Zooomr Mark III: Stage Two Complete

by Kristopher Tate | 15 March 2007 | Announcements, Development, General, System Notices, Video Blog | 114 Comments

Hey Friends! I’ve been up almost the entire 48 hours making sure that everyone’s photos and metadata make it over to Mark III safely. Stage Two is complete, but we’re having some slowdowns on the final approach.

Zooomr Mark III Boasts an impressive new search system along side our marketplace — one of the coolest features of marketplace is that we can now search by the overall color of each photograph. This requires intense processing of each photograph, and while we have 5 superfast quad-xeon servers processing multiple batches of photos, it is taking a bit longer than expected.

We’re committed to getting Mark III out as soon as possible, so again, please hold tight. :)

With Continued Love,

Kristopher

114 Comments

  1. Jim Goldstein said on 15 Mar 2007 at 10:52 am:

    Checking back regularly. Very eager to see the changes. The video posts are great for uber geeks like myself with no patience.

  2. Ben said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:02 am:

    I can’t wait for Mark III, guys! Thanks for everything!

  3. Jonathan said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:08 am:

    wow, that’s an ambitious, and complex task. I hope it goes well, and that sleep deprivation doesn’t kick in too badly, remember to rest!
    all the best

  4. Bryan Pearson said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:08 am:

    All I can say is damn. But its ok, I’m sure it will be worth the wait. Thanks for the update.

  5. Karsten said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:14 am:

    You lads are amazing. Hacking away all that stuff as if you wouldn’t do anything else.
    Anyways take your time, have a few breaks and don’t stress yourselves. Looking forward to all that goodness!!!

  6. Elliot Pearson said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:17 am:

    Thanks for all your hard work guys - looking forward to the results!

  7. schani said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:19 am:

    How does computing the overall color of an image require intensive processing?

  8. Raoul said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:19 am:

    I have a feeling my many full-res photos may be unduly slowing down your servers. Hope they don’t melt! ;-) Cheers and success, you deserve it!

  9. Thomas said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:20 am:

    I simply love zooomr.
    Im sure to love it a bit more in a few hours…

  10. R Gronow said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:25 am:

    Fantastic effort guys! Waiting with anticipation, but the updates are appreciated as we are all eager to see Mark III as much as you are to release it today. Well earned rest coming up I hope :)

  11. JCriquet said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:27 am:

    Get some sleep!

  12. Davis Freeberg said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:32 am:

    A color search sounds very cool. I can’t wait to play around with it. I hope that you get some sleep after it launches.

  13. Tanguillo said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:36 am:

    No problem guys, this kind of thing always happen. Thanks!

  14. Andy said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:45 am:

    Color me excited!

  15. Ryan Vanasse said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:45 am:

    Wow, So psyched for M3. The marketplace sounds fantastic (90% of each sale? Seriously? Daaaang). And the new features also sound sweet. Don’t worry about us out here, we can totally take it. get plenty of rest and eat well.

  16. Trevor Carpenter said on 15 Mar 2007 at 11:58 am:

    Kristopher,
    You are amazing. Too few peolpe of your generation grasp hard work for a strong outcome. Quite often you see young people striving for the easiest path and a quick party. Way to go.

    Thomas,
    You may need to kick in some wisdom. The code-monkey may need rest that he doesn’t want!

  17. eddie said on 15 Mar 2007 at 12:08 pm:

    # schani said:

    How does computing the overall color of an image require intensive processing?

    @schani:

    I imagine they’re ripping through every photo and calculating on a per-pixel basis the average colour. To do so, I’m guessing they’re using one of the higher-resolution photos to get higher accuracy.

    They say they’ve got several million photos to process, so I imagine that could take some time. :)

    @kristopher:

    Unless you’ve got some sort of creditors or people dying for this right away, get some sleep. Much as I’m eager for this application, I can wait so you don’t end up sleep deprived. I’ve done several all-nighters in a row before, and my code definitely didn’t improve over time. ;)

  18. schani said on 15 Mar 2007 at 12:21 pm:

    @eddie:

    You don’t need to use a high-resolution version of the photo to calculate a precise average. In fact, calculating the average color of an image is nothing other than scaling the photo down to 1 pixel.

