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1. Also on the 2005 agenda is an advanced workshop on Internet routing techniques taught by UO network engineers Jos Dom nguez and Carlos Vicente as part of WALC 2005 in Merida Venezuela in July The annual WALC event is a series of training workshops for IT technicians and professionals from Latin America and the Caribbean emphasizing hands on experience and the latest technologies For more details about this workshop see http Awww walc2005 ula ve taller4 html A brief history of the NSRC The roots of the NSRC project trace back to a volunteer effort by Randy Bush to support networking in southern Africa in 1988 The NSRC was formalized in 1992 by Randy Bush and John Klensin with a grant from the National Science Foundation the first of several NSF grants to support NSRC activities The NSRC has been based at the UO Computing Center since 1996 working in cooperation with various UO staff and faculty Since its inception the NSRC has been supported by many partners in industry and academia who generously contribute in kind equipment and materials funding and expertise to its activities Among these are the Internet Society Cisco Systems the International Development Research Centre and the Carnegie Corporation of New York For a complete list of current sponsors see http www nsrc org sponsors For more information about NSRC activities visit the NSRC website at http msrc org computing news spring 2005 Who s Who
2. Microsoft announced more critical patches during its April 12 webcast The new releases include patches for Microsoft Windows Office MSN Messenger and Exchange In addition Microsoft released an updated version of its malicious software removal tool and two high priority non security updates for Windows Note that the malicious software removal tool will not be distributed via Software Update Services SUS For details including links to Microsoft security tools and update services see http www microsoft com technet security bulletin advance mspx New Worms Target MSN Messenger Kelvir B Worm The rapid spread of the Kelvir B worm is posing a serious security threat to users of MSN Microsoft s Internet messaging service When message recipients click on a URL on a message reading lol see it u ll like it the worm spreads to everyone else on their contact list For details see http www vnunet com news 1161784 Fatso A Worm aka Crog and Sumom Like Kelvir B this worm spreads via MSN Messenger by including a booby trapped URL in a message from Sky Devil that when clicked activates the virus It also spreads as a file on eMule P2P peer to peer systems This worm is spreading very rapidly in the wild especially inthe U S and South Korea For details see http www vnunet com news 1161781 Finding Microsoft Security Downloads To search for patches for Microsoft products go to the Microsoft Download page
3. click on Home and Office products and then ZoneAlarm where you ll be guided to their free version 2 Keep Windows up to date Get in the habit of running Windows Update manually by selecting it from the Start gt All Programs gt Windows Update menus Keep running Windows Update until there are no more updates left to download Windows 2000 and XP users can enable automatic update in the system control panel but be aware that the automatic update doesn t always take place Running Windows Update manually is a good idea for all Windows users If you also use Microsoft Office notice the Office Update link that s available from the normal Windows Update page 3 Install and keep your antivirus software current Norton AntiVirus NAV has a Live Update button that can be used to update the product Notice the virus definition date and keep the definitions current Even though NAV has an automatic update manually clicking the live update button is still required for all program updates Automatic live update downloads only new virus definitions 4 Don t use Microsoft s Internet Explorer IE web browser for most of your browsing tasks You cannot uninstall IE because Windows Update won t work without it However you should restrict your use of IE to only those websites that require it See http Amicro uoregon edu security windows internetexplorernotsafe html for more information 5 A
4. perfect We have staff working on a third generation web email client that will be substantially better However that program will likely not be available immediately We d encourage you to give green web email a fair chance or try an email program such as Thunderbird instead http www mozilla org Q What about stuff on Oregon other than email I still have some web pages on Oregon A We ll be contacting you about getting those moved too we re just focusing on Oregon email users first Q I really don t want to move off of Oregon can I wait a while longer A While we d like to allow that unfortunately the time has really come to finish the migration of users from Oregon We d like to thank all those who have already moved and we appreciate the cooperation of those few who are still left Q Once oregon uoregon edu s finally turned off what will happen to email addressed to oregon uoregon edu addresses A That mail will be automatically delivered to the corresponding account on darkwing uoregon edu Q I use some of the administrative OpenVMS systems Will this affect me A No this affects users of the academic OpenVMS system users of the administrative OpenVMS systems are unaffected Q I ve got questions you haven t addressed Who can help me with those A Please feel free to contact Joe St Sauver at 346 1720 or joe uoregon edu http cc uoregon edu cnews fall2002 oregonout html http cc
5. see SysAdmin to SysAdmin Rocks tames Beowulf clusters at http servers linux com servers 04 08 27 1943227 shtml tid 29 amp tid 94 21 Sharing Large Scientific Datasets with LoCI The UO is now hosting an NSF sponsored logistical networking node Joe St Sauver Ph D Director User Services and Network Applications joe uoregon edu If you re a scientist who routinely does collaborative work with large data files files that are tens or hundreds of megabytes in size or files that may even be gigabytes or tens or hundreds of gigabytes in size you probably have a good sense of the problems that can arise when you try to share those files with remote collaborators Files that are even just tens or hundreds of megabytes in size will often be too big to email and datasets don t have to get very much larger to be too large to easily store and transfer via the Internet Although you could mail or FedEx CD ROMs or DVDs to remote participants that s still a relatively slow and expensive proposition particularly if you re frequently sharing updated datasets with a large number of remote sites So what can you do You now have an online alternative logistical networking courtesy of the NSF sponsored LoCI project Logistical networking makes it possible to temporarily share large data files using a pool of publicly available network storage deployed over a worldwide network of storage depots I
6. should consider acquiring the hot fixes that have been released in the past few months All hot fixes for SAS 9 1 3 9 1 TS1M3 are contained in Service Pack 2 SP2 which you may download from the SAS website at http ftp sas com techsup download hotfix d9 win _sbcs html h0 Note that the file size is 555 9M and depending on your connection speed it may take some time to download The fixes and enhancements that were first available in Service Pack 1 are now included in SAS Service Pack 2 so you don t need to update your computer with old files SAS 9 1 3 hot fixes released prior to SP2 are no longer available for individual download After SP2 has been applied you should see the following note in the What s Your Opinion We d like your feedback on new search engines and Internet directories on the UO Home Page As part of ensuring that the UO home page works as a default start page for UO users it has long included a set of Internet search engine links In the past those links were Google the default Yahoo site Altavista and Metacrawler a metasearch engine which searched and consolidated results from a variety of search engines But times have changed Now there are newer methods for searching the Internet and some of the old search sites have lost their popularity Toreflect that we ve recently updated the search engines and Internet directories included on the UO home page If you go to http A
7. small sample sizes or 0 counts in some of the cells a technique that may be of value when given the warning quasi complete separation in the log file PROC NLMIXED allows great flexibility in writing program statements It also handles random effects models for count data and allows you to enter formulas for non standard probability distributions much like the dichotomous data example One of its most useful features is the ability to compute zero inflated models In this situation a large number of legitimate zeros ap pear in your dataset making overdispersion a concern PROC GENMOD has a scale option for approaching this problem although a zero inflated model may be a more attractive solution Note that this situation may be mistaken for censored data i e the value is an up per or lower bound such as Tobit models Legitimate zeros and censored observations are two very different problems and NLMIXED allow you to treat them as such see Long Chapters 7 and 8 References 1 Hosmer D W and Lemeshow S 2002 Applied Logistic Regression 2 Ed N Y John Wilely amp Sons 2 Long J Scott 1997 Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables Thousand Oaks CA Sage 3 Articles on data analysis issues http darkwing uoregon edu robinh analysis html 17 wee SAS HOT FIXES All Hot Fixes for SAS 9 1 3 Now Under One Roof If you have installed SAS 9 1 3 in the past year you
8. A 2003 which offers A com puter technician certification All of these course libraries are described in more detail on the UO Human Resources training page at http hr uoregon edu training raa html You ll also find a list of course fees and an online registration form at this site Faculty and Staff Faculty and staff may register individually or through their departments Eligible employees may also have a portion of the fee for one library paid for by the Employee Benefit Fund Students If you re a currently enrolled UO student you may use the online registration application at http hr uoregon edu training raa html Submit your UO email address and enter STUDENT in the affiliation box of the form A representative of RAA Training will contact you regarding payment Note UO faculty staff and students may register individually at any time during the 12 month contract period of the pilot program April 8 2005 through April 7 2006 Allow 5 7 days for activation If you have further questions about the web based training program contact Kathy Cooks HR Programs Specialist at 346 2939 or email computertraining hr uoregon FileMaker Pro Essentials Course Online For the convenience of off campus students and community members Mary Harrsch has posted her FileMaker Pro Essentials course materials online at http interact uoregon edu techweb COEworkshops html Mary is the Network and Information System
