From demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu Sat Dec 11 13:26:42 2004 From: demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Borries Demeler) Date: Sat Dec 11 13:27:00 2004 Subject: [HSC-Unix] Penn State dumps IE Message-ID: <200412111926.iBBJQgth001944@biochem.uthscsa.edu> This is an interesting development at Penn State University which in my opinion is long overdue: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55301109 -Borries A public university with an enrollment of over 80,000 put the kibosh this week on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and urged its students to switch to alternative browsers such as Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or Safari. Penn State University on Wednesday issued an alert to students and staff recommending that they dump IE and use a different browser. The university's Information Technology Services (ITS) gave the advice "because the threats are real and alternatives exist to mitigate Web browser vulnerabilities," ITS said in a statement. It cited the security problems in IE that have been the focus of both media reports and recommendations from such organizations as the US-CERT, the federally-funded computer response team housed at Carnegie Mellon University. "The University computing community [should] use standards-based Web browsers other than Internet Explorer to help minimize exposure to attacks that occur through browser vulnerabilities," added ITS. Penn State's advice is the latest negative news about Microsoft's popular browser. Security problems continue to plague IE -- some patched, some not -- while rivals like Firefox slowly nibble away at its still-dominating market share. From glickman at uthscsa.edu Sun Dec 12 17:50:57 2004 From: glickman at uthscsa.edu (Randolph D. Glickman) Date: Sun Dec 12 17:46:57 2004 Subject: [HSC-Unix] platform-independent bibliographic database Message-ID: <5.1.1.6.0.20041212171439.02911370@129.111.26.121> Hello All: I wanted to bring to the attention of those on this list the current evaluation of "RefWorks" by the Library, available to all UTHSC faculty and students. RefWorks is a bibliographic database, similar in functionality to RefMan or EndNote, except that it is web-based, and platform-independent. Being web-based offers several advantages over local, stand-along programs, such as: 1) RefWorks handles the maintenance and backup of your precious bibliographic database. They have multiple servers that maintain users' databases. Realistically, the likelihood that a database would be lost because one's local hard disk crashed and burned is far higher than something permanently taking out RefWork's servers. Nevertheless, RefWorks can generate a local backup on the user's hard disk, which can be read by all or most of the current stand-alone programs. This might also be useful, for example, for off-line use. 2) One can set up multiple user access to your database. This would be a great help for collaborators in multiple sites to work on a paper. In my experience, handling references has always been one of the biggest headaches in writing "group-papers". 3) References can be directly exported from Ovid, PubMed, and other reference resources. 4) Since the only requirement to access RefWorks is for a standards-compliant browser, it is compatible with virtually any modern operating system, including Linux or Unix. Using the browser, citations can be inserted into the text being prepared, and RefWorks then will generate the bibliography and format the main text with the specified in-text citation format. In terms of supported word processor formats, RefWorks will handle MS Word format (of course) but also RTF - which should accommodate just about any modern word processor. My experience with RefWorks so far: I have transferred my personal bibliographic database into RefWorks, which took some work, because I was using an older, non-supported reference database program. For anyone using a current ISI variant, such as RefMan or EndNote, the transfer should be virtually automatic. I like the program interface, and the reference import from Ovid works smoothly. Using a non-Microsoft word processor, I was able to produce a formatted bibiography from a master file in RTF. There is also a pretty slick format editor that you can use to create output formats. There are built-in formats for many journals already, but of course there were hardly any for journals in my field. But it is quite easy to modify an existing format using the editor. Also, RefWorks says they will create the format for you, if you let them know what you need. I think the availability of RefWorks addresses a major lack in Linux - the absence of a bibliographic database. For me, this has been an obstacle to switching over completely to Linux. RefWorks appears to solve that problem. I recommend that any of you who need this capability check out RefWorks. My information, too, is that the Library is going to license the product, which will be free for all faculty and students. In case you are wondering, individuals can purchase their own licenses from RefWorks for $70/yr, which is