Vyoma

I would follow their advice to switch servers. Evidently your server has some stability issues.

 

Unless all of the servers are exact copies of each other then some will perform better than others. And even if the software is cloned the user added content makes problems harder to track down.

 

I understand your frustration, i would feel the same way but the fix is there, it is just up to you to take it.

 

If you arent sure how to switch servers add it to your ticket and ask for a guide.

Yes shadowx. I figured that would be the best approach after pondering about it for a while and asked for them to switch to a newer server in the ticket.

 

so they said it it was only fixed temporarily and not permanantly and now suggesting you move your entire sites? hmmm, that is some strange advice there to move your entire sites. maybe you need to speak with an admin directly on this issue. they may be able to enlighten you more on this issue.

 

i know when we create our websites, they are created to be seen and downtime should never be an excuse. i know if i had a website and experienced more downtime than i was willing to accept, i would change hosts. but changing hosts and servers create a problem in itself when the original problem(databases in this instance) can be fixed before you switch hosts or servers. but that is your other option. that's strange why that solution would be suggested to you though. that seems like it should be more of a personal choice. not a suggestion coming from support.

 

so i would really talk to an admin on this issue. request that an admin handle your ticket and your future concerns about downtime. your websites seem to have been online for a while according to all the content that has been posted on them and this is the first time i've heard you complain about downtime...so maybe if we compare how long you've been hosted to how much downtime there has been, they still fall within the 99.9.

 

you are complaining about the downtime this month...which you have every right to. i would be upset too....but your website wasn't created this month and has been around a lot longer. who knows....maybe they have a better track record overall than 99.90. ya think?

Oh yes, anwiii, my sites have been up and running for a long time. I had been a member of Xisto for couple of months, hosted through credits that I earned from posting there. After a couple of months, when my website picked up, I notice that it was having repeated downtime. But I did not complain then, other than issuing a ticket to get it fixed. Since the hosting was provided for the effort I put into posting relevant content at Xisto, I realized that I could not complain about that.

 

After that, I switched to paid hosting over here at Xisto - Web Hosting.com and moved over my website. I even grew the number of websites I have been hosting. I started with a 3S plan. And it did have downtime issues - and then I complained. They fixed them as and when the issues came up, and once I did see them slack up on meeting their SLA. After a year or so, I switched to a 7S plan since I had a pretty large website and was highly trafficed ( KalaaLog.com ). When I ran into issues, I did raise tickets and follow up with them. I have around 30 support tickets raised from 2007 to current date. Of course, couple of them were sales related questions or minor cron related issues. But the rest of them were either problems with DNS or MySQL databases being down - critical issues. When this happens, my websites are not accesible.

 

So speaking overall uptime, it might be 99.9% but that does not mean for a service period they can have a downtime. I understand that asking for a 99.9% uptime every day (which is around 14 minutes downtime) is not practical. I am not asking for that. (I know since I too have a day job where I support applications and systems that adhere to SLA uptimes). But for a duration of one month, and a subscription period of 6 months, if downtime is 40 odd hours, I will be very very concerned about the remaining five months. That is the reason, I bring this issue up when they have gone beyond the 99.9% uptime for a month (and hence the title of the thread says that the database was down for three times in January).

 

The complaints I raise are from the perspecitve that I want the Xisto group to do well and not with an malicious intent. I owe some of my loyalty to Xisto and its sister sites, since that is where I started and they supported me.

 

Basically, I am lazy. I do not want to go out searching for another reliable webhost. If I can raise a complain, and get Xisto - Web Hosting/Xisto to do better then it is good for me. I would like to grow my websites to an extent where I would need to take up VPS Hosting from them, may be even Dedicated Hosting at Xisto - Web Hosting one day. But to do that, I would want to have a sustained growth and that can be only done when my current hosting is as reliable as advertized on the homepage. If Xisto - Web Hosting/Xisto does not do good, it is not good for me. I will need to re-evaluate other services and that is a costly step in terms of effort for me.

 

Ooo boy. I turned out to be big rant.

the database may be up, but did you ever get a reply to your support ticket? i'm curious why the database was down. i went to two of your drupal sites and both were down due to database issues so i am assuming it probably wasn't on your end. sometimes sites can go down like that and has nothing to do with the server.
glad everything is working for you now. i know it always sucks if you lose any money over it. i have never experienced downtime like that....but according to the 99.9 rule, this allows for 10 more days of 8 hours downtime. it's still a very good percentage of uptime.

if you ever do get a reply, quote it here. i am curious about the answer.

