Olympics are Whizzing By

Is it just me, or are the Beijing games going by really quickly? It seems like the opening ceremony was just the other day, and now most of my favorite events have passed. Gymnastic events are my favorites of the Olympiad, although this year swimming may have landed on top (how could it not with Phelps?). I always hate to see the Olympics go by! But, London will come all too fast — it seems as if Athens was only the other day.

How much life can change in four years…

Shakespeare

I started a new book today, Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World, and the first forty pages or so were real page turners, and I have every reason to expect the rest will be too. Greenblatt is a writer who clearly enjoys lingering in language, remembering (unlike so many literary critics going before him) that there is little reason for literary analysis to be the dry antithesis of that which it purports to discuss.

While most autobiographical detail concerning Shakespeare is necessarily speculation, I'm enjoying the picture of Shakespeare's life that Greenblatt has thus far drawn. His observations concerning Shakespeare's influence by the mystery plays seems both intriguing and sensible.

I'll surely be writing more on this book as I read through it. The worst part is that I had a terrible time not setting down the book and running to grab the Bard's own words off my shelf, for Greenblatt kept referring to favorite scenes that I want to visit with again.

Olympics and Georgia

It strikes me — as I know it does others — what an odd contrast we have had over the last week or so. The Olympics so far have been largely inspiring — seeing events such as the continual array of records broken by Michael Phelps is just marvelous. And, while I'm not a huge sports guy, tuning in for the great variety that is the Olympics and seeing our athletes do their best is encouraging. How can one not be happy to see people using their God given talents to their fullest extent?

Then there is Georgia. The Cold War Era-esque echos that come out of this event are startling, I think, even for those of us who have been watching in dismay as Vladimir Putin has been busy reconstructing a Soviet-esque totalitarian state in Russia. “What can be done” is the question that keeps passing through my head. Surely we cannot go into a head to head conflict with Russia, but how do we at the same time support pro-Western allies like Georgia and the Ukraine?

It is sad that the glories of the Olympics — fleeting as they are — must be overshadowed by such a disaster as Putin's little war. But, I suppose one might say it is a picture of life: the joys come with the sorrows. Somehow that seems hollow, though, when one sees the pictures of the bloodied, homeless, weeping people fleeing their cities as a madman in charge of a scarily powerful army bombs them.

Curiosities of Anonymity, or Me and Dating

The good thing about being able to give anonymous feedback of any sort is an ability to be honest without fear (obviously). The bad thing, from a data analysis standpoint, is that any feedback given is only of questionably truthful value. Generally, given lack of reason to suspect otherwise, though, I will take anonymous polling as at least somewhat reliable, so long as the same people cannot vote multiple times and so on.

That is what is curious about the reports I get from the Facebook app, “Compare People.” Compare People shows you two of your Facebook friends and asks you a question. You pick the friend that fits best, or choose to skip the question if the answer is “none of the above” (or you do not feel like answering it). The curious thing is the results I keep getting from my 141 friends. For example, here are my current top ten ratings (e.g. those descriptors that I am in the tenth percentile or higher within the realm of my friends):

2nd in “Who is better at science”
3rd in “Who has prettier eyes”
3rd in “Who is sexier”
4th in “Who is nicer”
6th in “Who would I rather date”
7th in “Who is more tech-savvy”
7th in “Who is more confident”
7th in “Who is cuter”

Notably, according to a note it sent me today, I just moved up five places in the “sexiest” category and five in the “most datable” category. This makes me ask, “precisely who is voting in this thing?” Sexy is not usually a word that comes anywhere near me, and, for that matter, general trends do not suggest I am a popular pick for dating.

I'm not complaining or anything, it just makes me scratch my head…

Internet, Ads and Writing

A friend, who I'll let go nameless unless he wishes to identify himself, was having a spirited debate with me about Internet advertising. He remarked that it seemed to him site owners would prefer getting more hits over having fewer hits with advertising. It is an interesting idea, but I would suggest that it is an idea that is actually the same as the one that led to the Dot Com bubble and bust.

