So for several years and several providers (Verizon DSL, Comcast Cable, and until recently Time Warner Cable), I’ve been running a small laptop as a web host.  It runs WordPress, Mediawiki, some static pages, and some other applications that I use (like MyTinyTodo).  I’ve also used it to host FTP for large files that I couldn’t attach to an e-mail, and many many other uses. It has proved a geeks invaluable tool. I used dyndns.org to keep up with any IP changes (which has happened a total of three times in five or six years). Now my upstream traffic is tiny and is probably not even noticed. The site gets very few visitors and viewing my web stats only a few MB per day worth of traffic. It was nice to have the ability to reach my home from the public internet.

Recently due to some changes, Time Warner has blocked incoming connections to my little server (I can’t even SSH to my home anymore) (and reading their fine print on their service they do not allow users to “run servers”). So while this pisses me off, I’m actually getting ready to physically move (again) from NC to NY so was considering hosting my sites anyway.

I went with the super budget hosting (iPage.com). In the event that I don’t like it, I can pay for a more expensive hosting solution, but I just needed basic transfer, MySQL, PHP5 and some tools to manage it with.  I also took good notes on things that worked and things that didn’t and kept good backups of my work and will continue to take backups of databases and file structure so I can move easily.

I didn’t transfer my domains, just updated their nameservers to the new hosting company. This in essence commoditized hosting as I can move at will to the provider which provides me what I need at what I am willing to pay (granted there is some elbow grease involved in the process).

Here is what I had to do:

Static Files – FTP them to the correct directory, point the subdomain to that directory, update nameservers on the Domain Manager on GoDaddy.

WikiMedia – a little more complex and I possibly could have simplified things – install new version of WikiMedia (create database, etc.), perform export on old server, perform import on new server, point subdomain to correct directory, update nameservers on GoDaddy. I also moved the extensions by simply moving the extension directory over and adding the extensions in LocalSettings.php … there are some files that I will move manually and one of my extensions isn’t working properly (probably a version issue with the new version of MediaWiki, but I bet I can fix that one by hand (sometimes coding is actually fun)).

MyTinyTodo – expand tar file, move database (export from old server, import to new server), run setup … super easy, point subdomain to correct directory

WordPress – followed instructions here – there were some limitations on the size of the SQL Import on my new hosting company (via their phpMyAdmin version) so moving the database had to happen in parts (the one large table had to be broken up into 8MB segments (I just used vi)), but it’s done now – point subdomain to correct directory, copy MX records and some other domain specific (subdomain) information from my old nameservers (dyndns.org) to the hosting company, update nameservers on GoDaddy.

Overall it was not too complicated. If you are methodical about the process you can move from one hosting company to another with little trouble and minimum downtime (or like I did from your own host to a hosted solution).

Here’s my $0.02 (and then some).

The idea behind this is to identify (and punish) the high bandwidth users. Comcast (and other broadband companies) have skated by for years on this “bucket-of-bits” concept where you buy a bucket of bits (we’ve all seen the UPTO 16MB commercials). This is a whole additional discussion which I don’t want to get into here, but in short I refer to that advertisement as fraudband.

So with this bucket-of-bits concept you pay a monthly fee for a connection and you use it as much as you want. The problem is that the *more* you use it, the *less* the provider makes for your usage. This is an upside down business model and I’ve tried to think of other companies that are incented to sell you a product that you shouldn’t use (help me out by commenting if you know of a successful business model that follows this upside down paradigm (and don’t say cell phone companies)).

What they are doing by opening this door is saying that your monthly fee (let’s say it’s $34.99) is good for upto 250GB of usage. If you exceed this amount you will get less traffic or have to pay an additional fee. But what happens for those *good* broadband users who don’t use their allocated 250GB? Do they get to a refund on the unused portion of their bits? How about roll-over bits?

If the formula is $34.99 for upto 250GB of data … can I pay upto $34.99 for what I actually use?

I work from home and as such am probably one of the heavier users. I also watch Netflix on demand on my TV via my TivoHD XL. I rent online movies from Amazon as well. I use Vonage. I don’t do it regularly (as it makes my VoIP phone almost unusable), but I have been known to share files via P2P and download a lot of content from non P2P sites as well.

