Category: Life

March 19, 2010
Max Life, WebMastering

Network Violation – again

Is there no end to the stupidity that is rampant within godaddy ?

This morning while waiting for my tea to brew I checked my e-mail. Once more there was a ‘network violation’ notice from GoDaddy.

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has come to our attention that your dotdotnetdot.net hosting account is being used as a file repository. This is a direct violation of our Terms of Service. All files that are stored on a hosting account, must be used for a working traditional website. You may review the Storage and Security section of our Web Site and Virtual Dedicated Server Service Agreement for further clarification.

You have 48 hours to remove all the files not being referenced to a website. Specifically, the following are currently in violation:

cncpicsinfo.tgz 91GB

Failure to comply will result in access to the files and/or directories in question to be removed on your behalf. If you are interested in keeping file backups, you will need to purchase the Online File Folder, a Virtual Dedicated Server, or a Dedicated Server.

Obviously I am a bad boy, again.

But look a little closer and ask yourself, why would I stash a 91GB Zipped/Tar’d file on my OTHER hosting account ? The hosting account that hosts this blog and the associated files ?

It seems that GoDaddy took it upon theirselves to create an archive of the cncpics site for me, I did not ask them to do this, nor do I need this. To make matters even worse I cannot get to the file to either download it nor delete it.

Yet I am in violation, again.

GoDaddy’s tech support are telling me that they cannot remove the file without my authorization, which I have attempted to do, but they still cannot do it and their ‘senior support team’ are working on the problem.

let me give you a hint guys, you need to use the ‘rm’ command to delete it

something like this

rm cncpicsinfo.tgz

Not exactly a difficult task, yet there ‘senior tech support team’ have been working on it for an hour straight.

Just for the hell of it I just kicked off and FTP download of the file – all 91GB, if the tech support crew do not manage to master the complexities of the ‘rm’ command within the next 40hrs and 32 minutes, then the file will be resident on my PC.

*sigh

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has come to our attention that your dotdotnetdot.net hosting account is being used as a file repository. This is a direct violation of our Terms of Service. All files that are stored on a hosting account, must be used for a working traditional website. You may review the Storage and Security section of our Web Site and Virtual Dedicated Server Service Agreement for further clarification.

You have 48 hours to remove all the files not being referenced to a website. Specifically, the following are currently in violation:

cncpicsinfo.tgz 91GB

Failure to comply will result in access to the files and/or directories in question to be removed on your behalf. If you are interested in keeping file backups, you will need to purchase the Online File Folder, a Virtual Dedicated Server, or a Dedicated Server.

March 18, 2010
Max Life, Photography, WebMastering

Learning through adversity

As I have documented extensively over the last three days, cncpics.com has been causing me a lot of grief.  To re-cap, the mega post of photo’s combined with a failed cron job several weeks ago combined in a ‘perfect storm’ to seriously annoy the godaddy network admins.

I had three choices.

1 – find a new and inexpensive host and hope that they would be able to deal with the traffic that came their way.

2 – give up and walk away from something that I have put serious time/effort and passion into for many years

3 – do it correctly and get a (virtual) dedicated server to handle the load and fix the issues.

Obviously I chose to walk away from it. NOT.

Initially, because it was cheap and had a good reputation, I  created a domain on a basic hosting platform using Siteground, they are a lot more techno than GoDaddy and I thought that it might me a risk going to them, but for under $20 it was worth a shot. Initially it seemed that this may just be the right host, PHP5 support would allow me to move to Gallery 3 and the control panel is full of cool stuff.

Problems with the database restore should have told me that I was wrong, but the curve-ball of getting an old backup from godaddy threw me and I pretty much worked through the night last night.

When I finally got the site up with the last two weeks of images loaded, the impact of the viewers from around the world simply swamped the poor host and they throttled the scripts.

In short they are a great host, but not tough enough, I will be using the hosting space for this blog and my personal sites once I have got my new host up and running.

So, my new host…..

Following some advice on fatwallet.com I am now the proprietor of an extremely cool Virtual Dedicated Server. I am not going to say where just yet as I want them to prove that they can handle the traffic before I give them a shout out, but I certainly got a ‘deal’.

Initial impressions are very, very very good indeed.

The MYSQL database that took ‘all night’ to create last night on siteground took 4 minutes and 15 seconds here.

Approximately 120 times faster.

FTP is uploaded at a solid 1.4MB vs 240KB on the old host.

But the best part is that we are no longer worried too much about processor and memory use unless we try to exceed the apportioned amounts.

So, the new URL that I am building on is cncpicsarchive.com all other domains point here.

As I intimated with the title of this post, I have learnt a lot during this fiasco.

Read More

March 18, 2010
Max Life, Photography

cncpics – progress at last

It has been a long night.

As I write this it is close to 5am – I left the mysql upload running at 11pm last night and a couple of hours ago dragged myself out of bed to see what was happening. It is mostly good news, but it is also a little too early to celebrate.

The database is uploaded

The site actually works

FTP is running and uploading the pictures.

