DVD Profiler Website
#201
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From: You have moved into a dark place. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
From their ISP's web site. It looks like they *do* have a 99.9% uptime guarantee:
http://www.serverbeach.com/catalog/our_promise.php
Of course, when a company's tagline is "Discount dedicated servers done right." one has to be cautious. Their prices really are pretty good, though (although they seem to charge a la carte for trouble tickets - yikes!).
http://www.serverbeach.com/catalog/our_promise.php
Of course, when a company's tagline is "Discount dedicated servers done right." one has to be cautious. Their prices really are pretty good, though (although they seem to charge a la carte for trouble tickets - yikes!).
Last edited by jough; 03-03-04 at 01:18 PM.
#202
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Open source alternative?
Like many of you already said, it's inexcuseable for dvdprofiler to be down for so long, especially since it's not completely free for at least these two reasons:
- The content provider is the community. It's the work by the community for the community
- Premium members paid the $25 fee and the rest paid by having the ad banners.
For the record, I bought my premium subscription 7 months ago.
Instead of fretting about this, maybe we should reverse engineer the product and produce an open source alternative to it. With this kind of downtime and lack of communication, it's obvious that either a) they don't care about us or b) they don't know what they're doing.
- The content provider is the community. It's the work by the community for the community
- Premium members paid the $25 fee and the rest paid by having the ad banners.
For the record, I bought my premium subscription 7 months ago.
Instead of fretting about this, maybe we should reverse engineer the product and produce an open source alternative to it. With this kind of downtime and lack of communication, it's obvious that either a) they don't care about us or b) they don't know what they're doing.
#203
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From: Woodbridge, Virginia
Originally posted by jough
That's why I posted the code. You can't argue with the facts. It's not my opinion. The code hasn't changed, but their IP address has. All facts. No opinion.
It's like talking to a child. Yes, something changed - their DNS info.
I have over ten years of experience in the web hosting business. I have seen hundreds of sites move, change, upgrade, have problems, fix problems, etc. There is NO hardware problem that cannot be solved with a) money, and b) 24 hours of time.
I don't have to know what their problem was to know that it doesn't take five days to build a new server.
Now, if they got a virus and are trying to recover the data, or if their hard drive crashed and they didn't have a backup, that may take longer. But that's not what their rep said on the HTF. So by this point we can either assume that they were:
a) lying
or
b) incompetent
There is no c.
I called their ISP who assured me that if I (as a potential customer) had a server go down they could set up a new box and have it online within 48 hours at the MOST (which is still a little long, but hey). I didn't ask them about DVD Profiler, since they really shouldn't be talking about the problems of one client to another potential client anyway.
That's why I posted the code. You can't argue with the facts. It's not my opinion. The code hasn't changed, but their IP address has. All facts. No opinion.
It's like talking to a child. Yes, something changed - their DNS info.
I have over ten years of experience in the web hosting business. I have seen hundreds of sites move, change, upgrade, have problems, fix problems, etc. There is NO hardware problem that cannot be solved with a) money, and b) 24 hours of time.
I don't have to know what their problem was to know that it doesn't take five days to build a new server.
Now, if they got a virus and are trying to recover the data, or if their hard drive crashed and they didn't have a backup, that may take longer. But that's not what their rep said on the HTF. So by this point we can either assume that they were:
a) lying
or
b) incompetent
There is no c.
I called their ISP who assured me that if I (as a potential customer) had a server go down they could set up a new box and have it online within 48 hours at the MOST (which is still a little long, but hey). I didn't ask them about DVD Profiler, since they really shouldn't be talking about the problems of one client to another potential client anyway.
#204
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From: Woodbridge, Virginia
Re: Open source alternative?
Originally posted by brombie
Like many of you already said, it's inexcuseable for dvdprofiler to be down for so long, especially since it's not completely free for at least these two reasons:
- The content provider is the community. It's the work by the community for the community
- Premium members paid the $25 fee and the rest paid by having the ad banners.
For the record, I bought my premium subscription 7 months ago.
Instead of fretting about this, maybe we should reverse engineer the product and produce an open source alternative to it. With this kind of downtime and lack of communication, it's obvious that either a) they don't care about us or b) they don't know what they're doing.
