Our blog is hosted by an outfit called DreamHost, which Google tells me is located in Ashburn, Virginia, although Wikipedia has it in Los Angeles. Whatever, the important message is that we are due for an upgrade:
On March 27th, at 10PM PST, our server admins will begin restarting some Shared servers as part of regular maintenance to improve the stability and security of your Shared Hosting service. This action will cause minor disruptions to your site’s performance, including brief periods of possible downtime. This maintenance window is expected to last no more than 30 minutes.
PST turns out to be Pacific Standard Time, which is 17 hours behind Brisbane, so it should happen at 3pm on Thursday 28 March, or 4pm for those unlucky enough to live south of the Tweed.
Our blogmeister, Viv, says that we should be fine, but posting at that time could be hazardous. My fears were that the blog would simply fall apart, but Google tells me DreamHost is:
Hugely popular: DreamHost supports over 1.5 million sites and 750,000 WordPress installations. Its reliability makes it a great choice if you’re a novice in web hosting.
So we assume they know what they are doing and would not want to upset their many customers. Viv advises to avoid posting during that time window or if you do:
The only possible issue is losing a post or a comment halfway through composing it.
Composing separately and then pasting whatever into the posting field would ensure that nothing gets lost forever in case it gets caught up in the upgrade.
One thing I hope they do is restore the statistics function. Recently I noticed it just disappeared. Last time I looked we had a few souls who apparently visit but choose not to expose themselves in a comments thread.
Meanwhile I’m always thinking about new posts, but life is not necessarily simpler when you are in your ninth decade. I’m due to go around the sun for another whirl soon. My cardiologist, who I see once a year, said last week that I should be good for a few more rounds, so while there is life there is hope!