December, 2008

Uncategorized — 1 Comment
15
Dec 08

Is this “Cloud Computing”?

You can now view PDFs in Google Docs without the need for any desktop application other than a web browser. And it works and its fast.

I think this is truly awesome and is just a taste of what is to come. Computers of the future will simply be “Internet Thin Clients” and everything from apps to files will be accessed online. With all our data in the “cloud”, this could see the death of personal storage for smallish files, so I have to ask…

Would you trust “the Internet” with all your data?

Uncategorized — 1 Comment
13
Dec 08

Fix for Mac Firefox insomnia

I found a workaround on Bugzilla for the problem with Firefox 3 on Mac where the Mac would not sleep after idle time if Firefox was running. You need to go into about:config and set “places.frecency.updateIdleTime” to 0. I tested this on FF 3.0.4 OS X 10.5.5 and it works. Hoo-frickin-ray! This was really annoying as I didn’t like leaving my Mac running all the time and like to leave Firefox open with like a zillion tabs open.

Blog — 1 Comment
2
Dec 08

New Hosting

Hey there readers. I changed my web host to Cove since they seemed attractive. The blog all seems to be working now that DNS has propagated. Transplant was a piece of cake, I <3 WordPress. So far, here are some things I like about Cove:

  • Non-profit & personal hosting from $2.08 per month. That is not a typo.
  • I can host up to 5 additional domains on the same hosting account, without needing a reseller account. I just set up a folder for the website, e.g. /myseconddomain.com/httpdocs or some such.
  • I am discovering the joy of CPanel management system. Coming from the bloated Plesk, it’s a welcome relief. CPanel is the embodiment of the KISS principle.
  • Transparent server information. I don’t have to go hunting for PHP, Apache, MySQL versions. They are all there on the CPanel front page.
  • They offer SSH access and an easy way to switch it on or off via web interface.
  • The hosting is on Pipe Networks (I think).
  • Melbourne servers, which means lower pings in a couple of months.
  • phpMyAdmin launches in the same window, instead of a new window. You would not think this is a big thing but it became quite annoying on my old host.
  • My IP was blocked for doing a traceroute on the domain. Yes this is a good thing since it shows they have a decent firewall. And their web interface let me know about the block, so I didn’t sit there thinking, “Damn, this is some slow hosting!”
  • Their customer service (online ticket system) seems pretty good so far.

I’m still wondering what the catch is…