Women in Hosting? Yes, really. #hostingcon

July 29th, 2010

Previously, in my HostingCon Day 1 post, I mentioned an exchange in which someone didn’t bother to engage me on their product despite my having rolled out the red carpet for a sale. In my naiveté, I just assumed he sucked as a salesman.

Later on, a friend that read the post mentioned that it was likely due to the fact that I was a woman. Had I been a man and looked like I had money to spend or authority to approve purchases, the conversation likely would have gone much different.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that my friend was likely right.

Ironically, this week I got an email from the company he represented. Someone had noticed that I had an account, shared my information, and didn’t buy anything (apparently this is something they notice when not at HostingCon, but when told this at HostingCon it is not a cause for attention). A cut and paste of the email with some identifying info snipped follows:

Hello,
My name is ******, I work for [Company] and noticed that you signed up for [Product], but have not added any servers. With [Product] you can:

[snip exciting features]

Is there anything I can do to help get you started? If you have lost your log in information please let me know and would be happy to forward it on to you.

Well, he did ask if he could help.

Actually, funny you should write.

I was at HostingCon and wound up by one of your folks during the
******* party. I leaned in, and saw his [Company] shirt, and the
conversation went as follows:

Me: Oh, you’re from [Company]!
Whoever: Yep, I am.
Me: Interesting. You guys have the [Product], right?
Whoever: Yep.
Me: What a coincidence, I actually signed up for that – but I haven’t
actually bought anything from you guys yet.
Whoever: That’s cool. [walks away]

It was the gentleman with the ****** haircut, somewhat *******. He had
wandered over to a crowd with *******, *********, ********.

Not sure if it was due to the fact that I was a female so he couldn’t
conceive I had money to spend (or couldn’t possibly be the decision
maker in my company) or that I didn’t look like a booth babe therefore
it was not worth his time when blondes in hot pants were plentiful,
but the fact that I laid out the red carpet to have a discussion on
your product and he wound up walking away without any kind of
engagement did wind up leaving a bit of a poor impression with regards
to your company. It was HostingCon – I didn’t anticipate having to
chase vendors down (and, well, I didn’t).

So, from that, I decided not to do business with [Company] to move
into the server/VPS market. I did get a fun blog post out of it,
though. It really does, sometimes, just take one bad experience,
folks.

I do wish you good luck in the future, though, and again, thanks for the email.

To be fair, he offered an apology on behalf of the company, credit, and stated that it was “definitely not something we see in our employees”, but my guess is he doesn’t see it because most people in hosting are men and men don’t tend to notice this crap.

It’s almost like the cat and dog thing, you know what I’m talking about? How some people always call cats “she” and dogs “he”. Some people always assume the techs and sys admins are “he” and the designers and billing and HR people are “she”.

And some people at a HostingCon party can’t conceive that the house-wifey looking, short, overweight, almost 40 chick could possibly come up with $30,000+ a year in business to a data center, therefore the initial impression was to blow me off. Of course, had I been an overweight, short, almost 40 year old man, I have a feeling the conversation would have gone much different and that business potential would not have been so hard to believe.

It’s annoying.

Lydia Leong from Gartner, who gave the fabulous opening keynote, wrote a great blog post on Booth Babes. I, too, was kind of amused at the booth babes, especially with the level of blankness that came out of some of their mouths regarding the products they were there to promote. (Not that all these women were dumb – some of them were exceedingly beautiful and smart – just not about what they were supposed to be selling or even what specific industry their product was in reference to).

I dunno whether I care about the Booth Babes. Anything that can get anyone a job that easy in this job market is something I probably should be impressed by, and I’m an Austinite, so I guess I should thank them for helping out our local economy by employing our locals to stand around in hot pants and boy shorts.

But when your inability to comprehend that there are women in this industry and, more important, that there are women that write checks, make vendor decisions, can gut servers, and may even be able to out-CLI your ass during a crash, you have a problem.

I know, I know… I keep blogging, no one’s gonna invite me to anything next year.