But, first, as I told him, the key principle for viewing ads — from a Christian standpoint — is that we are told the laborer is worth his wages (Luke 10.7, 1 Tim. 5.17-18). So fundamentally, for Christians, before we debate whether or not refusing to view ads is doing favors for the business owner, we ought to stop right here. Full stop, move along, there is nothing more to see here. It is only a legalistic, “find the loophole” view of things that allows us to say, “ads, oh, I didn't know that was a payment — surely I am not obligated to pay for services rendered to me!” The clear Christian principle is to pay for that which we receive. To deny a clear request for payment while enjoying the service rendered is simply wrong. And so, I try to practice this principle: if I find a site where I would need to remove the inline ads to be able to make use of it (because there are too many, or too many objectionable ones, etc.) I quit using the site. I've done so before, and will do so again.

That said, how is the business argument for overlooking people removing ads? Does it work? No. The flawed thinking here is based on the concept of “more eyeballs are better than profit.” Many early e-tailers worked on this principle selling products for massive losses purely to get more users. That could only work until they ran out of cash, then their companies died painful deaths.

The first rule of economics is simple: one produces a product up to but no farther than when marginal revenue equals marginal cost. If producing one more widget (or receiving one more visitor) means taking even the slightest loss, it doesn't make good sense to do so. If I can receive 2,000 visitors and make a profit, it is in no way better to get 10,000 and take a loss under normal circumstances. You are not doing Digg a favor by using their services if you never view their ads. They are better off without you, unless you happen to be Rush Limbaugh or Oprah and your endorsement is worth millions. Otherwise, do your favorite site on which you block ads a favor: quit using it.

No doubt, writers like to be read and will write sometimes for no cost simply for the thrill of having readers. Bloggers do this most certainly — though in large part my interest has more to do with interacting with my blogging friends. My own writings generally are not income generators, at least of any significance. But, on the other hand, most folks don't want to pay to be read. There are exceptions, for example, maybe I want you to read my site to sell my book, or my radio program, or what have you — but generally the question would be why would I pay you to read my work? Would I pay you to eat my culinary creation? Drive my car? Live in my house?

Yes, you as the reader pay for your Internet, but nearly every provider you deal with is paying more than you are. They are paying for redundant connections, power generators, backup storage, professional IT staffers and of course developers and writers of the services you enjoy — far more than the little $14.95 a month you pay for Internet access. And, remember: you are the one that wants to use Digg or MySpace (incidentally, I use the former little and the latter not at all), so it only makes sense that you are the one to foot the bill. That is how capitalism is suppose to work: the one who wants something pays for it. Put bluntly, if it costs you a little or a lot is your problem, not the provider's.

And so, as always, I present my challenge to those who wish to do the morally right thing but despise ads. Quit viewing sites with ads. Typically people making such an argument say the Internet was better before ads. Fine, maybe it was; let's find out by having you only use ad-free sites. Don't forget, that means no Google. Have fun. If you like it that way, keep at it and everyone is happy. If you do not, well, then, can you really complain about the ads?

Nameless

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

-T.S. Eliot

These lines came to mind tonight, for more than one reason, and so I thought I would post them.

What Are Y'all Up To?

That's the question of the week.

How's that for the ultimate in simple posts?

Moving, Moving...

It feels good to get a move on this server migration. And, it feels good to have asisaid at its new home. For those wondering, this site (along with Ed's site, which also made the jump in the last twelve hours), are now living in Washington, DC. That provides a little regional diversity with the other server living in Dallas, TX. I like the idea of spreading things out “just to be safe.” The new server is a quad core Xeon X3220 paired with 4 GB of ram and 2×250 GB hard disks. It's a fairly robust system, I think, that I hope will keep my clients' sites, and my personal and company sites, running for years to come.

My Dallas, TX, server will be reserved for a few larger sites desiring a server with fewer sites on it, as I mentioned in my last post. This server, with its more robust specs, will house the majority of sites I host — though I still host fewer than 50 sites total, so it is really an overpowered beast. I like having room to grow.

I really like the new provider I am working with too. This server is located in SoftLayer's DC data center. SoftLayer was founded by some former employees of the Planet — the datacenter operator for my other server — and has some nifty features. For example, virtually every server comes with a private VPN to work with the server on, KVM over IP via that VPN, “virtual racks” to help manage servers and the ability to reload the OS at will. While in a hosting environment that last feature isn't so practical, it'd be a lot of fun if you had an extra “lab” box. Want FreeBSD today? Sure, have at it! Ubuntu tomorrow? Go right ahead. Need RHEL for the weekend? No worries.

