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日本語Another Update on Zooomr Mark III
by Thomas Hawk | 24 May 2007 | Announcements | 79 Comments
Hey folks. Well unfortunately we are still running into some trouble getting everything moved over to the new Zooomr Mark III. We’ve gotten all of the user accounts moved over at this point but Kristopher was running into trouble getting the photos over. The way he was moving them into our new database looked like it was going to take 16 hours. We were timing the importing of the photos. Kristopher thought that he might be able to cut it down to 6 hours by breaking the photos up into five chunks but after about a couple of hours couldn’t figure out how to make threading or something like that work.
Once the photos are completely imported into the new database we still need to move over portals, SmartSets, geotags, tags, etc. But photos are by far the most time intensive records to move over.
So except for a few cap naps here and there Kristopher has been up non-stop since Monday working on this. He’s finished several 2 litter bottles of Coca Cola during this time, mochas, coffees, various power drinks and even some pink vitamin water. But he just crashed. He felt that it was dangerous for him to be working with the database in his condition and needed to get some sleep.
So that’s where we are at. Kristopher is suppose to demo the software tonight at 6pm at SFWIN so we’ll see. I’m going to let him sleep four hours or so and then wake him up and try to get things going again.
Kristopher doesn’t really like me to talk about the technical side of what’s going on with Zooomr. Mostly because I don’t really understand most of it and I’m sure got some of it wrong in the above description of what we’ve been going through. But he’s sleeping now and can’t really address it for himself and so there it is.
Nobody on earth wants this release out more than us. We appreciate all the support that you have given us over the past few days. Hanging out in UStream, chatting, getting to know each other better. The pizza from Flickr. Rev Dan Catt. It’s all been great and we are trying as hard as we can to get this done. As hard as is humanly possible. But sometimes the human body can only be pushed so far and that’s where Kristopher is right now. Hopefully we will have more for you soon. I’m pretty worthless except for talking about cameras and lenses and photowalking and all the great things that we hope to do and the dreams that we have to make the world of photography and photo sharing even more exciting that it is today.
We wish that we had a bigger team building Zooomr, but right now we’re just two guys. A 19 year old kid who can be pushed really really hard but eventually, like anyone, breaks and a photographer who misses his kids a whole heck of a lot right now.
Update: Ok, Kristopher’s back up and kicking ass. We’re both tired but definitely making progress.
Tom
Thanks for the update Thomas! The end is in sight
thanks for all your work
Word.
Ánimo!!! seguro que y mismo esta todo, estáis haciendo un gran trabajo, enhorabuena.
I am looking forward to it as well, and All I can say is I admire the persistance of Kris and yourself Thomas. I have been stuck in several serverrooms over time working the marathon hacking sessions so I feel for you guys.
By the way Thomas, you aren’t worthless…a little moral support goes a long way, and that is what Kris needs.
I for one support you guys, and will hang out with you both till it’s done.
Rock On!
Thanks for YOUR support, Thomas & Kris! Good things come to those who wait!
Kris should get some more sleep and go back to work with a fresh mind. I think, it’s not important to get Zooomr online earlier and setting Kris’s health on risk. You did a great job keeping the community up to date and the people will wait some time more.
Thanks for the update Thomas, maybe you should let Kris sleep a bit more - is it so important to demo MKIII at SFWIN?
The last thing we want is for Kris to hate what he’s created by working far too hard on it.
I think we all can wait a bit more.
Its better to do the things right than faster.
Let kris sleep!
Hey TH, let Kris sleep a long time. its not healthy to work that long w/o a rest, and he’ll be more productive in the long run.
A few weeks from now, it won’t seem so important that you launched a couple days late b/c Kris needed rest. You can demo it another time.
Let him sleep, man!
dream sweet kris - i hope they’re not haunted by lines of code
much love, and best wishes.
Keep rocking. The two of you are doing an incredible job. A big thumbs up for that!
Every time I feel like starting to bitch around about this taking too long and so on, I remeber that Kris wrote the software alone and that it is just the two of you running the whole thing from an apartement. So dont waste yourself - you’ll release some great software!!
You guys are doing a fantastic job. The passion you both have for Zooomr is admirable and is one we all share. Take it easier - all good things come to those who wait!
Still have goosebumps in anticipation but I can definitely wait patiently a little longer. No worries. Rest well Kris and good luck!! Thomas, go see your kids for pete’s sake!
Best wishes.
Your users with you guys.
Thomas, you aren’t worthless, you are the one of the two guys trying to get things going on.
Hugs and all the best to you both for all your hard work!
Let Kris sleep, we belive in you, and I know in my heart you will make it this time!
You guys are brave for putting yourselves through this. I appreciate it and will see you on the other side! Can’t wait!
I love you guys.
I think, with all the heart, that now must sleep (all the team). It does not matter to wait for days. Yes, we beliebe in Zooomr and wait the necesary time. (sorry with my english)
With love
Faby
Thank you for all your hard work! It seems so easy to mess about with this kind of stuff (coding and web design)… but you guys show us just how hard it is to get a rich and vibrant product ready for the web of today - A challange I would leave well alone, you’ve almost ‘finished’ - I hope Kris is smiling as he works!
