New Structure for
Office of Science

Office of Science Director Raymond Orbach announced the official launch of a new complex-wide organizational structure. The new structure eliminates a layer of management, redefines roles and responsibilities for headquarters and field managers and clarifies lines of authority and accountability.   The reorganization will "take the Office of Science into the 21st century as an efficient, high-performing organization that continues to produce great science and real benefits for the American people," Orbach said. Full story.

Final Report on August 2003 Blackout Is Issued

Eto

August 14, 2003, saw the worst blackout in North American history. Yesterday, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources John Efford released the final report of the U.S. -Canada Power System Outage Task Force. Berkeley Lab's Joe Eto, with the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, served on this task force. This report identifies the causes of the power outage and why the outage was not contained. It also presents comprehensive technical and policy recommendations to prevent or minimize the likelihood of future blackouts, and reduce the scope of those that do occur. Go here to read the report and here to read a Department of Energy press release on the report.

SETI Team Visits Lab
For April 16 Talk

Talk about an interesting computing challenge. The team running SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has built its project on resources "that are insecure, heterogeneous, unreliable, sporadically available, and expensive to communicate with." Nonetheless, they have persuaded millions of owners of private PCs to join SETI@home in a huge publicly distributed computing project. On Friday, April 16, David Anderson and Dan Werthimer of UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Lab will visit the Lab to discuss "Is Anybody Out There? SETI@home and Public Distributed Computing with BOINC." The talk begins at 2:30 p.m. in Bldg. 50A-5132.

Energy Sentinel
Never Sleeps

Goldman

Each workday at 6 p.m., power to the vending machines in the Department of Public Utility Control's quarters automatically shuts off. At 6 a.m. each morning, the power automatically comes back on. This and some judiciously timed dimming of lights have trimmed about $300 a month off the regulatory agency's electricity bill. The savings have also provided revenue to Nxegen Inc., a small Middletown company that installed the power-saving switches and monitoring equipment. The midsize market Nxegen is targeting has good growth potential because it remains underserved, said Chuck Goldman, with Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. Full story (registration required).

UC Joins Public
Library of Science

The University of California libraries demonstrated their commitment to supporting innovations that provide wider dissemination and facilitate easier research access to scholarly publishing, as they announced that the university has become an institutional member of the Public Library of Science. With a mission to make scientific and medical literature a public resource, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2000 by Berkeley Lab genome scientist Michael Eisen, Patrick Brown and Harold Varmus. Go here to read the UC press release.

Crackdown on Rogue Access Points at Lab

What is a rogue Access Point (AP)? It is a wireless AP that has not been authorized and installed by the LBLnet Services Group and is attached to LBLnet. Operating a rogue AP violates Laboratory policy ( RPM section 9.01D ) and creates a serious cyber security risk. The LBLnet Services Group conducts periodic surveys to detect these APs. This is a reminder that rogue APs will be removed as they are discovered. Employees who need wireless access should contact the LBLnet Services Group at x4559. For more information, call Linda Smith at x4440.