What’s happening this week

I wanted to give everyone an update on what we’re doing this week to get things back on track.

  • Last Friday, Verizon came and upgraded my FIOS Internet connection to a business-grade line. Of course, by the time I got around to checking it (11:30PM on Friday night), it didn’t work. Fortunately, 30 minutes on the phone with Verizon fixed the issue. If all other things are as they seem and as Verizon tells me they are, this line is perfectly adequate for hosting web pages like CSFBL.
  • A little more information on the server itself… Apparently it won’t boot at all (it gives an operating system error during boot). Hopefully, only some core operating system file is corrupt, and there is no larger data loss. Still, recovery could take hours once I get possession of it.
  • I’ve got a few options on getting physical possession of the server, and none of them unfortunately are foolproof, and all of them require 3-4 hours of my time during the day which is a logistical impossibility considering I work during the week. I’m going to have a conversation with the manager of the datacenter that the server is located in today to discuss options for getting it that work within the constraints of our mutual schedules.

I’ll post an update after I find out more information today.

122 Responses to “What’s happening this week”

  1. bdemarzo Says:

    Also — I cleared some space out in my basement for the server yesterday. :)

  2. Chris G. Says:

    Thanks for your work Brian. Hopefully we will have some good news soon.

  3. barroomhero Says:

    Looking forward to it Brian. Good luck with things.

  4. DeltaKoz Says:

    so there is now a much stronger possibility of hard drive corruption?

  5. jp4 Says:

    Good luck with all the coordination… that will probably take longer than just screwing around with the server!

  6. Chris G. Says:

    DeltaKoz, we simply do not know.

    Assuming the corruption isn’t hardware related and just Windows being Windows, then we should be able to get the data off. Since it is RAID, it would take multiple hard drive failures to lose the data.

    I won’t talk about if it is a hardware scenerio. We will cross that bridge if we reach it.

    We won’t know for sure until Brian gets the server and works on it in person.

  7. MBerry69 Says:

    Well Chris don’t feel so bad about CSFBL being out and your sports team sucking…at least the Pats didn’t make the Super Bowl, return the opening kick-off for a touchdown and besides one defensive miscue play a great first quarter, then decide not to play the rest of the game pretty much like my team did. If I was Jerry Jones last nights defensive gameplan would have dq’d Ron Rivera from my search…lol….

  8. crocko33 Says:

    Yep, when I saw that Bears opening kickoff return, I could smell their doom. I was rooting for the Buckeyes on January 8th…….the deja vu was imminent.

  9. D Man Says:

    Peyton Manning getting all the credit for the Colts success is B.S., if it wasn’t for the Defense and Venatari (sp?) the Colts wouldn’t of made it past the ravens…or the Chiefs…the Defense is what won the rings for the Colts..not Manning.

  10. DiMo Says:

    Brian, just out of curiousity, are you not able to take a 1/2 day off from work to go get it? I know you just started, but it seems like that may be the only way you are going to get it.

    I would like to know which ISP this is. You’ve never said.

  11. crocko33 Says:

    Here’s the deal…..if Addai or Rhodes alone had been the star running back of the game, I think one of them gets the MVP. Because they both had great games, they took away from each other. When I considered the MVP, it was hard to pick one player on the team that was “The” MVP of the game. Thus, in that situation, Manning who had a solid game is kind of like the default MVP.

  12. Chris G. Says:

    Mberry69 – Yeah that was rough for the Bears. I really didn’t care at all who won yesterday (I’m a Pats fan after all…so I was in a miserable mood watching the game) and even if I did care, I had no faith in Grossman. Anytime you start a QB like him in the Super Bowl, you really are hoping that the defense makes mistakes and not him. Of course, it was the other way around.

    Colts defense and the Colts running game won the Super Bowl for them. They should get the credit, not Peyton (who had an average game at best).

    Probably the sloppiest super bowl I have watched in awhile. Not much fun even though it was sorta close and the commercials for the most part stunk.

  13. crocko33 Says:

    You’re right Chris….all-in-all a very weak season for Super Bowl Ads.
    There was one, maybe 2, that got a good laugh out of me….there were several chuckle/golf clap-worthy ads. Overall, not impressive on the ad-front.

  14. Yrco10 Says:

    Hey guys, at least you got to see the ads, in Canada we get shafted. Anyone know a good site so I can see the ads? I know there was one that had all the old Superbowl ads, but I lost the link.

    Thanks

    P.S. Brian hang in there man!

  15. Andy Says:

    Sorry, don’t want to read through pages of nothing, but I want to make sure I’m up to date.

    Brian has a FIOS line and a clean basement, but other than that, we’re no closer to being up than we were 3 weeks ago?