9. Automatic LiveUpdate service subscribers and the patches are also available for download from Symantec s security response website at http securityresponse symantec com avcenter download html For more details see http news zdnet com 2100 1009_22 5646871 html http www symantec com avcenter security Content 2005 02 08 html Symantec s Enterprise Products Vulnerable to DNS Cache Poisoning Flaws in Symantec Enterprise Firewall and Enterprise Security Gateway appliance products leave the door open to DNS cache poisoning whereby unsuspecting web surfers can be rerouted to websites hosting malware Even if you applied Symantec s July 2004 fix to correct a similar problem you should revisit the issue For the full story see http www theregister co uk 2005 03 08 dns malware _attack A security update is available from Symantec at http securityresponse symantec com avcenter download html Impact of Flaw in Symantec s Antivirus Scanning Module Wide ranging Products ranging from consumer desktops to large corpo rate mail servers could be affected by a flaw in Symantec software that was reported in February Product specific hot fixes and updates are available through the Symantec Enterprise Support site at http www symantec com techsupp References http mews zdnet com 2100 1009_22 5569811 html http www symantec com avcenter security Content 2005 02 08 html Scanning Suspicious Files with Virus To
10. OETC http www oetc org OETC is a not for profit organization that negotiates price agreements with computer and software manufacturers and then passes along the discounts to its members including the University of Oregon OETC offers an a la carte purchasing system you can buy packaged soft ware which they call shrinkwrap installation media or licenses in any combination you desire The purchaser agrees to obligation to maintain one license per computer The advantage of this system is that it allows computer lab managers to purchase one or two copies of the installation CDs for a product and as many licenses as are legally required Some companies rely on the honor system to prevent software piracy Others use one of several ways to enforce software licensing These methods include serial numbers product activation and network serial number verification Unique serial numbers are used to help track software piracy and for product activation and network verification Activation enters your product s serial number into the manufacturer s database via the Internet With network serial number verification each product is installed with a unique serial number and the program when started checks for duplicate serial numbers on the local network If another copy of the program with the same serial number is running the second copy will not run Now that you understand the basics go forth and put thi
11. Science Foundation meeting Enhancing Collaborative Research on the Environment in Sub Saharan Africa SSA serving as co moderator and rapporteur for a panel on information technology communications and data management Afterward Dr Frederick Semazzi who co chaired the meeting and helped to organize it commended the NSRC for its continuing contribution to international collaborative research by saying Because of its distinguished track record in network technology for developing countries NSRC is uniquely positioned to provide strategic guid ance and expertise to the follow on activities after the SSA Workshop Dr Semazzi is currently on the faculty at North Carolina State University in the Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences More recently the NSRC has been gearing up for participation in AfNOG 2005 the sixth annual meeting of the African Network Operators Group which will be held April 18 25 in Maputo Mozambique see http www afnog org workshop2005 php Steve Huter and Lucy Lynch are helping to organize the event and UO Computing Center support specialist Joel Jaegli will provide instruction for the Internet Services track iiy oS 4 4 3 pel M Inst photo by Jichen Thinley DrukNet ructor Hervey Allen right presents Rinchen Tshering with a certificate of completion following the first ever network training workshop for system administrators in Thimpu Bhutan last January
12. UO housing systems John finds this project particularly interesting because it gives him a chance to create something new When the module is done instead of saying I fixed a problem there I get to say I made that That s a great feeling Although he willingly admits enthusiasm for all the typically nerdy pastimes Star Wars movies video games science fiction John has many other interests Chief among these are cooking an art he s practiced since childhood whipping up everything from pancakes to Phad Thai and music John has played alto sax since junior high and was in both the marching band at WSU and later a community band in Pullman It s likely that for a while at least John s domestic talents will get more play than his saxophone because he s soon to be married to his longtime girlfriend Christina an interior architecture student at the UO John popped the question during a romantic getaway to Paris in March and the couple plan to wed in Hawaii within the next year Comprehensive account management http micro uoregon edu account manage html Read your email http email uoregon edu Change your password https password uoregon edu Reset your password https password uoregon edu authorize computing news spring 2005 Center Meet Our Staff Keith Bucher Systems Analyst Administrative Services and Computing Facilities His first day on the job at the Computing Ce
13. at http www microsoft com downloads search aspx opsysid 1 amp search Keyword amp value security_patch amp displaylang en 14 Viruses Worms Virus Authors Collaborate Security researchers suspect the authors of the Bagle Zafi and Netsky viruses are now collaborating on code that harvests email addresses from infected machines Kaspersky Lab investigators warned that this signals a trend toward the increasing criminalization of the Internet See http www vnunet com news 1161786 Growing Threat of Instant Messaging Worms Menaces Cell Phones Too F Secure researchers are reporting that Instant Messaging IM worms are the new virus of choice for Internet criminals because they spread much more rapidly via IM than email The security firm also noted that more than 50 percent of last year s largest viruses were mobile malware designed to defraud mobile phone users For details see IM viruses increase by 50 per cent amonth at http Awww vnunet com news 1162017 Also see Spam Hitting Mobile Phones Hard at http www newsfactor com story xhtml story_id 30806 Protect yourself To learn some basic steps for protecting yourself against IM worms see Trevor Sehrer s article Threat of Instant Messenger Worms Grows on page 13 of this issue W32 Sober K mm Worm Inrecent months spam purporting to be from the FBI has been circulating in the wild Subject headers typically are along th
14. at the Computing Introducing two of our new systems analysts Joyce Winslow jwins uoregon edu John Tomoso Systems Analyst Administrative Services and Computing Facilities People often ask Hawaiian born John Tomoso why he would ever forsake an island paradise to live in the Pacific Northwest John s answer is simple he wanted to see more of the world Had he stayed island bound through college John feared he might never leave permanently settling down not far from the family home in Kahului Maui Instead John chose to attend Washington State University in Pullman not too far from home but far enough away to be different WSU offered a good quick links program in his chosen field of management information systems and John graduated with a bachelor s degree in May 2001 Following graduation he stayed on at the university for another three years as a technical support person in the housing department John s programming background at WSU made him a good fit for his current job as a systems analyst for the Administrative Services and Computing Facilities group at the Computing Center Serendipitously one of his primary assignments is to help create a new module in Banner that UO Housing Department staff can use to manage day to day operations as well as such tasks as processing housing applications assigning housing and billing Aside from the novelty of being able to compare and contrast WSU and
15. email and serving web pages computing news spring 2005 Looking Ahead Mapping the Future of Information Technology at the UO Computing Center and Library liaisons begin planning process Deborah Carver University Librarian and Interim Associate VP for Information Services dcarver uoregon edu The senior staff in the Computing Center together with Library liaisons have met several times during the past six months to hammer out a formal planning document for 2005 06 While the process did not meet the official definition of strategic planning it does represent an important first step towards this critical dimension of IT service In repeated surveys conducted by EDUCAUSE a non profit association dedicated to promoting intelligent IT use in higher education strategic planning is one topic that usually rises to the top of the list of major concerns for CIOs It is especially important as campus needs and expectations rise faster than our budgets The Computing Center Library plan covers a full range of IT services Some of the initiatives are already in motion others are new Projects include introducing free technology training workshops on demand computing news spring 2005 e improved support for research computing e providing redundant high speed network services in the region e redesigning the UO website e investigating emerging telephony applications such as dual mode wireless e
16. http www duber com and led by IT Specialist Ginny White YLC staff produced three web based teaching tools that extend or replace the traditional language lab a virtual tape recorder that provides basic recording and playback a multimedia messaging system that allows teachers and students to communicate via text audio or video and a custom izable interactive survey and quiz maker SQM for instructors that can be used to collect speech samples as well as other types of input The VLL utilizes two data base servers a web server and a FlashCom media server set up by the Computing Center s streaming media specialist Tony Kay Catherine Wiebe a Senior Instructor in French was the first to incorporate the new tools in her teaching introducing them in her upper level orals skills class during winter term She found that the Message Board MB tool which enabled online discussions and as signments gave students more opportunity to speak and made it easier for her to provide timely individual feedback both written and spoken on their pronuncia tion and grammar This term Wiebe intends to use the MB with second term French students If she s able to arrange it she may also use it for cross continental communication pairing students who plan to study abroad in Lyons and Poitiers with students who are already in France Thanks to the efficient use ofmultimedia virtual language labs like YLC s can make teaching less m
17. implementing an enterprise level document imaging and management application for the University of Oregon Several of the initiatives will require collaboration with key stakeholders outside of the Computing Center The plan will serve several purposes It establishes our priorities as well as a system of accountability While there may be mission critical needs that require us to divert our attention during the year the plan will help us to focus our efforts and attention on those projects that have the highest cost benefit ratio for the campus The plan is also a useful communications tool It tells the university community what it can expect from IT services during the specified time period And it allows for collaboration across internal divisions and with other Campus services such as the library There are as many approaches to planning as there are plans In the future it is likely that the process will evolve to become more strategic in nature By that we mean a careful assessment of our mission our preferred future the changing environment and the evolving IT needs of students and faculty Once that groundwork is established we can be confident that we are moving in the directions that make the best sense for the institution In response to the changing needs of the campus community the UO Libraries have introduced Workshops on Demand a new model for offering technology training to faculty staff and students These w
