DOE Allocates Massive Supercomputer Hours

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham recently announced that 6.5 million hours of supercomputing time have been awarded to three scientific research projects aimed at increasing our understanding of ways to reduce pollution, to gain greater insight into how stars and solar systems form, and advance our knowledge about how proteins express genetic information. The researchers will use their awards to compute on the IBM supercomputer at the Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at Berkeley Lab. NERSC is the DOE Office of Science's flagship facility for unclassified supercomputing. The three awards amount to 15 percent of NERSC's annual computing resources. Full story.

Windows XP Users:
Service Pack 2 is OK

After assessing all the aspects of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP, ITSD has determined that the benefits of installing this Service Pack now clearly outweigh any liabilities. However, because SP2 works best with the current version (9.0.1) of Symantec Anti-Virus, XP users should first see which version of Symantec they have. Those with the 9.0.1 version of Symantec Anti-Virus should go here to download and install SP2. All others should install "Symantec Client Security for Windows 2K/XP" available on the same page (under the "Virus/Spyware Protection header), before installing SP2. For more information, contact the Help Desk (x4357).

AV Services Now Limited
To Three Major Rooms

Starting today, the Lab's Audio-Visual services for conference rooms will be limited to the Building 50 auditorium, Building 66 auditorium and Perseverance Hall. The service will continue to be provided by ITSD through its Networking and Telecommunications Department, which now oversees Audio-Visual services. Contact [email protected] for services in these rooms. As in the past, services include rental equipment and in-room LCD ceiling mounted or booth projectors. Services in support of the smaller conference rooms, and the provision of rental laptops and portable LCD projectors to these locations, will be discontinued. Call x6068 for more information.

Guidelines on Using 'Today...' Now Posted

Got news you'd like to share with the rest of the Lab community? Having it posted in "Today at Berkeley Lab," is one of easiest ways to get that done. To assist employees with submitting items to this daily electronic news update, a set of guidelines has been developed. They cover how to submit both calendar and news items and include deadline information. Go here to view guidelines. They can also be accessed online, in the "Info Box," located on the lower right side of the "Today at Berkeley Lab" site.

Flags Half Staff
For Tsunami Victims

Per a federal order, the Lab's flags will be flown at half staff for the rest of the week to honor those that perished from the tsunami that hit regions of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand last week.