Clutch
-
Content Count
440 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
17
Posts posted by Clutch
-
-
My condolences to her family. 😦
-
Thank you for posting this. Happened to log on this morning to check for updates and went in to register.
-
My deepest sympathies to his family. 🙁
https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/20/power-rangers-jason-david-frank-dead-dies-tommy-oliver-green-white/
-
10 hours ago, MattTheMinion said:
To be honest there isn't much we can do when it's slow other than reboot the virtual server it sits on in AWS-land and hope that it starts behaving again.
There is a software update coming out soon, so perhaps that will help?
I have been dealing with a similar situation at work where a customer self hosts our application on their virtual servers. They built new virtual servers with Widows/SQL Server 2019. They started complaining about performance issues after running a massive Monthly job which generated hundreds of thousands of transactions. They were not monitoring their system, so our team was pulled in 2 days after to figure out what is happening. On the very first day of my involvement I asked them to check the virtual system (asked at least 3 times throughout the day). The 2nd day of the outage call I asked again. The 3rd day they brought in a member from one of our other teams who checked their piece and said "oh, this new server you built has half the CPU resources as the old one". Customer waffles for a while before getting their VM team to add more CPU allocation to the servers. As soon as they add it, low and behold, our application starts performing better. It only took a simple clubbing over the head to get them to check it.
In your case, the VM server hosting the web site is probably overcommitted and starving this web site for resources. When you run on shared VMs, you are at the mercy of every other VM running on the server. Some other site can be filling up all the drive space, hogging all the memory or CPU. I would put in a ticket and complain about slow performance and ask them to review the VM infrastructure for issues.
-
Seems like no one cares about the BBS any more. When Zuckerbook and Twelonter tank maybe people will come back.
-
I am not from that area and only do shopping during the day. Never had any problems walking down from the convention center towards Chinatown. Highly recommend getting one of the folding maps they sell in one of the drug stores (maybe Wallgreens?). They have indicators for the train stops on those maps too. A decent compass is not a bad idea, either.
Have been going to DC since Otakon moved there and only found the 2nd Dunkin Donuts this year. When waiting to check out from Otakon 2022, I noticed some courtesy printouts of the local restaurant locations at the Concierge desk. Will have to check for that at arrival next year. There is a Giant grocery store a few blocks from the convention which gets visited a few times over the weekend. That is all by foot travel.
Never driven a car in D.C., but imagine parking will be difficult and expensive. When Otakon was in Baltimore, we would park the car in the hotel lot for the entire weekend. Driving in an unfamiliar town is always stressful, and I try to avoid doing that when possible.
-
1
-
-
If you are going for bands, why not TOKYO GROOVE JYOSHI?
They have a guest Syamisen player in this video. https://youtu.be/g46tXWxtsfY
https://tokyogroovejyoshi.com/
-
I like how you see Marriott Marquis on the billboard at the end.
-
For all we know, the people who tested positive were exposed prior to the convention.
I waited a few days and did a rapid test, then did another one on the weekend after before visiting people. Otakon had pretty strict policies in place (COVID bands had to be visible when entering the convention), and the crowd was more likely to be vaccinated.
-
@MattTheMinion - Are you the person to review this?
-
I received a notice that the Let's Encrypt certificate on this site expired on 8/4. Someone please verify it. Thank you.
-
1
-
-
40 minutes ago, Michael said:
Cons: I had a horrible view of another building. Many non-Otakon guests who must of thought we were crazy. Elevator was slow/broken/overcrowded and no stairs. Nothing for white noise, it was too silent for me. Bar, lounge and lobby were tiny. I didn't see much fraternizing among Otakon guests. Coffee machine was poor.
Out of all the years I have been to Otakon, only one time was there a white noise machine in the room. I don't know if it was left by a guest, in the room for a specific reason (e.g. close to the elevator, vending room, etc.), or supplied by the hotel for the previous guest. For a while I needed one to sleep and brought my own unit.
The coffee machines are usually just ones to make a single cup of coffee from a disposable packet (giant tea bag equivalent). Not really top tier coffee, but a basic cup. My roommate complains about the water coming out tasting like coffee, but in all fairness it is not a 'tea' machine.
-
Pardon my ignorance, but what defines slapping?
Ranma 1/2 had some very catchy opening and closing themes.
Tank! from Cowboy Bebop.
Just Think of Tomorrow from Irresponsible Captain Tylor.
Card Captor Sakura had some good opening themes.
-
2 hours ago, LittleHobbit13 said:
If there's going to be a single funnel going up and down, then that space needs extra staffing attention. Ideally staffing with loud voices. Groups of people (regular attendees, from what I could see of badges) also kept getting gestured to enter Dealers at Hall B instead of going all the way down to Hall C, and then seconds later other people who tried to enter there would get shouted at that they couldn't enter there. It was confusing. Otakon has been pretty good about trying to stay on top of lines in past years, which is why Saturday this year felt so atypically and excessively bad.
