Sunday, June 1, 2008

Green Web Hosting Quest - turning a rant into an opportunity

My site was down for about 12 hours on Friday. 12. Hours. Aurgh! 12! When I called tech support I was told that they have backup servers that can be used if customers like me have an emergency need. "Techguy" said they'd get my files "moved to the backup within 24 hours."

  1. "If," huh? Ha.
  2. For "customers like me?" Does that mean they only have backups for the really really upset customers who catch on to an outage, call, and are ready to leave?
  3. If backups are available, why does it take 24 hours to get my sites up and running?

After a few hours, I called back to ask just how far into that 24 hours I would be likely to see my sites again. Errm... well, I told myself I was calling back for a forecast, but, really, I wanted to bite someone connected to the outage. No... that's not quite it, either.

I was hoping they would to tell me about some understandable extenuating circumstance, and offer to put themselves on the line for me. They have a 99.99% uptime guarantee. I wanted them to put their money where their reputation is. This is not an uncommon customer hope.

Customers want to be loyal, but first a business has to confirm that we're smart to trust them - show us, often and generously.

Tech Support: get your story straight

This time I got "Techgal," who said there could be no guarantee of when my sites would come back online, because though their work to solve problems is ongoing, with an "intermittent server problem" they had no way of telling how long repairs would take.

Intermittent my eye. At that point my site had been down, completely down, for several hours. What's more, she confirmed that they are operating without a net. Her "no way of telling how long repairs would take" strongly suggests that their contingency plans are about as solid as Swiss cheese. There was no confirmation of even a 24 hour backup.

I like budget hosting, but not at this price.

What can you do, besides bite the tech support person on the way out the door, and wish more of the world sat at the feet of Seth Godin and Steve Krug?

You just watch me. I can shop.

Next time, green hosting

Solar powered web hosting is a viable alternative. Its existence hadn't even occurred to me until last month, when I was researching the idea of doing something special at Cre8asiteForums for last month's Earth Day. Now that I know green hosting is available and trusted by people I trust, I want some, too!

A quick search brought up about a dozen alternatives, some of which look pretty good. They offer the whole range of standard web hosting services, often at prices that are in line with what you'd expect anywhere.

Question #1: Do you have an uptime guarantee?

I have a checklist and a plan, and a strong desire to be involved in consumer confidence fulfillment. I'm going to be calling US web site hosts that use renewable energy. I will compile the results into a blog post to share here.

I want facts and feedback before I make a move on something as important to me as web site hosting. If you are a green web host or have experiences to share about a green host, please contact me.


Copyright © 2007 AbleReach - This feed contains copyrighted content that may not be used without specific permission from the original author. (digitalfingerprint: 20cb767fdd299e39a414cfa8846be35e (66.150.96.109) )

进一步使用鲜果

首先来认领一下似水年华在鲜果的Feed:BANG29BCC36CF05009A67AEBCC3CXIANGUO

其次,为本站添加鲜果Dig推荐按钮。鲜果推荐按钮、鲜果猜你喜欢具体功能和使用见鲜果官方博客。

  1. 国内其他Dig站的生存余地更小了;
  2. Feed已经是博客的命脉;
  3. Feed的聚合成就了博客和读者的社区;
  4. 在Feed输出、供应、消化这条链上的Web2.0公司都显得朝气蓬勃;

最后,请大家帮顶我的文章


© yiyix for 似水年华, 2008. | Permalink | 10 comments | 网络观察

添加到 美味书签 | 通过 Technorati 查看谁链接了我

博客也能赚钱?查看我的博客赚钱方式

相关文章

  • 订阅feed共享

天天网摘 [2007-06-06]:yiyix @ 365key

  • 也读名人博客
    近日来已经订阅了不少博客、资讯到google,现在每天必做之事也是到igoogle主页查看各个博客最新的文章。今日读到"央视直播"挖宝" 于丹易中天王立群合说考古",说央视科教频道将在6月9日推出《中国记忆———文化遗产博览月》之"6·09大型直播节目",《百家讲坛》的"名嘴"易中天(blog)、于丹、王立群(blog)将首度合作,一同评说神秘的"挖宝"进程。直播节目之所以选择易中天、于丹、王立群一起"合说",是看中他们在文化领域的权威性和知名度,"他们的作用是坐在演播室,解读三地的直播内容,会很自然地围绕文物引发出话题。我们很清楚他们不是考古专家,所以特邀了北大教授李伯谦坐镇把关。"
  • 平淡生活,似水年华!
    游戏网络,必看博客

