Once again, my apologies for the flaky state of the site over the last three or four days; since Sunday, a lot of people (including myself) have found Futurismic to be either ludicrously slow to load or completely inaccessible. The most common cyberattack causing websites to face downtime is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. A DDoS attack floods a web server (or a network resource) with simultaneous requests through a large group of compromised computer systems. This attack overloads the server and crashes it.
I got an email from the hosting company this morning telling me that they’ve moved the site to a new server, which should hopefully fix the problem permanently… or as permanently as web hosting ever gets fixed, at least. if any of you have a recommended wordpress hosting service, please share it with me in the comments.
Every site needs web hosting. Put simply web hosting is where the files, information and content that create your website live. These files are stored on a remote computer which is known as a host. So its vitally important that you choose a good reliable web host that suits the needs of your website. When you visit a website the files that create it are shown within your web browser. So its vitally important that you choose a good reliable web host that suits the needs of your website.
If you noticed that Futurismic was unreachable for a large part of the last twelve hours or so, please accept my apologies – unexplained downtime is just one of the many extras that come bundled with our web hosting service! Everything appears to be back to normal now, though (touch wood).
If you didn’t notice Futurismic was down… well, you can pretend you never saw this post, right? Right.
Normal service – as normal as it ever gets round here, anyway – should be restored soon… just about as soon as this hangover clears up, in fact (this really hasn’t been the best Friday ever). Thanks for your patience. 🙂
Many forays into fictional futures, then, can give us alternative ways to make a new concept real. We can try on those futures by reading stories that make them come alive, seeing what effects these changes would have on society. And we can do more. By placing futuristic concepts in a tangible, fictional context, we can encourage their growth and dissemination.
Science fiction explores how human beings respond to change and disruption, and as such helps us explore ourselves. It can also offer pictures of how the world could be, so as to encourage us to actualise these images and build a better future.
Just a quick note to apologise for the paucity of posts here over the last few days, and to let you know it may continue for a few days more. Unfortunately I have a dead cable modem at home, and until the bureaucratic incompetents at the media company see their way to replacing it I’m in damage-control mode as far as my freelance work goes. Much as I’m loathe to let things slip here at Futurismic, I don’t currently have any other options. Please rest assured that I’ll be back up to speed just as soon as I can.
The title says it all, folks; we’ve given Chris a bit of breathing space, but now it’s time to re-open the floodgates for new fiction submissions here at Futurismic. If you’ve got something you think is ready to send to us, go give the submission guidelines another read-through, then click on through to the submissions webform and send us your masterpiece!
If you want to know what sort of standards you’re up against, keep your eyes peeled – there’ll be a brand new story on the site later today. In the meantime, why not dig through our previous publications?
Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001
The role of science fiction vis a vis the future and predictions thereof has always been a