Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Outgrowing my web host (6 of 30/72 of 274)

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Shopping around for a new web host has been on my list for a while now. I wish it were actually the case that I was outgrowing my current web host’s servers, but even the combined traffic of my personal websites, my company’s website, and my friends’ and clubs’ dog-related websites isn’t a very taxing amount of bandwidth.

Right now I have two different web hosting providers. One provider has very good customer service, and even still has 24/7 toll-free non-outsourced telephone support in addition to email support. Unfortunately, the last change of ownership also brought a move away from the VPS and dedicated servers provided by the previous owners. They still support the existing servers but are not planning any upgrades at all to the older hardware and software. This means that I will not be able to get more recent versions of PHP and MySQL, which is definitely going to be a problem for me very soon.

The other provider also had a recent change of ownership. I was lucky in that I did not experience the technical problems that some other customers were plagued with, some for weeks on end. Customer service went downhill, and then outsourced. I’m not very comfortable with what might lie ahead there.

I’ve put off shopping for the move long enough, so it’s back to the top of my to-do list to complete this month. I’m looking at these providers:

WiredTree
KnownHost
Media Temple

If you have any personal experiences with those hosts, particularly with VPS, please share!

Growing a place on the ‘net (5 of 30/71 of 274)

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During the last few months, I’ve thought about refocusing this blog completely on pet-related matters. So the title of a recent post on the Dolittler veterinary blog, How to start and grow a top pet health site…with love, intrigued me. My original blog was devoted almost entirely to pet health. As I am not a veterinarian or a journalist, it was a personal blog discussing only the pets owned by me and my husband, and occasionally those of family members or friends. At the time, our pets numbered four dogs, three cats and two birds, so there was ample material for me to write about. After the two oldest dogs passed on, I didn’t have it in me to keep writing regularly. Effective tools for fighting comment spam were not quite ready for prime time then, and trying to keep up with it sapped any enthuasiasm still remaining.

Comment spam isn’t the problem it once was. I would probably need to expand the focus of a new version to include dog training, dog showing, dog sports competition and pet-related legislative issues, because most of my pets are thankfully young and healthy, and I won’t have many health issues to write about, hopefully for a while yet. I’ll need to give this a bit more thought before I make any changes. My pets are my favorite subject, but I do enjoy writing on other topics now and then, too.

Back to the Dolittler post, though. One of the pet health sites profiled was Tripawds, a site inspired by and supporting all three-legged dogs, primarily cancer patient amputees. My own three-legged dog Jake passed away in 2002, so I had no idea this site existed until this week. Back in 1998, there was not much information on the ‘net to help owners of amputee dogs. I think I found just one site, Cassie’s Three-Legged Dog Club, which still exists and has expanded quite a bit since then. Back then, I wrote to Cassie’s Club founder Cynthia Davis, got some good information, and had Jake join the club (he is the bottom Jake on this page). I updated my then-website to add a page about Jake’s accident and amputation, which I have never taken down.

I still get email from that page occasionally, and as I have done since the beginning, I always try to respond to those emails as quickly as possible. I never thought of the possibility of an entire site to support tripod dogs, but I am very glad that Jim and Rene were inspired by their Jerry’s illness and amputation to create the Tripawds site to provide an awesome resource for those facing the same issues.

Times are tough for all of us, but if by chance you have a bit to spare, please consider visiting the Tripawds site and donating towards their server upgrade. Back in 1998, I would have loved to have a site like that, with not only information available, but a forum and chat to actually talk to others in the same situation. I was glad to be able to make a small donation today in Jake’s memory.

Growing older (4 of 30/70 of 274)

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My family grows old gracefully. Or at least, they live a long time. With very few exceptions, my relatives who have passed on were well into their 80s or even 90s when they left us.

I was born in 1958. My mom was 35 and my dad was 40 when I was born. That would be pretty normal now, but back then it was rather ancient to be having a first child. I do not have children myself. That is mostly by choice, and partly because I didn’t meet my husband until I was well into my 30s. I just did not see myself having a first child at the same age my mom did. My parents gave me a good childhood and it’s not because of any real or imagined traumatic experience making me say “well, I’ll never do that.”

The only unfortunate side effect of delaying their family is that now that they are getting up there in years (my parents are both still alive and very healthy and independent at 85 and 90), I’m still nowhere near enough to retirement age to easily pick up and go back to Hawaii where I can be close enough to be more helpful to them. Yes, I know, priorities and all of that. If they need me, I will find a way to get back there.

My dad has been part of a longevity study researching healthy Japanese-American men in Hawaii since 1965. I had no idea he was participating in this study until a couple of years ago. The study ran from 1965 to 2005, and the results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006. Dad was in a video segment produced to accompany the article, which aired during the health segment of many local news programs in the fall of 2006. The segment described the findings of the Hawaii Lifespan Study, identifying mid-life risk factors that would predict longevity. The findings: avoid smoking, avoid excessive drinking, maintain healthy blood pressure, and maintain a healthy weight. Having a good education and being married appeared to also contribute to longevity.

