#synclock

[winghangsigns]

Mass production of digital tube electronic clocks“HH:MM:SS” for hospital #nixietubeclocks #hospitalclocks #schoolclock #farmclock #busclock #plazaclock #3dclockzhanaozen #synclock #superclock #smartclockgiveaway #metroclock #subwayclock #trainclock #airportclock #clocktower #towerclockrepair #bigbenclock #thaiclock #asianclock #parkingclock #campusclock #primaryclock #clockproject（在 Shenzhen City Of China） https://www.instagram.com/p/CMWEc_TlD8s/?igshid=btdxuepnezsm

[cerise0714]

シンクロック / Synclock

收錄於2017年2nd Single「かなしいうれしい」（又悲又喜）

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たった四分ちょっとの音楽の為に 君はどれくらいの未来 踊ってくれんの たった一秒ちょっとの四文字のくせに 僕はずっと想い悩んでいたんだよ

だから何秒間も何分間も 何年間も忘れない為に 何百回も何万回も 何回も何回も何回もわかりあいたくて 伝えてく

僅在這短短四分鐘的音樂 能為你的未來 帶來多少起舞的時刻呢 就算只有短短的一秒四字 也總讓我不斷地煩惱思索喔

所以無論幾秒也好 幾分也好 為了歷經幾年後都不被遺忘 幾百回也好 幾萬回也好 無論經歷多少循環 都想再次 傳達給你

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる 例え時代が合わなくったって 同じ涙を知っているんだろうから

一直一直一直一直在等待著 為了處在不同的時代中 也能享有共感的眼淚

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる 例えあなたの時計止まっても また会えると信じて止まらないから

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる 一直一直一直一直在等待著 就算你的時間已戛然而止 也始終相信我們能再次相遇 一直一直一直一直等待著

ほんの四分ちょっとの振動の中で 君はどれくらい心 揺らしてくれんの チックタックチックタックリズムに乗せて 今もずっと思い悩んでいるんだよ

這四分鐘內小小的振動中 能如何讓你內心蕩漾呢 乘著滴答滴答的節奏 現在也不斷地煩惱思索著喔

だから何秒間も何分間も 何年間も途切れない為に 何百回も何万回も 何回も何回も何回も繋ぎとめたくて 続けてく

所以無論幾秒也好 幾分也好 為了幾年後都不會被遺忘 幾百回也好 幾萬回也好 無論經歷多少循環 都想與你繼續 緊緊相繫

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる Metronome と踊らなくたって 同じ夜風を知っているんだろうから ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる たとえ rhythm の波が黙っても 聴こえてると信じて止まらないから ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる

一直一直一直一直在等待著 為了就算不隨著Metronome起舞 也能吹著同一陣夜風 一直一直一直一直在等待著 就算rhythm的聲浪已靜止 也始終相信能再次被人聽見 一直一直一直一直在等待著

今この日をこの瞬間を待ち望んでいた 待ち望んでいた 待ち望んでいた 待ち望んでいたんだ

此刻 這一日 這一瞬間 正是我所期盼的 一直在期盼著 一直在期盼著 一直殷殷期盼著的

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる 例え時代が合わなくったって 同じ涙を知っているんだろうから 一直一直一直一直在等待著 為了處在不同的時代中 也能享有共感的眼淚

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる 例えあなたの時計止まっても また会えると信じて止まらないから 今この日をこの瞬間を待ち望んでいた 待ち望んでいた 待ち望んでいた 待ち望んでいたんだ

ずっとずっとずっとずっと待ってる

一直一直一直一直在等待著 就算你的時間已戛然而止 也始終相信我們能再次相遇 此刻 這一日 這一瞬間 正是我所期盼的 一直在期盼著 一直在期盼著 一直殷殷期盼著的 一直一直一直一直在等待著

[qonqr]

The Migration from Hell

TLDR:

A new update will be out today

This upgrade/migration was very difficult

Expect some small issues over the next few weeks

Some older phones won’t work anymore, after the migration is complete

Greetings QONQR players. It has been several months since my last blog update. I hope my absence hasn’t created too much concern.

In early winter I began undergoing a massive migration effort on our servers. This followed a 4-month effort to accomplish a similar upgrade of our iPhone and Android clients to move to the new platform recommended for cross platform mobile development.

The server migration was excruciating to say the least.  For the technical folks in the crowd, we moved to the modern Web Application hosting model in Microsoft Azure, from the Classic Cloud Services model. This included a migration from ASP MVC 4 to ASP.Net Core.

