Let me put this diplomatically (for now): I am in the process of resolving Philly Future’s hosting issues and expect, by morning, for Philly Future to not only be clear of the downtime that was inflicted on us, but for Philly Future to be blazingly fast as well. I expect there will be few lingering issues to resolve, but over the next few days, we should be able to tackle them and come out of this better than ever.
Category Archives: PhillyFuture.org
Philly Future Status: Dreamhost has re-enabled our database
Note however, things are still fluid. Dreamhost wants me to improve the performance of Philly Future immediately or they will shut us back down. Please see this post at Philly Future.
Philly Future Status: Dreamhost has shut us down
Yesterday, March 11th, at 6:23 PM, a Dreamhost staffer alerted me that Philly Future was incurring too much database load and that they were disabling it:
Hello,
I am sorry but I had to disable your database (it was single-handedly killing the database server – the load was around 20 and is now down
under 1 (4 is optimal) after disablement.We can re-enable it if you can assure us you’ll take proper steps to curb the usage (you need to be sure you are indexing things if you weren’t and perhaps re-evaluate the efficiency of your code).
Thanks!
John
Immediately upon getting the notice we emailed Dreamhost our intent to help them resolve any issues they may have.
As of 12:03PM EST I still cannot access our database to attempt to improve performance or do a dump of it to migrate us. I have been emailing them all night.
This situation comes as a surprise since back on February 3rd we received a thank you from Dreamhost stating we had successfully reduced resource utilization:
You have successfully reduced your resource usage on machine limbo-spunky.
Therefore we have moved your account (#109016) back to its original home machine foothill.
Thank you for your efforts and we are glad to have your account in good standing again.Moving you back to the original server will change any IPs associated with your web services. Please get the new ones if you set up any custom scripts or DNS that relies on the old IP to function.
Happy Dreamhost Support Team!
While we looked for and prepared a new hosting solution, Dreamhost’s staff worked with us to reduce our CPU utilization to an acceptable level over the course of January and as you can see, we had a successful resolution.
That experience strengthened my trust in Dreamhost, I came away impressed by them, and it enabled me to not worry about our hosting situation while my daughter was being born.
I assure you there were *no* warnings and *no* indications of a current problem.
I want to apologize to our community. This is an unacceptable situation that we hope to have resolved sometime today.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
More updates as they come.
Karl
Rough Week
And an exciting one. There is a possibility of a huge – and terrific – life changing event, in the near future. I’ll share if it happens. Maybe still if it doesn’t.
In the meantime, I’ve missed some work due to a nasty cold (with sniffles and cough), that led me to miss this month’s monthly blogger meetup, and to fall behind on sharing a bunch of conversations I’ve been involved in recently.
Some can be found in my latest post on media 2.0/publishing 2.0/whatwascalllednewmediabutnowisn’t at Philly Future, including links to interesting reading on copyright, RSS, the A-list, and more.
Also of note is part 1 of a report on where things stand at Philly Future.
Help find Latoyia Figueroa
Latoyia Figueroa is 5’2″, pregnant, and has been missing from her Philadelphia home since 7/18/2005. If you know any details of her whereabouts, please call the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-8477, or you can contribute to the reward fund.
A few nights ago, Atrios raised awareness of her, Howard at Philly Future caught this and posted the following:
Philly Future – Philly Blogs – The News YOU Write | The Missing:
Atrios asks what the odds are that we’ll be seeing reports of Latoyia Figueroa (pictured right) on CNN. She’s a local resident who’s been missing since Monday, but so far there’s been no Natalee Holloway treatment for this story.Don’t misunderstand, I have nothing against Miss Holloway, and I
truly hope for the best possible outcome to her situation, but surely
we’ve all noticed by now that the established media can be quite
selective with their coverage of these sad situations.Here’s hoping Latoyia Figueroa’s situation also has the best
possible outcome — and the same wish for all the other less publicized missing people out there tonight.