  19. Alexandru Savu said on 15 Mar 2007 at 12:36 pm:

    Wow… great news. Now I really can’t WAIT! :)

  20. Guszka said on 15 Mar 2007 at 12:55 pm:

    My F5 button is almost dead.
    Have. Mercy. :-)

    Kristopher, I hope you’ll get hell of a rest after doing this great job you’re doing.
    Cross my fingers.

  21. cmiper said on 15 Mar 2007 at 12:59 pm:

    Yep…I have been pretty non-productive today as I have been back and forth, checking for updates here. Good luck finishing up!

  22. cmiper said on 15 Mar 2007 at 1:01 pm:

    PS. This server is not updated for the new DST, or your server lives in Hawaii? ;-)

  23. rkalajian said on 15 Mar 2007 at 1:06 pm:

    Sleep is for the weak!

    (And once you’ve had no sleep for a while you get pretty weak;-))

    Get some rest. At this point you probably deserve it!

  24. Daysleeper said on 15 Mar 2007 at 1:18 pm:

    Take a break! Get some sleep! Something tells me this release is gonna worth the wait.

  25. Charles said on 15 Mar 2007 at 1:21 pm:

    Kris and Thomas,
    Thank you very much!! We’re all looking forward to the Mark III.

  26. jphouse said on 15 Mar 2007 at 1:27 pm:

    Thanks for the hard work and progression updates guys! Giddy up - can’t wait!

  27. kay said on 15 Mar 2007 at 1:28 pm:

    Yay, thanks for your hard work guys, hope it all goes well & it’s up soon! :-)

  28. Sitenl said on 15 Mar 2007 at 2:03 pm:

    I’m dying here guys… (reloading on auto mode already!)

    Just can’t wait!

  29. Angel Marquez said on 15 Mar 2007 at 2:11 pm:

    I’m already in Mark III withdrawl … and I haven’t even seen it yet!

  30. pregnantboy said on 15 Mar 2007 at 2:19 pm:

    Come on!!! :)

  31. TravisP said on 15 Mar 2007 at 2:51 pm:

    In the words of a pretty damn good photographer… Hot Donkey!

    Must sleep now, but first thing will be F5′ing away like crazy… Hopefully only once.

    Best of luck.

  32. themak.org said on 15 Mar 2007 at 3:08 pm:

    Zooomr Mark III

    Hit photo-sharing website Zooomr is rolling out the long awaited and much anticipated Mark III, and should be finished by friday. All the best to them whilst they launch it.

  33. Charles said on 15 Mar 2007 at 3:36 pm:

    We love your smile, Kris!!!

  34. bopo said on 15 Mar 2007 at 3:41 pm:

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    I mean Ok, as long as it takes. Zooomr is awesome, we can wait a little while more for it to get awesomer.

  35. miketrevis said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:08 pm:

    “reload-reload-reload-reload-….”

    uff, i cant’ wait anymore

    “gamma.zooomr.com”

    mmm don’t run…

    “mark3.zooomr.com”

    don’t run… grrr

    “superkristopher.zooomr.com”

    mmmm no….

  36. MP said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:17 pm:

    I knew I’d miss it. It’s 1.15 am here and I must go to bed.

  37. carina said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:31 pm:

    Well, I won’t be awake for the big release. That’s okay though, because I know that it’s going to be amazing for longer than the first couple minutes or days that it’s out. Mark III is going to make history. Hope you guys get some rest.

  38. Phasor Burn said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:48 pm:

    Zooomr needs sysadmins

    Zooomr photo sharing site, an upstart challenger to Fickr, has been down for the past 3 days while they roll out “mark 3″ aka version 3 of their site. Looks like they aren’t going to make their target of being back online today, Marc…

  39. keshav said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:49 pm:

    I have re-loaded the page a few 10o times!
    Would love to see the new zooomah!

  40. Gette said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:55 pm:

    The colour thing? That’s INSANE. Can’t wait to see it!

  41. Charles said on 15 Mar 2007 at 4:58 pm:

    Me tooooo~ Keeping on reloading~reloading~~~ Can’t wait :)

  42. elbaschid said on 15 Mar 2007 at 5:23 pm:

    I have to say I’m really impressed by the idea of searching by colour. Thumbs up for you guys and I can’t wait til Zooomr is up again.

  43. jordan said on 15 Mar 2007 at 6:32 pm:

    i always tried tagging my photos by dominant color… i guess now i won’t have to :)

    you guys are my heroes… seriously. definitely looking forward to Mark III!