  16. D Man Says:

    I live in Indiana and I can’t stand Peyton Manning, He is the biggest whinner in the NFL, had the Colts lost he probably would have blamed the loss of the coaching staff for not allowing him to call certain plays.

  17. Chris G. Says:

    http://youtube.com/superbowl

    Ah well, spring training is just around the corner. The Red Sox equipment bus is leaving Boston for Fort Myers next week! That is the unofficial start of spring in my book.

  18. Ben Says:

    Don, I have never seen Peyton blame anyone but himself, especially in a loss. For what it’s worth, Peyton got them to the playoffs, not the defense, that they didn’t turn back into pumpkins before the ball was over is a testament to Bob Sanders and his impact. Addai and Rhodes should have split the MVP imho, but looking at ESPN, most of the people who “voted” picked Peyton as the MVP. I don’t agree with them, but I understand the thought process: when there is no clear cut winner, you pick the leader.

    As for whining, that’s relative to where you live, Pau Gasol is the biggest whiner here in Memphis, but I doubt the rest of the country really sees that, same thing with Peyton, the national media doesn’t focus on the same player day in day out. In fact, when I was growing up (in Indiana), Eric Dickerson was the biggest whiner I had ever seen, outside of Colts fans, most people remember the man fondly, but to this day I can’t stand him…

  19. yisman Says:

    crocko, I thought the same thing when I saw Hester do that. I told the people I was watching with “Keep in mind that Ted Ginn Jr. did this to start off the BCS Championship, and the Buckeyes ended up getting hammered.”

    Fitting that it happened in both football end-games.

  20. yisman Says:

    Ben:

    He’s referring to several of Manning’s comments after playoffs losses. “We had protection problems”, etc.

  21. Ben Says:

    I never really considered those comments as untrue…

  22. Packerken Says:

    They were true, but as the QB, you take the blame on yourself in public.

  23. Ben Says:

    If there is a QB that gets blamed for more stuff that’s out of his control out there than Manning please let me know. *sigh* I guess the guy will never catch a break, now that he’s shook the loser label (which was never labeled on Dungy or any of the rest of the Colts, just Peyton), people need a new reason to hate him.

  24. APACHE11 Says:

    1st – good to hear an update about csfbl –

    anyone watch south park here?
    last season there was an episode where cartman couldn’t wait any longer for the Wii to be released –
    so he froze himself and expected to be thawed the day the Wii was released.. (think cryogenics) –
    I’m considering doing the same .. only problem is I need someone dependable to thaw me when csfbl is back online. -(cartman had the same problem)

    now on the superbowl –
    I was rooting for the bears but expected the colts to win.
    really didn’t care either way (I’m a diehard Redskins fan).
    But I agree with most of the others here –
    that no way did Manning deserve the MVP –
    imo it was definately D.Rhodes … between receptions and rushes he deserved it… Addai would have been my runner-up.

    And Ben – it wasn’t that manning was incorrectly pointing out his line had protection problems – its the fact the he was placing the blame on his oline … (even if its true – a good leader doesn’t do that .. or not in that fashion)

  25. mikey Says:

    Andy, it sounds like another 3 weeks or more.

  26. crocko33 Says:

    Some fans appreciate hard-working straight shooters.

    Anytime I’ve seen Peyton speak in interviews, I always seem as a true professional of the game. He’s always thinking about how he AND his team can get better and improve. When I hear him say something like “we had some protection problems” I see as the leader of the team (offense especially) saying that yeah we got the job done, but we had some problems out there, and WE are going to go work on them. He’s not the kind of guy who gets in front of the media and suddenly switches over to Media Man –> Mr. I’ll Take All The Blame. As a straight-shooter, if he tells the media that he had a bad game and needs to work on something, you know its true…if he says that the o-line had some trouble, or that too many balls were dropped, then you know its true. If I’m one of his teammates, I don’t see how you can get offended by something like that, especially if everyone watching the game knows the same thing.

    Blah! That’s my rant…back to work

  27. Runnys Says:

    So, the system has been down for 3 weeks and in that time Brian has been able to get Verizon to do some work at his house and has realized that he can’t work getting server into his schedule…right? Why didn’t he just tell us this 3 weeks ago? Nothing has changed in that time.

    Honestly, we just keep getting jerked around like a bunch of lab rats with this stuff…..just give it to us straight instead of skirting the issue.

    Are we close to be up and running or no? That is all I want to know.

    BTW, you better hope that there is not a lot of data loss, because if so, CSFBL will go down faster than you can say “servers down again”.

  28. makila Says:

    lol

    and when certain players rip a teammate in the media everyone says what a great leader they are for calling them out

  29. APACHE11 Says:

    O- I thought there were a couple of ok commercials.
    But my favorite was the budlite one where a guy and girl were driving down a road at night.
    The guy(driving), see’s someone on the side of the road holding budlite(18pk I think).
    He say’s ‘hey that guy has budlite’
    the girl says ‘yeah, but he’s holding an ax’
    driver ‘but he has budlite’
    they stop beside the guy on the road holding budlite and an axe.
    driver asks ‘whats with the ax?’
    ax guy ‘its a bottle opener’
    so they let him in the car….

