I used GoDaddy for a long time. Then whatsisname, the owner guy, goes and shoots up an elephant in Africa. Now, maybe that elephant needed killing, I don't know,
but it wasn't his problem to solve and he can figure out something more constructive to do with his millions as I see it. So, in irritation that I was contributing to those sorts of endeavors, and even though I think Danica is hot,
I switched my stuff to Dreamhost as I too read that people were happy with them. Now I am happy. One time my credit card info got compromised. DREAMHOST ALERTED ME TO IT! And quite a bit before my bank, because DREAMHOST had found it on a bulletin board somewhere and compared with their records, as I recall, told me I might want to look into it. They was right.
One big problem with using the GWT ( at this point in time ) to develop something like a media site is the failure to index. One can be blacklisted in the search indices for presenting a site to a robot which fails to render properly. As 100% javacript sites always do.
At this point in time the GWT seems well suited for display of data and rapid prototyping and uses that have people coming to your site through means other than search engines. Or use it sparingly to augment your normal, indexable site.
I would be a complete fan if robots could deal with it, I really enjoy using it and can quickly make it do whatever I want and expect the output to render pretty much identically on all major browsers and be quite compact.
i work for a content promotions company, gochongo ( all forms of content, not just video ),
and we see a *lot* of video submissions at resolutions of 320x240 or below.
every now and then someone will submit something NOT from their cell phone and one can really tell a qualitative difference.
since cell phones and cams and the whole shebang are always improving youtube will have to improve their video quality
if they don't want to become known ( even more ) as the source for low quality vids.
i worked for ups for about 8 years. they do an incredible volume each day, often measured in terms of 100K packages per shift (3 or so shifts per day in the big hubs). everyone, everywhere (in the usa at least), every day is touched by their business. such volumes beget macro policy. and bigass conveyor belts. how many times i crawled on my stomach across a 5' wide belt to break up a logjam of packages.....
with my feet........kicking and screaming at the packages who were fucking up my evening.
So, yeah there are acceptable levels of loss to them. but maybe not to you or me. here's a few tips for when using ups (or anyone else) is how you are going to go:
(1) if you can't - and I mean this - if you can't literally drop kick the box with your full strength out into the street and expect it to survive- its not packed for all conditions it might meet inside their system. double pack the equipment: pack with padding etc. then put it into a bigger box and surround it with packing material so it stays CENTRALLY SUSPENDED within. then tape the living shit out of every seam on the box and roll tape as a contiguous strap around the box. applying tape is not done like scotch tape limply applied , i'm talking the thick, clear plastic stuff. attach it and pull it TIGHT! seal it as you work around the box. nice high pitched noises come from the roll as you run around the box with it. The finished product should feel solid when pressed at any point, a bit of packing overpessure giving a slight plump to the outer cardboard. nothing should move when shaken. irregularities like a bad corner or a tear in the side can hang it up on a conveyor belt corner and cause jams. then it gets squashed as several thousand crates of crap press it into the metal retaining wall and the belt slips past underneath.
(1a) never ever leave your HDD in the cases. never. pack them with you, theys small.
(2) never ship GROUND if your stuff is tender. pay more and get 2nd day air, it goes through quicker and more careful channels, closer tabs are kept on its well-being.
(3) the people who actually READ the addresses on your box literally have an avalanche of crap falling on them. they are expected to produce! meaning dispose of/route those 'parcels' to the tune of several thousand per hour at times. so they just glance at a package and look for the zip code mostly. make it BIG! BIG BIG BIG! and easy to read. this alone will keep it moving, possibly get it selected out of the bunch early; better odds. write it on the flip side too.
I have seen guys get pissed off AT A PACKAGE and throw it from the high scaffold to the concrete floor 30 feet below. because it irritated them. see?
nice handwriting or a sweet little ups provided label doesn't go nearly as far as a BIG BLACK MARKER, permanent style.
some things can't be helped. like one time i was backing a semi trailer up to an unload door. the packages are stacked inside those semi's so tight there is almost no airspace. but the load can shift in transit and things can get loose....
so as i backed up, the entire back row -13'6" high in the sky, came out and i couldn't see it. after it all hit the ground i ran over a monitor. THEN i noticed the neat *PoP*ing noise and went back to inspect things. happens each and every day.
but that was a while back, and i bet it wasn't yours.
ya, good point, to know what he is about and be able to decide whether or not one wants to aid him. and is it not better to have a guy who posts his questions here doing this sort of thing than some quiet entity somewhere? regardless of what is discussed,/. or elsewhere, development of such systems WILL continue. better to have people who are relatively forthcoming knowing how it works and gaining positive experience with the open forum....
