Buio Omega

As requested, you can see up in the address bar

The blog won’t last forever, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy our staying.

Ok, my huge wave of enthusiasm came to an abrupt stop yesterday, when I suddenly realized that the blog had some sort of problems which could be correlated to web hosting. The back-end I am using for this very blog behaves in a weird way, as lots of the main features are either incredibly slow or just don’t work. Permalinks don’t work. Posting does work, and that’s definitely what counts. But the blog statistics I loved so much have the nasty habit of freezing the whole website. Not just the page I am currently in: I mean the whole website. Whenever WordPress attempts to collect data everything just get stuck and I have seen even the page you’re reading outputs timeout errors. Whatever is causing such behavior is certainly related to the web-server configuration, so I have very little control over this. Since buio-omega.it will is not going to remain just a roadmap blog forever, I just assumed I could live with this reduced functionality and keep working where the real meat is.

Unluckily, yesterday was also the day I decided to update the web-shop engine to the latest version. I already made a first setup of this system some months ago and things went relatively smooth. I configured the database correctly and inserted a couple hundred products. Then I simply dropped the whole project and came back to it a few months ago, when I realized the web-shop wasn’t working anymore – generic server error. After some pondering I decided to just freeze everything once and for all – too much energy for a project that had no clear boundaries. Just the mere idea of looking in this software’s huge and sparse documentation was a huge let down. From that day, up to just a few days ago, every single thought or idea for Buio Omega just fell in that nice little box on my desk at home, for later analysis. Like I said before however, the time is now ripe and yesterday I just went strong-headed into this goddamn problem. I downloaded the latest software version, made a backup of database and files, and started a brand new installation. My teeth cringed when I read that the installation could not be completed because of server configuration. Reading a couple dozen newsletters from the provider which I never read before but straightly archived in the “Buio Omega someday” folder in my Inbox I realized the servers were not the same the website was hosted on a few months ago. Terror hit me when I got a reply from the provider that some scripting features were simply not available anymore on the actual server. That meant I had to change provider and really, if you know what it means from a programmer’s perspective, that was not something I wanted to do. That meant hunting again for cheap hosting and reading hundreds of lines of specs trying to find a hosting with all the proper features. This meant going through that hellish monstrosity that is Italian bureaucracy for changing domains, the dreaded NIC (just mentioning it sends shivers down my spine). Nightmare visions of obscure forms, endless chains of faxes, endless waits at the phone immediately profiled before my eyes.

In the end I begged the hosting provider for an alternative solution and it told me I could just switch back to the old server where the features requested by the e-store engine were satisfied. I am awaiting for the change, then I will have to move files, recreate database structures, transfer database data, check configuration files, and cross fingers while the DNS and ARP caches are refreshed. No real need to strut technical stuff I know, but sometimes I just like to talk like that eh eh.

In short, I believe things are still going for the better. In a week or so I might have the e-shop development structure up and running, and might even be able to import my old product data. The most difficult thing will be to add a colorful (so to speak) interface to the shop – but that will be the very last step.

I am also slowly reading all the old emails and notes I wrote and received during 2002-2004 while the shop was open and a flood of nostalgia and new ideas just hit me. Lots of recrimination for having handled the shop with complete incoherence and lack of dedication. The good thing however is that now I know how to handle things. Strong people are able to learn from errors and see things with perspective: great things await on this website. You have no idea.

So far I have recovered all the data I have stored in the past 7 years – scans, cds and records data, huge lists of mailing addresses, email backups, copies of every version the webiste has undergone during all these years, invoices, business cards… even sketches and notes. Luckily I have found a backup of all the data I had already inserted in the new catalog. Dozens of hours of work have not been wasted. Every item I have inserted had a description and a number of attributes that will be used for a better browsing (or as they say “user experience”). I have don a LOT of cleanup and thrown away thousands of fake backups, duplicate files, and useless text files. What can I tell from now is that the new Buio Omega website will be a really huge thing. The more I work on it, and the more the project takes shape in my mind, the more I get excited. I have also deleted every single file on the server that pertained to the old website. I am doing everying from scratch – again. Just thanksfully I now have not just a vision, but a good set of practices and methods to make it a real thing. Just as I was writing this post I have stopped several times to take notes and fill a folder with ideas and reminders. This desk is red hot these days, prepare for nice things to come.

