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This is Zach Shepherd's COSI MP 151 website for the spring 2007 semester. The content is divided into two sections (Goals and Projects), which are linked to at to top of the page.

Currently, I am taking MP 151 (which is a variable credit course) for 2 credits. The requirements (full text found on the main spring 2007 page) for 2 credits include:

• Attend regular COSI meetings,
• Contribute 15 hours to overall COSI projects including open house, lab maintenace, etc.,
• Create a web page summarizing experiences/contributions at midterm time and updated for end of semester,
• Choose an open source project to follow and report/summarize or learn the internals of an open source application and report,
• Regular every other week reports,
• Produce specific improvements to COSI and the open source community (write code for an open source project, take a leadership role in managing/maintaining the COSI lab, write documentation for open source code).

New/notes/reports:

April 18, 2007

The storage image now has a static IP and can be accessed at storage.cosi.clarkson.edu. Cyrus was looking into using LDAP for authentication so that we can use AFS usernames and passwords.

The OSI group hasn't had a chance to meet, and wont for the next little while because Todd and Ryan are at the Xen Conference. Hopefully we will meet before the end of the semester to finish syllabi and presentation materials so that we can practice and improve the presentations over the summer, and be set to go at the beginning of next semester.

April 11,2007

Not much has happened over the past week. Cyrus decided that Debian Etch would be better for the storage stuff. We haven't found a time to meet again for the OSI project. Hopefully both will be able to be taken care of before the end of the semseter.

April 4, 2007

The storage image is mounting the storage image over iSCSI instead of NFS due to permissions issues. It isn't mounting from the raid yet because of issues that are going to be fixed in Fiesty Fawn. Work has begun on the administration interface for the storage system. If everything stays on-track, development should be finished around the same time Fiesty Fawn is released.

There were some issues with permissions (the entire image was chmoded to 777 by accient), and the image needed to be rebuilt (from close to scratch). It is back up and running about where it was at before the incident.

This weekend was open house. I hung out around the labs and talked to some students. A few seemed relatively interested in the labs. Hopefully we will hear back from some of them in the fall.

March 28, 2007

Ryan Lewis and I set up the COSI MySQL server data to work with NFS-export. Cyrus exported a Xen image over iSCSI for user storage. I will be working with Matt to put both subversion and a web-managed user storage system in place. The interface will allow creation user accounts for both subversion and an ssh account with ~1 GB of storage on raidB.

March 21, 2007

Cyrus and I discussed the possibility of setting up a web-admin system to create and manage storage accounts and quotas. It's still in the brainstorming phase, but plans are to have a xen image importing its /home/ directory from animal and to create user accounts on that xen image so that people could access their space through ssh/scp in a manner similar to the way that polaris acts as a front end for the AFS storage space.

March 14, 2007

This weekend I worked with Cyrus, Keegan, and Jeremy to get the COSI website and mirror running as NFS on Animal (raidC). Monday mirror had some issues around the same time as the IP change, but we're not sure that the IP change was the cause. Everything was back up and running by Monday evening. Currently, we are in the process of getting GNDB or AoE set up for use with Xen images.

At the meeting I presented my new project idea, a usablility comparison of Windows Vista and Linux (probably Ubuntu 6.10 with beryl default settings). The only potential issue is that we would need to obtain liscence(s) for Vista (preferably through the MSDN Academic Alliance). The goal of the project would be to get hard, comparable, data about the usablility of Vista and whichever Linux distrobution(s) are chosen.

March 7, 2007

Last weekend we (Ryan, Keegan, Todd, Erica, and I) held the Linux Workshop we've been planning for the past few weeks. It went well (except for some minor projector issues). Six people showed up to learn more about Linux. They were from a variety of majors with a wide range in knowledge about linux (from knowing little about it to already using it). People seemed to enjoy it, and there was a request for another workshop covering more advanced topics.

February 28, 2007

Almost everything is set for the workshop this weekend (Saturday 1-3pm). We just need to put a theme on the presentation and burn the Live CDs. Posters have been put up around campus, so hopefully we'll get a good turnout.

February 21, 2007

We were planning to hold the Linux Workshop this weekend, but, because we need more preparation, we will be pushing it back a week. At some point in the next week, we'll be putting up signs to promote the workshop. This weekend we'll be meeting to finish preparations and make sure everything is set to go.

February 14, 2007

Some of us got together in various groups at various times over February break to get some planning done for both this fall and for the Linux Installation Workshop we're doing in a few weeks. For the fall, we decided that it would be best to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays of the first few weeks of the semester to cover things in a logical manner. The current plan is to have meetings Tuesdays to discuss general open source, and Thursdays to discus linux in particular. Right now, it seems like 2 (maybe 3) weeks will be enough, discussing basics and "What is...?"s the first week, and going into more specifics (such as programs and installation) the following week(s).

February 7, 2007

We haven't done much over the past week... we'll probably be meeting a few times over break to get some planning done for the fall.

Pre February 7, 2007

Keegan, Todd, Ryan, and I talked before, once during, and a few times since break. We've brainstormed and dug around for links. Over break, I helped Matt with lab cleaning for a couple days.

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