  44. Thomas Hawk said on 15 Mar 2007 at 8:59 pm:

    Friends,

    Kristopher has been up for about 3 days straight now. He stares at the computer screen and and where he normally sees code and just whips through it, right now he just doesn’t see anything.

    I think he’s out.

    Zooomr definitely won’t be out tonight. He’s going to need at least a couple of hours of sleep to regroup.

    We have worked about as hard as humanly possible on the conversion and it’s just not ready. Nobody wants this thing out more than us. Well, except maybe Raoul ;)

    Sorry about this to everyone. We’ll be back with an update soon and hopefully have it out for you guys tomorrow. We really want it to be right when it’s released. Kris has put so much work into this.

    I hope you can understand and can bear with us. There would be no Zooomr without you.

  45. DBCohen said on 15 Mar 2007 at 9:09 pm:

    Thanks for the update Thomas, better to get it right then not.

  46. Andrew said on 15 Mar 2007 at 9:37 pm:

    Guys, it’s ok. You can sleep. Our impatience isn’t a good reason to be sleep deprived. Relax. Sleep for 8 hours and get back to work when you’re rested.

    See…I’m going to stop reloading the page and go to sleep. You guys can try it too.

    Seriously, though, I’m quite excited about M3! Mad props to you for your hard work and dedication.

    Cheers!

  47. Jeff H said on 15 Mar 2007 at 9:39 pm:

    Kristopher, Thomas,

    Thanks for all the updates you both have provided! It shows how much you both really care about this project and about us, the end users. I know this type of upgrade is a monumental undertaking for any sized team, but for a team of two, it’s nothing but incredible! Please take your time with the upgrade. It’s better to get it right, than to get it out too soon. Having been involved in the program management and IT infrastructure end of high profile e-commerce business several years ago, I know how these types of upgrades go.

    I’m really looking forward to all of the new features, in particular the marketplace. Good luck, and get some rest!

    JeffH

  48. Jonathan said on 15 Mar 2007 at 10:57 pm:

    Kris/Thomas - you are only human, and you do have to live too! there is no point in rushing now, lack of sleep really does diminish your cognitive abilities and decision making, so it’s far better to get a decent rest and come back with a fresh head or it’ll take longer and tire you more.

    all the best guys,

  49. Chris said on 16 Mar 2007 at 12:29 am:

    You don’t need to use a high-resolution version of the photo to calculate a precise average. In fact, calculating the average color of an image is nothing other than scaling the photo down to 1 pixel.

    I think you’re missing the point and over simplifying the issue.

  50. Dave said on 16 Mar 2007 at 1:54 am:

    Here’s a tip for everyone like me who’s very keen to know when all systems are go.

    1. Sign up to bloglines.com
    2. Subscribe to http://blog.zooomr.com/feed/
    3. Use the notifiers to tell you when the feed is updated
    4. Get on with something else. This will make the time fly by.

    If we all do this, Kristopher can take all the time he needs to make the release to his satisfaction, without going insane in the process through lack of sleep. Take it easy Kristopher, slow and steady wins the race.

    Chin up! Not long now.

  51. yanz said on 16 Mar 2007 at 2:47 am:

    Guys,
    I appreciate much for your terrific hard work.
    It is much painful to bear new baby even if it is in the real world or on the net and sometimes takes longer than expected.
    Since all links to photos on the zooomr are available, we should feel easy to see you guys’ sleeping faces :)
    Slow and sure wins the race.

  52. Divya said on 16 Mar 2007 at 3:29 am:

    I saw photos of Karnal Haveli posted by Abby
    I can’t find them anymore!!!
    plz help.. urgent

  53. xnegvx said on 16 Mar 2007 at 3:46 am:

    I am sure the photos will come back in no time Divya. Just give it a little time. As soon as zooomr comes up you will be able to see the photos surely. till then hold on and let the transition to Mark III complete. Its a big operation, with millions of photos. It is bound to take time.

    :-)

  54. Thomas said on 16 Mar 2007 at 4:43 am:

    Divya, perhaps you can find the image in the gigantical Google Cache?

