The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20160307030045/http://blog.freenode.net:80/2012/04/

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Trying to prove we are human, too

Monthly Archives: April 2012

April 1st, the aftermath

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It’s been two weeks since our April Fools quiz; thanks to everybody who participated. Several people managed to complete the quiz; the first eight are:

  1. dwfreed
  2. bikcmp
  3. divVerent
  4. sbp
  5. meridion
  6. heftig
  7. JoshuaA
  8. [bjoern]

Here are the riddles and their solutions, in the original order:

Stage 1, the picture linked on the blog:

ITucplOwnTShozIfVT1cM2u0VTWyVPZwp3EupaD=


This was base64 + rot13 encryption,
##start

Stage 2, topic in ##start

###### MLG UZHGVI GSZM


Encryption A-Z Z-A,
“NOT FASTER THAN”

With a bit of thinking, this led the users to ######neutrinos

Stage 3, topic in ######neutrinos

#### C0LEMAK 43WRXC 34PTCXRW XSF34GDVC BHJ6 CTP4GHKNL7 87JHKMEN


Solvable with a picture of the Colemak keyboard layout and a bit of tracing with your fingers. Following the path between the keys on the keyboard gave you C, O, D, I, N, G.

Stage 4, topic in ####coding

3. #### Find a five-digit number in which the last number is the sum of the first, second, and third; the third is four less than the last; the fourth is two less than the last; and the first and fourth added are one less than the last. The last number is also three times the second.


Plain math, 13579

Stage 5, topic in ####13579

#### This “huge” work, written over twen ty years, contains ten books. What colour is it?


The Great Book of Amber
####amber

Last Stage, topic in ####amber

i yam what i yam but i yam ####

which lead to ####popeye, the final channel.

We hope you enjoyed our little quiz and had a great time.

Database prune

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Every couple of years, freenode likes to get out the shears and prune the services database. Recently we broke the 80,000 usercount barrier, but the services stats are way ahead:

Sat 13:35:46 -OperServ([email protected])- Registered accounts: 446777
Sat 13:35:46 -OperServ([email protected])- Registered nicknames: 557497
Sat 13:35:47 -OperServ([email protected])- Registered channels: 141373

We’ve noticed that nearly half of the accounts shown there haven’t been used in the past 6 months! More importantly, over the past few months many people have noticed significant waits when issuing certain services commands – and we’d like to fix that.

Hopefully, the services upgrade should help with this, but we’re going to coincide this with a database prune.

As of the services upgrade date, any nicks unused for > 150 days are at risk of being dropped. This includes grouped nicks. The easy way to avoid this happening is to use each of your grouped nicks (while identified to the appropriate account) within the next few weeks – and to drop those that you don’t need anymore!

The testnet (testnet.freenode.net, port 9002. 9003 for SSL) is running a database snapshot from mid-March and will be periodically updated from the production network. This database instance is being regularly pruned – so check there to see how your account will be affected (use /msg nickserv info on both the production and test networks to see the differences).

Remember that testnet isn’t running a real-time duplicate of the production network, so when you use nicks which would be expired on the production network, they will still appear expired on testnet until the next database snapshot is migrated. Don’t worry though – the actual pruning will only occur on the current database at the time of upgrade.

On which note.. an upgrade date hasn’t been formally fixed but we’re aiming for mid-May.

Thanks, and don’t forget to test the testnet!

Help us test our services upgrade!

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Very soon we will be upgrading your favourite network helpers… (no not erry…): NickServ, ChanServ, Alis etc. They’re currently connected to our testnet and we need your help with testing, looking for any issues which may affect the production network.

You can connect to our testnet at testnet.freenode.net port 9002 (or 9003 for SSL)

The full changelog is rather long and not all of the features offered by atheme are loaded on freenode. So to help you out, we’ve pulled out the highlights which we think deserve attention:

  • NickServ’s certfp module. (see /msg nickserv help cert and this link.)
  • NickServ will now notify you in real time of failed logins.
  • NickServ’s previous limit on password lengths has been increased.
  • ChanServ will still hand over single-# channels to freenode-staff on expiration of the channel founders, but the method has changed.
  • NickServ & ChanServ’s ‘set’ commands have had a general reorganisation behind the scenes. Nothing should be visibly different but it won’t hurt to check them!

Please note that the services database on the testnet is probably more than a few days old. Don’t be surprised if recent changes you have made on the production network aren’t replicated there.

We’re all in in #freenode on the testnet so please come find us there if you have any questions or bugs.

Finally, look out for a followup blogpost (hopefully quite soon) with some important information on the upgrade itself and our planned database cleanup!

Thanks for using freenode!

P.s. a full list of changes from atheme ~5.1 to ~6 can be found here

80k…

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As of today, freenode had 81443 concurrent connections. Last Friday, the count lingered around 79987, presumably to make things more interesting for those of us keeping close track.

We passed this milestone one working day later than I predicted in January 2011, more than a year ago. Scary precision, I know. Extrapolation based on graphs and nothing else is a big no-no in the scientific circles, yet we really do grow at an exceptionally steady and predictable pace.

Still remembering the excitement when irc.openprojects.net surpassed 2,000 users, I have always had a knack for those numbers. Meaningless in and as of themselves, they do prove that we are able to provide a valuable service to our users and that more and more people apparently agree. freenode is not without growing pains, but I like to think that we are on a good path.

Once again, all of us would like to thank all our users and all our volunteers. It’s a fun ride for us and, hopefully, for you, too!

To make tracking our old posts regarding this easier, here goes:

http://blog.freenode.net/2007/08/freenode-has-reached-40-000-users/

http://blog.freenode.net/2008/09/50000-active-users/

http://blog.freenode.net/2009/12/happy-new-year-2010/

http://blog.freenode.net/2011/01/freenode-70k/

See you around July 2013 when we expect to hit 90k.. :)

Network wide policy privacy change

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ITucplOwnTShozIfVT1cM2u0VTWyVPZwp3EupaD=

ITucplOwnTShozIfVT1cM2u0VTWyVPZwp3EupaD=

 

UPDATE : Yes, this was an April Fools Joke.  Some of you fell for it, some didn’t.  There’s still time to complete the quiz and get an April Fool cloak, if you can figure out where to go…

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