Have they already started? The front page is stuck, from about 1:40pm Eastern.

I don't know. I've emailed to inquire.

The front page is unstuck.

Good luck with all that, Patrick. Bad cess to the spammers.

If ML's move to a non-shared server bumps the bills beyond what ad revenue brings in, I would be pleased to contribute to the site's upkeep.

(Or to a consultant to get the site in a less kludgy form that would be easier for y'all to maintain.)

(And while I'm being parenthetical, this Spam Firewall plugin is great for reducing server load.)

Damn, there go my plans for a quiet Friday evening with new friends. :-(

I might get some writing done, however.

A pox on spammers, btw. In fact, I'll probably spend some time clearing them out of my forum* tonight. They sign up, but get caught in a net for me to delete, and I'm way behind.

*I hope it's okay to link that. I know I've raved ecstatically about this blog, and the people on it, to the folks over there at least once or twice.

I'm not under the impression we're being moved to a non-shared server, merely to one more capable of coping with our current State of Being.

"Captain, the server can't take it anymore!"
"Scotty, I need that server now."
"Oh, OK. Just give me five minutes."
(2.5 minutes later)
"Done, Captain."
"What? How...? Nevermind."

That being said, in keeping with Kate Nepveu's suggestion, I wonder if a Paypal tin cup would help.

I'm going to bed soon, and I'm not exactly myself (fever). So rather than track things reactively, I've put my Professional Pessimist* hat on.

There's an Open Thread over at my place if ML goes down and there is a need** for somewhere to discuss matters germane, Jermaine, German, or geranium.

If it's not needed, it can die a death. If it is, we have the bandwidth. And if, like the guy who brings the umbrella to prevent rain, I make it all go smoothly, well, that to is a use.

-----
* I am a software tester. I know what can go wrong.
** or desire

Abi, you might want to make sure those who post there for the first time tonight don't get their comments held for approval (like I just did). ;-)

Summer Storms @10:

Not just held for approval, but actually marked junk! I shall scrape together all available brain cells and investigate.

* I am a software tester. I know what can go wrong.

Shouldn't that be 'I know what can go rwong'?

(This beats trying to figure out why the line on the paper map is straighter than the one that has to be there in the real world. @#$%^&*!)

OK, spam filter adjusted.

And PJ Evans, my Skype message is usually:

Getnig ti wrnog.

Thanks, Abi! Hope you feel better soon!

The last time there was a big crunch (back in the summer) I'd emailed about a MT wizard / consultant who'd been recommended to me as very good and very, very fast.

There's a place for vicarious learning, and big website installations might be one of them.

Best of Luck!

is it my imagination or did everything just revert back an hour? a bunch of comments from 8:00 to just after 9 appear to have disappeared .

I test software for a living
I find problems ev'ryday,
I crash programs unforgiving,
I find where the programs stray.

I test software for a living,
Bugs by thousands I have found,
I find holes the coders left and,
I chase them down in the ground.

I test software for a living,
Unbound entities cause bugs,
Uninitialized conditions,
Were the programmers on drugs?

I test software for a living,
I play dirty user tricks,
That send programs into havoc,
Like a game of pick up sticks.

I test software for a living,
Watch the applications fail,
Can I make the same things happen,
Is there any audit trail?

I test software for a living,
Write up bugs a daily task,
Then I have to check for fixes,
And I often have to ask--

"I test software for a living,
Is this acting as it should?
This is what I've seen it doing,
Is this bad or is it good?"

I looked at the specs, they left out,
Many details that I need,
That would tell me what to look for,
For the testing to succeed!

I test software for a living,
Many fewer bugs there'd be,
If more time were spent on baselines,
And specs written properly!

I test software for a living.
I find where the software's weak,
Error handling were it better,
There would be no mem'ry leak.

I test software for a living,
I wish programmers would be
Much more careful writing software,
Then more stable it would be!

Well done Paula!

Hey! I wrote that first and Paula stole it! You just can't tell because of the missing comments!

(OK, not really. Good work, Paula!)

"Uninitialized conditions,
Were the programmers on drugs?"

At more than one previous job, there were commenting conventions that would indicate that not only was the answer 'yes', but which drugs the programmers were on when writing that particular section.

abi @9:

Or matters Jemaine?

Get well soon.

* I am a software tester. I know what can go wrong.

Shouldn't that be 'I know what can go wrong'?

Or: I am a software tester. I am what goes wrong.

There's a tshirt that I've seen from one of the MS test groups that's essentially:

"Well then the spec's wrong too. "

I think I'm back to myself, mostly.

Yay Paula! That's what it's like.

Around my office we joke about "the Abi-field" (in Dutch, "het Abiveld"). Things go wrong for me, pretty much all the time; my main problems are targeting† and reproducibility*.

I'm substantially back to myself now, anyway, and thanks for all the good wishes.

-----
† so that I break the application, not the operating system, hardware, colleagues or office environment‡
* though non-reproducible and intermittent bugs give me an idea where the code is flaky - sometimes the bug is just in its cocoon stage
‡ all of which I have done when het Abiveld gets out of control

(Clearly not enough back to myself to preview effectively.)

Abi... I guess that answers my question to you in the other thread, about your fevered dreams.

Wow. You generate the Abi Testing Field and the Abi Poesy Field?

Imminent downtime,
fortunately I missed it.
I have a headache.