January 11, 2012

Looking for a VPS Host?

By: dab

I’ve run around my fair share of VPS hosts. I’ve come across a lot of bad hosts and a lot of good hosts. Here I’ll list a few of them:

My personal favorite:

Linode offers very affordable, quality VPS. They utilize faster than normal drives (15000RPM if I’m not mistaken) which makes for very fast read and write speeds. Their support responds very quickly and attempts to help to the best of their knowledge. I don’t think I’ve had a support question the first layer of support hasn’t been able to answer. My only 2 complaints about Linode is their DoS policies, and their Hard disk space. In regards to their Dos Policies, if you get attacked, they null route your IP instantly and ask how you intend on resolving this issue so you aren’t attacked again. It isn’t the worst case for being attacked. Most hosts just suspend you and tell you to move on to somebody else. I will review another VPS host that specializes in DDoS Mitigated VPS but for now we discuss Linode. In regards to their Hard disk availability, since they use 15000 RPM drives, which max capacity cap near 700gb, they can’t really afford to give away TOO much disk space. I’d say they do give enough, its about $1 per gigabyte diskspace wise. Lowest plan is $19.95/month for 20gb of disk space (512mb ram). Ooh, in regards to their virtualization platform, they use Xen. This platform is preferred since you KNOW you have full access to that 512mb ram, regardless of when you need it. This prevents them from overselling so you know you’re getting quality.

That’s my review of Linode, I’ll append more reviews of other VPS hosts when I have more time. Until then!

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December 13, 2011

Is There Room for More Software Giants?

By: dab

We have so many software companies out there already. Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, EA (and a few more). A few of those maintain a very heavy market share if not completely dominate their market. This brings me to my question. Is there room for more software giants? That saying “This room ain’t big enough for the both of us” is typically a fitting phrase for most situations. If another search engine became popular that would steal thunder from Google. If another advertising network became popular, goodbye Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google. Social Networking? Goodbye Facebook. The real question is, how likely is it that another software firm can create a product killer? People like brand recognition. Brand recognition is where all the money is at. The way I see it, if a large firm like Google or Facebook saw your company, they’ll simply buy you out or bankrupt you one way or another. They have larger funds, and a larger span of employees. They can push updates and features out faster than you can plan your features.

So really, what’s the point in attempting a start up of software programming, hoping to hit it big? You know that if you get anywhere, a larger company will either replicate what you’ve made or buy you out. Sure, being bought out isn’t always a BAD thing, but there goes your dream of doing what you love doing (unless you did it purely to be bought out ).

So what do you think? Do you think that there is room for more/a replacement software giant(s)?

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November 8, 2011

Reset Windows Password using Ultimate Boot CD 5.11

By: dab

Boot up the Ultimate Boot CD
Down arrow to “HDD”, Press enter
Down arrow to “Data Recovery”, Press enter
Down arrow to “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor 110511”, Press enter (This may have changed during software revisions)
When prompted boot, just hit enter.
Select the Windows Drive, 1-n where n is # of partitions. Typically look for the drive that has the most allocated disk space (non-BOOT drive). So hit the # then enter
It asks about the config path, which should just be already entered as the default, hit enter.
Now it asks which registry to load, hit 1 (Password reset [sam system security] and hit enter.
Now select “Edit user data and passwords”, 1 and hit enter.
It will list the accounts available on the local machine. We want the Administrator (or equivalent user account). You can type in the username, or type in the RID. For ease, type in Administrator and hit enter.
Enter 1 (Clear (blank) user password) and hit enter.
It will ask what user account to apply this for, which should auto fill Administrator. If not, type in urel$admin and hit enter.
We are now done, hit q and hit enter.
Type in ! (Shift + 1) and hit enter.
Hit q again. And hit enter (to quit)
Now it asks if we want to write the file(s) back, hit y and enter.
It asks if we want to try again, if it failed, which I’m assuming at this point it hasn’t. So hit n and enter.
Control+Alt+Delete to reset the computer, and log in to Windows. You have now reset your windows admin password.

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September 17, 2011

Why the world isn’t ready for cloud

By: dab

So while installing Windows 8 Developer Edition in a Virtual box, I noticed that my disk space has 6gb left. I thought about if I had a cloud server access if that would be better… I realized that the world isn’t ready for the cloud yet. Well, at least the US isn’t yet ready. I remember reading something about internet speeds of the world, and the USA isn’t even in the top 10. When the average speed of some people is still with low speed DSL and even a good portion still dialup, how do companies expect us to sync and pull info from the cloud? I think we need to focus on updating and expanding our infrastructure. Google had the right idea by starting in Kansas. That way the only ways to expand are outwards towards the shores. I’m hoping the larger ISP players will start spreading 100mbit line out to customers soon.