The wait will be worth it. You are two of the most devoted guys I’ve come across. Tom, thanks for the continous live feed. Kris, you’re an amazing programmer. Thanks for all your hard work, we believe in you.
It is a pleasure to be a part of such a great community and although you may feel (unnecessarily) disappointed at Zooomr HQ, you should take a great deal of energy from the knowledge that all of us are supporting you, and I for one am enjoying reading all of these great messages and getting to know the zooomr clan a little better.
It is important to rest and keep you energy up so that you can enjoy your achievement afterwards. We all want to see zooomr III up and running, but not if it costs you great chaps your good-health.
Rich
Thanks for doing this guys, Zooomr is and will continue to be awesome and great fun to use! I much prefer you guys to Flickr. timbo
keep it up guys! please rest assured, we’ll be here by the time you have finished! best of lucks with the demo!
Support!
come on!!! come on!!!
I can’t wait! You’re keeping me all day in front of pc, looking if there are any update in the blog, and wondering if the homepage of zooomr has changed :P.
Great work guys!
A Zooomrer from Spain.
Thanks to you both for all your work. But dont rush it get some sleep. Wish we could all do more to help.
Let him sleep more than 4 hours, he needs that.
Thanks for this really informative statement, Thomas.
Knowing how things are progressing makes it much easier for us to curb our impatience!
Don’t forget that the tortoise beat the hare - you guys will get there, and that will be the real answer to the sceptics.
Thanks for the update, Thomas. While we certainly don’t ‘need’ to know the details, your brief update above is very helpful! I’m looking forward to the new release and all of the new features!
ps - looking forward to your next stint as a DJ (Sir THawk-Mix-A-Lot)on ustream!
Rock On!!!
Think we all can wait.. Great job Kris and Thom..
Great work, and take care about your health!
Flickr gave you guys a pizza???
guys you are really really great!
I’ll wait patiently…
Hope the best for you!!!!!
yeah
Thanks for the hard work will be waiting at the finish line…
How was the Flickr Pizza?
good things need good time.
thanks from austria for the
cool zooomr-service and of
course - the new one.
vamos chicos!!
you are doing a great job.
Thanks!
Kris, Thomas
I think the comments reflect the goodwill you have inspired in the ever-growing Zooomr photography community.
It’s heartening to see, and I hope it spurs you on. But i will say one thing, I feel perhaps your (admirable) devotion to this, especially kris, means you want things to be done quicker than is actually feasible. I can understand that. but it will mean you end up putting unrealistic demands on yourself, which for a while is ok, but overtime takes it out of you - health, missing kids, resenting your work, making mistakes etc.
It also means you ending up working in fits and bursts which makes it very difficult to react to post-upgrade or major change scenarios as by then you are wiped out. By being a little kinder to yoursleves, and a little less generous to our appetite for me, i think you could make it all a lot smoother and manageable….people can only get frustrated if you promise deadlines sooner than you can meet them. IF you don’t, they have nothing to complain about.
This isn’t a criticism, because you are two really decent guys putting in a hell of a lot of effort for a lot of people. it’s more some concerned, friendly advice so Zooomr can make it work in the long term!
good luck, and take care
Keep going guys!
I keep checking every day, hoping you’ve back up. Missing me my zooomr fix. I’d rather it be up and working and up quickly and broken though, so I’ll keep on hanging in until you’re done
Kudos to Kristopher. I know you can do it.
All the best guys.
Don’t hurry, we all have plenty of time. Since Zooomr will continue to be free of charge, no one of us has the right to demand a fast completion of the operation
We should be glad to have two people who really care about their community. And I know that no one wants Mark III more to be online as you two.
I can’t wait to see all the great new stuff you’ve been doing to zoomr! It looked pretty spiffy before, and with this new upgrade..shazam. Good luck, I hope all goes well!
hmmmm… i noticed a typo in my last comment, it was supposed to say “By being a little kinder to yoursleves, and a little less generous to our appetite for M3, i think you could make it all a lot smoother and manageable…”
but somehow i wrote me instead of M3!!!
I’m looking forward to the new version, too.
Kudos to both of you for all of your hard work and for tackling this all on your own. We appreciate it far more than you can know.
Hi Kris and Thomas,
what’s happening?
Last news were given a long time ago!
Are you ok?
What about the evolution of the update?
See you and thank you for the hard work you have to do this week.
Yeah really, this is getting out of hand. You should have just said you cant access zooomr indefinately.
Really weak.
wow - omg. this is so awesome. I can’t believe how great you guys are. it’s amazing. it’s like extasy. please don’t ever launch. I don’t need any of the photos i’ve uploaded. this is so great, so perfect, so wonderful. as long as you’re working hard and have an idea, that’s all that matters. you truly are my heros. this is web 2.0, it’s the future, it’s sharing, it’s life. you are doimg everything for me. I am doing everything for you.
Just curious as to why you guys didn’t look for external help on this…I can think of countless people that would have pitched in for free to get the transfer done smoothly.