IBM ThinkPad行货、水货、学生机

1、行货、水货、学生机,该选哪种?
如果是公费,当然选行货。
如果能买到放心的学生机,学生机的性价比一定比其它两者高。
如果买不到学生机,又在意价格,找家大点的水货商吧。

2、行货、水货、学生机,品质上有什么差别?
原则上讲,品质是没有差别的。水货只是逃了关税,学生机只是针对香港的学生市场,其质量控制与行货一样。但是,如果遇到不良商人,将有问题的机器充作新机,或明知有坏点的机器仍然当作正常机器卖,那就没办法了。所以要想省钱,就不能怕费事,要找有信誉的地方买。

3、行货、水货、学生机,保修上有什么差别?
行货三年硬件保修,包括国际和国内蓝色快车。
水货不确定,渠道不同保修也各种各样。有的与行货相同,有的由代理商自行承担。
学生机每年政策不一样。今年(2006)年的学生机有国际保修,注册iws以后有国内蓝快保
修。

4、如果没有国内兰快保修,会有什么问题?
Thinkpad的质量是很不错的,保修期内出现硬件问题的可能性很小。如果在国外使用,不需要注册iws,当然也不需要兰快的服务。如果真的在国内需要维修,最好还是找兰快。有的代理商愿意承担保修,不过不放心这种服务的品质,毕竟不是原厂的东西,万一小问题变成大问题就麻烦了。

5、水货是否都曾经开箱?
一般来说,水货是一定开过原包装箱的,因为在购机现场可以开箱验机,如果发现三个or三个以上坏点可以换新机。没有人会放弃这个验机权利的。

另外:

1、选择行货还是水货,取决于多方面因素
1)预算
2)所感兴趣的系列、机型,比如目前的R60、Z61t、X60(中低配)就行货划算
3)对保修的重视程度
4)自己附近是否有比较可靠的水货商家(可靠的水货商家就是该商家有能力、有意愿/责任
心帮你做好质量把关工作和保修工作)
5)机器使用状况,比如水货就不推荐异地购买,保修不方便,当然行货一般也不推荐异地购
买,因为三包不好操作,同时验机不好操作

2、行货、水货根本区别是目标销售地和实际销售地是否一致,一致的就是行货。因为区别只有这个,所以出厂之前水货、行货质量上是没区别的。但是出厂后,因为流通过程的差别,质量保证也就不同。当然行货、水货质量都可能有问题,比如水货、行货都可能是样机、翻修机、拼装机,行货还有刷号机,但是因为水货是开箱过来的,再加上水货交易不受国内
任何法律保护,所以水货的猫腻更多,所以选择水货的时候我常说价格不重要,最重要的是对商家的选择,还有运气。学生机是政策的产物,但是和其它零售机器差别也就是配置、细节上的差别以及可能的保修方面的差别,质量和零售机型不会有差别

3、关于保修
1)行货保修看型号,零售机型标配保修有两种,简单来说就是一年全球联保和三年全球联保,这个也是政策性质的,不好总结,建议购买某款行货时到官方网站了解该机型保修。对于个人用户,标配一年全球联保的ThinkPad可以享受大陆的三包,也就是主要部件是两年保修,具体看看新三包的详细规定
2)水货保修商家负责,所以最终解释权属于你购买水货所在商家

4、保修有保险的性质,对于保修,不要有侥幸心理,ThinkPad质量好很大程度上是观念上的,目前笔记本电脑质量同质化严重


© yiyix for 似水年华, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | 生活点滴

添加到 美味书签 | 通过 Technorati 查看谁链接了我

博客也能赚钱?查看我的博客赚钱方式

相关文章

  • 淘宝购物记(1):入手 Second Hand T43
  • 华硕笔记本再登珠峰

篮球记:通宵看火箭VS湖人

看到标题,请别误会,我并没有通宵看球赛。因为这个,被朋友冠以"伪球迷"的称号。其实,我又算得上是球迷吗?并不是像他们一样,火箭的球赛,场场不落。要做"火箭迷",还不如做"湖人迷",因为比较欣赏科比。两个我最关注的NBA球队间的对阵,我仍不看球,直接证明了我是"伪球迷"。

