The Myth of VPS Hosting: Reasons to Avoid It! Part 2
When a person suggests a VPS blindly to others, odds are that they’re also the kind of person that ends up hacked. Do you really want advice from somebody like that? I’d hope not! Do yourself a favor and ignore that person.
Seasoned server admins — folks that use dedicated servers and VPS daily — would never make such a blind suggestion. They know how expensive, how time consuming, and how hard it all is.
Like an adult that pines for the simpler days of childhood, most VPS users pine for the simpler days when they had a smaller and simpler website. But just like being a kid, those days are gone. Yet the sage wisdom is the same — enjoy those days while you can!
Sure, you can attempt to stubbornly forge ahead, and insist that Google is all you need. This editorial was written for other dumber people, right? Well, let’s see how you really know about server admin tasks!
The Myth of VPS Hosting: Reasons to Avoid It! Part 1
“Use a VPS!” says somebody on a forum or blog you were reading. That person claims it’s almost as cheap/inexpensive as your current webhost — only $10 per month — but runs better and faster!
“Wow,” you think. “What a deal! I should have been using a VPS long ago.”
In theory, it sounds like a magic cure-all for your shared web hosting problems. But it’s not. Sadly, that advice was terrible.
Not only was it factually flawed — what little it addressed — but it overlooked a huge swath of what’s involved. For you see, running a VPS is basically running your own server. Do you know what all is involved with that? Probably not.
It’s like saying all you need to drive a car is a driver’s license. But what about buying the car? Annual registration fees? Changing the car’s oil? What if the engine light comes on? What if your license is suspended?! Not so easy, eh?
So before you jump headfirst into a bad situation, let’s see if VPS hosting is right for you…
Is Your Studio or (Home) Office Flood Proof?
On Friday morning, the plumbing at our video studio burst, flooding the main room with 2+ inches of water before we managed to shut it off.
Like most businesses, we’re not in a flood plain. A flood was the furthest thing from our mind in terms of potential natural disasters we may face. Fire, tornadoes and remnant hurricanes, yes*. But a flood? No way!
It’s been a miserable weekend, and we’re still not done repairing the damage.
The extent of the damage isn’t even fully known yet! There’s at least 2 full days left until we’re back and running.
But I have a question for you …
Are you prepared for flooding at your videography/photography studio, office, or even home office?
I bet not! So please, learn from our experience (and mistakes)… [Read more]
4 Reasons You Need to Hire a Web Designer
Most people realize they need to defer to experts — mechanics for the car, doctors when you’re sick, vets for your pet. These people are educated and skilled in their profession. Most have years or even decades of experience.
Businesses, too, generally understand the need for professionals — accountants, lawyers, pest control, etc. It allows business owners to concentrate on what really matters — the business!
But for some reason, everybody thinks they’re an expert when it comes to computers. Everybody suddenly thinks they’re a resume writer, a graphic designer or a web designer. They can buy cheap software that claims to do it all. “For only $9.95 you, too, can do everything! Why pay expensive individuals!”
Here’s 4 reasons why. [Read more]
Yahoo’s Work-From-Home Backlash: Vindication At Last!
For several months, all we heard from tech magazines is how Yahoo’s new CEO was going to turn the company around. She was 20th at Google, she was a mommy, she would “shake things up”, and be a “breath of fresh air”.
In other words, nobody really knew anything — the articles were all fluff.
It comes as a huge disappointment to hear that she’s just another clueless slave driver. The Yahoo plan for the future is to scale back remote work, and force everybody to come to the office.
I guess she didn’t get the memo: It’s not 1985 anymore. As far as I’m concerned, Marissa Mayer is just another clueless pretty blonde put in a position of power, and she’ll end up screwing the whole company.
Everybody from Bill Gates to Google execs have condemned it as a stupid and backwards policy — though with less harsh language, of course.
It very much reminds me of my own situation, several years ago. [Read more]
Hackers/Malware vs. How to Safely Use the Internet
For the past two years, I’ve been on edge when it comes to my digital world. I never know if I’ll wake up and see a website defaced, a server being DDoSed or hacked, or my own computers infected by some 0-day junk. No, I’m not paranoid — that’s the voice of experience.
Excluding spam, malicious computer activity exponentially increased in 2011. It was simply out of control, and I thought it would only get worse as the years pressed on.
Everything from very large corporations to home computers were targeted by an array of groups and individuals.
If you’ve never heard of this, or taken steps to protect yourself, I’m not surprised. It doesn’t seem to make local news coverage. Ratings-hungry cable networks long ago abandoned topics deemed too complex for the average TV nincompoop. Print news buried it. The news we do get has been sidetracked by politics or the weather.
However, for somebody who relies on the internet to run a business, this can be just as devastating as any hurricane or tornado. We’ve seen a decrease in the past year, but is it a calm before the storm? Here are some ways that you can try and protect yourself. [Read more]
