perlmonk.org Upgrade/Downtime Update

[Petruchio]

As many of you are keenly aware, perlmonk.org, the Linux server on which jcwren offers free accounts to members of the Monastery, has been down for awhile due to hard drive errors. The machine, which normally resides a good distance from jc's house, is now back in his possession. The short version of the news is: while we have still not ascertained whether the data can be recovered, new and improved hardware has just arrived, and the goal is to have a system operational by January 31st. Contributions to defray the cost will be welcomed.

"Why", you ask, "has it taken so long?" I have heard various theories proposed, which suggest that the holidays, the hour's drive to and from the server, and jc's responsibilities at work may have had something to do with it. The actual explanation is much simpler, however. The truth of the matter is that jc is a rotten person who delights in the suffering of others, and has spent his days idly sipping mint juleps on the veranda, and painting watercolor sunsets.

In any case, upon retreiving the machine, it was found that, in addition to hard drive errors, the capacitors on the motherboard were swelling, a known failure mode of certain models (as well as the occasion of an ongoing class-action lawsuit). While this is not, at present, believed to be the cause of the errors which brought down the server, it would nonetheless be unwise to return a machine in this condition to use as a server, so new hardware was ordered, and arrived just as I was composing this. The changes are as follows:

Part	Old	New
CPU	1 GHz Athlon	Sempron 2800+
Hard Drive	60GB	250GB
Memory	512MB PC100	1GB 400MHz DDR
Fans	Not so good	Good
Bogomips	< 2300	~ 4300

The total cost for the hardware is $405, which jcwren has already paid. If anyone wishes to contribute to the project, and share the burden, it will be appreciated; [e-mail] for Paypal, or email [e-mail] to get his mailing address.

It should be understood, particularly before you send money, that there are no guarantees about the new server. In particular, one of jc's friends allows him to hook the machine into his T1, and that arrangement could end at any time. Considering, however, that jc has hitherto provided the service for years entirely on his own, I, for one, do not have a problem with the idea of defraying the cost of a good-faith effort.

Lastly, but not... um... leastly, we do not yet know whether the data will be recoverable. I think all of us have been around computers long enough to know that we should be backing up our data on a regular basis, but like many of you, I wasn't; let's keep our fingers crossed.

- Petruchio

[japhy]

I upped my contribution. Up yours.

[pboin]

OK Monks, let's hook jcwren up on this one, and see if we can double the $405 in 24 hours. That's just a few monks tossing $5 or $10 bucks in the hat -- a few beers or coffees. (I'll humbly suggest / request an occasional update to help the challenge along.)

This was a no-brainer for me. Think how many crap books we probably all have at $40-60 bucks a shot.

[spiritway]

This was a no-brainer for me. Think how many crap books we probably all have at $40-60 bucks a shot.

Isn't that the truth. If I could get a dollar for each of those crappy books, I could probably pay off the server...

[mitd]

Ok we drew straws and the circled kid in pic volunteered not to eat this week.

So $25 US greenbacks == $29.13675 Great White North buckies == 1 case of Zoodles on its way Chris.

Update: Whoops, had to beef-up Paypal account. Take a few days for transfer to go through, or I could just ship Zoodles hmmmm ...

[tbone1]

<STANDING OVATION>
Bra-vo!
<\STANDING OVATION>

LOVE the knick-knacks in that photo. That alone deserves at least100 XP.

[dda]

Hi Petruchio,

Any update on this? I live in Russia and don't have access to PayPal. Do you know if I can use iKobo or moneybookers and transfer some money to somebody who will pass it along to jcwren? I emailed him twice without any success... Thanks!

[dda]

Hey, I see it's alive:

[dda@lizard dda]$ ping perlmonk.org
PING perlmonk.org (199.5.193.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 199.5.193.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=195 ms
64 bytes from 199.5.193.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=193 ms

So we don't lose our hope. :)