CIS(theta), 2016-2017 September Meeting: Administrativa!

CIS(theta), 2016-2017 

September Meeting: Administrativa!

(1) Wreath of the Unknown Server: We visited our first ever Linux ssh/sftp server, Colossus, which is still in the switch room, though dormant. I set it up for the first time in 1995 running Slackware Linux. Colossus ran for over 12 years, 24x7 never having to shut down, reboot or even have anything re-installed!

(2) Planning: We have to wait a few weeks or so at which point Ubuntu 16.10 64bit Desktop Edition, code named Yakkety Yak, should be available for a mini install fest. I suppose we could use 16.04.1 LTS, Xenial Xerus, which is available now, but I think we'll wait. After that, we will look into installing our Linux Cluster using openMPI and MPI4py! Here's our first reading assignment!

(3) Display Case Unveiled: We took down a ton of fractal prints and ray tracings from Room 429 to the 2 display cases on the 1st floor near the art wing. We decorated both display cases as best we could and left before anyone saw us. Must have been gremlins. BTW, we're looking into getting a Smart-HDTV to showcase student work here.

NCSHS Charter Certificate Baldwin SHS from A Jorge Garcia

(4) NCSHS: We're going to continue our chapter of the National Computer Science Honor Society. We talked about the requirements for membership and how we started a chapter. Each chapter is called "Zeta Omicron something." We're "Zeta Omicron NY Hopper." This is a pretty new honor society. The first few chapters were called Zeta Omicron Alpha and Omicron Zeta Beta. We have the first NYS chapter!

NCSHS Student Application Form from A Jorge Garcia

NEW SMARTBOARD SETUP

NOTE: MIC FOR SCREENCASTING!

NOTE: TI nSPIRE CX CAS EMULATOR!!

NEW DECOR IN THE REAR OF ROOM 429

NOTE: SLIDERULE!

NOTE: NEW SERVERS!!

NEW DECOR ON THE SIDES OF ROOM 429

NOTE: FRACTALS AND RAY TRACINGS!

NEW VIEW FROM LEFT REAR SIDE

NOTE: UBUNTU DESKTOP!

NEW VIEW AS YOU WALK IN

NOTE: SIDERULE!

====================

Membership (alphabetic by first name):

CIS(theta) 2016-2017: 

DanielD(12), JevanyI(12), JuliaL(12), MichaelS(12), YaminiN(12)

CIS(theta) 2015-2016: 

BenR(11), BrandonL(12), DavidZ(12), GabeT(12), HarrisonD(11), HunterS(12), JacksonC(11), SafirT(12), TimL(12)

CIS(theta) 2014-2015: 

BryceB(12), CheyenneC(12), CliffordD(12), DanielP(12), DavidZ(12), GabeT(11), KeyhanV(11), NoelS(12), SafirT(11)

CIS(theta) 2013-2014: 

BryanS(12), CheyenneC(11), DanielG(12), HarineeN(12), RichardH(12), RyanW(12), TatianaR(12), TylerK(12)

CIS(theta) 2012-2013: 

Kyle Seipp(12)

CIS(theta) 2011-2012: 

Graham Smith(12), George Abreu(12), Kenny Krug(12), LucasEager-Leavitt(12)

CIS(theta) 2010-2011: 

David Gonzalez(12), Herbert Kwok(12), Jay Wong(12), Josh Granoff(12), Ryan Hothan(12)

CIS(theta) 2009-2010: 

Arthur Dysart(12), Devin Bramble(12), Jeremy Agostino(12), Steve Beller(12)

CIS(theta) 2008-2009: 

Marc Aldorasi(12), Mitchel Wong(12)

CIS(theta) 2007-2008: 

Chris Rai(12), Frank Kotarski(12), Nathaniel Roman(12)

CIS(theta) 1988-2007: 

A. Jorge Garcia, Gabriel Garcia, James McLurkin, Joe Bernstein, ... too many to mention here!

====================

Happy Linux Clustering, 

AJG

http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com

Well, that's all folks,

A. Jorge Garcia

Applied Math, Physics and CS
2017 NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee

PasteBin SlideShare 

Sage Ebay
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CIS(theta) Meeting IV (2010-2011) - RIP Colossus

Aim: 
RIP Colossus

Attending: 
JayW, JoshG, RyanH

Absent: 
DavidG, HerbertK

Reading: Building Parallel Programs, Chapter4



Research4: 
openmosix distros
http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/instant_openmosix_clusters.html
clusterknoppix CD
http://clusterknoppix.sw.be
quantian DVD
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian.html
chaos CD
http://midnightcode.org/projects/chaos
bccd CD
http://bccd.net

First thing we did this week was to observe a moment of silence.  Yes, Colossus, our ssh server, has finally died after running flawlessly 24x7 for 12 years non-stop (the hdd melted and ground to a halt)!  Kudos goto Slackware as I was running version 3.0 on Colossus all 12 years.  Talk about set it and forget it!  Sorry, Colossus, it's time to go, we don't use Intel Pentium IIs anymore....

