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News from the staff team

  • 1 min read

We've talked about it, and now it's here! The print queue is now available on display in lab on a dedicated machine and monitor by the printer, as well as online at your convenience. It was formerly accessible only via command line (lpq -s) and printing status windows in Windows, neither of which were visible enough for the majority of our users to notice. Thank you Aaron Oaks, Genevieve Wong, and Mike Gasidlo for working on making this happen.

  • 2 min read

PHP 4 to PHP 5 transition

Due to the PHP developers' decision to end support for PHP 4, the OCF will be requiring all users with PHP web applications, such as WordPress, phpBB, or Gallery, to use PHP 5. This transition, required by the campus Minimum Security Standards, will provide more features, security, and performance for PHP web applications on the OCF. As the current default PHP interpreter is PHP 4, almost all users of PHP will be affected, though few will need to make drastic changes to their applications. The transition will happen in two stages:


  • As of March 21st, 2008, the default PHP interpreter (the one used to run scripts with extension .php) will change from PHP 4.4 to PHP 5.2. Users who cannot migrate to PHP 5 by this date may choose to continue to use PHP 4 temporarily; see our transition documentation for details.
  • As of May 12, 2008, support for PHP 4 will be removed entirely. All PHP applications in use after this date will be run using PHP 5.

Users whose websites do not include web applications, or whose web applications are written in another language such as Perl, will not be affected.

All PHP users should review their web applications for compatibility with PHP 5 as soon as possible. Most widely-used web applications already support PHP 5, so in many cases, no action is needed; in most others, an application upgrade will be sufficient to ensure continued functionality. Users who use custom-written PHP applications need to review their code for PHP 5 compatibility; see the links provided in our documentation for details on what's changed.

We recommend that you test your web application with PHP 5 before the transition date; instructions on how to do this are in our documentation.

The latest information on the change, and details on how you can ensure your web applications continue to function, can be found at:

http://docs.ocf.berkeley.edu/wiki/Major_service_changes

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us (email staff@ocf.berkeley.edu).

  • 1 min read

The Long Promised Website Uploader

The OCF website manager, our SFTP web-based interface, has now entered beta mode. What it does is allow you to upload files to your webspace and your home directory through a purely web-based interface, in our efforts to make this process as easy as possible. I would like to thank Stephen Le for setting up this installation into something functional. I've also re-skinned the default "Blue" theme with a custom OCF theme that is more or less complete. In time, this will become a standard tool for all OCF users, once we make sure everything works smoothly.

  • 1 min read

First General Meeting for Spring 2008

Welcome back OCFers!

We hope everyone is excited for a new semester with OCF.

Our first general meeting will be held on Thursday, February 7th in 109 Wheeler at 7pm.

  • Come learn more about the OCF
  • Learn how to become a staff member
  • Help elect the OCF General Manager and Site Manager
  • Find out about our upcoming events

Also, stay afterwards for some food and socializing. We hope to see all of you there!

  • 1 min read

Harder Better Faster Stronger Webmail and Documentation

We just installed a caching module that'll greatly speed up our webmail and documentation pages. In some cases, you'll notice a speedup of about 2-3x!

While you're giving our enhanced documentation a test drive, take a look at our recently updated web hosting documentation. We've added a bunch of information, updated a lot of the existing documentation, and tried to clarify any confusing information.

We're also building up a list of suggested web applications that have been reported to work with our web server, along with any special customizations that might help them run better on the OCF.

This documentation refresh is an ongoing process, so keep checking back!

Oh, last but not least, we've added an auto-save feature to our webmail. Now, whenever you're writing an email, our webmail interface will automatically save the message every few seconds. No longer will you lose an email to a web browser crash or errant click!

  • 1 min read

Home Directories Deleted and Restored

During maintenance of our file server at 4 AM, the home directories of users whose usernames began with the letter 'a', letter 'b', or letters 'ca' through 'cg' were inadvertently deleted. The directories were promptly restored from a backup made an hour earlier. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I'll post up more details when I get a chance.

  • 1 min read

Downtime 10/20

There is scheduled downtime for 10/20 as we upgrade one of our core servers. Due to the recent error made in our test, we will be discussing whether or not to postpone the upgrade until our tests are clean. The decision will be made during BoD tonight.

Edit: We are going through with the upgrade with modified instructions so as to prevent what happened during the dry-run.

Edit: Timeline is available at http://xrl.us/7d88.

  • 1 min read

General Meeting 3.0

The OCF will be holding another general meeting this Thursday, October 11th, in 283 Dwinelle at 7 PM.

Come learn more about the OCF
 Learn how to become a staff member
Help elect the OCF Site Manager
 Find out about our exciting upcoming events

Also, stay afterwards for some food and socializing.

I hope to see all of you there!

  • 1 min read

Maintenance Day 2.0

Due to scheduling issues with various staffers, the OCF lab maintenance that was scheduled to occur on Sunday, September 23, was postponed to Saturday, October 6. The lab cleaning was completed with great success, and OCF lab looks (almost) new!

I'd like to thank our General Manager, Angel Kittiyachavalit, for organizing the event and all the staffers who showed up to lend a helping hand. You guys are awesome!