Greg

Right now we're only running a single 3.0 Ghz XEON chip, and we're seeing loads that are too high for my liking. We've attempted to tweak Apache and MySQL to reduce the load, but then we started to see performance issues. We could technically drop another XEON chip into the existing motherboard, but the cost of that would be nearly the same as the Quad. So naturally, we're going with the Quad. It's true you can always use more RAM, but in this case, 4 GB of RAM should be sufficient. The data center we work with doesn't provide anything other than ECC RAM with this particular motherboard - it's all enterprise level hardware. Right now we're only running two 80 GB SATA drives, so the new 10K HotSwap SAS/SCSI drives will really help with read times. Also, we're not running Raid 1 right now, but rather just using the second drive as a backup drive (no mirroring). Ya, other than the cartoons, our overall disk usage is quite low. The databases are large, but no longer than 2 GBs. Not sure, but I can find out.

Sure, There server will have the following: CentOS 3.0 GHz Quad-Core "Clovertown" 64bit Xeon Processor 4 GB of DDR2 ECC 667MHz RAM 2 x 146 GB 10K RPM SCSI Hard drives Raid 1 From what I understand, we'll be able to upgrade to 8 GB of memory if needed and should we ever need more power, we could slap another Quad-Core on the motherboard. This should be plenty of power for the next 12 months.

Thankfully the hamster's are still spinning the wheels! However, we are experiencing some issues relating to CPU load on the server. Over the past few months, we've seen traffic spike drastically, and this is putting increasing strain on our database server and server CPU. However, a new server with upgraded hardware is going to be provisioned tomorrow, and we should be back up and running smoothly by early next week. In the mean time, you may experience some temporary delays regarding page loading. Thank you for your understanding.

Seeing that this thread is off-topic, and I've restored the original thread in the provincial politics section, I'm closing this thread.

That particular thread was accidentally deleted by myself. Thank you for inquiring about it, I have restored the thread to its original location. Sorry for the confusion,

I don't have a problem with posters including links to their own websites/weblogs from time to time, but only if it's directly relevant to the discussion and it doesn't become the sole reason for their participation in these forums. Charles and I can't possibly verify ownership of every single website included in the discussions on these forums, so there is no specific rule(s) relating to the posting of URLs. However, when a poster repeatedly posts URLs to a specific site, whether related to overall discussions or not, Charles and I will discuss whether it falls into "Advertising" and or "Spam" categories - both of which are against the rules of these forums. However, you're free to include a link to your website/weblog in your signature.

I'm sorry to see you go, but unfortunately unless a member has a good reason for the deletion of his account and all his or her postings, we do not remove postings and or accounts. Just like in real life, you can't take back things you've said. You can apologize, retract or even repent, but unfortunately, your words are here until this site ceases to exist.

It's a shameful plug, but I think we've got some pretty smart bloggers right here on MLW. Check out the Maple Leaf Web blog for commentary on politics in Canada. The blog is new, so we're just working through some of the kinks, but we do plan on adding more bloggers and interesting commentary in the future.

I'm working on this as we speak. The server troubles yesterday took precedent over this contest. However, all has been fixed, and we're back to normal in terms of uptime.

Unfortunately the MLW forums may experience some downtime and other interruptions over the course of the day. We're making a few critical updates to the server, and this is causing some problems with the database. I'll update this thread when everything is back to normal. Thanks!

Here is your chance to win one of two gift-certificates to Chapters.ca! We have invited a number of university academics, from across Canada, to write on the Maple Leaf Web Election 2008 Blog. If you register and post a comment on any of the Election 2008 Blog postings, your name will be entered into a draw to win one of two $50 gift-certificates to Chapters.ca. The registration system for the MLW Blog and the MLW Forums are separate, so forum members will need to re-register to post comments on the MLW Election 2008 blog. Each time you post a comment, your name will be entered into the draw - so the more comments you post, the better chance you have to win! This contest is open to anyone who registers and contributes a comment to the Blog between Sept 15, 2008 and Oct 14, 2008. A valid email address is required to register, and the two winners will be announced in the forums (and on the Blog) October 15, 2008. Visit this page to register to comment on the Election 2008 Blog. Good Luck! UPDATE: Check out the blog post for the winners names! Thanks to everyone for contributing.

Here is your chance to win one of two gift-certificates to Chapters.ca! We have invited a number of university academics, from across Canada, to write on the Maple Leaf Web Election 2008 Blog. If you register and post a comment on any of the Election 2008 Blog postings, your name will be entered into a draw to win one of two $50 gift-certificates to Chapters.ca. The registration system for the MLW Blog and the MLW Forums are separate, so forum members will need to re-register to post comments on the MLW Election 2008 blog. Each time you post a comment, your name will be entered into the draw - so the more comments you post, the better chance you have to win! This contest is open to anyone who registers and contributes a comment to the Blog between Sept 15, 2008 and Oct 14, 2008. A valid email address is required to register, and the two winners will be announced in the forums (and on the Blog) October 15, 2008. Visit this page to register to comment on the Election 2008 Blog. Good Luck! UPDATE: Check out the blog post for the winners names! Thanks to everyone for contributing.

I've downloaded it and tried it - and I think it's pretty good from a user perspective. I'm a big user of FF, mainly due to security issues, speed and the abundance of web developer plug-ins (SEO Quest, Web Developer, etc). However, from a web developer perspective, I'm a bit worried. Adding another browser to the market just increases the amount of work that needs to be done to ensure a website renders properly. My initial look at MLW with Chrome revealed some issues with the right sidebar on the main site (everything other than the forums) that doesn't exist on FF, IE, Opera, Safari - so now I have to spend valuable time tweaking the code to ensure it looks proper. Also, Google is really trying to push Google Gears and their new mobile phone OS, Android. A browser is a natural fit with these two developments. I give Google a 50/50 chance of securing anything more than 2-3% of market share in the next few years. Also remember, Google just signed on to another 3 year advertising agreement with Mozilla (which is Mozilla's primary source of revenue) - they're not abandoning Mozilla just yet!

There was a permissions issue with that particular forum. I've fixed the error, and now you should be able to post replies, Thanks!

We have chosen five off-topic forums spanning a wide range of issues. Arts and Culture, Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Travel, Leisure and Sports and Media and Broadcasting. We're opening to allowing more forum topics in the future. However, we feel this first set of topics provide sufficient amount of leeway to determine whether these off-topic forums are going to be a good idea or not. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me,

Agreed - a Media/Culture category is top on my list of potential categories. Sports seems like a natural too. Don't worry, we won't clutter the place up. The secret is to find a balance - some organization is needed, otherwise it'll be anarchy.

Soon... Dion requested an extension to the original publication deadline, so we're probably looking at another week or two. Of course! I've already requested an interview with Mr Manley, I'm just waiting to hear back on his schedule. I'll put the rest of your suggestions on our potential interview list. Excellent suggestions, I'll include these names too. We're also planning on a new website feature centered around topic specific interviews with experts in a particular field. However, this feature is still a few months from being ready to launch. I'll keep everyone in the loop, Thanks!

These are all great ideas - keep them coming...

After much debate and thought, I've decided to allow a section of the forums for limited off-topic discussions. This will be a section where you can discuss topics that might not fit into the political topics that already exist. However, this will not be a free-for-all. The rules and guidelines will still apply and there will be limits to what will be allowed. I would like to start off with a few topics, and add more as time progresses. However, Charles and I will monitor the quality of the discussions and after a few months we'll decide if it is worth continuing. So, if you're interested in contributing to an off-topic section of these forums, please suggest some interesting topic areas in this thread.

As a general rule, I do not discuss the reasons for disciplinary actions publicly in the forums. However, Charles and I give all members the benefit of the doubt when it comes to any type of disciplinary actions. Fair warning is always given.

Looking at the admin and moderator logs, it appears that I accidentally deleted the whole thread. Charles had moderated a post that broke the rules (posting entire articles) and in the process of reviewing the moderation and deleting the offending post, I accidentally deleted the whole thread. Unfortunately the "Apology" thread is unrecoverable, and we will have to just restart the thread and try to start were you left off. You can see part of the original thread using Google's archived version (part one, two). I apologize for this inconvenience. I've take additional steps to ensure this doesn't happen again - all deleted threads now go into a trash bin before being purged from the forums. Thank you for bring this to my attention, Greg F Forum Administrator

I am looking into this issue. I'll report back here when I discover what happened to the thread, Thanks.

Thanks to everyone who contributed a question for this interview. I was not able to include all the submitted questions, but I'm really really impressed with the high quality of the questions. Congrats to Jdobbin, White Doors, Remiel, August1991, gc1765, one (or more) of your questions were included in the batched asked to Mr. Dion. I'll notify everyone when the interview is posted in the Interviews section of MLW. Again, thanks to everyone who contributed. Stay tuned, I have more interviews with high profile individuals planned in the very near future!

This is your last day to submit a question to be considered for the Hon. Stéphane Dion interview!

Mapleleafweb is scheduled to do an interview with Honourable Stéphane Dion, Leader of the Official Opposition and Liberal Party of Canada. We are providing members of the MLW discussion forums the opportunity to submit potential questions to Hon. Stéphane Dion. Your questions can be emailed directly to me, or you can post the questions in this forum thread. To post your questions below, you will need to register or login. Your questions can be submitted until Thursday, June 12th, after which I will select three (or more) interesting questions and include them in the batch asked to Hon. Stéphane Dion. The interview will appear in the Interviews section of Mapleleafweb. Any off-topic or disrespectful postings or questions will be deleted without notice.