Tralfaz

Author: geoffand

  • Groovin’ on my VPS – moved 2 websites

    So, after a brief support interaction with my new hosting company, A Small Orange hosting is who I went with, and I haven’t been disappointed, I am up and life is good. I have learned how to use cPanel, and its companion WHM. Really slick tools, and really easy to use. I now have 4 domains setup, and have 3 more to move, and four subdomains. I have learnt a few things:

    • WordPress is really easy to move.  I moved my wife’s site no sweat. took about an hour, and I played with it before I re-jiggered the name servers. Easy peasy.
    • Joomla is less so easy. My main site is still hosed. Apparently there is a PHP setting that I need to figure out. Might be a good time to go from Joomla 2 to 3. But that hasn’t been painless so far. (FWIW there is dogshit for information on how to best make the transition on the web. Sigh). I can’t even get it moved to a local LAMP server and running. Something is hosed, not surprising, as I am constantly fucking with it, so I am sure I am the cause.
    • One of my joomla sites, a 3.1 moved really easy. Move all the files, backup the database, recreate the database, set the configuration, and BAM, it just worked.
    • I like having complete control of my MySQL instance. At Media temple I had exceeded my database account limit early on, so I had to use the same credentials/account for more than one database. A security risk.
    • My next main goal is to get my SSH keys generated and installed.

    So far, I am digging on the new hosting, and I am really pleased with my hosting provider.

    My goal is to first move all my hosting to my VPS, then cancel my hosting account on Media Temple. Then, as my domains come up for renewal, I will move them to another registrar. But I realized when I moved my main domain (tralfaz.org) that soon, Media Temple will begin to morph with GoDaddy, and move away from using tucows for registration. I will be long gone before that happens though.

  • Taking the plunge: Going VPS

    Earlier this week, I learnt that my hosting provider, (MT) has been sold to GoDaddy. While they assured their customers that they would be independent, and that GoDaddy was trying to change their reputation, I know that it was just a matter of time before the douchebaggery of GoDaddy infected the ethos of MediaTemple.

    I had used a shared hosting account that worked remarkably well. I have 9 domains and 5 active sites (and two test bed sites) on there, and have been pretty satisfied with performance, and extremely satisfied with their support. But I have gotten to a scale where being constrained by a normal hosting account was an annoyance. Several times I investigated the process to move to a VPS (virtual private server), and never took the plunge. Just too much effort.

    The changes earlier this week pushed me over the edge. I have opened a VPS account at a smaller, highly recommended web host, A Small Orange. I am in the process of moving my main site, and getting all the bits and pieces set up the way I like. A few teething problems (like the DNS changes taking insanely long to propagate), and some incompatibilities in the PHP setup that I need to overcome, but in general I am satisfied.

    Of course, I am a bit rusty on my unix mad skillz, so I am boning up on how to manage and configure a linux system. Fortunately out of the box, they set it up well, and it is pretty secure, so I am glad to inherit that state. The VPS uses the cPanel and WHM services to manage the bits and pieces, which is pretty standard, but foreign to me, so I am learning how to wrangle these tools (they are pretty damn slick though).

    My goal for this weekend is to move my main site (which currently has a module that barfs, so I have to figure that out), and to get all the bits and pieces lined up. Should be fun. And I expect that performance will be better in the long run (or at least completely under my own control).

  • A bad day – Web Hosting

    I have been hosting my websites for the last 4 years or so on a premium provider, MediaTemple. They have been efficient, no hassle, and have offered great service when I needed it. I have 7 domains hosted with them, and their basic hosting package has served me well.

    I have sung praises to them, and have recommended them, even though they are not the cheapest supplier out there. For me, the $20 a month has been worth it for the support, the reliability, and the high quality tools they have offered.

    To compare, I use GoDaddy for one of the sites I manage (for a non-profit that I donate my time to). Their support is OK. Their tools are crappy to manage the hosting, the data bases, and other administrivia. But what I hate most of all, is the constant upselling they do. They continually try to sell more domains, more services, addons. It is enough to make me loathe logging into their website unless I have to.