Tags: hostingcon, women in hosting
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Malware: Just Keep Your Room Clean

July 26th, 2010

So, we started Malware scanning using Linux Malware Detector from R-FX Networks a few weeks ago, and what it’s been able to find is really astounding. Clients sites are getting exploited at a pretty fearsome rate, and these days it’s just kind of become “the way it is”. It’s just part of being on the Net, that you have to be aware and vigilant and be mindful of your security.

Ok, hosts know that. The memo never seemed to make it to a lot of the clients.

I’ve always been a bit of a security nut, and shared hosting is kind of a strange beast in a lot of ways. Common security protocol: lock the box down so only the people that are supposed to have access to it have access to it. Common shared hosting issue: all and sundry coming in from anywhere in the world have to be able to get to the box. Common Security Protocol: only install interactive things that you understand and secure. Common Shared Hosting issue: when you can install something with a button click, you really don’t have to understand a damn thing beyond clicking a button.

Years ago, you knew when someone was on your box – they tried to ram torrents of crap through it before you caught them making the load go through the roof so you knew unequivocally there was a problem. Now? They’re stealthy, and they don’t want you to catch them, so it’s quiet. Like a creeping death.

I got tired of being smacked in the face with directories full of crap while taking a stroll through the servers, so now I scan every day. I haven’t automated notifications, and I decided that as tempting as it was to flip on the automated “suspend it OMG NAO” option (oh, you have no idea how tempting it was) as soon as there was a hit, the simple fact is most people don’t bother to read anything whatsoever about site security before having a site and I know that they have no idea what’s going on. So I give them a chance to come up to speed on things.

So my mornings are spent cutting and pasting reports to the individual clients and hoping I get a response and don’t get backed it a corner where I have to kick them off. I know, I know, I should automate it. It’s on the to do list. You know, the one that just keeps getting longer.

Luckily, LMD cleans a lot so not hearing from them is concerning but not earth shattering. The ones that come up day after day after day just make me want to cry. Ignoring me when you are serving crap to your visitors on my network will not make me care less that you are serving crap on my network. I’m continuously amazed at how many people get web sites and don’t realize that they are, in fact, an administrator.

Of course, in general it’s our industry’s fault for selling the false security. In our industry, we all market to people that don’t know anything and we do our best to present how easy it is, how flawless you can make it work, how you don’t need to know anything. And then in our TOS we remind them they damn well better know what they’re doing before they pull any fancy shit on our servers, damn it, or we reserve the right to TOS them right out on their butt whenever we gosh darn well please (usually said in a much more legalese way). Despite a river of security-minded blog posts on the company site, I’m no less guilty of that than anyone else.

I honestly wish I could afford to secure hacked sites for $4.58/m. Unfortunately, it’s just not cost-effective to do it, because between the securing and the conversation explaining how to stay secure, I’ve lost hours I can’t afford to lose, and I can’t have my staff losing hours, either. Sometimes, it’s frustrating when you want to do more, and you can’t.

Want to make your web host happy? (Me or anyone else.) Keep your site upgraded. Honestly. Don’t send me thank you cards, or brownies, or t-shirts, or flowers. Just keep your stuff patched.

I realize that this sounds very much like your Mom telling you when you were 10 that the best thing you could give her was just to keep your room clean and to do your chores…

Well, that’s because it’s exactly the same and, damn it, we both mean it.

Tags: site security, upgrading, web hosting
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Wow. People are reading?

July 26th, 2010

iStock_000005549329XSmall So, I spent some time dusting off the plugins since, apparently, people are honestly reading the blog. I also installed Google Analytics because I’m curious who the heck is reading the blog and how you people are getting here because two weeks ago, this wasn’t even a blog. I even stuck one of those plugins that will tweet when I rant. Which could be dangerous because I really do like to run my mouth – though with RSS now, no one can ever take anything back.

I never mentioned the company that made the acquisition overtures by name on purpose, though some folks put two and two together and figured out it was HostGator. Though I imagine after I blasted them on 6th Street and in a blog post they may be rethinking their interest , since they were identified, and apparently people are reading, I feel like I have to say a few things.

