Sidepodcast

To follow up on yesterday’s post regarding an impending server relocation… if you’re reading this then all went well.

Born Again

Actually it was probably the easiest migration we’ve ever done (this being only the second), despite the fact that smack in the middle of the process WordPress decided to release a new version of their publishing platform. If you followed the comments and tweets yesterday, there seemed to be a 50 / 50 split whether or not we should upgrade at the same time as moving, but seeing as it basically meant less work for us, we opted to dive straight into version 2.5.

Ideally you shouldn’t notice any changes, everything should work as before, only a bit faster. We know that a couple of the audio podcasts from last year have broken links meaning you can’t listen to them right now, but that should be sorted within the next few hours.

The Other Bits

One thing that is worth mentioning (if not a little geeky) is the Sidepodcast TV Facebook application.

Continue reading…

This weekend we’re planning on moving sidepodcast.com to a new collection of web and database servers. It’s been on our to do list for a while, but the recent popularity of live commenting during race weekends has forced us to get on with it.

Falling Down

Following on from the Malaysian GP this site struggled to cope with the 400+ comments posted in the space of a few hours, and rather indignantly fell over. After much analysis it seems the weight of comments wasn’t so much of a problem, rather the large amount of spam that seems to arrive in waves, coupled with some search engine spiders doing their thing.

Given that the last two things are pretty much out of our control, we thought we ought to do something about it (although I suspect a total of 400 comments will take some beating), so we’re moving Sidepodcast onto the same Media Temple servers that currently host F1 Minute. MT have had a slightly ropey time of it lately, but their support and response times have been second to none throughout. Their databases are also scalable, so in theory as soon as the site gets busier we can add more and more, and we get guranteed uptime.

Continue reading…

Quick apology to everyone who’s struggled to access ye olde sidepodcast for the past 12 hours. During the night our hosting company appeared to be playing the twisted, but familiar game - “best of luck getting out of this one”.

Did you miss us?

Luckily it was just the blog affected, podcasts continued to download unabated, although yesterday’s F1 Minute was slightly delayed for anyone using the new shared site version - big apologies to anyone affected there.

As it happens, we’re already deep into the process of building a more reliable Sidepodcast for next season, one that should hopefully withstand irresponsible hosting companies messing with our minds.

Just for kicks, enjoy the following system status notifications, both raised late last night (within an hour of each other), and see if you can’t spot the deliberate lack of joined up thinking here:

21:46: Some customers may find they are experiencing ‘timeouts’ when downloading email.

22:46: Customers may find they are unable to access their databases. All customers affected will be emailed shortly with further information and instructions.

Real tears, let me tell you. Real tears.