Next on the agenda, was to install a new ssh server to replace Colossus.  We will make the new server run as a ssh and an ftp server.  His name shall be Guardian.  We have another new server we will setup as a mirror site.  Her name shall be Caprica.  

So, we installed 32bit Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop edition on Guardian, our new quad-core Intel Xeon.  Yes, it's 32bit - I know, I was shocked too.  Well, that's a good thing, we can make this a Teacher Station as well as a server and not have to downgrade Shadowfax after all.  We'll just need a video switch between the WimpDoze Teacher Station and the Linux Teacher Station!  OK, so we don't really need 2 Linux Teacher Stations, but one is never enough!

We then had to figure out which of the 2 Ethernet cards was eth0 and which of the 4 Ethernet drops were live on the internet.  We crashed and burned at this stage as we ran into a little SNAFU.  We found eth0, but we couldn't find a live drop.  We have 2 new intranet drops for the Linux LAN and 2 new internet drops for the 2 new servers to be accessible off campus.  However, we could not access the internet.  BTW, we also need the internet to finish installing openssh, vsftp and jdk!

As usual our network is FUBAR.  Either the ethernet card's MAC address is blocked, or we didn't get any internet drops installed by the tech department after all.  IDK why we have 2 ethernet cards per server and 4 drops when the old servers did fine with just one card and one drop each - KISS!  I guess we better RTFM b4 the next meeting....

Well, "That's All Folks," for this meeting. We'll tackle the new server again next meeting in 2 weeks. Check our new Facebook Group, CIS(theta), for our next event!  BTW, this 1 hour meeting every 2 weeks is mandatory.  

Here's a YouTube showing sample game play for my latest favorite RTS (for iPod Touch) for no apparent reason other than we're all gamers and not lamers, right? Enjoy!

Happy Clustering,

calcpage@aol.com
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_ti_calculator_active

http://mathforum.org/kb/profile.jspa?userID=32552

CIS(theta) Meeting III (2010-2011) - Geek Squad!

Aim: 
Geek Squad!

Attending: 
DavidG, HerbertK, JayW, JoshG, RyanH

Reading: Building Parallel Programs, Chapter3



Research3
povray
http://library.thinkquest.org/3285/about.html
openGL
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/superap/opengl.html
fractals
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/supercomp/n106.html

This week we reviewed the reading from Chapter 2 and the links from Research 2. Then we proceeded to outline some projects for the "Geek Squad!"  

1) A couple of Student Station's Ubuntu 10.04 Desktops got FUBARed, so we talked about downloading the 64bit ISO, burning a CD and reinstalling those stations. Don't forget, we also have to add JRE for SAGE (http://www.sagemath.org) to do animation in 3D!

2) The Teacher Station is fine, except I tried to get Adobe Flash to work in 64bit for Youtube Wednesdays, but I just succeeded in banging my head against the wall! So, we talked about getting the 32bit Ubuntu ISO and downgrading the OS on that station only. This station should do all that a Student Station does (ie: add JRE) plus some extra apps.  I have VLC (thanx to Jeremy's 250GB external USB Hard-Drive full of Star Trek episodes) and Xournal (can't stand Smart Notebook for Linux) on there, so I'd like to add them to the 32bit Linux partition also. I'm going to need WINE (on all 25 stations) to run VTI for a final project in programming graphing calculators in my Computer Math class (and I won't have to give out TI-83s). I also never got around to playing with handbrake which I want to use to chop up an old National Geographic special that I want to upload to Youtube called "The Miracle Chip" that I converted from VHS to DVD a couple of years ago. Last, but not least, don't forget the Flash plugin for Firefox!

