On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

sixwordstories
Whether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun.

dailyfoodie
Delicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian.

My engineer at work told me that I could download and use Firefox. Holy freakin' great! Finally! Yesssss! We've been using Explorer 6 this whole time and aren't allowed to upgrade to Explorer 7 (some of our work programs online aren't supported past 6), but I had told him a while back that I need to access some sites and they don't support Explorer 6. You have no idea how happy this makes me!!!

Jon's birthday was last week and my big secret project (which wasn't really all that much of a secret since I was knitting it in front of him, but he didn't know) was finally gifted to fitted perfection!

My Seamless Hybrid sweater for Jon!


Nicely sporting his knit socks too! A b-day present from last year!
I had wanted to knit this sweater for him since I first got the pattern book quite a few years ago. Jon, my friend Karen (who lived in Victoria at the time) and I went to Salt Spring and had an impromptu garage sale excursion. This was the only knitting book I found. I wasn't a hardcore knitter yet, but thought the book looked interesting enough. I paid a buck for it and didn't realize what I had in my hands. It was an older copy of Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Without Tears". It has a red cover and a picture of her knitted garments, not the same cover as the current publication with it's white background and purple hat. And at the time, I didn't even know who EZ was.

Her pattern writing is not conventional and she herself was not. I think she knits the same way I do. I cast on immediately and just sort of decide on things as I go.

I knit this up with less than 5 skeins of Indigo Moon's fingering weight. I knew Jon didn't like sweaters normally because he usually such a warm guy to begin with. Though when I saw the colour, I knew it had to be for him. The yarn and the pattern were a perfect match. Fingering weight meant a lighter fabric and I wouldn't have to cardiganize it.


The back neck has a bit of puff to it because that section is the only part that is knit back and forth, thus changing my gauge. I knew that was going to happen, but I didn't listen to myself. It still looks great because it stretches out when he wears it, smoothing out that puffy bit. Next time though, I'd probably knit with one needle one size smaller, just for the purl rows.

I knew I wanted a turned hem. It was a polished look that I was going for. I also wanted some knitterly fun, so I did the turned under part in some leftover soft sock yarn. A little bit of a secret splash of extra colour.


But before I folded it under and knitted the pieces together, I duplicate stitched in some Space Invaders. It was a nod to all the Space Invader tile art we found all over Paris earlier this year. I felt it would be fun to add a little surprise on there, like Easter Eggs on DVD's.

When worn, he can flip the hem over and see one to the right...


...and the other one all the way to the left...


I started with 6 skeins of turquoise and about 1/2 of the skeins were slightly lighter, so I alternated rounds with a darker and then lighter skein. I created this beautiful hand painted stripey effect. Quite lovely.

Also, 49 stitches were saved for the neck opening. I included the neckband in my calculations (also a turned hem, but using the same yarn with smaller needles on the underside) adding about an inch on either side. If it was any wider, I don't think it would look as good. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it fits great. I put into account that he may wear it with a collared shirt underneath, so the slightly larger neck opening was appropriate.

I gifted it to him that evening and he wore it all night... Then the next night too for a birthday dinner out. (Brasserie L'ecole if you were curious. They just opened up again after some extensive renovations. We had paint fumes with our dinner - yum!) He was never too warm. The perfect fabric for our mild climate. A fingering weight sweater may take a longer time to knit, but the fabric is what Jon needs. Better to take longer to knit a sweater that he'll wear, than something that can be knit quickly but lives in the closet most of the year.

I'm just glad he's just tall and not big and tall. Those arms were knit to 20" before the join! That's a lot of stockinette in the round!

aiyatheydidnt
The Chinese version of ONTD, AIYA is a dynamic international community that welcomes users who share a love of contemporary Chinese pop culture. Dedicated to celebrity gossip and entertainment news, you'll enjoy gorgeous photos and breaking stories featuring the glitterati of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

wendylady2
Designed to rescue fashion victims everywhere, this Brit-based community reads like a rag-ezine. Published once or twice weekly, you'll view bizarre highlights of the global fashion scene through captivating photos and delightfully snarky editorial. Sit tight for a virtual fashion tour from the runways of New York to Milan to Paris and back home again to London in homage to the adage: you can't buy good taste.

soldiers_heart
A passionate community for veterans of all ages (mostly American), plus families, friends, and supporters. View poignant snapshots detailing life in combat and back on civilian soil in the form of original artwork, personal narratives, poetry, and photos. Be forewarned that members don't shy away from describing their disappointments, disabilities, and struggles.

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt