Archive for July, 2003
July 11th, 2003 by Dana Roode
Computing Support Coordinator (CSC) is the label often used at UCI for anyone employed by a school or department to provide local computer and network expertise. What do local supporters do?
Local computing and network support staff provide a variety of standard technical services as school and department needs dictate. They may maintain local labs, support administrative, academic, and other applications, maintain local network and e-mail servers, and provide end-user assistance, often including discipline-specific expertise, to faculty, staff and some students.
CSCs are your best first resource when you have a technical problem. NACS supports the CSCs, providing information, managing a mailing list, conducting discussion forums, distributing software, supplying specialized technical information, and fostering communication among CSCs from different departments.
For more information, and a list of CSCs, visit: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/csc/csc.html
July 11th, 2003 by Dana Roode
A recently announced security problem in Windows will not be fixed for users of Windows NT.
Microsoft has issued a security warning for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems. Bulletin MS03-010, dated 26 March 2002, states that this vulnerability could be used by “an attacker … [to] cause the target machine to fail.”
Microsoft does not plan to provide a fix for it on Windows NT 4.0, which is still being used by various departments at UCI. Microsoft says that they have, “extensively investigated an engineering solution for NT 4.0 and found that the Windows NT 4.0 architecture will not support a fix to this issue, now or in the future.”
So, what’s an NT user to do? Microsoft itself recommends placing such systems behind a “firewall which is filtering traffic on Port 135.” Fortunately, NACS has been running a port blockade on this port since November 5, 2002 (more information on the port blockades). This blockade restricts all off-campus systems and Residential Housing computers sending traffic to these ports on campus.
While this keeps UCI users of Windows NT safe from outside attempts to exploit this weakness, it is prudent for departments to develop a migration strategy away from NT, as Microsoft no longer supports NT nor promises to develop security patches as vulnerabilities are discovered.
July 11th, 2003 by Dana Roode
NACS Instructional Web Technologies (IWT) builds and maintains the infrastructure for UCI’s Electronic Educational Environment (EEE). EEE is a collaboration among the UCI Libraries, the Division of Undergraduate Education, the Registrar, and NACS.
IWT also coordinates the meetings and campus wide activities of departmental computing lab coordinators, promoting a common work environment and functionality on behalf of lab users. Shohreh Bozorgmehri is the manager of the Instructional Web Technologies team which consists of Eric Carter, Max Garrick, David Pritikin and Briandy Walden.
In addition to developing and maintaining the EEE Web site, the IWT team provides direct support to faculty and instructors who use technology for their courses. This support includes instructional technology training and direct one-on-one assistance.
For more information about IWT and EEE, please go to the following link: http://eee.uci.edu/
July 11th, 2003 by Dana Roode
The mission of NACS Research Computing Support (RCS) is to facilitate access to and promote the effective use of computational resources available to UCI researchers. The group provides consulting, training, and outreach in the use of hardware and software. Hardware resources promoted by RCS include: NACS administered Beowulf clusters, the Krein supercomputer, and other supercomputer systems and data storage arrays available at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Software resources include: ArcGIS, Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, LabVIEW, SAS, SPSS, and LaserGene.
RCS staff members are trained in research disciplines and possess an awareness of methodologies and techniques used in research computing. Frank J. Wessel, Ph.D., manages RCS and remains active in fusion-energy research in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Tony Soeller, M.S., is an expert in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Additionally, both team members are available to support faculty with their grant writing activities.
The latest RCS activities and general announcements are available to subscribers of the RCS mailing list. Interested researchers can subscribe athttp://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/research-computing/ .