    I thought that one was the best by far – overall a pretty weak year for SB commercials.

  30. groton Says:

    I agree with Chris
    Lets Go Redsox I cant wait for the Bus to start rolling i might get lucky this year and see it on I95 as it cross CT :)

  31. Hawke Says:

    Yrco10 // Feb 5th 2007 at 11:31 am

    Hey guys, at least you got to see the ads, in Canada we get shafted. Anyone know a good site so I can see the ads? I know there was one that had all the old Superbowl ads, but I lost the link.

    Thanks

    P.S. Brian hang in there man!

    Most of the good ads ran on The Score ( 410 on Express Vu) I like the “rock,paper,scissors ad myself lol

  32. crocko33 Says:

    Apache,

    That was my favorite ad of the night as well….got the biggest laugh from me.
    “but He’s got a chainsaw!”

    Sierra Mist commercials were okay. Careerbuilder.com ads got semi-smiles from me.
    Rock/paper/scissors commerical was one of the better ones I thought.
    I thought both Doritos ads (guy in car/guy in check-out lane) were pretty funny.

  33. mikey Says:

    Runnys, everyone rather ignore ya than answer you.

  34. Scrubb Says:

    I’m hoping to see all the leagues wiped out and completely start over. Same with the new sims baseball game….I’ve love to start over fresh and not have the leagues transfered.

  35. Ace Says:

    I’d say you’re in the VAST minority there, scrubb. I’m on the border of *praying* that all the data is still there. Yes, praying.

  36. barroomhero Says:

    Ack, that would suck. I do not like that solution Scrubb. Although, I could handle a few leagues being wiped out, but with the history in some of them, I wouldn’t want that.

  37. joearch Says:

    The slapping one was pretty good too …

  38. Chris G. Says:

    Runnys, if you had to deal with this ISP, you would understand why it is taking so long. Especially since since they are losing a customer, so they feel no obligation to help Brian out. Sad but true.

    We have said since this went down that if we knew the ISP would be this difficult, we would have never hosted with them. Sure it is 20/20 hindsight, but hey, you have to learn from your experiences.

    Given Brian’s work schedule, his 3 hour round trip commute every day, his family with a young daughter, and that pesky thing called sleep, it has been hard to find time that lines up with the ISP happens to have a guy over there.

    We are doing our best, especially since Brian is the only one of us who lives anywhere close to NYC. While we will probably use some help from at least one of our users (Rewster), Brian has to be there himself (security/liability stuff).

    It is what it is.

  39. Chris G. Says:

    No use worrying about leagues being wiped out. We are far from reaching that point. Let have Brian get his hands on the server first and have him take a look at the data before that possibility crosses our mind.

    For the record, I will still be really surprised if there is any issue that results in the loss of data. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but I will be surprised if it did.

  40. DeltaKoz Says:

    I guess I am just more concerned about it than others…a guy I know has said that sounds alot like a problem he had with a server last year with a RAID5 on it, and it was a multiple hard drive failure.

    Its just a worry, thats all…if the data were gone, its safe to say CSFBL might not make it all the way to CSBB.

  41. CC Says:

    As a network administrator, I wouldn’t be so sure that data loss hasn’t happened. It certainly sounds like there’s been a hard drive failure to me. Is there a another backup in place besides the RAID configuration? I know it’s the worst case scenario, but I’ve seen it happen… I had 2 hard drives shit the bed on a server in a RAID5 configuration last fall, and would have been completely hosed if it weren’t for my tape backups.

  42. DeltaKoz Says:

    speak of the devil, there he is. Thanks for coming to post CC.

  43. Chris G. Says:

    I have seen RAID drives goes as well. Just real rare for 2 to go at once, but it can happen.

    As far as I know, there is not another backup in place, as the file sizes for the DB are gigantic. Brian was talking about getting an external HD to have some extra backups, but since that hasn’t happened yet, that doesn’t help us at the moment.

    We will see, hopefully soon!

    And if the worst case happened, well, the sim speeds will be quick again ;) Ok yeah, bad joke.

  44. starwalker Says:

    I’ve been reading every post and wondering…

    Will I ever see Cecil Padilla hit another home run again?

  45. Ace Says:

    Well now I’m officially terrified. If the long layoff won’t drive people away, a long layoff plus loss of all data sure will.

  46. DeltaKoz Says:

    without trying to incite panic…I’ve worried all along the longer this goes, the more users we lose. Data loss…thats just catastrophic to CSFBL.

