We're back

February 16, 2004 5:13 PM

So alas, one of the processor fans in the MetaFilter server decided to up and die, which coincided perfectly with a planned vacation to New York. Upon coming back, no replacement fan was to be found on my doorstep (due to stupid delayed shipping by the company from whom the replacement was ordered), so a trip to CompUSA later, we're back in business. Sorry 'bout that.
posted by delfuego to uptime at 5:13 PM (78 comments total)

wheres the FPP's?
posted by Keyser Soze at 5:14 PM on February 16, 2004

You're back! You're back! No more hitting F5 like a lab rat trying to get a fix!
posted by keswick at 5:17 PM on February 16, 2004

Yay!
posted by gleuschk at 5:18 PM on February 16, 2004

I can finally tie off the arm and put in a spike (once the FPPs show).
posted by yerfatma at 5:18 PM on February 16, 2004

you have to change your FP settings to not just show the last seven days or so, since, um, nothing happened here in the last seven days.
posted by jessamyn at 5:20 PM on February 16, 2004

Woo!
posted by riffola at 5:20 PM on February 16, 2004

yay
posted by angry modem at 5:20 PM on February 16, 2004

I mostly lurk, so I didn't realize how much time I spend staring at MeFi. It's great to see this site back and up in working order. Boingboing is great and all, as is daypop, but they ain't got nothing on the 'filter!
posted by elwoodwiles at 5:21 PM on February 16, 2004

Aw, my welcome back thread got deleted. :(
posted by SpecialK at 5:22 PM on February 16, 2004

Home at last...
Place could use a little air freshener, but otherwise...
OHYESOHYESOHYESOHYESOHYESOHYES!
posted by wendell at 5:23 PM on February 16, 2004

woot!
posted by Stynxno at 5:24 PM on February 16, 2004

/me, hands shaking violently, attempts to sip his first taste of mefi in days from the shot glass.
posted by quonsar at 5:25 PM on February 16, 2004

It's ALIVE!
posted by Blue Stone at 5:26 PM on February 16, 2004

But I'm still investigating Who Shot the Server?...
Any other Boston-area MeFites I should add to my suspects list?
posted by wendell at 5:28 PM on February 16, 2004

now I can give up the nasty poker habit I've picked up in the last few days...
posted by dness2 at 5:29 PM on February 16, 2004

It's been grim, and you're right, bOINGbOING and kottke just don't fill the bill. Whew, it's nice to have MeFi back up!
posted by Lynsey at 5:33 PM on February 16, 2004

unemployment - metafilter = terror!
posted by clockwork at 5:36 PM on February 16, 2004

So, like, if you try that again, don't think I'll come back. Okay?

sniff
posted by stonerose at 5:37 PM on February 16, 2004

...and thank you, Matt, for deleting the dog.
posted by wendell at 5:41 PM on February 16, 2004

Wow, off to a great start! The first MeFi and AskMeFi threads already deleted. A little rust to shake off apparently.
posted by split atom at 5:41 PM on February 16, 2004

I, for one, would like to applaud the entire hour it took before a FPP was deleted.

Bravo.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 5:41 PM on February 16, 2004

The deletions let us know that the forces of good and evil are once again balancing out.
It's about freaking time.
posted by rhapsodie at 5:46 PM on February 16, 2004

great....now we have teenage mutant ninja pornography.

I feel a little sad today.
posted by vacapinta at 5:48 PM on February 16, 2004

Well, I know one thing now.

I can go without crack longer than I can without Metafilter.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:50 PM on February 16, 2004

Anyone notice, during the outage, that adult material is now available on the internet?
posted by trharlan at 5:56 PM on February 16, 2004

that was one LONG week without MeFi/MeTa/AskMe.
posted by jerseygirl at 5:56 PM on February 16, 2004

*crawls in, shivering and whimpering*
...pancakes?...
*collapses*
posted by languagehat at 5:58 PM on February 16, 2004

Oh, MeFi.. I'm so sorry.

Let us never fight again!!!

*bawls*

Now, this processor.. it vibrates?
posted by tittergrrl at 6:02 PM on February 16, 2004

I for one welcome our new processor fan overlords!
posted by JanetLand at 6:05 PM on February 16, 2004

It's back!

Now the question remains: why didn't I get more done this last week without MeFi taking up my time?
posted by litlnemo at 6:06 PM on February 16, 2004

Finally.

I was afraid I might never get to use that joke. Welcome back.
posted by yhbc at 6:06 PM on February 16, 2004

Metafilter: pornography surrogate.

