Vista ‘N Things
Today was a big day, and I’ll tell you why:
1) Blender.org posted direct links to my site which subsequently caused my host to have bandwidth being sucked away from other hosted sites, which then caused these sites to slow to a crawl and their owners complain. As these sites are actual businesses that generate actual money and support livelihoods, I can understand why the host made the command decision to block my site to cool the bandwidth issue. I’m not sure when exactly it was shut off since I only realized it at around noon. It was for the best though - of that, I am certain. The b.org guys removed the direct links to my site pending a solution to hosting the videos in some other way (e.g. Google Video). The good news is that the site is back, so I hope people find their way back if they found it suspended earlier.
2) I upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate. That might not be a big deal to everyone, but the cool thing is that I got it for free - legally - as a gift from someone for helping them with computer issues. The only trouble I had in installing was getting it out of the box it came in. Gone are the days of the simple cardboard box you open at the top. I was so thrilled when I got it home, with excitement overpowering logic, I was not unlike early man first discovering the use of tools. I nearly ripped the box to pieces until I realized the instructions to open it were on the package itself - albeit very small.
P.S. I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails and I am slowly beginning to respond to them… sorry for the delay!
P.P.S. I’ve posted an SSE2 optimized build of Blender 2.43 on graphicall. It has the added bonus of the best icon file out there, ffmpeg, and verse - none of which are in the official release.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:29 am
Hi. I feel partly at fault for this issue. Yesterday I downloaded all the videos on blender that I could find. I noticed yours were added just yesterday and I took advantage. Great stuff.
I’ve been through about half, but I’m going to run through those again and again just to digest the info.
I even went so far as to download two tutorial-like videos from siggraph’s site concerning “Elephants Dream.”
I want to thank you so much for making these tutorials. I can imagine how much time was spent preparing and creating these. Good quality. I’m very greatful.
I have seen a lot of demos to see that Blender is a great choice to roll with and when people in the community make VIDEO tutorials to get me going, IT’s GREAT!!! Thank you, once again. And sorry for the bandwidth issue.
Alcides.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:57 am
Hey Alcides,
Don’t consider yourself at fault. I don’t think any one person could have possibly accounted for the bandwidth usage (the amount normally used in a month was happening in two days).
I’m glad you like the tutorials!
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
We shut the site down about noon time and I was just emailing you when you called our office. We really apologize that it had to be shutdown but we only did it temporarily to resume normal functionality of the server. We are putting in place things to make it more robust and serve such files more efficiently. Glad to see you get so much publicity!
-Daniel
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Hey Daniel,
No worries. I can understand the dilemma you guys were in when you had your phone lines light up with complaints. I’m glad I wasn’t the one answering those calls
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
It really wasn’t awful as the clients usually understand that things like this can’t be prevented only remedied. We found the problem within a reasonable time and you were more than cool about it so we appreciate that. We’re upgrading the server with more memory to resolve the problem quicker in the future…
March 21st, 2007 at 1:57 am
If the instructions on opening box are on there they must be in microscopic print!
I spent 1/2hour googling before I found a site that explained how to open plastic box without breaking it by pulling string towards you.