The press release accompanying the video was printed in the health briefs of many newspapers as well, including the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. You can still see it in their archives:

Showing men how to survive and thrive

The “88-year-old participant” mentioned in the article is my dad. The video is still live online in at least one place:

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Aging/6-11-14-ResearchersLearn.htm

But somehow I missed another interesting piece of news related to the longevity study. Here is one of the many articles that I missed back in September 2008:

“Longevity Gene” Extends Human Life Span

Seems that they’ve identified a longevity gene. I wonder if my dad has this gene. I wonder if he knows whether or not he has it: did they let the study participants know? I wonder if my mom has it, too? Her side of the family has had some good long lifespans as well. If Dad has it, I might have it. I’m looking forward to following the developments on this.

Forced to grow (3 of 30/69 of 274)

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Sometimes we seek out opportunities for growth, and embrace newfound knowledge gained with open arms. And sometimes we are dragged kicking and screaming toward growth opportunities we aren’t sure we want to take on. That latter scenario would describe me, the reluctant webmaster-by-default, attempting to learn just enough Flash and Javascript to update our company website.

Our company had a small web design and production department during the dot-com boom years. We have long since returned to our original print production roots, and like many other small businesses, we’ve been through some lean times lately. We’re hanging in there, though.

Unfortunately, that left me as the person most likely to be able to update the website, and one of my business partners as the person most likely to be able to design something presentable. He has actual design credentials and experience from his life before our company. I have zero credentials of any sort in web design or production.

The requirements for our design would be minimal for someone who had even a small clue about Flash. It was a little more painful for me, but I finally managed to finish our simple little gallery. I have had a major mental block about learning Flash. I’m usually a pretty quick study when learning new programs, and I’m pretty familiar with many other Adobe and Macromedia programs. Even with the help of well-regarded books and online tutorials, Flash has been kicking my ass. Hard.

The conditions weren’t really optimal for making this a great learning experience. The website redesign wasn’t of the highest priority, so there were many interruptions for other projects, and I found my train of thought getting derailed quite often. Even though the website update is just about ready to go live, and I have no real need to go near Flash again until a future redesign, I’d still like to be able to go back and make a better effort to learn the program. Why, I’m not sure, as I’m definitely not an advocate of Flash-heavy websites. I think I just want to say that I finally defeated Flash!

Finding my place on the ‘net (2 of 30/68 of 274)

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“Oh, no, I’ve said too much… I haven’t said enough”

I’m not sure whether this is about growing, or just about moving around or moving on. I have been online for a very long time. I remember acoustic couplers, 300 baud modems, BBSs, choosing between The Source and CompuServe, and paying by the hour for internet access. I’ve been involved in online communication and communities, mostly as a participant rather than an instigator… ermmm…. organizer… since the late ’80s.

The technology has grown and evolved so far since then. I would have never predicted the widespread availability and portability of internet communication, including high-speed access both wired and wireless. The high-quality audio and video that is now available to us to help us get our messages across more clearly is even more amazing when compared to the limited offerings in the not-so-distant past.

Technology changes quickly, but people are slower to change. We may have new and improved interfaces on our discussions, but the human side hasn’t changed much. The joke about “how many internet mail list subscribers does it take to change a light bulb” is over a decade old, but still applies to so many forums today. Someone has to lead, someone has to follow. Someone has to be the voice of doom, another the eternal optimist, another always missing the point. Instigators, mediators, complainers, fixers. We all just want to find our place somewhere on the ‘net, just as we do in real life.

Some of those places don’t turn out to be good long-term residences. A few days ago, I re-Tweeted one of RapierTwit’s one-liners (follow her on Twitter, those one-liners are fun): Wondering if I need a Second Life when I don’t have a first one, along with the comment that I was getting away from virtual worlds, which I am. Not Second Life; I did try it but my old laptop’s graphics card wasn’t up to the challenge, and I didn’t like being tied to my desktop computer just to fly around as virtual me in a virtual world.

The VZones worlds (newHorizone, Dreamscape and Seducity) are based on an older 2D technology which even my older, slower laptop could handle. I really did enjoy those worlds, particularly Dreamscape with its fantasy theme, for several years. I served in a few different volunteer staff positions as well. Ultimately, though, I find myself feeling the same way as I do about Facebook (read my post about that here if you didn’t already): too many silly games and pixel “things” (and unlike on Facebook, many of these cost actual cash) and not enough real and genuine interactions. Not to say that there are no opportunities for real conversations; what I am saying is that there aren’t many there for me recently. I still like having places on the ‘net to escape to, so I’m still trying different places out to see how they fit.