3) Our new 64bit quad-core Xeon servers are not yet ready for prime time! We finally got the gigE drops, so we need to set up the Ethernet cards to be accessible from home.  Also, these PCs are setup right now like the student PCs except for the JRE (ie just a barebones 64bit Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop, not the Server Edition). What we need to install here is vsFTP and openSSH so each server can take the place of the 2 servers we are currently using.  The idea is to replace both centauri.baldwinschools.net (current ftp server) and colossus.baldwinschools.net (current sftp server) by guardian.baldwinschools.net or caprica.baldwinschools.net which will be mirror images of eachother. Another problem with the new servers is that they have RAID drives as follows: guardian has 2x72GB+2x36GB drives and caprica has 1x72GB+3x36GB drives. I would like both servers to have the same RAID setup, so I'm waiting on an order of 5 new 72GB drives to swap out the 36GB drives. That way, both servers will have a 288GB capacity (current servers only have 80GB) and each server can function as an ftp and an sftp site. I may eventually add "Teacher Station" functionality to Guardian (since the new servers are in Room 429 too) so I can use it in class.  This way, one Teacher Station can run WimpDoze all day and the other can run Linux all day so we don't have to reboot theses stations for different classes through out the day. All we need is a KDM switch so as to have 1 keyboard and 1 mouse for both PCs, plus a video switch for the PC Projector to take either Teacher Station as source! You know, what we realy need is a PC Podium so we can also hook up a laptop on the fly when needed (complete with audio, video and ethernet cables) like I have at Nassau Community College when I teach in the summer and at other colleges where I give conferences. Speaking of conferences, I have 2 coming up: "Intro to SAGE," Staff Development Day, Baldwin High School, 11/2/2010 and "Look Ma, No Calculator," T^3 (Teachers Teaching with Teachnology), Molloy College, 11/5/2010!

Ok, we didn't have time to do all that in one meeting, so we focused on the Student Stations for now. I had already downloaded the ISO and put it on the ftp site.  So, we copied it from there and burned a CD. Then we followed the instructions from http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2010/06/so-many-linux-distros-so-little-time.html but only got through steps 1-3. The next day, I tweaked the desktop and printer settings (step 4) and added JRE (2nd alternate to step 5). So, now all is well with the 24x64bit dual-core AMD Athlon Student Stations!

Well, "That's All Folks," for this meeting. We'll tackle the Teacher Station next meeting in 2 weeks. Check our new Facebook Group, CIS(theta), for our next event! Oh, I added my favorite clip from "The Big Bang Theory" for no apparent reason other than we're all in the Geek Squad, right? Enjoy!

Happy Clustering,

calcpage@aol.com
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_ti_calculator_active

http://mathforum.org/kb/profile.jspa?userID=32552

CIS(theta) Meeting II (2010-2011) - Burn Fest!!

Aim: 
Burn Fest!!


Attending: 
DavidG, HerbertK, JayW, JoshG, RyanH


Reading: Building Parallel Programs, Chapter2

Research2:
tjhsst
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/superap/

tjhsst
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/supercomp/index.html
tjhsst
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/compsys/compsys2001.html

This week we reviewed the reading from Chapter 1 and the links from Reasearch 1.  We talked about setting up pelicanHPC in the near future via PXEboot to run some jobs using Octave, MPI and MPITB.  This week's reading is Chapter 2 and Research 2.  I put up Research 3 as it is related to TJHSST, but you can skip those links for now.

Then we talked about our 64bit Ubuntu install as discribed here: http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2010/06/so-many-linux-distros-so-little-time.html whereby all the PCs in our lab are installed identically (24 student clients, 1 teacher client and 2 servers) via the Ubuntu 10.04 live install CD (dualboot with WinXP making linux the primary boot partition on grub2).  I added JRE to the teacher and student stations so we could do 3D graphs on SAGE.  I also added VLC to the teacher station so I could display my crazy videos.  

We discussed adding flash (for youtube viewing), WINE (for VTI in math class), handbrake (to edit DVDs for youtube upload) and xournal (for writing notes in class with my wireless tablet) to the teacher station.  We will also be installing vsftp and openssh-server on the servers. 

Note: student and teacher PCs are 64bit dualcore AMD Athlons and the new servers are 64bit quadcore Intel Xeons.  So, the "geek squad" has its hands full with helping me do all this in the near future!







Meanwhile, the "geek squad" burned, labeled and cased 50 Ubuntu 32bit liveCDs that I can now give out in my classes for my new students to work from home in the same environment as they do in class.  BTW, we made a mini field trip to the Math Office to get some CDs where we found 10x100 CD and 15x50 DVD spindles!  Thanx guys!

Happy Clustering,

calcpage@aol.com
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_ti_calculator_active

http://mathforum.org/kb/profile.jspa?userID=32552