Live from Austin!

In case you were wondering, some git pwned my web host. Other than that, things have been very stable.

Best quote this week:

TSOs have been trained to not touch the monkey during the screening process.

—TSA web site

Rails 1.1 broke typo. My web host suggested a fix to freeze the Rails version at 1.0, but that didn’t fix the problem. It did, however, break rake so I couldn’t un-freeze.

I decided to migrate to the trunk version of typo, which works with Rails 1.1. So I downloaded that using svn, and set it up with a clean database to reduce the number of possible sources of error. It didn’t work, but creating a new blank rails app and copying over the dispatch scripts and .htaccess file fixed it.

Next problem was to migrate my data. There’s a rake migrate command which is supposed to do this. Hey, guess what, it didn’t work! So, I ended up typing in raw SQL directly to psql to update the schema of the old database to something compatible with the new one.

That done, I dumped the old data with pg_sql --attribute-inserts, and imported it back into the new database.

After learning how to reset serial numbers, I was up and running again.

So, I’m back. I’m afraid it looks as if my LiveJournal account will not be returning. Read the whole sordid story if you’re interested, and then make sure you have a full backup of your journal in case they decide to pull the same shit with you.

Fortunately, I was prescient enough to have just converted my entire journal backlog (or at least, all the good stuff) to blosxom format, so I can redeploy the whole lot on any web host which provides CGI. So I have.

No nifty discussion forum features here. I’m pondering what to do about that; I may just set up a mailing list for interested (and interesting) people who want to discuss anything I post about, or otherwise interact with me.

My web hosting provider exploded. The company who supposedly bought their customer lists has failed to get things going after a week or two. So, I need a new web host.

Requirements:

• Linux or UNIX based
• SSH access and rsync for uploading my site
• Low monthly fees
• No price gouging for extra bandwidth
• Low or zero setup fee
• One domain, at least 3 subdomains
• At least 2 POP3/IMAP mailboxes
• A reasonable amount of space (50 MB or more)
• SpamAssassin

Nice-to-have features:

• Usenet/NNTP access and server
• Jabber server
• Logs and stats
• Search engine support for sites

I don’t need PHP, JSP, ASP, SSI, SQL, CGI, … Just static web pages, cheap. Also:

• I don’t need DNS hosting or domain registration, just the servers to point my existing domain at and a working MX or two.
• High uptime isn’t all that important; the odd day or so of downtime is fine.
• Phone support isn’t important.
• Technical hand-holding won’t be needed, obviously.

I’ve found:

• WebIntellects (attraction: unmetered bandwidth)
• DreamHost (attraction: Samba, WebDAV, streaming QuickTime)
• 123CheapHosting (attraction: cheap)
• Micfo.com (generous allocations yet cheap)

Frankly, I’d be tempted to do it myself if we weren’t planning on moving in the near future…

Got home, booked tickets to Minnesota. It’s funny, when I married Sara I didn’t really think about the fact that it would mean visiting Minnesota every other winter. Not that I’d have decided differently; I’m just amused that it didn’t occur to me.

Also fixed my web site. The Perl script rewrote most the HTML for AT&T’s web servers, but I had to change a few URLs in my LiveJournal template and fix the redirection at pobox.com. It’s great being able to change web host and ISP at the drop of a modem connection.