There are few people in this industry I despise, but HG isn’t one of them, and my despising certain people is generally based on what I perceive as unethical behavior. Most people in this industry are fine people with good intentions that they balance against bottom lines. That’s never an easy thing, and anyone who hasn’t had to drive a company they felt strongly about may not comprehend the nights that you stay up grappling with your ethics vs. your revenue, your beliefs vs. your profit margin.

My ire, discomfort, defensiveness was directed more to the loss of smaller businesses into behemoths, and HG is a behemoth – the idea of being swallowed was uncomfortable. The prevalence of “scrub hosts” in this industry is a frightening development (scrub hosts: Hosting companies run by people who, if they didn’t have the button in cPanel, would not have a clue something could be done or how to do it and care about nothing other than the money to be made here), and it seemed like, at the rate the flush with cash behemoths are looking to buy smaller players for account numbers, there will be nothing left scrub hosts and behemoths. It feels like a certain level of service is dying out, slowly. Maybe I’m being too cynical, I don’t know.

It could have probably been anyone that wanted to swallow my accounts whole that would have provoked that reaction. I believe… no, I know that I give a certain level of service that someone much, much larger than me simply can’t. I know I have more stability technologically simply because my smaller fleet allows me to baby every machine daily vs. waiting for an alarm to go off telling me there’s a problem. I know that because I’m not scattershot about my clients, I understand them at a level that the behemoths don’t understand their clients, and I vigilantly guard against abusers in a way that an automated fraud check simply can’t catch because I consider far more than whether the card will clear and is likely to be charged back.

I can only do these things because I’m smaller. I know this – and so the concept of growth has both fascinated me and frightened me at the same time ever since I started years and years ago. I’ve never truly tried to grow before, not really and part of it was definitely that I was afraid of losing that thing, that intangible “it” that made my company (to me) special.

The concept of being bought by someone with highly different priorities than me was offensive in a lot of ways. It doesn’t make their approach wrong and mine right. But when they offer to buy, and I’m the one getting swallowed, it does make theirs prevalent and overshadowing, and mine seem puny by comparison.

No one likes to feel puny. Especially CEOs. We just get all sortsa uppity about that kinda crap.

But if I was going to sell to a company, HostGator would not be the last on my list. I have an immense about of respect for what the company has accomplished, and I have had a few dealings in the past with Brent that left me incredibly impressed by him. I sincerely admire that he has kept his interaction with his clients when they have a problem despite HG turning into a behemoth, and though I’m still patently annoyed that they caved to the “unlimited” bullshit rampant in the industry, I had a great deal of respect for the fact that his blog post basically came out and said that he knew it was bullshit but due to market forces he felt his back was against the wall. It’s more than other companies that started this downward slide into insanity did.

Oh, come on, people. We all know its bullshit. Get over it.

So, if I left anyone with the impression that I couldn’t stand the company, I apologize to HG. Blogging when you are highly emotional and your head is spinning is probably bad, especially when the people reading are likely to put two and two together.

Blogging after the cPanel party at Pure is just unilaterally a really bad idea, always, and I now have a new rule: no blogging after cPanel parties for at least 48 hours. No exceptions.

And I’m actually, now, glad it happened. Though my running my mouth probably took the offer off the table [smirk], it gave me an immense amount to think about. It brought a lot of convergent ideas in my head into startling clarity and really made me examine an awful lot of things and for that, I am truly grateful to them for making the overture. It was flattering.

Those are things I’m still processing, so I’ll wind this up and sign off. I have orders to install.

Tags: acquisition, contemplation, hostgator
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I snarked at the Cloud. I shouldn’t have snarked at the Cloud.

July 23rd, 2010

I went into hostingcon snarking on “the cloud”. Everything nowadays is cloud and from what I can tell, everything on the Internet is pretty much cloud. If you can contain it and then push a button or program it to expand, slap a cloud title on that puppy and ride that buzzword into profits.

