Last revision December 18, 2008
The School of Earth Sciences will be observing the university winter closure from December 20, 2008 through January 4, 2009. In general, there will be no information technology services or support available in Earth Sciences during this period.
No CRC desktop support consultants will be working from December 20 through January 4. The ITS Help Desk (http://helpsu.stanford.edu/ or 725-HELP) will be monitored, but only reports of major problems will be passed to ITS on-call personnel, for example, major network outages. Problems with specific computers will not be addressed until January 5. More information about ITS support during the closure can be found at:
http://itwinterclosure.stanford.edu/
There may be a backlog of HelpSU requests during the first week of January, so please be patient if you need help immediately after the closure.
The School file server (sesfs), web server (pangea) and local area networks will be left running to provide services and remote access, but tape backups may not run every day. Report sesfs and pangea problems to the system managers. Report network problems to the network managers. Those emails will be monitored occasionally; only the most severe problems will be addressed before January 5.
The A65 and GRID lab computers will be available, but please shut them down completely after using them to save energy! Report problems to the Mitchell A65 lab managers or the G.R.I.D. lab managers. Problems will be addressed beginning on January 5.
Please, when you leave on December 19 for the winter closure, remember to turn off all lights and electrical devices in your offices and labs to save energy. Shutdown your computer, too! The "sleep" mode saves some energy, but a complete shutdown and power off saves much more.
In addition, if your computer is off, it is protected against hacker attacks. Some people have left their computers on while on vacation, only to find that hackers broke in because there was no one there to monitor the system or click "Yes" to install protective software updates as they became available. Also, turning off your computer will protect it from any possible power fluctuations or spikes.