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[wiki.git] / projects / ideas.mdwn

diff --git a/projects/ideas.mdwn b/projects/ideas.mdwn
index ee6f91f1fb733ce8f442bd04c93fa63d09c64e9b..f7b373ff84f3412b2560bd24afbb9669ae6ea82e 100644 (file)
--- a/projects/ideas.mdwn
+++ b/projects/ideas.mdwn
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ along with the person who's suggested the project or a team that would
 be good to contact. Feel free to get in touch if something sounds
 interesting or you want advice getting started.
 
 be good to contact. Feel free to get in touch if something sounds
 interesting or you want advice getting started.
 

+A [[list from 2008-2009|/doc/project-ideas]] may also have some relevant ideas.
+

 ## "add me to this list" button
 
 If I'm a webmaster for some group with an announcement list, it would be
 ## "add me to this list" button
 
 If I'm a webmaster for some group with an announcement list, it would be


@@ -46,8 +48,8 @@ out each update to a ticket with a generic subject line, so it doesn't
 easily indicate whether the bug was resolved or someone just commented
 on it. It also doesn't know how to receive e-mail, so we can't reply to
 the e-mails it generates and have our comments go back into the bug
 easily indicate whether the bug was resolved or someone just commented
 on it. It also doesn't know how to receive e-mail, so we can't reply to
 the e-mails it generates and have our comments go back into the bug

-tracker, and we can't (make bugs@mit.edu create Trac
-tickets)[http://debathena.mit.edu/trac/ticket/216]. There are one or two
+tracker, and we can't [make bugs@mit.edu create Trac
+tickets](http://debathena.mit.edu/trac/ticket/216). There are one or two

 alleged plugins to do this, but they create a new ticket on every
 e-mail, rather than doing something intelligent with replies; a better
 plugin in both directions would be extremely helpful.
 alleged plugins to do this, but they create a new ticket on every
 e-mail, rather than doing something intelligent with replies; a better
 plugin in both directions would be extremely helpful.


@@ -67,6 +69,25 @@ office speakers.
 
 _Contact: geofft_
 
 
 _Contact: geofft_
 

+## Cluster and printer viewer for the iPhone
+
+You might have seen the xcluster displays (in the SIPB office, near the
+four building 11 quickstations, and in the building 12 cluster) that
+show you which clusters aren't in use and which printers aren't hosed.
+This would be immensely more useful as an iPhone application.
+
+_Contact: ccpost_
+
+## Safari plugin for setting identity preferences
+
+Safari's handling of client-side certificate authentication [changed around OS X 10.5.3](http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1679), such that Safari won't present (and won't prompt you to present) a client-side certificate if certs are only optional. Unfortunately, most sites around MIT only optionally accept certs, in spite of the fact that they'll error out if you don't provide one.
+
+You can override this unfortunate behavior with "Identity Preferences", and IS&T's answer for this is [CertAid](http://ist.mit.edu/services/software/certaid/10x), which simply seeds the Keychain with a pre-defined list of websites for which Safari should present your cert. This isn't a great solution for, e.g., scripts.mit.edu, which has thousands of sites - far too many to give to IS&T to include in CertAid. If that wasn't irritating enough, Identity Preferences don't take affect until you restart your browser.
+
+A better solution would be a plugin for Safari that intercepted 401 errors sent over SSL, prompted you to set an Identity Preference, and then attempted to reload the page with the new identity preference set.
+
+_Contact: broder_
+

 ## Snapshotted virtual machines for all popular Linux distributions
 
 A common need for people writing Linux software is to check that their
 ## Snapshotted virtual machines for all popular Linux distributions
 
 A common need for people writing Linux software is to check that their


@@ -88,19 +109,6 @@ support. If this is the kind of thing that interests you...
 
 _Contact: nelhage_
 
 
 _Contact: nelhage_
 

-## inotify logger for scripts and Debathena
-
-On both our [web hosting platform](http://scripts.mit.edu/) and Athena
-cluster machines, we have way more software packages installed than we
-suspect people use, but no good way of determining this. There's a Linux
-interface called [inotify](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inotify) that
-lets you get notifications when another user accesses the filesystem: it
-would be pretty simple to use this to collect aggregate (anonymous)
-statistics of what programs and packages are used frequently or even at
-all.
-
-_Contact: geofft_
-

 ## SIPB PostgreSQL server
 
 A lot of people prefer Postgres to MySQL, so having a community Postgres
 ## SIPB PostgreSQL server
 
 A lot of people prefer Postgres to MySQL, so having a community Postgres


@@ -152,6 +160,41 @@ there are RPM packages installed on some but not all of the servers,
 or if there are changes in /etc, other than hostname and such, that we
 haven't committed to the scripts Subversion repository.
 
 or if there are changes in /etc, other than hostname and such, that we
 haven't committed to the scripts Subversion repository.
 

+## SIPB Library
+
+SIPB has a bunch of books in its library. It'd be nice if a list of
+the library books also existed online in some sort of sane, searchable
+database. One possible platform is the [Exhibit](http://simile-widgets.org/exhibit/) project (which originates from a collaboration between the Haystack group in CSAIL and the MIT Libraries). This would require mostly just making a spreadsheet of the information.
+
+_Contact: pbaranay, fawkes_
+
+## Search across every public git repository
+
+The [git](http://www.git-scm.com/) version control system has been
+rapidly gaining in popularity both in the world of free software at
+large as well as at here at SIPB. One of the properties of git is
+that every object, whether it's a specific version of a file or a
+changeset to a project's source code, has a unique identifying hash
+(e.g., "8c5fa44b1a4902ba1f84a71df20bfe4f21867a7c"). Given one of these
+hashes, it should be possible to identify which project it came from
+and what it refers to.
+
+The "easy" way to do this is to create a massive single git repository
+with references to every public git repository we can find, but that
+probably causes performance problems, so you may need to be cleverer
+about how data is stored and expose a different interface. You'll
+also need to figure out a way to find all public git repositories.
+
+_Contact: geofft, nelhage_
+
+## Improve the Setup and UI for new users of Zephyr
+
+Currently, it is a pain to get someone else set up using zephyr
+within screen on Linerva with automatically-renewing tickets.
+We should write scripts to set them up so that that all they
+have to do is enter a command or click an icon, type their kerberos
+password, and then know how to use Barnowl.
+

 ## Your Project Here
 
 SIPB can help you out in terms of both computing resources and
 ## Your Project Here
 
 SIPB can help you out in terms of both computing resources and