    I had been plotting how to move that site to Media Temple when the prepaid period was up.

    Then today I got the email from the founder and CEO of MediaTemple. Since he wouldn’t know me from Adam, I was worried.

    I was right to be worried. He was announcing that Media Temple was being acquired by GoDaddy. A million voices were crying “Nooooooooooooo!” in my head. Of all the sleazeball, scummy webhosting providers to sell to, they had to pick the bottom feeders. The shit-birds at GoDaddy. Of course the email was full of assurances that the MediaTemple experience wouldn’t change, and that it would be autonomous from the GoDaddy. Their posted FAQ was about how GoDaddy was looking to improve their relationship with web developers, and professionals, and that acquiring Media Temple was a path forward there.

    Yeah, and pigs will fly.

    If GoDaddy wants to improve its image and reputation among the serious web developers and professionals, they should probably stop being scum of the earth, marketing bloated, pushers of mediocre products. Furthermore, they should improve their infrastructure, and tools on the back end so that I don’t have to navigate 10 pages to figure out how to set a CNAME.

    Reading the comments on the FAQ was about 99-1 against this move, and how a lot of people will be looking for new hosting. I know I will be moving completely off them.

    Perhaps it is time to go VPS.

  • Why I don’t jam more: playing out

    We are having a sales meeting next month, and one of the organizers thinks it will be a great idea to have some of the team play and entertain at the group dinner. There are at least three guitar players, a bass player, and a drummer who can get together, so it is a reasonable idea.

    But I will decline to play. Apart from the “thumb” issues I have, these impromptu jams are awkward for a variety of reasons:

    • The players have no history of playing together. This manifests itself in awkward setup and initial playing. It might seem trivial, but all musicians have ego’s, and we are all concerned about not being a fuckup in front of friends. This is caused by …
    • The players will all have different repertoires. Perhaps one is a folk player, one is a classically trained guitarist, one is a dance or jazz player, and one will play hard rock. All of these styles are enormously different, and while a decent player can pick some of it up, it will feel (and sound) alien.
    • There won’t be any songs that everyone knows. This is a huge deal, as it often means that there isn’t an ice breaker. Some songs that any rock player would expect everyone to know, like “Whole Lotta Love” or “More than a Feeling” will invariably not be part of one or more member’s play lists.

    So, these sessions usually fall back to something standard, 12 bar blues in Em, and just variants around that. Boring.

    How to prevent this? First, play together privately. Find some common ground. Have everybody pick 3-4 songs that typify their genre, and share the tab/MP3’s so that the others can learn some songs.

    Play together more often. There is a reason why bands practice several times a week. Or you have a band play the backup (a tight group with a bass player, a keyboardist, and a drummer.) But then you might as well hire a band.

    So, I will sit this potential public embarrassment out, and see how it goes.

  • Shame on Agilebits and 1Password

    I have been a hearty and enthusiastic user and advocate of 1Password. It is an awesome bit of software that greatly improves the security and experience using the internet. A password store, one of its strengths was the cross platform package, and the plugins and apps for your phone. I used it on my macs and my work PC, using dropbox to keep it all synchronized everywhere I was at.

    For $40, to get the windows and Mac package, it was well worth the money.

    Alas, the Agilebits folks have gone greedy. The version on the Mac went from version 3 to 4. A paid upgrade. Not a huge deal, I don’t mind an upgrade fee to keep software current, and up to date. But this upgrade broke the PC side. Suddenly my dropbox data store was jacked. And the plugin for version 4 on the mac just plain crashes on the PC.

    Once you upgrade your database to version 4, the PC version can still read it, but it seems to not be able to add new login credentials. Boo. And you have to jump through hoops on the Chrome browser, because it will try to load the version 4 plugin, which is NOT supported on the PC.

    The support forums claim that they are furiously working on the PC upgrade, but it will be another paid upgrade. So instead of upgrading both packages for one fee, I am going to get to pay twice for it.

    And then I found that my app for my iPhone no longer can access my logins. How much for the new version? A shocking $17.99. Really?  I have bought both the iPhone and iPad app in the past.  I could see a buck or two, but eighteen bucks?  Fuck me.