  55. Raoul said on 16 Mar 2007 at 5:17 am:

    :-) If there’s one thing growing older teaches me, it’s patience. And the desire to put out the good stuff and hold back the mediocre (talking about my photos, of course). In the same vein, I’d rather see Zooomr re-launch with a completely working featureset that’ll blow everyone else away, rather than rush things along and end up with a burned-out Kris and Tom and bugs in the system. Take all the time you need! I wouldn’t mind it even if it took through the weekend. I’d rather see a GREAT Zooomr re-launch, one that I can brag about everywhere and to everyone.

  56. Yuvi said on 16 Mar 2007 at 5:20 am:

    The only thing that’s keeping me hit F5 other than a cricket match…

  57. julie said on 16 Mar 2007 at 6:53 am:

    Sleep? Who needs it? ;-) Yeah, right. Just take care of yourself. That’s more important than a mere web site release.

  58. Rukasu said on 16 Mar 2007 at 10:10 am:

    Wow the new video….Those are some tired eyes

  59. Rukasu said on 16 Mar 2007 at 10:13 am:

    ETA?

  60. Sitenl said on 16 Mar 2007 at 11:28 am:

    Hum… tomorrow I guess?

  61. Nemo said on 16 Mar 2007 at 12:43 pm:

    I’m running out of patience :P

  62. tim said on 16 Mar 2007 at 12:49 pm:

    Kris and Thomas,

    Just do what it takes to get it right. It’s better to do so than rush out a buggy product. After it’s finished and running, grab yourselves a nice glass of the bubbly. You deserve it.

    Thanks again for your work on our behalf.

  63. kenichimatsumoto said on 16 Mar 2007 at 2:53 pm:

    Thanx guys for the hard work!
    Plz take your time
    for the great development.

  64. trever said on 16 Mar 2007 at 3:15 pm:

    Nice try, hope you finally find your way thru this update with minimal scarring.

    Hint. you shoudn’t be CODING during a conversion, other than to handle an unforseen exception that didn’t crop up during the extensive dry run tests performed with a substantial representative amount of data from copied from the live system.

    Take your time. No $ on the line, right?

  65. Robby said on 16 Mar 2007 at 3:24 pm:

    I’d lost my interest in photography for the past few months and it truly saddened me to be so uninspired to not even pick up my camera for almost that entire time (I’m sure that is unimaginable to many of you). I just wanted to say thanks to you both for making me want to get out there and start photographing again–you’ve made me excited about the art! Thanks for being an inspiration and keep up the great work.

  66. rantdude said on 16 Mar 2007 at 4:16 pm:

    This is ridiculous. zooomr’s been down for over three days now. Not just ‘read-only’, but completely down..
    How the hell do I use a photo-sharing website when it’s not sharing my goddamn photos?!???!

    I understand better things are to come, but really, I can’t agree more with trever here. Have some respect for current users and have a real migration plan. Do an incremental move, or at least get most of the photos transitioned before flicking the switch on the old site.

    And why is that Kristopher’s the only one developing, yet _he’s_ doing the video posting? Is thomashawk really that busy blogging about twitter every five seconds he can’t help him out on that front even?

    I apologize for the outrage in this post, but this is driving me mental.

  67. laceyfelix said on 16 Mar 2007 at 4:29 pm:

    I was kinda thinking the same thing rantdude. Thomas has been sporadically twittering and blogging and I’m kinda thinking wtf? Yes he has a family ad a job, I understand this as do I. However it seems he may or not be on holidays (march break?) working with Kristopher. For a photographer why in the heck is he not updating this BLOG with photographs of the process and the PROGRESS. I hate to pick I really do, I am forever greatful for pro for life but from such a media savvy guy as Thomas why not proper updates? Having said this we pay nothing for this service so you get what you pay for but wtf. As CEO I dont know how busy Thomas is thru this process but why not DOCUMENT it and post it for those of us who dont know what is involved? I’d hazzard a guess they may be sorry they haven’t done so. Having said that, keep up the good fight Kristopher!

  68. Andrew said on 16 Mar 2007 at 4:35 pm:

    Then again, you could be thankful for an awesome free photo sharing service.

    Let’s see: (1) Kristopher creates awesome free photo sharing service, (2) Spends countless hours developing latest release, (3) New release requires a temporary downtime, (4) Encounters unexpected difficulties which create delays, (5) Goes without sleep trying to speed things up, (6) apologizes for delay…what more do you want?

