News and Updates

Fall 2005 Newsletter

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Letter From the Editor

Welcome to the fourth issue of the Chemistry Computer Center's quarterly newsletter. In this newsletter, you will find information regarding:

New Look for the Website!

After an intense redesign and reorganization, the computing.chem.wisc.edu website has a new look! The newsletter has also been redesigned to match.

We hope you find the new website to be more usable and aesthetically pleasing. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Questions?

Are you having trouble connecting to the department network or using a new software program? If so, please let us know. Our Chemistry Network support staff are here to help you with computer support and troubleshooting.

Assistance with e-mail, computing, networking, or other related technical difficulties can be requested as follows:

In addition, basic training of both major operating systems and computational chemistry software products is available at the Computer Center via formal training workshops as well as informal sessions. Please contact us for more information.

Lineup Change

Steve Barnet, Instrumentation Technologist and Network Administrator at the Computer Center, has recently accepted a position at the Ice Cube Project beginning October 3. Ice Cube, which is a $250 million telescope funded by the National Science Foundation, will be used to detect neutrinos – infinitesimally small, high energy particles produced by radioactive decay that can travel great distances.

Steve will be missed by everyone at the Computer Center, but we will not be without a leader for long. We will formally announce his successor at a later date.

During the Interim…

The Comphelp crew will be available to assist with any network and computer troubleshooting. A schedule stating their availability is posted on the door to 9311a.

Please contact Hieu Tran for questions about research clusters, software licenses, software training, and computational chemistry research.

Farewell Letter from Steve Barnet

As many of you already know, I will be leaving the Chemistry department to take a position with the IceCube project here on campus (a neutrino detector being built in Antarctica). I have enjoyed working with everyone over the last 3.5 years and hope that our efforts at improving the chemistry department computing infrastructure have been helpful.

I will continue to work with the computer committee to select my replacement. In addition, I will monitor my Chem email account and will lend assistance as I can for any significant problems that may occur before the next system administrator arrives. This transition process will take some time. During that time, the students (Gavin and Jon) will handle the normal day to day problems or issues.

Again, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for the opportunity to work with you. Taking this new position was not an easy decision as I greatly enjoy what I'm doing. However, big science projects are few and far between and this opportunity was simply too good to allow it to pass. I hope to see you from time to time around campus and wish you all the best.

Our Thanks and Appreciation

The Computer Center staff would like to thank Tom Foseid, Chemistry Building Supervisor, and the Physical Plant crew for updating the cooling infrastructure for the Computer Center. Computers and servers can sure throw off a lot of heat! Thanks again for keeping both us and the computers cool during one of the hottest summers on record in Madison.

Student Computing

Wireless Access

Connecting to the internet using your laptop has recently been made easier. Just look for the "Wireless Internet Hot Spot" signs, turn on your computer, activate your wireless card, and then open a browser. You will be asked for your NetID and password to authenticate your session.

Wireless Internet access is available in many buildings on campus. Wireless access points are available in the Chemistry Building on the first floor by the computer labs and on the second floor in the Library. If you have any questions about connecting to the Chemistry Wireless Network, please contact us.

For more information, visit http://www.doit.wisc.edu/network/wireless/

Free Software Training for Students

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) offers software training classes at no charge for students. Classes are offered on a variety of topics, including:

For more information and to sign up, visit http://www.doit.wisc.edu/training/student/main/information.asp

Chemistry Network and Computing

21st Century Network

The 21st Century Network (XXICN) upgrade is complete for the Chemistry building. All of the new switches are installed. Thank you for your patience during the implementation.

New 64-Bit Machines

New machines have arrived at the Computer Center. These 64-bit, AMD Opteron machines will be used to create a new mini cluster – a platform for testing out new software and conducting basic system testing.

A pilot project has already begun that will compare the new 64-bit machines to the existing 32-bit machines. Please let us know if you are interested in trying out these new machines.

Campus Eudora License to Expire

Support for Eudora by the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) will be decreased as of November 30, 2005, which is when the campus license is set to expire. After this date, support by DoIT will become limited.

In addition, free downloads of Eudora from the DoIT website are no longer available. If Eudora 6.2 is your current mail reader, you may continue to use it for free. However, if you would like to upgrade to a newer version, you will need to either download the free version from Qualcomm (which contains advertisements) or purchase a personal license from Qualcomm (which includes technical support).

The Computer Center will continue to provide support for Eudora to the Chemistry Department. However, due to the expiration of the campus license, some Eudora users may want to migrate their e-mail to another e-mail client. Mail clients fully supported by DoIT and the Computer Center include Mozilla, Thunderbird, Netscape, Outlook, Outlook Express, Entourage, or Mail.app.

Information about configuring mail readers for Wiscmail

Information about migrating your Wiscmail from Eudora to another client

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