At least it isn’t just me with the “WTF”.

Like my ultimately superior and judgmental attitude about “unlimited” (You never see anyone advertising 50K Inodes as a feature in bold, do you?), I had an ultimately superior and judgmental attitude about cloud. Having an entire con about the cloud gave me ample opportunity for ample superiority and snark. After all, this technology has ultimately been around a while – load balancing… buttons to make things bigger…

I didn’t expect to learn much from HostingCon and I was avoiding everything with the word cloud in it like the plague. The only thing I didn’t avoid was CloudLinux, and that was only because my husband wanted swag from CloudLinux. Did he know what it was? No. But it had both Cloud and Linux in the name, so he wanted the swag.

I was so amazed at what they were saying I actually forgot to get any CloudLinux swag.

Sorry, hon.

What it boiled down to is that they could put my clients in their own individual corners, give them the toys they paid for, and if any other brutish brat tried to take everyone else’s toys, they wouldn’t get them, hence preventing a massive toddler technological upheaval as all the toys simultaneously combusted.

Honestly, I thought it was bullshit, but it nagged at me. Maybe it didn’t do everything they said, but even if it did a quarter of it, I should look at it, no?

After taking a few days to do all the background I could do to puncture the marketing bubble, I went ahead and installed it on one of my servers, and the difference is flatly astounding. Thomas, my staffer, pronounced himself “gobsmacked”. I haven’t been this excited about a technological innovation in my business since I found out what a CLI was in… um, a long time ago.

I may be one hell of a hard sell, but when something rocks, I’ll eat my snark, and I should not have snarked at the cloud.

Gobsmacked.

I swear its running. This site is actually on Espeon. It’s up. Amazing, eh?

Tags: cloudlinux
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And then I was blindsided.

July 21st, 2010

I’m not one of those folks who created a company with the intention of selling it, and so when I was courted on 6th Street in the midst of HostingCon to sell, I unexpectedly became defensive, like I was being attacked. I didn’t take it well.

It was a decent, and I have no doubt, sincere offer. I wasn’t expecting it. I think I laughed at the beginning because it started out, to me, as a joke. As the conversation went on, I realized that it wasn’t a joke, and I got defensive.

Yes, it’s a little company but damn it, it’s mine.

The party is still going on downtown, and I’m watching the tweets roll in, but I left soon after the offer. It rattled me more than I care to admit, more for what it represented – I’m so little that a hostile takeover would involve the company demanding I sell while pulling my cat’s tail in a threatening manner. Nothing I built was in any danger, not really. The only way it goes is if I sell it. Yet, it still rattled me.

As I made my way through “my industry”, for two days, the sheer throng of humanity crushing me on every side and playing havoc with my introverted need for quiet, solace, and space, I examined what my feelings were about my own company and what I do in contrast to other people’s feelings about what they do. I realized I bonded with very few people because very few people could get past talking about revenue, ROI, and numbers to principles, passions, and drives. In some, there didn’t even seem to be room for it.

When the offer came in, I was well familiar with those making it. The offer came in, the serious interest, before anyone looked at my books, or hard numbers. I knew the number of accounts offhand, they wanted to sweep those numbers into their behemoth, and I was big enough to be eaten. All the nights I sat up, the reputation I built, those meant nothing in the end. It was all about plumping someone’s numbers.

I realized, as they ticked off the others that they bought, that I was a quaint, old fashioned relic from an earlier time, before we became a commodity. Each name that I had heard of for years, knew vaguely, most equated myself with, disappearing into a homogenized sameness.

How many accounts?

2300 or so

How many servers?

6

Wow. That’s pretty good – I think we pack ‘em in a bit more than you do.

Yes, I know. That’s why we’re better than you.

The funny thing is we don’t have 2300 – that’s the DNS numbers with the add on domains and was the one I had in my head. They meant cPanel accounts. In that we’re at about 1800. So we’re even better than them than I initially thought. And I was proud of that.

