This last week has been fraught with server problems; resulting in a certain amount of downtime. I apologise for the downtime, and i trust that it wasn’t too inconvenient to you.

The server problems appear to have been caused, in the light of an engineer’s report, as well as in the light of my personal analysis, by an “unable to allocate memory” error on the server, caused by a combination of heavy traffic, including spiders, spammers, and hackers trying to exploit patched weaknesses in WordPress, with a heavy server loading due to plugins causing conflict with one another – as well as the overall complexity of the blog structure.

In remedy of this issue, I have removed or deactivated a number of plugins, and have asked engineers at my web-host to upgrade the server. These remedial actions should negate any future downtime for the time being at least, and hopefully also for some time into the future also.

It has been a rather worrying time for me, having just moved the blog over to a new, dedicated, server. Clearly I didn’t take into account all of the factors during the initial setup, and therefore the server setup was insubstantial for the load put upon it.

I’m writing this post at a time before the hardware upgrade has taken place; but you will note from the Service Announcement posted earlier on this blog that the work has been scheduled and should have been completed by the time you read this post.

On another front; you may have noticed that I have started to produce reviews of certain hardware components: -

Gigabyte GA-M720-US3; A Budget-Board +

Intel Core i7 920: The Premium of Hi-Performance Processors

and

Gigabyte P55M-UD4: Another Gigabyte Mobo Without Graphics Capability

Although this is more like a test-sample of such posts at this time; I will be observing the reader statistics to see, in short, whether these posts are a hit or a miss. If they prove popular than I shall produce more posts of this type. – So if you like what you see then do click on more posts of that type, and do also comment on them. (That’s what that box below them from Disqus is all about.)

There have been a couple of guest-posts since the last Public Newsletter: The last one was by 16-year-old Kyle Potts from America. This budding Linux guru gave a few reasons why certain types of people should use Linux. He also explained that many of us use Linux-based apps without even realising it too: -

Linux For Everyone?

In the other guest-post, Misca Nicoleta from Romania explains how installing Windows 7 in your portable device can extend battery life: -

Install Windows 7 on your Portable Device and Increase Battery Life

(It’s September 17th; yet I’ve just heard someone letting off the first firework of the year outside! Why don’t they just start Valentine’s Day on 5th January, after the 12 days of Christmas are up, then start Easter on the 15th February, immediately following which comes the long haul to Father’s Day, followed by the same for Mother’s Day, then combine the preparations for Halloween and Bonfire Night immediately after that, and on 6th November start Christmas?.. Actually that’s almost happening already: People must have such small lives these days!

What am I on about? – Think about it: An entire year to prepare for 8 or so days at their risk of financial ruin every time; repeatedly until death do us part. That amounts to an actual “life”, not including preparation for “life”, of around 640 days, consisting of nothing but avoiding total bankruptcy. – That sucks!

- Oh; I forgot to include the person’s birthday too: ‘Add another 60 to 80-odd days then. – It still sucks!)

- OK back to topic; and I’ve also included a few more delectable morsels for your edification since the last Public Newsletter: -

It’s Probably Not My blog… – Speaks, again, to you myriad of people who are still using IE6 out there, and getting a less-than-perfect browsing experience as a result. IE6 is old hat; and using it can, in a way, be likened running your car on square wheels.

Hard-Drives Are Unreliable – Fact Warns you to be prepared for one of the worst computing disasters happening at any point in time: That being your hard-drive packing up.

Hold a Micro-Party and get a Free Copy of Windows 7 Ultimate – What’s this? An extra day to add to the “700-day-“life””, perhaps?

How to Install WordPress on Your Domain

and

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer : Free WordPress Plugin Are a couple of WordPress-related articles that are fairly well explained by their titles.

…And finally there are the articles related to kkomp.com’s recent short-lived outages: -

Kkomp.com is Under Attack

and

**Kkomp.com Service Announcement**

- I think that just about covers everything.,, Oh and there’s also…

64-Bit – NOW 

– Please let’s bury 32-bit computing in its grave once and for all, as soon as is practically possible. – It’s too limiting and older than IE6!

OK I’m fed up with writing right now: I need a coffee + Also I want to get this post queued on the server before the planned outage where my server is upgraded. Also I need a cigarette: -

Enjoy the weekend; whatever you’re doing.