There are rumors whispering about on the scienceblogs grapevine that there may — I emphasize may — be some brief downtime of the site on Wednesday, while the techies do some magic and switch us to some better performing hardware. We hope. If I were a man of faith, I'd be praying, but as it is, I'm too smart to think that would do any good.
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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Promises, promises
Category: Administrative
Posted on: July 13, 2009 9:05 PM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
July 13, 2009 9:24 PM
Ha ha, that's what you get for believing in "circuits" and "software."
I just sacrifice a baby now and then, and I have no computer problems.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: Josh West | July 13, 2009 9:24 PM
I, for one, will miss your tripe.
As a side note, I received my Dragon*Con magazine today and was browsing the guest list. To my dismay, the name of PZ Myers was suspiciously absent! Phil Plait is going to be there, you don't want to be shown up by Phil Plait do you?
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM
|
July 13, 2009 9:36 PM
so no pharyngula on wednesday?
if I survive that, I might actually get some work done :-p
Posted by: Onkel Bob | July 13, 2009 9:43 PM
"Wave a dead chicken" is an old adage from the Grace Hopper days of computer maintenance. If you ever had to revive an IBM 3740 and its attending CU's you would know the value of keeping a Foster Farms whole chicken in the tool box. The entrails are also useful for determining the maintenance schedule.
Posted by: MadScientist | July 13, 2009 9:44 PM
I hope they don't get rid of the "Submission Error" messages; I really love those messages and the long wait between clicking "Post" and receiving the message.
Posted by: jdac | July 13, 2009 9:45 PM
Perfect. That'll give me time to cash my paycheck.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | July 13, 2009 9:46 PM
Do you mean that the new kit will magically solve the problem of posters not being able to read the message that tells them to just chill out and reload instead of mashing "Post" over and over?
That would be like magic!
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | July 13, 2009 9:51 PM
Welcome to our insightfuly coding overlords!
Posted by: Wowbagger, OM | July 13, 2009 9:53 PM
Anything that eliminates - or at least cuts down - the multiple posts would be good. Of course, people simply not reposting without being patient and refreshing a few minutes after to check first would solve the problem...
Posted by: James F | July 13, 2009 9:56 PM
Josh West #2
Lots of us have been dropping not-so-subtle hints to PZ to come to D*C. Eugenie Scott is making her debut appearance this year, too!
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
|
July 13, 2009 10:05 PM
I remember the last time SB's techies tried to improve things. I hope this time they do a backup first so when the vaporware implodes, they've got something barely functional.
Posted by: Zeno
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July 13, 2009 10:06 PM
Back in the good old days, when the first rush of excitement for personal computers had run its course and ComputerLand had fallen on hard times, the Christers in charge of the corporation resorted to prayer and the laying on of hands to repair balky computers. Must not have worked.
I hope the ScienceBlog overlords use a more scientific approach. Maybe chicken sacrifices. It worked well for the Colonel.
Posted by: Lynna | July 13, 2009 10:09 PM
Mad Scientists @5: I'm with you. I love the nihilism of it all. "Were you trying to submit a comment?" Don't answer that.
I just assume the comment goes to its intended destination almost immediately. I click a different "Recent Post" in the left column, or a "Recent Comment" on a different post -- read there for a bit and then go back to whatever thread I'm commenting on. My comment is always there.
I have also recently skipped the submission page idiocy by proceeding directly to "Latest Posts" after clicking the "Post" button. No submission screen. No wasted time. Only hassle is that one does then have to manually return to the thread to view one's latest typos, spelling errors and funky syntax.
I'm sure this works because I always say, "Get thee behind me, Satan" after clicking "Post" and before clicking on my next destination.
Posted by: Greg Laden
|
July 13, 2009 10:51 PM
Will the ITechies be praying? That's the important question.
Hopefully they will be like that guy who landed the plane in the Hudson River:
Reporter: "So, when you were coming down into the river, did you pray?"
Pilot: "No. I was thinking about how to land the plane."
