SSCC News for October 2004

Server Loads
CPU Usage Reminder
Printer for Special Paper
SSCC Fall Training Schedule
New Web-based Bibliographic Software Available Campus-wide

Server Loads

KITE, Wincenter1, and Winstat1 continue to have much higher loads than other SSCC servers. Linux users would be well advised to log onto HAL rather than KITE for interactive sessions. Recall that last month in SSCC News we announced that HAL was replaced with a new and much more powerful Linux computer and now has SAS installed.

Condor is also a very good option for running large statistical jobs on Linux. For more information on Condor, refer to the SSCC Publication, An Introduction to Condor. Also note that we are offering a training session on Condor on October 18.

Windows Terminal Server users with statistical jobs would be well advised to log onto Winstat3, a new server also announced in last month's SSCC News. For non-statistical processing on Windows, Wincenter3 is almost always your best choice.

When in doubt, check SSCC's Server Status page before logging on to find out how busy each of the Linux and Windows servers are, and how many Condor jobs are running. By checking first and then using the less busy servers you'll not only get the best performance for your jobs, you'll help balance the load across all our servers, improving performance for everyone. You'll find a link to the Server Status page in the navigation bar to the left of most of SSCC's web pages.

CPU Usage Reminder

With the fall semester well underway, it's time to remind everyone about SSCC's policy on running statistical jobs:

1. Only run one CPU-intensive job at a time on the interactive servers (HAL, KITE, OWL, the Wincenters, and the Winstats).This means one job total, not one per server. Jobs like text editors, email, etc. use very little processor power and you can feel free to run as many of these as you wish. Jobs like Stata, SAS, SPSS, other statistical programs, or user-written programs are a different matter.
2. Submit no more than six jobs to Condor at a time, unless you anticipate that the jobs will be done in a very short period (on the order of ten minutes or less), and there are enough CPUs available at the time you submit them.

Visit SSCC's policy page for more information on this and other policies.

Printer for Special Paper

If you need a printer for printing on special paper like envelopes or letterhead, you are welcome to use the printer in the 2470 computer lab. Instructions are provided in SSCC publication, Printing on Special Paper. The student operator in 4218 will also be happy to assist you.

SSCC's Fall Training

There is still time to take advantage of SSCC's training offerings this semester. Upcoming classes that aren't already full include Introduction to Condor (Oct. 18, 1:00-2:00), Handy Windows Freeware Utilities (Oct. 27, 1:00-2:00), Document-Sharing with Word (Nov. 17, 10:00-11:30), An Introduction to SAS Arrays (Nov. 18, 9:30-10:45), An Introduction to SAS Macros (Nov. 23, 9:30-10:45), and Computers in Qualitative Analysis (Dec. 7, 9:30-10:45). More information including required class registration is on SSCC's training web pages.

New Web-based Bibliographic Software Available Campus-wide

The General Library System has purchased a Web-based bibliographic database management system for campus users, called RefWorks. RefWorks organizes information and offers several methods for creating formatted bibliographies. It works especially well with MS Word to format bibliographies as a person writes a paper using a plug-in called Write N Cite. The plug-in has been installed in all DoIT Info Lab and library system computers. More information is available at DoIT's news web page. Contact Patricia Herrling at pherrling@library.wisc.edu or 263-6373 for technical assistance.

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