Like many of you already said, it's inexcuseable for dvdprofiler to be down for so long, especially since it's not completely free for at least these two reasons:
- The content provider is the community. It's the work by the community for the community
- Premium members paid the $25 fee and the rest paid by having the ad banners.
For the record, I bought my premium subscription 7 months ago.
Instead of fretting about this, maybe we should reverse engineer the product and produce an open source alternative to it. With this kind of downtime and lack of communication, it's obvious that either a) they don't care about us or b) they don't know what they're doing.
#205
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From: You have moved into a dark place. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Originally posted by EPKJ
So, now you admit something has changed and that Netscape could not pull up the page before. That makes you sound reasonable, except that is what you have been denying up until this post.
So, now you admit something has changed and that Netscape could not pull up the page before. That makes you sound reasonable, except that is what you have been denying up until this post.
Why can't you just admit you don't know any facts about the situation and drop these pointless pontifications regarding how long repairs should take?
Heck, for all I know you could *work* for IVS.
I posted what facts I do know. I'm interested to see now if they ever come clean about what happened.
And I'm all for an Open Source solution. I haven't found a programme yet that really does what I would like (DVD Profiler included). It's just that DVD Profiler did the best job out of the rest.
Any programmers in the house?
#206
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Originally posted by MEJHarrison
So, we have Skip and Dan now. With Dan Rudolph (Ace) over at HTF, we almost don't need the forums back. Who else is here? Of course without any updates to whine about, there's nothing fun to talk about anyway.
I've found this whole thing rather amusing. 10 pages now because they're down for a few days? This is really out of control. If they still work at H&R Block, they probably don't have a ton of time right now to work on the problem. I'm sure they're doing the best they can. I'll wait it out for now.
So, we have Skip and Dan now. With Dan Rudolph (Ace) over at HTF, we almost don't need the forums back. Who else is here? Of course without any updates to whine about, there's nothing fun to talk about anyway.
I've found this whole thing rather amusing. 10 pages now because they're down for a few days? This is really out of control. If they still work at H&R Block, they probably don't have a ton of time right now to work on the problem. I'm sure they're doing the best they can. I'll wait it out for now.
#207
DVD Talk Legend
Speaking as a programmer/developer, there's dozens of reasons why the online portion of DVD Profiler could be inaccessible, aside from ISP issues, dead servers, or viruses. Their db could be corrupted, backups and data warehousing could have been infilitrated and compromised, and perhaps the possibility industrial sabotage.
The latter might smack a bit of hyperbole, but I worked at a small dotcom for 13 mos. We provided a variety of web-based ASP solutions for our clients. Our VP of Information Services was fired one afternoon after he was discovered attempting to sell/steal vital company intellectual property. 3 in the morning the next day, he launched several web agents that wiped out everything, including most of our backup data (he alone designed the entire system architecture from soup to nuts, and created backdoors to everything.).
It took us the better part of a week to get back up to speed, and we lost a significant amount of business in the process. I don't know what Intervocative's security/architecture scheme is like, but the fact that they have been down for this amount of time is not uncommon. Unfortunate, but not uncommon.
I also think that, since the majority of the program's users are using it free, they should try to be a little more patient. And I would also hypothesize that if more people paid the $25 premium fee, the less likely we'd see such an extended down time in the future.
The latter might smack a bit of hyperbole, but I worked at a small dotcom for 13 mos. We provided a variety of web-based ASP solutions for our clients. Our VP of Information Services was fired one afternoon after he was discovered attempting to sell/steal vital company intellectual property. 3 in the morning the next day, he launched several web agents that wiped out everything, including most of our backup data (he alone designed the entire system architecture from soup to nuts, and created backdoors to everything.).
It took us the better part of a week to get back up to speed, and we lost a significant amount of business in the process. I don't know what Intervocative's security/architecture scheme is like, but the fact that they have been down for this amount of time is not uncommon. Unfortunate, but not uncommon.
I also think that, since the majority of the program's users are using it free, they should try to be a little more patient. And I would also hypothesize that if more people paid the $25 premium fee, the less likely we'd see such an extended down time in the future.
#208
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Re: Re: Open source alternative?
