Neil’s World: Running Movable Type on OS X with FastCGI – written a while ago, but with a goodly set of server-side config instructions and troubleshooting. SixApart has a typically terse info sheet on working to the same goal.
ache
I have had a low-level stress-induced head-and-body ache since January, when a blogger that relies on my spotty and unpaid hosting noted that comments were not working. After ages of struggle, I think I’ve resolved things for now, at a blown time (over 120 hours more than I hoped to invest) and monetary budget (about 200 in new gear). I may continue with part II, outsourcing the hosting component, as it looks like I can get someone else to do the dirty work (software upgrades, bandwidth, blackholing spambots) for about $15 a month.
The next card to flip in the deck, of course, is how to generate revenue on the labor.
UPG PHW
A seamless upgrade to 1.2Ghz from what was formerly .4Ghz might speed the server up a mite. Phew!
Hints
Spam Fighting in Movable Type, some helpful links.
Upgrade ho!
After a week more of bitter struggle, I was finally able to execute the upgrade I’ve been working toward. Unfortunately, the resolution of the problem is not apparent. The upgrade wasn’t working, and then it did. Another week or so of fiddly bits will follow, I think.
rubbish!
A seamless test upgrade this morning followed by chaos when attempting to execute on the production machines!
I must attend to trash removal. Argh.
downtime
My servers will be offline for a brief period of time tonight while I throw some switches back in the hosting yard and get all the engines of the night lined up and at steam. Do not be alarmed.
ridiculous
In April, 2006, Jay Allen posted about his continuing woes and a solution regarding installation of DBD::mysql on Mac OS X.
Just over a year later, the same problems apply to the platform and software combination. That’s ridiculous! I was able to pursue Jay’s step-by-step solution and the install succeeded for me. It has, however, taken a month to track down the information.
Loose ends
ITEM: Viv, Greg, Stacey and I attended the Ghost LIght production of Tartuffe, featuring two actors that Greg and I have worked with previously, Michael Oakes (sp?) and Patrick Allcorn. The show was hilarious, easily eclipsing a theater-in-the-park performance (possibly by Theater Schmeater) Viv and I saw about ten years ago under the noisy jets in Volunteer Park. We started with a happy hour nosh-out at 1200, just up the road. A personal highlight of the evening was my helpless loud snorting with laughter at the end of the first half of the show. Michael had sprouted a truly refined John Waters pencil moustasche, presumably in contrast to Patrick’s impressive Lemmy-style number. Michael’s parents were in the audience and laughed as heartily as did I.
ITEM: The server rebuild continues to plague me. I have a cloned server that has been successfully updated as far as the current underlying OS components are concerned, but I am still wapping my head with a hammer in search of a workable and non-disruptive testing methodology before I plunge into the upgrades for the rest of the services. I did do a spot more homework on hosting and although prices have dropped, the news is not as positive as I had hoped; in particular, a hosted implementation on my budget and traffic numbers will require Google ads deployed across all my midrange sites, probably inclusive of about ten domains. This implies any number of complications, from business issues involving licensing all the way down to redesigns and user education. Sigh.
ITEM: After at least a year of farting around (RIP Kurt) I obtained and constructed a baker’s rack for our ‘lunarium,’ a tiny room that an inspired prior owner of our domicile built nearly entirely out of 72“x48” double-pane windows. It leaks a bit, but as one might expect is a killer greenhouse.
ITEM: The spawning Steller’s Jays have a loud brood of four or five chicks. They team-feed, which is interesting, and are not alarmed at all when the not me, as I am now, pecking away on the porch. I have learned a call that the female uses which appears to be an ‘I’m here’ message and which is quite distinct from the usual raucous bird profanity I associate with the species in their role as mountain beggar and trail scold. Interestingly, a pair of male robins are currently disputing the back yard as their very own.
Loose ends
ITEM: Viv, Greg, Stacey and I attended the Ghost LIght production of Tartuffe, featuring two actors that Greg and I have worked with previously, Michael Oakes (sp?) and Patrick Allcorn. The show was hilarious, easily eclipsing a theater-in-the-park performance (possibly by Theater Schmeater) Viv and I saw about ten years ago under the noisy jets in Volunteer Park. We started with a happy hour nosh-out at 1200, just up the road. A personal highlight of the evening was my helpless loud snorting with laughter at the end of the first half of the show. Michael had sprouted a truly refined John Waters pencil moustasche, presumably in contrast to Patrick’s impressive Lemmy-style number. Michael’s parents were in the audience and laughed as heartily as did I.
ITEM: The server rebuild continues to plague me. I have a cloned server that has been successfully updated as far as the current underlying OS components are concerned, but I am still wapping my head with a hammer in search of a workable and non-disruptive testing methodology before I plunge into the upgrades for the rest of the services. I did do a spot more homework on hosting and although prices have dropped, the news is not as positive as I had hoped; in particular, a hosted implementation on my budget and traffic numbers will require Google ads deployed across all my midrange sites, probably inclusive of about ten domains. This implies any number of complications, from business issues involving licensing all the way down to redesigns and user education. Sigh.
ITEM: After at least a year of farting around (RIP Kurt) I obtained and constructed a baker’s rack for our ‘lunarium,’ a tiny room that an inspired prior owner of our domicile built nearly entirely out of 72“x48” double-pane windows. It leaks a bit, but as one might expect is a killer greenhouse.
ITEM: The spawning Steller’s Jays have a loud brood of four or five chicks. They team-feed, which is interesting, and are not alarmed at all when the not me, as I am now, pecking away on the porch. I have learned a call that the female uses which appears to be an ‘I’m here’ message and which is quite distinct from the usual raucous bird profanity I associate with the species in their role as mountain beggar and trail scold. Interestingly, a pair of male robins are currently disputing the back yard as their very own.