(Pssst, nobody tell her.)

Oh... Wait...

Ahem...

That has happened to me occasionally, and yes, it's that the browser isn't downloading the graphics. When it happens to me, it's usually because I'm running BitTorrent, which sucks up a lot of internet connection resources, preventing things like graphics and style sheets from getting through.

I think it was LJ that buggered me up. Things are fine now.

Hey, would a mailing list work for deathmatch notifications, or is that a less immediate medium for most people?

Hey, would a mailing list work for deathmatch notifications, or is that a less immediate medium for most people?

I don't think that'll work. I'm trying to think of a cheap and dirty hack that would alert people. Like a little red graphic that would pop up if you got more than 20 posts in Quotables in an hour. Just a simple visual that would alert people that It's On.

Last round of code volunteers gave us PMM, Jon [little SQL], Liese [limited].

We need to sift the code over to investigate streamlining page delivery.

There are a couple options -- pooling MySQL connections (requires little code change, and diligent MySQL tuning -- therefore not applicable if we want to change to a non-dedicated host); changing DB backends (to something more sophisticated, like PostGres, which would require changes in the class files, and somewhat limits the hosting choices we'd have, but not severely); fixing MySQL (I wish); redoing the existing SQL, keeping the back end and default tunings.

Personally, I'm pro the Postgres route, because it's transaction oriented, and can do stored procedures and triggers.

But I'm out of pocket until early April, for sure.

This is something that should be resolved one way or another so we know our future. I'm not sure how much cash we have in pocket for hosting, but we can't stay here forever unless we know we have to.

We're good through the end of the year, money-wise. (Because people ROCK, have I mentioned that?)

With pooling connections, would that be something we could do up and tweak over here, and have it work when we moved to a cheaper solution? Or would it need continual tuning?

From what I've seen of the code, other than pooling connections, I'm not really seeing a whole lot of major improvement just sitting out there. Obviously, there could be a lot I'm not seeing, but it's fairly straightforward code-wise. We're just (like similar applications) high on transactions, since every part of the page is delivered on demand.

I'm not too opposed to switching backends, though that's probably the most labor-intensive option on the table. Don't know about PostGres specifically, but that doesn't matter (me not knowing it, that is).

Since it seems like our problem is specific to mySQL, switching backends may be the best option.

have it work when we moved to a cheaper solution? Or would it need continual tuning?

Once it's tuned, it should be good. Just that we're tuning MySQL itself, outside of our code, and we may not be able to do that outside of a dedicated solution.

Postgres has other benefits -- the triggers and stuff are something I'm excited by. But my excitement is not the point. It's something I'd planned to do with the code for my own learning benefit, and actually implementing it was not a big priority.

Ah, gotcha. Makes sense.

Yah, triggers are handy. Off I go to investigate. It's BSD license, so no cost issues, yes?

I am still willing to contribute money, food, and any of my non-coding skills to help do whatever work is needed so that we can get back to the features list.

I understand that I may not be able to help. This is not harping, I just thought I'd offer. You programmer board builder folks are close to my heart and I appreciate all the hours you have put in.