18. licensing software and save Patrick Chinn Distributed Network Computing Consultant pchinn uoregon edu If this article were titled Save over 100 on your favorite software most of you would wonder What s the scam Yet there is indeed a way to save money when purchasing software and itis legal The catch You need to learn the fundamentals of computer software licenses The basic rule of software licensing is One computer one license For each computer on which you plan to run that software you need to purchase one software license For example if you have purchased five new computers and wish to legally use Microsoft Office on each you will need to purchase five individual licenses for Microsoft Office There are occasional exceptions to this rule Some software licenses al low the product to be used ona laptop with the following restrictions 1 The primary computer is a desktop and that computer is used predominantly 2 Both copies of the software will not be used at the same time The latter is sometimes called the 80 20 rule which refers to the amount of time expressed as a per centage that you spend using each computer Using software under this rule works well for those who use a desktop computer at work for the majority of the time and use a laptop for occasional work at home or while traveling The one computer one license rule often adds a few hundr
19. to ask that you move your email over to Darkwing faculty staff or to Gladstone undergraduates Frequently Asked Questions Q I don t know if I have an account on Darkwing or I need help resetting my password on Darkwing A Microcomputer Services can help you with that They re in 151 McKenzie Hall 346 4412 Q Can I forward mail that s sent to my old oregon uoregon edu address to my new darkwing uoregon edu or gladstone uoregon edu account A Yes You can set forwarding from your Oregon account to your Darkwing or Gladstone account by visiting the forwarding web page at http password uoregon edu forward One caution if you have historically forwarded your Darkwing mail to your Oregon account be SURE you don t accidentally create a forwarding loop That is be sure to go to http password uoregon edu noforward to stop forwarding mail to Oregon BEFORE instructing Oregon to forward your mail to Darkwing If you don t mail sent to Oregon could be forwarded to Darkwing then routed to Oregon then reforwarded to Darkwing then reforwarded again to Oregon and so on ad infinitum Ouch Q I think I still have an Oregon account but I never use it and never get any mail sent to it Can I just get rid of it entirely A Yes please contact Connie French the Computing Center Accounts Clerk at 346 1738 to arrange this Q My email program is still set up to check my Oregon account even though all mail t
20. with a built in list of potentially vulnerable hosts While a regular worm needs to scan for future hosts to attach to the buddy lists that are an intrinsic part of IM software help take the guesswork out of finding new hosts to infect This is similar to how email borne viruses spread through address books As with email borne viruses IM infection requires some form of user participation such as clicking on a link or accepting an unsolicited file transfer request Fortunately IM attacks have not yet wreaked the havoc caused by earlier infestations such as CodeRed or Sasser but many experts feel it is only a matter of time until worm authors find a way to allow the worm to spread without requiring user intervention computing news spring 2005 What Can You Do to Protect Yourself Absent removal of IM software there are a number of things you can do to help mitigate the IM worm threat 1 Don t click on unsolicited links While chatting if out of the blue you receive a file transfer request from a colleague or a URL that contains a link to an executable or rarely seen file format PIF for example spend a few keystrokes validating the identity of the sender 2 Update update update Most vendors release updated versions of their IM clients on a regular basis When you update not only do you get new software that often includes additional features and bug fixes but you also lower the risk to your computer should a high lev
21. University of Oregon COMPUTING NEWS Spring 2005 The courtyard of the newly expanded Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the UO campus Now nearly twice its former size the extensively redesigned and renovated museum reopened to the public on January 23 2005 IN THIS ISSUE Educational Technology Resources YLC Pioneers Web Based Language Labs 000 4 Large Systems PLoS Gives UO Faculty Access to Research Results 9 Time to Move Your Email Off Oregon sesser 20 Networking Darkwing An Update on the New NetApp Filers 2 NSRC s 2005 Workshops Include Bhutan Mozambique Linux Beyond RedHat and Fedora Core 21 BG 211 E E E E N 5 Future of IT at the UO Sharing Large Scientific Datasets with LOCI 22 A preview of the 2005 2006 planning document 3 Statistics Feedback on UO Home Page Data Coding for Logistic Regression with SAS 06 16 Send us your comments about our new search engines and Fo OU TCS secon ss tun E 18 Internet directories casacanrsavacotintesvacccasnabodednceusinee enccnoeiatasunne 18 People Microcomputing Who s Who at the Computing Center 6 Learn the Basics of Site Licensing Software and Save 8 Interesting Sites Budget Systems Are They Right for YOu secc 9 Cybercrime in the News ccccsssseseeeeeceeeceeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeaes 11 Need to Transfer Large Files eseese 22 IT Workshops Security Human Resources Pilot Program Offers Online Co
22. associated with an email server and add them to a spam database DHAs often send a message to all possible alphanumeric combinations The result is similar to a denial of service attack and can go undetected by routine spam filters For details see http www vnunet com news 1160987 Mobsters Move into Phone and Internet Fraud Six men with ties to the notorious Gambino family have pled guilty to consumer fraud in phone and e commerce schemes that netted 650 million For details see http www crime research org news 16 02 2005 965 4 Thieves Steal Defense Contractor s Info The names Social Security numbers and contact information for 45 000 current and former Science Applications International shareholders fell into the hands of thieves during a burglary in January For details see http Awww securityfocus com news 10419 computing news spring 2005 11 The Expanding Taxonomy of Unwanted Some basic precautions can help you avoid ID theft Joe St Sauver Ph D Director User Services and Network Applications joe uoregon edu If we were to talk about a taxonomy of unwanted email there are some forms that are unfortunately all too familiar e viruses worms trojan horses and other email borne infectious malware e pillz spam porn spam mortgage spam and other spam for a variety of dubious or illegal products e 4 1 9 advance fee fraud scams online lottery scams and other con games conducted by email e
23. brary encourages faculty members to take advantage of these reduced publication fees by publishing their papers in PLoS publications By taking full advantage of PLoS publishing discounts UO faculty can help both the library and the international scholarly community move forward in distributing information more widely and equitably Faculty can also support open access publishing by using Scholars Bank https scholarsbank uoregon edu dspace the university s institutional repository for archiving storing and distributing the results of their research For more information on PloS and open access initia tives supported by the library visit with your library subject specialist http libweb uoregon edu colldev general special html or contact Faye Chadwell 346 1819 chadwelf uoregon edu Budget Desktop Systems Are They Right for You Apple Mac Mini Joe St Sauver Ph D Director User Services and Network Applications joe uoregon edu If you re not a power user and are just looking for a bare bones computer for browsing the web sending and receiving email and creating simple documents in Microsoft Office you might be surprised to learn how inexpensive basic systems have become For example you can now buy a cute little Apple Mac Mini 1 25 GHz PowerPC G4 processor 40GB hard drive 256MB RAM anda DVD ROM CD RW optical drive for under 500 Add an industry standard monitor keyboard and mouse all of whic
24. d fax the file 5 If you need to send a really large scientific dataset try using the LoCI project see article on this page To learn more about the UO s email file attachment limit policy see http micro uoregon edu email attachments computing news spring 2005 SPRING WORKSHOPS These information technology IT workshops are free and open to currently enrolled students as well as staff and faculty There is no registration all seating is first come first served Requests for accommodations related to disability should be made to 346 2682 at least one week in advance of the workshop For more information contact the Office of Library Instruction 346 1817 cbell darkwing uoregon edu http Nibweb uoregon edu instruct This schedule is subject to change See http libweb uoregon edu it for course outlines and the most current information Prerequisites are required unless otherwise indicated Worksho Day Date Time Location Presenter Web Publishing Multimedia WV Prerequisites Web Publishing I XW Prerequisites Familiarity with a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer and an account on Darkwing or Gladstone not Oregon you must know your username and password Fri April 15 2 3 50 PM 144 Knight Library Munro Mon April 18 10 11 50 Am 144 Knight Library Frantz Web Publishing II x Prerequisites Web Publishing I or equivalent knowledge and skills and a web page you ve created Fri Ap
25. e a UO faculty member staff person or student and you receive phishing email messages on your Darkwing or Gladstone account you should report them as you would any other Darkwing or Gladstone spam within a day or so of the time the message was sent forward a complete copy of it with full headers http micro uoregon edu fullheaders to spam uoregon edu Learn More About Phishing 1 A Anti Phishing Working Group http www antiphishing org How Not to Get Hooked by a Phishing Scam http www ftc gov bcp conline pubs alerts phishingalrt htm Mail Frontier Phishing IQ Test II http survey mailfrontier com survey quiztest html U S Senate Anti phishing Act anything amiss of 2005 S 472 http Athomas loc gov Threat of Instant Messenger Worms Grows Follow these tips to avoid infection Trevor Sehrer Student Security Engineer User Services amp Network Applications tsehrer uoregon edu As the use of instant messaging software such as AOL Instant Messenger MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger grows so to does the threat of infection by instant messenger IM worms Recently there has been a tremendous increase in the number of IM worms out in the wild According to the IMlogic Threat Center over 30 new threats to instant messaging software have been recorded since the begin ning of 2005 alone Unlike traditional worms IM worms have the advantage of propagating in an environment