  47. CC Says:

    That basically confirms my fear that you guys are adrift in the ocean on a lifeboat without enough life preservers. Hopefully, it’s only a matter of rebuilding a corrupted drive.

  48. barroomhero Says:

    Dude, you guys are downers! :(

  49. DeltaKoz Says:

    awww barroom, I’m no trying to make you feel bad buddy.

    I’m just seriously worried that things aren’t as cheery and chipper as are being suggested here. I don’t think that anything is being hidden from us. But I certainly don’t feel as good as many here seem to feel about these problems.

    I know some guys are going to say “well what good does that do for us?” Well, I don’t know. But I just can’t post “boy, this is great!” when I don’t feel that way…

    you want a hug, bar?

  50. CubsFella Says:

    So if somehow it is the worst case scenario and the data is lost, Would the sim engine and coding that makes up the game itself still be ok so we could start new leagues or would that be gone too?

  51. bdemarzo Says:

    I understand everyone’s frustration. It is not logistically easy to extract a 19″ wide, bulky, fragile server out of a datacenter, get it to a reliable and safe mode of transport in downtown Manhattan, then deliver it to Staten Island (about 25 miles away through one of the most heavily populated cities in America). It’s not a one-man job (mostly due to the extraction and delivery logistics).

    Yes, I have a day job, for which I have no days off for 2007. Yes, I have had one very thoughtful community member who offered to help out in the extraction and delivery process.

    Why didn’t I get the server sooner? Frankly, because I didn’t have 100% confidence in Verizon that they could or would be able to upgrade my Internet connection to support this. I still don’t know if they could do it. If I removed the server, got it to my house, and then realized that Verizon’s service was inadequate, I would simply have to redo what I did by bringing it back to the ISP.

    I have called my contact at the ISP today asking for a review of all options — including a price quote on having them pack and ship the server to me. I will let you know when I know more. Unfortunately, my crisis is not very important to them, as I am a “small customer” of theirs, and the issue at stake is outside any service level guarantees in my contract with them.

    Just remember, while you worry about when your game will come back online, I have spent many hours coordinating, analyzing, researching, and doing other real fun things trying to get everything running again. Once I actually get the server, it’ll be many hours of working on the server to get it running again and get it back online.

    I’m doing the best I can with the limited resources and time I have available to me. The best I can do is to make you realize that. If I failed at that, I apologize.

  52. Chris G. Says:

    Brian has backups of the sim engine code and web site at his home. In the absolute worst case scenerio, he could have the game running minus all of the data pretty quickly. An example of this is when we had a test version of the CSFBL a year or so ago that we used for testing purposes. That was up and running pretty quickly. In fact, I think he runs a test version on his laptop as well.

    And you guys know what we know. We aren’t holding anything back. The situation is simple: until we get the server, we don’t know how close or far away we are from getting things back to normal.

    Unfortunately, we are at a wait and see point. Until we get the server, we can’t really tell you guys anything more…because we don’t have anything to tell you.

    Let’s hope for the best.

  53. CubsFella Says:

    Thanks Chris, I’m VERY glad to hear that. If worse comes to worst we would at least have the game.

    Obviously we are all hoping the data is ok, but I understand you guys have no control over that.

  54. Bz Says:

    Dudes…19″ is not big

  55. DeltaKoz Says:

    it most certainly wasn’t my intention to put brian under fire…I don’t want him to get frustrated by these posts by any means.

    Last week, I was concerned because fringe users were telling me they were basically done. Now…even hardcore guys I know are starting to say it. Premiere and private league guys, guys who have donated to CSFBL, maintained 6, 7, 8+ teams at a time for many, many seasons.

    Even myself, only having joined 6 months ago, but having been a “hardcore” type for 4 of them with 10 teams in premieres are privates, spending probably an hour daily on the site…I find myself saying “eh, whatever” a bit more now, because the extra time I have had has really opened my eyes to what else I could be doing.

    Thats why I make these posts…a server, a website…that stuff can all eventually be brought back. A strong, committed userbase…now thats way more valuable. If people who used to be this committed are now saying these things…well, I’m just worried about where the game goes.

    Sorry for coming off gloomy, fellas.

  56. Ace Says:

    I’m just glad to hear straight from the horse’s mouth. Even if it’s not great news, even if it’s no news, it is still VERY helpful to hear from brian/chris/etc. When we hear nothing for a few days – again, even if there’s nothing to hear – it starts to feel like nobody cares.

    So even though you might not feel like you had much to report, brian, it is still VERY much appreciated.

