Sandbox System News
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This page contains news of interest to users of the Sandbox server.

May 28, 2003: Links
The links text-based web browser is working again.

May 26, 2003: Upgrade Fixes
Web services were reconfigured to better match the previous install. This fixes some things that were broken. Also, some perl modules were reinstalled.

May 19, 2003: OS Upgrade
Sandbox is now running Red Hat 9 Linux.

Oct 7, 2002: Links browser
I have installed a small script called parsepage, which shows the structure an HTML page. Just say:
      parsepage page
where page can be a file name or a URL.

Sep 5, 2002: Links browser
I installed the text-mode browser links (an alternative to lynx). It does a better job handling tables and forms, and can be used to send programs to the submit system. It will also use the mouse when run in an X-windows terminal window. Man links will give the gory details.

Oct 22, 2001: New Kernel
Sandbox is now running Linux kernel 2.4.12, replacing 2.4.2. The new kernel has some security fixes and some VM performance improvements.

Aug 28, 2001: Web Page Passwords
The Apache web server has been reconfigured to allow ordinary users to add password protection to their web pages. Instructions here.

Aug 23, 2001: A String of Perl
I installed a fairly random pile of perl modules from CPAN. If you have others you would like, let me know before the semester gets too busy. Note that these are libraries which assist the writing of perl programs, not stand-alone programs. I have not used them beyond running whatever basic tests come with the package. Here is the list:

Package Description Start Here
IO-String-1.01 Perform in-core I/O. man IO::String
IO-stringy-2.108 Perform I/O on things that are not filehandles man IO::Stringy
URI-1.15 Manipulate uniform reference identifiers, of which URLs are the most familiar. man URI
Digest-MD5-2.14 Manipulate MD5 digital signatures. man Digest::MD5
HTML-Tagset-3.03 This is mainly support for the HTML parser. man HTML::Tagset
HTML-Parser-3.25 Parse HTML files. This is a very large and complex module. man HTML::Parser
HTML-Tree-3.11 Build syntax trees of HTML files using the HTML parser. man HTML::Tree
Image-Grab-1.3 Swipe images from the web. man Image::Grab
MIME-Base64-2.12 Code and decode messages in the base 64 scheme used to send mail attachments. This supports the MailTools package below. man MIME::Base64
MailTools-1.16 Manipulate email messages. Each of these man pages: Mail::Address, Mail::Filter, Mail::Send, Mail::Cap, Mail::Header, Mail::Util, Mail::Field, Mail::Internet, Mail::Field::AddrList, Mail::Mailer
libnet-1.0703 Create Internet clients. For instance, you can create applications which perform FTP transfers or send mail. (Note: On installation, one of the FTP tests failed.) Each of these man pages: Net::Cmd, Net::libnetFAQ, Net::Ping, Net::SNPP, Net::Domain, Net::netent, Net::POP3, Net::Time, Net::DummyInetd, Net::Netrc, Net::protoent, Net::FTP, Net::NNTP, Net::servent, Net::hostent, Net::PH, Net::SMTP
libwww-perl-5.53 Create Web clients. You can create web bots, or programs which submit data to forms on the web and process the results. man LWP
Image-Info-1.07 Get image file header info (size, etc.). man Image::Info
GD-1.33 Generate images or charts. man GD
Chart-Plot-0.11 Generate two-dimensional graphs. man Chart::Plot
Tk800.023 Create X-Windows GUI applications. man Tk
DBI-1.19 This is the abstract database interface. It is currently useless since there are no concrete interface classes installed. man DBI

May 24, 2001: Upgrade to 7.1
Sandbox has been upgraded to Red Hat Linux release 7.1.

Mar 30, 2001: Command Path and ssh
A problem setting the command path when connecting over ssh has been fixed. The command search path for users connecting with ssh lacked the directory /usr/local/bin, preventing the shell from finding local commands. This has been repaired.

Mar 13, 2001: New Submit System
An updated version of web-based file submission program has been installed. This version repairs a bug which prevented submission of files with spaces in their names.

Feb 23, 2001: Secure Shell Installed
The secure shell server has been installed on Sandbox. This is a replacement for telnet which encrypts all traffic over the link. When using a standard telnet connection, your account name, password and everything else sent in the session is vulnerable to eavesdroppers. This information can be collected from several places, including any node along the path your connection takes through the Internet. In most circumstance, it can also be collected from any computer on the same LAN as your computer, or as Sandbox, or perhaps some other computers along the way. However, if an SSH session is used, an eavesdropper will see only encrypted data, which will be unintelligible. PuTTY is a free Windows-based Secure Shell client.

Feb 15, 2001: X Server Available in the Labs
An X windows server has been installed on the labs in MCC. This software allows a user to make a GUI connection to Sandbox from any computer in the labs. It is located under Network Tools under Frequently-Used Applications.