Originally posted by EPKJ
No, it is not inexcusable. Intervocative never promised no downtime with premium membership. Further, if you seriously think a one time fee of $25.00 entitles you to a guarantee of that DVD Profiler will never be down for extended periods, I have some swampland for you to look at. The real world does not work that way.
No, it is not inexcusable. Intervocative never promised no downtime with premium membership. Further, if you seriously think a one time fee of $25.00 entitles you to a guarantee of that DVD Profiler will never be down for extended periods, I have some swampland for you to look at. The real world does not work that way.

More valuable though, is the time and effort that the members have put into building the database. I spent about 10 to 20 hours total last year putting in detail information and cover scans. Let's say there're 1000 volunteer spending 10 hours each valued at $10/hour. The total cost of the labor is $100,000. Hopefully you'll agree with me that this is a conservative estimate. I actually think its more than that. On top of this, they also have the options of selling ad banners.
You're right, in real world, $25 only goes so much. Also, in the real world, dvdprofiler needs their users goodwill and trust to survive. What they're doing right now is robbing themselves away from the most precious commodity that they have. I, for one, am glad that in the real world there are alternatives to dvdprofiler.
Last edited by brombie; 03-03-04 at 02:31 PM.
#209
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From: You have moved into a dark place. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I paid my $25 to get high-res cover scans.
With their site being down, I cannot get them.
I also cannot download further updates, so the point of receiving all of the future updates is moot.
I wouldn't be bothered by their downtime as much if they were just up front with their customers and posted something more realistic regarding their downtime, an ETA on when they thought they'd be coming back, etc., on their homepage, which *is* back online (whether this is coming from their newly repaired server, a new server, or a temp server that their ISP set up for them is unknown at this time).
With their site being down, I cannot get them.
I also cannot download further updates, so the point of receiving all of the future updates is moot.
I wouldn't be bothered by their downtime as much if they were just up front with their customers and posted something more realistic regarding their downtime, an ETA on when they thought they'd be coming back, etc., on their homepage, which *is* back online (whether this is coming from their newly repaired server, a new server, or a temp server that their ISP set up for them is unknown at this time).
#210
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From: Mt. Airy, MD, USA
Jough:
Yes, there is at least one programmer here. And I am considering developing a vastly improved DVD Management Tool, I have not decided yet. However, if I do it will not likely be open source as I find open source to be counter-productive to developing a stable usable product. However, if I do choose to do this I am might ask for a few people to volunteer in various aspects that I have planned.
Skip
Yes, there is at least one programmer here. And I am considering developing a vastly improved DVD Management Tool, I have not decided yet. However, if I do it will not likely be open source as I find open source to be counter-productive to developing a stable usable product. However, if I do choose to do this I am might ask for a few people to volunteer in various aspects that I have planned.
Skip
#211
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From: Woodbridge, Virginia
Originally posted by jough
I said the same thing a page back, and two pages back before then.
By the same token, you could admit that you don't know any facts regarding how long repairs should take and could stop apologising for Intervocative.
Heck, for all I know you could *work* for IVS.
I posted what facts I do know. I'm interested to see now if they ever come clean about what happened.
And I'm all for an Open Source solution. I haven't found a programme yet that really does what I would like (DVD Profiler included). It's just that DVD Profiler did the best job out of the rest.
Any programmers in the house?
I said the same thing a page back, and two pages back before then.
By the same token, you could admit that you don't know any facts regarding how long repairs should take and could stop apologising for Intervocative.
Heck, for all I know you could *work* for IVS.
I posted what facts I do know. I'm interested to see now if they ever come clean about what happened.
And I'm all for an Open Source solution. I haven't found a programme yet that really does what I would like (DVD Profiler included). It's just that DVD Profiler did the best job out of the rest.
Any programmers in the house?
#212
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From: Lachenaie, Québec (Canada)
I wonder if it's a topic about DVDProfiler being down or about who has the bigest CPU generated bellybutton??

anyway, a week later, this is taking a long time to be back online?? I wonder what "really" is the problem?
...just when I needed it to check the specs of certain DVD I would like to trade!...

anyway, a week later, this is taking a long time to be back online?? I wonder what "really" is the problem?
...just when I needed it to check the specs of certain DVD I would like to trade!...
#213
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From: Home of the International Balloon Fiesta
Did anyone else get this e-mail:
DVDProfiler database confirmed only temporarily down...