Oh yes. They did respond to the support ticket after 9 hours. They did say that their MySQL database was having issues and they have sent it to "senior admin to get a permanant fix". Meanwhile, they are suggesting I move my sites to some "new servers". I am not sure how that is going to help. If they can ensure that MySQL databases remain up and running there, why cant they do the same on the IOTA server?

The 99.9% uptime rule gives them 87.6 hours in a whole year. In a month, that would be 7.3 hours. They have already crossed past the SLA for this month, in my opinion. It is around 9 hours of downtime for this issue. Counting the two other issues that occurred this month, the downtime hours come to 15-16 hours. That in my opinion is not a 99.9% uptime this month. The month is not even over yet, there are 8 more days left.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
You can monitor the server status from that link. I cant help any more than that as i too am simply a hosted member. You must be on the Epsilon server as it is the only one with MYSQL flagged as down.

Well, it is up now 8 hours after the issue began. And the link that you provide does not list the server on which I am hosted. I am checking the cPanel now and it says:
Server Name iota

Hi,Currently, as for past 50-60 minutes, all MySQL databases are down. Ticket ID: NRY-328984Normally - I do not open a thread here when there is a problem. I just raise a ticket. But there is a cause of concern for me at this point in time.One thing is that I have been escalating the status of the ticket and updating with my findings for the past duration since it was down - there has been no response - not a single word from the support team.Second, the number of times the databases are down. I went back and checked up my notification setup and these are the dates:09-Jan-2010 - Ticket ID: WWH-96026721-Jan-2010 - No ticket but issue occured when I was not checking. But I have notification email sent from vBulletin installation that the databases was down.22-Jan-2010 - This is the current issue - ongoing that has not been fixed as of now. I am still receiving notification emails that the databases are down.Out of the set of sites I run, one of them has pretty high traffic and earns revenue round the clock. Another one, I run website optimization experiments and conversion tests which assume that the websites are functional throughout the testing duration. The websites being down since the databases were not working is throwing a wrench into all the effort.Why are not the MySQL databases not monitored and alerts set for the support personnel?

This ticket: CDM-922809 is sitting out there for almost 24 hours with no response.

I have not been able to access my sites for that duration.

 

Opaque, I think the L3 support for this ticket has been way more than 12 hours.

 

Edit: It is way more than 24 hours now.

What is the response time on tickets? I have seen that recently it is more than 12 hours. Earlier it would have been fine when there was chat support - now that chat support is not present, it is quite frustrating.

Not sure if this would fit your budget constraints, but here is the link to Wacom's entry model. http://www.wacom.com/de-de/404?prevUrl=%2fbambootablet%2findex.cfm
It is under $100.

Thanks!

I do use a graphic tablet, and if I remember I did use the graphic tablet - Wacom Intuos3 6x11.

Speaking of concept artist, I intend to do it one day. I dont think I have the skill level to that point yet, so there is a lot of practicing left to do.

...And of course I will personally never buy an Ipod, I would rather buy a huge mp3 player !

I think iPod is over rated too. I do own a iPod Touch, and not sure what the big deal is all about. I use it regularly, but the annoying thing is the elitist Apple does not provide their iTunes software for Linux. I am just waiting for the two or so years to pass by when my iPod would die (the battery replacement "feature" is another draconic feature in my honest opinion), I would just opt for some other music player, which I am sure could be used with generic software - which means I can use it in sync with my Linux installs.

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I'm sorry I don't have any intermediate shots of the angel because it all came about quickly by accident using filters ........usually I save images from start to finish and have at least saved about 20 progressions along the way to completion.

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Ah Sellaman - I see. I think I now have a inkling on your technique. Do post one of your progressions - would go a long way to understand the technique.

 

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I can see you taste for art is in realism as I saw quite a fair bit of your art at your DeviantArt page.

Picasso first started off in a similar style to yours eg; realism or whatever it's called and he quickly changed to abstract and became the master of it and all styles.

Maybe you need to see really good abstract works to get to understand and start to appreciate it.

I reckon abstract is able to express more than any other styles of art, if it's professionally done.

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Hmmm - abstract/modern? I am not sure. I did see quite a lot of abstract pieces - the last time being when I had been to New York - spent about half a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part of the displays there were of that category and most of them did not make much sense to me. Some did not even have enough work put into them (in my opinion) to garner my appreciation.

 

Here is how I see it. I am an engineer by day. Most of the things I do, I try to do it to get something purpose served either for me or for other. I try to get it done efficiently. When I do artworks, I just see it as an extension of serving myself or others. It is more of an performance than just mere self expression where it is quite satisfactory when more people are able to appreciate what I have done. And going down the abstract path - in my opinion - I see it rarely happen.