  69. laceyfelix said on 16 Mar 2007 at 4:38 pm:

    Andrew:

    The rant is more out of frustration, unfounded frustration. We are excited to see Zooomr grow and are anxious. And please don’t take it as us bagging on Kristopher, he is god and I certainly am not bagging on Thomas, I respect his work. It is merely constructive criticism. If it was unfounded then it would be malicous but it is not.
    Keep up the good fight boys, just make it SOON lol

  70. jason said on 16 Mar 2007 at 4:38 pm:

    I’m with you, Andrew. Nobody here paid for Zooomr. That means they’re complaining because someone doing them a favor has stopped–momentarily at that–in order to do an even bigger favor. I guess I don’t understand why they’re not grateful for the free service to begin with instead of harping on those who are giving them something at no cost.

    Oh, and did the complainers not see the word ‘beta’ all over the place? It’s hard to imagine they don’t understand what that word means…

  71. josh said on 16 Mar 2007 at 5:03 pm:

    Kristopher and Thomas: you guys rock for bringing us zooomr in the first place! Good luck with getting Mark 3 up, and we’ll all stay patient. Keep it positive, guys!

  72. normally a fan said on 16 Mar 2007 at 5:56 pm:

    please take this asconstructive and hopefully helpful, but i think you guys have to take the core service aspects more seriously. searching by color is neat and gee whiz, but not enough to keep me locked out for 3 (4?5?) days. if i’m going to trust you with my photos, i want to see a committment to uptime and security and scalability etc. do the color thing later, or before you start the migration or whatever.

    i also work in software development and i cant think of any reason how it could take so long to switch things over. downtimes should be really rare and well planned and testing done in advance. i hope you are thinking of adding people with more experience to the team in the future (maybe i’ll even send my resume!) but one way or the other, it is time to grow up.

    to the people who are saying “it’s free”: yeah, it is (for now). but it is a business as well and kris has even talked about seling it. customers should come first, before yet another snazzy feature.

    and i agree - wtf is thomas doing? be the ceo and do some communicating. twitter can wait.

  73. Scott said on 16 Mar 2007 at 6:04 pm:

    Thanks for pointing out Zooomr is currently a Beta Jason. This is part of what Beta programs are about. Aches, pains and down time are to be expected. Instead of negative comments we should be doing all we can to support Kristopher and Thomas. Look at everything they’ve done for us without once holding a hand out. Kristopher and Thomas, Thank You for everything that you have done, are doing and we look forward to celebrating what’s to come.

  74. Kristopher Tate said on 16 Mar 2007 at 6:07 pm:

    “normally a fan”, I couldn’t help but notice that your message was sent from Yahoo’s corporate network for blackberries (snv-blackberry3.corp.yahoo.com).

    While I agree with your points in merit, I can’t help but feel that your message is biased and insincere.

    Next time, when posting to the Zooomr Blog, please at least include your real email address or we will be forced to question the validity of your messages.

    Best regards,

    -Kristopher

  75. Charles said on 16 Mar 2007 at 6:18 pm:

    Malicious impugnment is not welcome. I am sure that all the users of zooomr all appreciate Kris’ and Thomas’ hard work.

  76. Raoul said on 16 Mar 2007 at 6:41 pm:

    The folks complaining just don’t grasp the complications that can arise during a huge migration like this. Add to that the pressure of making sure that not a bit of data is lost. And the funny thing is, they say they’re software developers… Then they’ve really got no clue, and without realizing it, they’re professing it outloud in a public forum. Not only is Zooomr getting completely re-built, but a stock photography marketplace is getting added on top, the likes of which will rival sites like Getty. On top of that, as I’ve said before, their entire data storage and retrieval model is changing. Honestly, only Kris and Tom know how complicated this is.

    Everyone just needs to calm down and relax. It’s the weekend. Chill out, take some photos, post-process them and get ready to upload them when Zooomr’s back up. Let Kris and Tom do what they need to do in peace.

    I said it before and I’ll say it again. If it takes the whole weekend, I don’t care. I’ll go even further and say that if this needs to stretch into next week, I’m okay with that.

