Tag Archives: ForArgyll.com

Ten Tested Steps to Un-Throttled CPUs

Posted on by Techroom

Warning for the general reader: this is a semi-technical article for WPMU admins and WordPress users hosting their own sites on services such as Bluehost.

We’ve just run into this problem, and we’ve solved it. Completely. The site which was running slowly is now bouncing along at an unflappable rate, and we still have a strategy or two to implement. Such a relief.

So here’s a bullet-proof list to go from choked to blazingly quick:

 

  1. Don’t panic. There will be a really simple reason for it. And unless you have big traffic, it is unlikely to be WordPress or WPMU
  2. Check the tmp file of your server — looking for mysql_slow_queries particularly. This will give you an indication of where things are going awry.
  3. Look at your plugins, and turn all non-essentials off.
  4. Look at your widgets Get rid of anything that looks like it might be cpu intensive. Like what? Tag clouds, related post lists, most commented lists. Anything that is dealing with big numbers of entries in the db on a constant basis.
  5. Look at your overheads. We installed WP Optimize for our emergency, and it helped, cleaning out all those overheads. We’ll continue running it.
  6. Look at your tables. If you have any tables in your db with big numbers of rows, here’s the likely cause of your problem. We had over 30,000 tags, 26,ooo or which had been used once or twice. Bin em, you won’t notice they have gone and suddenly your concorde rather than a puttering old cessna.
  7. Look at your visitors. How many log in? How many just read and bounce out? Mostly the latter — so install Supercache and let the bouncers see cached pages rather than use precious db and php resources to serve them something that could be achieved in two or three calls to the server.
  8. Optimize your theme.
    • replace anything starting with bloginfo() with the real deal eg. bloginfo(‘name’) becomes (in our case) ‘ForArgyll’. 
      • consolidate your css into one file
        • push your javascript into the footer, not the header
          • optimize and minimize all your images
            • forget having abstracted themes if you have huge amounts of traffic. It’s why the default theme is genius.
              • Don’t use widgets, or if you do test them.
              • Turn off Revisions. Do it. There’s a line in your wp-config file. The more posts WP has to cycle through the slower will the CPU go.
              • Test your plugins as you turn them on. They’ll tell you if things are awry. Just keep an eye on the cpu throttling app in the cpanel.

              That’s all you need to know. Guaranteed. And if you’re still having problems, it may just be that someone is spamming you or your db.

              No more premium music videos as YouTube and Performing Rights Society fall out over licence fees

              Posted on by

              Within the last year YouTube struck a new and courageous deal with the UK Performing Rights Society (PRS). This saw it agree to pay an unspecified flat rate fee to PRS to cover the rights to all copyright music featured on videos posted on its website.

              Apart from making straight music videos available to users, the YouTube agreement allowed home video makers to use copyright music in their sound tracks without a liability to pay the music rights which were covered by YouTube.

              This has now fallen apart with YouTube walking away from negotiations and making thousands of videos unavailable to UK users from today.

              Steve Porter, CEO of PRS, described himself as ‘outraged… shocked and disappointed’ by YouTube’s decision, saying that the action ‘punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent’. He has asked YouTube to reconsider its decision as a matter of urgency.

              The disagreement appears to be about the level of the charge.

              PRS say: ‘Google has told us they are taking this step because they wish to pay significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing’.

              YouTube’s Director of Video Partnerships,Patrick Walker,  has told the BBC that he had not wanted to take this action but that PRS was seeking a rise in fees many times higher than the previous agreement.

              With negotiating positions so far apart he feels that YouTube has no choice but to take music content off the site while negotiations with PRS continue.

              The dispute looks like becoming a mutual blame-fest, possibly with chauvinist overtones. Our own first hand experience would suggest that any Brits fired up to rush the barricades in defence of PRS would be advised to stay their feet.

              Patrick Walker told the BBC that the rise PRS had demanded was ‘prohibitive’. He said: ‘The rate they are applying would mean we (YouTube) would lose significant amounts of money on every stream of a music video. It is not a reasonable rate to ask’.

              From a very much more humble position in the online media food chain, this is a scenario we recognise. ForArgyll.com evolved from an early notion of being a largely speech-based online radio station. In putting our business plan together, we calculated that, with the number of streams we would need to attract, we would pay music fees of over £10,000 per annum for playing no more than 15 tracks every 24 hours.

              At that stage we decided to avoid copyright music altogether because we could not afford it; and instead make a feature of unsigned Argyll musicians. That remains our policy against the time that we develop this side of our service. It means that we can use our audience strength to support new bands while avoiding the significant losses that we would otherwise certainly have incurred.

              It really is a case of killing the goose. Ths current stand-off with YouTube has all the hallmarks of a sort of PRS heist – an early agreement to seal them in, followed by a swift hike from which YouTube have simply walked.

              We’re with YouTube in this dispute. Their initial move was a bold one, liberalising access to copyright music and freeing up the creative conjunction of music with other expressive forms for ordinary people to develop and share – at YouTube’s expense. PRS is behaving like a Rachmanist landlord for the music industry which, in its own interests, needs to change its culture.

              NHS Highland consultation on review of mental health services in Argyll & Bute welcomed

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              Highlands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, has welcomed NHS Highland’s consultation on the review of mental health services in Argyll and Bute. He advised all individuals in the area who have experience of the mental health services here – in addition to the local health groups – to be sure to make their views known during the consultation period.

              Commenting on the good reputation of Lochgilphead’s Argyll & Bute Hospital, McGrigor said: ‘I would of course want to see any reconfiguration of services achieving a set up that was at least as good, if not better, than what we have now.

              ‘I am willing to be open-minded at this stage on the balance that has to be struck between specialist acute services and community mental health facilities but I share my constituents’ strong desire- which NHS Highland has already found in the informal consultation so far-  for services to be as local to people’s communities as is safe and achievable.

              ‘Therefore I would have real concerns about the ‘option 5′ which suggests no mental health inpatient beds would remain within Argyll & Bute. My worry here would be that the extra travel involved- perhaps over long distances- for vulnerable patients, their carers, family and friends would add stress, cost and inconvenience for my constituents at an already very difficult time.

              ‘I suspect that the vast majority of my constituents in Argyll & Bute and service users themselves will want to see the retention of at least a sustainable proportion of the adult inpatient beds we currently have’.

              ForArgyll.com hosts the website of the Cowal Mental Health Forum whcih is run by and for mental health service users in Argyll. The entire area of mental health service provision is a cinderella existing to support those for whom the hours before midnight are as stressful as those after it.

              Jamie McGrigor’s focus on the issue and his encouragement to all those with informed views to make them known is a very positive step.

              His highlighting of the option that Argyll and Bute should no longer have any inpatient mental health beds is timely, demanding attention and action.