 

Do I think abstract and modern styles are not art at all? No - of course not. It is just not where my interests lie. You must know by now the phletora of mediums and styles we have in visual arts alone. I just happen to dabble in digital art - specifically in digital painting (more like the traditional technique - everything is done using brush strokes without any filters) and vector illustration. For the past few years as I have been working on those styles, among other techniques, I have had exposure to color, texture, value, composition, and more interestingly towards form. Lately, I have been so interested in line and form that I am putting more energy into doing just illustration (albeit digital). I believe it will help me in both the style - digital painting and vector illustrations. And with these three areas/niches, I think I have enough of it and I would expand only when I really feel the need.

 

Thanks for you help, Vyoma, now I see the angel and I am now able to see it (him?) in the original image too.

And, thanks to this topic, now I understand why some people say that Guardian Angels exist - because they can see them, and why skeptic people say that they don't exist - simply because they are unable to see them!

Ha! You're welcome yordan.

 

Heh, wow, I see it too now.. thats abstract art for you, but I believe, using Vyoma technique, I also could get people to see a rabbit in that picture, seriously

 

Just that I'm not so artistic..

Well Quatrux - I think that is what the style is all about. You could get a rabbit out of the picture. It lets many have several different interpretations, and take you in a journey of pondering. Quite exactly as yordan does above?

 

I saw it from the first photo, If it were a picasso then every one would brag about the use of color, lighting, even call it amazing.... So why different when its from an unknown artist? As I am an artist i know when im dead then ill be remembered by my work, until then its just sketches on paper

Yup, laniczech - why is it that we have to die to get our artwork appreciated?

 

Yet, from my experience in watching some of the works (even by Picassa), I just dont get what the big deal is all about.

Dont think there is an issue with your reply not being specific. Those links that you gave seem to give me enough to read through and understand the concepts I had missed the past 4 years. Thanks!

Well I installed GIMP and had a quick look at it and was turned off straight away because it had a cluttered work space. It may be OK for you because you have a wide screen monitor but for me I like to stick to the square screened monitors and so Photoshop for me is unbeatable. I don't know, maybe in a couple of years time I may get a wide screen monitor.

Thanks for your feedback all the same.

I'll go over to DA and check out your art work now.

I somehow had a inkling this would be the user-experience feedback you would give, Sellaman.

 

And I agree - use the tool you are comfortable with. Because, in terms of digital art, they are just that - tools.

 

For me, more than using it in widescreen, I think the bias I have towards Open Source software, and the fact that Linux (X) Window Managers are able to catch the hints thrown by GIMP (Windows cannot do that) which allows me to customize its layout just the way I want, makes it a better choice for me than Photoshop.

Abstract art has always escaped my comprehension.

 

That said, I can appreciate the technique. I like the deep texture that you have some how maintained to keep it crisp - both in terms of texture and color.

 

And if you did this following traditional techniques and not using any filters of your software tool, then it makes me more curious. I would really like to know the technique involved - any intermediate screenshots would be much appreciated.

 

Edit:

 

I think I do see a shape of an angel - here is my interpretation paint-over.

 

Ah - this thread seems to have slipped me!

 

You did a very good job. What software did you use to do that artwork?

As yordan mentions, the painting itself was done using GIMP. At that point, I was using Camstudio and Windows Movie Maker to create the video itself. (These days, I have shifted to Linux - I use gtk-recordMyDesktop and Cinelerra).

 

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At least I love the flying boat. Is it a hollandaise boat ?

:| I am not sure what a hollandaise boat is. Just was painting what fancied my mind.

 

Very nice picture, well done.

 

This picture looks a bit simpler than others ones done in the GIMP, but it would take a very long time for me to experiment and learn how to do this to achieve a similar result. I didn't watch the video yet, maybe I could learn something similar

I did start out doing simple paintings initially. You can check out my painting specific gallery at deviantART - almost all are done in GIMP.

 

...

I'm now at the Gimp site and will probably download Gimp to see if it's any good.

If you have been exposed to Photoshop, you might find GIMP a bit overwhelming in terms of UI. Have patience, and once you see it as a tool, it will fit right into your workflow.

Background: I got back into C++ programming after some leave from it. More on that experience in my other thread. I started this particular project (initially, would be hobby - may GPL it if results are good).

What is the directive on using namespaces in C++?

Coming from Java background, the packages which translates to namespaces in C++ (from what I understand), is required to avoid the crazyness it brings if we don't use. For example, the generated (proxy) source files (either from WSDL or XSDs using WSDL2Java or JAXB respectively) to communicate with other teams systems, can cause conflicts if we dont target each of these to their own packages. And hence, it makes sense to use packages for our own Java classes. It avoids conflicts and this further promotes better refactoring and reuse of developed and tested components.