The bad news is that the FTP Process is going to take some time, some considerable time. As yet I have not ‘done the math’ but I would estimate that the upload is going to take a couple of days at least.

Secondly (more bad news) the image builds are taking longer than the page is permitting, therefore the first view of any image gives a blank, this has happened before, but I am not sure what the solution was at the time so I need to research it a little. It may be related to the stress that I am putting the server under by uploading images etc. But it also may be that the server is simply not up to the task in hand. There is only one way to find out I suppose.

Looking at the resource usage it shows that FTP is really consuming a lot of CPU – so maybe this is it. I am not sure.

I am going to let it upload for a while and sleep a little.

Check out the potential new site

http://mehpics.com

March 17, 2010
Max Life, Photography

cncpics – Wrong database.

*sigh

Where to begin ?

Because I was in a catch-22 with Go-Daddy, I found a new fast, friendly host and created a new domain. Purely for testing purposes. The idea was that I could setup a clone of cncpics.com and then once it was all working, simply make some dns changes and all would be good.

Behind the scenes of cncpics.com there is a heavily customized version of an off-the-shelf gallery product which uses a mysql database to store data. It is not enough to simply grab a copy of the photographs and install a nice shiney new copy of gallery, because they I would need to add 45,000 photographs to the gallery and this is a heck of a task.

So the three components are the code, the photo’s and the database.

The code and the database are fairly easy to FTP from my old host, but because I am in ‘violation’ I was unable to get to the control panel to backup the databases.

So at 10AM I asked godaddy for a backup of the databases. The third person I spoke to told me that they where doing the job and that they were no ‘all there’. So I FTP’d them to my windows box and tried to upload them to the new host. Sadly there are a few hundred thousand records in some of the tables and the restore failed. So I jumped over to Linux land and found a tool that will no only connect to the remote database, but it will also load the data in much smaller chunks.

The downside is that this takes a long time and if there is any other traffic on the internet it is slower too.

Many hours later the database restore has finished and after a few minor tweeks to a configuration file the site worked.

Except the galleries ended in the middle of November 2009.

The database backup was several months old.

Somehow I was calm when I called godaddy, somehow I persuaded the support rep to snag a new backup and somehow it looks like he did a good job.

I am obviously now a long way behind, I need to leave the database upload running overnight and then most of tomorrow will be taken up with allowing the photographs to upload too.

Then it will be more configuration changes and more tweeking,

Hopefully on Friday I will be able to tell Godaddy that I no longer need their services….

March 17, 2010
Max Life, Photography, Technology

CNCPICS – an update

Further to my logic catch22 yesterday, it looks like cncpics.com is going to be broken for a while.

Godaddy – the host of both that site and this blog (for the moment) are incapable of keeping a promise, they promised me late last night that they would not take the site off line and would give me time this morning to work through the issues.

The issues are fairly simple, for reasons unknown the caching mechanism is creating a lot of file in the, well, cache area. This is not a bad thing generally as the cache helps the performance.

However, the host has a strict 1024 file limit in any one folder. This limit was broken this week by a 925 picture collection – including the various derivatives the cache folders spiked up to 2-3000 files.

There is a simple answer, all I need is access to the gallery so that I can remove a bunch of photo’s from this week. Once this happens the cache growth will go away everything will return to normal. except this morning the account is suspended.

However, the issues is made a whole lot worse, very, very quickly. As soon as an admin notices that there are 1025 files in a folder, they instantly block access to the entire cache folder hierachy. Which leads the software to dump endless files in the $home folder, which leads to 16k files there, which leads to the account suspension.

Long story short, I need to re-host the site, I am done with godaddy.

I also cannot move the domains elsewhere for 60 day as I recently moved them to godaddy in a fit of ‘trying to keep everything together’.

I have signed up for a new more powerful host elsewhere and I am testing gallery 3

mehpics.com

The biggest issue of course is that uploading 50gb’s of images takes some time and regardless of where I find to host, the upload gap is going to be substantial.

So, my plan is thus

  • Upload the gallery code to the new host – done
  • Upload the 34mb database backup to the new host – in progress
  • Make the gallery work – meh
  • upload the images – in progress
  • convert to gallery 3  (optional step)

Beyond that I need to move this blog and gallery and a couple of others that share this hosting space.

Stay tuned for details…..

March 11, 2010
Max Life

Job Board Spam !

Spam, Spam, Spam

During my current job hunt I have signed up for a number of job board that promise the opportunity to search for interesting and applicable jobs. Every morning I look forward to seeing the latest job postings that my searches find and every morning, along with the searches, I get Spam.

Of the well known job boards,  Monster.com is easily the best, this is despite the rather confusing advertising offering me opportunities ranging from at-home degree studies to insurance and personal finance products. Monster has many very interesting opportunities, but because it is not the only board, I have signed up for many others.

Given that unemployment is a serious problem in the US at the moment, I would wager that a significant number of people are treading the same path towards employment at the moment. We, the unemployed, are all signed up for many e-mail alerts and many job boards.