Oh, and did I mention they built my server and had it online — including a few customizations — in just two hours? I'm impressed.

So here I am, beginning an exciting migration and embarking on this new idea of offering geographical hosting diversity. I think I might offer a plan that bundles accounts on both servers for a discounted price. I'm not sure who would find that useful, but the idea seems exciting to me, and I think I would have gotten such an account at some point, so I figure, “why not try it?”

Moving and More Hosting Specials

Hi everyone,
I promise not to make this a habit (Really! Please forgive me ahead of time), but I wanted to do one more run with the web hosting special, because I had an idea I found exciting after my previous posting. I hope this doesn't bug anyone, but feel free to let me know if I did. If anyone else wants to plug their services to balance things out from me, let me know.

My current server (the one these lists are on) is grandfathered in at a much better price than one could get it for today, I found out. With that in mind, rather than shutting it down (as I had planned) when I moved accounts over to the new server, it struck me that perhaps I should replace the hard disk and any other parts that might be in need of replacement and start it over fresh with just a few larger accounts on it that recognize that lower price, for those who would like something like a quarter or half server (like buying half a rotisserie chicken!).

So, I came up with two “semi-dedicated plans” for the soon to be “remodeled” server. My main goal for the server is to use it as a place to store some backups and be available for redundancy; as such, I expect only to have only a few accounts on it — meaning it will be fairly quiet and private on there, much more so than a normal non-dedicated hosting package (even my usual ones — and I am overly zealous on the idea of keeping the number of accounts on a server down). I would expect it will have less than 10 accounts — perhaps as few as two or three if a few of the XE30K, seen below, were put on it. None of the accounts are oversold, you would be entitled to use every last drop of space and bandwidth mentioned below. The soon-to-be-remodeled server is in Dallas, TX. I also have the older special deal plans below, the larger of which you could have in your pick of Dallas or Washington, DC (the new server), the smaller of which will only be in DC.

I could also work out something custom, like a plan that offered some space on both servers for extra redundancy or whatever other reason might amuse you.

Thanks everyone for bearing with me!

-Tim

Semi-Dedicated Extended Edition XE15K
- 15 GB Storage Space
- 250 GB transfers
- Virtually Unlimited POP/IMAP boxes
- Virtually Unlimited MySQL databases
- Virtually Unlimited FTP accounts
- Vanity Name Servers (ns1 and ns2.yourname.com)
- cPanel and Fantastico
- Located in Dallas, TX

$40/month paid quarterly or annually

Semi-Dedicated Extended Edition XE30K
- 30 GB Storage Space
- 500 GB transfers
- Virtually Unlimited POP/IMAP boxes
- Virtually Unlimited MySQL databases
- Virtually Unlimited FTP accounts
- Vanity Name Servers (ns1 and ns2.yourname.com)
- cPanel and Fantastico
- Located in Dallas, TX

$70/month paid quarterly or annually

Special Edition SE1000
- 1 GB Storage Space
- 20 GB transfers
- Virtually Unlimited POP/IMAP boxes
- 4 MySQL databases
- 10 subdomains or parked domains
- 2 FTP accounts
- cPanel and Fantastico
- Located in Dallas, TX or Washington, DC

$10/month paid annually

- Add Vanity name servers (ns1 and ns2.yourname.com) for $2/month

Special Edition SE100

- 100 MB Storage Space
- 5 GB of transfers
- Virtually Unlimited POP/IMAP boxes
- 1 MySQL database
- Several domains or parked domains (how many do you need?)
- cPanel and Fantastico

$4/month paid annually

- Add Vanity name servers (ns1 and ns2.yourname.com) for $2/month

I mention the term “virtually unlimited” on a few things below. That's just to say, I realize nothing can be unlimited — there's bound to be a point where the server software won't do any more, or it causes things to jam up or whatever. But, if it doesn't cause problems, and I doubt anyone would add so many POP3 accounts that it did (etc.), then go at it. There won't be an arbitrary limit, and I'm not the type to inflict something like that on you later, just what it takes to make sure the server runs smoothly. Concerns? Let me know.

Customer Service

I've spent far too much of the last two days talking to customer service representatives. What have I accomplished? Not one iota. Normally it takes forever, but I get something done. But dealing with customer service at two different companies this week has not worked out for me. I was making myself feel better having delusions of sending the companies bills for my time.

Anyone else having fun with those who consider your call important?