PolarLava::Blog

December 9, 2005
And if you're now reading this, my migration to A2 Web Hosting has succeeded!  It's likely that there are a few things that may be broken, so bear with me over the next couple of days whilst I sort it all out.

— December 5, 2005
Things will probably be pretty quite here this week as I prepare to switch over my hosting Friday evening.

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As much as I didn't want to have to do it, I've decided to move my website again.  I've signed up and begun reconfiguring my website at A2 Web Hosting.

Although my current hosting provider runs fast servers and does a good job of staying on top of security issues, they have been increasingly unresponsive to support requests.  I've had a couple of issues in the past couple of months that have not been acknowledged or remedied.  I'm not sure what has happened with them, but I used to get very timely and positive responses to my support requests.  And I don't think it's because I'm constantly whining about things, I'm not.  I've been here for two years now and other than some initial issues, I haven't spoken to them until the past couple of months.  That's not acceptable to me and that's the first reason I'm packing up and moving.

The other reason for my move is because I want to be on a server with PHP5 on it.  I had volunteered to be guinea pig for it with my current provider, but my offer was not acknowleged.  And then more recently I entered into a discussion to consider porting PolarBlog to PostgreSQL.  This is something I am interested in doing as well as increasing my general knowledge, so I then needed a host which would also provide that.  Thus in addition to my current requirements, I needed a host that had both PHP5 and PostgreSQL support.  I found only a few affordable choice and A2 Web Hosting quickly became the clear option.  As an added bonus they also support Ruby on Rails should I start looking at that…something else I'd like to do.

So, sometime in the next month, PolarLava will be on the move.  And if I can find the time, it will come out on the other side with a new look.  But that may need to wait a bit…time will tell.

For the past several weeks I have been traveling daily through construction zone where one lane is closed.  As annoyed as I am that this has taken so long, I'm happy to report that this morning it entertained me.  There is one of those large portable display signs with a radar unit that tells you your speed as you approach it.  It also tells you to slow down.  Or as it appeared to read to me as I drove past it this morning "Slow Dowm".  Maybe my brain wasn't functioning this morning and this is just a figment of my imagination,  In any case I will have to verify this tomorrow morning.

November 18, 2005
I did confirm this morning that it does indeed say "Slow Dowm"!  I tried to snap a picture with my camera phone this morning, but I was too far away from the sign.  I'll try to remember again on Monday when I go past it…

December 5, 2005
I tried and tried —at least six times to get a snapshot of this sign.  But we had a very windy day last week and the sign got turned sideways.  Then a couple of days later they towed it away.  :(  And the best part is that the left lane STILL isn't open!!!

I've had this link for quite a while now, but the point is still just as relevant now as it was when I found it.  It's this sort of brain-dead thinking by the people behind or a part of this organization that continue to prove that Darwin was right.  

You know, General Zod might be just the supreme control that this country needs right now.  Oh, wait…we've basically got a dictator now, don't we.

The next release of PolarBlog, "Homing Pigeon" is complete!  I still need to finish updating the documentation and get it packaged for release, but other than bug fixes, I'm done coding.  This new release is now running on this blog so if you experience any problems, please let me know: kevinp AT polarlava.com.  I would think that this should be released in the next couple of weeks.

The primary focus of this release was posting by email.  But there are a number of other changes also: A major rewrite of the install/update utility, multi-section blogroll (see right navigation), optional pinging on entry add/update, separation of entry title and edit text CSS, some minor security enhancements and database performance improvements.