Announcing New V-Features: Rule V-Compliant Servers
Anyone who has happened by Velominati this past week will know our site has been in a serious breach of Rule #5; we had a big uptick in traffic, and the site made like Van Summeren’s back tire. During this time, I’ve done everything I could think of from indiscriminately screaming at the computer screen, wall, or tech support to flinging wild Hail-Mary code updates against the wall in the hopes of a miracle fix. Sometimes it seemed a fix repaired the issue, when in reality it was just a lul in traffic and the site went right back to sucking again a few minutes later.
As a diagnosed Obsessive-Compulsive, let me tell you that this has not been a good stretch; when an inanimate object doesn’t do my bidding, my insides twist into a palpable rage. On the plus side, it forced me to make long-overdue site optimizations in order to squeegee every bit of performance out of these pages. I upgraded the database and went to sleep with the update scheduled to go live at midnight only to wake from dreams where I checked the site to find the same lackluster performance. Unable to sleep, I climbed out of bed only to find the same lackluster performance.
Finally, I had to face the fact that we’ve spent too long too near our server’s capacity. I chose the Red Pill and upgraded to a high-power server that (hopefully) can handle the load with ease. While I’ve certainly noticed some weirdness (and please let us know anything you notice yourself), I’ve been thrilled with the site’s performance so far, though our weekend traffic is always about half that of week days. Be that as it may, I’ve been having a blast today making some tweaks and just clicking on all the pages and basking in how quickly they come up.
A big thanks to everyone for their patience while we dealt with the slowness, to my fellow Keepers for keeping spirits up, and thanks to the Community for sticking around and posting despite the interminable waits for the pages to respond. We should be in good shape for the coming season. Cheers.
Awesome.
…and you’re welcome. Obviously, this uptick in site traffic has to do with my serendipitous arrival.
Its all loading much much faster on my machine…
Thanks Frank. Whatever they pay you, its not enough….
Its working great. thanks for the hard work.
New drivetrain, cables and bartape. Everything all lubed up and ready for spring.
Nice one, Frank. You’re a great road captain.
Great stuff, it certainly seems better this side of the Atlantic!
Frank I’m reporting big improvement in Europe.Fast as hell man! Your hard work is appreciated.
It is hard to imagine this site without you Frank… Gianni running things would quickly lead to anarchy, Brett would yell at everyone (I can safely say this because we live on opposite sides of the world and have never met and never will) and the rest of the crew would instigate endless looping discussions of beer. So good on you and keep up with the OCD work that only you find scintillating – thank god.
And wholly shite that WAS fast!!!
Quicker than the Festina team up L’alpe on my iPhone as well.
If the site is JvS’s tire, you’re JvS himself powering on for the win (and a hottie) despite the fact that the best riders in the world are not far behind.
Amazingly faster with posting my post from the preview to the submit! Almost thought it had not posted b/c it was pretty much instantaneous! Nothing like some Spanish Beef for the server!!!
Nice work! I’m always amazed you find time to actually ride so much will all the work you put in, Frank!
Thanks.
Nice and fast on the V-mobile site on my Fire, too. Chapeau, Frank!
Rule #10, Frank. Rule #10. Nice work.
Frank – Being in the IT business, I’m curious what kind of hardware requirements a site like this has? Care to share any of your traffic metrics?
Of course, the superslickserverspeed is bound to raise questions. (cCn you whereabouts test a server?) bbut the good news is that, by the time the investigation is completed and clenbyterol is determined to’ve been ingested via some upgrade code, 828 days will have gone by, so the retrospective two year suspension will only keep the server down for two more days. By my calculation that means we’ll miss the third and fourth days of the Tour of Qatar. I think that’s a small price to pay.
By the way, we’re currently hosting Kim Dotcom (of Megaupload infamy) down here in NZ, in one of Her Majesty’s executive suites, while the FBI seeks to finalize his extradition. He doesn’t look like much of a cyclist, but he probably has a bit of spare time and seems to know a thing or two about big servers. If you’d like us to reach out to him for you, Frank, do let us know.
@Frank. Nicely done sir. Nicely done. I can waste more time at work much more efficiently now.
@scaler911
Frank – Great job. Loading times in New Zealand are now silky-smooth. Thanks for your dedication,its appreciated.
@Rob
Hey Rob… FUCK OFF!
Frank’s secret of being so productive:
sweet, i noticed the 400 replies on some threads were taking 2 weeks to come up…thought it was me.
glad to hear of the uptick in traffic, its a great gig here
Good news Frank! Popularity does have it’s downsides… although for techies I am reasonably sure that a new server is sort of like a new bike, albeit a bit less sensual.
Awesome work, Frank, but can you also have the Rule #5 chat with British Telecom and Sky so that they sort out the pitiful shit that they describe as broadband in my neck of the woods. Top download speed 0.74mb/s, worst 0.19mb/s. Upload high of 0.38mb/s and low of 0.04mp/s
It’s fucking flat round here so it’s not like the internet has to do any climbing to get here.
Its like having a server with eight cores: bitchin’ as shit.
From one of the V domestique’s, all good on this side of the world. Can I get you another bidon mon capitan?
It’s like a server with a mustache with tits?
This is faster than shit off a shovel. Good work Frank.
Or as our Canadian friends might say, “faster than greased moose poop”.
@BrianG
In their best “Terrence and Philip” hinged head voice.
@Frank – excellent thank you! I thought was just extra sucking performance of the network at work; connections time out all the time due to the over the top filtering. Now I can productively decrease my productivity during the day!
g
@brett
Thanks Brett, I needed that!
@Frahnk, there is a marked difference in speed, however I’ve been robbed. Despite my numerous posts and witty insights I’m still a V3. explain that smartarse!!!
@frank
Great pull on the front, right to the finish line, allowing us pretend sprinters to enjoy some easy speed to the line – you are truly the Superest Domestique!
You ought to receive some commission for all the improved productivity you have granted the Velominati
“to flinging wild Hail-Mary code updates”I really hope you meant Hail-Merckx codes!
definately notice the difference. now the site is as fast as cavendish in the last 20 meters. great work.
The only thing I am noticing is some weird sizing issue on V-mobile.
@frank
Thanks for the work Frank, the site isn’t getting dropped from the pack anymore!
About having 8 cores, did you get a tower with 2 quads or did you go rack or blade? I’m just curious.
@RedRanger
What mobile device? My iphone4 works tits.
@Marko
Same phone. It’s just on the home page.
@RedRanger
Are you logged in?
I had some weird redirect errors on my iPhone, but cleared cookies and we’re all good now.
@Marko
Yes sir.
I snapped some shots of it but I have no way of sharing them except for emailing senior Fronk
Whoa, the site *is* fast now! We might have to slow it down at some point to relive the “good ‘ol days”. Good job Frank, Marko, Brett and everyone else!
@BrianG
That’s probably because we moved the site. Clearing cookies would do it.
@RedRanger
You’ll have to be more specific. Please email me details.
@frank
Pictures sent. I dont know how to explain it. So I’m showing you.
@frank
I don’t know if it’s only me but I’m gettin’ this trying to reach Cycling Photos Archive from The Keepers section
Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.
@TommyTubolare
The Photo Archive has been removed for the time being. All the photos got corrupted so I took it down until I can take the time to restore it from backup.
@frank
Thanks Frank.Got it.
@itburns
Yeah but he does it on rollers.