My guess is that I’m a heavier user and that I’d exceed the upto usage, but when I don’t I will be doing everything I can to get credited for what I didn’t use in a particular month.

Let me start (again) with some background. People like to shop on the Internet. Many times, they are just looking for information to see what the current prices are, compare items, look at rebates or deals, do product research, etc. One particular reason they don’t visit a brick-and-mortar store is because they don’t want to deal with sales people and in some cases might not be ready to purchase something.

I’ll also say that I do not like car sales people. I think they are pushy, rude, and try too hard to push what’s on the lot rather than listen to what a customer wants (don’t get me started about the time we asked for a standard transmission on a truck which was to be used for pulling). I know that’s what a sales person’s job is, but I am the customer and I know what’s right and if you don’t like it, I will shop elsewhere.

Back to the point. I was checking out VW dealers as I am toying with the idea of buying a VW Jetta TDI. I looked on Edmunds, read reviews, and browsed for a few hours just checking what was available. I hopped over to my local VW dealer’s website and they had a convenient link to check the value of my trade-in. They also had “an Internet price” that you entered in what you were looking for and they would mail you a price. After I entered in several items on their page, I had to provide my contact info to get the “Internet price.” There was a check-box on the page to indicate how I wanted to be contacted and the selections were either phone or e-mail (and you couldn’t leave it blank). I checked e-mail so I could get the value of my car and figured that I’d just ignore/delete/spam the additional messages. Maybe it’s my fault for putting my phone number in the website….

Within 5 minutes or so, I had received the “Internet price” from Henry Meador. Not even 10 minutes after that, my home phone rang (even though I didn’t indicate I wanted to be contacted by phone). When I didn’t answer the phone, I got another e-mail message asking me to set up an appointment. That afternoon, yet another call to my home phone. The next day another phone call and when I didn’t answer, another e-mail.  All in all, my home phone was called over a dozen times and I received as many e-mails. When I finally happened to answer the phone on a Saturday morning, I informed Mr. Meador that I did not want to be contacted at home any more.  I received this follow up e-mail that afternoon:

You contacted us about internet pricing. This will be my final email to you to get an answer to what time you would like to schedule an appt to come by? I did email you 4 times, you havent responded to those or my first voice mail. We’re very busy and I apologize that we don’t have time to study everyones contact preference.

Regards,

Henry Meador
Leith VW
Internet Sales
919-465-3360

Maybe I shouldn’t read too much into the “tone” of an e-mail, but this one to me seems a bit snooty. If you don’t have time to study my contact preferences you don’t deserve to get my business (maybe you are just too busy bothering people in their homes).

I’m still on the fence about the new car, but I do know that I won’t be purchasing it from Leith VW in Raleigh!

My advice to brick-and-mortar sales folks trying to drum up sales over the internet, don’t be pushy and if you have an indication on your Web site for potential customers to indicate their contact preferences, respect those preferences.

On my Macs I’ve been mostly happy with Firefox, but I have to admit that it is slow.  When Safari 4 came out I tried the beta and was pretty happy with it and only had a few unexplained crashes and only one of those caused me to lose some work (ironically, I was editing a WordPress entry when it crashed). I found myself using Firefox for the extensions (namely Delicious). Since the official release of Safari 4, it has become my primary browser on my Macs. The reason being speed; it is noticeably faster than Firefox. I even downloaded it on my PC so when I happen to have booted to Windoze, I run Safari.

I recently discovered DeliciousSafari and a few other extensions which work on my mac so I’m moving even further away from Firefox.

If Firefox wants to win me back, it’s got to do something about the speed. I notice it more and more now that I’m used to how fast Safari starts up, renders pages (cover flow, hot sites), etc.

On the anti-Microsoft movement, more recently than what I described in the first paragraph, I’ve tried to ditch Microsoft more and more (even though I am using Apple’s products, I just don’t get the evil vibe from Apple (but it may be coming)).  For instance, I have several computers in my office and only run Windoze when necessary. My PCs are running Ubuntu and my Macs are running OS X.  I do have to boot to Windoze on my gaming machine to play games, but that’s really the only time I’m running Windoze.  I don’t use MS Office as there are alternatives (iWork, OpenOffice, Google Docs) that work well and only open documents in MS Office if I’m concerned that an export for a co-worker or client may have gone amuck.