Back to this C++ project. It would end up as a application/executable. I do not think it would be a library ( STL, GTK+, QT, gtkmm, mysql etc). Even in such cases, is there a point of using namespaces? I am not sure I can see any advantage of this. Perhaps my understanding on C++ Namespaces is wrong?

Any thoughts? Or even links that describes "when to use C++ namespaces" would be much appreciated.

Ayaaa! I think I wrote it wrongly when I was showing what I was doing with my Java projects. When I said /src, I should have actually said, '/my-home-folder-path/java-workspace/specific-project/src'. Instead of '/lib', I should have said, '/my-home-folder-path/java-workspace/specific-project/lib' and so on. :rolleyes:Hmmm - I think I will do that. Thanks for the imagemagick link. May be I will check out some other OpenSource projects too which are implemented in C++ (know of any?).

Is there any online resource or documentation I can look at, which gives standards or best-practices in terms of organizing the source code for C++ projects?My day job has kept me away from C++ and into Java for quite some time now, and I see there has been a lot of work in terms of standardizing C++ during that time.To illustrate, looking up Sun's documentation, I know that I should put my Java projects (for POJOs) as follow http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/- source files ( containing more subfolder like /src/com/example for namespace of com.example.*)/build - intermediate files used by Ant build.xml/cfg - configuration and .property files/lib - any third-party libraries used/scripts - invokers for Linux/Unix boxesIs there any similar standard being followed for C++ projects? I am thinking of working on a Gtkmm based project, and if my prototyping gives good results, I would put it out as OpenSource (GPL perhaps). Since it could potentially be used and developed upon by others, I want to make sure I follow the standards and do not do a bad start.

Thanks, Evolke!

 

In case you are interested - head over to Inkscape.org and get a copy (it should be available for Linux and Windows - not sure about Mac). Also, check out a resource site - Inkscape Tutorials - that website has tons of links to tutorials.

Appreciate the comments a lot, sonesay!

This is a vector art I did yesterday night.

 

 

It was done as a illustration tutorial, so there are almost 20 work-in-progress screenshots of the artwork in progress that you can read at my art blog: Illustrate A Peacock.

I have create two versions of wallpaper - for standard and wide screen sizes. Download them from my graphics resource site: Peacock - Wallpaper

 

This vector art was done using primarily Inkscape. For the initial sketching and planning, I used GIMP, but once I got the line art, I imported it into Inkscape and worked on it. The whole process took around 2 hours. Would have taken little less if I was not focusing on taking proper screenshots and keeping too many copies of intermediate SVG files.

You're right about that one.
Let me see if Xisto - Web Hosting has gone totally support ticket system. I'll get back with the information.

Any further information?

I have upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 over the network, and as before I am quite pleased with it. The theme as such - I have not tried it out yet. I had a lot of customization and tweaking done for my theme, and I have not yet 'ported' over to the new default theme.As for Guest account. Going to setup and see how it goes. I have a few friends coming over and I am a bit hesitant letting them login through my ID - so, I have to dual boot into Windows Vista (OEM bundled with my laptop). I just do not care whatever they do there since I work in Ubuntu full time.

I don't think other people are going to post a creation onto this topic...... I have been waiting to see what other people have created..... I can't create anything with paint....

Hmmm - I though so too. I started posting my artwork in the other subsection.

 

Coming back to MSPaint - these are good, considering they are done using mouse. Using a graphics tablet, I think we can do much more than one would think in MSPaint.

 

That said, let me dig up one of my MSPaint + Mouse creations.

 

http://vyoma.deviantart.com/art/Firman-Tales-Ch-1-Cover-Page-24715434

http://vyoma.deviantart.com/art/Firman-Tales-Ch1-The-Ambush-25320423

 

These were around 3 years back - an overtly ambitious project to create a webcomic in MSPaint (and mouse). I did the 'cover page' and first page, and got distracted doing other things.

It was Halloween season few days back and I actually happened to stumble across a Yahoo Answers page where they were asking this questions. Just a cursory scan over that thread inspired me on this artwork.

 

 

Check out the deviantART entry - Too Old For Halloween - to see a larger image.

Your quick analysis actually right in terms of Slug. And on a hind-look, I agree with you.I did Slug first, and then I worked on Slice and Screech. As I spent quite a lot of hours on each painting, I was learning quite a bit in terms of color theme and character portrayal. What I learned from the previous one, I applied it to the next one.You will see that the second and the third have similar color balancing technique applied - something I leared after I had completed Slug. (It dealt with color theory in general, as well as the mess it creates while shifting from RGB to CMYK color space). You will also notice that on the last one, Screech, I have better control over details that I did for Slice.