And it still not something we can really explain or market or sell. In shared, unlimited sells, and they pack ‘em in to make the money. It’s kind of something I’ve come to accept. Maybe we can. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just 1 a.m. in the morning, and I’m being pessimistic. Good doesn’t really cut it. It’s a cut throat world out there, and I just don’t care to cut throats.

Tonight I came face to face with a few things I didn’t know about myself as a business owner in the course of the conversation (much of it, incidentally, has been left out here).

I went in feeling almost inadequate – I couldn’t figure out why the hell I got VIP to the cPanel party (which was a sweet gesture, though I didn’t drink at all so I was an awfully cheap date for everyone), or why this person wanted to meet me, or that person blah blah blah. By the end when the offer came I think it just slammed me down to the point I was defensive about my little corner of the world.

After the offer came, and Acquisitions was explaining their acquisitions and how they were maintaining so and so’s bought and paid for brand, they said the thing that suddenly made my head snap up.

They won’t even really notice they were bought.

My customers would notice.

The day that I could sell my little bitty micro company to a corporate behemoth, have them eat my brand and servers and clients, and no one would notice the difference is the day I’ll sell to you. The day it’s more about the money than the sense of achievement and satisfaction I get, the day I stop caring whether people’s sites could crash from a dig because it would eat into my bottom line and start “packing ‘em in” so I can drive a sports car instead of a minivan, I’ll sell out. The day I care more about numbers than clients, more about ROI then integrity and doing it right, the day I care more about monetary success than technological achievement, I’ll give you that call.

But I can tell you one thing, boys – that day isn’t today.

Posted in Rants, Web Hosting | View Comments

HostingCon: Day 1

July 20th, 2010

So, it’s my first HostingCon, after 12 years of being in the hosting industry. As the resident cynic and pessimist, I suppose I’m harder to please than most.

So, before being cynical and pessimistic, a picture to show I’m really not always cynical and pessimistic:

I’ve only gone to two talks, and not to call anyone out, but:

The first one had a title that sounded like it would be generally applicable to hosting, and wasn’t. It was almost entirely about app deployment. I don’t do cloud app deployment, nor do I target clients doing app deployment, nor am I interested in getting into that market, so the session was a complete waste of my time because of someone’s illusions of grandeur regarding naming the thing.
The second one consisted almost entirely of a sales pitch, and coming so soon on the heels of another waste of my time, I walked out. If nothing in your presentation has a damn bit to do with me unless I want to become your client, or I am your client, you shouldn’t be giving a general talk.

I kind of gave up on the talks at that point, and I likely won’t go to another one the entire rest of the Convention. I have the utmost aversion to anyone wasting my time, and am generally not very forgiving in that arena especially when you would think that an industry having a marketing track to teach people about Internet marketing would be more familiar with proper keyword usage, titling, and meta descriptions.

Some other things I learned:

I really adore both of my data centers, each one for different reasons. I hooked up with Liquid Web and Wired Tree – while WT has a significant presence, LW has one person (who I knew previously), and it’s really only there that I got any benefit out of HostingCon. I have to give the edge to WT just for the HostingCon presence, though – when the President of your data center shows and you get to spend some time with them talking, you get a sense of the company you didn’t have before, and it’s a beneficial thing. HostingCon isn’t just about what is – it’s about what’s next.

To be fair, I have been with LW for a very long time, and have a very good sense of the company. I would have personally liked to see a bigger presence from them, however, which is not to take away from the fine job Benny’s doing. Was I diplomatic there?

I’m a bit strange, though, as business is extremely personal to me – the way I feel about the people behind the companies I work with is a significant reason why I choose to do business with them, or not. Integrity matters, and I may be a relic from an older age, but that’s just the way I am.

On my pessimistic and cynical side, I also found those who I would never do business with.

