2 March 2008, 23:55 by mark hoekstra

q-u-i-e-t

well, I’m surprised I’ve still got visitors! *^_^*


somehow I thought this was an appropriate pic ^_^
credit: bnp on flickr
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr

I mean, I don’t think that in the *ahem* history of this site I ever had a moment where I didn’t blog for three weeks(!).

But, behind the scenes I’m quite busy to push this whole thing in another gear somehow.

Last week I talked to my generous host and we were able to reach an agreement about my second server so yes, in a while I’ll be hosting this DIY-job of a site of two servers(!). That should also resolve some speed issues. At least, I’m experiencing some speed related issues with this site. Anybody else experience the same? Somehow I don’t want to change to much to this server right now… it’s been running for 640(!) days right now and somehow I want to be in the datacenter when I reboot this machine. I should be there in about a month I guess to co-locate the second server.

shamal logs # uptime 23:13:59 up 640 days, 13:46, 1 user, load average: 0.28, 0.36, 0.33

And well, of course I’ve been geeking around since my last project, but nothing big. I’ve been busy connecting my Indy optical to my stereo and I made an approach to another Polaroid project, but that needs more time…


click to go to the corresponding pics on flickr

And there’s a whole lot more going on as well, some of it in my personal life and some in my professional life (all positive btw!) sooooo…


bates got it all figured out
click to enlarge

Somehow this three weeks of non-blogging has to do with the kind of decisions I’ve been making I guess. In short that’s no ads and only blog when I really have something to blog. So yeah, in the end that could work out to only blog projects, but somehow I’m not quite sure about that.

Anyway, for those who want to know, I’m still alive and kicking!

*^_^*

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  1. Daniel Bento @ 3 March 2008, 01:33 :

    Hello!

    Yes, it was a little strange don’t see around here so much time, but… well, I really enjoy to read your articles and your stuff projects ;)

    Well done and keep it! :D



  2. TinMan @ 3 March 2008, 03:23 :

    No speed issues with the server here! (Chicago, USA)



  3. Wallytgoat @ 3 March 2008, 05:44 :

    Speed is fine here. And no worries, I didn’t even realize it had been three weeks… Guess I got distracted by my own geeky projects. Keep at it, when it is time to write, you will write. Thanks for the updaTe!



  4. Franco Filiberti @ 3 March 2008, 14:01 :

    Take your time Mark… :) No speed issues from here… (Rosario, Argentina)



  5. Ceristimo @ 3 March 2008, 20:06 :

    “(...) At least, I’m experiencing some speed related issues with this site. Anybody else experience the same?”
    Yes, actually. Your website itself is not slow, once it has loaded the mainpage.
    But that can sometimes take up to 45 seconds on my 4Mbit broadband connection. Just when I’m expecting to see a time-out, the frontpage pops-up. After that I can browse your site quickly without loadingtimes, it’s just that the first time it takes a lóng time before the server seems to respond.
    By the way, I’m in Groningen, The Netherlands. Same city you live in ;-)

    P.S. I’m posting this comment for the second time now, because the first time nothing seemed to happen. So yet another speed-related issue I guess.
    But still, your site still rocks, even if it’s a little slow sometimes.



  6. markie @ 3 March 2008, 22:51 :

    >P.S. I’m posting this comment for the second time now

    ;-) there were two comments indeed, i removed the first one.

    >it’s just that the first time it takes a lóng time before the server seems to respond.

    that’s exactly what i’ve been experiencing. I’ve already removed some crap and tried to clean up here and there but somehow i can’t find why it does that.

    Now normally this would be the time to reboot it (after 640 days…) but somehow i’m not looking for work at this moment and i’m not quite sure if i remember all the changes i’ve made in the last …two years. ;-) so that’s why i’m reluctant to reboot it (on two years, what’s a month ey?)

    ...which also teached me to keep a proper worklog from now on ;-)

    the idea is to co-locate server nr.2, all fresh. pull this server down, maybe change some hardware and put it back up again.

    funny thing is, that i can’t find anything and the only people experiencing it are in the groningen area (if there are more, please tell me!) so maybe it’s some local routing issue or such… hmmmz…

    i also experienced that it's actually *not* the case when traffic is much higher than normal? somehow i'll wait till the second server before i also will do all kinds of caching, since i've got much more memory to play with also. I somehow also suspect the MySQL-db for the lag in the beginning somehow... Ah well, it's about time to rebuild the whole shebang ^_^



  7. vincent @ 4 March 2008, 00:43 :

    Mark,

    I’m also experiencing the same problem here (Belgium :) ). It takes some time to connect, once it’s loaded everything works normal. Firewall issue?



As mentioned in the Message from Mark's family this site has been made static. This means that it will be no longer possible to comment on his ideas and projects, but that we all can continue to cherish his creativity.

previous: a Polaroid project

next: going through my gear