If you have not done so already, we would appreciate it if you would take a few moments to complete our brief 2011 CD Tracks Reader Survey (hosted by SurveyMonkey). This survey will give us insight into how we can best meet the communications needs of the division.

Thank you in advance for your thoughtful comments, and thank you to those of you who have already completed the survey.

Several members of the Computing Division attended the Open Science Grid All-Hands Meeting at Harvard Medical School earlier this month. The meeting, which coincided with the US ATLAS and CMS distributed facility group meetings, encouraged discourse between people with various science and technological backgrounds.

Jason Allen, head of the Fermilab Experiments Facilities department, was invited by US CMS to give a talk on Linux cluster management. Jason's group manages the Linux systems at Fermilab that are part of the OSG. While attending the meeting, he interfaced with others who manage moderately sized computer systems, particularly, CMS Tier-2 and -3 sites, about their system management tools and strategy. He also talked about Scientific Linux with people he doesn't normally get to meet with, discussing their needs and getting informal feedback.

Joel Snow, a guest scientist in the Running Experiments department and a member of the D0 and ATLAS experiments, presented some experiences of the D0 Virtual Organization. In addition, he learned about ATLAS Tier-3 configurations and the modifications of the ATLAS data and computing models. He also learned about coding for speed and parallelism, dynamic circuits and networking status; and he was particularly interested in XRootD data transport and proof batch processing.

This was the first All-Hands Meeting for Doug Strain of the Grid Facilities department, who also works on OSG Storage and glideinWMS. “I met many people who had only been recipients to emails before, Doug said. “I gained a broader understanding of the goals and activities of the OSG.” Doug presented a short talk on Pigeon Tools, which he develops, and he sat on the panel in the “Talk with the Experts” session. The main points he took away were the need to reduce the complexity of learning to use grid resources; the emerging importance of a data movement solution for OSG; and the focus on high-throughput parallel computing.

~ Marcia Teckenbrock

Spied some air conditioning units in the FCC parking lot lately? Notice the sparseness of the first floor computer room? Then you've seen the signs of an initiative to decommission the FCC1 computer room and eventually convert it to office space. The Facility Operations department is removing older air con units, recycling them, and relocating computer equipment from FCC1 to FCC2, FCC3, and the LCC.

Decommissioning FCC1 is only part of a wider facility upgrade effort that will change the way FCC computer rooms are cooled. FCC is converting from a water-based cooling system to a refrigerant-based one. The new air con condenser units are housed on the roof, which are not visible from anywhere on the property.

In the past, there were incidents in the FCC1 computer room with water damage to computer systems from leaky pipes. This threat is being removed, since cool air is now pumped through a ventilation system, not delivered via insulated pipes. The new FCC3 computer room, created via American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA) funding, is already cooled by the new refrigerant-based cooling system. The FCC2 computer room will finish converting to the new cooling system in the coming months.

An environmental benefit of the air con upgrade eliminates computer room dependency on Casey's pond. The old water-based air con system was fed exclusively from the pond and was our greatest vulnerability to a computer room outage.

The FCC1 computer room cleanout project will continue through summer 2011. The FCC's conversion to a refrigerant-based air con system is ongoing.

~ Kimberly Myles

Have you looked through your medicine cabinet lately? Does it contain medications that should have been thrown out when you were still watching Milli Vanilli on MTV? If you haven't inventoried your cabinet lately, put it on your “To Do” list.

But before you throw out over-the-counter or prescription drugs…

•  Check to see if there are specific disposal instructions on the drug label or patient information.

•  Do not flush any medications down the toilet unless there is specific information stating that it is okay to do so.If instructions are not given, take them out of their original containers and place them in a sealable bag mixed with used coffee grounds or kitty litter. This will both help to disguise the medication so people don't steal it, and it will absorb liquid medication.

Take advantage of programs that allow the public to bring in unused or expired drugs to a central location for safe and proper disposal. The city of Naperville has a household hazardous waste program that accepts unused or expired medications. Also, Walgreens offers a medicine disposal program in which you can purchase a pre-addressed, postage pre-paid envelope specially designed to carry medications that you can drop it in the mail.

~ Amy Pavnica