In case you haven’t noticed… 26 November 2005.
Listening to: Potlatch, “Sleep At the Swamp”, from the album Voodoo Roux Deux.
Reading: Robert Jordan, The Great Hunt.
Watching: Kingdom of Heaven
Fractovia moved all of its content and sibling sites to a new hosting service in mid November because my former host, ReadyHosting.com, was simply the worst service and support combination you could ever find in the business. I have to be fair: they started out pretty good, but after some time they couldn’t even solved the most recurring problems, the ones that occur so often that I started to think I was sending email messages to my faraway epals at the other side of the world (except for the negative “side effects”). During that tortuous relationship (now I don’t understand how it lasted for so long) (1) the email server worked only sporadically —I simply forgot it even existed; (2) shortages of service, though not frequent, tended to last for hours —one even lasted a couple of days; (3) they didn’t know their backups didn’t work —I wonder if they know it now; (4) they “disapeared” my site once —and couldn’t even send a “we’re sorry” note; (5) their security was easily breachable —Have you ever heard of a fractal site being hacked? Mine was. (6) PHP, CGI anyone? —I only knew error messages… Ok, Ok, I’ll stop, but first, let me ask you a last question: How long would you think it takes to reply to an “are you there?” note? It usually took them 28 hours, almost like the movie. To summarize: if you’re out looking for a web hosting service, believe me —and beware—: avoid that one.
If you were one among fractovia’s frequent visitors and signed in at the Discussion Board sometime, I invite you to to so again… for the third time. I can’t promise you this will be the last one, but at least now I can maintain and do backups easily. Just click HERE or on the link at the left side panel to enter. If you need to contact me, you can sign in and leave me a message in any of the forums, PM or email me, whatever you prefer. I’ll be adding more stuff to fractovia, so stay tuned. -JL
Transition is currently underway – 10 November 2005.
I’m already in the process of uploading all of Fractovia’s content to my new web hosting service (sooner than I expected, actually). So it’s official: I said bye-bye to my nefarious and mediocre previous web hosting service. I hope this other one will do better. The DNS is already working properly, and all html pages are in place. Yet, for at least a couple of days (until this weekend), you won’t be able to access the full-sized versions of the pictures. I promise I’ll fix that as soon as possible, but please be patient: that takes a lot of time. The good thing is that with this move, I’ll add some extra features, including a new discussion board and more interactivity. Wish me good luck. -JL
IMPORTANT, REALLY IMPORTANT – 09 November 2005.
If you read yesterday’s note, you’re aware of all the problems I’m having with my current web hosting service. Because of that, I decided to cancel my account with them, and I’m moving my site to a new service in a short while. Of course, that will involve moving all the content to a different web hosting service and reassigning the DNS to reflect the new address. As a result, there could be some temporary access interruption, during which Fractovia could be offline for some time. I will try to do my best to avoid any interruption during this transition, but if I can’t, please be patient and try again a few hours later. Thanks for your understanding. -JL
Being lazy lately? 08 November 2005.
Listening to: Mogwai, “Hunted by a Freak”, from the album Happy Songs for Happy People.
Reading: Robert Jordan, The Great Hunt.
Watching: Constantine
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Do you think I’ve been lazy? Ha, far form it. The truth is that I have had a lot of things to do offline lately; someone has told me it’s called adulthood (big deal). But since yesterday I’ve been taking a few minutes now and then to put this site once again back on track. The Software and Links sections have been updated, so all the information in there is up-to-date. I’m adding a couple of new images as well. The update will be online tonight, but for now, take a look at the new Current Image below, and stay tuned. // P.S. And have I told you the Discussion Board is, once again, unreachable? I’m beginning to seriously hate my hosting service bacause, you know, the email server isn’t working either… I need a change, don’t you think? If you need to contact me, don’t use the Contact Form either because it isn’t working (yeah, that’s also true), please write to fractovia@gmail.com in the meantime.
Edit: Updates have been uploaded. -JL
System maintenance… 21 June 2005.
Listening to: Silence.
Reading: Raymond E. Feist, Prince of the Blood.
Watching: House of Flying Daggers.
Dear friends and visitors: From 22 June to 24 June 2005, my hosting service will be upgrading their machines and IP addresses. Even though they say a possible service interruption isn’t possible, you and I know better, so in case the impossible turns around and appear when it should not, know that Fractovia will come back in a short while. In the meantine, Happy Summer Solstice.
Updates… 24 March 2005.
Listening to: Linkin Park, “Numb”, from the album Meteora.
Reading: John Mosley, Starry Night Companion.
Watching: TV (can’t I?).
Let’s welcome back the CURRENT PICTURE section of yore (as was usual, some scrolls down below). No, I’m not abandoning the Exhibits; I thought it was OK to alternate both of them in an irregular basis. The thing is it’s easier (and quicker) to come up with a single picture, rather than three of them (isn’t that obvious?). That also allows for more frequent updates, an old practice I’m really missing here. I hope you don’t mind that (and if you do, just let me know – enter the Discussion Board and leave a message, please).
Exhibit #Two… 1 February 2005.
Listening to: Sigur Rós, “Untitled Track” from the album ( ) [that’s its title].
Reading: Canon EOS 20D User’s manual.
Watching: my thoughts.
First month of new year is already over, and I’m so late for this overdue update (as usual), that I have forgotten most of what I wanted to announce already. Let’s begin by saying that: One: Exhibit #Two is in place, and is planned to be short-lived; my fav pic this time is E2 (as usual, I welcome any comments). Two: I’m no longer desperately seeking Luttman, who already reappeared, and is well, alive, and planning a website relaunch (excellent news). Three: a very good friend (indeed), who learned about the maniacal doings of the obnoxious shapeshifter (a.k.a. Mr. It, who, by the way, is still trying to impersonate other fractal artists, sniping their domain names like mad, but who hasn’t realized it takes more than a common url to improve content; read the 2004 news archive for more details) presented to me a new domain name —a very unexpected gift— for this web site in mid-late November. Thanks to his graciousness, now visitors can point their browsers to fractalartist.com to get here as well. Cheers to Phil Thompson, the man and mastermind from Organisedchaos.biz and cenobyte.biz for such a wonderful surprise.