26. e lines of you visit illegal websites and the message recipients are warned that their Internet use has been under surveillance However note that subject lines and message text are created randomly and can vary If you receive such email be aware that it is in fact the vector forthe W32 Sober K mm worm The FBl encourages users receiving such emails to register a complaint at http www ic3 gov For details see FBI Alerts Public to Recent E Mail Scheme at http www fbi gov pressrel pressrel05 022205 htm Also see the ComputerWorld article New Sober worm moving fast at http www computerworld com securitytopics security virus story 0 10801 99936 00 html Protect yourself Please ensure that your antivirus definitions are up to date Also if you never want to receive any sort of zip file by email you have the option of silently blocking those files from your Darkwing or Gladstone account by visiting http password uoregon edu husks computing news spring 2005 oecurity Alerts Other Alerts Symantec Flaws NAV Vulnerabilities Allow DoS attacks Symantec has issued patches for two security flaws that could produce denial of service attacks on computers running its Norton AntiVirus software The flaws which are limited to versions of the software released for 2004 and 2005 were detected in the AutoProtect and SmartScan features of Norton AntiVirus Symantec sent out automated fixes to its
27. e magnitude produced with GENMOD thus the reason for the PARAM ref onthe CLASS statement If you follow the steps outlined above you will arrive at the same results regardless of which procedure you use Analysis of Parameter Estimates GENMOD amp LOGISTIC Parameter Estimate Intercept 1 0986 gender 1 5041 As shown above one very nice feature of the CLASS statementin LOGISTICis the ability to change the default parameterization to match GENMOD and also to specify your choice of the reference category CLASS gender REF first PARAM ref This option is of value if you code gender as F and M and you want to compare Males to Females Without REF first attached to gender LOGISTIC would compare Females to Males NLMIXED A third way to compute logistic regression is the procedure NLMIXED However its use assumes knowledge of maximum likelihood estimation It also requires that you numerically code all categorical data with 0 1 values with the DATA step or with PROC GLMMOD as it does not currently have a CLASS state ment Although it has a built in binomial function it is more instructive to observe how youcan write statements to analyze dichotomous data directly with the likelihood equation PROC NLMIXED DATA b PARMS intercept 1 gender 1 eta intercept gender gndrF prb 1 exp eta ltexp eta liklhd prb 1 response 1 prb 1 1 response loglik LOG liklhd E MODEL r
28. e sure you understand the niche that these budget systems can fill and limit their selection to times when that s all that s needed 9 Human Resources Pilot Program Offers Online Computer Training to UO Faculty Staff Students This web based training program can be used as a virtual classroom or simply as a handy reference tool Joyce Winslow jwins uoregon edu This year Human Resources has contracted with RAA Training to provide web based instruction in a wide range of business and computer skills adding another opportunity for UO faculty staff and students to expand their expertise These online trainings are billed to UO depart ments and eligible employees may have a portion of the cost paid for by the Employee Benefit Fund The program which is being offered as a pilot project for twelve months beginning April 8 includes instruc tion in such mainstays as Microsoft Office all versions and Windows as well as fundamental grounding in computer literacy and technical concepts This pilot program offers great flex ibility in its course structure Once you re enrolled you can access the course site from any computer with an Internet connection and you can learn at your own pace You can stop a lesson at any time and when you return to it the lesson will continue from where you left off All courses include graphics anima tion optional audio narration and real world examples Throughout the t
29. echanical and a lot more creative Because it frees individuals from having to be physically present in a classroom the web based approach also has the potential to serve far more students any time anywhere You ll find more details on YLC s virtual language lab at http babel uoregon edu ortesol html For more informa tion on using one or more of these web based teaching tools send email to ylc uoregon edu UO faculty in terested in using the YLC Message Board can sign up at http babel uoregon edu messageBoards Do you need to brush up on your Excel skills master the ins and outs of Mac C D R OM OS X 10 3 or get an introduction to JavaScript There s a series of workshops covering these and other topics that you can easily fit into your busy schedule Work S h op S The Computing Center s Documents Room Library offers a collection of training workshops on CD ROMs covering such popular programs as the L et You Microsoft Office products Word Excel Access and PowerPoint FileMaker Pro Photoshop and InDesign as well as web development tools such as HTML XHTML CSS and Flash These CD ROMs provide several hours Le arn ad t of expert instruction and are available in levels ranging from beginning to advanced They circulate for one week and are renewable twice so you can Yo ur Own take them back to your home or office computer and learn at your own pace The Documents Room is located on the ground floor of McKenzie Ha
30. ed dollars to the price of a new computer Fortunately the UO and its faculty staff and students can buy some software at education discounted prices Most big name software companies offer special education discounts on their products This software is functionally the same as the regularly priced products The UO Bookstore is an excellent source of educationally discounted software Some companies do not offer upgrade pricing on these software packages because the upgrade price is often the same as the education discount price When you buy a shrink wrapped software package at a store you are purchasing the installation CDs a software license and in some cases manuals A software license is legal permission granted by the software s owner its manufacturer to you the customer to install and use that program on one computer It is important to make a distinc tion between software licenses and packaged software because licenses can be purchased separately from the installation CDs and from the shrink wrapped package Software licenses costa fraction ofthe regular price For those who maintain a large number of computers buying licenses rather than shrink wrapped copies with packaging and materials you may never use can result in significant savings Where Can You Buy Software Licenses The University of Oregon has a business relationship with the Organization for Educational Technology and Curriculum
31. el IM worm threat emerge 3 Enterprise users should use enterprise class IM software Many software vendors sell corporate and institutional software suites for consumer IM clients These enterprise class software packages use cryptography and other features to help protect the interests of large businesses In addition they provide a more secure infrastructure that is less friendly to IM threats 4 Use a different client Since IM worms are crafted to target a specific client by using a client such as Gaim or Trillian you not only receive the benefit of having multiple IM protocols in one client but you also substantially reduce yourrisk of becoming infected with an IM worm Following these tips will give you a leg up on provid ing a strong measure of security against the current onslaught of IM worms as well as helping you guard against future threats 13 Security Alerts Microsoft Windows Reminder No More Patches for Pirated Copies of Windows By mid year 2005 Microsoft will require customers to verify that their copy of Windows is legitimate before allowing them to download software patches Verification will be mandatory in all countries for add on features and operating system updates including security patches http mews com com This week in Windows 2100 1016_3 5554824 html Microsoft Releases Eight Critical Patches in April After taking a break in March to conduct further tests on its fixes
32. er that may be provided in what may turn out to be a phishing email message When you initiate a visit to a website to perform a financial transaction whether ordering merchandise or paying bills online e Don t use a computer in a cyber cafe or other public space there s no way you can tell what sort of snooping software or spyware may be on the system from an earlier user Use your own computer instead and be sure your antivirus software and antispyware software are up to date and have scanned your system recently e Be sure you re running the latest version of a secure browser such as at this time Firefox 1 0 3 Some other browsers including earlier versions of Firefox may have known security vulnerabilities which can be triggered by nothing more than visiting a booby trapped web page e Be careful to ensure that you correctly enter the exact URL of the site you re trying to visit online crooks have been known to register look alike URLs that take advantage of common typographical errors or omitted punctuation in an effort to snag customers who are trying to visit legitimate online commerce sites e Pay attention to any certificate related warnings you may receive Certificate related warnings may be a sign that you re not dealing with the site you think you are e Beware of autocompletion of online forms and password fields some browsers will try to help by automatically saving
33. esponse general loglik RUN computing news spring 2005 Which Procedure Should You Use The equation for eta is the linear predictor a function of the intercept and dummy coded gender here as with GENMOD and LOGISTIC Males are treated as the reference category Eta enters the formula to compute prb 1 the probability that response 1 this formula has the same effect as the descending option discussed above The log likelihood is obtained from the prob ability equation and is then maximized to compute the parameter estimates the same as the estimates produced by GENMOD and LOGISTIC as shown above Which Procedure is Best for Your Data The answer to this question depends on many factors but essentially here are the major differences among the three methods we ve discussed PROC GENMOD presents a unified approach to the analysis of categorical data including Poisson and Negative Binomial for counts gamma and normally distributed data though for this distribution GLM REG or MIXED will likely work better It also handles repeated measures for count data in much the same way as PROC MIXED works with repeated measures for continuous data PROC LOGISTIC is designed for regression applications with one response 0 1 collected from each subject or several independent responses aggregated over subjects It is the procedure designed to compute ROC curves It can also perform exact logistic regression when you have
