Kevin Turner Moves On
---------------------
    As some of you may have heard, Kevin Turner who has been providing
installation / tuning support for the Arc/Info software that runs on Zoo
recently left UVM for a job opportunity in Portland, OR. The Unix
installation support will be provided by Mike Austin who was hired last
April. Like Kevin, Mike worked for UVM as a Student Consultant and is very
capable. He joined the Systems Programming staff this spring. He can be
reached at [log in to unmask]


Arc / Info Site License
-----------------------
  As most of you are aware, UVM funded a site license for Arc/Info earlier
this year. The site license, other than software installations under AIX,
will be supported out of Academic Computing Services (ACS). Please
understand that this does not imply that CIT will have ArcInfo expertise,
but that ACS will serve as the keepers and distribution source of the
licenses. As time goes on, we will likely learn more about Arc/Info, but
fully expect the centers of GIS expertise  to remain in SNR and other
departments with an ongoing need to employ the software. In addition to
covering the use of Arc / Info on UVM's Unix hosts, several other desktop /
workstation products are available. If you have questions or an interest in
taking advantage of this site license, contact Steve Cavrak
([log in to unmask] or 6-1483).

Zoo Cluster Upgrades
--------------------

  The Systems Programming staff have been working hard to update the Zoo
cluster over the summer. The cluster now includes 3 8-way SMP processors
(an R30 and 2 J30s) for a total of 24 processors. Memory has been added to
J30s and within the limits of our budget, we plan to add more memory during
the academic year. The processors (currently RISC 6000 601s) will be
replaced with the faster 604 processors as they become available (expected
in the fall semester). Although the new aggregate computing power is by no
means unlimited, this represents a very substantial increase over the
amount available last year. We are reasonably confident that this
additional capacity will go a long way towards meeting your computing
needs. Computing usage demands can increase very rapidly (as recent history
has amply demonstrated) so performance levels cannot be *guaranteed*.

A GIS Meeting?
--------------

  With the recent changes, and especially with the new licensing
arrangements, it would probably be useful to get the folks with an interest
in GIS together.  If you would find such a meeting useful, contact
[log in to unmask] and we will set a meeting at an appropriate time
(September?) and location.

  Please feel free to pass this email along to anyone we may have missed.

  Thanks!

P.S. Note that Don Foss has requested a list server for GIS announcements
and discussions. The name of the list is:

[log in to unmask]:  VT Geographic Information System News and Discussion

You can subscribe by sending a message to [log in to unmask] with the
following message:

   subscribe vgis-l  your name here

There is also a newsgroup called uvm.gis. I encourage you to use them to
share/gather information about GIS usage at UVM and in Vermont.