Search found 822 matches

by DrSpooky
Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:58 pm
Forum: Elvis Costello General Discussion
Topic: Help add text to the Costello wiki site
Replies: 34
Views: 47886

Re: Help add text to the Costello wiki site

For those who want a kick start at this, Google Drive (e.g formerly Google Docs) can be used to scan images and convert them to text. http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176692 We used this for a number of RTEMS tasks for the students who participated in Google Code-In thi...
by DrSpooky
Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:20 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Board Software Updated
Replies: 1
Views: 43240

Board Software Updated

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I just updated the software running the Fan Forum.

Let me know if there are any issues or questions.
by DrSpooky
Tue Dec 13, 2011 1:40 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: December 2011 Server OS Upgrade
Replies: 0
Views: 45174

December 2011 Server OS Upgrade

Hi,

As those who have been around a while will remember, I tend to do major updates and upgrades during the holiday season. It is time for a major OS upgrade. I am starting it now and there may be a reboot or two. With any luck, there will not be any long outages.

Thanks.
by DrSpooky
Mon Nov 07, 2011 3:44 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed
Replies: 6
Views: 62332

Re: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed

It is 6:05pm here and there have already been 796 automated registration attempts... Are there some IP ranges you could block? LOL.. we already block a number of entire countries. And Spooky nails individual IP addresses when they are problems. We appreciate the suggestions but since we have been s...
by DrSpooky
Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:07 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed
Replies: 6
Views: 62332

Re: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed

Would a picture work? Name the LP for example? That's a good idea but (1) we only get either the captcha or (2) Q&A in text. I fear that something like Google Shopper could identify the LP. Check out http://www.google.com/mobile/shopper/ . The mobile version can identify books or media by the c...
by DrSpooky
Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:42 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed
Replies: 6
Views: 62332

Re: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed

Doc, it looks as though some spam has landed on the General Discussion board. See the thread entitled "some new reverse phone hookup". For a slightly more difficult question to sign onto the board how about "EC's real name is ____ MacManus." Anything you can answer with a search...
by DrSpooky
Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:02 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed
Replies: 6
Views: 62332

Changing Account Registration Questions -- Help Needed

Over the past 48 hours, the number of spam account registration attempts has really spiked. Spooky and I have dealt with over 100 since this morning. There is not much of a pattern -- no common country of origin, domain, etc. Last time this happened, we added having to answer a question when you wan...
by DrSpooky
Tue Nov 01, 2011 3:19 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Pageviews
Replies: 17
Views: 194160

Re: Pageviews

Thanks a lot. Don't ask me why I find stuff like this interesting. But more than 2 mio. pageviews pr. month is even more than i thought. Impressive for a fan forum :) I am impressed also. When the Wiki was moved to this server, it took a while to get the performance tuned out. At that point, we wer...
by DrSpooky
Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:56 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Pageviews
Replies: 17
Views: 194160

Re: Pageviews

We have these but don't mention them much. We run something called Webalizer ( http://www.webalizer.org/ ) on the server. It runs automatically a few times a day and includes The Fan Forum and The Wiki. http://www.elviscostellofans.com/stats/ The short version is that for Oct, almost every day had a...
by DrSpooky
Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:35 pm
Forum: Elvis Costello General Discussion
Topic: Request: Where Is The Love ?
Replies: 11
Views: 13652

Re: Request: Where Is The Love ?

A gentle reminder that when a recording is available for legal purchase, it is decidedly uncool to snatch it for free. Unauthorized distribution of licensed material -- music, software, books, etc -- is not right.
by DrSpooky
Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:41 pm
Forum: Elvis Costello General Discussion
Topic: Thought I'd share these gap plugger albums
Replies: 5
Views: 9424

Re: Thought I'd share these gap plugger albums

I have to agree with Spooky. Nothing like a Cease and Desist letter to take the fun out of something. :( Please take down the content. I am going to edit the original post to cut ALL URLS out. If any of the material is OK to share, please feel free to repost but my quick scan saw Ryko and other hint...
by DrSpooky
Mon May 02, 2011 5:20 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Horrible Storm and Extended Outage
Replies: 9
Views: 70390