Richard at The All Spin Zone went far further – made phone calls and sent emails and has worked with the Philadelphia Citizens Crime Commission to help raise the reward mentioned above. Now her story is starting to make the rounds of TV broadcasters. CNN had it front page yesterday. 9 days after she went missing.
If you have any information, or can contribute any funds to the reward, contact the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-8477. If you would like to donate to the reward online, you can visit ASZ here. If you are a blogger, help spread the news. Get this out to as many people as possible. For more see Matt at Tatteredcoat. Other bloggers discussing the CNN story here.
“Philadelphia won. MTV and millions of TV viewers lost. And Africa?”
While I am still gathering my thoughts, and recovering from a hyper day of metablogging, I can immediately share a few things:
1. The concert was terrific for Philadelphia. We hosted a huge event with flying colors.
2. Our regional web, professional and not, was on fire yesterday. It covered Live 8 far better than TV. Speaking of which – I got quoted in the Inquirer panning MTV!. We’re going to continue to do what we do at PF – highlight the best of it – over the course of the next few days – shoot – maybe even weeks.
3. Philly Future’s distributed approach to all this, with me as host, and bloggers across the region posting and commenting, would have only been possible with the magic combination RSS, Flickr, Technorati, and CivicSpace – and elbow grease. The tools are getting to the point where they can achieve their promise.
4. It’s been amazing to watch the organizers of Live 8 reach out to the digerati, and then the digerati to the blogosphere, to get the word out and take part. Recognizing us as opinion leaders and buzz makers is both a compliment – and a concern (Jeff Jarvis).
5. No matter how you feel about any of this – take the time go to One.org. Get educated. And hopefully you will decide to sign the petition as I did. It’s a cause all of us can support.
6. And Albert Yee kicks ass. You national bloggers should know that he is one the best photobloggers on the web (yes, no lie) and a terrific writer to boot. His efforts helped make Philly Future a worthy place to go yesterday.
Will Bunch, from the Daily News’s weblog Attytood helps to summarize how I feel so far: Attytood: Some final thoughts on Live 8:
Philadelphia won. MTV and millions of TV viewers lost. And Africa? Let’s hope for the best.
There’s no way that 1 million people showed up on the Parkway. It may have been 400,000 over the course of the day, with no more than 300,000 at any time. How do we know that? We don’t. But, psssst, neither does Mayor Street.
No matter, because — even though the non-Stevie Wonder musical acts left us cold — Live 8 was every bit the publicity coup that the city hoped for. There was no violence, few arrests, and remarkably good behavior and good spirits. No booing.
And no snowballs. Heh.
For a city long tarred — unfairly, for the most part — as dirty, rude and disorderly, the images that were beamed around the world today may prove priceless over time. They’re won’t be much immediate impact (except for Milton Street, maybe) but over time, that image will help convince some folks that Philadelphia is a place they want to work. or live, or at least visit on a vacation.
Unfortunately, who knows how many were driven away by the God-awful TV coverage? As we watched the train wreck on MTV unfold, we started to get a sense of deja vu, and we realized why: It was exactly the same things that ruined the Olympics on TV.
Events that could have been shown live instead, inexplicably, on tape. Too much jumping around. The canned interviews, the ceaseless prattling. There once was a time when sports programs showed the games, and concert programs showed the music.
It was live. It was exciting. And now it seems lost. We don’t know why.
…With so many people touched today around the globe, we feel confident that somewhere in Africa, there is another 3-year-old girl who will be rescued by the forces that were unleashed today. And if just one life was saved, Live 8 — which also was a pretty darned good rock concert — will have been worth it.
Live 8 was worth it.
What do you think?
Head on over to to Attytood and let him know how you feel. I plan to.
Congrats and Condolences
A late congratulations to Robyn and Todd on the birth of their baby boy, Nathan.
Late congratulations on turning 41 Malcolm.
Congrats to Mike Zornek who got a new job.
Jim Cappozola is in trouble and is near homelessness. He’s taking donations from PayPal.
And my condolences to Mithras who lost his father last Sunday.