We have all been a little concerned because of the sudden disappearance of our collections this past week. Finally a posted note on the problew. whew
Looks like the InterVoactive folks are frantically trying to bring it back up.
For our comfort, here's a copy of Jesse's post:
"Hi, yes I'm the Jesse Slicer of InterVocative Software. I'll cut right to the chase. Our server got hit hard with some strange network resource-consuming something or another. The web is not functioning, our email is not functioning, FTP is not functioning and our remote administration is not functioning.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
With response to John St, our server is not co-located with them yet. We have a dedicated server with them but within a month will have a much better co-located server designed from the ground-up to scale very well with respect to the future of DVD Profiler and other products we have plans for.
Apologies to everyone for any downtime and we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend, so I thank you in advance for your patience. "
Happy Collecting,
Looks like life is still good.
Bill
(PlanoLogic)
www.BrowseDVD.com
DVDProfiler database confirmed only temporarily down...
We have all been a little concerned because of the sudden disappearance of our collections this past week. Finally a posted note on the problew. whew

Looks like the InterVoactive folks are frantically trying to bring it back up.
For our comfort, here's a copy of Jesse's post:
"Hi, yes I'm the Jesse Slicer of InterVocative Software. I'll cut right to the chase. Our server got hit hard with some strange network resource-consuming something or another. The web is not functioning, our email is not functioning, FTP is not functioning and our remote administration is not functioning.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
With response to John St, our server is not co-located with them yet. We have a dedicated server with them but within a month will have a much better co-located server designed from the ground-up to scale very well with respect to the future of DVD Profiler and other products we have plans for.
Apologies to everyone for any downtime and we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend, so I thank you in advance for your patience. "
Happy Collecting,
Looks like life is still good.
Bill
(PlanoLogic)
www.BrowseDVD.com
#214
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Originally posted by cisco1959
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
#215
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Originally posted by cisco1959
Did anyone else get this e-mail:
DVDProfiler database confirmed only temporarily down...
We have all been a little concerned because of the sudden disappearance of our collections this past week. Finally a posted note on the problew. whew
Looks like the InterVoactive folks are frantically trying to bring it back up.
For our comfort, here's a copy of Jesse's post:
"Hi, yes I'm the Jesse Slicer of InterVocative Software. I'll cut right to the chase. Our server got hit hard with some strange network resource-consuming something or another. The web is not functioning, our email is not functioning, FTP is not functioning and our remote administration is not functioning.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
With response to John St, our server is not co-located with them yet. We have a dedicated server with them but within a month will have a much better co-located server designed from the ground-up to scale very well with respect to the future of DVD Profiler and other products we have plans for.
Apologies to everyone for any downtime and we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend, so I thank you in advance for your patience. "
Happy Collecting,
Looks like life is still good.
Bill
(PlanoLogic)
www.BrowseDVD.com
Did anyone else get this e-mail:
DVDProfiler database confirmed only temporarily down...
We have all been a little concerned because of the sudden disappearance of our collections this past week. Finally a posted note on the problew. whew

Looks like the InterVoactive folks are frantically trying to bring it back up.
For our comfort, here's a copy of Jesse's post:
"Hi, yes I'm the Jesse Slicer of InterVocative Software. I'll cut right to the chase. Our server got hit hard with some strange network resource-consuming something or another. The web is not functioning, our email is not functioning, FTP is not functioning and our remote administration is not functioning.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
With response to John St, our server is not co-located with them yet. We have a dedicated server with them but within a month will have a much better co-located server designed from the ground-up to scale very well with respect to the future of DVD Profiler and other products we have plans for.
Apologies to everyone for any downtime and we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend, so I thank you in advance for your patience. "
Happy Collecting,
Looks like life is still good.
Bill
(PlanoLogic)
www.BrowseDVD.com
#216
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
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From: on a river in a kayak..where else?
Originally posted by jough
I wouldn't be bothered by their downtime as much if they were just up front with their customers and posted something more realistic regarding their downtime
I wouldn't be bothered by their downtime as much if they were just up front with their customers and posted something more realistic regarding their downtime
. are you kidding? who else, besides dvdaf, has the balls to treat their members like gold? nobody....which is why I'm there.
for those of you profilers....hope yer up and running again soon. no collector should be without the service....for any length of time.