昨天晚上,确切说是今早3点半,火箭客场客场挑战湖人,最终以12分优势取胜。这有点出乎我的意料。今天第一眼看到球赛的情况,是在王通老师的博客上。王通老师很少看NBA,却能坚持熬夜看球,让我这种球迷很惭愧呀。

通宵看球或做事,是非常费体力的,还会打乱正常的作息次序,第二天肯定要补觉,可能还无精打采。所以通宵这种事,我很少做。大学时有过几次,多数情况下是在学期末考试结束后干的。

记得那时候没电脑,考试完后几个人一起去网吧,玩通宵。居然没机子,像我们这样的还真不少。于是打车到市中心,找个网吧上网。那时候真能玩,也不觉得累,活力十足的。现在玩的心没了,一个学期出不了几次校门,搞研究?那就是对着电脑发呆。

最长记录是48小时未合眼睡觉,那是做机器人的时候。我校做机器人有点名气,央视少儿频道要来做节目,可苦了我们,赶工制作了好几个机器人。最后机器人都上电视了,我们没上。打游戏打通宵也有过,还不止一次,现在感觉真无聊。

能通宵玩耍的人,是精力比较充沛的,工作起来也应该会有这份冲劲的。比如说上面说到的王通老师。


© yiyix for 似水年华, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | 生活点滴

添加到 美味书签 | 通过 Technorati 查看谁链接了我

博客也能赚钱?查看我的博客赚钱方式

相关文章

  • 篮球记:火箭21连胜
  • NBA总决赛马刺4:0横扫骑士
  • 骑士又输给马刺了
  • 马刺挺向总冠军

Get Small Business Loans from AFSLoans

My blog often talks about making money online. As we know, it’s cheap to start web startups. But a good project often needs much money to start up. I have heard many people complaining about being lack of money and hoping to get funds from venture capitalists. They really have ignored another method of attracting funds: small business loans.

Accommodative Financial Solutions (AFS) is that company providing small business loans and personal loans for you. Come to afsloansonline.com, you can see the head menu: Welcom, Business Loans and Personal Loans. You would like to choose an unsecured loan in the amount of $10K- $150K, and get approved within 24-48 hours.

With your great credit and AFS expert consulting services you'll get results belows:

No Upfront fee's

100% Approval Guarantee *

Unsecured - No Collateral

Stated Income – No Documents Required

Quick 5 Minute Application

Private, Confidential & Secure

Unlike its competitors, AFSLoans has “No ApplicationFee”, “No Hidden Charges” and some of the lowest interest rates for unsecured loans in America. So if you want to obtain small business loans for your business or personal consumption or some other stuff, AFSLoans may be your best consideration.


© yiyix for 似水年华, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | 博客评论

添加到 美味书签 | 通过 Technorati 查看谁链接了我

博客也能赚钱?查看我的博客赚钱方式

相关文章

  • Get a Faxless Payday Loan from Easy Online Payday Loan
  • Insurance online from ez-insuranceportal
  • Backgammon Masters Redesigned Game Lobby
  • 赶集网的话题营销
  • A Dating Website-Friendsation
  • 通过SponsoredReviews.com写英文付费评论
  • 单身戒,又一首"单身情歌"
  • 初识9公寓
  • 电话实名有前途吗?

Brunch: Family Time

Each weekend a new "Brunch" post will feature thoughts about balancing family and self care with working in an always-on Internet environment. This "Brunch" post is by Donna D. Fontenot.


Working from home, as a solo web entrepreneur, often means working much longer hours than the typical 9-5 job. The work is usually more more enjoyable, so the longer hours don't really bother us, but the problem is that they do bother our families.

In fact, family relationships can suffer tremendously unless compromises are made all round. I learned years ago (through threat of great bodily and emotional harm) that I needed to set aside "family time", and that I needed to adhere to that commitment religiously. I do adhere to it faithfully, and everyone is happier because of it. Key lesson learned: Set aside a block of time (evenings usually work best) to spend totally with the family if you want to have a harmonious balance between the home/office and the home/hearth.


Thank you, Donna!

