Preamble: Anyone else noticed the site is running very quickly now, much faster than it has ever done?
IT Update
Re the email issue: I did a tremendous amount of study last night and today and discovered I am not completely stupid
. In fact, that studying and what I had to do during the re-build confirmed many things that just didn't feel right (I'll
ramble on that below).
Found a lot of DNS setttings that just weren't right, same with Apache settings etc. If you are in IT, which I am not, you'll know that many DNS settings have a long TTL or take some time to propogate. I've corrected settings on a spare domain to make sure my corrections were right. They worked but took the domain down for an hour or more so I'm trying a trick with biabrewer.info that should, hopefully result in no downtime.
I'm going to let the "trick" work for a few days until things propagate before I correct what I think is wrong with the email settings.
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The Ramble[/center]
In medicine (not sure if this is a world-wide term or just in Australia), we have what is called a "General Practitioner." Not many people know this, but, a GP is actually a specialist; they specialise in the general knowledge of medicine and can efficiently determine the most efficient treatment/solution of a medical problem. That will either be them fixing the problem themselves or recognising that the problem requires a different type of specialist. The best GP's will also prevent problems.
General Practitioners are, obviously, the basic necessity in a medical system. Without them, the medical system would be ridiculously inefficient. For example, if you had a sore throat, you might have to go to an oncologist, an ENT specialist (ear, nose and throat specialist), an immunologist, a pathologist, dentist etc before finding the solution.
I sincerely believe other industries/disciplines need general practitioners.
Lack of GP's in Brewing
I haven't written this up yet in the
What's Happening to BIABrewer in 2017 thread yet (ironically due to a lack of IT GP's) however, BIABrewer.info will close and be replaced with BREWER.info
Confining the information and knowledge we have here just to brewers who use a single method of making sweet liquor is a waste - way too specialised. We BIAB brewers know it is a truly excellent method but all it does is make sweet liquor. Making sweet liquor is just one part of making beer and it is one that isn't even necessary to brew craft beer at home. For example, with a good "Fresh Wort Kit (a term not widely known, all a home craft brewer need do is ferment.
Is it better that a home craft brewer Google; First Wort Hopping, all-grain, three-vessel brewing, BIAB, single-vessel brewing, extract brewing, partial brewing, kit brewing, fresh wort kits, no-chill, kit and kilo, fermenting, hops and God knows how many other things, or, do we lay it out neatly and clearly in one place?
My goal is for BREWER.info to be the GP of brewing - the high quality General Practitioner.
Lack of GP's in IT
If there was a GP in IT, BREWER.info would have been up and running months and thousands of dollars ago. (I won't say how much but way, way, over not including rent, living expenses, lost income etc., in just the last 8 months).
Like when I started in brewing, there wasn't anywhere or anyone that said, "This is what you should do." Much worse though than in brewing, there was no one to warn the patient (me) that there are no GP's in this game and that it could cost months and thousands before you find your cure. And, the cure always seemed a few weeks away. (Ask Sarah how many times I said, or, we thought, "should be up and running in three weeks."
)
Anyway, now I know a little (or a lot) about html, css, bootstrap, javascript, php, phpBB, DNS, puTTy, fileZilla, linux commands (special mention to rsync which I only found two days ago) permissions, .conf's, apache, postfix, MX, /var/www/public.html (no idea of the logic of that one!) and about a thousand other things I should have never had to learn.
That is a big cost to everyone - existing members, new brewers and the most loyal members.
Summing it Up
I hope the above makes a bit of sense. Today, Tuesday, is the end of a 20 hour day for me. My last 20 hour day was Sunday and Saturday and Friday weren't too lenient either
.
I'm embarrassed that the new site is taking so long to appear and I hope the ramble above gives a little glimpse into why.
Most of all I can't wait to write up the new stuff. Whether a new or really experienced brewer, you are going to love it!
Pat