Up and running… for the future!
Well, after nearly three weeks of work—including one weekend where we spent 20 hours upgrading, installing, copying, moving, testing, and fixing—the new server is up and running.
Let me guess… most of you never noticed. Well, that was kind of the point.
Now, this wasn’t three solid weeks of work. It was work in our free time, after the 8-10 hours a day that each of us spent at our “regular” jobs. And when I say “we,” am I, perhaps, referring to the mouse in my pocket? No, I’m talking about my server admin team.
When I moved the site to a full-up dedicated server (more than a year ago), I had to add some genuine Linux gurus to my team. I’m a pretty good junior guru in training, but I can’t do what these guys do. So I’m very glad to have two admins with some serious skillz. They can finger and bash with the best of ‘em. But I digress… 
The transition went relatively well. We had a few hiccups and a couple of head-scratching moments, but we got everything working in the end. I have one last thing to do, but I can’t actually do it for myself (for the tech geeks, I need to have my host change the rDNS records so my e-mail messages don’t appear as spam to some ISPs).
Now, on to the story update. Believe it or not, I’ve been writing a lot lately. I haven’t had much time (especially with little server fixes), but I’ve been maximizing what little time I have had. Unfortunately, I have a backlog of things I neglected while we were working on the new server, so I decided to prioritize.
Since my editor will take some time with Ch12, I decided to do it first, and work on the rest of the list while he’s editing. So I read the comments from the last reality cycle and finished my pre-edit revisions about an hour ago, which means that Ch12 is officially in the pipeline for publication. Expect it in a week or so.
The next item on my To Do list is this blog update. Several readers—who don’t read my Forum, and who didn’t know about the server move—sent kind notes asking if I was okay, since they hadn’t heard from me in a while. I still haven’t answered their e-mails (that’s the next item on my To Do list), but I’m hoping this post will alleviate the immediate need. Moving on…
The last major item on my To Do list is to answer e-mail. I have about three weeks backlog, not surprisingly. Hopefully it won’t take more than a couple of hours. (But that doesn’t count the ~450 messages in my Feedback mailbox from Ch7, 8, and 9.)
I have several other things on my To Do list, but they’re less pressing. I need to review and add links to a new All-American nudes site called New World Nudes. I also need to finish the nude site reviews on my Links page. I have a few other sites I need to visit and review as well. On top of that, I want to spend some time updating articles in the Nickipedia (although it’s way down on the list, since several people have really stepped up and added a bunch of content—thanks, guys!).
Things on my long-range To Do list including adding the Spry Framework to the site and adding some cool AJAX. I also want to convert the POD into a blog with Wordpress, and add things like star ratings and voting (and maybe even a user re-captioning feature, if I can dragoon find a good PHP/db programmer to help). Last but not least, I want to do a major site redesign, to make things more automated (which will give me more time to actually write).
Speaking of actually writing… most everything on my To Do list takes a back seat to the story. The To Do items are for when I’m not in the mood to write, or when I know I won’t have enough time to get into a rhythm. So don’t worry, I’m not going to geek out at the expense of the story.
And speaking of the story… I’m about a third of the way through Ch13, but finishing it will be a time issue more than a vision problem. I know where I want to go, so I won’t have ponder my way through it. It’ll still be work to actually write it, but I’m used to that.
Last but not least, I still don’t have a good buffer of chapters, obviously, but I finally feel like I’m on the downhill leg of the marathon. And hey, at least I’m not wearing 50 pounds of Hoplite armor.
- Nick
Comments
15 Responses to “Up and running… for the future!”
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Nick,
Glad to hear things are getting “back to normal”.. as if that ever happens lol. I’m sure you’ve been really busy, as your blog plainly states. Thanks for taking the time to share with us and for the story update.
Remember one important thing…. be sure to set some time aside just for you to do whatever you want, ok?
I’m looking forward to a week or so from now (and I can say with confidence that everyone else will be as well), and am glad that things are going well for you.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Those of us that write (without expectation of financial renumeration), do it because we enjoy doing it. If you pressure yourself too much, it takes away the fun aspect and makes it work.
As a fellow writer (although the job hunt takes priority), I would rather do it for fun, instead of feeling pressured into it.
Thanks for all your effort (both in writing and the other aspects of your website).
Huge kudos to you and your server team on a seamless transition (or at least it seemed that way to me here on the outside). I’ll be looking forward to Ch. 12!
Nick,
Good to hear that you are back on deck. I was concered about your health but thought you had put up the big “do not disturb” sign to allow yourself the room you need to move the story forward.
Thanks for the information about whats running your site. I love to hear this stuff!
I had some trouble downloading one of the PDFs, but I emailed you about it, and I was surprised you were able to get it fixed within 48 hours! I had no idea you were in the midst of this huge server transition. If I had known, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered to let you know since you were probably still working through all of the bugs and most likely knew about the issue.
Thanks for the update. This brightened up a frustrating day. Thank you. Looking forward to the next chapter
Buffer.
I suppose it is too simplistic to comment that were you not so concerned about your buffer, that….
I mean, in your earlier books - when the end was not in sight - was buffer a concern?
Kokanee
You are a COCK.
Hey Nick! Thanks for the update.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter when the story resumes. It’ll be worth it when it does. It always is. The times between chapters make the chapters like a drug.
As a reformed programmer/tech-geek, I like hearing about the behind the scenes stuff. Thanks for sharing it.
Try as I might, I was unable to detect the switch over to the new server. BTW I was impressed by the very conservative hardward specs. On the face of it, the server seems undepowered. In fact I always get speedy response with out any indication that things are strained.
Kudos
Aaron
Nick, thanks for the update. The buffer is a good thing, I know you’ll ignore Kokanee, as will the rest of us. Seriously, when I have a hankering for SC chapters, I just reread one of the many that are already here. I find the later books better anyway because they were obviously written with more care and less rush. I remember when you were publishing a chapter a week. They were good, but since then, they’ve been great. Keep it up and don’t publish till you’re ready.
I noticed that the Google logo today was Walter Gropius, in honor of his birthday. I had never heard of him, but I’m sure you have. Anyway, seeing it made me think of you and when I dropped in it was nice to see an update.
Keep on writing and I await the next chapter with baited breath! Again, thanks for all the hard uncompensated work.
David
Excellent, Nick. I like the new server. Hope you’ll keep up the good work and get the next chapter out soon. Take your time and best of luck with the to-do list.
@ kokanee
Yes, I’ve always had a buffer. And I’ve always had the willpower to publish a good story, instead of simply a story that panders to selfish readers’ “gimme, gimme, gimme” mentality.
- Nick
Bravo Nick. All these smaller and bigger renovations and changes to your website keep it alive - more than lots of editor-packed sites with less interesting ingredients:-)
Always at moments of getting stuck with my work i just browse your site for a while - and it always gets me back to work in a lighter mood.
But sometimes it is really disturbing - these are the moments you put in new chapters - then my breaks get a bit too long….
Thanks for all this good work and lots of regards from good old germany,
Ben
Congrats on the transition Nick. Didn’t notice a thing. I’m astounded at the progress…I don’t know how you do it all. Looking forward to SC12. Thanks again!