my sister-in-law works for amazon, says they run as many as 5000 RedHat units. says they develop their tools on them and that the shipping floors run it for day to day (tracking, shipping) orders.
seems like there are at least (2) types of tech - those who work with the afflicted machines in a shop/back-room and those who do the same under a barrage of human induced stress at client sites. Clearly the latter is more difficult, so a good tech ought to recognize early on whether they can manage themselves and others; stay in the back rooms if not. here are some things that proved helpful:
Whenever meeting a client, regardless of situation, i usually find myself in stronger positions when i've kept my mouth shut - meaning only that they will almost always ask "do you think its xx or maybe Z?" - Safe answers sound something like..."I don't know, could be. You have my full attention now and I'm sure we can straighten this out." . Expounding with a client on all the things that COULD be wrong wastes a lot of time. Get used to " I've not seen that before. Tell me about the.... " --sometimes helps to seem a little impatient with the conversation ( if it seems pedantic), to keep walking toward that which is misbehaving.
Helpful too is an ability to nicely shut them down when they begin relating the long list of corrective measures they have already undertaken to fix the problem. i don't mean to say don't listen to them (one MUST!) instead initiate and control the verbal exchange with something like:
" You may have taken steps to correct this but please understand that even if you did I MUST be thorough... which may even mean repetition of some of your actions. I know this may be difficult but you will only distract me and prolong the analysis by bombarding me with questions. Let me ask you questions, and you try to be concise with the replies- we'll figure this out." --Clients like to think they played a part in finding the solution. Often they do.
-Empathy helps too. especially with MS products. <scratch head> "I am as perplexed as you, let me scan the newsgroups and see if anyone else has this problem" <--buys time.
A cardinal rule- never insinuate that anything anyone did was "stupid" either outright or by tacit agreement. This goes on alot. The bigwig or your contact or a guy who walks up to check on progress may be trying to cast a co-worker in a bad light, don't provide the ammo. everyone has expertise in their arena, recognize that, try to give credit to people for any positive actions and remain neutral.
and don't forget to eat beforehand if you think its gonna be a long one....
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I used GoDaddy for a long time.
Then whatsisname, the owner guy, goes and shoots up an elephant in Africa.
Now, maybe that elephant needed killing, I don't know,
but it wasn't his problem to solve and he can figure out something more constructive to do with his millions as I see it.
So, in irritation that I was contributing to those sorts of endeavors, and even though I think Danica is hot,
I switched my stuff to Dreamhost as I too read that people were happy with them.
Now I am happy.
One time my credit card info got compromised.
DREAMHOST ALERTED ME TO IT!
And quite a bit before my bank, because DREAMHOST had found it on a bulletin board somewhere and compared with their records, as I recall,
told me I might want to look into it.
They was right.
to develop this site ( and others ):
http://www.gochongo.com/
One big problem with using the GWT ( at this point in time ) to develop something like a media site is the failure to index.
One can be blacklisted in the search indices for presenting a site to a robot which fails to render properly. As 100% javacript sites always do.
At this point in time the GWT seems well suited for display of data and rapid prototyping and uses that have people coming to your site through means other than search engines. Or use it sparingly to augment your normal, indexable site.
I would be a complete fan if robots could deal with it, I really enjoy using it and can quickly make it do whatever I want and expect the output to render pretty much identically on all major browsers and be quite compact.
i work for a content promotions company, gochongo ( all forms of content, not just video ), and we see a *lot* of video submissions at resolutions of 320x240 or below. every now and then someone will submit something NOT from their cell phone and one can really tell a qualitative difference. since cell phones and cams and the whole shebang are always improving youtube will have to improve their video quality if they don't want to become known ( even more ) as the source for low quality vids.
i worked for ups for about 8 years. they do an incredible volume each day, often measured in terms of 100K packages per shift (3 or so shifts per day in the big hubs). everyone, everywhere (in the usa at least), every day is touched by their business. such volumes beget macro policy. and bigass conveyor belts. how many times i crawled on my stomach across a 5' wide belt to break up a logjam of packages.....
with my feet........kicking and screaming at the packages who were fucking up my evening.
