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Blogs
Apr 9, 2006 20:14:15 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 9, 2006 20:14:15 GMT
Anyone have a suggestion for a new bloghost? Mine is here, but its down because the site is down for maintenance or whatnot. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but the site was down for maintenance last summer, and took the entire summer for it to work again. This looks to be the same as it was this summer, as they've created a new start page and dubbed it "Spymac V". The last upgrade like this wasn't even complete (only forum and blogs were up, leaving Webmail, Gallery, and Webpages down) and they're working on S5? So, quick re-cap: Spymac is unreliable and a POS.Anyway, anger aside, I've about had it there. Good people were the only things keeping me there for the longest time. I was in the middle of a pretty in-depth series of blogs (admittantly, it might have worked better as a forum question, especially considering after about 100 comments it was basically a forum house anyway) and the service was cut. No warning, nothing but "please curse us out while we upgrade our site" on the home page. This was the last straw and I've decided I'll leave Spymac before it gets any worse (I predict that they plan to pull the Free services ASAP anyway). For the (at the most, one) person who read it (ever), I'll keep stuff up on both blogs for a while so people can transition (well, keep stuff up as in I'll copy all the stuff between the two as soon as Spymac will let me back in. So, technically I'd be just writing in the one and transferring it 6 months later to the other. Anyone else confused?). Re-cap: Will maintain both for fun of itFor those horribly confused, I'd like to know which blog service to use? I hear BlogSpot is good, but so is LiveJournal and a few others. If anyone mentions MySpace, don't be surprised if you hear me shout and scream about how evil it is (despise that place...). While we're here, anyone else have a blog?
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Blogs
Apr 10, 2006 3:13:51 GMT
Post by Homeloaf on Apr 10, 2006 3:13:51 GMT
Okay, I'm gonna defy you and question your judgement.
What's wrong with MySpace?
I realize that there are a lot of little 13 year old girls that don't know [fecal matter] from apple blossoms, but I just don't add them. I only add people I know.
I had been way out of touch with my sister 800 miles away, but then I found out that she had a MySpace page. Now I talk to her all the time.
So why the hate?
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Blogs
Apr 11, 2006 23:42:25 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 11, 2006 23:42:25 GMT
Because MySpace almost landed me in jail. Long story, and I won't get into it because I was sort of barred from doing so by court order. Nope, didn't do anything, just was making fun of this 80-year old guy (turns out he was a cop pretending to be old to see if the theory of "perverts like all people, old and young" is true). To be short and hopefully thusly avoid landing in jail, don't make fun of old people.
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Blogs
Apr 11, 2006 23:48:00 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 11, 2006 23:48:00 GMT
I signed up for blogger (which I is the owner of blogspot). My blog is here: earleuradere.blogspot.com/ and although the template is anti-spiffy (I'll change it some day), its not half-bad considering its been up a full 10 minutes.
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Blogs
Apr 12, 2006 1:32:38 GMT
Post by Mikrondel on Apr 12, 2006 1:32:38 GMT
Ever considered hosting your own blog? Diaulup wouldn't really cut it, but if you have anything better then you might consider the idea.
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Blogs
Apr 12, 2006 18:26:50 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 12, 2006 18:26:50 GMT
Nope, I just have dialup and the cost is way too much for me to consider my slow broadband choice (I'm talking upwards of 100 usd a month just for 196k "cable" access).
Perhaps later on, whenever costs go down or I can regularly use a public access point (a new cyber-cafe is coming in 2 years from now, should be spiffy. First of its kind for my area (nearest one is almost 200 miles away), yay!).
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Blogs
Apr 12, 2006 23:00:15 GMT
Post by Mikrondel on Apr 12, 2006 23:00:15 GMT
You've missed the point (by saying "whenever ... I can regularly use a public access point").
The reason you need something slightly higher than dialup is because unless your computer is connected to the internet all the time, then your website won't be up all the time.
Maybe you need a quick web server lesson. A server means two things; either a server machine (i.e. a computer that provides some service to others in a certain situation) or a server process (i.e. a program that provides services to others). Needless to say, server processes need to be running on a machine for it to be a server machine.
Anyway, the processes sit there, waiting around until something connects up. In the case of an HTTP server, the client will request one page, and the server will process anything connected with that page (e.g. server-side scripts, or authentication) and then send the file over to the client.
Now, to other news: One unlikely possibility: get a fast connection, and then run network cables to a few of your neighbours, and run a monitor program to see how much they use. And charge them for it. (But charge them a bit less than they'd have to pay otherwise, eh) Thus you have fast internet paid for by other people. You might even make money.
It might be a breach of your ISP's conditions though. But if it isn't, then you should really consider this.
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Blogs
Apr 13, 2006 16:46:49 GMT
Post by Homeloaf on Apr 13, 2006 16:46:49 GMT
Ha! I rip off my grandparents for my intarweb. They don't offer anything fast down here in turd-ville, though, so I'm screwed for internet.
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Blogs
Apr 13, 2006 23:08:42 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 13, 2006 23:08:42 GMT
It is a breach of practically any ISP in North America to share your access willingly and charge for it. Unless I could get away with saying they're on the same home network as I am (which no court would ever buy), I'd probably end up fined like Canada or even jailed.
As far as the hosting thing, I was (rather stupidly) thinking of buying a domain off a server. As you can see, I apparantly need to think more before posting; as this doesn't satisfy what you suggested, nor does it satisfy my reasons related to bandwidth (because if someone else hosted it, I could obviously use my dialup for it).
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Blogs
Apr 14, 2006 0:02:58 GMT
Post by Mikrondel on Apr 14, 2006 0:02:58 GMT
Yeah, I wasn't really expecting a chance of it being legal. But here's an idea... form a real ISP! And give affordable rates.
