ibiblio Linux Archive goes BitTorrent

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In 1992, ibiblio began began accepting and redistributing open source software projects into its Linux software archive. These projects consisted mainly of tar or gzipped source code bundles, combined with descriptive metadata called a Linux Software Map. Since then, the ibiblio Linux Archive grew to 12 GB in size. Project hosting sites (e.g. Sourceforge, Github, and Launchpad) and the development of Linux distribution package repositories extended the success of the Linux Archive.

The Linux Archive is no longer accepting submissions. It currently represents a snapshot of open source software projects from the early 1990′s until the mid-2000′s. The archive contains over 5000 items and is available for download via BitTorrent from terasaur.org. An 8.5 GB bundle of the entire archive is available as a single torrent.  Beware, the file listing is loooooooooooooooooooooooong.

ibiblio needs a student Linux admin

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ibiblio is looking for a student Linux admin and general tech wonk. We need someone who enjoys working with Linux, wants to be part of innovative technology projects, and isn’t afraid to fail, learn, and get better.

Things you’ll find in our environment include:

  • Completely virtualized server infrastructure
  • All Linux, all the time
  • An automate everything approach. We make extensive use of puppet, monit, and cron.
  • Lots of Web sites, some that get a few million page views per day (yes, that’s a lot).
  • Apache, PHP, Perl, Python, varnish, lighttpd, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
  • One of the largest generators of network traffic on the UNC campus. We transfer about 4 TB per day.

We’re also developing a new platform to publish large files, between 1 GB and 1 TB in size. It uses BitTorrent. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone.

We’ll pay you, of course. The position is open to full and part time UNC students, either graduate or undergraduate. Work schedule is flexible, but 10-20 hours per week is typical.

If you’re interested, send a note and/or resume to jobs-at-ibiblio-dot-org.

* photograph by dronir

WordPress Multisite (using subdomains) + Shibboleth authentication

The WordPress Shibboleth plugin advertises WPMU support but does not seem to work with a WP 3.x Multisite/Network installation. Below is a patch to version 1.4 of the Shibboleth plugin and basic setup details needed to support sitewide Shibboleth authentication.

Before we begin, I assume you’re already familiar with installing and configuring Shibboleth, WordPress, and the WordPress Shibboleth plugin. If you haven’t already set up WordPress or a Shibboleth SP, either bribe someone who has or find a carafe of coffee and come back in a day or two.

Download the patch (wp-shibboleth-1.4-multisite.patch.zip)

What’s in the patch?

  • Support for WP Multisite/Network with subdomains. I didn’t try this with a subdirectory implementation and don’t expect it to work.
  • A setting to specify the common email domain for users’ email addresses as a combination of their shibboleth username + “@” + the common email domain
  • Fixes for localization/gettext support.
  • HTML markup fixes on the admin control panel page

Continue reading WordPress Multisite (using subdomains) + Shibboleth authentication