[bulug] Re: LUG Server: Purchased
- From: "Jimmy C. Chau" <jchau@xxxxxx>
- To: bulug-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 20:45:58 -0400
Wow. Where did you find the funding? The XKCD event?
Anyway, with that much computing power (and electrical power), seems
like a waste to let it go idle. Seems like you can run several virtual
servers on it (virtual machines).
* Perhaps distcc in sandboxes for us Gentoo users (during off-peak
hours)? Might be tough to setup & secure though.
* CUPS server for all those BU printers? I have some of the
printers setup on my computer. But I don't know how to set it up
so that it respect/uses the quotas, which BU might require if more
people start printing.
* Game servers? There are probably few better ways to attract
people. Setting these up probably won't be so hard, but securing
them probably will.
* Email, Voicemail, Video chat, for BULUG members? I know email,
have a vague idea about voicemail, & am clueless about video
chat. Not sure how much these would be used though.
* The forum, website, etc...
* Throw in a few good TV tuners & start serving up content? PVR for
LUG users? Maybe extend the service to ENG/Ingalls (I know they
were looking into this & it might be a good way to convince them
to share funding).
* Might be a bit late to setup for this year, but there's a live
webcast of the commencement. Convert this to an open format &
serve it?
* I've had this idea for a while, but I never set it up & didn't
have a stable enough server to do so: a network based anti-theft
system. Basically, there's a client that runs on the client
computer, which when activated, periodically sends information
about its location (IP address, route to server, nearby wireless
networks) to a server & waits for a response. It also uses the
signal strength of the nearby wireless networks (if this
information is available) to determine if the computer is being
moved. (You can also throw in stuff like data from the
accelerometer in the hard drive for motion detection.) And if it
is attached to a wired network, it will monitor the wired
connection. If the client stops receiving responses from the
server, detects enough motion, or notices that the connection
breaks (before the client is deactivated via a password protected
or a USB token based control), then it will sound an alarm that
notifies people nearby of theft (while it continues to relay
information about its location via any method available to the
server). The server also tracks the responses of the client & if
it no longer receives responses from the client before the client
deactivates or if the client notifies the server that it is being
moved, the server will relay this information to BUPD (possibly
with additional information from NSEG to determine a location).
o Of course, the client will be open source so that the user
can be sure that there is no spyware. Make the server open
source too.
+ Throw in a web bug tracking interface, support forum,
etc..
o The communications between the client & server should be secure.
o The server should clear any records it has on the client
once the client deactivates.
o Offer this in a pilot program as a service to BU LUG members.
o Then talk to folks @ IT/PCSC to see if they want this
service; show them usage info from the pilot.
+ If they agree, ask for more funding for BU LUG to
support this & similar efforts.
# Profit. I mean enjoy never having to worry
about funding for BU LUG again. :)
o Pitch this as a senior project to one of the professors
(e.g., Paschalidis
<http://www.bu.edu/ece/people/faculty/o-z/ioannis-paschalidis>
can probably help with the stochastic model) before the
summer is over? (Complex project; will take a lot of time to
get right.)
+ You'd probably want to get some help on the stochastic
model; false positives mean false theft reports to the
police and missed detections mean stolen computers.
o If you don't want to do this, but think it's a good idea,
let me know & I can work on it a bit.
Well, that should be enough ideas to fill your summer.
BTW, what throughput do you have for your network connection?
-Jimmy
Ryan Mullen wrote:
> I'd like to officially announce the purchase of a general purpose LUG
> server. Due to time constraints it won't be online until the beginning
> of next semester, but that gives me a full three months to configure
> it. This replaces the old Dell tower I had donated that ran BU Linux
> and had too little storage space to mirror any large projects.
>
> Specs:
>
> -Quad-core Intel Q8400 2.66GHz CPU
> -8GB DDR2-800 RAM
> -(3) Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB HDDs
> -Western Digital 80GB HDD
> -PC Power and Cooling 420W PSU
>
> The machine will run vanilla CentOS and the three 1TB drives will be
> configured for software md RAID5.
>
> Seeing as we have plenty of horsepower and storage space, we can now
> act as official mirros/repos for the Ubuntu and Gentoo distros, which
> many of you may benefit from.
>
> I am taking suggestions for other resources to be served, so fire away.
>
> Ryan
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--
-Jimmy C. Chau
<jchau@xxxxxx>
<chaujc@xxxxxxxxx>
GPG key ID: 0x8C6AA349
GPG key fingerprint: D889 2B2D E20F A07E 0D54 4280 9C14 D4F6 8C6A A349
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