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If you've come to the website in the last couple of days, you might have noticed a few changes. We've moved webhosts, and I took the opportunity to change the design of the site, and a few other things.
If you find any problems, could you please let me know.
The reason behind the change was basically that my old webhost was crap. Absolutely ridiculously terrible. I will definitely write a blog post about what happened, one day, but whether or not I include the old webhost's name is up to them. I've asked for a refund of 3-month's subscription. If they give it to me, they are acknowledging that I got less than the service they normally provide, and agree I should get my money back. In that case, no naming is needed. If they don't give me the refund, they're saying it's perfectly fine that my website was going down for a couple of hours every couple of days, even though they have a 99.9% uptime guarantee. In that case, I think it's only right that other people are warned.
Well, enjoy the new site. I hope if you're reading this by feed then you'll come and have a bit of a look around again.
This website has gone down for a couple of hours about once every two days or so, since the move to the new server which was supposed to be more reliable.
There's two parts to a website that offers dynamic content such as this one. There is the file server, and there is the database server.
The current problem is with the database server. We know that much due to the symptoms displayed, but I'm not sure my webhosts know exactly what the problem is (otherwise it would be fixed by now, surely).
So anyway, the other weekend I was moved to a different file server. And this weekend my database is going to be moved to a different database server. Will that fix the problem? Recent history would suggest that it won't. But, can't blame the webhosts for giving it a try.
Fingers crossed. Expected downtime: between none and a lot.
My webhost, like a lot of others, has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, I'm not sure they've ever met that guarantee, so recently I questioned them what the "guarantee" actually means.
Yada yada yada I got moved to a better server. Yay for me. However...
They asked me when I would like the move to take place, and I gave times on the weekend.
I asked them how long they expected the site would be down while the move took place. "There shouldn't be any outage," they said. They copy the files to the different server, point everything to that new server, and when that takes effect around the world, they delete the files from the old server.
Great, I thought.
I think the site finally came back up on Wednesday sometime. Anyway, we're on a better server, and it's all set now, I thought.
Later that day the site went down again for a few hours.
And then it was fixed. Anyway, we're on a better server, and it's all set now, I thought.
The next day the site went down again for a few hours.
And then it was fixed. Anyway, we're on a better server, and it's all set now, I thought.
The next day the site went down again for a few hours.
Finally I got a hold of someone to talk to live. (Until then it was all emails). That person investigated, and found that when they moved my site to the new server, they hadn't set some permissions properly.
So that's fixed now. But what it doesn't explain is why the site was actually up at some points during the last few days.
Anyway, we're on a better server, and it's all set now...
So let's give a grace period of a few weeks before deciding whether to change webhosts or not. More problems and we move. No problems and we stay.
Once you get on the freeware train, it's hard to get off. You keep discovering something new that you now need to have, and can't imagine how you ever did without it before.
My " Useful Free Stuff" page has now expanded to just less than 50 items, all of which I use.
I am thankful to those people who spend their free time making stuff and giving it away. And in some cases, a free product doing the same thing already exists. Two of my favourite products replace other free ones that, in my opinion, have become bloated and slow and memory-hungry.
The survey asked why you might not subscribe to my software.
Available responses were:
- It's too expensive
- I couldn't work out how to use it
- I'm waiting for v1.0 to be released
- It doesn't connect to the broker I use
Whereas the only valid responses were:
- I'm waiting for v1.0 to be released
- It doesn't connect to the broker I use
:-)
Because there is unlimited email support, I couldn't really understand if someone said they couldn't work out how to use it. I can understand if they clicked around a bit and gave up. But if they were serious about it, surely they would... maybe... like... send me an email?
The other "invalid" response is that it's too expensive. As I mentioned previously, seriously, if you think software that has all these features is worth less than a daily can of softdrink, you are in some kind of fantasy land where money shouldn't matter too much to you anyway.
So here are the results. And there were actually a decent number of votes this time.
The winner was "It's too expensive", with 7 votes out of a total of 15. Second was "I'm waiting for v1.0" with 4, then "doesn't connect to my broker" with 3, and finally one person said they couldn't work out how to use it.
So I guess there was really no point to this survey, because I'm not going to act on the results. But thanks to everyone that filled it in. You're tops in my books :-)
If you are using a different broker, send me an email with the name of the broker you use. Alternatively, because this software rocks, consider switching to the ones it already connects to.
If you are waiting for v1.0, I beg your forgiveness, and thank you in advance. The testing progresses, but there are actually *a lot* of different combinations and permutations to try and test. I could even say that I've put in too many features, and now the effort required to test all of those features is becoming daunting. But once it's done, it's done.
I really want to put v0.9.0 out later today, and v1.0 is set for a week or so after that. You can also keep up-to-date by reading the KB.
If you subscribe now, your subscription will take effect immediately, but you'll be given free days until v1.0 is released. There's no downside.
Alrighty, I'm pretty sure I've got everything in place now for this to become the new place for Sharky's Trading Diary.
Please update your bookmarks to:
www.thinkingstuff.com/blog.aspx
If you subscribed to the old Atom feed in Blogger, please update your feeds to use the FeedBurner one. All syndication details here.
(I guess my one regret of using DotNetNuke for my blogging engine is the god awful page addresses).
I have split my old blog into two. No longer will readers of Sharky's Trading Diary have to read through the details of new releases of the software. Instead, Sharky's Trading Diary will now be about trading, and the Thinking Stuff KB (knowledge base) will hold all announcements about the software.
Oh sure, there'll still be the odd post into the blog about the software when something major happens. But you'll be spared of hearing of every detail of every release.
So, if you're interested in reading about trading using purely objective trading rules, subscribe to the blog. And if you are interested in the software, also subscribe to the KB.
Incidentally, the KB address is:
www.thinkingstuff.com/kb.aspx
The new survey asks: I'd love to subscribe to this fantastic software, but...It's too expensive I couldn't work out how to use it I'm waiting for v1.0 to be released It doesn't connect to the broker I use After 9 days of constant battle between the 4 options, we have a winner starting to emerge. Out of the 1 person who answered the survey so far, a total of 1 person (100%) said that they couldn't work out how to use it. Now,
if I only had extensive online help files, I could understand that
someone couldn't work it out. If I only had extensive online help
files, plus help sections attached to the more tricky windows, I could
understand that someone couldn't work it out. But if I have extensive online help files, plus help sections attached to the more tricky windows, plus free and unlimited support, I can't understand it. If you're having trouble, ask me a question. Live chat is available. (And if that 1 person is the same 1 person who tried to use the Contact Us page while it was broken - sincere apologies).
Dear anybody who tried to use the Contact Us page during the past week, Although a confirmation message told you that the message was sent, it was not sent. But if you try again now, it will be. Apologies all round.
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