xerol.org Feed

Minor Changes

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:13:59 MST

The ad box in the upper right has been shrunk so it doesn't break the page on lower resolutions, a couple other ads have been moved around to maximize revenue, and some semi-working stylesheet things are now more-working. As always let me know if I broke something horribly.

Front Page Updates, Part III

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:25:19 MST

I think that's mostly done. Everything's templated away and safe to use on multiple pages, all the image listings are updated (including most viewed today and all-time) with both the old tabular view and the new gallery view, file listings are only updated for the most downloaded pages (I'll probably get to the main file listing tomorrow). All of these pages are now (or will be, in the case of the master file list) under the same templates, so a lot of that weirdness as you went from pages styled ever-so-slightly differently should be gone soon.

Front Page Updates, Part II

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:08:52 MST

So yeah look over there on the left side of hDot, all the old image tables have been replaced with somewhat shiny new thumbnails for easier at-a-glance browsing of new/popular files. The functionality is written such that I can call it with a single line of code for any size of table (the thumbnails are fixed at 160x120) so expect to see more of this around the site soon.

I'm not sure exactly what to do with the file listing, though.

New Download Pages

Thu, 06 May 2010 02:43:19 MST

File downloads have been changed, there's an added layer of security now and it sets up a future feature of allowing multiple files with the same name and/or multiple versions of the same file. All files should now "download" in the browser instead of displaying for certain filetypes (depending on your settings, i.e. mp3s will download now instead of loading in QuickTime if you have it installed).

The biggest change you'll notice is that anyone clicking on a file download link (the ones that look like /h/dl/###) from an external site now have a page pop up rather than just the download. This lets me show a few more ads (and offset the costs of downloads) so I'll be adjusting the bandwidth/credit system soon to account for this.

The update process may have disrupted some downloads between 2am-5am EDT today, but things are settled now.

Possible Downtime

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:55:50 MST

Godaddy is moving all xerol.org sites to a new server in the next couple of days. There may be some brief downtime or broken items in this period. You may need to clear your DNS cache to get to the new server as well.

Changes!

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:15:19 MST

Today I'm implementing some of the long-planned features of hDot. First off you'll notice the vastly changed front page. This is the first step to allowing paid accounts.

The "my profile" block on the right now shows your daily bandwidth usage. All current accounts start with a 100MB daily quota, which goes up by 100KB every time someone views a page on the account. Hotlinked images and all file downloads will use up the quota. This is to bring more traffic into the site. Basically you'll have two options if you're a high-bandwidth user - Use hotlinked thumbnails to bring traffic in, or purchase additional quota.

The quota increase is permanent, and after a couple of weeks will be reduced to an amount based on your account level. Basically if you bring a lot of traffic into the site one time, you'll have a better bandwidth cushion for life.

Once all these features are implemented I'll be rolling out a paypal system for purchasing storage and bandwidth. Read on for an overview of available plans.

UnSynth: Official Release

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:25:00 MST

Order a hardcopy for $12.99
Buy MP3s for $0.89 each or $6.99 for the album

A package? For me?

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:59:56 MST

I wonder what could be inside?

Preorder UnSynth!

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:54:14 MST

Update 1/22: Proof arrived, (see http://xerol.org/h/news/94) but the disc color printed wrong. If it's something that can be easily mitigated, it'll be another week or so for another proof, otherwise we'll just go live on Tuesday.

Update 1/16: Proof is en route as of Friday, after I receive it we'll be good to go for sales. I estimate 7-10 business days.

Update 1/14: I've updated the album page with 30-second previews of all tracks.

UnSynth is officially going on sale in a couple weeks, both as a CD purchase and digital download. The post-release CD will sell for $12.99, but you can pre-order it now for only $9.99 + shipping. In addition, all pre-orders come autographed, thereby satisfying one of the 5 achievements.

I'm not exactly sure when the album will become available for purchase, so I'm leaving the pre-order open for one month from today, that is until February 13, 2010. Even if the album comes out before then you'll still be able to order directly through paypal at the discounted price. Pre-orders should ship within a week of the actual release date.

Here's a preview track - Track 6: Gravity Reactor.

Click below to begin pre-order purchase

Music now on Amazon MP3; UnSynth Update

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:59:30 MST

So far I've uploaded album5 and Wasted Space Redux, which are still available for free, but if you enjoy my music and want to give me an early Christmas present, they're now available on Amazon MP3.

UnSynth will only completely be available for purchase, the page will have previews of all tracks and full downloads of a couple. Right now I've finished 12 of 24 tracks and have another 8 somewhat far along, so I'm optimistically setting a March 16, 2010 release date.

Wasted Space Redux

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:11:29 MST

Explanation on page.

New Feature: Daily Toplists

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:29:23 MST

I've added a new feature to the sidebar, daily toplists. These reset at whatever midnight server time is until I can figure out a way to do a rolling 24 hour block without taking up 4 billion rows of database space.

Note: The links at the top of the sections point to pages I haven't written yet. I'm working on a revamped listing system which will integrate searches, clean URLs, and filtering. This may take a few days.

Temporarily Disabling Comments

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:19:20 MST

I'm temporarily disabling news comments due to a spam leak. Should get them back up by the next time I post news.

June Poker

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:08:33 MST

Didn't get to play much in the last month but went deep in a couple PLO tourneys on Cake to make it an up month. Graphs after the jump.

TF2 Lag Issues

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:23:59 MST

Over the last few weeks I've been having issues on the OCR server, which aren't present on other servers nor experienced by anyone else on the server.

Site Maintenance

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:14:16 MST

I've got some minor backend changes to make that may require the site to be down for some periods of time over the next 48 hours. I'm starting with a backup of everything so worst case scenario anything you upload over the weekend may disappear.

MediaWiki Collapsible Sidebar Sections

Sun, 03 May 2009 05:27:17 MST

A little out of hand

Our sidebar got a little out of hand on a certain wiki I'm involved with, and while the best solution probably would've been to stop adding crap to it (a charge, incidentally, which I happen to be the most guilty of), I opted for the "code my way out of a paper bag" route. Read on for details, once I post them. They're about halfway typed up, I will finish when I get back from Too Many Games.

Oh fuck what just happened

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:40:24 MST

Hulu: Y2K Compliant

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:12:29 MST

Seriously, how do you NOT notice this:

Jamspace Open Mic Video: Intro + Ghostband

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:30:24 MST