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9/14/2006
Upgrade
Memory was upgraded last night, but the
new CPU was defective and that upgrade has been delayed until tonight.
The good news is that with just the memory upgrade and a reboot, the
performance of the site seems to be back to normal. I will still go
forward with the CPU upgrade in order to reduce the likelihood of any
problems in the future.
9/13/2006
Homework Hero Update / Overnight Outage
for Upgrade 9/13/06 So long as the needed parts are in stock, my
hosting service will upgrade hardware on the Homework Hero server
tonight. The upgrade is most likely to take place some time after
midnight EST and there will be some interruption of service. If the
recent problems are related to congestion, this should improve matters
... if not, we will pursue software issues again.
9/13/2006:
My host now reports that
scripts running on the Homework Hero server have crashed several times
in the last few days. This could simply be load-related, and fixable
for the near term with a hardware upgrade, which can be done overnight
tonight. There is no guarantee that this will fix problems reported
yesterday (see below), but it seems to be the only strategy available
at the moment. I will get the specs on possible upgrades today. If
nothing else changes during the day today, I expect to have these
upgrades accomplished overnight tonight.
9/12/2006: Access
Problems Users at a number of
locations have reported problems accessing Homework Hero today. At the
same time, many other locations (including my own) have had no such
problems. My hosting service reports that the server and the network
at the site are functioning completely normally. At this time the
source of the problem is not completely clear, but some possibilities
seem likely. My hosting service suspects that those accessing the
Internet through a proxy server may be subject to the problem. If
affected sites are using common software, perhaps software that has
recently been updated, this might explain both the existence of the
problem at only some locations and its recent appearance at multiple
locations. If you are experiencing problems, please let me know, and
please let me know if you use a proxy server or firewall (and what
software you are using for these functions). A Possible Solution:
One of my users has reported that the problem involves file caching,
and that deleting cached files solved the problem. In Internet
Explorer, choose Tools/Internet options. Under the General Tab, and
under Temporary Internet files, choose to "Delete Cookies"
and to "Delete Files."
Obviously, you should not be forced to
delete cookies to access Homework Hero. Further, this may not be a
permanent fix, since temporary files will accumulate again. However,
if others would try this and let me know if it works, if may help to
find a permanent solution as well as locate the ultimate problem
source.
7/13/2005: Homework
Hero migrated to a new hosting service and a new dedicated server over
the July 4 holiday weekend. All went smoothly! Our new hosting
service is a premier business hosting provider. With this change, we
can assure that your service will be quick and reliable.
4/25/2003:
Homework Hero Version 2.0
Schools who have signed up for Homework Hero since January 2003 are using an upgraded version of our software.
The most important features of the new software are (1) there is
an automatic password retrieval feature for teachers who lose or forget passwords, (2) users can directly upload images from their computers to be placed on an assignment page, (3) the procedure
for inserting HTML is improved -- with just a little work, you can
transfer documents produced in MSWord to your assignment page while preserving
formatting. There are also a few minor improvements, including an option to reformat pages for printing, and correction of a glitch that occurred when a user placed quotation marks in a course title.
Otherwise, the look and feel of the new Homework Hero is much like that of the old.
Unfortunately, databases for the old and new software are not completely compatible --- upgrading requires a reconstruction of your site and a database conversion.
Also, all teacher passwords need to be reset with an
upgrade (it is wise to give everyone some advance notice before
making the switch!).
Site managers who are are interested in switching to the new version can
do so at any time. If you switch, it will be necessary for me to charge a onetime $25 set-up fee per school (or, $25 per database for schools with separate departmental groupings)
to cover costs of converting. Switching versions is NOT mandatory -- if you are happy with your current Homework Hero set-up and operation, just leave it as it is.
Please have your school site manager Contact Us
if your school is interested in upgrading.
If you would like a trial run of the new "Version 2.0" feel free to experiment
with the demo located here:
http://www.homeworkhero.com/aahero01/hh/ademo/index.htm
or see a new site here:
http://www.homeworkhero.com/cgi-bin/aahero01/acceptit20/search.cgi?dir=fl_sadl
Deluxe and Non-Commercial Options are available as before.
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