So, yeah there are acceptable levels of loss to them. but maybe not to you or me. here's a few tips for when using ups (or anyone else) is how you are going to go:
(1) if you can't - and I mean this - if you can't literally drop kick the box with your full strength out into the street and expect it to survive- its not packed for all conditions it might meet inside their system. double pack the equipment: pack with padding etc. then put it into a bigger box and surround it with packing material so it stays CENTRALLY SUSPENDED within. then tape the living shit out of every seam on the box and roll tape as a contiguous strap around the box. applying tape is not done like scotch tape limply applied , i'm talking the thick, clear plastic stuff. attach it and pull it TIGHT! seal it as you work around the box. nice high pitched noises come from the roll as you run around the box with it. The finished product should feel solid when pressed at any point, a bit of packing overpessure giving a slight plump to the outer cardboard. nothing should move when shaken. irregularities like a bad corner or a tear in the side can hang it up on a conveyor belt corner and cause jams. then it gets squashed as several thousand crates of crap press it into the metal retaining wall and the belt slips past underneath.
(1a) never ever leave your HDD in the cases. never. pack them with you, theys small.
(2) never ship GROUND if your stuff is tender. pay more and get 2nd day air, it goes through quicker and more careful channels, closer tabs are kept on its well-being.
(3) the people who actually READ the addresses on your box literally have an avalanche of crap falling on them. they are expected to produce! meaning dispose of/route those 'parcels' to the tune of several thousand per hour at times. so they just glance at a package and look for the zip code mostly. make it BIG! BIG BIG BIG! and easy to read. this alone will keep it moving, possibly get it selected out of the bunch early; better odds. write it on the flip side too.
I have seen guys get pissed off AT A PACKAGE and throw it from the high scaffold to the concrete floor 30 feet below. because it irritated them. see?
nice handwriting or a sweet little ups provided label doesn't go nearly as far as a BIG BLACK MARKER, permanent style.
some things can't be helped. like one time i was backing a semi trailer up to an unload door. the packages are stacked inside those semi's so tight there is almost no airspace. but the load can shift in transit and things can get loose....
so as i backed up, the entire back row -13'6" high in the sky, came out and i couldn't see it. after it all hit the ground i ran over a monitor. THEN i noticed the neat *PoP*ing noise and went back to inspect things. happens each and every day.
but that was a while back, and i bet it wasn't yours.
nor mine.
ya, good point, to know what he is about and be able to decide whether or not one wants to aid him. and is it not better to have a guy who posts his questions here doing this sort of thing than some quiet entity somewhere? regardless of what is discussed, /. or elsewhere, development of such systems WILL continue. better to have people who are relatively forthcoming knowing how it works and gaining positive experience with the open forum....
my sister-in-law works for amazon, says they run as many as 5000 RedHat units. says they develop their tools on them and that the shipping floors run it for day to day (tracking, shipping) orders.
seems like there are at least (2) types of tech - those who work with the afflicted machines in a shop/back-room and those who do the same under a barrage of human induced stress at client sites. Clearly the latter is more difficult, so a good tech ought to recognize early on whether they can manage themselves and others; stay in the back rooms if not. here are some things that proved helpful:
Whenever meeting a client, regardless of situation, i usually find myself in stronger positions when i've kept my mouth shut - meaning only that they will almost always ask "do you think its xx or maybe Z?" - Safe answers sound something like..."I don't know, could be. You have my full attention now and I'm sure we can straighten this out." . Expounding with a client on all the things that COULD be wrong wastes a lot of time. Get used to " I've not seen that before. Tell me about the.... " --sometimes helps to seem a little impatient with the conversation ( if it seems pedantic), to keep walking toward that which is misbehaving.
Helpful too is an ability to nicely shut them down when they begin relating the long list of corrective measures they have already undertaken to fix the problem. i don't mean to say don't listen to them (one MUST!) instead initiate and control the verbal exchange with something like:
" You may have taken steps to correct this but please understand that even if you did I MUST be thorough... which may even mean repetition of some of your actions. I know this may be difficult but you will only distract me and prolong the analysis by bombarding me with questions. Let me ask you questions, and you try to be concise with the replies- we'll figure this out." --Clients like to think they played a part in finding the solution. Often they do.
-Empathy helps too. especially with MS products. <scratch head> "I am as perplexed as you, let me scan the newsgroups and see if anyone else has this problem" <--buys time.
A cardinal rule- never insinuate that anything anyone did was "stupid" either outright or by tacit agreement. This goes on alot. The bigwig or your contact or a guy who walks up to check on progress may be trying to cast a co-worker in a bad light, don't provide the ammo. everyone has expertise in their arena, recognize that, try to give credit to people for any positive actions and remain neutral.
and don't forget to eat beforehand if you think its gonna be a long one....