The mailing list service is now active, it can be accessed from the sidebar, simply fill in the fields with your e-mail address and click the submit button. Subscribe now and you will be notified of the most important steps in the development of the new e-shop. I d0n’t like spam myself so stay assured only important events will be notified. If you subscribe now, you will also be delivered access to the web catalog before its actual release so to get the first picks on the prettiest items.

Configuring the Mailing List program has been a relatively small  bloodbath due to predictable code errors and the fact I had to refresh my webdesign skills to add this small snipped of code into the page. But other that that, it looks neat and so far it works like charm.

Notice you can also subscribe to this blog through RSS feeds, as with basically every other blog. This way you will be notified directly in in your RSS reader/email client (read: Outlook or Thunderbird) whenever a new post is added to the blog.

Let’s put this straight. Writing posts in both languages is a terrible waste of time and energy. Considering this is no Shakespeare, I am sure no one will be in deep trouble translating these posts. The development blog is therefore officially mono-language from now to the date of launch. Do not worry, though, as the e-commerce shop will be in both languages (Italian and English) and it also has the potential to be translated in other languages as well.

Da oggi 3 Settembre 2009 ufficialmente riparte il progetto Buio Omega 2.0. Se nei mesi passati avete provato a contattare la distro e non avete avuto risposta, non temete: le e-mail non sono andate perdute – quando sarò prossimo alla riapertura tutti verrete ricontattati ed avvertiti alcuni giorni prima del rilancio tramite e-mail. Tutti gli indirizzi sono stati salvati su un database accuratamente e regolarmente “backuppato” (per evitare disastri già accaduti in passato).

Al momento non sono in grado di seguire debitamente la distribuzione, per cui ogni forma di vendita è stata sospesa. Il progetto per il rilancio della distribuzione/etichetta è però da oggi ufficialmente attivo e seguito con regolarità quasi ogni giorno. E’ ancora presto per dire quando Buio Omega riaprirà ma le premesse fanno presagire per il meglio. Lo stock di Cd, vinile, magliette, libri e quant’altro precedentemente disponibile in negozio è al momento inscatolato in un luogo asciutto e sicuro, e ci sono anche diversi articoli che non sono mai apparsi prima d’ora nelle liste del catalogo. A partire da quest’inverno dovrei essere in grado di fare il nuovo inventario di quel che è rimasto e di aggiornare tutte le liste.

Il nuovo sito del negozio sarà molto completo e conterrà una lunghissima lista di opzioni per la ricerca e la catalogazione dei prodotti. Qualche mese fa incominciai a importare l’intero catalogo nel nuovo sistema, per poi purtroppo dovermi fermare a causa di un aggiornamento del software che mi ha bloccato fino ad oggi. Il sistema pare molto piu solido per cui conto di riuscire a recuperare il lavoro svolto – centinaia di cd e vinili catalogati per genere, con tanto di copertine, descrizione, affinità (ma vedrete, vedrete, ne sono davvero entusiasta)!

Come premesso, Buio Omega è adesso attivo seppur in incubazione. Se avete domande rispondete pure con un commento a questo blog e sarà mia premura rispondere al piu presto. Sono ovviamente aperto a consigli e suggerimenti. Alle critiche un po’ meno eh eh.

A causa di alcuni problemi burocratici, fino al mese di febbraio 2009, il sito sarà raggiungibile soltanto attraverso l’indirizzo buio-omega.biz. Tutte le email inviate a michele@buio-omega.it e il sito www.buio-omega.it hanno cessato di funzionare. Per contatti diretti potete contattarmi all’indirizzo info@nuclearabominations.com. Da Febbraio in poi, riattiverò l’email precedente.

Il catalogo aggiornato sarà disponibile nei prossimi giorni, nelle pagine di questo sito. Eventuali nuovi arrivi saranno segnalati in prima pagina, cosi come anche notizie su nuove produzioni Nuclear Abominations e eventuali serate in cui sarò presente con lo stand.

Due to some purely Italian bureaucratic pitfalls, the buio-omega.it domain is not working anymore. Both the website and e-mail connected to buio-omega.it will be unactive up to February 2009. Do not use the old email for orders, the messages will bounce back.Contact me at info@nuclearabominations.com until then.

The up to date catalog will be available on this website in the next days. Eventual new arrivals will be posted on the front page (this one) as well as news on Nuclear Abominations releases and festivals I will be attending with my stand.