I know that this is a false hope, but still. What is the point of storing everything on a server if you have no access to it unless you drive 20 miles to a place with high speed internet so you can sync a few things, or view a few files. It totally defeats the purpose of owning a computer (netbook or iDevice in this case). Apple and Google need to start talking to ISPs and ISPs need to realize that not only are their silly IPv4 hardware old but they need stop charging rural areas twice what urban areas pay for 1/4th the speed. I know they area business and not a charity. But their greed is making the USA look bad. The country that started this whiole technology revolution, is no longer in the lead.

And people wonder what happened to the American spirit.

</rant>

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August 16, 2011

New School, new site, new lifestyle

By: dab

So, I recently moved into Pullman, WA to begin learning at Washington State University. The campus is huge, the school spirit is larger. I’m hoping to be getting my Bachelor’s in Computer Science. Time will tell I suppose.

In other news, I’ve launched a new site called Referral Roulette. (http://referralroulette.com). Referral roulette offers you the chance for 4 hours of fame. You view ads, on the site. 1 ad every 15 seconds gives you 1 credit. After so many credits, you can choose an ad to create yourself. Currently the ad options are Plain text, image and url ad, Youtube video, and adsense ad. Coming soon will be Facebook and Google+ buttons, and a 1 time ad that requires 1 click for the user to continue (Costs for this ad will be extreme fyi).

I’ve also applied for a CPALead account. It got rejected but I intend on replying with my reasoning. I misunderstood one of their questions so I’ve got to explain myself!

Anyway, stay peachy dabbians!

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June 17, 2011

IRC Contest + School

By: dab

So, in regards to the IRC contest I am holding to earn a free $50 iTunes gift card is postponed. I wish to end it some time after dabbit is completed. It shouldn’t be too long though. While the contest deadline is postponed, now is the perfect time to enter!!

In other news, I have finished school at the community college I’m attending! I have applied to the University of Washington, however they have yet to respond to me about getting in or not. So I will just have to play the waiting game a bit longer! With the completion of my 2 years, I shall earn my Associates of Science.

That’s all for now!

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May 11, 2011

Get a free Server for a month or more!

By: dab

Hey everyone, I’m here to talk about a a Xen VPS host that I beta trialled a while back. They are offering a free month or possibly longer of their 512mb VPS package. The server was awesome. I don’t have any stats as it never crossed my mind to actually test the specs of the server. But I do remember it being snappy, and nothing seemed to lag. That’s why I’m posting this. Chunkhost is a great host that should be given a try. Their packages stack up similiarly to Linode.com, however I can tell they are doing their own spin on how that should be done with their control panel. Their panel is very simple, but seems to do everything you really need it to do. I suggest you give them a try. You should use my referral link to help me out. So take a spin with ChunkHost. All it costs is your time: http://chunkhost.com/r/dablog

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April 10, 2011

Linode, Cloudflare, IRC Contest, Life, and dabbit

By: dab

So, I recently lost my main server, dab Hub due to a spurt of DDoS attacks. This lead me needing a new server. I searched and searched. I wanted a powerful server, at an affordable price, with reliability. I had to be realistic. I knew that I had to drop one of those requirements, to get anything. I know that I was willing to drop a bit of power for the reliability. I don’t want my server on an oversold dedi. I don’t want my server to be run by some startup 12 year old who was given a dedicated server and a range of IPs. I wanted a host with experience and price. I saw an ad on Facebook about Linode, and realized “Oh yea, I should check them out”. So I went to Linode.com, and saw their servers. My goal was to be under $30/month and have more than 256mb of ram. I wanted Xen virtualization, since that disallowed simple over selling, I also wanted it to be reliable. Linode offered everything I needed. So a few weeks went by, and thanks to several donations from http://thebotnet.com and http://foxtrotwebhosting.com/ I was able to purchase this new server. It was activated instantly, I chose a location in Fremont, CA, USA, and away I went. I linked it to dab IRC, and things were good. Then Hurricane Electric had some packet loss issues. I realized my second IRC server, fox.dab.biz was also hosted in HE’s DC. So, I desired to move my Linode box since I had that option, the host didn’t allow for fox.dab.biz to be moved, they only had 1 DC. So I made a ticket. No more than 45 minutes later, I had my server set to be allowed to be moved. I moved to my panel, and it said “You have a pending migration, please shut down your server to proceed”. I shut down my server, clicked the button, and Linode’s control panel took over the rest for me. It moved my image there, and I was set to go. Turned on my machine, updated my DNS, and everything worked great! I have to say, so far I am impressed with Linode. Uptime is great, speed is great, and Support is AWESOME. Very fast response time for a Sunday evening.