Dazzlin Donna D. Fontenot balances family time with:

  • SEO Scoop
  • Dazzlin Donna
  • eBuzz Coach
  • Developing products like press kit templates
  • and being there for her friends

Copyright © 2007 AbleReach - This feed contains copyrighted content that may not be used without specific permission from the original author. (digitalfingerprint: 20cb767fdd299e39a414cfa8846be35e (66.150.96.109) )

华硕笔记本再登珠峰

2007年5月24日早晨7点,华硕笔记本随珠峰业余登山队登顶珠峰,成为世界上第一台登顶珠峰的笔记本电脑。
2008年4月,奥运圣火将第一次登上珠峰,华硕将继续为中国登山队提供全程IT技术支持。

"在珠峰上用笔记本,这本本的质量可够好的呀!"——这是我(或许还有不少人)的第一反应。珠峰太高了,封顶的最低气温常年在零下三四十摄氏度。山上一些地方常年积雪不化,冰川、冰坡、冰塔林到处可见。在这样的低温条件,本本能受得了吗?

首先是本本的液晶屏幕。很多材料在低温环境下都会变得很脆,容易损坏。液晶也不例外。温度太低,液晶冷却成为晶体,液晶屏就变成黑屏。都黑屏了,本子还能正常使用吗?

再次是本子的电池。电池能供电,靠得就是里面的电化学反应。温度低了,反应就慢了,离子也跑不动了,电量就不足了。启动慢,屏幕暗,这些问题也就来了。
电池的待机时间也是个问题,在户外充电是不方便的吧。

然后是本子的抗震性。登山时有太多不确定性因素,身体可不像平常走路时那么平稳,偶尔摔跤也是正常的。笔记本这样晃荡来晃荡去,硬盘等部件是很容易损伤的。

最后,笔记本在低温环境使用后,放入包包里面,会不会产生水汽。如果有水汽,发生短路,烧坏笔记本也是有可能的。

上面是从物理、化学、机械振动方面,分析了笔记本在珠峰这样恶劣的环境下会碰到的一些问题。这让我想起了SMT方面的一些知识,都快全忘了。

华硕笔记本确实不错,能在这样恶劣的环境测试通过,肯定花费了很多工程师的不少心血。

我的习惯性观念是:在这种环境还能正常工作的笔记本,在平常环境下的表现肯定很稳定,甚至更出色。

以上只是我的观点,朋友们请自辩!


© yiyix for 似水年华, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | 博客评论

添加到 美味书签 | 通过 Technorati 查看谁链接了我

博客也能赚钱?查看我的博客赚钱方式

相关文章

  • 淘宝购物记(1):入手 Second Hand T43
  • IBM ThinkPad行货、水货、学生机

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Best of April Fools Day (thus far)

By Mitch “THE April Fool” Keeler

I have to say there have been a lot of “creative” stories Online today.  Here are some of the best (or maybe the worst depending on how many you have seen) April Fools 2008 stories so far.

  • Betamax to HD-DVD Converter
  • Gmail Custom Time?
  • Google Bedroom?
  • TechCrunch acquires Tiger Beat?
  • Wales Resigns from Wikipedia to Become a Monk?
  • Firefox Facts Goes to the Dark Side?
  • Opera Scores 106 on Acid 3 Test!
  • Wi-Fi Makes Teacher’s Head Explode?
  • Lance Ulanoff (PC Mag) still Uses Windows 3.1?
  • All YouTube Front Page Videos Go Here?

I love April Fools Day!  Seen any other good ones?

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

WordPress Theme Design Contest - Series 2!

By Amy Armitage

We had such a huge response to our WordPress Design contest, that we have decided to launch a second series with cash and hosting prizes (first prize $1000 and 5 years hosting). This post is simply a heads up that it will be returning in the next few weeks, so dust off your designer tools and get inspired so you can start work! Don’t forget there is no limit on the number of submissions you can enter.

Last time we had some challenges with the voting process which we have addressed, but we would like you to post your suggestions and comments on anything else that you believe will make the contest better.

Don’t forget to tell your design friends about the upcoming contest and stay tuned for news of the start date.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

How to use Gmail Instead of MS Outlook

By Dinsan Francis

Ever wondered if you could take your Outlook with you ? Wanted to use something better than Horde and Squirrel Mail on your Webmail interface ?

Gmail has an alternative for you !!

Here is a detailed description of what you need to do ( believe me, its quite simple )

Once you set this up, you can add labels to all emails to this account, and filter them accordingly, set a default reply address, leave or delete the downloaded email from your POP server.

