Well, it was going to happen sooner or later.  After a year or so of planning, development, and testing we took the wraps off of the new CALI website on the afternoon of 6 November 2003.  So far the reception has been good.  Over 500 people have registered and over 675 lessons have been run or downloaded. 

The new site represents a new way of doing business online for CALI.  The old site, which will remain fully functional until 31 December 2003, was a model for old-style, handcrafted, web workmanship.  It served CALI well, but was suffering from its own success.  Traffic on the site was reaching levels that caused various components to fail under the load.  This was most eveident in the CALI Lessons section of the site where peaks in the area of several hundred hits per second where not uncommon.

The new site is database driven, with most content served dynamically from a MySQL database using a PHP/Fusebox framework.  It is running on a Linux server with the Apache webserver.  Testing indicates that this setup will easily withstand the heaviest loads the CALI website has sustained to date with plenty of power to spare.  The database backend of the site will allow for easier and faster updates to the site, better tracking of activity on the site, and provide a foundation for future services and features.

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