(Inspired by trharlan)
posted by snarfodox at 6:07 PM on February 16, 2004

this past week was unsatisfactory.
posted by dgaicun at 6:09 PM on February 16, 2004

this past week was unsatisfactory.

Boring too. Nothing happened, just look at the front page of Metafilter...
posted by snarfodox at 6:10 PM on February 16, 2004

So if this "fan" incident were ever to occur again, what kind of "Plan B" could we possibly turn to...?
posted by davidmsc at 6:16 PM on February 16, 2004

*collapses in sorry heap beside languagehat*

blue... and grey... so, so pretty...
posted by t r a c y at 6:19 PM on February 16, 2004

Boring too. Nothing happened, just look at the front page of Metafilter...

Imagine what the week of AWOL disclosures and non-existant Kerry rumors would have done to the main page. And this is me saying that.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:21 PM on February 16, 2004

It would be silly of me to bitch about a zoophilia post being deleted, but emotions and morals set aside, it is more educational than watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle porn.
posted by Keyser Soze at 6:22 PM on February 16, 2004

It would be silly of me to bitch about a zoophilia post being deleted

This only being, what, the second time you mentioned it in about an hour.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:27 PM on February 16, 2004

If ya'll would have just drank yourselves into a five day stupor like I did you'd barely have noticed it was gone.
posted by Cyrano at 6:28 PM on February 16, 2004

Kisses screen.

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone". Joni Mitchell never lies.
posted by Tarrama at 6:29 PM on February 16, 2004

{fashions fan from soap. Calls guard}
posted by clavdivs at 6:34 PM on February 16, 2004

Aaaaaaaah, that's better. So, do we need to start a donation fund for another server to act as a mirror so that we never again have to face the possibility of spending time with *shudder* real people?
posted by dg at 7:06 PM on February 16, 2004

Kisses screen.

And I'm proud to be a Metafilterian, where at least there's FPPs,
And I won't forget the fans that died, to bring those posts to me...

And I'll gladly f5 every night, and f5 every day,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this site, God bless the blue and grey! o/~

Lord, a week without MeFi will make one loopy. Don't do that again! *sniffs*
posted by snarkywench at 7:08 PM on February 16, 2004

...And while the processer was getting cooked
The big blue vanished for all those hooked
And we lost our posting on a lark
The day the MeFi died
And we were singing
"Snark, snark, we're all reading Fark
Hit my F5 hoping it was alive but the browser was dark
And Migs and Quonsar played pancake fribee in the park singing
'Listen to Matt Haughey sigh,
Listen to Matt Haughey sigh...'"
posted by moonbird at 7:18 PM on February 16, 2004

Question - why were you ordering from Altex? Overpriced, so-so sales guys, etc. They're only useful if you're local (like me, in Austin) and need cheap serial cables, ethernet cables, parts to make your own cables, etc, etc. I would never mail order from them, especially if you needed the parts in Boston.
posted by mrbill at 7:26 PM on February 16, 2004

Types in URL.
Expects blank screen again - but
Page loads. Holy crap!
posted by carter at 7:40 PM on February 16, 2004

Delfuego and Matt: thanks for all the trouble and expense. It was nice having a week off - I mean, with a legitimate excuse - but it's a lot better to be back. Sinatra's rendition of Sammy Cahn's and Jimmy Van Heusen's "It's Nice To Go Travelling (But It's Much, Much Nicer To Come Home)" comes to mind...

By the way, shouldn't we organize a whip-round to pay for those damn fans and the extra RAM? Money came out of your pockets and, since the benefit is entirely ours (and divisable by many) it would only be fair. Your work and worries I think we can gracefully accept free. :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:42 PM on February 16, 2004

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone". Joni Mitchell never lies.

I thought that was Cinderella.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding....
posted by jonmc at 7:43 PM on February 16, 2004

Umm.. given the 17,000 people who use MeFi, would it not make sense to have at least one other person as a backup who can do something as simple as replace a CPU fan? I mean, I run a private server with lots of websites on it, for free. But when I go on vacation there are at least 2 other skilled people who can maintain it if something goes wrong. Just seems like common sense.
posted by stbalbach at 7:52 PM on February 16, 2004

A much needed break - things look exactly the same, yet different.
posted by troutfishing at 7:54 PM on February 16, 2004

stbalbach - I always assumed a backup system. But what do I know? I'm just some kid from the neighborhood (cue Harvey Pekar).
posted by troutfishing at 7:56 PM on February 16, 2004

Wow. I can stop jonesing now.
posted by theora55 at 8:00 PM on February 16, 2004

*whimpers*

.....never leave me again.....it was so cold out there....so very cold....
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:22 PM on February 16, 2004

Thank god I can start directing my unfocussed, random aggression back at all of you! At least you're used to it!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:24 PM on February 16, 2004

And thanks delfuego and mathowie for bringing it on back. Ya bastards.





heh.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:26 PM on February 16, 2004

The rest of the internet SUCKS.

