Squeak.org server outage

Hi Squeakers,

Since January 2nd we’re having some technical difficulties with our server infrastructure. The box admins are working to get everything back online.

We will update this post with news.

Update Jan 11: Bug tracker is up. This should conclude this episode.

Update Jan 7, #2: The source server is back, too.

Update Jan 7: The mailing lists are working again.

Update Jan 6: It looks like one server (box2) is beyond repair. This is our oldest server. We already had started to migrate services off it last year to the newer boxen. That is why http://www.squeak.org was already back up again after Levente fixed DNS. But the mailing list, sources, and bug tracker still were on box2. We’re using the backups to move those services now.

Jan 4: fixed DNS. http://www.squeak.org is working again.

Jan 2: squeak.org and everything else in our domain becomes unreachable

Squeak Board minutes – 1/07/13

Attending: Colin Putney, Craig Latta, Chris Muller, Chris Cunnington, Levente Uzonyi

– The Board would like to thank Frank Shearar for the great job he did as release manager of Squeak4.4. Yea!
– An election is not to far off in the future. Members of the Board will be talking to the election team about starting the process.
– There is a wiki page [1] with ideas for Squeak 4.5. Please feel free to look them over and to add things you would like to see.
– Work on the new squeak.org website is resuming after the holiday and will be completed in the next few weeks

[1] http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6189

Squeak Board minutes – 11/19/12

Members attending: Bert Freudenberg, Colin Putney, Chris Muller, Randal Schwartz, Chris Cunnington, Craig Latta

– Squeak4.4 is going to be released soon

– The election process is being reviewed to secure an election manager so Göran doesn’t have to do it forever

– David T. Lewis set up automatic building of 64-bit images [1], and Ian Piumarta provides a Linux VM to run these images [2]. The Board explored what could be done with such an image. The main thing it allows is having larger object memories. One idea was a system that would log all message sends and state changes, so we could have an omniscient debugger (e.g., a person could play back everything that happened in the previous half hour). This relates to Gilad Bracha’s blog post “Debug Mode Is The Only Mode” [3]. One thing necessary for a wider adoption of 64-bit images would be providing VMs for Windows and Mac, and making some remaining plugins work with 64-bits.

– Craig Latta is about to release the first modules for the Naiad module system for Spoon: Chronos and Quoth. Craig has a process of “spoonifying” an application written in regular code. Chronos is Alan Lovejoy’s date/time library [4] and Quoth is Craig’s own musical live-coding system [5].

– Tim Rowledge is waiting to receive in the mail a Raspberry Pi with which he aims to provide a current RiscOS platform for Squeak. Being the original ARM maintainer of the Squeak VM, he intends to adapt his existing RiscOS code for the Raspbery Pi.

– Colin Putney  is in the process of reviewing and releasing a new revision of Filesystem [6]

– Chris C. has developed a prototype of a new squeak.org homepage. It’s latest version can be found at [7]. It is an Altitude website. There are questions about the site on two fronts: how it looks; and, how stable it is. There has been doubt about how the site should look. Opinions about its design, logo, layout, CSS, etc. are welcome. Herbert Konig is helping to harden it with the Selenium testing suite. [8] [9] The most recent image has been up for +200 hours without a problem. Colin has added changes to Altitude, which will be deployed soon.

[1] http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2012-November/166422.html

[2] http://squeakvm.org/unix/

[3] http://gbracha.blogspot.ca/

[4] http://chronos-st.blogspot.com/

[5] http://netjam.org/quoth/

[6] http://wiresong.ca/filesystem/

[7] http://box3.squeak.org:8624

[8] http://seleniumhq.org/

[9] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/selenium-ide/

Squeak Board – 11/5/12

All members were present

– Colin is reviving the Squeak G+ page as a hub for Squeak Community Meetings [1]

– The Board explored the monthly financial report provided by the Software Freedom Conservancy. With a free server and a single server costing money things look well in hand.

– SqueakSource [2] was down at the time of the meeting, which prompted a discussion of how to move packages to SqS3 [3]. It was observed that there is a Chilean mirror to SqueakSource [4]. Colin is planning to talk to Dale about how packages could be moved. Chris Muller is investigating the process also.

– The number of tests outstanding for the release of Squeak 4.4 is quite low and it is likely that Squeak4.4 will be released soon

[1] https://plus.google.com/u/0/102330490592489316443/posts

[2] http://www.squeaksource.com

[3] http://ss3.gemstone.com/ss

[4] http://www.dsal.cl/squeaksource/

Squeak Board minutes – 9/17/12

All members were in attendance.

– Chris Cunnington is working on securing a permanent home for the new Squeak CI server.  The move must be completed before November to avoid a service interruption.

– Once the squeakci.org and Jenkins server situation has settled and become reliable, the Squeak VM team leader, David T. Lewis, intends to set up nightly updates of the latest VM code from squeakvm.org.

– Ian Piumarta has released a new Unix VM [1]. He also started bringing the Windows VM up-to-date.

– We discussed convening at Smalltalks 2013 in Argentina as an alternative to having a separate Squeak developer conference.  There are already plans to bring together Smalltalks and the Etoys-oriented Squeakfest, so getting Squeak developers there at the same time should be fun. Please let us know what you think of this idea.

