====================== SSCC News, June, 1997 ====================== Inside this issue... Re-wiring Office Data Jacks SSCC Summer Training Schedule WordPerfect to be Removed from UNIX Computers August 1 Uninterruptible Power Supply Installed in Computer Room Purchasing an Uninterruptible Power Supply for Office Computers Getting Answers to Your GAUSS Questions New SSCC Terminal Server --------------------------- Re-wiring Office Data Jacks --------------------------- In order to correct a problem with the building wiring, we need to re-wire the phone and data jack in each office in the Social Science building. We expect this project to take most of the summer. The re-wiring will only take a couple of minutes in each office but moving the bookshelves and other items in front of the jacks will take some time. We plan to do one wing of the building every week. Re-wiring Schedule: June 9-13 2nd floor Lake side June 16-20 3rd floor Lake side June 23-27 4th floor Lake side June 30-July 4 5th floor Lake side July 7-11 6th floor Lake side July 14-18 7th floor Lake side July 21-25 3rd floor Observatory Drive side July 28-Aug 1 4th floor Observatory Drive side Aug 4-8 5th floor Observatory Drive side Aug 11-15 7th floor Observatory Drive side Aug 18-22 8th floor Observatory Drive side If this is an inconvenient time, we can re-schedule your wing or your office to be done at a different time. Please contact the Consultant. ----------------------------- SSCC Summer 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. Descriptions for each of the training sessions listed below may be found in SSCGOPHER. 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. Day Time Topic Room Instruct. --- ---- ----- ---- --------- 6/10 1:30- 2:30 Reading/Sending E-Mail Attachments 7413 Wald 6/12 3:00- 4:30 Advanced Topics on SAS Maps 3432 Brown 6/17 11:00-12:00 Running Large Jobs on UNIX 7413 Rodriguez 6/19 10:00-11:30 Preparing Presentations with PowerPoint 7413 McDermott 6/24 11:00-12:00 Managing and Protecting Files on UNIX 7413 Rodriguez 6/25 11:00-12:00 Using PC Windows Applications from X-terms 7413 Arnold 7/10 10:00-11:00 Sociofile and other Web Based Indexes 4452 Brand 7/17 10:00-12:00 Navigating SPSS 7.5 for Windows 7413 Hayes 7/29 10:30-12:00 Point/Click Data Manipulation & Extraction 7413 Fassnacht ------------------------------------------------------ WordPerfect to be Removed from UNIX Computers August 1 ------------------------------------------------------ WordPerfect will be removed from SunOS machines August 1. This version of WordPerfect is out-of-date (version 5.1) and problematic to maintain. UNIX users can now access WordPerfect 7.0 from WinCenter. ------------------------------------------------------- Uninterruptible Power Supply Installed in Computer Room ------------------------------------------------------- Installation was completed last week of a 20KVA Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) in the Computer Room. This device will protect the computers in 4411 from power sags and surges as well as brownouts. In the event of a blackout, it will provide a few minutes warning before gracefully shutting down the computers. It will also shutdown the computers if the temperature rises too high. The UPS was purchased with funds from the NSF Infrastructure Grant. --------------------------------------------------------------- Purchasing an Uninterruptible Power Supply for Office Computers --------------------------------------------------------------- If you are concerned about the possible power outages this summer damaging your computer or would like to continue working during a brownout, you should consider purchasing an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for your office. American Power Conversion (APC) offers a quality UPS with prices ranging from $100-$600, depending on the computer configuration, etc. To figure out what size UPS you need, find out how much current your computer equipment draws. Look on the back of your computer equipment (CPU and monitor) and there will be an Amp rating. Multiply this number by 120Volts to get the Volt-Amps. The SSCC Consultant has a catalog you can order from. There is a chart in the catalog that will tell you how long the UPS can provide power to the computer during a blackout. You can buy a larger UPS if you need more uptime during a blackout. If a UPS is a bit pricey for you, you might want to consider a surge protector. A "real" surge suppressor will protect against lightning strikes only but costs only around $20. Be wary of cheaper surge protectors. They may not protect against lightning strikes. UL 1449 is the official standard that guarantees this kind of protection. (i.e. the $5 "surge suppressors" that you can buy won't protect you). --------------------------------------- Getting Answers to Your GAUSS Questions --------------------------------------- Last month we announced the availability of GAUSS on GUY, one of SSCC's UNIX computers. We also noted that GAUSS is currently unsupported software because none of the SSCC consultants are familiar with how to use GAUSS and so will not be able to help you with problems you encounter other than making sure the software is properly installed. Because of this limited support, some SSCC users have been contacting Aptech, the company that develops and markets GAUSS, directly with their questions. This violates our contract agreement with Aptech and they have informed us that they will not answer questions originating from anyone except the SSCC Consultant. In the future, if you have GAUSS questions, please send them to the SSCC Consultant and they will then be forwarded to Aptech. Aptech will reply to the SSCC Consultant and we will forward their answer to you. Please spend the time required to formulate your question as succinctly as possible, giving all the information that might be helpful in finding a solution. This could save you significant time in the long run. Please note the following other sources of information on GAUSS: - SSCC has prepared a short handout called "How-to Access GAUSS on GUY" which contains information on how to run GAUSS and change its configuration file. - SSCC Consulting has a set of manuals which you are welcome to come by and browse or borrow long enough to photocopy what you need. - GAUSS's homepage, http://www.aptech.com/ contains many links to GAUSS related resource web pages. ------------------------ New SSCC Terminal Server ------------------------ If you have used SSCC's modem pool recently, you may have noticed that the startup screen looks a little different. This is because we recently installed a new remote access server. With the new terminal server, you can now connect directly to any SSCC UNIX or VMS host. UNIX users who have been connecting to WALT and then telnetting to other UNIX computers can now connect directly to their computer of choice. Currently, you can dial in (263-1655) at 2400 baud but we plan to upgrade the modems to 28.8 soon. The remote access server was purchased with funds from the NSF Infrastructure Grant.