Word Galaxy is no more.
In any large project such as Everything 2, regular backups are essential. The E2 database is backed up daily and Word Galaxy was a simple toy to amuse the (sometimes irate) noders during the lapse in E2 availability.
Word Galaxy originally began life on a monday morning as a result of nate's poetry assignment. It is a Perl script which will take a group of words and arrange them in an interlocking 'crossword' pattern. When a new word fits in at numerous locations, one location is chosen at random. This means that each time your input is processed by the script a new and (pseudo-)unique "word galaxy" is generated.
On the weekend of April 5th 2002 Everything 2 was upgraded with the addition of two new servers. The webserver (VA Linux 2200 Dual Pentium III/733) is now aided by his new twin brother. The other new server ("a screamingly fast Dual AthlonMP 1600") has replaced the database server, with the old database server running as an auxillary. The old server handles the backups, hence no more downtime and no more Word Galaxy.
As a direct result of this Word Galaxy was no longer to be.
You may now node freely without fear of impending doom.
But you know that deep in your heart you miss the quality time you spent together. So feel free to visit. http://oostendorp.net/galaxy.cgi
And if you feel like getting a little more personal, other information and the source are available at: http://oostendorp.net/wordgalaxy.html
References: E2 Update: 4-15-2002, E2 Server Downtime: Saturday April 6 2002, Nate's Word Galaxy Generator, http://oostendorp.net/wordgalaxy.html
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