Fully funded! Thanks everybody!
See the (semi-)final leaderboard here:
http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=632...pid9309847
Thanks to everybody who donated. Be sure to watch the announcements for updates on the progress of getting the upgrade in place.
Some questions you may have answered:
Q: I was meaning to donate but hadn't gotten around to it ... what should I do?
A: Buy some good local microbrew beer and hoist one. I imagine football tickets are available for this season from your school. If you insist ... you may still do so. It will go toward the switch I got (~$100) or gas money on my way out to Dallas to fetch the old server. But don't feel like it is some mission critical donation.
Q: When will we be on the new server and have guest access restored?
A: Friday May 17th-ish at the earliest ... Friday May 24th-ish at the latest. I should be able to enable guests again on just the one new server. It will take me another 72 hours or so to get the current server from Dallas and get it setup in Atlanta. It will probably take another week to setup load balancing and have both servers working together to serve up the site.
Q: Will there be any downtime?
A: Yes. Downtime of however long it takes to transfer the database over the internet from Dallas to Atlanta. Then downtime for DNS changeover (1 hour if you use a good DNS like OpenDNS or Google's DNS servers ... up to 24 hours if your ISP has really terrible DNS.) You'll still access the site during this changeover period ... but if you are still getting the box in Dallas, you will simply get a placeholder page saying wait for DNS changeover. Then there will be some brief outages around late night hours for me to enable clustering when both servers are in Atlanta. In all cases ... details will be posted in the forum announcements ahead of time. So watch those.
Q: When will we get to see the special surprise?
A: On Tuesday. Be watching the announcements.
Q: Are you going to post pics and stuff so I can get a nerd semi?
A: Ewww. And yes.