Changes

See also: Many people often confuse WSO with the college-run [[Stuff WSO Definitely Should DoOffice for Information Technology]].

==HistoryServices==

'''For more information on WSO was founded in January of 1995 by [[Jon Zeppieri]]services, [[DeWitt Clinton]]projects, [[Jon Kim]]policies, and othersstaff, please see [http://wso. Originally, the servers were Apple Powermac 7100 machines running WebStarwilliams.edu/wso About WSO].

1996 saw the beginning of the Internet boom, ===Web Hosting===WSO lets students and the arrival of many new recruits to WSOalumni put their web pages on our servers. With the strong UNIX background of [[Jon Zeppieri]]To apply for an account, [[Iein Valdez]], [[Geoff Hutchison]], and [[DeWitt Clinton]] and email Richard Oot (root@wso). Please supply a blazingly-fast Pentium I 100MHz machine, WSO was migrated williams.edu email address to a FreeBSD-based server. Meanwhile, WSO attracted send the artistic talents of [[Kate Tan]], [[Eric Smith]], and [[Kenric Taylor]]password to. Others lending their computer expertise and love for technology included [[Matt Garland]], [[Ken Fowler]], and [[Christine Soarse]]. Finally, [[Jonah Wittkamper]] served as general all-around cheerleader for Organizations can also get web pages through WSO.

The fall of 1996 saw the arrival of a new crop of freshman, including [[Chuck Hagenbuch]] (would would go on to design [[Horde/IMP]], the Williams College Webmail system), [[Dan Mason]] (HTML coder extrordinaire), [[Chris Richards]] (security and FSH enthusiast), [[David Ramos]] (designer and typographer), Our web hosting supports PHP and [[Jason Healy]] (future allserver-campus listserver nazi)side includes by default. By winterIf you want more advanced features, the website had been overhauled (sporting a scan of Chuck's right hand)such as CGI, and new services were cropping up like crazy: the online FacebookMySQL, all-campus and dorm listservers, online DA and calendar announcementsor PostgreSQL, and contact a small software archiveRichard Oot (root@wso).

WSO continued See also: [[How to grow at make a rapid pace, as new services were added and members signed web page on for web and e-mail accounts. [[Free University]] HTML courses were taught to students and members of the community by [[David Ramos]WSO], [[Ben Isecke]], and [[Jacob Eisler]], and several clubs and organizations at the college created web pages about themselves.

As the use of technology grew===http://wso.williams.edu===This is our fancy web site, featuring blogs, a calendar, a campus facebook, photos, floor plans, choose your own adventure, WSO acquired more and better equipmentsurveys. Better funding was provided by We wrote it all ourself with the IT department help of the collegeRuby on Rails and, formerly, and WSO soon got a new serverApache PageKit. A new naming scheme was conceived If you have ideas for the servers: [[Scary Aunt Names]]. The new machine was christented "Ethel"it, and replaced the aging Pentium I please come to a meeting ("Mabel"above). In the years that followed, several new servers came Or scribble something on board: Gertrude, Spiker, Olga, Nancy (and others?)[[Stuff WSO Definitely Should Do]].

In the fall of 2002, abuse of the ===Linux Parties===See [[WSO Forums]] continued. A thread entitled "Gays Suck" prompted the [[Queer Student Union]] Migrate to print out the thread and post it in [[Baxter HallLinux]], inviting responses with paper and pen. Abuse escalated at the end of October, at which time there were several pornographic images, violent threats, and racist, sexist, and homophobic posts to be found in the forums. On October 30, the forums were removed.

But they were ===Listservers===A listserver is an email address that distributes messages to return. [[Shimon Rura]] led a site re-write in the spring and summer bunch of 2003people. One goal of the re-write was to authenticate usersWSO hosts listservers for student groups broadly defined, so that their postings and doings could be identifiedother organizations around campus/Williamstown. The site was written with [You can apply for a listserver at http://wwwwso.pagekitwilliams.org Apache PageKit]. Shimon wrote the authentication system edu/lists/create, and we'll try to get to the [[WSO Ride Board]], [[Josh Ain]] wrote request in a new menu feed, [[Tom White]] re-wrote the [[WSO Forums]], [[Evan Miller]] re-wrote some screen scrapers, and [[Topher Cyll]] re-wrote the [[WSO Facebook]] and wrote [[few days. A complete list of WSO Blogs]] listservers is available from a hole in Scotlandhttp://wso.williams. The site went live in July of 2003 and has grown in features and popularity since thenedu/mailman/listinfo.

Toph, Tom, Brent, Jacob, and Steve graduated in the spring of 2004, and around that time [[Ben Cohen]] and [[Dan Weintraub]] were given [[root]]. During the summer, Evan and Dan converted [[WSO Plans]] from uses Mailman to power its standalone PHP/MySQL incarnation over to PageKit, so that students could access it from off-campus without listservers. [[setting up a proxy serverSteven Rubin]](srubin@wso) is our list admin. Also, they converted the Postgres database and the website over to UTF-8/Unicode. With the help of [[Masha Lifshin]] and [[Sam Dreeben]], the duo made much-envied but never-imitated Quicktime VRs for their [[Facebook pictures]]Contact him with list administration questions.