  57. Mobius Says:

    DeltaKoz,
    Hate to put you on the spot but since you’ve mentioned it a few times I feel the need to ask a blunt question…

    Name names, instead of alluding to folks leaving give facts and names. I would like to see the folks that have stated they would leave, I think it matters not if their names appear here since they have already plotted their course of action and are moving (possibly) towards it…

  58. DeltaKoz Says:

    I’m sorry Mobius…I’m not the kind to name anybody like that. Its not my place to out them in any fashion like that…

    If people don’t believe on it, thats fine. But guys that are posting here right now, such as Ace and CubsFella (guys who WON’T be leaving), can gladly confirm for you that they are hearing it as well.

    We’re all in the same circle of buddies that play together, roughly 10-15 of us that populate multiple premiere and private leagues together.

    If they wish to say who these users are…they can. I choose not to, only that when I say I am hearing these things…I’m not the only one hearing them.

  59. Mobius Says:

    no worries, just wondering is all…

  60. meddlepal Says:

    Mobius – All naming names will do is create ill feelings among the community, and begin a witch hunt.

  61. CubsFella Says:

    Yeah naming names would be ridiculous. I can back up what Koz is saying though, Ive heard a good deal of people say they are about done with it over the past few weeks.

    Like Koz said we are part of a community of about 30-35 people who play CSFBL, around 10 of them or so are well known guys who play in top leagues, hopefully when things are backup most of them decide to come back. I will do my best to convince them to.

  62. Ace Says:

    I can confirm what Koz is saying about the unfortunate whispers we’re hearing. I’m holding out hope that when the game is back up, people will be re-convinced about how awesome it is and will come back. I’ll be doing my part to rally the troops to all come back (for selfish reasons, mostly – I really like the owners in my leagues and I don’t want them to leave).

    This isn’t a veiled threat or anything like that (Koz and I are hardcore players and fans, and want to do anything and everything we can to help preserve CSFBL), just keeping everyone informed about public sentiment, for whatever value that might have.

    Just as we really, really appreciate getting heads’ ups on what is going on with the server and such, we figured others might appreciate getting heads’ ups on what some groups of members of the community are thinking.

  63. APACHE11 Says:

    ^
    ||
    ||
    ||

    ;)

  64. DeltaKoz Says:

    Thats cool Mobius…like Meddle said, I don’t want to incite any names like that.

    The reason I know all this is myself, CubsFella, and Ace are basically doing what we can to keep these guys interested in returning. The further this goes…the further away they all seem to go.

    As Fella said, 30-35 of us form a community of private leagues together, with 10-15 of them being well known CSFBL users. I NEVER figured to hear them start talking about leaving.

    I’m going to try to be more upbeat about this from now on, in order to try not to bring gloom to the blog.

  65. Chris G. Says:

    Yeah no need to name names. It is their decision of course IF they decide to leave.

    Like we have said in the past though, let’s do this one step at a time. We have to get our hands on the server before we can even begin to speculate where we are.

    Tomorrow night we should be having a developer chat, so we hopefully will have something to update you guys on.

  66. joearch Says:

    As I said before, this did happen before (august of 2004?), and the game survived, and it will survive again.

    This game is too addictive to be killed off by 3-4weeks of down time.

  67. citizenclone Says:

    Don’t know where else to post this, but on that subject, any TCL guys out there….

    I’m still here…(i know you think about me) assuming Derick Ng still exists on that server somewhere, when we are back up and cranking we’ll do a full check-in and assess the damage and I’ll contact everyone and get us back up to speed as best I can, maybe delay the next season start a tad to get us all back blah blah. Just in case you’re wondering how we will rise from the ashes…

    Assume the same will happen with lots of private leagues.

  68. citizenclone Says:

    Any truth to the rumors that all of the second baseman were erased on the server, but everything else is fine?

  69. Gaddeus Says:

    I’m here Clone. Waiting and hoping for the best. I’m pretty sure in all the mess that Plourde ended up in Jamestown. But don’t worry I’ll send you a couple 3rd rounders. :)

    As for the rest of it I’m definitely pretty frustrated as are many of you. I too am part of the community of friends alluded to by Delta Koz, Ace and CubsFella and quite a few of our members are thinking of giving it up. We’re hoping that once they can actually access the game again they will change their mind.

    I plan on returning, I just hope it soon.

    They say 4 weeks changes a persons habits entirely. I hope people’s routines haven’t changed so much that they don’t come back.

    While I think the majority of my leagues (HoF, TCL, TDD, Sons of Ivy) will be okay as they are all die hard leagues I know there are many leagues that are gonna struggle to survive this.

  70. Red Sox Revisited Says:

    Hi guys,

    Not to ask a stupid question here, but was there a daily back-up of the server data here and if so where was it stored? It seems to me that if the RAID drive was being used for data back-up then CSFBL’s data should be fine.

    Was the data being backed up on a partitioned drive or a seperate hard drive? This is a yes or no question.

    Also, why is the ISP or data center not providing tape back-ups of your data? If they were not providing this service, then I have to ask why did you guys stay with them as long as you did?

