HostMonster, the new host on my block
Posted by Pavan Chander | Filed under Review, Web
Well I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks, and this blog has basically gone dead. Although I still get a fair share of googlers looking up Mojo, or comparing the Sequoia with the Navigator.
So onto current news of the…month now I guess; On browsing around the web I stumbled across HostMonster, a webhost that had some intersting features to offer.
Currently I am with 1&1 hosting, and I have been extremely happy with their service, the price was an unbelievable $5/month for two included domains, 120GB storage, 1.2TB monthly bandwidth (Not a typo), and the usual 2GB IMAP email inboxes, PHP, Perl etc.
For $6/month (Promotional price, now it’s $7), HostMonster gives me unlimited storage and bandwith (Which itself pays for the $1 premium), one included domain, SSH access, & Ruby on Rails. RoR is something I’ve been wanting to sit and play with for quite some time now so it was love at first site.
In addition one of my only caveats with 1and1 was that they forced your ftp account name to contain your Customer ID, a long random string of numbers. Small annoyance, but terribly irratating when you dont have it saved in the software. Needless to say, this was non-existant with HostMonster.
That’s enough for praise.
The first incident I had with HM was that immediatly after confirming my payment, HM sent my user/pass in clear text in a URL. Which meant that not only did my password get saved in my computers history, it also got sent over the network for anyone to sniff.
In addition it seems that one of the two ways that HM verifies your identification when you call in, is to ask you for your password, it seems that anyone on their tech support has access to your password. Which may not be the end of the world, as they also have full access to your account, but it is the priciple of the thing. In this day and age, it should be their policy to never ask for a customers password. 1&1 asks for the customer ID number, and/or phonenumber, name.
Also for some unknown reason, Editplus isnt able to edit any files on the ftp server, due to either permission issues, or cryptic error messages saying that the “File doesn’t exist”.
I plan on sticking it out a little while longer, till I can get shell access (a procedure that has to be verified with a Photo ID) and play around with RoR.
Tags: RoR, security, server, Technology
Consumer rights in the cell phone market
Posted by Pavan Chander | Filed under Hardware, Review
Video after the jump.
Tags: cell phones, communication, Technology
Power outage
Posted by Pavan Chander | Filed under Events
So there I am at 5:45pm
Sitting on the computer plugging away at an online practice exam, only to be greeted with an announcement that the site would be down from 5:30pm - 4:00am.
Now I am all for online downtime, as it usually means something interesting is going on behind the scenes and there’s always the slight chance that when the site does manage to get back up there will be improvements.
But seriously, who the hell conceived the idea to wait till 15min after the site was going to be taken down to announce their intentions!
OK
Breathe, it was only a practice exam that was being a pain in the ass anyway..
[15min go by]
And then, like a flick of a switch…I’m left staring in darkness (well, more than usual) at one of my screens with a little popup saying that my network had been disconnected.
Shit
The only thing I hate worse then having the power go out, is to have it go out in the middle of the night when I’m not around.
So as calmly as I can I shutdown my computer and sit in the silence of my house and brood on how much better my life would be at that this point with an Asus Eee PC.
If anyone’s curious about UPS‘, APC has an online wizard to help you figure out your power needs.
Tags: Events, Technology
Sony VAIO VGP-XL1B3 Media Changer/Jukebox
Posted by Pavan Chander | Filed under Hardware, Media, Review
This awsome device from Sony is a definite must have for the geek in you.
At $100 from B&H, its a steal!
So on to the specs:
- 200 CD/DVD capacity
- CD/DVD writer
- DVD-R: 16x
- DVD-RW: 6x
- DVD+R: 16x
- DVD+RW: 8x
- DVD+R DL: 4x
- CD-R: 40x
- CD-RW: 24x
- FireWire interface, with daisychain support (up to 5 devices - 1000 discs)
- LinuxMCE support
Oh and it weighs 44lbs..
I would have expected a device like this to cost well above $300, and I believe when it came out it was ~$400. I think its going to be discontinued shortly so I’m eager to see what Sony will replace it with. Maybe something along the lines of this. A 400 disc changer, with audio/video output support.
Can’t wait!
For anyone thinking about buying it, and have family in NYC area, I would recomend planning a trip to visit them. As UPS to Oakville, ON costs $90. And customs fees brings the total shipping cost to just over $110, making shipping cost more then product.
Tags: linuxmce, Review, sony, Technology