Seriously, while standards here are not perfect, the last seven days have taught me that metafilter is a fucking oasis. I'd totally forgotten.

Matt, my visiting guest was all talking shit about you too, saying you should have had a dual-processor system set up. I punched him across the jaw to teach him respect. That's what it's about, after all, respect.
posted by Hildago at 8:27 PM on February 16, 2004

The entire database is on a single machine with no RAID or backups. Seriously.
posted by Keyser Soze at 8:32 PM on February 16, 2004

"The entire database is on a single machine with no RAID or backups. Seriously."

That is only partially true.

Matt has painstakingly backed up the database one bit at a time by cross-stitching the individual bits onto 32-count linen. This is also why he's hesitant to make changes, since it requires hours of unpicking stitches.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:47 PM on February 16, 2004

That sounds, not only difficult and time-consuming, but also painful...
posted by wendell at 8:57 PM on February 16, 2004

If we buy Matt a thimble, can we get a pony?
posted by Vidiot at 9:03 PM on February 16, 2004

On the bright side we were spared all those posts about AWOL Bush, Kerry's non-affair and Valentine's Day.
posted by Slagman at 9:09 PM on February 16, 2004

whew
posted by muckster at 9:23 PM on February 16, 2004

God is dead - Nietzche

Nietzche is dead - God

Mefi is down - Satan

Bwaaahhahahahhahha
posted by Wulfgar! at 9:36 PM on February 16, 2004

If it is true the site has no backup, I would like to offer a free USB 2.0 60GB drive donated to MeFi for the purposes of making backups. I bought it for another project and never used it and is sitting here waiting for a good use before 60GB or USB becomes obsolete.
posted by stbalbach at 9:56 PM on February 16, 2004

On the bright side we were spared all those posts about AWOL Bush, Kerry's non-affair and Valentine's Day.

On the dark side, we were denied those posts about the bunny on Mars.
posted by y2karl at 9:58 PM on February 16, 2004

My preciousssssss...

(Someone had to say it!)
posted by deborah at 10:05 PM on February 16, 2004

Wendell --

*sings*
I shot the server
but I did not shoot the mathowie
posted by SpecialK at 11:26 PM on February 16, 2004

I personally offered him my 160GB WD 8mb cache drive during the portland meetup. I think he was saying how it would be a lot of work.

Maybe, just maybe, we could setup a donation page for a RAID card with the exact drive configuration. Any ideas?
posted by Keyser Soze at 11:33 PM on February 16, 2004

[shudders with relief]

Thanks, yo. Not to complain, but rather to compliment: the product was missed.
posted by scarabic at 12:42 AM on February 17, 2004

O thank you thank you thank you. I am so glad MeFi is back up. It is true that you don't know what you've got till it's gone -- I sorely missed my fix.

I'm so glad to see all of you people again. Yeah!
posted by mooncrow at 6:54 AM on February 17, 2004

I would definitely donate to help buy a DLT backup drive or somesuch.
posted by mrbill at 8:02 AM on February 17, 2004

It's all good.
posted by asok at 9:23 AM on February 17, 2004

From now on, I would appreciate it if any unanticipated outages were announced in advance.
posted by etc. at 10:44 AM on February 17, 2004

at last we understand mathowies editorial criteria!

zoophilia == bad

cartoon turtle suck and fuck == good
posted by quonsar at 12:22 PM on February 17, 2004

On the bright side we were spared all those posts about AWOL Bush, Kerry's non-affair and Valentine's Day.

Just you wait.
posted by homunculus at 3:25 PM on February 17, 2004

*sings*
I shot the server
but I did not shoot the mathowie

I can't believe it took almost six hours...
Don't I explain my jokes enough? ;)

BTW, SpecialK, the HomepageSecurityDepatment will be busting down your door in approximately five minutes...
posted by wendell at 3:47 PM on February 17, 2004

Backups are so simple. Just add a drive (USB plug-n-play) and then copy the files over. Done. Takes 5 minutes to setup, and 5 minutes to automate. No reason to mess with RAID or tape drives they are a lot of work and error prone.
posted by stbalbach at 5:56 PM on February 17, 2004