For the non-technical folks, image that you built a custom car five years ago following the instructions published by a big electric car company, using mostly that company’s parts. Now said car company says that if you want to keep getting replacement batteries, you need to make some changes to your car. BUT don’t worry, you can re-use almost all of the parts.  Then you find out, that bolts are no longer allowed to connect the parts, and some new fasteners are needed. Some parts need to be moved from the front to the back of the car. You need to change out the engine start button on the dash to a thumb print reader on the gear shift. Also, the car must be re-assembled from the top down, which requires scaffolding to hold the car up as you build it. Now imagine that some of the new instructions are missing a few critical steps and you need to email support, which takes several days, to get to a solution. Also imagine that other instructions are complete, but the example diagrams are only samples of how to put things together, but you would never do it that way if your goal was to ever drive the car over 30 mph (and it doesn’t note that important detail).

This effectively describes my last 6 months.  Almost none of the logic on the server changed, the code parts were for the most part the same, yet it took months to connect my software to Microsoft’s new services and restructure the code to fit the new runtime requirements. All the while, avoiding the many mistakes in Microsoft’s documentation or avoiding the bad architecture advice that hurts the security and scalability we had in the old model.

I’ve talked to a few game developers over the years who had built a profitable game, but let it “die” or removed it from the store while many people were still playing it. In almost every case, the developer(s) reason for ending the game was because they couldn’t afford to do the upgrade that would be needed to keep the game going. Like with version 2 (QONQR Blue), I was too damned stubborn to abandon the game, and forced my way through the upgrade.

It was awful, and I can see how others have been smart enough not to try it. Software developers want to be creating new stuff, being innovative, overcoming challenges and solving problems they created themselves. Working to upgrade a large system has almost no innovation, requires reworking old stuff, and deals almost entirely with solving problems someone else (Microsoft, Apple, Google) created.  In many companies, a sure way to lose your best software developers is to make them spend months doing exactly this.

I’ve been very honest with my friends the past few months, and I’ve always done my best to be candid with my QONQR players.  The past year of migrations and upgrades, dealing with Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s terrible documentation and awful mobile platforms have destroyed my love of writing software. The industry has been flooded with “best practices” that make the easy things easier, and the hard things much, much harder. Ironically many of these “best ways to do things” hurt security on the mobile devices and reduce performance on the servers. It has been very difficult to fit within the “new way” of doing things, but keep our app secure, fast, and scalable.

What’s next for the app?

The new server hosting should save us money in our hosting costs and should support more users.  Some new features I hope to add in the future, were not supported in the old architecture.

The new servers are running now and a new QONQR app is in the stores for Android and iOS, version 3.1. I have decided to benchmark this as a major update, despite most the changes being on the server.

The new and old servers will run in parallel for a few weeks or months. Old apps will continue to connect to the old servers for now.  The new app has an option in settings that will allow you to connect to the old server if we find a bug impacts some users on the new server.

Android 4.4 and below will not be supported with the new app.  The security issues with 4.4 are too significant and the operating system is now 5 versions and 6 years behind the current Android version.

iPhone 5 and up will be supported for now, but that may change to iPhone 5S and up before the end of the year.

We think most features in Windows Phone will continue to work with the new servers once the old servers are shut down.  We are not testing WP anymore. Two things we know will not work are chat and the SyncLock protection mini-game.  It is unclear how much longer we will allow Window Phone clients to connect to the servers. Microsoft is officially discontinuing support for Windows Phone in 6 months. If the new server migration breaks the ability to launch and harvest on Windows Phone, that will be the end of our support for WP.

Chat and the SyncLock mini-game will not work between the new and old clients.  The new services for “live” connections are very different and I have not found a way to support old connections with the new services.  This will be a pain point we simply need to deal with during the migration.

Many new Android phones are flagged as tablets in the version 2.X version of the app.  This restriction is be removed in the 3.1 version.

What is next for Silver?

I need to find a way to enjoy this again. What makes QONQR great is the people who contribute positively to the community.  Perhaps I need to spend more time in the chat rooms just hanging out and chatting.  Maybe I need to work on something completely tangential to QONQR, such as finally shutting down the old forums that are plagued with Russian spam and moving to a new system. Maybe I should work on making it easier to crowdsource updates to the several languages QONQR support. Perhaps I need to spend some time cleaning up duplicate zones. Maybe I need to go fishing once a week.  I am looking for ways I can enjoy writing code again.

I hope this new server migration goes smoothly.  The sooner I can stop working on old problems, the sooner we can all get on to new and more exciting features.  Please bear with me as we work through the final migration issues.

Thanks for supporting QONQR.

-Scott (aka Silver)