A while ago we realized that we needed more RAM in the DB server that PerlMonks uses (see Re: PM News: Vote fary missing, and other stories... (corrections), for example). Soon after that, pair (who generously hosts us for free) agreed to give us more. Then pair realized that our current mother board had as much RAM as it could have. Then pair's CEO approved us getting a new motherboard. Then we cheered.

Today that finally happened. Fortunately, the first replacement motherboard kept locking up which caused quite a bit of server errors, etc. I say "fortunately" because this meant that we got an even better motherboard. We now have a DB server with a P4-2000 CPU (about 4 times faster than our previous CPU) with 1gB RAM (twice as much as before as promised).

I think this will give us quite a bit more room for growth. The site may still be a bit slower than usual due to database checks being performed due to the graceless failures when the 2nd motherboard locked up. There is a good chance those will be done by the time you read this, however. Don't expect the site to be really fast, though; instead hope that the site will be less vulernarable to load fluxuations and more consistantly "just a little slow" like we're used to.

Thanks to pair for continuing to support us.