For a brief introduction, Google Voice is a telephone number that is supposed to be your last and final telephone number. You set up Google Voice with your other phone numbers and then you can control how and when you accept calls from who. Sounds great, but let me provide an example which may make more sense. You set up your Google Voice number to send everyone in a “Work” or “Coworkers” group to your office phone number and your cell phone number during week days from 8am-7pm, but not your home number, but you have one particular work buddy that likes to call you on weekends so you make an exception for that individual, but only for your cell phone. You never give out your cell phone number (or any other number) and Google Voice “screens” your calls.

It also has some cool features like

• transferring calls between your phones (say you are on the phone at work, but have tickets to a Bob Dylan show and need to transfer that call to your cell phone so you can finish the call in the car (not that you should talk on the phone while driving)).
• transcribing voicemail messages and sending you a SMS
• announcing your calls when you answer the phone and allowing you to accept or not (again depending on groups, or individuals) and allowing you to send a caller to voicemail (and even listen in on their message and interrupting (remember the good old days with old school answering machines that did that and we used to talk to them (“If your home, pick up.”)))
• recording calls in progress
• sending/receiving SMS messages
• making international calls for decent rates
• when using a computer, you can make calls from Google Voice by entering a number or clicking on a contact and the phone of your choice rings, you pick it up, and then the number you are calling rings…the Caller-ID they see is your Google Voice number
• the interface is very much like gmail, and I expect when it’s opened up, it’s a simple process of selecting your number and it will be fully integrated in gmail (and since Talk is already integrated it’s only a matter of time)

So, why would I have beef with AT&T and Apple? I’m getting to it, but what’s happening is that Google Voice is basically commoditizing voice (like yahoo, hotmail, and gmail commoditized e-mail and unchained you from your ISP) or at least commoditizing how to reach you. If you don’t have to give out your cell phone number (or home phone, or office phone) ever again then there is nothing that tethers you to their services (yeah yeah, I know about number portability) and you can switch carriers or use alternative channels (like your home phone or even VoIP (which I’m sure is in the works for Google Voice (Talk?)).

From what I understand, “there’s an app for that.” It’s already written and I’ve even seen a demo of it on an internet video site. However, AT&T and Apple have blocked the app. It works something like the web page and it would drive your address book and initiate all your calls through the app.  You would click on a name or number and it would dial that and present your Google Voice Caller-ID to the recipient.  But it’s still using the cellular network so it’s not really about the voice minutes. Rather, I think Apple is concerned that someone else is driving the “dialing experience.”  I think that is the perceived threat to both Apple and AT&T.  It’s aggravating because for all the appearance of “openness” this app didn’t pass the muster of either AT&T or Apple or both.

There are some of the tech savvy who think this is a big enough rub that they are leaving the iPhone and going to Android or Palm Pre or even Crackberries as there are apps for all of those (I’m not certain on the Palm Pre, so leave a comment if you know of one). Personally, I still love my iPhone. I honestly think it’s an awesome phone, and with all those apps and other features, I still haven’t seen anything that’s close. The Palm Pre is up there, but it’s still lacking in some areas (namely apps which if it has a Google Voice App is kind of ironic). I will be one of those who complains (like this blog and it’s subsequent tweet) so hopefully AT&T and Apple will get the message (and I’m sure it’s already being aired in the Apple boardroom).

Don’t have Google Voice? Just request an invite. It will come in a week or so.

My boss and I were talking recently about blogs, the Internet, Social Networking (Social Media), Twitter, and the like.  He brought up some statistic about blogs that I found interesting.  That only 5% of blogs have been updated in the past 120 days (according to a New York Times blog entry from June).  He considers himself one of the early bloggers and has had a blog since the dinosaurs. He regularly updates it (at least once per week but sometimes as frequently as dozen times per month) and has many opinions about the value of bloggers and blogs in general.  I’m not going to go into that, but he can on his blog if he so chooses.

It got me to thinking about my own blog and the fact that it’s not something I update regularly. I sort of go through spurts where I’ll write blog entries a few times per week and other times where I either can’t think of a topic or I have bloggers block  I just don’t want to blog on topics that may be on my mind.