34. h you or your department may already have plus whatever application software you ll need to buy and you re all set to go for a fraction of what you might previously have paid for an entry level Apple see http www apple com macmini computing news spring 2005 What if you prefer or need a desktop PC running Windows At the time this article was written the Dell Small Business website select Small Business from http www dell com was offering Dell Dimension 2400 PCs Celeron 2 4GHz 256MB RAM 40GB hard drive XP Home Edition starting at just under 300 including a monitor as part ofthe current promotion In my opinion that s an amazingly low price Given that sort of rock bottom pricing particularly if you rerunning an aging PC with Windows 3 11 Windows 95 98 ME NT or some other version of Windows that s no longer supported you really should be thinking about replacing it As systems get increasingly long in the tooth catastrophic hard drive failures become more likely and security patches may no longer be routinely issued for your operating system One caution If you are a power user be careful how incremental adjustments to budget systems such as these can add up If you start with a deeply discounted configuration or one with limited expandability and begin adding this or tweaking that you may quickly find yourself paying more than if you had purchased a more suitable system to begin with B
35. hat s sent to it is being automatically forwarded Is that okay A Once you set your Oregon email to forward to Darkwing you ll definitely want to change your email program s settings or configuration to STOP checking for new mail on your Oregon account If you don t make that change we ll probably assume that you re still using your Oregon email and will end up pestering you to transition to Darkwing or Gladstone even when youre basically already all set Q I have mail stored on my Oregon account that I want to move over to my Darkwing or Gladstone account How can I do that 20 A Lucy Lynch has been doing a great job of helping users with that task Please contact her at Ilynch darkwing uoregon edu or 346 1774 Q I m subscribed to mailing lists using my old oregon uoregon edu address After I move to darkwing uoregon edu or gladstone uoregon edu the list doesn t seem to recognize me Help A You ll need to unsubscribe your old Oregon address from those lists and subscribe your new Darkwing or Gladstone addresses instead Again this is an area that Lucy Lynch our postmaster and listmaster can help you with email Ilynch darkwing uoregon edu or call 346 1774 Q I used to use the old black spidery web email with my Oregon account I notice that I need to use the green web email with my Darkwing or Gladstone account and I don t like it as well A We recognize that the green web email client isn t
36. he solution is to update iTunes to version 4 7 1 See http Awww apple com support downloads itunes471 html Greasemonkey Add on for Firefox Risky There s a down side to Greasemonkey a new extension for the Firefox browser that has gained popularity with web surfers who want to customize the sites they visit by running user script Unfortunately the same capability that allows users to eliminate ads from websites or skip directly to the printer friendly version of a web page can also be used maliciously For details see http mews zdnet com 2100 1009_22 5631009 html Sometimes you may receive a suspicious attachment that appears viral but which your antivirus package may not be able to conclusively identify or you may get hit by a virus that your antivirus program missed altogether even with the latest and greatest virus definitions When that occurs you may want to consider submitting a copy of the suspi cious file to VirusTotal which offers a free service for scanning suspicious files using several antivirus engines For more information see http www virustotal com computing news spring 2005 19 Data Coding for Logistic Regression with SAS Robin High Statistical Programmer and Consultant robinh uoregon edu If you are working with dichotomous data where typical responses are defined as no yes or failure success you may wonder which of SAS s many data analysis procedures you should use The purpose
37. hips in Hawaii After graduation from Tulane Keith worked at a New Orleans computer consulting firm for two years and then took several months offto explore the West look ing for the perfect place to settle Ultimately Eugene filled the bill so much so that Keith bought a house shortly after arriving here in the fall of 2003 Keith joined the staff of the Computing Center in September 2004 after a programming stint witha local Internet start up company called RealPro Systems He helps maintain the UO Directory DuckWeb and Banner servers and is currently working with Administrative Services principal technologist Noreen Hogan on a major LDAP Lightweight Access Directory Protocol project When complete the new LDAP programs will provide authentication for UO students faculty and staff who access UOnet ensur ing that the UO can control access to resources such as the wireless network dialin modems the virtual private network VPN and the Blackboard teaching and learning system quick links Forward mail http password uoregon edu forward Remove mail forwarding http password uoregon edu noforward Check your disk quota https password uoregon edu quota Disable re enable spam filtering https password uoregon edu allowspam Control how virus sanitized email is handled https password uoregon edu husks computing news spring 2005 7 License and Activation Please Learn the basics of site
38. ing web pages document and spreadsheet applications and databases there s substan tial flexibility in how tasks are scheduled and executed When Linux is used in embedded systems for example to control a metal cutting machine tool or as part of a con sumer electronic device timing requirements can be much tighter with hard real time requirements that are measured in microseconds At those speeds process scheduling and pre emption become key Just as in everything related to Linux multiple real time Linux implementations are available but one interesting implementation is RTLinux Free http www rtlinuxfree com Since the UO doesn t offer electrical engineering or similar programs we likely have fewer users with a potential need for a real time Linux product than some other schools but it is worth mentioning that Linux can be and is used in a variety of non enterprise applica tions Those systems are yet another example of how a distribution other than RedHat will often be used Rocks 4 0 Beta Released for i386 and x86_64 Rocks a Linux based cluster management product for high performance computing clusters received the award for most innovative and most important soft ware from HPCWire as announced last November at Supercomputing04 in Pittsburgh A new beta version of Rocks Rocks 4 0 was announced March 31st 2005 and is available from http Awww rocksclusters org Rocks For a nice introduction to Rocks
39. is the most basic syntax for logistic regression PROC LOGISTIC DATA descending CLASS gender PARAM ref MODEL response gender lt options gt RUN computing news spring 2005 A common feature of GENMOD and LOGISTIC is the descending option on the PROC statement which means for response data coded 0 1 SAS will analyze the prob ability of a response of 1 rather than the default level of 0 This option is an essential feature to recognize when interpreting the sign of estimated coefficients The MODEL statements in the two PROCs look similar although the choices for options in each are quite different In GENMOD the logit link is the default value for the binomial distribution just be sure to enter logit and not another valid choice log in order to produce the same results as LOGISTIC Both procedures allow you to enter aggregated data with the notation y n for the response y subjects answered Yes in n trials with this coding the descending option no longer applies Perhaps the greatest potential confusion between the two procedures is found in the CLASS statement GENMOD applies 0 1 coding of categorical data like PROC GLM treating the highest formatted level or numeric if unfor matted as the reference category By default LOGISTIC assigns classification factors as effects coding that is given 1 1 values This means the estimated coefficients will be 1 2 th
40. les on the level of the response coded as 1 This implies females should be coded as gender 0 and males as gender 1 Coding gender as character F and M also works since F precedes M when sorting With these principles in mind avery small dataset for illustration only is shown where 5 women and 4 men selected randomly were asked a basic yes no question where yes is the response of greater interest The final two columns are different ways to dummy code gender depending if Female or Male is the reference category response gender gndrF gndrM ORPRPFOCOFRFR Sse esses Her rreo OOOO OOOOFRF FEF FT I By aggregating the response where y Sum response isthe number of yes responses for each level of gender the same dataset could also be represented as y n gender 2 5 F 3 4 M PROC GENMOD GENMOD is an acronym for GENeralized linear MODels Its function and applica tion is similar to PROC GLM general linear model for ANOVA models however GENMOD allows the response variable to assume distributions such as binomial for dichotomous data and Poisson counts This is the basic syntax for logistic regression PROC GENMOD DATA b descending CLASS gender MODEL response gender dist binomial link logit lt options gt 3 RUN PROC LOGISTIC LOGISTIC is designed for analysis of dichotomous and ordinal data e g Likert scales and now includes a CLASS statement This
41. ll Room P ad C e 175 phone 346 4406 You can check out our entire catalog at http docsrm uoregon edu computing news spring 2005 NSRC s 2005 Workshops Include Bhutan Mozambique Venezuela UO networking group also contributed to NSF forum of African and U S scientists Joyce Winslow jJwins uoregon edu Continuing its mission of providing educational programs and engineering assistance to regional networks around the world the Network Startup Resource Center NSRC is planning to participate in at least a half dozen workshops in as many countries in the coming year Many of these projects are still in the works but here s a brief summary of recent activities and confirmed upcoming events The NSRC began the year by presenting a network amp Y training session in Bhutan January 10 15 It was the first such workshop in that country a preparation for Bhutan s hosting the South Asia Network Operators Group meeting SANOG VI this summer The NSRC team will also be among the presenters at the SANOG VI summer workshops Hervey Allen Sufi Fraug Abubaker a colleague from Bangladesh APNIC staff member Champika Wijayatunga and Philip Hazel of the Cambridge Computing Center will provide instruction in IP Services during Track 2 sessions July 16 20 with Hervey serving as track leader See http www sanog org sanog6 for details Also in January NSRC project manager Steve Huter participated in the National
42. lopment and digital Geographic Information systems E GIS including ESRI software HTML XHTML Video recording and editing analog products Cascading Style Sheets CSS and digital Communication Tools Metadata Streaming media create index Email Eudora Outlook Pine Dreamweaver AT Ne SAL Webmail Web design principles Flash Mailing lists Usability testing CD ROM mastering Chat Accessibility Reformatting TE cComeTengne PHP Research Strategies Desktop video conferencing Web forms Blogs Equations K Requires an active account on Darkwing or Gladstone COMPUTING CENTER GUIDE UO Website http www uoregon edu Computing Center Website http cc uoregon edu Microcomputer Services 151 McKenzie Hall http micro uoregon edu 346 4412 microhelp lists uoregon edu e microcomputer technical support e help with computing accounts passwords e scanning CD burning digital video e help with damaged disks files e system software help e Internet connections file transfers e public domain software virus protection e software repair carry in only 80 hour 1 2 hour minimum Documents Room Library http darkwing uoregon edu docsrm 175 McKenzie Hall 346 4406 Modem Number Dialin modem number for UOnet the campus network 225 2200 O UNIVERSITY OF OREGON UO COMPUTING CENTER Large Systems Consulting http cc uoregon edu unixvmsconsulting html 225 239 Computing Center 346 1758 consul