– The next Google+ Squeak Community Hangout is 13 Oct. [2]

[1] http://squeakvm.org/unix/

[2] https://plus.google.com/events/c0nfhlfod6ogn3aumsq6seda7g8
(it helps when clicking on this link to already be logged into G+)

Squeak Oversight Board minutes – 9/3/12

attending: Craig Latta, Bert Freudenberg, Levente Uzonyi, Chris Cunnington, Chris Muller

– Spoon [1] will be releasing its new version soon with a web browser interface included

– the next Squeak Community Meeting [2] on GooglePlus will be Sat. 13 Oct. at 10 am Pacific Time. (If you hit the link below, it helps if you are already logged into G+)

– Squeak 4.4 is heading towards an October release

– Chris Cunnington wants to shut down the server that currently serves squeakci.org [3] and has contacted the SFC to access some Gandi.net resources to move it over (as the SFC has a relationship with Gandi.net for its members)

[1] http://thiscontext.wordpress.com/

[2] https://plus.google.com/events/c0nfhlfod6ogn3aumsq6seda7g8/102275780496317201899

[3] http://www.squeakci.org

Squeak Oversight Board minutes – 8/20/12

Squeak Oversight Board minutes – 8/20/12

Attending: Chris Muller, Colin Putney, Chris Cunnington, Bert Freudenberg, Randal Schwartz

– details about Softlayer being Squeak’s next host are being worked through, mostly by the lawyers on both sides (it’s great to have the Software Freedom Conservancy look out after us)

– a review of the teams system is underway with an aim to update the teams, close mailing lists for discontinued teams: Release team (while there is a release manager we discuss releases on the main dev list, not a separate one), modules (should be discussed on squeak-dev, too), possibly the News team (which could be merged with the Web team), and invite new people

– documentation was discussed a good deal at this meeting: ideas about what to do with the Squeak wiki, whether to use a new wiki, putting documentation on websites, or having it in the image as comments or searchable text were explored

– Squeak By Example [1] was discussed as a good book that could be updated. As sources are on GitHub [2], forking them and updating them looks like a good idea, which would make contributing really easy

– Colin suggested hosting open Google+ hangouts for members of the community during the weeks the Squeak Oversight Board does not meet. Anybody could come, ask questions, share ideas, etc.

[1] http://squeakbyexample.org/SBE.pdf

[2] https://github.com/SquareBracketAssociates/SqueakByExample-english

Squeak Board meeting minutes – 8/6/12

 

– All Board members were in attendance with special guest Josh Krammes from Softlayer [1]
– Josh spoke about Softlayer’s Catalyst program [2]
– The Board had the opportunity to ask Josh questions about how Squeak and Softlayer might work together
– Josh used to work in non-profit fundraising and has some experience with our kind of community
– The Board likes the agreement and will take an opportunity to re-read the documents involved. The feeling is that a relationship with Softlayer will be reached in the near future and Softlayer will be Squeak’s new host

[1] http://www.softlayer.com
[2] http://www.softlayer.com/catalyst

Squeak Oversight Board meeting – 7/16/12

Board members present: Colin Putney, Craig Latta, Chris Muller, Levente Uzonyi, Chris Cunnington, and, special guest Ken Causey

– The topic of the meeting was moving to a new server

– There are several offers for free hosting available to Squeak

– Squeak is accepting the offer from Softlayer [1]. It is also looking at an offer related to the Software Freedom Conservancy at Gandi. [2]

– The Board realized that the moving process is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Pieces can be moved over time. Perhaps even on different servers. So, the Softlayer offer will now be accepted and closed.

– The difference between a VPS and a dedicated box was debated with Ken having strong feelings in favor of a dedicated box, as you knew better what your resources were

– Ken is willing to help make the transition to a new server given a window of ninety days, so he can contribute, while not interfering with his other commitments

– One of the early pieces to be moved will be the http://www.squeak.org image, which will be a Seaside image. The old design of http://www.squeak.org will be retired in favor of a very small website emphasizing the download of Squeak. The site will then grow into a fuller and more complete resource over time

– A major consideration in the move is the mailing lists run by the GNU Mailman [3] application. Other parts of the move are the images, FTP archive, and Mantis SQL database

– Details of the moving process will be recorded to provide documentation to assist with upkeep and any future move

[1] http://www.softlayer.com/

[2] http://www.gandi.net

[3] http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html

Squeak Oversight Board minutes – 7/2/12

Board members present: Colin Putney, Craig Latta, Randal L. Schwartz, Chris Muller,  Chris Cunnington

– the decision on which server we will move to is getting closer. The decision will be taken by the end of the month

– one idea suggested is that we find a web designer to give the homepage a new look; Craig suggested one of the designers he knows in Amsterdam

– when the move takes place, a process using a wiki or Google Docs will be used to record what we have and how we moved what we have

– Craig is going to ESUG next month

– Spoon documentation for beginners is coming as well as Naiad, the Spoon module system, integration with GitHub

– Some ideas for using Environments posited were controlled updating of code in a deployed web image; using an Environment with the Xtreams API; loading Squeakland.org’s Etoys into a Squeak Environment

– More talking to people about a location for a Squeak specific event is underway (and Squeak may already have its first sponsor)