My absence can also be related to all the stuff that has been going on in my life recently including moving, traveling more (now that I’m working remotely for my same job), attempting to sell a home, Stacie starting her internship at NC State, etc.

However, this morning I came up with a topic I wanted to blog about, but before I started writing it, I decided I’d at least post this upgrade my server (laptop), upgrade WordPress, and pen this first. Maybe it will get me over the hump, maybe not. I’ve heard some folks say that blogging can improve your writing skills (which I’m not so sure about) and that if you force yourself to create a blog entry per day for 100 days it will become much easier.  I can just see myself blogging 100 times in 100 days with topics like whether or not to mow the grass….

Regardless, this discussion with my boss also turned to other Social Networking/Social Media tools and users. Which, like my frequency in blogging, has been very intermittent.  I will tweet a few times per day, but then go a month or so without a tweet. Likewise, I go for weeks without a single Facebook status update, but then send several when I get the hankering (like recently at a Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and John Cougar show).

I guess where I’m going with this is that sometimes I feel like being social and other times I feel like curling up in a ball on the couch and watching movies two or three times in a row (like Citizen Kane) and that Social Networking/Social Media is like that but the time periods seem to last for weeks/months versus any given Sunday.  So like Judy Nichols (who probably got a huge boost from the NYT), I’m going to get back to it eventually….

She asked that I help her with some changes, but when I started making suggestions she was reluctant to include my changes in her article because the audience had never heard of “web2.0″ and were more concerned with the loss of prescriptions as a profit center to 1800petmeds.com.

I was taking the angle that the practices, universities, and other vet professions (like drug sales (e.g. 1800petmeds.com)) that aren’t taking advantage of new advertising media (e.g. social networking, viral marketing, etc.) would lose to those that do. I’m not an expert in the field, but even I see the changes that these technologies are causing in my business and my company is trying to find way to use them to our benefit.

Additionally, as clients get younger a yellow pages advertisement just doesn’t go as far as it used to. A friend of mine recently complained that his children couldn’t find something on the Internet when it was easy to find in the yellow pages and they just didn’t even think to look their first (or even second).

I think that most successful practices at this point do have Web sites, but do they allow e-mail appointments or respond to e-mails?

Should veterinarians start Facebook groups for their clients, blog on the latest epidemic in their regions, tweet suggested reading or even reminders for annual vaccines. Better yet, if they don’t will they lose out to those that do? After all, it’s a profession that is based upon a veterinarian-patient-client relationship and relationships are moving into cyberspace whether or not the practicing veterinarians want that or not.

I’d be happy to get some perspective from either veterinarians or cognoscenti in social media and new forms of advertising.

I’ve had a crate of used paperback and hardback books in the basement for months. When friends come over, we offer them any book in the crate that they want free of charge just to get it off our hands. We don’t have a local used bookstore so we were going to toss them if we couldn’t pass them on. We are trying to be environmentally friendly and were loathe to put the stuff in the trash so we have identified ways to recycle them (our local recycle pickup will accept paperback books and the local YMCA will take old text books and hardback books). However, even that just seemed wasteful.

I was browsing Lifehacker Top 10s recently and came across the top 10 internet freebies and links to two popular book swapping services; PaperBackSwap.com and BookMooch.com. I’ve used them for a week or so now and here’s my review.

First off, you do have to pay postage to send your books out. If you are mailing from the US to the US you can use the USPS Media Mail rate, so a typical paperback book will cost $2.23 to mail (a book under 6oz (a small paperback) can be sent using USPS First Class for $1.68). So if you’re tight on cash the trash bin or recycle bin may be the best answer. However, in my opinion, the book selection on both sites is excellent so I will be able to get books for free when we land at our new residence.

Both sites work on a credit basis. Basically, you get a credit for each book you send and deducted a credit for each book you receive. Additionally, both sites give you a few credits for just posting your books so you can get started getting used books in the mail even before someone requests one of your books.

Of the two, PaperBackSwap.com has a much slicker interface that is easy to navigate, easy to post books, and a better social networking features. For shipping books there is a very nice feature that generates a PDF to either wrap the book with or tape to other packaging. For a small fee the PDF can include delivery confirmation and/or even include postage. In exchange for the fee you get “credited” for the book immediatly upon shipping and don’t have to wait for the receiver to use the site to “accept” the book for you to get credited. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the site is for inside the US only.