43. ly for sport For details see http www msnbc msn com id 7128957 University of Arizona Student Convicted of P2P Copyright Violations An Arizona student is the first person in that state to be convicted ofintellectual property violations for illegally downloading music and films from P2P networks In exchange for pleading guilty he was fined 5400 and sentenced to three years probation and 200 hours of community service For details see http www theregister co uk 2005 03 08 arizona_p2p_boy Harvard Business School Rejects Applicants Who Peeked 119 applicants to Harvard Business School couldn tresist following a hacker s instructions to peek into the school s admission site to view the status of their applications and as a result their applications are being thrown out The hacker s tip was posted on a BusinessWeek online message board For details see http www securityfocus com news 10634 Mobile Phones Hit By Spam Researchers for Wireless Services Corporation report that spammers are targeting mobile phones with increasing frequency According to their report almost half of all mobile phone text messages received in the U S arenow spam For details see http www newsfactor com story xhtml story_id 30806 Spammers Target Email Directories So called directory harvest attacks DHAs against company email servers are the latest tactic used by spammers In an attempt to find valid email addresses
44. ly vague was with respect to the production filers or data storage units that were still in the process of being procured as we went to press Because those filers are now installed and are really the heart of the new Darkwing we wanted to follow up with some information about them What Filers Are We Using The UO purchased a pair of Network Appliance R200 filers http www netapp com products nearstore r200_ds html to build the new Darkwing Because network attached storage isn t a particularly sexy part of computer and network systems Network Appliance NetApp may not be a household namelikeDellorApple Nonetheless the company is the market leader in the network attached and unified storage market and according to Gartner it controlled 52 of the market share as of 2004 1 The R200 shares many features with NetApp s more expensive filer lines differing from its more traditional network attached storage devices primarily in that it uses inexpensive slightly slower ATA disks rather than far more expensive and een faster traditional SCSI drives In particular the R200 runs the same NetApp Data ONTAP custom operating system that all other NetApp filers use see http www netapp com products software ontap html and it offers among other functions 1 RAID data protection which ensures that if a disk fails and needs to be replaced the system can recreate the information that was on tha
45. mputer Expanding Taxonomy of Unwanted Email Phishing 12 Training to UO Faculty Staff Students visimuewaneinas 10 Threat of Instant Messenger Worms GIOWS c cscsceceeeees 13 New IT Workshops on Demand ee 3 Sooni y AlS asa 14 CD ROM Workshops in the Docs ROOM 4 Windows PC Protection and You seses 19 Spring Workshop Schedule sssesssessierrersrerreerreesrerseree 23 The New NetApp NearStore R200 Filers The newly installed filers are the heart of the new Darkwing Joe St Sauver Ph D Director User Services and Network Applications joe uoregon edu In the Winter 2005 Computing News we provided an overview of changes that were underway to upgrade and reconfigure Darkwing see The New Darkwing A Briefing at http cc uoregon edu cnews winter2005 darkwing htm UNIVERSITY OF OREGON O COMPUTING CENTER COMPUTING NEWS VOL 20 2 Computing News is published quarterly by the User Services and Network Applications staff of the Computing Center University of Oregon 2005 Contact Joyce Winslow jwins uoregon edu Photography Dave Ragsdale dave uoregon edu Joe St Sauver Ph D Director User Services and Network Applications joe uoregon edu Website http cc uoregon edu cnews Got Extras If your campus department receives surplus copies of Computing News you may return them to the UO Computing Center for redistribution One area where that article was necessari
46. n October 2003 I wrote a column for Syllabus Technology for Higher Education talking about the benefits oftemporarily sharing large files using the University of Tennessee s NFS funded LoCI Logistical Networking project That article is still available online at http www syllabus com news_issue asp id 153 amp IssueDate 10 30 2003 and provides a nice quick start for some key LoCI related concepts I won t rehash the information covered in that 22 article here except to say that we d encourage you to review it for some fundamental background on the LoCI project before continuing with therest of this Computing News article Since the fall of 2003 much has changed for the better I m happy to report that the UO is now locally hosting an NSF funded LoCI node Getting Set Up to Use the LoRS Visual Tools While casual users can simply use the Java based LoDN tool from the LoCI website to upload and download files ifyou regularly share large files I d encourage you to take the time to install the LoRS Visual Tools LoRS VT package for your PC or Mac there s also a LoRS Source Development Package available for those who d rather build from source for their favorite Unix Linux operating system The PC and Mac LoRS Visual Tools packages are available as featured downloads from the LoCI Project Home Page at http Aoci cs utk edu Once you ve downloaded and in stalled the LoRS Vis
47. n you re done with Knoppix remove the CD and voila you re back to Windows Knoppix is also a popular security tool for use with Windows You ll find a variety of other live bootable CD based and DVD based Linux distributions at http distrowatch com Ubuntu Linux Linux for Human Beings If you like Debian Linux you may want to check out Ubuntu Linux a new October 2004 Debian derived distribution that quickly garnered an Ars Technica Distribution ofthe Year award for stability openness security and user friendliness Ubuntu also won the Ars Technica Best community award and the Best newcomer to the community award In addition it is currently the number one most popular Linux distribution as tracked by Distrowatch computing news spring 2005 If you d like to learn more about Ubuntu see http www ubuntulinux org Linux From Scratch LFS Building your Own Custom Linux Distribution Although the vast majority of users will be well served by choosing one of the standard Linux distributions some who are inclined to tinker or who have a need to create a particularly compact or carefully tailored distri bution may be interested in Linux From Scratch LFS http www linuxfromscratch org The Oregon State Open Source Lab provides a mirror for the LFS project Real time Linux When Microseconds Count When Linux is running enterprise applications such as email browsing and serv
48. nter Keith Bucher showed up with his arm in a sling the oc cupational hazard of being a serious ultimate frisbee competitor Systems administration and ultimate frisbee may seem like an unlikely mix but Keith is a multifaceted guy Keith s path to Eugene and a job at the University of Oregon was also not what one might expect Keith was born and raised in Helena Montana the only child of a computer teacher mom and a civil engineer dad with pioneering spirit His parents opted for a life of self sufficiency in an old circa 1915 solar powered homestead outside of town The Buchers had no phone and no TV but they did have one of the first personal computers known to man a twenty pound Zenith laptop The long harsh Montana winters were conducive to reading thinking and fiddling with the computer so Keith became well versed in technology at an early age When it was time to choose a college Keith was ready for a complete change of scene Aside from academ ics his two biggest priorities were to experience a warm climate and a vibrant night life He found all these and more in New Orleans where he was able to satisfy his eclectic tastes in music blues funk jazz and graduate with a triple major in computer science math and physics from Tulane University Tulane was also where he was first introduced to the sport of ultimate frisbee and Keith competed with his team in the 2001 World Ultimate Club frisbee champions
49. of this article is to explain how to code data to produce equivalent results from three SAS procedures designed for dichotomous data One way to code dichotomous response data is to enter a 0 or 1 for each level e g No 0 Yes 1 You can then assign formats to the variable names so that the mean ing of each level remains intact In order to analyze dichotomous data as a response variable you should first define which of the two levels is of greater interest to you You then typically assume e this response level occurs with a constant probability p 0 lt p lt 1 within each group e the responses are independent across n trials What Method Should You Use Given this scenario what method ofanalysis should you use Your first inclination might be to employ ANOVA methods including linear regression However this approach is not optimal for the following reasons 1 Proportions are bounded by 0 and 1 ANOVA methods assume the continuous response variable ranges from negative infinity to positive infinity When analyzing data this open interval does not need to be literally true but with dichotomous data the defined bounds may be too restrictive 2 Linear regression and ANOVA typically assume homoscedasticity of the residuals The variance of a proportion depends on the value of its mean a function of the levels of the independent variables so it doesn t meet this assumption To minimize these problems the arcsin transfo
50. om the Internet Aside from the fact that it s acrime to steal Windows software folks may not realize that these pirated copies are typically barred from the Windows Update site This means it s a virtual certainty that these PCs will become infected with all manner of viruses and spyware because the user is unable to patch any current vulnerabilities In some cases these users had a new laptop with Windows XP Home legally licensed and upgraded only because they thought XP Pro would be better There s nothing wrong with XP Home for home users We rarely encounter anyone who really needs XP Pro except the occasional user who either needs to log in to a Windows server on campus or create file sharing with complex permissions Over time the laundry list of things a Windows users must do to stay virus free has been growing Below are six essential precautions you musttake to secure your PC If you are a UO user and have any questions about how to complete the steps below please contact Microcomputer Services for assistance Our contact information is available at the conclusion of this article Critical Steps for Keeping Your Windows PC Malware free 1 Enable the built in Windows XP Firewall This can be done in the Security Center control panel If you computing news spring 2005 have an older version of Windows at home you can download a free for personal use firewall called ZoneAlarm at http www zonelabs com From there