    I’d rather see a GREAT, finished product. And immediately after that, I’d also like to see both Kris and Tom sleep for oh, about 12 hours or more. Especially Kris. And then, I’d like to see them both throw a nice party to celebrate the new Zooomr. :-D

  77. Andrew said on 16 Mar 2007 at 6:57 pm:

    @normally a fan:

    You say you work in software development and can’t think of any reason how it could take so long to switch things over. That’s interesting, because I too have been a software engineer and small IT business owner. I could imagine all sorts of problems that could arise which would make it take 3+ days for the upgrade to be completed. I’ll name just a few: (1) limited personnel, (2) not enough servers to accommodate the upgrade process and a live system, (3) hardware failure, (4) previously undiscovered software issue, (5) personal/family crisis, (6) etc.

    Seriously, for somebody enjoying a free beta service, you should show more gratitude. Besides that, you should simply show courtesy and respect for Kris and Thomas. I wonder, would you even be here if Zooomr wasn’t free? Do you really expect a free beta to have the kind of uptime a paid final release has? True, it’s only “free for now” (though I’m guessing you likely have a Free4Life account), but that’s the trade: you get to use Zooomr free now while it has quirks and other people will one day pay for Zooomr and can then demand 99% uptime.

    I know it’s hard, but somehow I expect your life will go on without your photos being available for a few days. Why, I bet you might even survive a week without photos!

  78. Scott said on 16 Mar 2007 at 7:00 pm:

    Hear hear Raoul. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  79. Andrew said on 16 Mar 2007 at 7:01 pm:

    @normally a fan:

    Oh, and you mentioned sending your resume. If I got your resume it would go straight to the circular file.

  80. Kevyn said on 16 Mar 2007 at 7:08 pm:

    Well said Raoul.

    Kris and co should take as long as it takes to sort out Zooomr so it is working how they want it to work. I’m a game tester and I know how frustrating it is testing a game and then the publisher decides it wants the game released so it has to be sent out ‘nearly complete’. If people make Kris and Co rush by complaining then it could cause more problems especially when tied in with lack of sleep.

    Keep up the good work Zooomr! And Goodnight from the UK.

    /Kevyn

  81. jpghouse said on 16 Mar 2007 at 8:06 pm:

    Again, thanks for the updates guys. Forum filters would be a great addition about now - the negativity rearing it’s ugly head in this saga is not cool. People need to relax. Pick up your cameras people and go take a walk. It’s good for you.

    jpghouse

  82. kevin said on 16 Mar 2007 at 8:23 pm:

    I can wait, I also understand the want of perfection/satisfaction in a quality project. I’d be willing to bring lunch to you guys in SF (I’m on the other side of the Golden Gate) if I wasn’t so sure that me showing up to chat and bug you wouldn’t slow you down for several hours.

  83. Irian said on 16 Mar 2007 at 8:38 pm:

    Thanks for the updates, guys. It’s rare to see such frequent and candid updates, literally facing your customers to let them know what’s going on.

  84. Dave said on 16 Mar 2007 at 9:22 pm:

    Can’t wait for the release. I think everyone should just add 2-3 days to the time whenever they say the new releases will be ready for when they should really expect them to be done. Didn’t it take a few days more than expected for the last release? Just have patience.

  85. yanz said on 16 Mar 2007 at 10:03 pm:

    Say complaints if you are sure that it gets things done faster.
    If not, you’d better pack them and put into freezer.
    You can take them, thaw them and sent them to Kris and Thomas whenever you want after updates are completed.
    Things we have to do now is not to complain them.
    Kris, never mind any complaints and face at things to get done.
    The answer is coming to you.

  86. markusrsc said on 16 Mar 2007 at 11:33 pm:

    Kristopher, Thomas, take your time. Sleep, go out and take some pictures if that helps. Even a couple of more days isn’t going to kill us.

  87. tim said on 17 Mar 2007 at 1:02 am:

    In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea launching on the 13th. :)

  88. Steve said on 17 Mar 2007 at 1:18 am:

    I work in IT and have to admit I wouldn’t have planned the upgrade in this way. In terms of processing colour, I would have taken a snapshot of the data at a point in time processed that in the background leading up to the big day so that the majority of the task was done. In terms of the site, that would have been implemented on a separate system following testing in a QA environment and ready to go at a flick of a switch or click of the mouse.

