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June 13, 2011 · Filed Under General, Motorcycle Safety, Website

All The Best In 2011…..

To all my friends, family, & readers….

May the roads be clear, the sky warm & dry, & the corners tight in 2011!

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December 30, 2010 · Filed Under Biker, General, Website

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Join us at the Gene Burrill Party of Love and Laughter

My Brother the drummin' dude The Gene Burrill Party of Love and Laughter will be held November 6th at 4 Corners Lounge on Palmer/Wasilla Hwy.

Please plan to come and celebrate the life of one VERY special man. My brother Xray.

As more details come forth, look for it here and on his website http://www.xraygene.org/.

Janet Metzner is coordinating the event so if you have any questions, you can reach her at timetoliveak.

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October 17, 2010 · Filed Under Biker, Website

New Website Design Coming…

This winter I will be redesigning the website.

My goal is to have it done sometime BEFORE Christmas (please notice this is a goal).

So to answer the questions?

Why the change? Well as a web developer there have been significant changes in my tool of choice, WordPress, that allow for more exciting web designs and I want to take full advantage of them as I have for clients (e.g. Alaska Air Show Association), my about me (karlleray.com) site, and our company website.
Why now? It’s been four years since I did any changed to the website. I know that last year I added a picture to the banner, but I don’t see that as a major change.
Will the design be better? I believe so. My intention is to not to “wow” but instead make the site easier to navigate & more visually appealing.

So now you won’t be surprised later on when the site changes on you!

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September 18, 2010 · Filed Under Website

A Shitty Thing Happened w/Me & GoDaddy

I will admit, that’s its been a few days since I looked at the website.

It’s summer….I’m riding.

This morning I look at the site & notice that the site is basically…well…GONE! It’s setup on the WordPress defaults. I’m thinking ‘this is not so good‘

First thing I do is check the database & config files on the server as wordpress is a database driven blog it’s most likely the first point of failure. I immediately make a backup of the database (in my day as a DBA we would make an immediate backup to be able to import current data if we had to restore from backup as well as have a snapshot of the mangled database to autopsy after the emergency).

Everything looks OK, all the data is even there! The correct files are on the server, so I am scratching my head.

Time to call GoDaddy support to see if there is an issue with, say, the database server or something went wrong in the last day or so.

Now before I go any further, I have been very pleased w/GoDaddy. Service offerings, price, etc. has been good…so much so that I setup my company Apex Logic to be GoDaddy resellers.

Where was I? Oh yes…

So I call GoDaddy support. Now I understand that the person answering the phone is Tier 1. So I tell the gentleman (we’ll leave his name out for now), that there is an issue with my database.

CSR: “What kind of issue?

“I have a wordpress site & the database is showing incorrect information”

CSR: “Have you changed or updated the database?”

“No…haven’t been on in a about a week actually”

CSR: “How long have you had the site up?”

“Five years, sorry, three with you but five years so three with WordPress”

CSR: “So you are unable to connect to the database?”

“No…it connects fine, it’s showing no posts or pages. The site is down & this is a problem as I have lots of people viewing it. I’m checking to see if there is an issue with the database server as I can find nothing wrong.”

CSR: “Sir there’s no need to be argumentative with me.”

“I’m not being argumentative, I am a bit take aback that the site is down & I need this checked out.”

CSR: “Let me put you on hold”

Shitty GoDaddy Ska music (which by the way they should ask if you want the hold music like they do when you first call in)

CSR: “Sir?”

“Yes.”

CSR: “Everything looks fine. We can access the database, it looks like the connection string is correct. It could be an issue with your wp-config file as there’s unusual items in it.”

“OK…let me look at the wp-config again, can you hang on a minute?”

I’m thinking…HOLY BATSHIT! Was I hacked somehow? I look at the wp-config I downloaded earlier (again I had pulled the site & reviewed the files on the server), looks good to Karl so….

“I’m seeing nothing unusual in the wp-config I downloaded from the server, can you elaborate?”

CSR: “No. I was told there’s unusual items in the file.”

OK…I give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re unfamiliar with the new “Thelonius” wp-config changes….after they’re not developers…

“Are you referring to the new changes with WordPress 3.0? They’ve changed how the config file is done an-”

CSR: “Sir! WordPress is a free application that we did not create so we don’t support it.”

“I understand that, however the issue is with the database which you DO support.”

CSR: “Yes sir, do you have a backup of the database?”

“Yes”

CSR: “Then you’ll need to restore the database as something has happened, maybe something was written to somehow.”

OK…now I’m REALLY UPSET. Something was written to it SOMEHOW?

I decide to just go in and do a CHECK TABLE for all tables on the server, followed immediately by REPAIR TABLE & voila! Everything is back!

So now I actually feel stupid that I hadn’t tried that earlier, so…

“OK…everything is up. Can I have someone look at the database server? It seems that the indexes were messed up & I’d like to have the database server looked at.”

CSR: “Sir, these things happen which is why we ask customers to back up their data regularly”

At this point I’m flummoxed. These things happen?!? That’s an incorrect answer.

“Fella, I’m a WordPress developer & prior to that a DBA for SQL Server, db2 & Oracle. Corrupted indexes don’t just happen. All I’m asking is to have the server looked at as it’s a shared database server & this may be something significant not just to myself”

CSR: “Sir, again this is just part of working with a database.”

I’m thinking of my career as a DBA & how if I had ever said that to my CFO when looking at what happened to the SAP accounting system or the Siebel database with the customer data, I’d have been living in a van down by the river!

“So you’re not going to send this forward?”

CSR: “As I stated sir, these things happen. It sounds like you’ve been lucky all this time.”

“OK..thanks & have a good 4th of July weeke-”

The CSR hangs up!

I’m still deciding if I should call customer service, as this was a horrendous support call. My site is up & running & at this point I know I will stay with GoDaddy. However I will be sure to ask for a different person if I get this guy again or just request tier 2 immediately.

Time to go riding for a bit….

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July 2, 2010 · Filed Under Website

Wishing You & Yours All The Best!

Happy Holidays From Twotone & Minx!

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