51. orkshops will replace the open enrollment workshops see Spring Workshops page 23 beginning in fall 2005 but members of the UO community can start requesting them now The new training model will emphasize increased collaboration with faculty in integrating information technology skills into the curriculum A list of training topics is on page 23 of this issue Also see http libweb uoregon edu it ondemand html for full details Yamada Language Center Pioneers Web Based Virtual Language Labs Multimedia teaching tools are proving especially useful in honing oral skills Joyce Winslow jwins uoregon edu Message List EJ Add a Message Let s Talk v 2 By Jeff 01 31 2005 02 29 PM Getting going just a brief note to let you know II call at 3 00 monday or tomorrow a m say 11 00 jeti 3 Jeti Let s Talk v 2 A 2 Jim Duber New URL A 1 Jim Duber Hi Jeti 4 FEA Copyright 2005 by Jim Duber and duber dot com Topic Menu YLC Design Notes Under license to the YLC at UO All rights reserved A sample Message Board screen with interactive message list on left and the instructor s text message and video on right The era of the cassette tape is drawing to a close at least in the UO s Yamada Language Center YLC Last May the YLC received a grant from the UO s Educational Technology Committee to help fund a web based virtual language lab VLL Working with software developer Jim Duber
52. ors gathering data for a security report For details see http www securityfocus com news 10708 Anti Phishing Services Court Banks Some financial institutions are turning to anti phishing services for help in combatting email scams committed in their name For details see the Washington Post article New Industry Helping Banks Fight Back at http www washingtonpost com ac2 wp dyn A6367 2005Mar4 language 3Dprinter ChoicePoint ID Thieves Sentenced In March scammers who profited from stealing sensitive personal data from ChoicePoint Services were sentenced to spend time in federal prison Adedayo Benson and his sister Bibiana were convicted of posing as a real estate agents to open accounts with several public records database firms including ChoicePoint and using the data they accessed to commit ID fraud For details see http www usatoday com tech news computersecurity infotheft 2005 03 08 choicepoint conviction_x htm Questions are also being raised about the quality of some of ChoicePoint s data files People are coming forward who have discovered gross errors in their files every thing from fictional criminal histories purchases and relationships to the ultimate error reputed deaths See http www msnbc msn com id 7118767 Three Enter Guilty Pleas for Software Piracy Three men who made millions of dollars worth of copyrighted software freely available for copying on the Internet say they did it simp
53. ory project that s the leading competitor to the Yahoo Directory page and the foundation underlying the Google Directory page among others We d be interested in hearing about your experiences with this revised set of search and directory tools Send your feedback about the UO home page to www feedback lists uoregon edu computing news spring 2005 Windows PC Protection and You Protecting your PC from malware may seem like a full time job but you can greatly reduce your risk if you follow six basic steps Dan Albrich Manager Microcomputer Services dalbrich uoregon edu We seem to be running almost quarterly update articles on how to secure Microsoft Windows from the onslaught of viruses worms and spyware Unfortunately Windows security isamoving target and the types of problems we see at the Help Desk in 151 McKenzie Hall keep changing Perhaps your network access was disabled or you simply noticed your Windows PC has become very slow In some cases you may notice you can connect to some websites but not others Or you may be unable to login to the UO wireless system Banner DuckWeb UO Web Email or another SSL secure site In many cases this means your PC is already infected with one or more pieces of malware a collective term for viruses spyware adware and Trojans The most important new security threat we see is caused by users who download pirated copies of Windows XP Professional XP Pro fr
54. pump and dump stock fraud whereby penny stocks are hyped to unsupportable levels only to be quickly sold by those who d hyped them In addition to these another form of unwanted email has recently become common phishing pronounced fishing email messages Phishing email messages attempt to con you into believing that your bank or brokerage or your credit card company or an online merchant or perhaps eBay PayPal needs you to urgently confirm the details of your account with them If you fall for that ruse and dutifully confirm your account number and provide your password or pin miscreants will use that information to clean out your account or to order merchandise in your name In the old days ruses of this sort were easily spotted the solicitations were crudely executed and often contained spelling or grammar errors that might make people wary These days however the quality of phishing emails has become quite professional making them virtually indistinguishable from legitimate messages We therefore urge you to e Never under any circumstances click on any links you may receive in an email solicitation e Never ever provide sensitive information in response to any email you may receive e If in doubt use the phone to call your bank credit card company or other business using the number that s on your bank statement or the back of your credit card don t trust a phone numb
55. raining you are presented with hands on exercises that let you practice new skills as you learn them The lessons are interactive so you get instant feedback on errors and have as many chances as you need to correct them You may also assess your skills and progress by taking a test on any course either before or after training including a prescriptive test that shows you only those lessons you need to learn The program keeps track ofall your work and test results so you may document your progress if you need to You can repeat any course test lesson or page within a lesson as often as you like and you may jump to any lesson topic at any time This makes this web based training system a valuable reference tool Another feature of the program is that you re not required to own the software you re studying or have it installed on your computer in order to learn to use it The training module precisely simulates the use of all course software freeing you to access the training from any computer connected to the Internet see the system requirements at http www raatraining com setupinfo htm Registering for Courses When you register you sign up for a training library or collection of online courses There are three libraries to choose from PC amp Business Skills which is approved as preparation for Microsoft Office Specialist Certification IC Internet and Computing Core Certification and
56. ril 29 2 3 50 PM 144 Knight Library Jablonsky Mon May 2 10 11 50 Am 144 Knight Library Harper Web Publishing ITI X Prerequisites Web Publishing II or equivalent knowledge and skills Fri May 13 2 3 50 PM 144 Knight Library Bell Dreamweaver I Y Prerequisite Web Publishing I amp II or equivalent knowledge and skills Mon May 9 10 11 50 am 144 Knight Library Nesselroad Dreamweaver II Prerequisite Web Publishing III and Dreamweaver I or equivalent knowledge and skills Mon May 16 10 11 50 Am 144 Knight Library Bell Course Websites Copyright Presentation amp Research Software EndNote What Is It amp Why Should I Use It How to create and store citations organize and retrieve citations and format footnotes and bibliographies Tues April 26 12 1 20 PM Seminar Rm Sci Library Zeidman Karpinski Wed April 27 12 1 20 pm 235 Knight Lenn Workshops on Demand You may also arrange a workshop on the following topics for your department or group subject to instruc tor availability see http Aibweb uoregon edu it ondemand html for more information Academic Tools and Issues Graphics and Digital Images Document Production Blackboard for Instructors Digital camera use Microsoft PowerPoint EndNote Photoshop PDF production Copyright and Intellectual Propert Scannin ee Sa ae a Multimedia Production Preventing plagiarism Web searching Bi Classroom technology i Audio recording and editing analog Web Design and Deve
57. rmation has historically been applied However today we can do much better Logistic Regression The type of analysis designed for dichotomous data is logistic regression It is similar to linear regression and ANOVA in that the independent or explanatory variables may be either continuous or categorical Logistic regres sion produces model coefficients with significance tests and interprets the response variable with odds ratios SAS has several procedures that will calculate logistic regression models namely PROC GENMOD LOGISTIC and NLMIXED You may add to this list FREQ CATMOD 16 and SURVEYLOGISTIC but only GENMOD LOGISTIC and NLMIXED are considered in this article The objec tive is to code data that will produce consistent output when read into any of these procedures In the examples that follow I will assume the dichotomous response variable is coded as 0 1 The important point is to give the level of greatest interest the value that sorts last in ascending order in this case a 1 How you code the independent categorical variables will also determine the results you observe on the output By default most procedures in SAS that include a CLASS statement assign the largest coded level i e the one that sorts last in an ascending order as the reference category that is estimated coefficients of all other categories are compared with it This is important to know if you want to state how females compare to ma
58. s Manager for the College of Education Thanks Mary 10 computing news spring 2005 Cybercrime in the news Top Phishing Scammer Nabbed in Brazil In mid March Brazilian police arrested the suspected leader of a phishing gang that stole an estimated 37 million from online banking accounts in the last three years Considered one of Brazil s biggest gangs of online con artists Paulo de Almeida s mob sent out over three million Trojan laden emails per day targeting customers of Brazil s online banking websites and tricking them into divulging personal information For details see http www theregister co uk 2005 03 21 brazil_phishing_arrest Cal State Chico Hacked 59 000 California State University students former students prospective students and faculty were recently notified that their personal information including Social Security numbers may be in the hands of hackers As of March 21 officials were not yet certain that hackers had used the sensitive information only that they had gained access to it For details see http www reuters com news Article jhtml type technologyNews amp storyID 7964776 Weak Link in IRS Security A recent security audit of IRS employees and managers found that more than one third could still be duped into giving out their network ID and password to callers posing as IT technicians The ruse was not an actual hack attack as the callers were Treasury Department inspect
