Neowin.net

Hiya! As you may of noticed, again we are experiencing slow-downs on the server. This is due to a number of reasons. Take a look for a minute at the realtime stats in our side menu. Its always above 500 and regulary spikes to around 900 (true visits)

I have spoken to our sponsor Hosttyme about this problem and after alot of testing they came back with this:

• Mysql can only efficently handle up to around 1000 connections to the database.
  
• The forums use about 18 sql queries against a whopping 28 for the main site (per connection) 28 because of the features we offer each user. (this is why the forums are faster)

Hosttyme also responded by saying they will upgrade us from Co-location to Dedicated hosting, they are ordering a Dual 933MHz/1Gig Ram server tomorrow for us. -read, they are doing this at NO charge! This is in direct response to the statement made that Hosttyme will support us no matter what - here is proof of that.

So in a nutshell, our news and forums scripts are slowly outgrowing us. Not the server, the hosting or the connection to Neowin. So if anyone can donate and port our scripts to an Oracle database, be my guest. (we can't afford it)

Again I can't help myself by saying that everyone who values this site and is registered or not should send a thankyou note to Hosttyme for the REAL kickass job they do for us. I have to point out that the owner of Hosttyme (Tyme) regulary monitors the site and restarts MYSQL when she sees that its going to fail (because of the spikes in traffic) This is not just good hosting, that is dedication and commitment. I appreciate it alot and you should too.

Due to the upgrading of our forums from v2.0.3 to v2.2.0 Registered users may not be able to login to the main Neowin site, to fix this immediately delete all cookies refrenced to Neowin in the following folder (for Win2k/XP): C:Documents and SettingsyournameCookies and C:Documents and SettingsyournameLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files if you cant find it you can delete ALL cookies by going to Tools > Options > Delete Cookies in Internet Explorer 4 and up.
We are working on this, but this is an immediate fix.

Found this in the MacNN forum and on Slashdot, explains the problem quite nicely!!!

The original installer script has the lines

# if iTunes application currently exists, delete it
if [ -e $2Applications/iTunes.app ] ; then
rm -rf $2Applications/iTunes.app 2> /dev/null
fi

while the replacement (2.0.1) has

# if iTunes application currently exists, delete it
if [ -e "$2Applications/iTunes.app" ] ; then
rm -rf "$2Applications/iTunes.app" 2> /dev/null
fi

Thanks to a tip in an email about the cause of the problem (spaces in volume names), I went digging into the package installer and think I found the source of the problem. The following code is in a file called 'preflight' inside the iTunes.pkg installer (in Contents/Resources):

# if iTunes application currently exists, delete it
if [ -e $2Applications/iTunes.app ] ; then
rm -rf $2Applications/iTunes.app 2< /dev/null
fi

So what's the problem? If your volumes have spaces and are named similarly (let's say "Disk", "Disk 1", and "Disk 2"), then this bug could bite you. The '$2' variable that's passed in contains the path to your selected iTunes installation destination. In our example, let's assume it was headed for "Disk 1". So '$2' should contain /Volumes/Disk 1 (notice the backslash for the space). However, if it instead contained /Volumes/Disk 1, then the "rm -rf" command would execute TWICE. It would look like this:

rm -rf /Volumes/Disk 1/Applications/iTunes.app 2< /dev/null

One of the commands (the second half, 'rm -rf 1/Applications/iTunes.app') would probably not do anything, since the path is invalid. The second command, though, could be brutal. 'rm -rf /Volumes/Disk' would delete the entire volume 'Disk' used in this example.

For those that had a problem, do you meet all the following criteria?

1. Did not delete iTunes 1.1
2. Had multiple volumes
3. Had similarly named volumes with spaces in their names

Any replies could help determine if this is, indeed, the cause of the problem.

I can't see how the "$2" variable is built, so this is all conjecture based on the evidence and looking at the "preflight" file. Obviously, there's an issue with the installer, since Apple has now pulled it ... but if you grabbed it already, I would highly recommend you do not use it, even if you don't appear to meet the criteria listed above. Just wait for a new installer from Apple, and keep your data safe!