Otaku no Podcast » server

New Year – New Website

Donald Burr — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:41:48 +0000

In Japan, one of the traditional activities undertaken by families at the start of the New Year is a thorough cleaning of the home. This is seen as symbolic in the sense that you are sweeping away the junk and detritus of the old year, to start the new year in a fresh and clean state.

Well unfortunately doing this in my own home is, erm, not bloody likely. (If you’ve seen my home, you’ll know why.) But I can do it to the Otaku no Podcast website! So let this be a warning to you that, over the next few weeks/months, you may start to see some changes in the Otaku no Podcast website.

I’m not doing this just to annoy you, or because I want to play with some new bit of WordPress code. (Well, ok, I’ll confess, I actually am playing with a new bit of WordPress code.) But it’s for a good reason. I’ve found a new WordPress theme, Atahualpa, that offers a tremendous level of flexibility in terms of the ability to configure and customize things without having to directly hack on the wordpress theme code, which is what I had to do with our previous theme when I wanted to add something custom like a “subscribe to podcast” link or an ad banner or whatnot. Basically, the practical upshot of all this is that you, the user, will end up with a much prettier, more functional, and faster website, whereas I, the webmaster and server guru, will end up with something much more manageable.

Don’t fret however. I’ll be confining most of my, erm, experimentation on my personal blog and website, and will only update the Otaku site once I have something that is stable, works well, and looks good. Look forward to it!

In the meantime, yes, I’m still working on Anime on the Cheap, Part 2; I’ve also gotten into the anime review groove (thanks to my recent work on the Anime Secret Santa project) and have started writing up some reviews of other anime series I’ve completed recently. You can look forward to those appearing gradually on the website in the coming weeks/months.

Finally, I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I wish you all the best for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Otaku no Podcast server is back online after an unknown amount of downtime

Donald Burr — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:37:34 +0000

If you were having trouble downloading the podcast or accessing the website this weekend, I apologize. For an unknown amount of time this weekend, the Otaku no Podcast website was down due to a server crash. (Not a bad one, no data was lost thankfully) Anyway I’ve restarted things and we’re back online now. Thanks to DJ City of TJX – The Japan Xperience for letting me know about the downed server.

New Feature: Photo Gallery

Donald Burr — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:22:08 +0000

The server oompa-loompas here at Otaku no Podcast have been busy. Their latest achievement: a new Photo Gallery section on the website, where I will post pictures from the various anime conventions and events I have attended. I’ve already started uploading some pictures from FanimeCon 2009, and will shortly upload my Anime Expo 2009 pics as well (as soon as I have finished going through them, fixing white balance, etc., which could take a few days). I’ll also upload older pics as I find them. So definitely check this section often!

New server

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:17:00 +0000

As you may (or may not) have noticed, we’ve got a brand new look and feel here. Our old website left much to be desired, and in particular, it had absolutely NO spam protection whatsoever. (as is evident by the recent flood of spam postings) After much thought (interspersed with some head-scratching and nail-biting, as well as more than a little bit of hair-tearing-out and head-banging-against-wall) I’ve decided to just tear everything down and start from scratch.

To that end, we have a really nifty new site based on the uber-popular WordPress blogging engine. I’ve done a lot of research and found that WordPress offers the most flexibility with the least amount of effort (very important for a lazy otaku such as myself), and has some pretty darn fine looking themes if I do say so myself. (Right now we’re still using the default “Kubrick” theme, but I’ll be playing around with it in the days and weeks to come, making it look even cooler.) WordPress’s “Akismet” plugin offers excellent spam protection (but at a cost – you have to register for a free account if you want to post a comment. Sorry folks, them’s the rules.) Also the PodPress plugin makes adding and managing podcasts a breeze. (Plus it provides nifty Flash-based player applet so that you can play back podcasts right on the web page.)

Not everything is back in place yet. The nifty “subscribe via iTunes” link, for one, isn’t there. (However, this podcast is still listed in the iTunes directory.) Also I’m still in the process of re-adding the Google AdSense stuff, the forums, etc. Those will slowly come online within the next few days. But, at least, the basics are up and running.

Oh yes – and a new podcast is coming, just as soon as I can find the time to edit it. (It’s all recorded, just need to cut out my more embarrassing flubs. )