Zak Klemmer’s Neighborhood

Ah, remember the days when Chrysler rested on the words of another Italian guy, Chairman Lee?

Despite still having some compose-window blackouts over a few hours today, December 8 marks the day when Vox has given me 10 compose windows within minutes, a record.
   I’m still not sure which neighbour might be causing the glitch, after Kimmie at Six Apart gave me a clue that it might be someone I was following that began my problems back in October.
   I spent the day deleting dormant and dead accounts, as well as some added in October. While things aren’t perfect, they are better than they were last week, when I had another 24-hour block.
   So it’s time to share a few videos again. I finally watched a recording of the most recent David Tennant Doctor Who special, ‘The Waters of Mars’. (I missed it due to a business trip last week.) I didn’t think it was that great, but since we have two Tennant stories left, I know we are building up to a pretty impressive finalé. There were more references to David Bowie (the Mars base was named after him), which got me thinking about Life on Mars again …

I don’t know if we can pronounce Vox fixed, but this is the seventh compose window this morning. It took about a minute to come up.
   I’ve had so many of these temporary successes getting the compose screen, only to find that I am barred from composing for another day afterwards. However, I might have reason to say that the glitches are becoming a thing of the past.
   Earlier today, Kimmie at Six Apart responded to a thread to say that the error was caused by someone I am following. So, I spent this morning removing all dead Vox accounts among my neighbourhood. I then removed those that had not updated since December 2008 (an arbitrary month I chose), with the exception of people I knew. I got several compose windows within minutes, but I still got two of these, which meant the problem did not lie with those accounts:

Vox compose screen

Hmm, is it fixed? It still took a minute or two for the compose window to come up, but that’s better than hours (or days). It came up by itself, without refreshes. Are more recent neighbours safe?
   I’m heading over to tell Patricia on her Facebook what Kimmie told me, and see if this helps her.
   Though if it were the mere act of following a neighbour on Vox that started this whole bug, then what does it say about that Voxer? And why should the rest of us who are innocent be dragged down with someone with a troublesome account?
   It’s still a Vox bug, but at least we can get to the bottom of it (eventually).

Removing dead accounts didn’t work, so I removed all Voxers from my neighbourhood who have not blogged since the end of 2008. I made exceptions for those whom I know either personally or got to know well over the internet, although those folks who have moved on out of Vox were also removed. Though I am still sceptical that this compose window wasn’t a fluke …
   We will soon know after a little more testing, but it looks like I am coming to the end of my hassles on Vox after nearly two months.
   The next step is to see whom I might have begun to follow around October 2009 if the 28th of the month was when I began experiencing “the block”.

If you’ve been following the ‘Forced into it’ thread at my other Vox blog, you’ll find that Six Apart does have yet another person who cares! Kimmie responded today and identified that I might be following someone in my neighbourhood that has caused the block (in composing posts—thanks, Kimmie). I’ve just removed all dead accounts in my neighbourhood and admittedly, I just got this compose window in a regular time. (Though as I have seen all too often since October 28, these have always been flukes.)
   However, since we’ve narrowed down the likely glitch, I am feeling a bit more confident that this blog is back. Look out for a second post, assuming the dead-neighbour theory is right.
   If not, I will have to go through the neighbour list and see who might be a spammer whom Vox doesn’t like, and remove them next.

If you got my neighbour or friend request today, it’s me—Jack Yan—at a new location because Vox has locked me out of the old one. Here’s a bit more on the scenario.

The compose screen is still taking hours to a full day to load on Vox, which means they still have not fixed their very serious glitch that is locking out a growing number of users. (Patricia Volonakis Davis was locked out by September, and my troubles began on October 28.) If I haven’t “neighboured” or “friended” you from lucire.vox.com, please know it was an oversight as I skimmed pages of existing neighbours very quickly to make the new URL a “home”. In such a case, please feel free to “neighbour” me first and I will reciprocate if I know you.
   As of December 4, here was how Vox’s reliability looked:

   Yellow signifies the days when things were normal. Pink represents the days when I had partial access (waiting typically hours for the compose window to show). Red days were the ones where Vox blocked me completely from making any new posts.
   I’ve since had a 24-hour period (over the 4th and 5th) where I was locked out of this blog again, and was forced to the new location (and on to Tumblr, which is the one service that has gained from Six Apart’s failings).
   Patricia was emailing Vox with her problems for ages, to no avail. I know now how she felt, even if I did have Daisy batting on my side and referring on all my information. She seems to be the only person at Six Apart who cares.

Lalo Schifrin, composer of Mission: Impossible and Mannix, is still going strong at age 77. These were from a few years ago, and it shows that Mr Schifrin is as lively today as a pianist and conductor as he was in his prime.
   One YouTuber described him as a ‘living legend’. The term seems very applicable here.

There’s still no rhyme or reason on when Vox allows me to access my blog here. This morning, I got in a private post, but clicking ‘Create’ again, nothing happened for the next hour.
   I wanted to share this opening title from Bullitt, after posting another one from Pablo Ferro on my Tumblr blog. This remains my favourite Ferro design. Though set in Chicago, only the skyline scene was shot there; the rest was in San Francisco.