We want to work, in many cases, we need to work as we have to keep a roof over our heads and pay our way. Which makes it all the more annoying to find that I keep getting spam e-mails.

My Spam experience started relatively lightly, with ‘offers’ to work in completely unrelated fields. I am a software product and project manager, not an insurance salesman (Farmers and State Farm, I am looking at you), every single day I get ‘selected by a senior recruiter’ to join the fast paced world of insurance sales and frankly I am a tad board with it. Nothing about my resume shouts ‘salesman’, everything shouts ‘software geek’, I called one of the numbers and after listening to an over excited, ultra enthusiastic man waffle on about how thrilling the experience of selling insurance is, I felt that I needed a nap and could probably not keep up without hourly doses of Red Bull.

The second type of spam is a little more difficult to quantify, this is the ‘baad speelin’ e-mail trying to get you to click on a link.

Read More

March 9, 2010
Max Driving, Life

F1 Prediction

Every year I try to predict the F1 season, this year I think I will go public with those predictions.

Lets get the big predictions out of the way up-front.

The 2010 Championship will go down to the wire between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, these two are the only truly top flight contenders with experience of their respective teams. of the other contenders, Alonso and Schumacher are both new to their teams and will struggle at times when their expectations are not fully realized, Webber is not up to Vettel’s standards, nor is Massa and Button is really a rank outsider in a new team. So it will go down the wire to Hamilton and Vettel. Of the two it probably comes down to a combination of their experience and the team’s ability to give them the car to do the job. having flipped a coin I say Vettel will get it done, but not by very much.

2010 Champion – Sebastian Vettel

The team title is tough too, with fours top teams that all stand a decent chance, for once there are four teams in the hunt too, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Again RedBull have the continuity advantage, Mclaren have two champions, Mercedes have Schumacher and Ferrari have Alonso and Massa. Personally I feel that Mercedes do not have the strength of team to win, sure Schumacher may win races, but Rosberg has not show enough himself to be consistently good enough in my view. The same goes for Massa. Which brings us to McLaren. Button is fast when everything is running his way, but as soon as something is wrong he stops trying and falls out of the points. Webber too is inconsistent and can be an accident magnet at time. Going out on a limb though I think that the constructors title can only have one of two possible homes, Red Bull or Ferrari. Assuming the Massa/Alonso relationship can be managed, Ferrari will do it, Massa needs to impress as it is contract time too, so…..

2010 Constructors – Ferrari

Read More

March 2, 2010
Max Life

We Got the Parcel

My father sent me an e-mail earlier today to thank me for the parcel that I sent to him.

I sent it on Friday afternoon.

It is now Tuesday.

My father lives several thousand miles away, back in the UK.

Read More

February 23, 2010
Max Life

Courtesy

Since when did ‘common courtesy’ become uncommon ?

On Sunday afternoon we were out and about trying to find inexpensive watch batteries as we had rather a lot of battery powered watches that were dead.

Clutching at straws a little we tried the $.99c store. On a Sunday afternoon the parking lot is a zoo at best, but I was able to find a space to throw the ‘Vlad’ the Impala into and after wandering around the store we came away a few dollars lighter, but without the necessary batteries, although we did get a pack of batteries for the garage door opener..

Trying to get out of the parking spot was a test of my patience. Despite people zooming around trying to find a space, nobody would let me out. It was not only really frustrating for me, it was incredible that all of those idiots fighting over spaces would not let someone out and snag a ‘prime’ space right outside the store.

While trying to get out several rocket scientists stopped by the door to allow passengers out and then stayed there too, adding to the congestion and the danger considerably.

When I eventually managed to force my way out one of those rocket scientists grabbed the space, but only after a 7419 point turn to get into it. Much to the rest of the lots’ displeasure.

While yes, it would have slowed one or two people down in the hunt for a space, it would have been really nice if they had let me out.

When I finally got out of the space there was a guy waiting to turn left (across the front of me) and I slowed and waved at him to let him do so (partly to annoy the marauding hordes behind me) He looked amazing, It was like he simply could not believe that someone was being courteous towards him.

So, perhaps we should rename it ?

It appears to have become uncommon.

February 18, 2010
Max Life, Photography

Canon – Fantastic Customer Service

Seal At OC Fair

My faithful old Canon G7  died an unspectacular death recently. The poor thing died in its sleep one day, I assume it was a painless death. It was heavily used, but still in very nice condition.

The great thing about the G7 was always its speed and ability, with results that were virtually indistinguishable from a DSLR and really great image stabilization it was pretty much perfect for ‘better than casual’ photography where the bulk and ‘look at me factor’ of a DSLR was simply not an option.

The later G9 was barely an upgrade, but the G10 and then subsequent G11 are much better in all regards.  Selling a number of photographs, a couple of which were taken with the G7, this week tipped my decision. Rather than replace it with a smaller Canon, I would get it fixed.

So this morning I went to the Canon service center in Irvine, CA to see if it could be resurrected.

Read More