    I am no kind of tech genius even though I ran a software company, but it seems to me that your crew needs to complete a comprehensive technology strategy to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

    I am going to be very disappointed if there is a substantial loss of team and player data because this is the lead part of this product and believe me when I tell you that I want to invest more money into this product but I will not do so unless these questions get answered.

    Also, I think that it is real premature to start talking about ComputerSims Baseball when all of this is occurring.

    I think that ComputerSims could be a great product but unless you decide to completely scrap CSFBL and finish ComputerSims while the data remains in place, if it is still there, then we really need to stop talking about ComputerSims Baseball until CSFBL comes back and restores some trust in players like me and others that have been around for the last 3 years or so.

    Also, I find it hard to believe that there is no one around that can help get this server. I live 4 hours from New York and if there was a call to help Brian get this server to his house then I am sure that there would be an effort made. I would park my car in Westport, CT and take the train in to the city. Just give me an address to meet Brian et al. and lets get it done.

    Thanks,,,

  71. reflections Says:

    Manning deserved the MVP for the simple fact that he calls all the plays. He is the one identifying the defense and changing the plays at the line. He threw just enough to keep the Bears in that crappy defensive plan. Like playing the Prevent (them from winning) for the last 3 quarters.

    I’ve glanced over a few of the previous comments and saw something about all the data might be lost. That would suck. I had a few teams that I turned around from horrible to World Champs. but either way i’ll still play.

  72. D Man Says:

    Things will definatly be different if and when CSFBL returns…members who remain will have no problem finding a good league to join if there are any leagues at all, But the game will grow again , just like at pesky Dandilion, the game isn’t cut off at the roots,

    I also know of about 20 members who have e-mailed me their intentions of moving on to other things, I am really sad to hear them all say their intentions,

    I know there will be several openings in a few of my leagues and whoever said the HOF League wasn’t going to be hurt by this was dead wrong, but the league just like CSFBL will replenish with new owners.

  73. Scrubb Says:

    I have no worries about people leaving. The fickle are always the fickle and don’t add much to the game. Once it comes back on line I’m sure 95% of the players will flock back…and the other 5% will just become new players. This will eventually only be good for the game.

  74. jp4 Says:

    D-Man –

    What are your thoughts on the HOF? Seems like we’ve got pretty strong ownership… I know I’m back and i’ve seen many of our leaguers in here. Maybe only lose like 2 or 3?

  75. liner Says:

    i’ll be back to the hof, et al., and i can vouch for ace and koz like gad and fella about the grumblings, just so they’re not painted as misguided rabble-rousers, they’ve been unjustly accused of this type of rousing for the better part of their life. so yes people will quit, probably a bunch and while their holes will be filled it’s just too bad we couldn’t hang onto them. they were nice

  76. Chris G. Says:

    The data was backed up on a RAID hard drive (which also runs the game). There are several backups on there. Assuming that the partition isn’t shot (or worse, 2 of the hard drives died), then the data should be recoverable. Those two scenarios are rare, but can happen.

    Brian will have to answer the ISP tape backup question. If I had to guess, that option was too much money if they offered it…but that is a complete guess.

    One thing we will certainly do once we get the server back up and running is make sure we have proper backups in the future. I know Brian was thinking of using some of the donation money from the new server drive towards a backup solution.

    Finally, Brian has to be present at the ISP to pick up the server. He doesn’t have a single day of vacation in 2007 at his new job, so that eliminates daytime hours. He also has a 3-hour roundtrip commute and family stuff to tend to, plus that thing called sleep. His ISP charges $125 a hour in order to have someone at the datacenter to let Brian in…and I bet that $$$ amount is higher if it is off-hours. So Brian has to coordinate it when he is available and there just happens to be someone at the datacenter. Not easy to do.

    Right now, Brian is looking to see if it just makes more sense for the ISP to ship the server to him. We will see.

    All things are on the table at this time. Until we have the server, we don’t know where we are heading.

    It could be as simple as a Windows reinstall. Or it could be much worse. Or something in between.

    We will see.

  77. D Man Says:

    I think its best that I be like the others and not mention names, I do appreciate the heads up they gave me which will allow me to find owners asap, I am sad that the longest personal waiting list in CSFBL which I was very proud of has dwendled because of this but there is no aspect of the game that will not take a hit from this, but everything AND everyone will actually benefit from this down time…To the HOF League Members…I have one gigantic surprise for you when we return…something never done before in CSFBL and something that will surley be copied…

  78. aztecs01 Says:

    dman… you are such a tease…. come on, let me in on the secret. I won’t tell.