BookMooch.com does not have fees anywhere on the site (with the exceptions of donations). They support the site on a volunteer basis and pay for bandwidth and servers with donations and funds from Amazon.com if a user buys a book (new) from Amazon if it is not available from another user. The operator even seems averse to commercializing the site. The interface is a bit clunky and browsing books is done more with searches and tables of text. Many users of BookMooch are outside of the US and you choose if you can honor their request or not depending on how much it will cost to ship a book to a foreign location. However, if you do agree to ship internationally, you get additional credits.

I had my books listed on PaperBackSwap for a week or so before I also posted my books on BookMooch where I immediatly received requests for books which I had not on the other site, including several international requests (I may have been cheating by listing my books on both sites). If someone requests a book from one site, I immediatly remove it from the other site. Only in one case did I have a request for the same book on both sites overnight.

Using both the sites, I’ve been able to get rid of about two dozen books in a little over a week which also gives me several credits which I will use to get books in the future.

Here’s a list of the books I am giving away on BookMooch (I can’t find a method of lisitng my inventory on PaperBackSwap but it’s the same books).

I love Facebook.  It’s a great way for me to keep in touch with friends and for me to let them know what I’m up to and vice versa. In fact, it’s let me get in touch with friends from Elementary and High School which I haven’t even thought of for decades. However, their privacy policy has left much to be desired. I am not a privacy nut. I have a blog, twitter account, personal web pages, use Google and Amazon (another topic all together). However, the type of data that Facebook is collecting is a bit scary, even for me.

I understand the implications for marketing and I’m somewhat OK with that. The frightening part for me is that the data does not expire. I don’t plan to run for office nor do I plan to get sued, but just think of what that data says about you and if it could be used against you, maybe by an opposing attorney who subpoenaed the data.

Some speculate that the changes in their privacy policy are due to the decline of ad revenue. A friend of mine blogged recently about the changes in the type of advertising on Facebook. It has gotten racier and he was concerned as his children have Facebook accounts. He also speculates that is also a symptom of the same. That Facebook is looking to sell information to make up for the declining revenue from it’s advertisements.

Added after the original post:

Amanda French posted an excellent blog entry on the Facebook Terms of Service and compaired it to other social networks. A must read for those that are interested in the topic.

Oh and the groundswell has caused Zuckerberg to post another entry in his blog. Very reminicent of the blog post about the beacon diseaster.

Updated 2 days after post:

Facebook seems to have done an about face (again). I credit Amanda French and really like the explaination by Alexander van Elsa on the Facebook Business Case.

Social Networking has come a long way. The first I read about the ToS was on twitter and I just kept coming across it including a link to a federal complaint.

• My cable modem works fine, why would anyone need more speed?
• What does fiber get me that DSL or Cable HSD does not?
• Just how fast is fiber?
• What can I do with fiber that I can’t do with my current broadband?
• 640K of memory should be enough for anybody.
• Should I have more fiber in my diet?

In addition to discussions around the economic development benefits of broadband, I am often looking for methods to demonstrate the difference between different technologies.  I came across a Windows application from some site in the Netherlands (it had a .nl extension) that is sort of what I’m looking for (you can dig around on the Dutch language site and eventually find an English application).

The application is very simple but effective. I would think that just about any computer science student could gen up something like this.  The only problem with the application is that it doesn’t have Cable Modem services which are quite common in the areas where I speak. Some additional features I would like to see would be the ability to customize the application and maybe enter in custom speeds, custom file sizes, or even indicate higher quality of service through a simulated data stream (like a choppy video vs. a smooth video).

Tools like these make demonstrating some of the more difficult concepts to grasp to network neophytes easier. You can almost see a light bulb go off above someone’s head when you show them the differences for something like an Xray or an engineering drawing.

If anyone knows of other offline or standalone demonstration tools, I would be very interested in seeing them and trying to integrate them into public meetings and education events.

Online tools are nice and I would be interested in seeing them as well. However, I am often speaking in locations without internet access which is why I would like offline and standalone applications.