In relations to my DNS host, I was using Cloudflare.com. I liked the idea of having my stuff protected from bots and attacks. I did not like however the fact that they went down frequently. It wasn’t the entire client base that went down. It seemed that only I was the one with the issues to connecting. During these spells, the site also took forever to load, when it did load. So I decided to move back to Dreamhost’s DNS management. Goodbye Cloudflare. You were pretty cool, just I need something up as often as I’m online.

Also, due to the lack of entries in my IRC 50$ iTunes giftcard contest, I’m extending the date to June 15th 2011. This is so I can promote it a bit more!

I also moved into a new location this week. Moved from McCleary to Olympia, thus giving me a faster connection. YAY Comcast! I can’t complain about them so far! I love their support, I love their speed, I just plain out love this upgrade in speed. I went from a MAX of 1.5mbps to 30mbps. SUCH a difference. I’m honestly shocked I survived so long with my previous, terrible host, Centurylink.

Finally, I shall be releasing dabbit very soon! I’m upgrading my comet server to be able to support a more flood of users, so you can have the most performance available! I’m utilizing node.js, using my dabet protocol. I first made a Comet server using PHP, but it felt sluggish and I’m worried about the performance on a large scale. For this reason, I’ve moved to a node js, where I can host on 3 possible servers, which will alleviate the stress from 1 server.

That’s all folks, until next time!

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Buzzwords: The Cloud

By: dab

Buzzwords. Used commonly on the sheep shoppers. It is used to introduce a new idea or terminology in a simple way, so that anyone can understand and explain it themselves, appearing a professional at it. We witnessed this idea with Web 2.0. It was spread among every template and website and internet user. Making them think of the web as reborn and completely rewritten when all it was, was simply a newly re-discovered technique (ajax) and a few new design themes (the glossy, glowing look). AJAx in itself also became a buzzword. People thought of it as a new language, or protocol when all it was, was a javascript HTTP request sent in the background providing a smooth transition of data.

I was watching an Ad on Hulu and noticed a Microsoft Ad for the Cloud. I realized how much of a buzzword it has become. The “Cloud” as is being used refers to remote data storage. As loose as a term that is, it applies to everything we have done in the past 10 years. It’s called server hosting. The main idea behind Cloud hosting however, isn’t just that data is stored on the server, but your programs and your Operating system to a point is too. This alleviates many issues with software updates and such, but why is it a buzz word you might ask?

Cloud is being used for businesses to think that their data is safe off location. While this is cheaper, the buzzword comes from the fact that they think all they have to do is start paying money and it works.

Sure this works, assuming you’ve used up to date Microsoft Software. Thing is, there is a huge learning curve, your data is hostage to internet and Microsoft, and not everyone quite understands the negative sides to Cloud Hosting.

The biggest concern with cloud hosting is that the government doesn’t need a warrant to search (to my knowledge). Since it is a company, and companies like to stay on the government’s good side, they will usually provide any authority with any information they need, including data, who accesses it, and the sort. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a good idea if you are a pirate.

Really, Cloud is just mass remote storage or backup. We haven’t recently discovered this technology. We’ve had it all along, just storage devices have been getting cheaper with the release of Solid state drives. So, cloud storage is able to be sold to more common folk and not purely business with lots of space needs (Think YouTUbe but with high bandwidth and port speeds). We’ve had the ability to cloud store things, just now we feel customers should be sold this too. What’s more, the most a normal user will use this for, is for School documents, Music files so you can listen anywhere (Amazon MP3? ), and work for things you want to work with on the go. Other than that, I can’t think of many uses for cloud other than to keep control of what you do with it. Only for things on the go.

That’s what I think of the buzzword cloud. Post what you feel/think about it!

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January 5, 2011

IRC Nerds, dabbit, School

By: dab

So school’s started back up. Taking a C++ programming class in addition to my Calculus II and Physics class. Makes for an exciting quarter. Due to school starting back up, dabbit is put on hold until I take my SATs Jan 22nd. So yea