Web service update

11th May by werdz

We've been having some unforeseen issues with our webserver, so web services are taking a little longer then expected to get back up and running. This affects user pages, club and society pages, and any pages that make use of a MySQL database (such as WordPress blogs, etc). Vhosts are also currently still offline. We're working to resolve these issues as soon as possible.

We're back

9th May by werdz

As you probably noticed, Redbrick went down for quite a while after a security breach. We've spent the last couple of weeks working to bring services back online, as they all had to be rebuilt from scratch. That's the bad news. The good news is that we brought basic login services back last week, and we just got the web server back online!

Login services

Minerva and Carbon are available for login, however we recommend that you stay on Minerva for the moment, as nothing's installed on carbon. there are still some programs missing from Minerva, we're working to restore them all as soon as we can.

Web services/Apache/Tomcat

Web services are slowly coming back. The main webserver is online again, but there are still a number of issues to work through before everything works. We're aware of many of the issues and working to fix them as soon as possible.

Tomcat is still offline.

Please note that web pages that use a MySQL database (this includes any WordPress installations) will not work yet. This is a known issue and we're working to resolve it.

Email

Email is online, as are all mailing lists. We were having minor issues with our IMAP server - If you have any more problems please hey or PM an admin.

Boards

The boards are online.

Chat (IRC)

Chat is online, and we've repeered with intersocs. There was a little fiddling with this the other night as we finalised some settings, but it should be stable enough from this point.

Bitlbee (MSN/Gtalk/AIM/etc via IRC)

Online. Email admins@redbrick.dcu.ie if you have problems.

Heys

Heys are working on Minerva.

Anyterm/Tunnel

Should both be working. Email admins@redbrick.dcu.ie if you have problems.

IPv6 connectivity

Our IPv6 tunnel is still offline. As well as users who would normally log in via IPv6, this affects users who accessedcertain services on machines outside of Redbrick without using the DCU proxy (for example, external POP servers). We'll be bringing this back up as soon as possible.

Databases

MySQL 5 has been installed on murphy, and all old MySQL databases have been imported into it. There may be issues using MySQL from web pages for a short time, as we need to apply a patch to fix a minor local issue. Also, advanced users should be aware that ISAM tables were converted to MyISAM to facilitate the upgrade to version 5.0.

PostgreSQL is online on murphy.

Redbrick wins Best Website at BICS!

20th April by werdz

RedBrick won the award for Best Website (Large College) at the national BICS awards last Thursday night! This is a reflection of the dedication of committees, webmasters and members of the webgroup to developing the website over the last number of years. A huge thank you goes out to all who were involved in bringing the site to where it is today. We'd also like to congratulate DCU Drama, who won Best Society (Large College), and DCU Style Soc, who won Best Event (Large College) for the DCU Fashion Show this year.

Vhost changes

After yesterday's downtime, we've made a number of changes under the hood to Murphy that should result in things generally going faster. Vhosts are now on our Sun T2000 (Murphy) along with the rest of our web services. There may be one or two minor issues with the new setup - if you're the owner of a vhost and you notice anything broken, please email admins (at) redbrick.dcu.ie and we'll see what we can do to fix it.

In addition to this, we've moved some things onto Murphy's local disks, which should take some of the strain off Minerva, resulting in a slight speed increase across all of our services.

RedBrick wins Best Website!

14th April by werdz

RedBrick came away successful at this years DCU Clubs and Societies awards, winning Best Website. This means we'll be representing DCU at the annual BICS awards ceremony in Dundalk this coming Thursday. A huge amount of effort has gone into the website of the past year, and we'd like to thank all who contributed to its design, construction and upkeep.

As well as RedBrick winning Best Website, RedBrick Chair Andrew Harford (receive) was also awarded First Five Individual.

Downtime

Murphy will be down for approximately two hours this coming Saturday (the 19th) to allow us to make changes that should improve the speed of the website and file access. The website will be affected, and anybody who runs their screen session on Murphy will have to start a new one. Downtime will start at 4PM.

AGM Results!

1st April by receive

• Chairperson: Robby O'Reilly (robby) was elected with 16 votes. Kat Farrell (angelkat) received 14 votes.


• Secretary: Damien Rathigan (dano) was the only candidate, and was elected by a majority show of hands.