#217
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Originally posted by cisco1959
Did anyone else get this e-mail:
DVDProfiler database confirmed only temporarily down...
We have all been a little concerned because of the sudden disappearance of our collections this past week. Finally a posted note on the problew. whew
Looks like the InterVoactive folks are frantically trying to bring it back up.
For our comfort, here's a copy of Jesse's post:
"Hi, yes I'm the Jesse Slicer of InterVocative Software. I'll cut right to the chase. Our server got hit hard with some strange network resource-consuming something or another. The web is not functioning, our email is not functioning, FTP is not functioning and our remote administration is not functioning.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
With response to John St, our server is not co-located with them yet. We have a dedicated server with them but within a month will have a much better co-located server designed from the ground-up to scale very well with respect to the future of DVD Profiler and other products we have plans for.
Apologies to everyone for any downtime and we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend, so I thank you in advance for your patience. "
Happy Collecting,
Looks like life is still good.
Bill
(PlanoLogic)
www.BrowseDVD.com
Did anyone else get this e-mail:
DVDProfiler database confirmed only temporarily down...
We have all been a little concerned because of the sudden disappearance of our collections this past week. Finally a posted note on the problew. whew

Looks like the InterVoactive folks are frantically trying to bring it back up.
For our comfort, here's a copy of Jesse's post:
"Hi, yes I'm the Jesse Slicer of InterVocative Software. I'll cut right to the chase. Our server got hit hard with some strange network resource-consuming something or another. The web is not functioning, our email is not functioning, FTP is not functioning and our remote administration is not functioning.
We are working closely with the very helpful folks at SkyNetWEB and they determined that we need to reinstall the operating system. The good news is that it is on a completely different physical drive than all of our data and you can rest assured that none of the web or collection data is affected.
With response to John St, our server is not co-located with them yet. We have a dedicated server with them but within a month will have a much better co-located server designed from the ground-up to scale very well with respect to the future of DVD Profiler and other products we have plans for.
Apologies to everyone for any downtime and we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend, so I thank you in advance for your patience. "
Happy Collecting,
Looks like life is still good.
Bill
(PlanoLogic)
www.BrowseDVD.com
#218
DVD Talk Hero
I might have to start using DVDAf. I've got about 80% of my collection on Guzzle already (I stopped putting my collection there after the 5th disc wasn't listed with them). If I find myself a few hours to spare this weekend, I'll be there... with my buddy Gut
#222
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From: You have moved into a dark place. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
By the sound of that message that was posted back on Friday or Saturday ("we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend") so it looks like they ran into trouble with what, installing the OS?
I figured it may take them two days to copy data over if it's many gigabytes, but to re-image the OS and set up the web server shouldn't take more than a few HOURS.
Anyway, they're still not keeping us posted. That message is from ages ago.
I figured it may take them two days to copy data over if it's many gigabytes, but to re-image the OS and set up the web server shouldn't take more than a few HOURS.
Anyway, they're still not keeping us posted. That message is from ages ago.
#223
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Originally posted by jough
By the sound of that message that was posted back on Friday or Saturday ("we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend") so it looks like they ran into trouble with what, installing the OS?
I figured it may take them two days to copy data over if it's many gigabytes, but to re-image the OS and set up the web server shouldn't take more than a few HOURS.
Anyway, they're still not keeping us posted. That message is from ages ago.
By the sound of that message that was posted back on Friday or Saturday ("we hope to have everything smooth again in the next day or two. We'll be playing catch-up on a bunch of stuff this weekend") so it looks like they ran into trouble with what, installing the OS?
I figured it may take them two days to copy data over if it's many gigabytes, but to re-image the OS and set up the web server shouldn't take more than a few HOURS.
Anyway, they're still not keeping us posted. That message is from ages ago.
#225
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Ya know, I bought 5 DVD's today, and I'm going to be adding them to Profiler manually.
By doing this, I know I'm going to have accurate information and great cover scans. It's not like the software doesn't work at all, it's still very usable, if not at 100%.
By doing this, I know I'm going to have accurate information and great cover scans. It's not like the software doesn't work at all, it's still very usable, if not at 100%.



