You may have noticed the site being slow and weird and flaky. Or not. Either way, read on for boring technical details.
Fiziko: Please read the comments for an important message that I can’t deliver to you any other way at this time.
Details will be posted here shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Update: A few weird formatting bugs, they\’re being worked on. Comments posted after about 10:15am Pacific time (1:15pm Eastern) are probably gone. Ditto for articles. Sorry.
Update, again: Okay, it looks like most things are working. Now for some catharsis.
bureau42.com has been hosted, for years, by Dynup. Scrye\’s just a cool guy, even though I don\’t think he\’s ever visited this site.
Anyway, for some reason I can\’t presently work out, the database server on wizard (his machine there, where the site was actually physically located) has gone goofy. A couple of the database tables got corrupted, and things were just generally goofy. I tried to get in touch with him, no luck.
Meanwhile, a couple weeks back, I found an absolutely swell bargain on Dreamhost\’s hosting packages. They\’ve been around a while, and I\’ve not heard any bad things about them, so I snapped up an account on impulse. Shirley I\’ll think of something cool to do with it, I thought.
These two impulses collided earlier today. So the site has been spontaneously moved.
For the next couple days, while DNS changes and such propagate, things might be a little weird. So be it. The site is on an altogether better hosting service now, which doesn\’t cost very much at all, and most things appear to be working again.
There are a few glitches, I\’m sure, that will be de-kinked in the next day or three. If you see anything horribly broken that shouldn\’t be, please let us know by commenting on this article. Unless you can\’t log in for some reason, in which case you should probably email me instead.
TEST!
Obviously this is a test thread. Post weird spoileriffic comments and see if they break. And use lots of \’apostrophes\’. :-)
‘comments’
‘Comments’ with “quotes” and ‘apostrophes’ might be slightly ‘broken’ “still”. Maybe they will get “fixed” ‘soon’.
Re: ‘comments’
I’m Still Findind Lots OF Problems.
Most OF Them Seem To Stem From Pages Pointing To http://www.Bureau42.com Instead Of Malfoy.
Also, I Can’t Seem To Email Dave At Either Technopagan.org Nor Bureau42.com
If It’s Any Consolation, I Feel Your Pain. My HD Corruped On My Virtual World‘s Database Last Night After The Power Company Accidently Stoped Sending A Third Of The Power To Our House.
That Third Included our Heat. It Was A Long, Cold Night.
Re: ‘comments’
DNS and such seems to have updated everywhere, so hopefully that will be Better now.
Email: Also should be better now. I have no idea why I set my personal email up the way I did, but apparently I did. Silly oversight on my part. Again, should be better now.
Yay.
Re: ‘comments’
Oooops.
You *do* keep backups, right? RIGHT? :-)
Lots of quotes
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
“‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
This it is, and nothing more.”
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”- here I opened wide the door;-
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore!”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”-
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;-
‘Tis the wind and nothing more.”
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and
flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed
he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no
craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door-
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as “Nevermore.”
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered- not a feather then he fluttered-
Till I scarcely more than muttered, “other friends have flown
before-
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.”
Then the bird said, “Nevermore.”
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of ‘Never- nevermore’.”
But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and
door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o’er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o’er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee- by these angels he
hath sent thee
Respite- respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!- prophet still, if bird or
devil!-
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-
On this home by horror haunted- tell me truly, I implore-
Is there- is there balm in Gilead?- tell me- tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil- prophet still, if bird or
devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us- by that God we both adore-
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
“Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend,” I shrieked,
upstarting-
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
door!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the
floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted- nevermore!
Re: Lots of quotes
Well, even when I couldn’t get this site this afternoon, my site’s review page‘s links to this site worked just fine. I’m having some trouble with technopagan’s e-mail, but I suppose that’s just a moment’s problem that our esteemed colleague’s efforts will fix.
Better be careful!!!
With the new copyright laws, and the DMCA, you could be sued by the Poe family for infringement. :P
Congrads on the move, or not, errr … I guess if it makes you folks happy. :P
-Joe G.
Re: Better be careful!!!
Having a working Web site definitely makes me happy. :-)
ATTN Fiziko!
Fiziko: please email me from an “outside” account. Grab a hotmail account or something if you need to. I’ve had to make some emergency modifications to the staff email system, and I don’t have any other way to reach you :-(
Hey Dave!
I’ve been having some difficulty getting comments to post and articles to open – occasionally the site just seems to time out on me (since the move it’s been… slow). I’m using Firefox 1.0PR on Win98 over cable (which has been acting up lately, so it may not be the site). Just FYI – I’m hoping it’s just me.