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#1: Kristen Vognild (kristen) on Feb 7, 2019 [SPOILER]

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And they keep coming!

I just concentrate on the "Best Puzzles" list, but it's still daunting!

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I still feel bad about the server crash. I had no idea that Jan had put the database in an unusual place, and that our host would delete that place during an upgrade and keep *no* backups of what they were upgrading. Sigh....

It's okay. No one can think of everything bad that can happen without going mad.

Even though whatever Jan did with the database ended with its accidental deletion, having it there did *greatly* speed up serving of pages. It might be worth putting it back, but with a rigorous backup schedule.

Yeah. Everything on the site is now automatically backed up daily, thanks to a donation from a kindly WebPBN user who works for a company that does automatic backups. So it would take an impressive combination of circumstances for the universe to be able to wipe out the database again -- and at that point civilization would probably have bigger things to worry about than the WebPBN database.

Unfortunately, the database can't be put back where it was, because our host deleted that option as part of the same upgrade that deleted the database. However, I think there are some options that could still make the database faster, such as moving it to its own virtual server. I still need to research the options, and our host doesn't make any guarantees that any of the options would be faster, just more expensive. But I think it's probably worth trying.

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Hm. I requested another random small puzzle and got a 20x20, which seemed not *entirely* small, so I looked up how the code works. The random puzzle search defines small as height x width up to 400, medium is height x width from 401 to 900, large is 901 to 2499, and huge is 2500 or more. It makes some quick queries first, to see if it can find a puzzle that matches your criteria, and then if that doesn't find one it makes more of a deep dredge of the database to try to find a match. I don't see code that handles what to do if it doesn't find any puzzles that match.

I'm pretty sure it will just offer you a big puzzle by default for smaller inquiries when you are out of small choices and a smaller one for those who only like to solve those monster sizes and have solved them all.

Responding to Joe's comment #11 (No one can think of everything bad that could happen ...)

This is the fundamental truth about legislation - a law is passed in response to something (usually bad) that happened. "There oughta be a law!"

Every warning label is the result of someone doing something stupid.

I tell my students that the only reason that there's no such thing as a 2-foot stepladder is that it does not have enough space for all the mandated safety labels.

I have had several stepladders, but I have never met my real ladder

Might be better that way Joe, mine struggles with addiction but at least he's joined those programs that help overcome them, whatever those are called.

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hahaha

:)

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