Few things to Remember :

1) For the POP domain name field, if mail.domain.com is not working, try replacing it with domain.com, leaving the .mail part.

2) If you are using Outlook and along with this new set up, select option to “leave messages on the server on the server after download” ( You can set this up for one week or so, or if you have enough time and space, delete accordingly from your control panel, whenever you wish to do so )

3) Remember, its always good to leave the copy on the server, or use outlook as backup since Gmail will not give you support as your webhost does. ( If something goes wrong, you are in trouble ). However Google has another option where you can get support too.

Get ready to take your Webmail to Gmail and Enjoy !! Oh… Questions before you do this ? Sure, drop me a comment, I will be glad to find answer for you.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Best Joomla Themes?

By Mitch “Q & A” Keeler

As some of you may know, Joomla is yet another one of the great free content management systems out there from the Web that you can install and use to make your web site even better. It adds management options you never thought you wanted or you never knew you needed. Over the weekend though I got a Lunartics reader asking me where could they find some templates and themes for this CMS king?

Here are a few of my suggestions for theme databases for Joomla powered web sites:

Joomla-Themes.co.uk

JoomlaShack.com

OSSkins.com

ThemesBase.com

Joomla-Themes.biz

Have any more good ones? Feel free to send them my way or drop them in as a comment. Would love to get a few more opinions on where the best places are to get Joomla themes are.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

The power of the pen

In a forgotten club on the outskirts of the universe, the PALM BEACH, an old cleaning lady found a box with curious content. Inside, the were hundreds of shiny metallic books, full of black and white illustrations. And on the cover – in quirky letters – it read:

H-E-R-R-E-N-S-A-H-N-E

The old cleaning lady had heard this word before. In conjunction with excessive art- and comic exhibitions that used to take place in Duesseldorf a long time ago. And this had to be it: The legendary lost issue. HERRENSAHNE # 11!

Also in the box: An old flyer. The paper was cracked, the colors faded ...

 

 

Storyboard artist and illustrator Marc Ewert is a member of the independent comic collective from Duesseldorf. The release party for the latest issue of their cult comic HERRENSAHNE will take place on April 26 in th PALM BEACH in Duesseldorf.

By the way: Marc also writes a wonderful film blog with excellent movie reviews: MONDO BIZARR

 

 

Toronto DDB's monkeyfuck-up

I'm a little late in blogging about this, but hell better late than never. Lat year, three ads produced for Running Free by DDB Toronto cause a huge monkeyfuck explosion up here in Canada Land. Why you ask? Well a few reason ....

1) The ads are in bad taste, offensive and not that good anyways.

2) The ads were released by Toronto DDB without the approval of Running Free. The client saw the ads, the client hated the ads and Toronto DDB went and released them to Ads of the World, in hopes of winning an award.

Marketing Mag did an article about this already, Dirty Little Secrets, which summarizes the situation quite well, so I won't go into it again.

What really pisses me off by the whole thing is the unethical behaviour of Toronto DDB. How dare they take advantage of a client in this way, and damage their brand? I don't care how badly you want to produce a truly "innovative and creative" ad campaign. I don't care how much you whine about how your clients are so boring and won't let you be really creative. If this is your idea of great creative - you are an idiot. Good creative should resonate with the consumer. The end. If it doesn't that you have NOT produce anything worth shit. Who cares if everyone is talking about it? Did it sell anything? No, well then YOU did not do your job.

Here are the ads that Toronto DDB thought were so brilliant:

-------

---------

---------

What Happens When A Professor Gives Out T-Shirts

This term I took a compulsory course called Strategy under Adel Dimian. At the end of the course he gave everyone a t-shirt with his trademark "There Is No Cannot" slogan and a week before exams encouraged us to wear it for the final paper.

Guess what? We did.

As Michael Netzley says "2.0 of us"

Ams, myself and Jimmy

The Strategy group less Terence who went off to study

Myself, Jaclyn, Kenny & Cornelius

KC, Jac, Kenny and Cornelius

I realise that afternoon is probably the last time in awhile I'll see more of them (in the pictures). Most of them are graduating this term, if not by the time I come back. Doesn't make coming back to SMU very attractive at all! But ok, I shant let that spoil anything and stick to the crazy memories with these folks:

  • times in New York
  • Advertising headaches
  • Strategy headaches
  • studying overnight in the library (once)
  • using the SMUBE room when it's deserted on Sundays
  • and many other shenanigans

discovery channel: "i love the world".