I mean, it’s great that zooomr is just a 2 man team and all (well at least impressive), but pride on that shouldn’t hold the site from being launched when it should…
Just curious, as I’ve never worked on such a large site with so much data, but I wonder if the migration of the photo data (which I suspect is by far the largest chunk of the migration) could have been done slowly over time while Zooomr V2 was still operational.
Each photo record could have an extra column (e.g. “migrated”) that would be marked once the photo was migrated. A change to V2 would un-mark this column if the photo changed…
Then, once most of the photo data was migrated, you could (1) take down the site, (2) migrate the remaining data, (3) bring up V3.
But, I’m probably oversimplifying this stuff. I’m sure Kris is full of ideas to avoid this problem for the next upgrade.
Duncan, your spoof is cruel, but I have to admit it’s also very funny!
lame.
Good work, fellas. Looking forward to Mark III. I have the demo running in a separate window and it’s lovely. Don’t forget to eat and sleep, k?
Missing Zooomr guys and now I just got my d200!! Lots of new pics after this weekend.
Sending the love from Scotland.
@tim morgan:
you’re over simplifying. sort of.
the problem with the method you’ve suggested is that, say any comments or new meta data were added to photos during the transition, they would end up on the old db, not the new one.
of course, there other ways to deal with this. and a lot of other sites are able to manage seamless migration in a far more professional manner than zooomr has.
not to bash zooomr of course, because while not the most professional or convenient transition method, i’d *guess* that it is also the simplest and safest given their limited experience and resources.
as a point of comparison, in flickr’s early days they would also have protracted, planned service outages .. although certainly never more than 24 hours.
@striatic:
That’s why I said only to migrate the photo table. Meta data in other tables would be migrated later (while the site is down momentarily). Meta data in the photos table, if changed, would cause that photo record to be marked as not-migrated, thus causing it to be re-migrated.
Of course, there are some details to work out, such as making sure the record ids between the old db and new db are the same and stuff like that. And yes, this is way simplified, but in theory I think it could work.
In theory, I like people to go with what they know will work in practice… without practice, the theory always sucks…. The long outage might be due to unpractived theory for all we know.. good luck guys, I’ll check every night, and smile when i see it!!
Thanks for your efforts Kris and Thomas. We could wait for a longer time. Get some rest before start the engine again.
Rock on you two. It has been a blast being on Ustream for the last few days and nights! I have really enjoyed it and thanks Kris for our trip to SFWIN! That was great!
well, may the force be with you
all the force for your excellent project!
best regards,
Guys, thanks!
Your work is inspiring. :p
Go, Zooomr, go.
加油
Just back from a trip to Cornwall, UK and looking forward to sharing some photos, so hurry guys hurry
Best of luck with it.
We will wait for all the necessary time. The important thing now is your health.
Good luck, and take care.
Love and kisses
Faby
12-24hrs.
hurry the eff up! so unprofessional. and people are just watching him sleep! wtf???
Good - always better to get it right the first, then have us all complaining. You guys have been a prime example of “Passion with out Compromise”.
Now let’s get this thing finished…
God Bless you two!!
Kris, status? It’s been two days without an update. ETA??
This seems like deja vu all over again.
I have to agree with k, seems very unprofessional to make promises about 12-24 hrs and failing terribly in keeping that schedule. Not a good promotion for you guys.
hi guys, I hope that you two are still kicking about. fingers crossed all is going well
The word of the day is “Hubris”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris
PLEASE…HURRY! I have photos to upload! Why can’t you take the files directly to the data center and upload them there? I’m sure it’d be faster than whatever uplink you have at home.
because its amateur hour. b.s.
According to the ustream feed, we’re looking at a tentative Monday release if all goes as planned guys. Keeping fingers crossed for ya Kris and Thomas!
Not to come off as overly negative, for I want to see Mark III launch as much as the next guy, but if I had to bet, I’d say that Zooomr rolls back to Mark II, and the next upgrade attempt happens in mid-July.
The lack of explicit information, even non-positive information, breeds paranoia among the users here. as evidenced by a lot of the childish comments on this blog post.
With that being said, I wish all the best to Kris and Thomas, and know that their moment of glory will come. I wish I could help you.
Since the first upgrade attempt I’ve been holding back using zooomr until mark III is live. I have no reason to doubt they will get this thing out asap.
The one thing that is exciting for me is the api and the promise of a more module system. Once mark III launches we shouldn’t see these upgrade issues in the future. Good luck guys I look forward to using the service more regularly if not exclusively but until you get MIII out I’m a flickr man.
to be honest, i am a little bit disappointed. it takes such a long time to migrate to mark III. i know it will never be easy, but it is the 2nd time i feel disappointed. i know zooomr is a 2-people company, but this cannot justify this time-consuming migration.
i was looking for another photo-sharing service this weekend, and all of a sudden i started to miss zooomr. to me zooomr has provided some excellent services which other websites don’t have. now i have given up looking for another alternative. i will just try to wait for mark III with patience…do i have another choice?
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