• Treasurer: Leah Doyle (bambi) was the only candidate, and was elected by a majority show of hands.


• Public Relations Officer: John Needham (colossus) was elected with 22 votes. Matt Fitzpatrick (snoogins) received 9 votes. Failchair received one vote :(


• Events Officer: Lotta Mikkonen (attol) was the only candidate, and was elected by a majority show of hands.


• Helpdesk: Sean Hand (revenant), Seaums Ronan (train) and Gavin Tubritt (gmblitis) were the only candidates and were elected by a majority show of hands.


• Webmaster: Andrew Martin (werdz) was the only candidate, and was elected by a majority show of hands.


• System Administrators: Andrew Harford (receive), Cian Brennan (lil_cain), Eoghan Cotter (johan) were the only candidates and were elected by a majority show of hands.


• Accounts: For people who requested to see the detailed accounts for the year as they currently stand they can currently be downloaded here. I will be happy to answer any queries in relation to these accounts.

I'd just like to wish the rest of the new committee the best for the year ahead.

Happy April Fools Day!

1st April by receive

Contrary to any messages posted earlier today, RedBrick was not hacked. Happy April Fools Day. See you all at the table quiz tonight.

Table Quiz

April 1st sees the return of the ever popular Redbrick Table Quiz. This year we have some amazing prizes, with the winning team walking away with four Western Digital Passport 160GB external hard drives and a raffle on the night for an Asus Eee PC! There'll also be prizes for the second place team and plenty of other spot prizes to be given away during the night too.

On top of all that, Redbrick will also be opening up the DCU Old Bar for the night and as it's a Tuesday, all drinks will be just 3 euro! Registration for teams starts at 6.30pm and we hope to start the quiz at around 7pm, so we look forward to seeing you all there next week :)

AGM

This year's Redbrick AGM takes place on Thursday 3rd of April at 6.30pm in QG13.

All committee positions will be up for grabs on the day so be sure to turn up and have your say. Anyone wishing to run for Admin, Webmaster or Helpdesk must pass a test before running at the AGM and we currently have tests scheduled at the following times:

• Admin test - 7pm Monday 31st of March.
• Helpdesk test - 2pm Wednesday 2nd of April.
• Webmaster test - 3pm Wednesday 2nd of April.

Anyone taking the tests should meet up in the lobby of the computing building (the nicer one near LG25) at these times. If you have any questions or you want to take the tests but are unavailable at the set times, just let us know by emailing committee and we can sort something out.

RedBrick This Week

10th March by undone

Linux Workshop

Following on from the highly successful Linux Install Workshop ran during Tech Week, Redbrick Helpdesk will be running a followup workshop this week. At the workshop they'll be going over basic stuff like setting up your internet connection and installing new programs as well as some more advanced things too.

The workshop takes place in the Seminar room upstairs in the Hub at 6pm on Tuesday. On a side note, there was a laptop bag lost at the first workshop, so if anyone found it, please let us know by emailing receive.

Cinema Trip

This Thursday at 8.40pm, we'll be going to see Semi-Pro in Cineworld. We'll be meeting at 7.30 in the Hub beforehand and Redbrick will be paying for everyone's tickets, so be sure to join us :)

To get your ticket, sign up online at www.redbrick.dcu.ie/events/movies

Treasurer Position

Redbrick's Treasurer was deemed to have resigned this week in accordance with the constitution after not attending the last 4+ committee meetings. Treasurering duties will be handled by the rest of the committee for the remainder of this semester.

Football

Monday night football is on as always tonight at 6pm and we'll be meeting in the Hub before if you'd like to take part. Please do, football is fun!

Join RedBrick!

Redbrick is DCU's only neworking society. We provide features such as a limitless gallery for your pictures, a chat area to meet and keep in touch via the internet and many more such as free tutorials on many computer topics for our members and also needless to say, many a night out!

This year some of our major events include our very own Redbrick Freshers Ball, which is a huge hit every year and this year boasts a live band and console gaming with Games Soc, our Halloween Ball which is always frighteningly good, our main week, Tech Week, which was a huge sucess and a load of fun last year and of course our annual Table Quiz in semester two. Other events are organised all year round like cinema trips, drunken nights on the town and others such as paintball.

Come join the fun and join Redbrick!

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