59. s knowledge to use Save yourself and your depart ment money and remember One computer one license computing news spring 2005 Public Library of Science Offers UO Faculty Timely Access to Research Results UO faculty eligible for 10 discount on PLoS publication charges Ron Renchler Director Library Communications UO Libraries ronr darkwing uoregon edu Each year the UO Libraries pay a modest member ship fee to the Public Library of Science PloS http www publiclibraryofscience org to help make the world s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource PloS is one of the leading organizations in creating open access publishing models that speed up and improve access to critical findings in scientific research see http www plos org journals model html This movement toward open access to research results is one of the most promising developments in improving scholarly communications throughout the world One immediate local benefit of the library s membership in PloS is that the entire UO community enjoys full access to all articles published in peer reviewed PloS journals such as PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine Other soon to be published journals include PLoS Genetics PLoS Pathogens and PLoS Computational Biology A second less well known benefit of PLoS membership is that UO faculty members receive a 10 percent discount on publication charges in all PloS journals The li
60. t disk from other members of that RAID set 2 The ability to take snapshots of the contents of a filer at a given point in time so that backups or other tasks can be performed from that snapshot without the need to limit ongoing activities 3 The ability to restore individual files from periodic snapshots 4 The ability to synchronize the contents of a primary filer with a second redundant backup filer located at an alternate location on campus 5 The eventual ability to access data stored on the R200s not just from Darkwing via NFS but also from Windows PC hosts on campus via CIFS You may have noticed the new filers are delivering snappy performance This is evident in vastly improved web page load times and faster email performance As part of the installation of the new production filer Darkwing users now have a default quota of 250MB effective April 6th 2005 Users who already had Darkwing quotas at or above that level will of course con tinue to have their higher value As deployed the primary and backup R200s each have 8TB of disk however the R200s are extremely scalable and may be expanded to up to 96TB each as the university s disk storage requirements grow over time Notes a http biz yahoo com bw 050323 235696_1 html l Unlike traditional database ap plications the difference in speed between ATA and SCSI drives is immaterial for Darkwing s bread and butter applications
61. t darkwing uoregon edu consult gladstone uoregon edu e VMS Unix Gladstone Darkwing Oregon e email multimedia delivery e scientific and cgi programming e web page development Electronics Shop 151 McKenzie Hall http cc uoregon edu e_shop html 346 3548 hardwarehelp oregon uoregon edu Computer hardware repair upgrades Network Services http ms uoregon edu 346 4395 nethelp ns uoregon edu Central data communication and network services Telecommunications Services Statistics Consulting http telcom uoregon edu Robin High 346 3198 219 Computing Center Local and long distance phone 346 1718 service for the UO campus Administrative Services http ccadmin uoregon edu 346 1725 Programming support for campus administrative computing Computing Center Hours Mon Fri 7 30 AM 5 00 P M McKenzie Building Hours Mon Thu 7 30 A M 11 30 P M 43th Avenue Friday 7 30 A M 7 30 P M Saturday 9 A M 9 30 P M A Sunday 9 A M 9 30 P M e Note These are building access hours hours for individual facilities may vary robinh uoregon edu McKenzie Annex a UO Computing Center Lillis Business Complex A O i Q N t UO Bookstore 1212 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403 1212
62. tal Use Eudora on Windows Update to Eudora 6 2 1 to Avoid Critical Flaw If you re a Windows user whose email program of choice is Eudora be sure you ve updated your version of Eudora to 6 2 1 Earlier versions are subject to attack by malicious code when a user opens or previews a specially crafted email Note that this vulnerability does not affect Mac users You may download the latest version of Eudora from http www eudora com products Update to Avoid Critical F Secure Flaw If you run F Secure antivirus products be sure you download the patch that fixes a critical flaw reported in February The bug which is related to the handling of ARJ archive files could allow hackers to execute malicious code and cause a buffer overflow The patch is available from F Secure s website at http www f secure com security fsc 2005 1 shtml For details see the SearchSecurity com article Critical flaw affects F Secure products at http searchsecurity techtarget com originalContent 0 289142 sid14_gci1056615 00 html Versions of iTunes Prior to 4 7 1 Vulnerable to Exploit If you haven t kept up with your Apple updates be aware that versions of iTunes prior to 4 7 1 are vulnerable to hacking The problem stems from a boundary error in the iTunes playlists that could allow the execution of malicious code on your computer The vulnerability has been rated highly critical by the Danish security watchdog firm Secunia T
63. ual Tools then what As with most programs the best thing to do is to take the time to go through the user s manual LoRS VT includes its fine 46 page manual as a PDF document withthe program You ll be walked through configuring your copy of LoRS VT uploading files downloading files and so forth In no time at all you should be uploading downloading and sharing large scientific datasets Tell Us What You Think If you try using the LoCI project to share large files we re eager to hear what you think Did the installation of the LoRS Visual Tools go smoothly for you Does it work well for you and your collaborators Did you run into problems We d love to know Please feel free to send feedback about LoCI at the University of Oregon to joe uoregon edu Need to Transter Large Files As you may know the UO s main email servers limit the size of files that can be attached to email messages to 5MB This policy ensures that email performance will remain stable for campus network users So what can you do if you want to send a file larger than 5 MB Here are some suggestions 1 Use a free file drop service such as YouSendIt http www yousendit com or YouSharelt http www youshareit com YouSendIt allows you to send files up to 1GB in size and YouSharelt has a limit of 50MB Make the file available for download from a web server Burn the data to a CD and ship the CD Print an
64. uoregon edu cnews summer2003 oregongoes html http cc uoregon edu cnews spring2004 migrate html http cc uoregon edu cnews winter2005 blkwebmail htm computing news spring 2005 Linux Distributions There s More Than RedHat and Fedora Core Out There Joe St Sauver Ph D Director User Services and Network Applications joe uoregon edu Formany people Linux has effectively become synonymous with RedHat Enterprise Linux http Awww redhat com and or Fedora Core http fedora redhat com and in fact RedHat is what we re running on the servers that comprise the building blocks of the new Darkwing see http cc uoregon edu cnews winter2005 darkwing htm It would be a mistake however to assume that RedHat and Fedora Core are the only Linux related software products worth watching In this article we ll highlight a few additional Linux related distributions or software products that you may also want to keep your eye on Knoppix As described at http www knoppix org Knoppix is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU Linux software automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics cards sound cards SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk Among other things this means that Knoppixis an excel lent way for you to try Linux on a PC that normally runs Windows Instead of booting normally into Windows you simply boot a Knoppix CD instead Whe
65. void risky behaviors like downloading programs music or video that is coming from an unknown source Peer to peer programs like SoulSeek BearShare Kazaa and the like should be avoided 6 Avoid instant messenger products like AOL Instant Messenger AIM By their design these products sit and wait for a random connection from any Internet connected host Vulnerabilities for IM products are being discovered at an alarming rate Contact Information Microcomputer Services http micro uoregon edu is located in 151 McKenzie Hall and is open 9 a m to 5 P M on weekdays Call them at 541 346 4412 or email microhelp lists uoregon edu UO users may pick up a free copy of the UO Windows Security CD at the Help Desk When this CD is inserted into your CD ROM drive it will automatically walk you through most of the steps outlined in this article plus a few that were not mentioned here If you suspect your PC is infected contact us or your local support staff for assistance 19 Time to Move Your Email Off Oregon As noted in previous issues of Computing News we are in the process of shutting down OpenVMS service on oregon uoregon edu including WebMail or black web email Oregon s been a great email host for many years but unfortunately the time has come to move beyond OpenVMS If you re still using a POP or IMAP mail reader such as Eudora or Outlook to access email on oregon uoregon edu we ll be contacting you
66. www uoregon edu now you ll Google as always but you ll also see anew MSN Search option This new option reflects the increasing coverage quality and importance of Microsoft s new search engine as an alternative to Google 18 LS SAS log window NOTE SAS 9 1 3 Service Pack 2 Further 9 1 3 hot fixes will be available after the release of Service Pack 2 but note that SP2 is required before you can install them More information about Service Packs and Hot Fixes is available at http ftp sas com techsup download hotfix faq html serv_packs New Hot Fixes for SAS 8 2 BASE SAS Hot Fix Bundle 82BX09 is now available on the Technical Support Hot Fix website for SAS Release 8 2 TS2MO This latest bundle is an accumulation of previously released BASE SAS hot fixes and hot fix bundles All fixes included in the bundle are also available for individual download For more information please review the Release 8 2 TS2M0 BASE SAS Hot Fix Bundle page at http ftp sas com techsup download hotfix v82bx html Search UO BLACKBOARD CALENDAR CATALOG CLASS SCHEDULE DA EB MAP UOBOOKSTORE WEATHER WEB EMAIL Google MSN Search DMOZ Y Directory You ll also see that the former link to the top Yahoo page which has become increasingly unfocused and commercial over time has been replaced with a direct link to the original style Yahoo Directory page Yahoo Directory is complemented by a link to DMOZ the Open Direct
67. your account information potentially including your password in the browser s settings this can be a disaster particularly on shared PCs in labs or other public areas e When you re done be sure you completely log out from the site you were using and be sure to also completely quit the browser you were using Don t simply close the browser window you were using someone may be able to pop up a new browser window and do additional transactions as you Technically inclined users will also want to review and delete any cookies or temporary files left cached on the system e You may want to periodically request a free credit report to ensure that no one has obtained credit cards or other financial services in your name without your knowledge For more information on obtaining free credit reports see http www ftc gov bcp conline pubs credit freereports htm If you do ever mistakenly provide private account information to a fraudulent site or if you notice 12 computing news spring 2005 Email Phishing unauthorized charges or withdraw als on a monthly account statement you should immediately contact the security department of that financial institution or merchant In many cases your financial insti tution can take steps to limit your exposure or they may even be willing to fully or partially reimburse you for your losses but they need to hear from you as soon as you notice If you r

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