The FuzzyBlog!
Marketing 101. Consulting 101. PHP Consulting. Random geeky stuff. I Blog Therefore I Am.

Sunday, August 11, 2002

Comments on the Cheap Hosting Company I just heard from Apokalyptik who did some research on the cheap hosting company, Dialtone, mentioned earlier today: (hey ... he's got a cool logo, I thought I should use it and he did do all the research) Links: http://www.webserverlist.com/awards/viewAwards.asp?AwardID=209 http://thewhir.com/features/dialtone.cfm http://www.100mostdynamic.com/2002/profiles/dialtone.asp http://www.webserverlist.com/Awards/NewAwards.asp?Award=209 http://www.hostpulse.com/app/searchf/default.asp?func=detail&;cid=1339 http://www.comparewebhosts.com/ReadReview.asp?FeedId=2791 (excellent reviews here) Bottom line?  They seem good but hosting is one of those things that people have different experiences with.  A hosting company that one might like, another might dislike.  Still this company seems pretty good -- at least as an external person can evaluate them. 5:15:55 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

Nerdy Acronyms 101 Some nerdy acronyms for those fellow "life challenged" souls out there: YASNWC.  Yet Another Satuday Night Writing Code. YANSN.  Yet Another Nerdy Saturday Night. YANW.  Yet Another Nerdy Weekend. YADWS.  Yet Another Day Without Sunlight. YADWOIF.  Yet Another Day With Only IM Friends. (But I actually did leave the computer today; even went to the beach). 5:03:38 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

How's This Cheap Hosting Company?  Anyone know? In continuing to open my junk mail, I got a postcard ad (actually two of them) from a Dialtone Internet company offering an IBM PIII server for only $188 per month including backups.  That's a really good price, imho.  Still after my experiences with an evil hosting company, I am skeptical.  Here's there marketing stuff from the website: Enjoy the Power, Performance and Reliability of an IBM supported and managed 24x7 by Dialtone Internet's team of experts and save hundred of dollars. It's very simple: for a limited time and only when you mention the unique promo code included in the postcard you received by mail, you can get our best-selling server for only $188/month. This server is regularly priced at $275/month. That's not all! We'll also include weekly data backups at no additional charge, a value of $75/month. Total savings of more than $160 every single month To take advantage of this special offer, place your order no later than 5:30 PM EST, Monday August 12th, 2002. For more information and orders, call 1.866.252.2903. http://www.dialtone.com/billboard/billboard.php I strongly doubt I'd ever move my primary servers off Rackspace (they are expensive but I love those guys; their "fanatical customer service" mantra isn't an act or a lie -- it's the truth) but this is an interesting second option should I want an emergency backup server or a failover box. Of course they too need the database cleansing type stuff I mentioned in my previous post today -- two copies of the same ad send to the same first name, last name, street, city, and zip.  The Same!  Madness I say again.  Just madness... 11:25:18 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

Madness I Say! Just Plain Catalog Madness Sigh.  I just opened yesterday's physical mail and POW!  It's a PC Connection catalog!  ZAP!  Another!  WHAM! And yet another!  (I did wake up this morning with a strange Batman like dream as you probably guessed).  All going to the exact same ZIP+4 address, two variants on my own name and the other going to a different name (who hasn't ordered from this address since 1999).  And, mind you, every time I order from PC Connection I get a catalog (or 2) in the box.  My guess is that in the past 8 weeks I've gotten probably 20 odd catalogs.  Every time I just chuck in the trash.  You'd think that a mail order giant like PC Connection would think to clean up their own databases, wouldn't you?  Each of these catalogs was 4 color, 108 pages long and there had to be at least .50 in postage on them.  What's even worse is that if they checked their records, I rarely even use the catalog -- I just go to the web site.  Suggestion for mail order companies, have your order processing phone staff ask these questions: Do you currently get our catalog? If not do you want to? If so, do you get more than one copy?  If so, do you want to get more than one copy? The interesting technical thing here is that duplication of data is a huge problem -- for businesses big and small and for individuals.  I'll have to keep this in mind for FuzzyOffice and I suspect that there is a big opportunity here for people to solve.  I know that there are data cleansing tools available but, for whatever reason, people aren't making use of them. 9:59:41 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

So This is What Princeton Looks Like ... From my favorite sociologist, art... Very cool: http://campuscgi.princeton.edu/~eszter/weblog/archives/00000068.html (click on the picture matrix at the bottom) Note: today may well be a slow day here; more house showings (previous sale fell thru.  sigh); deadlines to meet and lots of just miscellaneous stuff. 6:55:28 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This