quite reasonable considering the $200+ cost of a program such as RefMan, and that there is never a need to purchase updates (only the yearly license fee). IMO, I think RefWorks is the way to go. Check it out! --Randy Randolph D. Glickman, Ph.D. Senderoff Professor of Vision Research Department of Ophthalmology University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 Tel: 210-567-8420 Fax: 210-567-8413 e-mail: glickman@uthscsa.edu From demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu Sun Dec 12 18:34:16 2004 From: demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Borries Demeler) Date: Sun Dec 12 18:34:27 2004 Subject: [HSC-Unix] platform-independent bibliographic database In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20041212171439.02911370@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <200412130034.iBD0YGZj018223@biochem.uthscsa.edu> THanks Randy for this tip! I was looking for a long time myself for something like this. I will definitely check it out. -Borries > > Hello All: > > I wanted to bring to the attention of those on this list the current > evaluation of "RefWorks" by the Library, available to all UTHSC faculty and > students. RefWorks is a bibliographic database, similar in functionality > to RefMan or EndNote, except that it is web-based, and > platform-independent. Being web-based offers several advantages over > local, stand-along programs, such as: etc... From glickman at uthscsa.edu Mon Dec 13 09:56:43 2004 From: glickman at uthscsa.edu (Randolph D. Glickman) Date: Mon Dec 13 09:58:33 2004 Subject: [HSC-Unix] platform-independent bibliographic database In-Reply-To: <200412130034.iBD0YGZj018223@biochem.uthscsa.edu> References: <5.1.1.6.0.20041212171439.02911370@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <5.1.1.6.0.20041213095322.027d9a50@129.111.26.121> Borries, you are welcome! Glad to be of help. BTW, if anybody does an evaluation of RefWorks, please send any comments you have about the program to Rajia Tobia at the Library (see the Library home page for log-in information to the RefWorks demo). Positive feedback from us will help ensure that the UTHSC licenses the program, and then we will have free access to it. Regards, Randy At 06:34 PM 12/12/2004 -0600, you wrote: >THanks Randy for this tip! I was looking for a long time myself for >something like this. I will definitely check it out. > >-Borries > > > > Hello All: > > > > I wanted to bring to the attention of those on this list the current > > evaluation of "RefWorks" by the Library, available to all UTHSC faculty > and > > students. RefWorks is a bibliographic database, similar in functionality > > to RefMan or EndNote, except that it is web-based, and > > platform-independent. Being web-based offers several advantages over > > local, stand-along programs, such as: > >etc... >_______________________________________________ >HSC-Unix mailing list >HSC-Unix@biochem.uthscsa.edu >http://biochem.uthscsa.edu/mailman/listinfo/hsc-unix Randolph D. Glickman, Ph.D. Senderoff Professor of Vision Research Department of Ophthalmology University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 Tel: 210-567-8420 Fax: 210-567-8413 e-mail: glickman@uthscsa.edu From demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu Mon Dec 13 13:23:51 2004 From: demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Borries Demeler) Date: Mon Dec 13 13:24:04 2004 Subject: [HSC-Unix] platform-independent bibliographic database In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20041213095322.027d9a50@129.111.26.121> Message-ID: <200412131923.iBDJNpjY006001@biochem.uthscsa.edu> I'll keep that in mind. Thanks again, -Borries > > Borries, you are welcome! Glad to be of help. > > BTW, if anybody does an evaluation of RefWorks, please send any comments > you have about the program to Rajia Tobia at the Library (see the Library > home page for log-in information to the RefWorks demo). Positive feedback > from us will help ensure that the UTHSC licenses the program, and then we > will have free access to it. > > Regards, > > Randy > From glickman at uthscsa.edu Tue Dec 14 09:19:01 2004 From: glickman at uthscsa.edu (Randolph D. Glickman) Date: Tue Dec 14 09:19:21 2004 Subject: [HSC-Unix] Library purchases license for RefWorks Message-ID: <5.1.1.6.0.20041214091132.02788818@129.111.26.121> Hello All: For those who may not have seen this morning's Library News e-mail, the Library has purchased a license for RefWorks, the platform-independent, web-based bibliographic database I mentioned earlier on this List. There will be a training class for RefWorks in January. I think this is a very positive development, and certainly removes an obstacle to the use of non-Windows desktops in the academic environment. Now, if only the issue of accessing the PeopleSoft, er Oracle, University business site with browsers other than IE could be addressed ... Have a good day! --Randy Randolph D. Glickman, Ph.D. Senderoff Professor of Vision Research Department of Ophthalmology University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 Tel: 210-567-8420 Fax: 210-567-8413 e-mail: glickman@uthscsa.edu