If you're a Discovery Channel geek like I am you'll get a major kick out of this ad. And, if you're not a Discovery Channel geek like I am, you'll want to be after watching this. Which is what makes it such a kick ass ad.

(Agency: 72andSunny. Director: James Rouse. Production: Outside)

Singing Egyptologists... what more do you need? There are little things that take a grade A spot and turn it into an A+. In this one, it's clearly Stephen freakin' Hawking singing "boom de yadda" at 0:53. That was pure win. Plus the tagline "The Earth is Just Awesome"... the casual use of one of my favourite words - "awesome" - that was, well... awesome.

Thanks to The Denver Egotist

Sweet Spots

One of my 'bosses' (he'll probably shudder when he reads that) is fond of referring to someone's particular interest zone-cum-skill set as "your sweet spot." Kinky, huh? Recently, he's been luring me ever deeper into a few projects at Idea Couture Inc. with the temptation, "Morgan, this is really your sweet spot." As someone who based his start-up partly on hiring an eclectic group of creatives, he definitely knows the value of drawing projects into our space (he'd definitely shudder if I called it an 'office'), giving them a custom makeover and then harnessing the right person to lead them into development with the Charles Darwin treatment.

In the rapidly evolving and prototyping realm of Interaction, Innovation and Incubation (and the design, research, experience, interaction, strategy etc. etc. that bind its molecules), you might say that the sweet spot is akin to - if not the inspirational core of - the 'creative type' banter currently making the rounds in the current cultural cocktail party that bloggers in this sphere are attending to refashion the future of branding, advertising, stragegy, yadda yadda yadda.

In fact, I'd say the sweet spot (and you've got to be able to conjure something from your interests and passions, not just ramble on about them after hitting the Volcano for the night) is so important it should be part of every job hiring. Imagine Sweet Spot being the first section on your CV - not your x-amount of years in Experience Design or your grad studies in anthropology or the million dollar start-up you just sold off or that collection of Boy Scout badges gathering dust in a garbage bag somewhere in your basement. Instead, what are the passions and interests that drive you? That you'll work double on?

Funny how, in your typical HR interview, interests and 'hobbies' are almost an after thought. Before starting at the space with the 'boss', I'd gone through a brief tour of duty searching for and courting other job offers. I have to thank him (and the other two 'bosses') for letting me into the space because I can't imagine what a dark night of the soul it might have been had I been offered and/or taken those gigs where I would have been figuring out tribal cultures for the military  (yes, a Canadian spin on Human Terrain was a possibility), spying (whoops, I mean 'researching') on corporate execs for investors (very Human Terrain-ish), fighting the qualitative fight on  the quantitative battelfield and such. Imagine stealing fleeting moments in my cubicle penning odes to the sweet spot that might never have been.

To that end, a tribute to the sweet spot, a Top 5 if you will.

#1: TWEEN CULTURE

In my day I was into the Bay City Rollers, the Bee Gees, Earth Wind & Fire, Rush, Captain Stubing, Herve Villachez and Cher. I tell my daughter about the dark days of TV, when Sunday afternoons were limited to Davy & Goliath's barely concealed Christian propaganda.

Today, Tween Culture is arguably so much more robust than it was in the 1970s that it has become the most powerful driving force in pop culture. Case in point: Miley above. Who's one of the biggest selling artists today, if not the most 'popular'? Her. Why? Lots of reasons.

First, Disney had to get its shit together after all that Princess crap it was coasting on through the 90s. They stumbled on (or strategized or hired the right person) a formula that has served them well across their spectrum of Suite Life, Corey In The House, Raven and so on: Neil Simon goes kid. That's right - the recent Disney show formula isn't a sitcom, it's a Neil Simon play on TV for kids. Don't believe me? Drop by your local high school for the year-end drama presentation and you'll see.

Second, music. For all the pain & suffering the industry has gone through over the past few years, music is alive, well and thriving as the pop culture engine it has been since the Fab Four invaded North America. Hannah/Miley taps into that tween pop pleasure in a way that Britney Spears only imagined. The lip synching and singing to back-tracks isn't my thing (us adults are too hooked on that authenticity thing), but given my own tween guilty pleasures of Donny & Marie I can let it slide.

