What the Heck Has Been Up with the Press?

Dear Faithful Readers,

You may have noticed that from approximately February 24th to last Friday, the Piker Press was unavailable for viewing.

We noticed, too.

Have you ever stirred up an anthill with a stick, and watched the little creatures race around, ready to kick whose-ever butt if only they could find him? That's what the Pikers were like, trying to figure out why we were virtually dead in the water.

Josh Brown, Technical and Sci-Fi Editor, was the first to find that the trouble lay in the Cold Fusion interface, which Jerry Seeger and a kind Samaritan named Nathan subsequently also saw. We sent off a "HELP!" message to our webhost, the infamous Infinology, and waited for rescue, marooned on the desert island with our wooden cases of brilliant but completely inedible articles and stories.

We waited some more. Then, cursing mightily, we threw more messages to our webhost, which had even less effect than they would have if we had written them on the backs of dried palm tree scales and stuffed them in bottles to be tossed into the ocean. We were lost, and our webhost had no interest whatsoever in finding us.

Quickly and ingeniously building a raft from coconuts and free-verse poetry, the Pikers set off, in search of a new webhost. While we sought our new cyber- land fall, we Googled the name of every allegedly decent webhosting company we could find. (An interesting process: you type in the name of the company and add the word "sucks" to the search -- and get all kinds of information!)

We found LFC Webhosting. And hoping for the best, we've landed there.

Transferring all our files and images and luggage was a monumental job, with hours and hours of effort and eye-straining scrutiny, so the Pikers pitched in and drank much wine and beer and ate pretzels while we made Josh Brown do all the work.

We did, however, pester him a lot and ask "Are we there yet?" every five minutes or so.

We're glad to be back on line, and hope that you will continue to read the Piker Press. And remember when you read, that were it not for the brilliant effort of Josh Brown, we would not be here.

Thank you, Josh.