    BUT the key issues is, I get paid for doing this and I have a budget to work with. I don’t know how Kris and Thomas are financing this but some of the kit they’re using won’t be cheap so at this stage of the sites development they will have to do upgrades in this way. It is frustrating for us who use the service and an opportunity for people with a chip on their shoulder to come out of the woodwork and take a pop at them, but they’ll work it out. Sit tight folks and Kris….hurry up will ya ;-)

  89. xnegvx said on 17 Mar 2007 at 1:53 am:

    {must resist the first instinct to refresh zooomr} Good point about budget and getting paid for the work we do in IT. {must not refresh} It’s all right folks. Take your time. {must not refresh} We have patience {F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5…}

  90. Paul W said on 17 Mar 2007 at 2:07 am:

    @ “Normally a fan”: millions of photos take long to mathematically analyze, especially when they have large resolution, so you are probably not very qualified software developer to come to your conclusions. You can’t predict all the errors during a large scale total system upgrade and migration, even rigorous testing can’t account for all the possible errors. At least have some gratitude to use such a great free service!
    BTW why not to reveal your name?

    @ “Kristopher Tate”: You are a hero to come this far single handedly and to develop the best photo sharing site there is (I am talking about Zooomr which I used before the upgrade =) )! Take as much time as you want (and have some rest). Even though I can’t wait myself until the ‘opening’, a working system is better than a half finished release done in a day.

  91. John said on 17 Mar 2007 at 2:58 am:

    Take your time Kris and Thomas, you guys rock.

  92. Shwouchk said on 17 Mar 2007 at 3:49 am:

    I guess I must eat my word about eating my words - it is after all late :P

  93. Way to go! said on 17 Mar 2007 at 5:26 am:

    I love you guys!

    Mark II was already great (I have never seen Mark I). I can’t wait for Mark III.

    Whatever you do some people will always whine — whether from the competition or not. Just be assured that the overhelming majority of users are behind you, even if like me they don’t usually post comments.

    Don’t make me wrong: there are some great photo sharing services around but Zooomr has this personal touch to it, thanks to Kris and Thomas.

    One day it will probably take the corporate route — and the current team will get a much deserved reward for their work — I just hope the site will keep some of its original spirit, unlike others.

    As for the downtime I don’t see why people are complaining. What’s to be expected from a free beta version? It is BE-TA, not production, keep this in mind.

    C’mon, even if it was in Gamma stage the only reason I would pay for it would be to support a great team - not to act as a prick when a major upgrade for a test product in the making takes longer than expected.

    I use Google and Yahoo! services as well, but as long as they show Beta and Gamma logos, I will not consider them stable nor use them for critical applications, no matter how great and innovative.

    Keep up the good work, Zooomr team!

  94. jonathan ward said on 17 Mar 2007 at 6:58 am:

    at the very least, a delay means you are seeing this through properly, and i think people forget that this site is still in its infancy in a lot of ways, and lessons are allowed to be learnt. When trying something novel and daring risks have to be taken. The problem is in the world of internet people take things for granted and are instantaneous consumers. Everything must be now, and quicker than yesterday. I think a lot of people have learnt from this blog, thanks to your personal and honest input, that behind these pages on our flickering screens are real people with real lives. With Zooomr more than any other site i have come across, and i am not a techie (or even close), it is the first instance i have come across of such a personal input and such a com,munity building up pushing on the development and trying to be involved in making it a sucess for all concerned. Zooomr seems as much a community as it does a website, and I hope it stays that way. Kris and Thomas - ignore the criticism which you know is unjust, listen to real concerns, and remember to be positive and ease up on yourselves - you’ve made a lot of friends with Zooomr and they will still be here tomorrow!

    good luck and be proud of what you already have achieved.

  95. skyloper said on 17 Mar 2007 at 7:04 am:

    looking forward to the result~~
    Please come back as soon as you can!
    Take good care of yourselves also.

  96. rkalajian said on 17 Mar 2007 at 7:10 am:

    I agree with all the positive feedback left by other users. Even the best plans and preparations can go horribly wrong.

    There are always variables that aren’t constant and minor things here and there that came make things turn out unexpected.

    I’m glad to see you are taking the time to make things right and not just rush it out the door. I’ve only been a Zooomr user for a little under 2 months, but I’ve been overly impressed none the less.

    Keep up the great work!

