Condor Flock Expanded

We've added several servers to the SSCC Condor flock, bringing the total up to CPUs. We're thus increasing the number of jobs members are allowed to run simultaneously under our Server Usage Policy to fifteen.

The SSCC's Condor cluster makes a tremendous amount of computing power available to SSCC members and usage has grown faster than ever over the past year or two. Please keep in mind though that the servers are a shared resource, and overloading them can affect everyone.

SSCC's Fall Training

SSCC's Fall training is now underway. This month we have classes in Stata, SAS, NVivo, Wordpress, EndNote, and RefWorks. Remember that all SSCC training sessions require preregistration.

Need to learn a statistical package but missed the class? The SSCC Knowledge Base is always available, and includes Stata for Researchers, Stata for Students, SPSS for Students and much more. QSR also has a set of online NVivo tutorials.

Problems with Thunderbird on Winstat

Recent versions of Thunderbird make a copy of all your email on your computer, with the goal of improving performance. Unfortunately, if you use Thunderbird on Winstat that means it will copy all your email to your U: drive. If you have a lot of email, this could use up much or even all of your U: drive space.

Unless and until this behavior is changed, we must recommend that you not use Thunderbird on Winstat. To read email while using Winstat, we suggest you either minimize your Winstat session and use the email program installed on your computer or use Webmail.

Policy Reminder Regarding Encryption of Sensitive Data

University of Wisconsin-Madison policy specifies that restricted/sensitive data that is located on a laptop or desktop computer at the University MUST be encrypted (except for specified exceptions).

Any researchers who are working with IRB/RSP approved restricted data contracts who store data on their desktop or laptop computers must encrypt their data. If you are working on restricted data that has been put on a restricted Linux or Windows network drive, and your contract specifies that your output goes to that network drive, you do not need to encrypt your data. If you are working on restricted data on a removable hard drive in one of the SSCC cold rooms (Rm. 2403 or 2404 Social Science), you do not need to encrypt your data.

The University policy also discusses "sensitive" information kept on laptop or desktop computers. Visit SSCC's Resources for Working with Sensitive Data web page for links to University policies on sensitive data.

Questions about the mechanics of encryption should be addressed to SSCC's Help Desk. Questions about whether your laptop/desktop restricted/sensitive data needs to be encrypted should be addressed to Data & Information Services Center (DISC).