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Research Support

Microsoft Purchase Deadline

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Many departments at UCI participate in the UC/Microsoft software leasing program known as UC-MCCA. This is a program for acquiring up-to-date Microsoft software at aggressive discounts. For example, a license for Windows XP with Office is less than $40, compared to around $100 for the typical University license. The program allows software updates whenever new versions are released.

The program can only be used by entire organizational units, and costs are proportional to unit size (FTE). This makes the program particularly advantageous for departments with a large number of computers per person, such as units with computer labs. One downside is that this is a subscription (lease) program, and participating units must plan for recurring annual license costs.

This year’s orders under the UC-MCCA agreement must be placed by May 14. For details (package costs, program details, definition of FTE, etc.) or to consult on whether this program would be a benefit to your unit, please contact NACS.

SAS Day at UCI

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The UCI Statistical Consulting Center, NACS, and the SAS Institute are hosting a “SAS Day” to be held April 14 at the Beckman Center. Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone will provide welcoming remarks. There is no charge for this event. The agenda and registration can be viewed at http://ucsasday.uci.edu

SAS is statistical analysis and data reporting software for which UCI has discount licensing. For more information, please visit http://licenses.nacs.uci.edu/detail2.cfm?ProductID=14

Software Licensing at UCI

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UCI faculty and staff have access to a wide range of discounts on software, including operating systems, business applications, and research software.

Because some of these licenses are available only to subscribing schools and departments, the Computing Support Coordinator in your department or school is the first person to contact for software license information.

NACS works through a number of agencies, including the UCOP Technical Acquisition Support (TAS) team, vendors, and resellers to explore license opportunities on behalf of UCI. If there is software you feel would be of value to large numbers of faculty or staff, please e-mail nacs@uci.edu

If you are not sure of the local contact in your school or department, please visit:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/csc/csc.html

Information on most campus software licenses can be found at:
http://licenses.nacs.uci.edu/

Windows Security

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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.

Research Computing Support

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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/ .