In the fall of 2004, [[Kai Steverson]] rewrote [[Factrak]] for [[College Council]] to allow people to "agree" ===Secure Instant Messaging===WSO users can communicate with comments left about professors. Kai also wrote [[My Survey]] that semester. Evan re-wrote each other using the [[WSO FacebookSecure iChat Service]] (again) to include faculty and more information fields.

In February 2005, WSO was hacked by a group of Brazilians calling themselves Simiens Crew 2005===wso/wiki===You're reading it now. We host Willipedia.

'''UrsulaEmma''' is the latest addition to the cageNancy's replacement. Lean  '''Ursula''', lean and sleek, she's is an Xserve with dual G5 processors and 2 gigs of RAM. Don't bump into her, though, unless you're a deaf person in need of a metronome. Ursula runs shell logins, email forwarding, and listserverslists.

Spiker is currently hosting POP and IMAP connectionstaking up space in the cage, having been Officially Unplugged after a long stint in Non-booting Purgatory. It's quieter in the cage now.

'''Olga and the Firewall''' are nearly identical Dell PowerEdge 300's running at 800 MHz. Olga has much more hard disk space (600 GB), though, because she's (was) our backup server. The Firewall is the only machine in the Cage without a scary aunt name. As you might guess, she acts as a firewall, connecting incoming traffic to the proper machine in the cluser, and protecting the machines from requests on ports that we don't run official services on. Here the are pictured together. The Firewall is on the left, identifiable by the red FreeBSD demon sticker:

==ListserversChoice excerpts from WSO files== See [[code comments]]. ==History== WSO was founded in January of 1995 by [[DeWitt Clinton]] and [[John Kim]], with help from [[Jon Zeppieri]], [[Jason Gladstone]], [[Jessica Mintz]], and others. Originally, the first server was an Apple Powermac 7100 running WebStar, on loan from the [[College Council]]. The original mandate from the CC was to create an online version of the daily advisor. John and DeWitt successfully ignored this mandate for serveral years. 1996 saw the beginning of the Internet boom, and the arrival of many new recruits to WSO. With the strong [[Unix]] background of Jon Zeppieri, [[Iein Valdez]], [[Geoff Hutchison]], and DeWitt Clinton and a blazingly-fast Pentium I 100MHz machine, WSO was migrated to a FreeBSD-based server. Meanwhile, WSO attracted the artistic talents of [[Kate Tan]], [[Eric Smith]], and [[Kenric Taylor]]. Others lending their computer expertise and love for technology included [[Matt Garland]], [[Ken Fowler]], and [[Christine Soarse]]. Finally, [[Jonah Wittkamper]] served as general all-around cheerleader for WSO. The fall of 1996 saw the arrival of a new crop of freshmen, including [[Chuck Hagenbuch]] (would would go on to design [[IMP|Horde/IMP]], the Williams College Webmail system), [[Dan Mason]] ([[HTML]] coder extrordinaire), [[Chris Richards]] (security and [[FSH]] enthusiast), [[David Ramos]] (designer and typographer), and [[Jason Healy]] (future all-campus listserver nazi). By winter, the website had been overhauled (sporting a scan of Chuck's right hand), and new services were cropping up like crazy: the online [[Facebook]], all-campus and dorm [[listserver]]s, online [[Daily Advisor]] and calendar announcements, and a small software archive. WSO continued to grow at a rapid pace, as new services were added and members signed on for web and e-mail accounts. [[Free University]] HTML courses were taught to students and members of the community by [[David Ramos]], [[Ben Isecke]], and [[Jacob Eisler]], and several clubs and organizations at the college created web pages about themselves. As the use of technology grew, WSO acquired more and better equipment. Better funding was provided by the IT department of the college, and WSO soon got a new server. A new naming scheme was conceived for the servers: [[Scary Aunt Names]]. The new machine was christented "Ethel", and replaced the aging Pentium I ("Mabel"). In the years that followed, several new servers came on board: Gertrude, Spiker, Olga, Nancy (and others?). In the fall of 2002, abuse of the [[WSO Forums]] continued. A thread entitled "Gays Suck" prompted the [[Queer Student Union]] to print out the thread and post it in [[Baxter Hall]], inviting responses with paper and pen. Abuse escalated at the end of October, at which time there were several pornographic images, violent threats, and racist, sexist, and homophobic posts to be found in the forums. On October 30, the forums were removed. But they were to return. [[Shimon Rura]] led a site re-write in the spring and summer of 2003. One goal of the re-write was to authenticate users, so that their postings and doings could be identified. The site was written with [http://www.pagekit.org Apache PageKit]. Shimon wrote the authentication system and the [[WSO Ride Board]], [[Josh Ain]] wrote a new menu feed, [[Tom White]] re-wrote the WSO Forums, [[Evan Miller]] re-wrote some screen scrapers, and [[Topher Cyll]] re-wrote the WSO Facebook and wrote WSO Blogs from a hole in Scotland. The site went live in July of 2003 and has grown in features and popularity since then. In January 2004, [[Tom White]] and [[Steve Winslow]] noticed the timestamp on a system file on WSO servers with a shared user base reflected a date and time that was inconsistent with that of the same file on independent WSO servers. Their further investigation showed that WSO had been compromised. They notified the rest of WSO and temporarily took systems off-line. Over the next seventy-two hours, Tom led the response team which rebuilt all WSO machines and services and tightened security. By this time, WSO was supporting thousands of users and over a hundred student organizations. Not a single piece of email was lost. [[Chris Douglas]] reported the incident to the WSO community of users on behalf of WSO; [[Tom White]] and [[Jacob Eisler]] reported the incident to College Council. Toph, Tom, Brent, Jacob, and Steve graduated in the spring of 2004, and around that time [[Ben Cohen]] and [[Dan Weintraub]] were given [[root]]. During the summer, Evan and Dan converted [[WSO Plans]] from its standalone PHP/MySQL incarnation over to PageKit, so that students could access it from off-campus without [[setting up a proxy server]]. Also, they converted the Postgres database and the website over to UTF-8/Unicode. With the help of [[Masha Lifshin]] and [[Sam Dreeben]], the duo made much-envied but never-imitated Quicktime VRs for their [[Facebook picture]]s. In the fall of 2004, [[Kai Steverson]] rewrote [[Factrak]] on hire by College Council, to enhance the abilities of the admin, make comments expire, and allow raters to "agree" with comments left about professors. Kai also wrote [[My Survey]] that semester. Evan re-wrote the WSO Facebook (again) to include faculty and more information fields. The new Factrak's interface pulled entries and faces from the new Facebook. In February 2005, WSO was hacked by a group of Brazilians calling themselves Simiens Crew 2005. ===Migration to Ursula: October 2005=== In 2005, WSO bought Ursula to replace Spiker. Migrating a 3000-user FreeBSD system to Mac OS X Server is not, in the end, recommended. The play-by-play was delivered on the old WSO announcements system. Copies of the posts are stored here. * [[Media:WSO Announcement - Email and SSH will be down today - 2 Oct 2005.txt|Initial Oct. 2 announcement]]* [[Media:WSO_Announcement_-_Progress_report_-_2_Oct_2005.txt|Progress report]], later that day. So close!* [[Media:WSO_Announcement_-_Regress_report_-_3_Oct_2005.txt|Regress report]], posted at 3 AM after a few... mishaps.* [[Media:WSO Announcement - Migration Party Take 2 - 3 Oct 2005.txt|Post-mortem and admission of failure]] the next morning. Things actually went smoothly the next time (a week later), with Jason Healy '01 scoring an assist by providing some migration scripts. ===Spring 2006=== [[Ben Wood]], [[James Ritterpusch]], and [[Jessica Chung]] were made [[root]] over WSO dinner at [[Guide to Off-Campus Dining#Coyote Flaco|Coyote Flaco]] in the spring of 2006. ===2011 - 2012=== In the spring of 2011, former root president Steven Rubin '11 passed his title on to Chuan Ji '12 and also made [[Ian Nesbitt]] and Ben Seiler (both '13s) roots. Soon, Chuan Ji '12 also made Qiao Zhang '13 root. In the fall, the root group had a successful bout of recruiting at the Purple Key Fair, convincing a number of promising '15s to sign up for the WSO listserve. Chuan showed off his [http://wso.williams.edu/test/facebook/ new Facebook interface] which is coded in Python and includes instant suggestions and a better search function. ==Former WSOers== * Josh Ain* Kashif Akthar* Francisco Alarcon* Ben Birney* Beth Budwig* Jason Busch* Jing Cao* DeWitt Clinton* Michael Chanin* Jessica Chung* Ben Cohen* Christopher Cyll* Chris Douglas* Jacob Eisler* Matt Garland* Mike Gnozzio* Geoff Guile* Chuck Hagenbuch* Jason Healy* Cheng Hu* Geoff Hutchison* Brian Hwang* Ben Isecke* Ayesha Johnson* Jason Law* Mari Lliguicota* Joe Masters* Evan Miller* Steve Moore* David Ramos* Jeremy Redburn* Chris Richards* James Ritterpusch* Todd Rogers* Shimon Rura* Jess Scott* Josh Solomon* Fritz Stabenau* Kai Steverson* Robin Stewart* Mandy Stockley* Bartley Tablante* Kate Tan* Kenric Taylor* Ken-ichi Ueda* Iein Valdez* Dan Weintraub* Tom White* Wayne Wight* Steve Winslow* Jonah Wittkamper* Steve Wollkind* Brent Yorgey* Ben Wood* Jon Zeppieri* Chuan Ji* Qiao Zhang* Ben Seiler* Ian Nesbitt

==See also==*[[Stuff WSO uses Mailman 2.1.4 to power its listservers. A complete list of WSO listservers is available from Definitely Should Do]]*[http://wso.williams.edu/mailmanabout/listinfoAbout WSO] -- documentation, help, policy, etc.*[https://www.eukhost.com web hosting]-- Student Host your blog.