26th May 2004
I've just realised that it's been over a year and a half since I overhauled the site so I'm thinking it might be time for another one. I'll try to go a little more dynamic next time around, make it easier to update the site etc. Tonight, I spent a while working on some Spam statistics. Basically, I have a reasonable honeypot at geddylee@rushland.net which is attracting tons of spam so I've started analysing. There's an overview of volume since I start capturing it at the beginning of May here. And there's a break down of the volume by day of the week here. . I used JpGraph to create the latter - pretty neat script. I'm going to work on some more and probably put together a page about it. If I find time that is...
- Marc
18th May 2004
As some of you have probably noticed, the whole Rushland.net domain (including mail and www) has been down for the past two days. Right when Christian went on holiday, the primary DNS server decided to die and the secondary doesn't appear to be responding correctly. As Christian isn't around this week, I've moved DNS to another host I have access to and things appear to be coming back online now. I'll look into setting up my own Bind DNS server when Christian is back from holidays. In the meantime, I hope things will continue to function correctly.
- Marc
30th March 2004
Well, I'm tempted to write a fair bit about my experiences with Fedora recently but for the moment suffice to say that I've finally moved the site over to it's new home on a dedicated server. Thank god :-) The first thing I'm doing is deleting that stupid FastCounter rubbish and installing webalizer. Enjoy!
- Marc
21st March 2004
Because the site keeps moving around so much I've decided to put a stop-gap traffic measurement system in. Being the one I've seen most, I've chosen to go with FastCounter. I apologise now for the horrible image and I assure you, I will get rid of it ASAP. In the meantime, I have to link to FastCounter so here goes: FastCounter.
- Marc
11th March 2004
I've issued a new version of Server Status 2 - it fixes a problem which most people were having of PHP errors appearing if one or more service was unavailable. You can download the new version 2a here.
- Marc
8th March 2004
After a few days offline, I'm back - on a new server courtesy once again of Chris Zimmerman. We're having a little trouble with a Fedora box (memory leak) so for the moment, we're using this IIS server.
Anyways, as many of you know, I'm a supporter of free market enterprise. Unfortunately, I've been pushed too far by one company - Verisign. I've decided to break my traditional following and say that Verisign must be stopped if the internet is to have a future. I think Verisign represents a threat to the very infrastructure on which the internet is built - the domain name service. I would ask every visitor to take two minutes from their schedule and visit RecallVerisign.com. If you're unaware of Verisign's recent deplorable behavior, they have links to some recent news articles.
- Marc
28th October 2003
Wow, it's been FAR too long since I posted on the site. Big changes really around here. I'm now in university studying computer science and I've left Hivemail. I've got a brand new Dell 2.8Ghz P4 PC with twin 17" flat panels which rocks :-) I've been told by my host that I'm being moved from this server to a new production one which kind of worries me but he's a good guy. With a bit of luck, I won't fall into the abyss. I also bought a new design for Rushland which is about 20x cooler than this one and I hope to have it up ASAP. I also have some new hosting (1GB of space hosted on one of the fastest networks I know of in Ireland) and Chris Zimmerman is still providing me a CVS account (which I haven't started using yet). Plans are afoot for a complete revamp of Server Status (possibly including a new change... suggestions to the usual address).
Anyways, it's very late, and my thumb is sore (long story involving my old 40Gb HD) so I better head off.
- Marc
11th June 2003
Well, after 9 months of hard work and 12 years of bloody torture I'm finally getting to the end of my school life. I have a 3 hour exam on Monday (16th) and a 2 hours and 30 minutes exam on Friday, 20th and then FREEDOM :-) I honestly cannot wait, I've done the whole "unhappy leaving school" bit and now I'm ready to say good-bye to pointless subjects I have no interest in. Thanks to people who e-mailed me to wish me luck, hope I managed to get back to you all.
'Nough about me. Back to what you're all looking for - service status 2 (well, there's not much else here to see). I'm killing it! I think I must have been asleep when I wrote it because it's a totally inefficient way of doing things. So, in it's place I plan to rewrite it entirely and write something better. Wahey! And to help me, a very kind person, Chris Zimmerman, has provided me with access to his CVS server so as soon I'm ready to get going you'll be able to grab the latest updates and see what I'm changing in the program. And trust me, I plan to change a lot...
