Wish List for Added Features and Enhancements

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Future Enhancements

• I haven't noticed anything bad except what is mentioned in your mailbox. List is coming if you so choose to receive it. -- AshleyLPistorio - 11 Jun 2007
• I'll say so. Rsville is where we will be residing! And so it shall be. -- AshleyLPistorio - 11 Jun 2007
• Please let me know whether you notice a performance hit in the midst of a winscp backup. -- LorenEvey - 11 Jun 2007
• Afterall, the server is a dual processor, 2g RAM, 1 terabyte digit cruncher. I would not worry about server load and backup. I mentioned to you that you might notice a performance decrement at 17 min after the hour. In this case, the server is crunching SSH local backups at 1G network speed and, at the same time, SCSI bus speed. Thus, the cpus are busy. Even so, there is load balancing. Have you noticed a slow down from 17 to 22 min after the hour? In your case, you are talking about a download at internet speed. This should not tax the server. I am not so sure about the router. I would be interested to know that if, on one computer, you started a backup, while continuing to work on another computer, would you notice a performance hit at the server. I doubt it. I would suspect your ISP first. Bottom line, I would do the backup based on your computer capability, not the server. Since I doubled the RAM a couple of weeks ago the server has not used swap space. It has headroom. -- LorenEvey - 10 Jun 2007
• ANGEL is a kind Wiki, but with many restrictions. TWiki may possibly become the Wiki engine of choice. It is more powerful than the mediawiki engine that runs wikipedia. I explained to Z today about the series of steps to restore the site in my absence. Namely 1) have a copy of /twiki/*.*; 2) contact a twiki consultant at twiki.org; 3) arrive at a host provider (dedicated server might be best); 4) pay the consultant to recommend the host/server, upload /twiki/*.*, and make it work. The host provider might provide the consulting services. -- LorenEvey - 10 Jun 2007
• BTW- Has Z discussed the potential dreams of having this on Angel? I'm not sure he was considering it being stored so much as actually being hosted on Angel. I know nothing of the way Angel runs, so I told him I hadn't a clue about OS issues, etc, that may come up with hosting a TWiki. It's something more to ask the guy that runs Angel than anything... but if it's on Angel, then, it's no longer TWiki in the sense of lack of collaboration, right? It would be restricted to Angel logons... or am I just confusing myself? -- AshleyLPistorio - 10 Jun 2007
• I'm considering backing up the site this eve (later) to my external HD. Once I head back to HBurg I have errands and family junk to attend to, and then if I'm not completely wiped out I think it's a good time for a dumpload. You think this might be an issue for you this eve? I could do it tomorrow AM if that's better. I'll probably do it once more when I have the Atlas constructed and not just hodgepodge. -- AshleyLPistorio - 10 Jun 2007
• I tried to store medhisto/twiki on ANGEL SBMP repository but it balked somewhere in the 1.2G upload. I can find any utility on ANGEL that tells you about available disk space. I did this before. The interface has changed and I just can't find the tool. It is backed up evey hour anyway. What we are protecting against is my house burning down or my death. -- LorenEvey - 09 Jun 2007
• Skype has been discussed in IT journals lately. Apparently it has not yet been exploited by the bad guys. My understanding is that, technically, it could be exploited. I am just saying that I can't be allowed to administer a computer in our laboratories that sees holes in the firewall, yet chat channels are open. To my knowledge, they now have the capability to assign individual ports to virtual lans. They could allow me a virtual lan of one and poke a hole. The servers access to intra-firewall resources would be the same as the server in my kitchen, but noooooooo..... -- LorenEvey - 09 Jun 2007
• They should care about it but shouldn't restrict things like Skype. We used it all the time at JHU to collaborate (imagine how cool it is to have a conference call with 5 different scientists in 5 different countries-- without phone charges). Being in BME, we set up a killer IT dept and actually had webcasting of our conferences through the intranet, but for many different people at different places, Skype seemed universally equipped and required minimal "training" to get a call going. -- AshleyLPistorio - 09 Jun 2007
• Actually, people are using Skype from campus and others are monitoring remote WEB cameras. These are security issues that IT could care about. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• Oh, oops. Are we not supposed to be using VPNs on campus? I use mine all the time (PSU's journal article access is lacking!). Hm. Don't tell. -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• Um, yes to the Twikiregistration emails. OK for the ways to protect from our mysterious outside editors of malicious intent (MOEMIs). I do have over a Gig on my main laptop, and plenty of storage on my external HD. I also have a few Gig on the external server I mentioned. -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• I don't see a problem with storing it elsewhere. I know, however that our silent editors would be stressed. Zip it and store it. You have a few Gig available? For that matter, I could probably store it in ANGEL extended storage. I just don't have time to worry about it yet. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• You receive the twikiregistration mailings correct? That is, you received email about, for example, Jeff Heslop's registration attempts. Just watch for suspicious registrations. This will show up in "changes" as well. If there is one, then restrict the Main web ALLOWWEBCHANGE to TWikiAdminGroup. Do this in WebPreferences. Remove the "#" from the line " * #Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup". The Main WEB will be restricted to you and me as the only users having write privileges. I already restricted this for the TWiki Web to protect the global administrative settings. Further, the scripts that are involved in the most global of changes are toggled to "non-executable". Notably, "configure" in /twiki/bin/. In the event that a robotic registration is attempted I will then implement captcha. I hate to that know because it is one more thing to discourage a possibly helpful registrant. There is a very restrictive "robots.txt" file so it is unlikely that we will have a spam attack unless a human being makes a decision to attack this site in particular. Unlikely, given that there is nothing lucrative about our current traffic statistics. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• Don't worry about remote backup for now. Don't worry about unknown editors. I ain't goin to happen. Further, the OS will automatically deal with the access locks. For that matter, I think I will be on campus today, I can backup to my office computer with winscp. I have VPN hardware in the kitchen but I have not attempted to subvert HMC IT to establish a VPN connection to my kitchen. There are so many non-content related things to do. There is only so much time. I have two other sites that need a bunch of attention before Fall and I am off to CA for 3 trips in as many months. We need to briefly workout a disaster plan for that. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• I've parsed down my computing world: two laptops plus a monster external HD plus some flash keys for minor data transport. I actually have quite a bit of room on an external server (where I created a web page for my father's business-- I make it, they host it, I dump whatever I want up there), but I doubt it'd be prudent to load this to it (obviously in non-public areas)? Or would it? -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• I guess I could put it on my laptop, too-- there is room, but I try not to bog it down. HDs never seem to run well when getting towards full. I may end up doing both-- I have to offload a bunch of stuff to my external from the laptop soon, so I can save it then. I'll give you fair warning, though, so you know it's going to happen. You seem to be more of a night owl, so I could do it during the day, too. Presumably, there would not be any other impromptu editors trying to make changes then. -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• I don't know what your computing world is like. For me, it would just be a matter of logging on with winscp at the end of the day, starting the download, and then grabbing a six-pack. In fact, If I ever get my car back I will simply do this from my office or one of Ian's computers. I can also simply backup the backup to an external drive and put the drive somewhere other than my house. I might eat crow and ask IT if their laboratory backup facility is accessible from outside the firewall. I doubt it. Then, I don't know what the personal access space is at psu, but I imagine I can get PSU IT to kick it to a couple of gig. They use to charge, I don't know about now. I really have not spent much time looking into this because I am managing more than a terabyte of backup data. There are no free remote facilities that deal with that much data. We we are guarding against is a lightening strike/fire at my house or me accidentally eating pasta. I do not have at this time, a disaster recovery plan for my death. I am, however, in the midst of installing upwards of 10 terabyte of laboratory data storage at HMC. I should eventually be able to mirror my kitchen at HMC. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• If it's not a bad idea to wait, I can download the Twiki to my external (400G, I think something like 250G still free!) when I'm finished making myself (and your server) insane with organizing images and getting the galleries and tables up on each chapter. Of course, that's probably weeks away... wait, or do it now? -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• It seems that you must be making many decisions about culling images. It would be a good idea to use winscp to download the /twiki/*.* at some point. This directory is backed up hourly to a separate hard drive, but not to a remote location. Thus, it would be prudent to have a copy on your hardware. The current twiki directory size is only 1.2 G. You should be able to download this within an hour or so in the middle of the night. Let me know if you have a space limitation and I can give you a flash key for the duration of the project. I am thinking of implementing schedules backups from the server to my office but that requires doing something that IT would not appreciate - if they ever knew. I should also be able to schedule backups initiated by the client but it is not as savory. I really need to make the entire switch to Linux and then these things would be easier. MS sucks. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• It's just as I go through with my fine-toothed comb to pick away at the excessive examples for creating thumbs galleries... it'd be nice if I could "check" next to all the attachments I want to throw away at once. The trash thing is a pain but I'll just keep creating new trashcans when I need them. it doesn't seem to care whether it's Wiki or non-Wiki words when I try to throw out attachments (I tried both ways). It won't let me overwrite a previously trashed attachment with the same name no matter what-- so I'll just create a landfill with all of my cans. -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• Your very sentiments has been echoed by others with the Twiki developers. I think that they have a development page devoted to it. Is this a problem because the wikinames are not released until the trash is emptied? That is, can you have a wikiname for a non-trashed topic that is the same as a trashed topic? The server space is a non-issue. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• It sure would be nice to be able to delete multiple attachments at a time without going SSH (stealth mode). Like, right in the TWiki site interface, where I'm editing like a mad freak. Don't hate me because I'm a royal pain in your microcircuits. -- AshleyLPistorio - 08 Jun 2007
• Uncle. You win. -- LorenEvey - 08 Jun 2007
• Gracious... At least I was planning on making targets in the main atlas TOC page. Don't hate me because I'm hotter than you. -- AshleyLPistorio - 07 Jun 2007
• It sure would be nice if the subheadings on the contents page were linked to targets on the topic pages. Don't hate me because I am smart. -- LorenEvey - 07 Jun 2007
• It might be nice if the links to representative slides pointed to a topic page containing the image and a text explanation of the image. This could be similar to the 2-cell tables on GrossAnatomyUrinarySystem5#KidneyCrossSection. Don't hate me because I am beautiful. -- LorenEvey - 07 Jun 2007