========================== SSCC News, November, 1997 ========================== Inside this issue... Town Meeting November 20th at Noon Version 2.0 of BADGER Now Available SSCC's Gopher Contents Moved to Web Implementation of Improvements to SSCC's Network Additional Digital UNIX Computer Available to CDE Members LaTeX, TeX, and XFig Available on Digital UNIX Printer Update Two New Documents Available GAUSS Workspace Files to be Deleted after Five Days More on PC Viruses Fix in Place for STATA Bug Reported Last Month ---------------------------------- Town Meeting November 20th at Noon ---------------------------------- There will be an SSCC Town Meeting on November 20th at noon in Social Science 8417. SSCC staff bring three main agenda items to be discussed: o continuing efforts to simplify the VMS operations (SSCC members will receive details about this in a memo to be e-mailed next week.) o status of the improvements to our network which have been made possible through the NFS Instrumentation Grant awarded the SSCC. o version 2.0 of BADGER. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions about these items or any other issues you would like to raise. ----------------------------------- Version 2.0 of BADGER Now Available ----------------------------------- Version 2.0 of BADGER is now available on SSCC Digital UNIX computers. BADGER gives point-and-click access to a number of large survey data files that are commonly used in Social Science research including the PUMS, NSFH, and CPS files. BADGER is an in-house SAS application program which allows you to extract, combine, reshape, and explore data without writing the SAS code yourself. To check out this latest version, log on to any SSCC Digital UNIX computer from an X-display and type "betabadger" from the UNIX system prompt. We're at a point in BADGER's development where we'd like some feedback. Would you make regular use of Badger for data manipulation if enough appropriate data were available? Would you like a web interface for BADGER? Which data sets would you like to see incorporated into BADGER? Would you be interested in being able to import your own data into BADGER? Please send your comments to mcdermot@ssc.wisc.edu. ----------------------------------- SSCC's Gopher Contents Moved to Web ----------------------------------- SSCC's gopher tables has moved to our web site at https://www.ssc.wisc.edu. SSCC's web pages now contain copies of all our handouts (except for the handbooks) in a much easier to read format than was in gopher. You can also browse our web pages to learn more and register for SSCC training sessions. ------------------------------------------------ Implementation of Improvements to SSCC's Network ------------------------------------------------ Over the next couple of months, there will be several major improvements to the building's computer network. We will be moving our building's connection to the campus ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network. This will provide us with a faster (155 Mbps vs. 10 Mbps Ethernet) connection to campus and the rest of the Internet. Along with the change we must modify all of the IP addresses in the building. We are taking steps to make this change as minimally disruptive as possible. We will also be upgrading the building's network backbone to ATM. This will increase the network bandwidth in the building from 100 to 155 Mbps. We are also installing fast Ethernet switches with enough ports so that every PC in the building will have its own 10 Mbps Ethernet network. (Now, you could be sharing the network road with up to 12 others). These upgrades will take a couple of months to complete and we will start after the end of this semester. The upgrades are made possible with the remaining funds in the NSF Infrastructure grant. --------------------------------------------------------- Additional Digital UNIX Computer Available to CDE Members --------------------------------------------------------- MARIAH, a Digital UNIX computer, is now available to any member of CDE. MARIAH runs at 166 Mhz., has 96 mb. of memory, and 8 gb. of /tmp space making it about half as powerful as NORMAN. Until now, MARIAH has been used for the development of BADGER (see the BADGER article above). Type "soft mariah" at the UNIX prompt to see which software is available on MARIAH. ---------------------------------------------- LaTeX, TeX, and XFig Available on Digital UNIX ---------------------------------------------- LaTeX, TeX, and XFig are now available on all Digital UNIX computers. We have had LaTeX and TeX on SunOS and VMS computers for many years but Digital UNIX versions only became available recently. LaTeX and TeX are text formatting programs and XFig is an interactive program for generating figures. LaTeX, TeX, and XFig are all unsupported software. LaTeX and TeX on SunOS have also been upgraded to the latest release. XFig will not work on SunOS. Please send requests for TeX/LaTeX add-on packages to CONSULTANT. We will add packages on an as-needed basis, to the extent that we have resources to install the packages. -------------- Printer Update -------------- Last month we reported to you on printing problems which resulted in UNIX and VMS printer queues being unavailable for the self-serve HP printers in the I/O room and the two Public Terminal Rooms. We have decided that UNIX and VMS printing is best served by Digital printers like the ones we have in the Computer Room. To that end, we have added a Digital printer to the I/O room. Two more Digital printers will be added to the Public Terminal Rooms as soon as a new printer we ordered arrives. Once configured, we will have an HP and a Digital printer in each of these three locations with the HP printers handling the network PC and WinCenter printing and the Digital printers handling the UNIX and VMS printing. --------------------------- Two New Documents Available --------------------------- SSCC staff have prepared two new documents which should interest many of you. The first document titled "Research Computing on SSCC UNIX Systems" is a 50 page handbook which covers more advanced topics than in SSCC's "UNIX Operating System Users Guide." The second document is SSCC Pub #5-13, "Logging into SSCC's PC Local Area Network using DoIT's Modem Pool." After following the instructions provided in this document, you will be able to connect to your networked PC, VMS, and UNIX shares from home. --------------------------------------------------- GAUSS Workspace Files to be Deleted after Five Days --------------------------------------------------- GAUSS workspace files will be kept for only five days, as the workspace keeps filling up. This is effective immediately. If the workspace continues to fill up, we may delete files that are less than five days old in order to be sure that others can run their jobs. Therefore, if you have a job that might run more than 24 hours, notify CONSULTANT so that we can avoid deleting files related to your job. ------------------ More on PC Viruses ------------------ Last month we reminded users that every PC should have updated antivirus software installed and that SSCC's web page: https://www.ssc.wisc.edu provides a link to the web page for downloading FPROT, antivirus software that University of Wisconsin has a site license for. Two related items need to be mentioned this month: o Last month an SSCC user received a virus through an e-mail message which contained attached and infected MS Word files. The virus was enbedded in macro programs within the Word documents. (Word macros are application programs that get executed when a document is opened.) Please remember that although viruses cannot be propagated via normal mail messages, they can be sent through macro programs embedded in word processing documents. o Read BULLETIN for instructions for downloading updated F-PROT software which detects the baboon virus. There was a recent outbreak of the baboon virus on campus. ---------------------------------------------- Fix in Place for STATA Bug Reported Last Month ---------------------------------------------- Last month we reported on a bug that was discovered in software which computes GEE estimates. This bug affects the GENMOD procedure in SAS, the Oswald command in S-Plus, and the xtgee command in STATA. Since the time we reported this bug, STATA Corporation has provided us with a fix which we installed on UNIX and WinCenter. The bug remains in SAS and S-Plus.