! --------------------------------------------------------------- We have been reminding you monthly since April that all Ultrix computers (EUNICE and CDE2) will be phased out. Finally, the time has almost arrived -- AS OF OCTOBER 1, ULTRIX WILL BE NO MORE! SAS and SPSS system files created on Ultrix computers will no longer be readable after this date. These files have to be converted to transport files before they can be read by our SunOS or Digital UNIX computers. This conversion must take place on Ultrix so it is crucial that you take care of this before Ultrix's demise. We have two SSCC documents which describe this process in detail: How to Transport SAS Data Sets between Digital Unix, SunOS, and Ultrix (#1) How to Transport SPSS Files between Digital Unix, SunOS, and Ultrix (#12) These documents are available in printed form from consulting or in the Public Terminal Room. On-line versions can be found in SSCGOPHER. ----------------------------------- Town Meeting September 20th at 1:00 ----------------------------------- Tom Flory, SSCC Director, will preside over a Town Meeting on September 20th at 1:00 in Social Science 4308. He will discuss the ongoing evolution of SSCC computers including a demonstration of WinCenter, software that allows X-terminals to run PC Windows applications. Tom will also use this town meeting to update everyone on the status of the improvements to our network which have been made possible through the NFS Instrumentation Grant that was awarded the SSCC. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcing WinCenter - X-term Software which runs Windows Applications ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SSCC recently purchased hardware and software which allows X-terminal users in Soc. Sci. 2470 to run programs on a Windows NT server. With a high performance PC and NCD's WinCenter software, users in 2470 can now run Windows Applications programs on the PC from the X-terminals. So far, the following programs are available: Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, Citation, SPSS, MLn, STATA, and STAT/TRANSFER. WinCenter will be demonstrated at the SSCC town meeting on September 20th. There are also two hands-on training sessions scheduled in Soc. Sci. 2470: September 30th at 10:30 and October 24th at 2:00. If you want to try WinCenter on your own, pick up a copy of SSCC Pub #5-9, "Using PC Windows Applications from X-terminals", available in Social Science 2470 and from the Consultant. ---------------------- SSCC Training Schedule ---------------------- Note: All SSCC training sessions require preregistration. If at least five people have not preregistered for a course one week prior to its start date, the class may be canceled. To preregister for a class, send mail to SSCCLASS indicating which class(es) you plan to attend. You will be reminded about your preregistration through e-mail a day or two before the class begins. If no training session is offered for a topic you are interested in, please send mail to SSCCLASS requesting a session. We will schedule a session if a minimum of five people request training on a topic. Date Time Topic Room ---- ---- ----- ---- 9/9 10:30-12 UNIX Basics I: Commands, Files, Directories 2470 9/10 10-11:30 VMS Basics I: Mail, Files, DCL, Helpline 2470 9/11 10:30-12 UNIX Basics II: emacs Editor, MH Mail 2470 9/12 10-11:00 VMS Basics II: Text Editing with EVE 2470 9/16 10:30-12 UNIX Basics III: Running Jobs 2470 9/17 10-11:00 VMS Basics III: Running Batch Jobs 2470 9/18 10:30-12 Advanced UNIX I: Configuring the Shell 2470 9/19 2:30-4 Intro to the PINE Mailer on VMS or UNIX 2470 9/20 2-3 Intro to the EUDORA Mailer for PC Users 3432 9/23 10:30-12 Advanced UNIX II:Manipulating Data(Filters) 2470 9/23 10:30-12 Advanced UNIX III: Managing Source Code 2470 9/26 2:30-4 Using SSCC's Consulting Database 2470 9/27 2-3 WiscWorld (inc. FTP) for Windows from Home 3432 9/30 10:30-12 Using PC Windows Applications from X-terms 2470 10/1 10-11:30 Electronic Information: Practical Solutions 4452 10/3 10-11:30 WWW and its Browsers (Netscape, Lynx, etc.) 4452 10/8 10-11:30 Finding it on the Web 3432 10/9 2-3 Windows 95 Basics 3432 10/11 2-3:30 PC LAN Basics inc. Sharing Data w/ UNIX&VMS 3432 10/16 2-3 Converting to VMS's PMDF Mail 4452 10/21 10:30-12 SAS Programming Techniques & Efficiencies 4452 10/23 10:30-12 Table Lookup Techniques in SAS 4452 10/24 2-3:30 Using PC Windows Applications from X-terms 2470 10/28 10:30-12 Intro to Citation:PC Bibliographic Database 3432 10/29 11-12 Transferring Data between Stat Software 3432 10/30 2-3 Scanning Text and Graphics 4411 11/5-11/14 2-3:15 Intro to SAS (4 sessions: Tues/Thurs) 3432 Descriptions for each of the training sessions listed above may be found in SSCGOPHER. To view them from this BULLETIN entry, press Return and then pick "2. Other Information Servers", then pick "1. sscgopher", and then pick "4. SSCC Classes". ------------------------------------------------------------------ Possible Downtime during Computer Room Air Conditioner Replacement ------------------------------------------------------------------ The May 1996 issue of SSCNEWS included an article about plans to replace the air conditioner in the computer room. Physical plant should begin this replacement in the next week or two. (Some parts have not yet been received.) They expect the entire process to take less than two weeks. Because the computer room overheats when the air conditioner is not running, we may have to power off the computers. Any downtimes will be posted in BROADCAST. ---------------------- Reduced Operator Hours ---------------------- Operator hours have been reduced to Monday - Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. We have been monitoring tape mount requests and have found that there are hardly any mount requests during evenings and weekends. Besides tape mounts, the other major duty of operators during evenings and weekends is to collect and shelve computer room print out. And, now that we have two self-serve printers with 24-hour access (refer to Bulletin or your SSCC Handbook for queue names), it is no longer cost effective to use student hourly time in this manner. These additional hours of student hourly time will be reallocated to assisting system staff and assisting with the increasing number of network related tasks associated with the improvements being made to the network.