    Alas, there really isn’t a competitor.  Yes, I could go the keepass route, and have a largely manual but secure repository of logins. But there is no good way to export my 1Password data into it. And with over 600 logins recorded, I am not going to do that by hand.

    I get that it costs money to develop and improve the package, that the testing and maintenance of the browser plugins is a complex task. But the current path you are on is close to alienating an early user, who has probably referred 20 people who bought your package. You really need to think about your pricing for upgrades, and your customer loyalty.

  • Getting Old – Part IX

    I hate to sound like I am complaining, but alas, it is hard to not whinge. I am getting old. Latest victim: a repeat offender, my left foot. I have battled plantar fasciitis, and a sprained big toe in the last year. But today, it is feeling like it might be a stress fracture.

    Yesterday, I did a mild 4 and a half mile walk. Felt OK. Sometime yesterday afternoon, my foot started bothering me. Sharp pain in the top, on the outer part of the foot. Tender when I poke at it, when I stretch (like I would do to help my plantar fascia) it is a debilitating pain.

    This is just the latest in a long list of body parts that hurt. I am not 50 yet, but I feel like my body is falling apart.

    Sigh.

  • More messed up dreams

    I am beginning to think that someone is slipping psychotropic drugs into my beverages.

    Last night’s dream was wild. I had changed jobs, and was doing something at the beach on a tropical island in the south pacific. I am not sure what I was supposed to do, but it entailed chasing “something” around while riding a minibike.

    The problem was that I had expenses from my last job that I needed to submit, but I was struggling with logging into the website to get it all handled.

    Then, to freak me completely out, just before I gave up the ghost and woke up, I was feeding orange segments to a crab that was able to fly like a dragonfly.

    Wild.

  • Goodbye Spotify

    Today I turned off my Spotify premium account. It was not a step taken lightly, as it had thoroughly trounced Google Play All Access when I was comparing them. Spotify was/is a solid player, with a large library, and great radio option.

    But the one downside was what they didn’t have in their library. Led Zeppelin? Not there. Paul Gilbert and Racer-X? Nope. The Beatles? Nein. Yep, I could add them locally, and they would be there.

    Then Apple launched iTunes 11.1 and their iradio service. One of the featured stations on install was a “Beatles” radio. Worth the price of admission.

    With iTunes Match, all my library is available anywhere I have a network connection (some 17K tracks). While the first week had a few glitches in the radio, it has been pretty solid. And the mix that Apple has on the stations is very good. On Spotify, my “Velvet Revolver” station would begin to repeat songs after about 4 hours. With a similar artist station on iTunes radio, I have gone three days without consciously hearing a repeat.

    So, I am cutting the Spotify cord, and will save that $10 a month. iRadio is ad free if you are an iTunes Match subscriber, so I am good there.

    (and the British Metal station is awesome. Listening to some deep cuts of Judas Priest right now.)

  • The hand update

    I have been battling with what I originally thought was an injured thumb. A couple weeks ago, I went to my GP, and alas, the tendons seem fine, but the x-rays show that there is a bone spur, and what is likely the beginning of arthritis. Groan. Heavy anti inflammatories and a brace to immobilize the thumb.

    A week later, the brace was not helping (if anything, it was beginning to damage the nerves, numbing my thumb). So I call a hand specialist.

    FFS, what is it with these specialists? They are all booked through November. I can get in on Oct 28th to see a PA.  Sigh. I guess I will take it.

    It still hurts (even with 800mg ibuprofen twice a day), cycling is not good for it (but it isn’t going to stop me), and it hurts to play guitar. Sigh, getting old sucks.

  • WTF – Dream edition

    Last night, I had vivid dreams. This is not unusual in itself, but the subject of the dreams were “odd” to say the least.

    I dreamt that I was in France, riding (for fun) stages of the Tour de France. On an old, unreliable 3-speed bicycle. So unreliable that I was breaking cranks, pulling spokes, and snapping chains. Yeah, that is pretty bad.

    But add to that we were using these same bikes to hunt out the best BBQ in France.

    Whoa.  I need better drugs me thinks.