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.

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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.

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Oh yes, it’s true. I mentioned in the comments earlier this week that there was a peculiar ITV advertisement doing the rounds.

It looked like this:

And read:

Live coverage of Friday’s Practice, this Thursday at 11pm GMT

I clicked the message, but to my disappointment the page didn’t go anywhere. It also didn’t explain whether the content would be online, on television or some kind of mobile service.

Today, ITV announced that they have in fact secured the rights to stream Friday practice on the web. They also have rights to something they’re calling “simulcasts” of qualifying and the race. I can’t for the life of me figure if there’s a difference between live streaming and simulcasting, presumably they mean shown at the same time as on television?

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