Monday, November 10, 2008

Building the new CatSynth

Rather than simply attempt to restore things as they were, we at CatSynth are using this disaster as an opportunity to build an even better site. I am created a new version of CatSynth based on Wordpress, and I have already imported all 737 posts. There is quite a bit of clean-up to do, and I have to locate some missing images from more recent posts. I have also had to convert formatting form our old system to Wordpress.

Actually, this is turning out to be fun, writing Perl scripts and SQL commands to do all the text and data munging. It is a return to my what I did in my old job circa 2000 at an Internet start-up, and a rather stark contrast to what I do for a living now. With scripting and web hacking, one can realize changes within minutes, rather than the hours or days for a small change in commercial software development.

The next challenges will be getting all the comments into the new site and linking up the old URLs to the new system, so that all the old CatSynth links on the web will still work.

Thanks to everyone who commented this weekend, wishing us well, and (more importantly) wishing ill upon whoever destroyed our site. ;)

Meanwhile, the construction at CatSynth HQ continues, and Luna remains at her temporary abode. We'll post some pics soon.

10 comments:

whaleshaman said...

Ever the optimist, sounds like you've turned this awful event into a welcomed chance to be distracted from more concrete [;-)] worries.

Very saddened to hear of the cyber-attack.

Scritches for Luna when you visit.

Let me know if there's anything you need help with -- like if you find out these dastardly types live in SC, I'll go dump the garbage on their lawn, or something more clever maybe, like post a non-photogenic picture of them on the internet. Or tell their mothers.

Please take care and we are looking forward to your new site!

Peace,
D.

Ellen Whyte said...

Wow that sounds like a huge job. But I like this new look already :-)

Teddy Westlife said...

Pfffft to those nasty people who destroyed your sight. If you find them, I'll come and claw them. Hope the new system works out okay.

Huffle Mawson

Teddy Westlife said...

Oh, I mean site.

Anonymous said...

Bad experiences always give us fresh chances... we always learn.
So we hope you will feel better after all this.
On another note, for the Weekend Cat Blogging... we are on vacation and I could only get online today so here is our contribution for Sunday: http://thehouseofchaos.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/motherly-love/
Have fun ! Snuggle with the felines !!!

Mr. Hendrix said...

oh no! that royaly stinks.

i'd be happy to send my evil alter ego Bendrix to shred the furniture, carpet and legs of the evil person who did this!

we can't wait to see how fun and creative the new site is.

thank Luna for coming to my party! i hope she had a wonderful time.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the loss of your old site. Glad to hear you're forging ahead, and I look forward to your wonderful architectural shots on Wordless Wednesdays yet to come.

Tesla and Hansel said...

thank you so much for thinking of tesla during our hard time! We're still not completely better, but we're on the right track! thank you so much!

Gemini and Ichiro said...

I'm glad you are getting things up and going. That's a huge job for someone with large sites but it sounds like you have it set up. Thank heavens Wordpress and MySql are generally so user friendly so even idiots like me (who learned programming in the 1980s before moving on...:)).

Samantha & Mom said...

We are so glad you could save it all!! We will put kitty poo all over the hackers who did this!! We can't wait to see the new CatSynth!!
Your FL furiends,