Department of Statistics Computer Systems Policy

Updated September, 2004

The Department of Statistics operates a heterogeneous network of Linux and Windows computers. Systems support is provided by the Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL), which also supports the Department of Computer Sciences. The CSL main web page can be found at: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/csl/ .

Because Statistics obtains its support from CSL, their policies, with a few minor differences, apply to our department as well. The overall policies can be found at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/csl/doc/policy/ . Please review these policies - if you have any questions about these, please forward your questions to lab@stat.wisc.edu .

Some Important Policy Issues:

The Statistics Department computers and facilities are covered by the Wisconsin Administrative Code (UWS 21.01):

It is the policy of the Board of Regents that the facilities of the university are to be used primarily for purposes of fulfilling the university's mission of teaching and research. University facilities are not available for unrestricted use for other purposes.

Outlined below are appropriate and inappropriate uses of the department facilities:

Appropriate Uses:

These include research, instruction, scholarly communication and administration involving UW-Madison faculty, staff and students. Any activities in support of the above are also allowed.

Inappropriate Uses:

These include commercial activities and activities of outside organizations unless they conform to the appropriate uses described above; Activities that interfere with the ability of other users to make effective use of the Department's facilities; Using the facilities for political and/or private purposes; Sending electronic mail to inappropriate mailing lists; Connecting your own computer to the CSL network without permission and without configuring it according to their rules. Other guidelines for the use of the facilities are described below.

Authorized Use:

Only persons properly authorized may access the CSL facilities. Proper authorization is provided by CSL staff or their designate in the form of an account issued in the name of the authorized person. You may not permit other persons to access CSL computers via your account, including project partners, relatives, roommates and friends.

Workstation Use:

The workstations provided by the Department of Statistics are part of the CSL network and are a shared resource. To facilitate maintenance of this system, you may not reboot, reset, or turn off any Department of Statistics computer. Malfunctions should be reported directly to lab @stat.wisc.edu. Furthermore, you may not lock your screen or otherwise prevent others from accessing a department computer when you are not at the console.

Printer Use:

Printers are expensive to operate, and wasteful usage of such devices must be avoided.

Do not use the printer to make multiple copies -- use the photocopier instead. Do not flood the print queue. By "flood" we mean submit several files or more than one very long file. Especially, do not flood the print queue and then go home. On Unix-based systems use the lpq command to determine if your jobs are printing - if they are not, delete them: stuck jobs will prevent anyone else's jobs from printing. You can use the lprm command to remove print jobs.

Big Jobs:

When a process is consuming excessive system resources or objectionably degrading system response it may be terminated, or its priority may be altered, without notice. Big jobs should be run with a lower priority, or by using condor.

Well-written code is often much faster than poorly written code. Good programming requires skill -- if your work requires a good deal of programming, you should learn how to do it well.

Consequences:

Those who violate CSL or Statistics Department policies may lose their access authorization for a period of time commensurate with the infraction. Repeat offenders may be denied access indefinitely.

Getting Help:

The Statistics Computing Lab staff is responsible for software and hardware support and maintenance, upgrades and distribution of equipment, and file backups. Note that they do not answer questions about specific software use. For example, they will not answer questions regarding how a particular analysis can be done in SAS.

If you need help with a problem, you can use the following procedure. (This has been adapted from "Getting Help" section of the CSL documentation with one very important change described at the bottom of this section.) First-time and new users should see the "Getting Started" section of the CSL documentation.

There are several other sources of help:

Online Help: On Unix, look at the man or info pages relating to your problem. For a general search of the man pages by keyword, use the command man -k keyword

On Windows, look through the online help (usually available in the Help menu for the application).

Personal Web Pages: see Personal Home Page Info

Colleagues and Fellow Students: Many of your colleagues and fellow students have had the same problems. Ask around. Chances are, you'll find someone with the same problem. Compare notes.

The Department of Statistics Computer Committee:

If you can not find the answer you are looking for in the online help or in the CSL Documentation, please email lab@stat.wisc.edu with your question. Do not email the CSL lab (lab@cs.wisc.edu). The Statistics Computing Lab staff will examine and track your problem and will either provide a solution themselves, or will contact the CSL as appropriate. Questions about how to use Statistics computer applications in research and instruction can be directed to the Statistics Computing Forum (stat-forum@stat.wisc.edu). The Forum can provide advice and answers to questions on a non-emergency basis.

When you email lab@stat.wisc.edu, please be sure to include the following information in your message:

*Your login name, if you are sending mail from a different account
*The name of the workstation on which you are having difficulty
*When you encountered the problem
*What program you were trying to use
*The exact command-line you used to run the program
*File and directory names for any input files of any kind
*The exact error messages or output
*If you changed anything in your environment between the time the program last worked and the time you noticed the problem, please tell us exactly what changed.
*As much additional information as you can provide.