Author Archives: f2x

Software as a Service

Back in the day, if you wanted to install the latest version of an operating system or application, you had to go to the store and buy a copy. You would install the software via floppy disk or CD ROM onto the computer, and that was that. Your computer never checked to see if it was running the latest version, your system didn’t try to download the latest updates, and your programs didn’t try to install newer versions of themselves while you were sleeping so peacefully at night.

The software became a part of the hardware. Until something bad happened, your computer would run that same old software the same old way every time. You didn’t boot your computer and receive a message, “Please wait while we reconfigure your system for the latest version of DOS.” If you opened Windows and clicked on the “About”, you know that the version number displayed was the version number you installed. You also knew that everything worked exactly the way it was originally set up to work.

Granted, those systems were slow, buggy, prone to crash, and setting hardware IRQ’s was a pain, but it was what it was, and most of all, it was yours.

These days, it’s like every internet connected device is constantly updating. Even the software that is running this website receives automatic updates… which is sometimes a pain, because it breaks things. Two weeks ago, this site’s theme updated. I actually have to manually retweak it every time they do this because it breaks the category continuity when clicking on the previous/next post links.

Every day there are new updates. It’s getting to the point where it might save bandwidth if the powers that be would track your mouse or touchscreen and stream the screen they want you to see over the internet. Seriously, the Google Play store uses more bandwidth than any other app because every other app is updating every other day.

But you have to update. If you don’t, then the terrorists win.

It’s a lot of horseshit.

Kudos

We got the jokes, folks! The Oldest Rater has blessed us with a mother lode of comedy for the entire first week of June. George has started sending jokes again too, so I’m pretty happy. When it rains it pours! The submission page is always taking submissions, my email address is flush2x@gmail.com, and I’d love it if you’d forward some jokes to me! Have a great week!

Pax,

-f2x

The DreamHost Nightmare

It happened again this past week: Database connection errors. It’s really frustrating. Perhaps you’ve seen the 503 errors too. This is hardly a misconfiguration on my part. It’s the misfortune of getting the cheapest hosting option.

When Siteground, my last hosting provider, went from reasonable to rapacious, I decided it was time to seek out a more budget friendly option. I got three years of DreamHost for under $220, and I figured I was set… Well it’s more like I was set up. At first it was just a little sluggishness, but now it’s tossing out failure messages.

So how’s that customer support? Well, you go through the trouble of typing out a detailed explanation of the problem thinking you’re opening a support ticket, and the next thing you know, they’ve redirected you to a nebulously related FAQ page based on key words in your support request… which is now gone as if you’d never typed it in the first place. So yeah… that’ll piss off just about anyone, but it nearly gave me an aneurysm

So this problem could be solved with either time or money. If I had the time, I could set up my own web server and host from home. If I had the money, I could just buy a better web hosting plan. Sadly I have neither at the moment, so it looks like these little outages will be a part of Flush Twice and mBlip for the foreseeable future.

Unbelievable! While typing this little rant, I had to take a break because the system went down yet again. Seriously, if you are looking for a web host, you might want to look past DreamHost.

(Update 5-26-2019 13:19) It just did it again, and I finally found where to submit a support ticket. The ball’s in their court. Let’s see how they handle it.

(Update 5-27-2019 23:39) So they got back with me by email. The response was disappointing. They started out by saying, “It looks like what you are running on the sites are exceeding available resources on the shared hosting service, which can cause the site to perform slower since processes may take longer to complete or fail due to resources…” It then goes on to suggest upgrading plugins, optimizing the sites, and if all else fails, upgrading to their $VPS plan$. Essentially, Dreamhost is telling me that now that my refund window has closed, my wordpress installs are using up too many resources… Also, account holders have no way of seeing where that resource usage is actually coming from. I can tell you this: It’s not coming from having too many visitors. I’d also like to point out that they are complete assholes when it comes to “upgrades” because you’re not really upgrading. Your old plan stays in place, and you’re just buying an entirely new plan at full price, but they’re such nice crooks, they’ll happily migrate your sites over to the VPS at no additional charge.

Now that I have a home fiber connection, I’m going to look into setting up my own server again. A goddamn 286 running DOS 2.1 would be better than these jackels’ shit servers.

Kudos

This week, we have more jokes from Glenn, and a couple of fan-freakin-tastic contributions from “T.O.R.”. Glenn tells me that George is doing much better now, and he should be back next week. In the meantime, the submission page is awaiting your best jokes, and flush2x@gmail.com is also a great way to send Flush Twice new jokes.

Pax,

-f2x