As for Rushland, I've just renewed the domain for another year so it's here to stay. I'm considering giving it a design overhaul, what do you think? You can e-mail me your feedback. I hope to automate most of the site because I think it's a new challenge (so many ideas, so little time eh?). We'll see what happens.
Thanks for visiting!
- Marc
13th February 2003
Wow, Rushland was in danger of becoming another derelict site on the web. Believe it or not this is the first opportunity I've had in 2003 to even update the site. Sales at Hivemail are excellent and I'm keeping busy working on it (we have a 1.2 coming out shortly). My education of course is as interesting as ever (*sarcasm*). I'm sitting my pre-finals at the moment so don't even ask what I'm doing posting on my website when I should be studying.
Anyway, back to what you are probably here for - Server Status 2. Well, I applied to SourceForge for CVS hosting for the project but they very rudely ignored my request - not even a refusal. I have spoken to one or two people about buying some private CVS hosting but there are very few hosts out there. If you know a good host with reasonable rates, please contact me.
Anyways, I hope I'll have some time over the next few weeks to post more. In the meantime, I hope you will continue to enjoy the site.
- Marc
24th December 2002
I'd like to wish all my visitors and users of Server Status 2 a very merry christmas and a happy new year. I had hoped to make Rushland.net more festive for the period but unfortunately artistic skills were never my strong point.
- Marc
2nd December 2002
No news lately? Far from it. No time has been the problem. So what's been going on? Well, I'm proud to say I've joined Chen Avinadav in developing his excellent Hivemail webmail software. The soon to be released version 1.1 will be first version to feature my efforts but I think Chen has done a great job thus far and I think Hivemail has a very bright future. Of course, this doesn't mean I've stopped working on Rushland - though, updates to the site will be more sporadic. I hope that you will continue to enjoy Server Status 2.
- Marc
16th November 2002
Server Status 2 has been a huge success so far, I'm constantly keeping an eye on the download count through the logs and it's exceeded my expectations. What's more, I was just browsing through HotScripts.com and Server Status 2 is the second highest rated PHP script there! :) I'm glad that everyone is finding so useful and I'd like to thank everyone who sent me an e-mail with their experiences. I hope that Server Status 2 will continue to meet your needs.
- Marc
2nd November 2002
Finally, it's out - Server Status 2 Final. You can download it here. The demo is still available at http://www.rushland.net/status2final/.
- Marc
22nd October 2002
There were a number of features that I said I'd add to Server Status 2 once I had got a BETA out. The good news is, they're done. The bad news is I'm still testing the new version and there are still some finishing touches to be made. Thus far, I have not received any bug reports so the next release will more than likely be a 2.0 final release. For the moment, you can try it out at http://www.rushland.net/status2final/. Major changes include the long awaited result caching feature and a proper license (GPL). Minor changes include performance improvements and generally, improving the behavior of the software. This raises the question for BETA users "Should I upgrade?" Well, unless you have a lot of groups or want the caching feature, you don't need to. That said, of course I recommend that you do. Hope this explains the position a bit better.
- Marc
16th October 2002
Server Status 2 has gotten off to a great start, much better than I had anticipated. Those of you who are enjoying the benefits of using it and wish to help it's development - you can support it by rating it at HotScripts.com. Thank you very much for your continued support. A 2.0 release is on it's way. If you wish to be notified of the release of it and any other important developments, the mailing list is still running, simply subscribe by sending an e-mail to the mailing list.
- Marc
13th October 2002
Talking to an old friend last night it dawned on me that I had failed to come through on a promise that two people would be thanked for their contribution to Server Status 2. The first is Mr. Berto of UnrealPC.ca for providing the inspiration which resulted in the construction of Server Status 2. The second person was Saint Dog of ViperHost.com for providing the template for Server Status 2. Neither person was mentioned in the distribution of the Beta version but this will be corrected in the final release.
- Marc
11th October 2002
Server Status 2 is finally a beta release. As far as I know it's very stable but I'm releasing it as a beta for the moment just so people know that it's a very recent release. You can download it or view a demo from the projects page. Feedback is very welcome in the form of bug reports, suggestions and criticisms.
- Marc
9th October 2002
It's almost done! :) I am of course referring to Server Status 2. The admin side is pretty much done, over the next few days I'll be working on an install/configuration script and the documentation to accompany the software. I'm not going to put an ETA on it just yet but suffice to say, it's just around the corner.
- Marc
6th October 2002
Well it's obvious now that I missed the weekend deadline. I'm off to study now for this weeks exams :(
- Marc
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