In one instance, I engaged a discussion with someone that has a data center, and with which I have an account but from whom I have not bought anything. I mentioned this, and for whatever reason they chose not to bother with engaging in any further discussion. When walking into a situation where someone in front of you has stated that they were interested enough in your company to share their information, but not interest enough to buy anything, one would think at a business conference it would behoove you to engage them to find out why and see if you could turn them into someone that would purchase from you. This person chose not to, and in that instance I crossed them off the list of companies I once considered and put them on the list with companies I would never deal with.

In the second instance, someone else engaged me and asked me who I was with. My standard joke is the company name, followed by “the oldest hosting company you’ve never heard of” and he immediately bit back “Well, then you’re not marking right.”

[blink]

While I may be cynical, pessimistic, a hardass, and downright bitchy at times from my position and on up to my vendors, I’ve read a marketing book or two in my time and from where I am down line to people I am trying to sell, I do know enough to never open a conversation by telling someone how I perceive they have fucked up – even if I perceive they have fucked up. I have found it doesn’t engender feelings of warmth and support.

If you don’t know that, and you sell advertising, you go on that “Hell, no, I’m not buying what you’re selling” list as well. Yes, just for that.

It has been interesting. I may need to make more lists.

Tags: hostingcon, rambling
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Don’t Sell a Domain Name Through GoDaddy

July 16th, 2010

When clients cancel and abandon their names, we put them up for sale on Sedo – I like Sedo. They’re quick, they answer questions, and I had a few domain names that I tried to broker myself and it was just too much hassle. So, we put them on Sedo.

One of our Sedo domains apparently was shown to a GoDaddy client, and GoDaddy sent us an email offering to broker the same between us and their client because that’s how the client wanted to buy. I have a rule to deal with GoDaddy as little as humanly possible after a really horrible experience with the company (cough see this post cough), but it wasn’t that much money so I figured what the heck.

I answered the emails, opened an account just to sell the domain, and did everything I was supposed to do. I added my PayPal account to get paid. All was well. Took about two weeks. Got a transaction completed notification and a fare thee well thanks three days ago.

But no money.

Now, color me crazy, but if the transaction is completed one would think that everyone got what they were supposed to get. Buyer got domain name. GoDaddy got brokers fees. My company gets paid. You know, all the little things that make up a completed sale.

Apparently not.

I waited three days after the completed notification, and waited for the money. I mean, I’m in this industry – sometimes crap gets screwed up, things take time. I got that. But three days? I called to see what was going on.

I called the number given for domain sales.
I pushed the automated button that was supposed to get me to the “Domain Buy Service team”.

I got a regular tech support person, who had to put me on hold for five minutes to talk to the “Domain Buy Service team” to find out why I hadn’t gotten paid because the actual people that do the domain brokerage can’t be spoken to by mere peons.

They don’t have phone extensions, though GoDaddy gives you a number and automated system and directs you to call the “Domain Buy Service team” who you get is actually get is a regular technical support person that doesn’t even have access to the information and who talk back and forth by phone to the people you aren’t allowed to talk to by phone that you were directed to call the number and push the button to speak to.

And general tech support guy will repeatedly sidestep any specific questions you have by repeatedly reminding you he is not, in fact, one of the Domain Buy Service team members.

While telling you they are just technical support, don’t have the information, and no, you can’t talk to the Domain Buy Service team and yes, they realize that the number you called and the buttons you pushed got you to someone who appeared to be in the Domain Buy Service team department even though there is no real actual number to get to the Domain Buy Service team he just keeps saying “I don’t know” as well as that no, he can’t transfer you to the Domain Buy Service team because no one is allowed to speak to them.

Are you serious?

In short, he told me it takes 20 days to be paid from the date they paid GoDaddy and that they hold the domain in escrow until I’m paid. I asked what date they paid, and he didn’t know and couldn’t ask. I asked what they mean by holding the domain in Escrow and he said the buyer wouldn’t have access to the domain until I was paid. When I pointed out they had a site up already, he didn’t answer.

We argued a bit more but, in short, they gave the domain name to their client, they won’t tell you when they were paid, and you’ve already given up your domain to someone else’s use before you ever see a dime. And if you have a problem with the sale well, that’s just tough – you can’t talk to the Domain Buy Service team doing domain brokerage and you can’t have any information on anything because he isn’t the Domain Buy Service team and only they have information.

