Wesley's Tool-Box

I have relieved the old G4 Mac mini of its Tool-Box.info web server functions for the final time on 7PM, July 10, 2008, as all my websites have finished transitioning to iMac. The Mac mini faithfully served as the server for Tool-Box.info for 1100 days - just over 3 years.

Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever owned a system lasting that long fully intact in my 20 years of computing life. Emphasis on 'owned', since some systems that I gave away to other people have lasted longer. The things I keep around rarely last over a year. One big exception was this Altec Lansing speaker set that I kept around for 9 years until iMac's internal speakers made it unnecessary. Anyway, the Mac mini was originally bought to be modified into a portable system. But in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't butcher it as a part of my ongoing experiment with small form factor computers. I might have moved back to Windows world after tinkering with it for a couple of months if that happened.

Instead, the system served me well as a solid desktop Mac platform - it took me a while to get accustomed to the Mac way of things, but once I cleared the entry barrier, I found more interesting things to do with it, especially because OS X is a UNIX. Using a Mac became part of my life and Mac mini was no longer just some compact computer to toy around with - it became my primary system. It became my web server.

It had an excellent run throughout all these times, and I hope it will find new purposes (or perhaps a new owner) eventually, since it's working fine just as ever.

With marriage, I moved into the new home. This meant moving everything out, including the servers. However, I was not sure of the quality of internet connection that the new place would provide, so I relocated the KT line (fiberoptic-to-ethernet 100Mbps line) first, and along with it, the Intel Mac mini which hosts XiGL.net on early April. Hanaro line (same quality as KT line) and its accompanying G4 Mac mini which hosts Tool-Box.info would be left behind for the time being.

It turns out that KT did not provide the 100Mbps connection at the new home, but only the traditional 30Mbps VDSL line. This persisted for several months and I did not see any sign of them upgrading to 100Mbps fiberoptic, all the while the competitors Hanaro and LG Powercomm were both providing 100Mbps line services of their own since at least May. My patience ran out, leading me to call Hanaro Telecom to relocate my connection. This would also mean that Tool-Box.info server would be moved to the new home as well.

Had I simply moved the old G4 box, the relocation would have been simple. But I decided to use this opportunity to replace the server hardware outright. That's when the trouble began.

The recently acquired 24-inch iMac system will be the new server for future hosting of Tool-Box.info website. The site has seen significant back-end updates (I think the comment function is un-broken now, for example) with the transition. However, I'm not willing to completely turn things over just yet.

Therefore, iMac will be connected on XiGL.net line for the time being while final testing is done. Old site on Mac mini will still be on Tool-Box.info line, but it will not be updated. All new entries will be put on the new server as of July 9, 2008. The testing is in progress if you're looking at this entry and are at XiGL.net instead of Tool-Box.info.



One of the things that didn't quite work was the image uploading part. After about 3 hours of struggling, it seems to be functioning correctly. Hopefully, this will be the last show-stopper.

Internet connection linking the Tool-Box.info server may relocate later today.
I'll be attempting to move the server physically accordingly, so please excuse the downtime.