The staffers in that morass on Saturday were shouting, but getting muffled out in the throng of people. Great way to burn out their voices too. Megaphones might help, but more electronic message boards throughout would be better. If you could read a sign instead of shouting the information you could get a better response.
quick edit: Better signage at the security check-in would help get people through more quickly. Put up 3-4 static signs in the line path saying to put your electronics on a specific side, to make a gap when approaching the scanner, to hold your arms apart at the scan, and to approach the guard check if you get a red light. That would make the security check people a lot happier than having to repeat the information over and over and over.
-
Unfortunately, we are all at the mercy of the other guests in the hotels.
I think it was pre-pandemic where the couple in the next room decided to have a fight. Screaming and throwing things at 2 in the morning. Another time, I was stuck next to a party room where they were making noise until about 3 AM. Other times you have people talking full volume, or yelling in the hallways. The doors and walls don't muffle that much.
The Marriott Marquis has a couch and table located in a space near the elevators. A few years back some group decided to have a party there and you could hear the noise down the hallway. If I was the person in the room that adjoined it, there would have been words. This year it looks like moved the couch to the wall so nobody could sit there. It is a shame there are so many selfish individuals who don't respect their fellow guests. 🤬
-
I can't knock Otakon for some of the crowd control issues. They are a group of volunteers. So unless a lot more people volunteer to steer crowds, their choices are limited. Then you have the selfish people who cut lines, which leads others to follow.
-
-
The Good: The red jacket guy and Otakon Staff handling the lined to the Marriott Connector. They were doing the best they could in a bad situation.
-
The Bad: Overcrowding. I waited in a line to get to the Dealer's Hall, only to not get much of a look at any of the merchandise. There were a solid wall of people near any table. The top of the escalator's near the Game Hall was a mad mess, as was the bottom end of the escalators. The stairs had been closed off to go down to the Connector level and a giant mass was trying to fill 2 elevators to go down. That was when the police had things blocked off. Surprised Otakon did not get shut down by the Fire Marshall at that point. Felt sorry for all the people waiting outside in lines all weekend. As others have said, it was a long line to go through security, but I ended up going outside to get back to the hotel some times. The main fault is with the venue. They need more connectors between the buildings. Instead you only have the bottom floor to access either side of the upper levels. Very short sighted on their part.
-
The Ugly: The escalators. Moving death traps. I deliberately held the top for 2-3 seconds before getting on in case something bad happened, so I would have time to react. They were packed solid the entire weekend. The down escalator at the Marriott Connector, closest to the convention center, was making a screeching noise mid way down. If you have ever seen a video of an escalator collapsing, that screech would make you shudder. Took the stairs as much as possible, even though my feet were killing me.
😮
-
The Good: The red jacket guy and Otakon Staff handling the lined to the Marriott Connector. They were doing the best they could in a bad situation.
-
The Marriott Marquis was sold out of two bed rooms within 3 minutes. I tried to book one, and they were already gone by the time I hit the Book Rooms button. Refreshed a minute later and everything was sold out for any room configuration.
-
I have said this before, but I will not be joining any social media sites for Otakon content. They will need to post all updates on Otakon.com for me to see them.
Otakon does not promote the forum that I have seen, so there is no new blood. Kids now are all Tik Tok.
The old/popular posters are not posting any more. Nothing from Alabaster, Cousin Sue, Fadamoore (apologies for any misspellings)?
-
On 7/26/2022 at 8:11 AM, Daniel Perales said:
I expect the slow-down would be caused by the volume of people logging in as the convention draws near, but that isn't the case.
It's almost as slow as dial-up sometimes.
Please reboot the server or something. It is still taking a while to load pages.
-
Forum is running slowly again. Throttling from the heat?
-
I almost thought about taking a Raspberry Pi, but did not want to pack the keyboard. Staples had a folding keyboard on clearance, but it was still priced pretty high. Who remembers WebTV?
-
On 7/18/2022 at 10:14 PM, TnAdct1 said:
Adding to the list:
- Food
- Change of clothes
- Soap
- Wild Bill mug
There is (or at least was) a grocery store near the convention center. Rather than pack food for the trip, we just stop in there and take things back to the hotel. The rooms usually have a refrigerator so we are golden.
-
I don't remember if it was last year or the year before, but I went into one of the local coffee shops and placed and order. When I pulled out cash they said "we don't accept cash". I told them to cancel the order. However, I wondered if this is a trend down there. Was thinking about getting one of those pre-paid Visa cards to take with me for the trip.
Is it me, or the hotel's "con-rates" seems to be no better than their regular rates?
in General Discussions
Posted
Prices don't go down for the most part. Hotels set the price on the cost of doing business plus a profit. If you try to make the profit too high, you kill your business by scaring off the guests. They have to maintain the rooms, utilities, upgrades every few years, pay staff, etc. The new hotel up the road which was built a few years ago is $140 a night and that is in the suburbs of Philadelphia. In the city itself I bet the prices are much higher.
We all want more pay to make our lives easier and that includes hotel staff. It is a never ending cycle unfortunately.