Plans are being finalized for a dynamic summer term in the CIT Training Program. We are continuing to meet the demands of a population always excited by new knowledge and skills that can be used to improve their work at NIH. Maintaining the program’s high standards, we will offer new sections of existing courses, increase the frequency of some of our most popular selections, evergreen existing offerings to remain current with the rapid changes that take place in technology, and add a number of new courses to the schedule.

The term will begin in the last week of June and then really take off through July and August. As always, we will have courses available on some of the hottest tools out there. Some of the returning offerings include four courses on Java, ranging from an introduction to the topic early in July to specifics such as GUI programming, JavaScript programming and Java servlets. Also, Windows 2000 training, both for end users and system administrators, continues to be popular, and we continue to actively teach Unix, both its fundamentals as well as specifics such as Linux installation and configuration and basic work-station security. Finally, the Biowulf supercluster for scientific applications has experienced a significant upgrade and now includes more than 200 processors. Come join Steven Fellini and learn more about what that group is doing and how you can use this powerful tool.

New Courses

A number of new courses are allowing greater specialization in our current courses as well as expanding the scope with which we are able to cover a given topic. "Meet Your PC—What’s Inside the Box" distinguishes itself from "Hands-On PC Hardware" as a class for those who do not plan on tackling advanced hardware issues on their own but would benefit from knowing more about how their machines work and what the different pieces do. Similarly, "LISTSERV Electronic Mailing Lists" has been divided into "LISTSERV for Users" and "LISTSERV for List Administrators." The most recent session of the combined class was quite popular but received the feedback that there are two very different sets of issues for these different populations, so there will be a class for users this summer and one for administrators in the fall. This solution should better serve each of these groups.

Other new courses are working with a variety of thought provoking topics. For our OS/390 (MVS) users, we have expanded ISPF coverage to include both "Introduction to ISPF/PDF" and "Intermediate ISPF." If you have experience with ISPF, you may want to consider visiting the latter course to further your knowledge of this topic. If you are new to ISPF, consider taking both. For those who have been working with HTML, "Dynamic HTML" offers a method for increasing design flexibility and including movement and user interactivity in Web sites. SAS users who wish to remain on the cutting edge should come and hear "New Features in SAS Version 8." This class will introduce you to the many enhancements that have been made to this powerful statistical tool. Also, those who are formatting scientific documents for presentation and publication may benefit from "An Overview of Latex." This program does an excellent job of bringing together text, pictures, and graphics in a complete document. Finally, a good course for anyone concerned about computer security, "Resisting Hacker Attacks: Understand the Tools" should provide an interesting look at the motivations, tools, techniques and results of recent hacker attacks.

More Information

Interface 214 (June 23, 2000)