  79. bdemarzo Says:

    The ISP doesn’t provide tape backup because it was a colocated server. That means I owned the server, and the ISP charged me a monthly rate (very cheap) to put it in their datacenter and get Internet connectivity. This is not an unusual relationship. If I wanted the ISP to do a tape backup of 100+GB a month (actually about 300GB+ of changed data a month) they would likely have charged double what they did.

    I will definitely have an update tomorrow morning right after I make a phone call to the ISP to get the final word on things.

  80. Sid Fwenchman Says:

    >To the HOF League Members…I have one gigantic surprise for you when we return…something never done before in CSFBL and something that will surley be copied…
    __________________________

    Free cotton candy?

  81. xdude Says:

    I can pack my 40mm grenade launcher and head over with you if you think you need help!

  82. xdude Says:

    ps…you can get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone…

  83. spark Says:

    I would just call in sick the first chance I got, and be done with it. Considering you’re expecting to make more money off of the game in the future, I’d conider it a fair sacrifice.

  84. joearch Says:

    If Brian just started at the job, he probably doesn’t have any paid sick days. That takes 3 or 6 monthes to get, depending on where you work.

    If he does that, his costs become the $125 an hour for the isp people plus being docked whatever his pay is for the day. Not to mention that when you’re trying to prove yourself at a new job, the last thing you want to do is call out sick.

  85. Hiredgoon Says:

    I think due to the scheduling issues with picking up the server that we need to either:

    1. Use the money from the new server donation drive to pay for the server to be shipped to Brian

    or

    2. Two people need to be recruited and trusted to go and pick up the server during business hours for Brian and deliver it to him.

    I know the secind option is putting trust in a couple of people to do this, but I think at this point it could be the only option due to Brian’s schedule.

    Just my 2 cents.

  86. citizenclone Says:

    some people have jobs they do actual work at, and missing a day matters. at least, i’ve heard of such jobs.

  87. barroomhero Says:

    Good, I believe Brian must actually be physically there for them to release the server.

    And yes, at a lot of jobs, you have no paid vacation (including sick days) for your first year. It is at that point that you begin to earn paid time off. One of the unfortunate workplace things in life.

  88. crocko33 Says:

    It’s interesting to hear how most of the world works….I won’t tell you how my sick/vacation days work.

    ;-)

  89. crocko33 Says:

    Clone,

    Last I heard, Russia is boycotting the game due to the long break (made references to nukes, fusion, and Kennedy). Also, the boys of Toulouse (with too much time on their hands) were caught doing some loveboat-esque things in the red light district and all are under arrest. In light of this situation, Stars Hollow and Jersey will be picking up with the World Series at 2 games/piece.

  90. barroomhero Says:

    Roanoke is sitting around in their cabins in the blue ridge sipping on some illegally distilled form of grain. William Barrett in particular is doing this after his extremely tough season.

  91. DiMo Says:

    I’m with Crocko. I feel for anyone that has to go a year without vacation days. Honestly, I’ve never even heard of that before. It’s always been 3 or 6 monthns (mostly 3) for companies are here in Texas. I get a ton of vacation days each year that carry over, but do get capped eventually and we are on the “honor” system when we call in sick and get paid anyway without using a vacation day. I know that isn’t the norm, but does show the large variances in company policies and someone for people to think about when get or change jobs.

  92. DiMo Says:

    oops, someone=something in that last sentence.

  93. DiMo Says:

    Good lord, I miss the edit feature! That almost made sense.

  94. eclectics Says:

    Wow, I just realized I went 3 days w/o checking the site. Could it be I am weening myself away from CSFBL?? I fear if this site isn’t back up soon, we will lose many many people.

  95. xcntry2002 Says:

    I for one will be back and hoping that it is not to expensive as I have three kids in hockey and baseball and horseback rididng . I think what brian has been doing is awesome a desevres some kind of reward. I check out the site at least 3 to 4 times a day on my breaks at work. I like the idea of 1 free team with upgrades. I dont think I would ever have time to actually sim a regular game but sounds like fun. Take your time brian with the rest of the team and do this right as I think it will save the league for the long haul

  96. cp Says:

    C’mon now….no vacation days? He’s worked there for a year and he has no vacation days? Wow. Sounds like lack of motivation to me. If you believe this then perhaps you also believe that mountain dew is the fountain of life. Mmmmmm sweet eternal life. Bathe yourself in caffeine and prepare to live the same amount of time as the average human being. Mountain Dew, now with more ignorance! But still tastes like regular Mountain Dew.

  97. cp Says:

    please be advised the above comment was made in somewhat jest

  98. crocko33 Says:

    Could of got that 2nd post in there a little quicker cp…..now, my body’s all sticky from my Dew bath.

  99. barroomhero Says:

    Is that what you are using for a bath?

  100. Chris G. Says:

    cp, Brian has been working for the Yankees since October/November I believe. He hasn’t been there anywhere close to a year. Given that this is probably the busiest time of the year (outside of the trading deadline) for his expertise, it is not surprising he can’t get time off.