It's certainly quite a large task; maybe find an older friend who's willing to invest a bit of money to start a small business, and make use of your technical expertise. <shrugs> It's a farfetched idea, but just in case you're an adventurous person, I present it.
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Blogs
Apr 14, 2006 15:08:21 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 14, 2006 15:08:21 GMT
There's already a good many ISPs around here. Perhaps when I'm already fairly well-off financially, I'll give something like this (not necessarily this) a try. Innovation is usually found in your startups, as big corporations don't want to take the risks necessary to bring actual changes to the world. As far as technical expertise, I wouldn't say I'd be able to do it now, but starting this summer, I'll be going to a spiffy college which offers courses in network administration and information technology (I'm going for Software Applications Programming, btw. Yes, I'll finally learn C++, the eternal bane of my existance; and yes I'll be legally able to be called a "programmer" by professional standards ). So, maybe I'll drop in on a class or two of it (won't be able to take class outright, as it isn't part of my major and the program isn't set up for an a la carte-style course schedule).
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Blogs
Apr 15, 2006 1:26:37 GMT
Post by Mikrondel on Apr 15, 2006 1:26:37 GMT
As far as technical expertise, about an hour of reading should do it for you Running a small ISP is quite easy; you just need the correct infrastructure (i.e. cables or dial-in phone lines, a computer with a couple of modems, and a fast connection to somewhere) and a bit of free software. The expertise, really, is in getting the software set up and ready to go. And that's not much work. Even the FREESCO Linux I've mentioned before can support up to 10 network cards and 10 phone line modems, and then you just install a decent network monitor on it and you're ready to go! Or if you'd charge a monthly fee, then you don't even really need the monitor. The expertise mostly lies in making your modems/network cards get recognised by FREESCO. Many will get autodetected, but it mightn't have drivers for new ones, and old ones might need to be manually set up (all that IRQ stuff that nobody worries about anymore). And there's nothing stopping you installing some other distribution of Linux that's a bit better at that kind of thing, for which you could get a GUI network monitor or even actual ISP tools. Essentially, there's not much expertise involved, just a bit of familiarity with computers, really. Now if there are many ISPs around then why are the prices so high? Another alternative (I know a few people who belong to things like this) is to round up everyone nearby, get one fast connection and share it among everyone, and everyone pays a small fee. That way everyone has access to a fast connection without having to each pay the full cost. The people who use it less are given priority when they do use it (i.e. the people who download heaps of movies get slowed down when other people want to use it) But something you can actually try right now: Make a FREESCO floppy, boot up off it, configure it to recognise your dialup modem, and have a friend try dialing your number. For added joy, put an index.html in your /www directory (you might create it with the 'edit' text editor) and have him view it. It may not go exactly as planned but it should be educational. (And theoretically should take about half an hour, if you don't run into any problems.) If you like the idea I can give you a quick Linux/FREESCO survival guide.
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Blogs
Apr 16, 2006 0:08:56 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 16, 2006 0:08:56 GMT
No, I'm good for now. My mommy told me no more of that stuff after we got a rather nice letter from my ISP about "some strange activity". I probably didn't hook things up right or something, and it probably didn't help that my "friend" used my connection to download massive amounts of stuff (why he'd do this, I don't know, as 28k is extremely slow for that stuff. Maybe just wanted me to get in trouble instead...).
Anyway, the ISPs that are around are all dialup. There's only 1 local cable company that offers broadband (phone company offers in "special" areas, of which I'm not part of). So, for dialup: yep, lots of competition (I pay only 10 usd a month for dialup). For broadband: nope, virtually no competition, so prices can be what they want to be.
Thanks for the info abou FREESCO. Someday I'll use it (maybe in college, as that'll be a fun way to "borrow" some net time from the college. It'll be fun, having my dialup only access stuff that'd already be compressed at the college (meaning downloading movies could be a possibility, so long as the college doesn't find out of my "illegal" usage)), if not, maybe someone else can. You should be a sys admin someday, even if only for something to fall back on.
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Blogs
Apr 16, 2006 22:13:32 GMT
Post by Mikrondel on Apr 16, 2006 22:13:32 GMT
Hey, my suggestion has nothing to do with your ISP. It's just setting up a network (of 2 computers) via phone line. Nothing out of the ordinary about networking. And best of all, it boots off a floppy so when you're done you just reboot, take the floppy out and it's as if nothing ever happened.
And re ISPs, that was my point exactly; if there's hardly competition for broadband, you could start a company with lower prices and fill the hole in the market.
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Blogs
Apr 17, 2006 20:21:17 GMT
Post by earlofqb on Apr 17, 2006 20:21:17 GMT
Ok. Spiffy. I might do that some day when sufficiently bored.
The ISP thing would be nice, but I don't have the money to buy the hardware (ie fibre-optic cables for the T1 connection I'd split apart), but you do inspire me to start saving up to do this. Maybe in 15 years I'll own all of Canada's broadband (and as I'll be charging the bare minimum for the operations, I'll have Wal Mart-like power over broadband. They'll have to change to compete!).
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Blogs
Apr 19, 2006 4:33:25 GMT
Post by Ildûrest on Apr 19, 2006 4:33:25 GMT
By the way, if anyone else is interested in my FREESCO dial-in networking experiment, it's really not too hard, providing FREESCO recognises your hardware.
Additionally my chat server runs on FREESCO so if you wanna show of your über-1337ness by having a friend dial in and then have a chat then I can send you a copy of it. If this sounds interesting but you have no idea about anything then let me know and I can give you a crash course on one of the easiest to configure Linux routers ever... FREESCO
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