We sorta had some forums here, but they were lame. WordPress+Buddypress’s built in forum software sucked hard. Really hard. So, this weekend I was going to install BBPress but then discovered SimplePress. And that is what we are using now. Ties into the WordPress software nicely. Seems good so far.
Tag: site
Donations
So, you noticed the little donation thing at the top and at the right? No? Well, it is there. Jazz-Sax isn’t really cheap to run. There is the reoccuring domain registration fee, and then my monthly internet bill (which is a little more due to the static IPs I have that allow for running a web server).
The Google Ads have been deferring the costs of just running stuff. It helps, and I don’t think the ads are as obtrusive as they could be. Fairly tame. However, the little Atom powered server that the site runs off of (great little Linux box by the way) could really use a SSD to replace the current Hard Drive (which is about 3 years old or so….don’t really know. 24/7/365 x 3+).
I’m hoping that either we can raise some money to get one (they are like $60 now for a 50 gig one, and that is basically what it needs) or if someone has one they want to donate. Either way. It would help to ensure a faster, more stable site. Plus the MySQL database would probably scream on a SSD compared to the current HD. The site gets way bogged down due to MySQL queries.
Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!
Donations and Stuff
Jazz-Sax has been around a LONG TIME. I’d say one of the longest running sites, since 1997 I believe. And all the stuff here is free. I do require you to register in the hopes that perhaps people comment on stuff, ask questions, etc, etc. I’m not going to password protect posts. Nor require a subscription (I hope that link people are not paying to see!). It is kind of frustrating that some of the guys on the net are charging for things like fingering charts when other people like Charles McNeal are giving away amazing transcriptions for nothing. Something is wrong out there!
Sometimes I receive donations. That is a great thing. Someone just donated some money for one of the arrangements I have up. Thank you very much. I just wish I had time to put more stuff up. More stuff is coming…..soon I hope.
Upgrade A Success
Seems like everything went fairly well on the move. There might be some things that are not working yet, but 90% of stuff seems to work.
Possible Downtime?
This site, and my others (jazz-flute, jazz-clarinet, jazz-oboe, etc), will probably be down sometime over the weekend. Basically, this is due to be deciding to retire my huge old Dual Pentium III server with a smaller, more efficient Atom powered computer. I’m not anticipating any problems but……you never know. I think it will be rather painless and hopefully things will be faster and better on the Atom powered computer (MSI Wind PC to be specific).
For the geeks and nerds out there, I’m probably going to put Ubuntu Server 8.1 on it. The current server is running FreeBSD. That might maybe be a possibility as well. I just need PHP5, Apache 2.2, and MySQL on it. We’ll see what happens. The only real issue I think will be exporting the databases, though, since I moved everything to WordPress, that should be simple. It will be interesting to see exactly how much quieter (the current beast is really loud) and faster it will be. The only thing is that I’ll be losing the RAID backup that I have on the current system. Not that it really has ever failed, once in almost 10 years. That is pretty damn good. At some point, the new Atom server will get a SSD (Solid State Disk) so it will be totally efficient and pretty much silent. Well, hopefully.
UpdateComputer comes tomorrow sometime. I am going to put Ubuntu Server 8.1 on it. I don’t think it will be an issue at all moving stuff over. Just tar it, ftp it to the new computer, untar, etc, etc. Reading up on it, the Atom computer should make a ton faster than the dual pentium III 450s I have.
iBrecker.com……..Gone?
It seems that iBrecker.com has been down for a while now. Anyone know it’s status? It is sad, as it had a lot of interesting clips on the site, as well as some great transcribed solos. However, the forums seemed dead…….for a long time. That is a shame.
New WordPress Theme
Ok, finally found and got around to installing and tweaking a new WordPress theme for the site. I like it better than the old one. It supports threaded comments (whoohoo), and generally looks more professional. I might change the colors around a little though.
Let me know if there are any issues or anything.
Looking For A WordPress Theme
This site is currently using a crappy WordPress theme that I don’t particularly care for anymore. I am looking into Carrington Theme as soon as they have support for WordPress 2.7 nested comments. However, I thought I’d post this up to see if anyone has any other ideas for a theme. It does need to have support for a banner ad though.
I was also thinking perhaps of doing something similar to my personal site, where I took the Deskmess theme and tweaked it a little. Or maybe the Japan Style one and tweak it a little. These themes need to really support 2.7 better (nested comments, etc) before I do that though.
Ideas?
Registration Problems
Seems that the registration emails were not getting sent. Thanks AT&T. They changed their server setting not to allow sending emails on one account with the address of another. So, Gmail to the rescue. Emails for registrations are coming from mailer@jazz-sax.com. Look for that perhaps in your spam blocker or whatever.