hogbiker.com v3.0 » Website

A Shitty Thing Happened w/Me & GoDaddy

Two Tone — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:35:14 +0000

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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Wishing You & Yours All The Best!

Two Tone — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:04:52 +0000

Happy Holidays From Twotone & Minx!

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Vote For Your Favorite AK Cycles Girl

Two Tone — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:36:55 +0000

I have had the honor & pleasure of photographing several women for the AK Cycles Calendar they plan on creating.

This week we have the first four:

Amanda – http://akcycles.com/contest-picts-amanda/
Karen – http://akcycles.com/contest-pics-karen/
Rickie – http://akcycles.com/contest-pics-rickie/
Stacey – http://akcycles.com/contest-pics-stacey/

Whomever you choose will be then part of a calendar shoot in various locations around Alaska (with AK Cyles custom bike, of course).

So…if you haven’t already done so, vote! http://akcycles.com/vote/

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What I Did On My Birthday!

Two Tone — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:51:18 +0000

Yesterday I had the privileage of running in the Running of the Reindeer – Celebrity Heat on my birthday. I ran in my gear, without my helmet. Nothing like a biker in chaps dodging reindeer!

I tried to setup a helmet cam, but it didn’t work. So I ran with a video camera. The video is now processed and ready to share! Enjoy.

It’s a LARGE video, so give it time to load…

What little pictures I have will be loaded later…

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Came Across This Site On Twitter

Two Tone — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:09:28 +0000

I broke down the other day and setup a Twitter account. I’m thinking I will mostly use it to tweet my riding adventures. Right now it’s just an extension of happenings between blog posts.

We’ll see how it goes….

Regardless, I decided to see who else that rides was on Twitter and came across http://motorcycleassistant.com/. It’s an interesting site with some pretty good information on riding (suche as how to ride, handling wobbles, etc.).

The menu is a little cumbersome to navigate, but if you just go to the categories at the bottom (or run a search at the top) you’ll pretty much find the articles of interest to you.

I’ll be adding it to my links page later on today.

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Did you see the hiccup?

Two Tone — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:41:46 +0000

So I am now consolidating all my sites to a new server since I sold my company – http://www.apexalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/press-release-8-08.pdf (since it’s no longer my company I figure I should move the personal sites off the “corporate” servers as I don’t think it would be considered a perk anymore) – to my new super server at http://karlspace.com.

I figured I’d move the server last night….

Then I started watching the Olympics, then the movie “Shoot Em Up” came on, then I went into my evening routine – Spike TV Star Trek Voyager followed by Star Trek – Deep Space 9.

Long story short, I did it over lunch!

I have to say I’m impressed…switchover had the site down for only 1 minute, 6.2 seconds!

So on a new server (actually a pretty ROBUST one too if I say so myself), that I lease from my new company so I can say “I’m not only the senior manager, I’m a client!!”

If you can tell me when it went down there’s something in it for you (a one of a kind item that you can’t get anymore now that the Alaska Rally is over)!

Just so you know our company does site monitoring so I know exactly when the site was offline to the hundredth of a second so you need to be accurate.

Another note: I sometimes take LATE lunches!

Good luck!

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AWESOME Awareness Video

Two Tone — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:10:44 +0000

Another awesome awareness video…this time from our friends in England. This along with the other awareness videos from Australia shows that we can learn something from our worldwide neighbors:

FYI…I made the count but barely caught the other item the first time I saw it (I caught it as it was leaving and missed the WHOLE THING till the review.

Simply…we’re back on the road Alaska, so please look twice and save a life.

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Gallery Is BACK!!!!

Two Tone — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:17:47 +0000

Though it’s not EXACTLY the way I want it, the pictures are back.Ã‚Â Now that there is more available space, I’ll start adding more of the older pictures back.

Enjoy

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Gallery Broke Down!

Two Tone — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:06:55 +0000

Not sure what – or even why it – happened, but it’s just time to move to everything to my new gallery (nextgen) that I prefer. Nothing like a failure to get things moving!

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In Puerto Rico for Rally Coordinator Training….

Two Tone — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:11:19 +0000

We have been toodling around Puerto Rico for a couple days prior to HOG Rally Coordinator Training. So I created a quick gallery for everyone to check out!

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