Posted on 01/24/2013 2:06:29 PM PST by ken5050
First of all, let's be clear..this NOT meant to be a complaining, bitching thread, but rather to pose a simple, straightforward question that might deserve consideration. Yes, FR is slow..that's a given.it has been slow for a while, it is slow, and appears that it will likely continue to be slow in the future. And I have made the suggested tweaks and modifications on my computer, and that has helped somewhat, but as we know, during high volume periods of use, it really crawls.
My computer knowledge/skills/technical ability consists primarily of the ON/OFF function, and clearing a paper jam, so 99.9% of what was mentioned was "Biden" to me..(Waaaay above my pay grade)
I do recall considerable talk about the need for new equipment. I don't know if that's the problem, or some of it.
If it is the problem, then surely we should explore the feasibility, and cost, of fixing it..getting it all done once and for all.
We're in the midst of the regular Freepathon, and most all the money raised goes for ongoing operating expenses.
So if it is equipment that is needed, why don't the Robinsons come up with the list of what they need to make it work, and what the cost is. Include any ancilliary expenses..installation, labor, whatever...get the number, the bottom line. Soup to nuts..the whole enchilada.
Post it all here, item by item, so that everyone can see it, and assess and discuss.
Let's say, ( and I'm just pulling a number out of the air here), that it comes to $100,000.
If we did 4 special assessments of $25,000, on top of the next four Freepathons, that would cover it. If that's what it takes, then post the thread, and let's see if regular donors would be willing to slightly increase their monthly contribution, and/or if others would be willing to toss a little more in on a one-time basis. I don't know, but why not find out? See if it's doable.
Again, I don't know if new equipment will fix the problem, and if so, what the cost is. But it couldn't hurt to find out, and see it's doable. If the idea makes no sense, then JR can simply delete the thread. No foul.
Again, no complaining, no bitching on my part. Nor should any of you do so on this thread, please. I'm sure the JimRob and the gang are doing their best to keep FR up and running.
But if $$$ can fix it, shouldn't we at least explore the possibility. And if that's the case, and we can pull it off. then just think, unlike the federal government, FR can REDUCE its budget in maybe a year.
FYI
I remember it was very slow a few weeks before the election...but it was fixed. I had no problem navigating on election day; and, its been working well ever since.
I access using both a desktop and a phone.
I’m guessing its database/software issues, with perhaps a bit of networking thrown in.
Fast for me?
Nope, not in Denver...
Based on the last few major crashes, the problem seems to be in the proprietary software code, and there is only one person who knows the software.
Last spring, FR had 2 fund-raising periods to raise money to purchase server upgrades. Apparently, those hardware upgrades didn’t work or didn’t correct the problem.
step 1 is to identify the bottlenecks
guessing does no good
if there is no one smart enough to identify the bottlenecks, then step 1 is to find someone who can
I thought the Freepathons included some money for upgrades?
My quarterly check is in the mail BTW.
Bump!
IIRC the fund raiser held last year raised around $7,500, Don’t hold me to this figure, but the above poster is correct. Let’s get Jim to figure out just how much it is going to cost to get us fixed/ That is the logical place to start, then we know if it is doable or not. Just my thoughts
John solved the immediate overloading problem we had just before the elections by swapping out the front-end software package. Haven’t overloaded since. We still have the $6,000 we raised last year and anticipate using it for our next hardware upgrade. John has not scheduled that yet, but the $6,000 will probably cover it unless he goes with replacing the whole shebang.
I suggested on a freepathon thread that I think it’s time to move FreeRepublic to the cloud, either Windows Azure or Amazon. Just some basic costing I’ve done on Azure, 2 load-balanced extra large VMs (8cpu/14GB Ram), either windows or Linux, 2TB outbound bandwidth, 10TB storage would run $18,999 per year if pre-paid ($1,583.25/mo). On a month to month plan, it would be $23716.32. The storage and bandwidth numbers are monthly quotas.
The storage is geo-redundant, i.e., replicated in 2 geographically separated data centers.
Additional VMs could be added for $345.60 per month, and could be added/removed as needed to handle the load.
No worries about hardware failure - if a VM develops problems, it’s dropped and a new on spun up to replace it, automatically.
Here’s a link about load-balancing VMs on Azure. I’m sure Amazon has pretty much the same thing, but I’m familiar with Azure.
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/common-tasks/how-to-load-balance-virtual-machines/#loadbalance
There is a link on that page to the pricing tool, if anyone wants to play with it for various scenarios. I think it’s very cost competitive with buying and running your own hardware and renting rack space/bandwidth. With a cloud solution, you only have to worry about your software - none of the infrastructure that supports it.
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