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | July 13, 2009 11:24 PM
Some times it seems as though it's all just a breath away. Like we can see it all so clearly. And then some one suggests universal guilt. I deny the notion that some validity has been assumed by those who "just feel".
Why are the important things in life cast in terms of good vs. evil when both arguments can be cast as both?
And how does the advent of an Invisible Supernatural Spook in popular discourse become the tie breaker?
My mind inquires . . .
Posted by: Intelligent Designer | July 14, 2009 12:09 AM
But just barely 8^)Posted by: Rey Fox | July 14, 2009 12:14 AM
In the meantime, some music.
Posted by: cag | July 14, 2009 12:17 AM
PZ: If I were a man of faith, I'd be praying, but as it is, I'm too smart to think that would do any good
Me: Why not pray? It couldn't help!
Posted by: Simon Scott | July 14, 2009 12:25 AM
I mean, really, the load can't be that great...... give me 5 minutes with your source and Ill have it sorted.
Posted by: Chris Davis
|
July 14, 2009 5:48 AM
Oh, dear. Blaming the hardware when the software doesn't work is an old move of desperation. It has been known to work on occasion, largely because sufficiently fast kit can obscure software limitations by not having buggy exception code run.
I'll hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, as usual.
Posted by: Chris Davis
|
July 14, 2009 5:51 AM
Ooh! Submitted without an error!
That's a good omen.
Posted by: Richard Eis | July 14, 2009 7:04 AM
- while the techies do some magic and switch us to some better performing hardware-
yay...newer...faster gerbils.
Posted by: foole | July 14, 2009 9:45 AM
Praying doesn't help with software/hardware upgrades. Swearing does, however.
Posted by: arensb | July 14, 2009 10:48 AM
It might, if it kept you out of the techs' hair while they do their work.
Posted by: Patricia, OM
|
July 14, 2009 11:06 AM
That's a real knee slapper. The place has been broke for weeks.
I'll go out and ask the Pullet Patrol to pray on Wednesday.
Posted by: stoat100 | July 14, 2009 2:20 PM
I'm a techie. Pray. :)
Posted by: mas528 | July 14, 2009 3:10 PM
If it is just a hardware upgrade, then no, the posting problems will continue since that is a problem with the code.
Coders: you don't have to strive for bug free programming. Just use an error message!
Most importantly, use error messages when there is not any real error. That way, you can increase the amount of re-submissions.
The longer the flaw is around, the more commonplace it will seem to long term users.
It is always good to blame the users for the most
egregious and long standing bugs(the posting flaw has been there for more than a year).
It hearkens back to the heady days of Winword support mantra: "write a paragraph;ctrl+s" days since word would crash so often.
A: "I just lost all of my work"
B: "Did you hit ctrl+s?"
A: "I forgot to. I was so excited by what I was working on and..."
B: "Then you're an idiot and its your own fault. You're here to protect the computer, not the other way around."
5 minutes? Maybe, but I'd expect a full fix in
Three months? The freshest newest junior programmer would have fixed the posting flaw -- which is not a load problem. The fact that they try to say that its a load problem *is* a load.
No, moderately decent coding would solve the problem.
What you're suggesting is temporary amelioration.
Posted by: Monado | July 14, 2009 3:16 PM
If I recall correctly, about thirty years ago, columnist Richard Needham stated as a sign of the times that one of the big banking computers had demanded the sacrifice of a virgin, touching off one of the biggest searches in modern Toronto history....
Posted by: stogoe | July 14, 2009 3:26 PM
That's where you're wrong. It showed up in March at the earliest. It was right when they 'upgraded' the whole of scienceblogs.
Posted by: Lynna | July 14, 2009 4:35 PM
Patricia's Pullets will save the day. I'm no longer worried. Serenity, Peace, Pullet Prayers.
Posted by: Sili
|
July 14, 2009 7:04 PM
So you're saying it's my fault for not buying and sacrificing these two guys?