Yes, ok, I finally Googled the TOS.

Proceeds from a sale will be made to your selected Deposit Account approximately thirty-one (31) days after Buyer’s deposit of funds in connection with such purchase.

My bad. Stupid as hell, and hope they enjoy the interest, but fine. I’m one of the idiots that didn’t read the TOS. Har Har. Joke’s on me.

You know what’s also in the TOS?

5. DISPUTE POLICY

Occasionally, a dispute might arise regarding a transaction begun or completed through the Services. In such instance, you agree to be bound by Go Daddy ‘s Dispute Policy. Go Daddy reserves the right to modify the Dispute Policy at any time, without notice.

Filing a Dispute

To file a dispute, you must submit an email to AuctionDisputes@godaddy.com. The email must include:

Your account number;

Your name and contact information;

The order number associated with the transaction;

The domain name over which the dispute arises; and

A detailed account of the dispute.

Such email must be received within fifteen (15) days from the sale date.

Date of sale was 7/07, 9 days ago, the date I clicked the little button to agree to sell, so I have until Thursday, July 22, 2010 to file a dispute.

Tech told me to “assume” the completed email is the date they were paid, which was July 13th – so if the 20 days the tech told me is correct, that’s Monday, August 2, 2010, or the 31 days the TOS says puts it at Friday, August 13, 2010.

If they were paid the very same day I agreed (the date of sale), that puts the 20 days at Tuesday, July 27, 2010, and the 31 days by their TOS at Saturday, August 7, 2010.

So, if you don’t get paid 31 days from the sale date, you have 15 days from the date of sale to file a dispute, with every possible payment date being after the dispute deadline? You’re kidding me, right?

That’s cute.

Never again.

Tags: GoDaddy
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Addicted to Netflix

July 15th, 2010

I had Netflix years ago and used it “the old fashioned way” – ordered a DVD, waited in the mail, got the DVD, sent it back, waited again. After too many lost DVDs that never got to me, I went nuts and canceled, jumping to Blockbuster’s service which allowed me to go around the corner to get a quick fix at least at the alts.

Then I got PlayOn, and started loving the whole streaming thing since I didn’t have to do it from my office desk – the office desk being the place I try to peel myself away from periodically lest I merge with my office chair. After devouring LOST on Hulu up to the 5th season, I went in search for more shows to get addicted to. Found a few, but not enough, and a friend suggested Netflix.

Those list DVDs and Blue Rays had really chapped me, and I hesitated. A quick Twitter mention had people singing it’s praises for streaming, and so I signed up for the free month (which they even gave me again. Thanks, Netflix.)

I’m not a TV watcher for the most part, but Netflix has been eye opening with regards to what I’ve been missing while I’ve been avoiding my living room and living in my office. Getting the disks for the Playstation 3 and Wii made our house into a media-focused group once again, but with the fantastic side benefit of being able to call the time and devote as much, or as little, as we want because the shows are always there.

So far, I’ve become a fan of Firefly, The Sara Conner Chronicles, and I just loaded up Heroes and Dollhouse for viewing at some point in the future. None of these shows were shows I was remotely interested in, much like I never bothered with Harry Potter until Book 7 and I could read the whole series straight through.

Well played, Netflix.

Tags: boob tube, netflix
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Amusing Web Hosting Talk Threads

July 15th, 2010

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=963915

http://www.scottswezey.com/blog/2010/jonathan-burdon-wants-to-sue-you-if-you-link-to-someone-that-doesnt-like-him/

http://www.mikedvb.com/2010/03/21/beware-of-web-hosting-review-and-top-10-web-hosts-sites/

I more or less opened up the blog just to link to this stuff. Why?

Cookie stuffing is something I find unethical.

Scammers that tout legal threats are something I find unethical.

The information posted is pretty eye opening.

It amused me.

Posted in Web Hosting Talk | View Comments

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