August 2006

Invitation to SSCC Orientation

New PCs in 4218 Computer Lab

Reserving Computer Classroom for Fall Semester Courses

SFTP to Replace FTP

Suggestions for Fall Workshops

Invitation to SSCC Computer Orientation

SSCC staff will be offering a hands-on computer orientation on Wednesday, August 30, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. in Sewell Social Science 4308 for new members arriving this Fall. We want to extend an invitation to any SSCC member who might also like to attend. Maybe you've been a member for a while, but haven't used your account much, or maybe you arrived mid-year and didn't get a one-on-one orientation. Whatever the reason, you are welcome to attend. Please e-mail Ann Lewis(atlewis@wisc.edu) if you plan to attend so we have enough materials for everyone.

New Sociology graduate students have already received their invitations, but if you know of other new arrivals -- post docs, faculty, staff, visitors -- please extend them an invitation.

New PCs in 4218 Computer Lab

The computers in SSCC's 4218 computer lab have been replaced with 24 Dell dual core 3.4 GHz computers with 1G RAM. Each PC has a DVD writer and two USB ports. These computers are a result of the SSML/SSCC merge that was announced last month. Once the SSML classroom in 3218 gets remodeled later this summer, it will be equipped with 30 new PCs configured identically to those in 4218. The classroom will be available for drop-in use when it is not being used for instruction. An area in the back of 3218 (The Trochos Room) will be available for groups of students working on projects.

Statistical software installed on the new PCs include Gauss, GeoDa, GWR, HLM, LEM, Lisrel, Maple, Mathematica, MatLab, Minitab, NVivo, R, SAS, SPSS, Stata, Stat Transfer, Stella, WinRATS, and Eviews. Doug Hemken and Russell Dimond will be providing statistical computing support for both instructional and research users. Russell and Doug both have offices in the 4226 suite and staff the help desk in the afternoons.

Reserving Computer Classroom for Fall Semester Courses

Contact Ann Lewis (atlewis@wisc.edu) to reserve the 3218 classroom or mobile lab for your fall semester course. Ann Lewis has moved to the 4226 office suite and her phone number is 2-0862.

For those of you unfamiliar with the mobile lab - it is comprised of 48 laptops that are available for classroom/workshop use in the Sewell Social Science Building. The 2470 computer lab in the Sewell Building is set up to accommodate 24 of the laptops and may be reserved along with the mobile lab. If you would like to use the mobile lab, but your classroom is not in the Sewell Building, consider reserving the 2470 lab.

SFTP to Replace FTP

As part of our continuing effort to replace all programs that transmit usernames and passwords in clear text, we will be replacing FTP with Secure FTP at the end of August. However, both our Linux FTP server (ftp.ssc.wisc.edu) and our Windows FTP server (ntftp.ssc.wisc.edu) are capable of using SFTP now, and we suggest you make the transition as soon as possible.

If you use FTP on one of our Linux servers, it's as simple as replacing the ftp command with sftp (e.g. sftp ftp.ssc.wisc.edu). If you use FTP from a Windows computer, we suggest you use SecureFX, which is site licensed for use by UW faculty, staff and students. Our new publication Transferring Files Using SecureFX gives instructions on installing and using it.

Suggestions for Fall Workshops

We will be announcing our Fall Training sessions in next month's issue of SSCC News. If there's a particular topic you'd like to see offered, please e-mail Ann Lewis.