Horrible Storm and Extended Outage

I have posted to listserv and tried to let everyone know what happened. The server for the Fan Forum and Wiki is in Huntsville Alabama which was in the path of the storm April 27th 2011. This is a nice weather summary without the heart wrenching photos of the death and devastation. http://www.washin...
by DrSpooky
Mon May 02, 2011 2:47 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic:
Replies: -1
Views:

Horrible Storm and Extended Outage

I have posted to listserv and tried to let everyone know what happened. The server for the Fan Forum and Wiki is in Huntsville Alabama which was in the path of the storm April 27th 2011. This is a nice weather summary without the heart wrenching photos of the death and devastation. http://www.washin...
by DrSpooky
Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:05 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

Yup, lightning fast. Gorgeous. Many thanks. As things get more complicated, the margin for unexplained weirdness making things go wrong seems to widen. When I upgraded my Mc and software recently, I expected it all to be much faster, but google searches, use of wikipedia and other things were appal...
by DrSpooky
Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:47 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

sweetest punch wrote:No need for sorry - thank you, DrSpooky!
You are too sweet. :D

I just hope the Board and Wiki perform well for everyone.
by DrSpooky
Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:28 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

Hi all, I spent some time last night watching the server and router logs while JohnE tried to upload pictures to the Wiki. I spotted something in the logs and we managed to track it down. I found a setting in the firewall/router to change and it looks to have been the magic bullet. Some of the folks...
by DrSpooky
Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:31 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

I too am on a Mac and finding it slow all the time - 2-3 minutes or the like. I'm just used to it now, so post and then open up a different window whilst it goes through. IT annoys the hell out of my kids if they want to get on whilst I'm waiting for it to load. Haven't tried it on a PC yet, will s...
by DrSpooky
Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:25 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

I too am on a Mac and finding it slow all the time - 2-3 minutes or the like. I'm just used to it now, so post and then open up a different window whilst it goes through. IT annoys the hell out of my kids if they want to get on whilst I'm waiting for it to load. Haven't tried it on a PC yet, will s...
by DrSpooky
Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:55 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

Doc, posted on the Spinning Songbook thread just a few minutes ago and it took an eternity. Still having major problems. FWIW I never have problems in this forum, only the Annex and EC forums. This sounds like a hint that the busiest and biggest forums might need some database clean up or optimizat...
by DrSpooky
Fri Feb 04, 2011 4:16 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

Doc, posted on the Spinning Songbook thread just a few minutes ago and it took an eternity. Still having major problems. FWIW I never have problems in this forum, only the Annex and EC forums. This sounds like a hint that the busiest and biggest forums might need some database clean up or optimizat...
by DrSpooky
Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:13 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

Hi Doc, I made a couple of posts between 22.35 and 22.48 EST, each time the screen took about 2 minutes to refresh. I'm on latest versions of Mac OS and Firefox, give or take a week. (but this one was only about 1 second) I think I see one of the backup activities running about that time and using ...
by DrSpooky
Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:26 pm
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

I am glad it is working well for you.

If you are ever curious about the load on the server, it is available at http://www.elviscostellofans.com/munin/. If you have a performance problem, see if you can correlate it to a spike in one of the graphs there. It will help track it down.
by DrSpooky
Tue Jan 04, 2011 8:32 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

In case you noticed and wondered, there was some up and down time yesterday evening. I moved a hard drive that had to be in an external USB case with the old computer and could be made internal with the new server. While doing this, I resolved why only 3 of the 4 CPUs were active. Also yesterday I b...
by DrSpooky
Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:41 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

I have been encountering of late when I log on a challenge to unscramble letters because I have supposedly failed in too many prior log on attempts. The problem is I have not been logging on previously incorrectly and making too many failed attempts. Either someone is trying to hack the site or the...
by DrSpooky
Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:38 am
Forum: From the management
Topic: Now on New Server
Replies: 42
Views: 217045

Re: Now on New Server

Just tried posting on the "National Ransom" thread, and it's taking ages again. Perhaps it has something to do with the length of the thread. The National Ransom thread is currently 23 pages with 560 posts. Do you experience the delay on other, shorter threads? If not, you could try posti...