  101. Twins2005 Says:

    True, this is when the Annual Satanic Yankees Rites are held. Good point Chris…

  102. ErinSlick Says:

    Just to let DMan, BRH, JP4 and whoever else is discussing HOF, I will be back when/if we get this little issue resolved. I can’t decide which I miss more, the game itself or the stupidity of the forums.
    Anyways, in some form, The Bombers will be back.

  103. cp Says:

    I don’t know much about Brian and didn’t know he worked for the Yankees…. but…if that’s the case…I find it even harder to believe he has accrued zero vacation days.

    You know, all that money donated for the new server is just sitting there…time to dip into it and use it to get this thing running. It’s a shame people donated money for a product that currently doesn’t exist.

  104. cp Says:

    And….crocko….the bath part was absolutely true…. keep bathing…. but it won’t work unless you add boric acid and kittens. Call me in a couple of hours and let me know how that works out for you.

  105. modenwelder Says:

    Yep, I’m not going anywhere, either, HOF-wise. While this has helped me do some other things, I am looking forward to falling back into some old habits.

  106. barroomhero Says:

    I am still itching to get back to my teams. I must take out Jay Slick in HOF. You are going down bud.

  107. mikey Says:

    No morning update?

  108. crim Says:

    HOF brothers I’ll be back…and can’t wait to share my AFC Championship and Superbowl pictures!

  109. barroomhero Says:

    And give stock tips of course.

  110. D Man Says:

    Glad to see my HOF League brotheren blogging it up here… :)

  111. APACHE11 Says:

    citizenclone // Feb 6th 2007 at 7:55 am

    some people have jobs they do actual work at, and missing a day matters. at least, i’ve heard of such jobs. -

    What??! really?! I thought those were just a myth – a story bosses told to ’scare’ employees.

    and as for the 1 year of work before u start to accrue any type of leave days…. what the hell is that??
    and how does a company like that – ever hire any new employees??
    I’d be damned if they would be my employer. (ofcourse a 6figure salary might change my mind.)

    My opinion on working for the yankmees is – unfortunately, brian made his bed – (acceptting a job with a dirty outfit), now as a man, he has to lie in it.

    So I really don’t think its fair for anyone to blame him for not taking time off.
    A real man – completes his responsabilities (family/work/ect) – before worring about recreational activities.

    But we can blame him for choosing the cheating yankmees, (remember Jeffrey Maier and how yankmee fans celebrated cheating), to work for to begin with.
    >P

  112. barroomhero Says:

    I am still hurting from the Maier call. I was living in Maryland at that time where I had grown up…. that single call made me hate the Yanks. Sorry to you yanks fans, but that did it for me.

  113. crocko33 Says:

    Did Don just say brotheren?

  114. barroomhero Says:

    I do believe so Crocko.

  115. D Man Says:

    #

    crocko33 // Feb 6th 2007 at 1:34 pm

    Did Don just say brotheren?

    Ha hA, I was told I couldn’t say certain things on here but I don’t think Brotheren was one of them..

  116. APACHE11 Says:

    not sure this is what they’re talking about … but isn’t the word brethren?

  117. Ace Says:

    Even if the update is “There’s nothing new to report at this time,” it’s still appreciated.

  118. D Man Says:

    #

    APACHE11 // Feb 6th 2007 at 1:55 pm

    but isn’t the word brethren?

    Yes it is ..unless your me then its Brotheren…lol…that was spelled wrong on purpose..it has something to do with cotton candy..lol ;)

  119. barroomhero Says:

    Sure, Don. Go ahead and say that. We will all believe you. ;)

  120. spark Says:

    I didn’t know he actually worked in baseball. In that case, screw the game, lol.

  121. APACHE11 Says:

    barroomhero // Feb 6th 2007 at 1:27 pm

    I am still hurting from the Maier call. I was living in Maryland at that time where I had grown up…. that single call made me hate the Yanks. Sorry to you yanks fans, but that did it for me. -

    as a matter of fact I was in md at that time too – frederick, md

  122. sparkysboy Says:

    Just wanted to respond to those who suggest that if we lose data we might not ever see CSBB become a reality. In the words of my dearly departed grandpappy, Brethren… “Ahhh, baloney sauce!”

    Sure we’ll lose people from the downtime and from data loss if it occurs, but life and the game go on.

    One thing about growing pains – they’re painful. I love the game. I patiently await its return. I’ll be here when it comes back, whenever that is. I’ll stay even if data is lost. I’ll look forward with great optimism to the launch of CSBB. I’ll be there when that grand and glorious day arrives, Brethren. Yea and Amen. Heh.

    ~sparkysboy~

    ***knit one, purl two… knit one, purl two***

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