  97. BG said on 17 Mar 2007 at 7:47 am:

    Kris, Thomas, and the other zooomrs… thanks for a great job so far, and I’m sure MIII will be worth it. Ignore the corporate shills and those who complain about free services. Something tells me you don’t do this for them anyway…

    Good luck!
    -BG

  98. trever said on 17 Mar 2007 at 7:49 am:

    One thing for sure is happening. Kristopher is gaining valuable experience. It will be a while before he can fully assimilate what happened here and what could have been done to make a migration go smoother.

    A while longer (usually measured in years and a few more ‘events’ like this) before the experience is able to inform his gut instincts from deep in the subconcious.

    Ahh, youth, inexperience. They are so fleeting.

    Take your time, don’t burn yourself out again and again and again.

  99. Tronfi said on 17 Mar 2007 at 8:57 am:

    I can’t wait anymore, i’ve been waiting this since your announcement. I really love Zooomr, you do a great job.

    Thanks!

  100. Bryan Pearson said on 17 Mar 2007 at 9:04 am:

    I’m all for waiting and doing the job right, I have no problem with that. But, can you guys at least let us know a very rough timeline?

    Like Tomorrow? Late today? Monday? Tuesday?

    Thanks for any updates and keep working hard. I look forward to M3. You Rock!

  101. MP said on 17 Mar 2007 at 9:13 am:

    Is something wrong? Not even a blog entry for two days…

  102. laceyfelix said on 17 Mar 2007 at 9:15 am:

    Either they are so very close that it wouldnt make sense to take time to blog or there has been something catastrophic and its consuming all of their time. Hopefully the former not the latter. Keep up the good work gents!

  103. BG said on 17 Mar 2007 at 11:07 am:

    I just had a mental flash of Kris writing some kind of seti@home distributed computing program to process all those photos for color information. Amusing and farfetched?.. Maybe, but I’m sure you’d find the support among the loyal zooomrs.

  104. Thomas said on 17 Mar 2007 at 12:52 pm:

    when?

  105. striatic said on 17 Mar 2007 at 10:53 pm:

    “I just had a mental flash of Kris writing some kind of seti@home distributed computing program to process all those photos for color information.”

    generating an accurate colour average for each of zooomr’s photos really shouldn’t be that difficult.

    i asked jim bumgardner, who designed some tools for doing the very same thing on flickr, how long it would have taken him to calculate the colour averages for 7+ million photos. he said that his system could do 300 photos per second if he didn’t have to download. so that’s a bit over 12-13 hours maximum to find the colour average for each of zooomr’s legacy photos.

    zooomr staff has stated that they have much more powerful systems doing the computation, so things should have gone even faster than that. we can assume that the colour averaging finished quite some time ago.

    there are a couple of other possibilities, however.

    one possibility is that zooomr doing a more advanced kind of colour sampling than simple averaging. there are likely methods to determine if this is or is not the case immediately after zooomr re-launches.

    another option is that they are using a very inefficient method to do the averaging. this is, of course, always a possibility.

    there has also been no mention of the ‘colour search’ in a while. it is very possible that the current delay has nothing to do with colour averaging at all. instead, it might have to do with some other technical roadblock that did not appear during testing.

    kristopher is smart, but to my knowledge he has no experience working on large web infrastructure. he also appears to be working completely alone and without other team members to address technical problems from other points of view.

    is there a fundamental problem with this “one man band” approach? are we seeing that problem manifest itself now, in this long hiatus?

    watching these events unfold over the past days has been like watching a tight-rope walker working without a net. it is compelling, and one can’t help but hope for the final step safely onto the platform at the end of the line.

    p.s. perhaps rushing to match zooomr’s re-launch date with flickr’s scheduled ‘forced merge’ date wasn’t such a great idea in hindsight.

  106. Savas said on 25 Jun 2007 at 9:19 am:

    Nice!

  107. Christodoulos said on 9 Jul 2007 at 5:08 am:

    Cool.

  108. Vasilios said on 9 Jul 2007 at 4:21 pm:

    Sorry :(

  109. Andreou said on 9 Jul 2007 at 7:39 pm:

    Sorry :(

  110. Nektarios said on 10 Jul 2007 at 12:24 am:

    interesting

  111. Aiolos said on 10 Jul 2007 at 9:53 am:

    Nice!

  112. Leandros said on 10 Jul 2007 at 11:36 am:

    Cool…

  113. Theodore said on 10 Jul 2007 at 1:16 pm:

    Cool!

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