technical [3]

So finally after rounding up the ponies we're headed into the rapidly approaching general elections approaching in November. We've moved again to yet another new server that will hopefully mark the end of the technical nightmares for the immediate future. We did lose about a months worth of data in the move but es la vida . If you like to indulge in drama of the geekiest sort, you can click on "read more..." for the gory details.OK, details details... From the beginning, this project has pushed at the boundaries of the currently available technical means of achieving our goals. Primarily because our goals were not 'xyz' but rather to determine what we could achieve given the current state of web technology. Our limiting factor has been to create our product in such a way that given the opportunity, anyone of reasonable determination could also create what we have done - and without spending much more than the $8 per month that most low-cost hosts charge now.

So in the beginning we were hosted on one of those $8 per month hosts - actually $8 was even split amongst about a half dozen sites. This limitation was the then primary limiting factor in our decision to base the site on PostNuke [4] rather than Xaraya, as Xaraya requires XSLT [a language similar to XML or HTML] functionality - a gift of a well implemented PHP [one of the many languages this site runs on]. Then somewhere along the line - most probably when we wanted to implement an image management module, we began to bump up against the ceiling of the generic host. As it turns out, most image management type modules use one - GD - of two common graphics libraries implemented in PHP. Again, though our generic host's stock implementation of PHP, from circa 1921, just wasn't cutting it and then two months later they were still trying to determine how to implement XSLT.

Our initial move was to a new host using a VPS, or Virtual Private Server, system. In effect, we had our own Linux system, with root and everything, out there in the ether somewhere near London. This was pretty much a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, as our Linux skills were pretty much 0 given our long-time preference for the MS breed. And even though our new host has promised to move us to a server in the States as soon as one was available, the months ticked past while it seemed they too were learning Linux. Until the fateful day they encountered some difficulties with their backup system and we attempted to upgrade our PostNuke [5] to the latest version. The rest is pretty much the predictable outcome of a couple novice Linux admins messing with a servers internals. In the end we both lost - we lost about 6 weeks of data and improvements to the site and they lost a customer.

So it was on to our last stop - our own server and while not as nice as not worrying about all the details, life pretty much doesn't get much better in the Web world. Win2003 is surprisingly easy and forgiving - although I wouldn't recommend it to the novice. I will agree it is inherently less secure, but primarily because most of the exploits out there are designed for it. Only time will tell, but sometimes, there's just nothing quite like running your own show.