BIRC - the real BIRC

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Bob S.
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BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by Bob S. » November 21st, 2010, 1:56 pm

After a number of attempts to get some reasonable information out of the UK forum this morning (morning that is in California), I have finally figured out what BIRC means - Buggered Indoor Rowing Communications. It seems to happen every year, but this one is the worst yet. The system apparently just gets overloaded. I did get one snip of great news out of it. John Hodgson became the first centenarian to complete a 2k in competition.

Bob S.

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Citroen
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by Citroen » November 21st, 2010, 3:03 pm

It's got worse right now as everyone will be getting home and logging on to the forum to see if there's any news.

It's partly a problem with PHPBB (the forum software) and MySQL (the forum database) not being able to scale up to an abnormal load. I'll chat to Chris Rowe (UK forum admin) about it on Monday.

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jliddil
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by jliddil » November 21st, 2010, 3:16 pm

Pretty much hosed all morning here in the East Coast, USA and for the last couple of hours. Either get "Be right Back" or the SQL too many connections message
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by SteveV » November 21st, 2010, 5:12 pm

It's shut down altoghether now, just a short message anouncing it's absence

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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by JoeF » November 21st, 2010, 7:35 pm

A bit of a disappointment. I managed to connect a couple times, never got much info before it broke. It's still down at 4pm Pacific time.

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mikvan52
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by mikvan52 » November 21st, 2010, 7:42 pm

Citroen wrote:It's got worse right now as everyone will be getting home and logging on to the forum to see if there's any news.

It's partly a problem with PHPBB (the forum software) and MySQL (the forum database) not being able to scale up to an abnormal load. I'll chat to Chris Rowe (UK forum admin) about it on Monday.
Couldn't there be a separate url for results.. one that could manage big loads independent of running through PHPBB?

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Citroen
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by Citroen » November 21st, 2010, 11:06 pm

JoeF wrote:A bit of a disappointment. I managed to connect a couple times, never got much info before it broke. It's still down at 4pm Pacific time.
It won't be back online before 09:00 GMT (1:00am PST) Monday.

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Citroen
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by Citroen » November 21st, 2010, 11:09 pm

mikvan52 wrote:
Citroen wrote:It's got worse right now as everyone will be getting home and logging on to the forum to see if there's any news.

It's partly a problem with PHPBB (the forum software) and MySQL (the forum database) not being able to scale up to an abnormal load. I'll chat to Chris Rowe (UK forum admin) about it on Monday.
Couldn't there be a separate url for results.. one that could manage big loads independent of running through PHPBB?
A seperate webserver and a seperate database with a bit of funky redirection in Apache would do that.

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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by luckylindy » November 22nd, 2010, 12:24 am

Or even better - they could simply cache the pages in memory or save off static pages. I ran a site that could handle 200,000 visitors per day off of a tiny $5/month shared hosting plan, simply because I configured it to cache frequently accessed pages in memory (so it never hit the database or even the php parser). Before I wrote the quick caching logic the max connections was closer to 2,000.
6'1" (185cm), 196 lbs (89kg)
LP: 1:18 100m: 17.3 500m: 1:29 1000m: 3:26 5k: 18:58 10k: 39:45

macroth
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by macroth » November 22nd, 2010, 8:15 am

"Cannot do query: MySQL server has gone away"

Methinks MySQL server has a leaky bladder. It seems to be away more often than not.

Anybody have a clue if the BIRC site will ever be able to post race analyses or videos?
43/m/183cm/HW
All time PBs: 100m 14.0 | 500m 1:18.1 | 1k 2:55.7 | 2k 6:15.4 | 5k 16:59.3 | 6k 20:46.5 | 10k 35:46.0
40+ PBs: 100m 14.7 | 500m 1:20.5 | 1k 2:59.6 | 2k 6:21.9 | 5k 17:29.6 | HM 1:19:33.1| FM 2:51:58.5 | 100k 7:35:09 | 24h 250,706m

TabbRows
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by TabbRows » November 22nd, 2010, 9:25 am

Results are now up. site appears to be working intermitently.

BTW Ranger did make a show, finishing 3rd at 7:02 something. No where near his target time. I'm sur eit was those fish n chips and Boddingtons the night befor ethat slowed him down.
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macroth
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by macroth » November 22nd, 2010, 9:47 am

Yes, everything seems to be running fine now, including race analyses.
43/m/183cm/HW
All time PBs: 100m 14.0 | 500m 1:18.1 | 1k 2:55.7 | 2k 6:15.4 | 5k 16:59.3 | 6k 20:46.5 | 10k 35:46.0
40+ PBs: 100m 14.7 | 500m 1:20.5 | 1k 2:59.6 | 2k 6:21.9 | 5k 17:29.6 | HM 1:19:33.1| FM 2:51:58.5 | 100k 7:35:09 | 24h 250,706m

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jliddil
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by jliddil » November 22nd, 2010, 9:55 am

I don't race and never really looked at results before. So I was looking at the BIRC stroke/pace graphs across various categories, men and women and note how in general despite the age, pace etc that the stroke rate and pace graph lines are generally fairly flat and linear for all competitors, except one. Though I admit to not looking at every single graph. This one graph just sticks out and I can't quite grasp the erratic data. OK I know stop trying :)
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macroth
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by macroth » November 22nd, 2010, 10:10 am

The first 100 seconds of that particular graph are astonishing, to say nothing of the rest.
43/m/183cm/HW
All time PBs: 100m 14.0 | 500m 1:18.1 | 1k 2:55.7 | 2k 6:15.4 | 5k 16:59.3 | 6k 20:46.5 | 10k 35:46.0
40+ PBs: 100m 14.7 | 500m 1:20.5 | 1k 2:59.6 | 2k 6:21.9 | 5k 17:29.6 | HM 1:19:33.1| FM 2:51:58.5 | 100k 7:35:09 | 24h 250,706m

luckylindy
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Re: BIRC - the real BIRC

Post by luckylindy » November 22nd, 2010, 3:35 pm

Wow, congrats to Nav for an incredible race ( http://concept2.co.uk/birc/result_analy ... c_id=37878 ) ... with a nice finish. Were any other of the forum members here (other than ranger), at the race?
6'1" (185cm), 196 lbs (89kg)
LP: 1:18 100m: 17.3 500m: 1:29 1000m: 3:26 5k: 18:58 10k: 39:45

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