And third? The Christian thing. Yup, it's like Davy & Goliath are back to haunt me. It's not big on the show (and the Hannah show is where's it really at!), but every time Miley gets in front of a TV camera she never fails to thank the good Lord for all the shit he's done for her.

Disclaimer: it's one of my sweet spots because of my daughter's age. Can't wait for the teen years. Until then, thanks to the 'boss' for the first tweeny project.

#2: SEPARATIST VIOLENCE & ISLAMIC MILITANCY

Gotta love that segue, huh? Having written my MA thesis on the campaign against India waged by Kashmiri separatists and pre-Qaeda Islamic militants I'm still very much hooked on the theme. The photo above is, I believe, from a Hizbul Mujahideen web site. That's an interest-work conversion right there, because the first time I was in Kashmir there was one working phone accessible to foreigners to call out of the state. The second time I was there it had been bombed. And the third time I didn't even waste my time trying to call home. That HM has web sites calling for actions, posting photos of militants killed in battle etc. is a testament to the speed at which the technology I took for granted in the early 1990s has become accessible. That, and the fact that my friend can now call me from his cell phone up in the Himalayas from a village that had electricity 2 hours per day back then!

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your take on the client), this particular sweet spot likely won't get flushed out in the work space.

#3: WINE

I still can't really afford the super-good stuff, but I'm always willing to make budgetary room for something I can't totally resist. I bought this Viognier in Vancouver while I was out doing a client ethnography. I walked into the shop, asked the clerk for something I couldn't buy in Ontario, and this was one of my scores. Still haven't had it yet, but it might make a great intro to the Oregon Pinot Gris my buddy Stanley brought me back from his third or fourth trip into Nike HQ.

Wine is, as I'm finding out, such a rich terroir for Interaction, Innovation and Incubation. This sweet spot is getting sweeter.

#4: DANCEHALL

I'm still waiting for the Miley Cyrus/Ninjaman combination on the "Cherry My Baby" riddim, but until then I'll tribute this sweet spot for: being a favourite musical genre (less of a 45 buyer now, but still a fan); being a favourite performative genre (rich anthropological territory for understanding culture, language, gesture, membership, conflict etc.); and being a hotly contested cultural domain. Recent controversy revisited has once again positioned dancehall as violently homophobic. No dispute there. In addition to rampant  hyper-sexualization and a mythologizing of gun culture, Jamaican music of late (and much of past too, lest we forget) has been full of calls to bun down the batty man. Like much of the Rasta business, I don't cater to this. But I will say that this latest spin on the 'clash of civilizations' theme that the media tends to fall back on when it's too lazy to truly investigate a culture is, like Pad Anthony's "Conference Table," a great place to meet and discuss/debate ideas about cultural autonomy, expression, appropriateness etc. etc.

#5: ADVERTISING

Yes, I've heard the bells tolling for this industry across the blogzone, but I still can't resist the call. I agree that so much is changing because of 2.0, TV's cancer, the death of print; advertising is not only transforming right now but will continue to do so in order to deliver whatever it does to its clients (and, by the way, to pop culture - because it will always be relevant in whatever shape or form). To that end - and in typical 2.0 fashion - I'd like to suggest that while the interactive renegades, boutiques and start-ups poach all sorts of business from the lethargic monster firms, why can't we do the same with the ad agencies?  Creative is as creative does, right?  Find somebody else to do your buying etc. But when brands with age-old presences are ready to have some real fun (and it can still be had on TV) at a slice of the usual agency cost and are ready to make themselves culturally relevant again, hit me up. I've got some sweet (spot) ideas

¿Coches ecológicos?

Acabo de leer en un suplemento dominical un anuncio del SEAT León TDI 105 CV, que por problemas técnicos no he podido escanear. Se trata de una obra maestra de la simplicidad: impreso en blanco y negro, línea clara al estilo francés y texto minimalista que dice "Un anuncio con menos tinta es un poco menos estúpido con el medio ambiente". Al fondo vuelan ecológicamente unos pájaros. Más abajo, en tipos más pequeños, junto con algunos detalles técnicos, se insiste: "Porque ser un poco menos estúpido siempre tiene ventajas". Ya están otra vez los publicitarios llamando subliminalmente imbécil a quien no compre sus productos. No es una novedad. Sin embargo, mi reflexión va por otro lado...

En el web de SEAT (no esperéis un enlace) la línea ecomotive se presenta con el eslogan flower power, aludiendo a la estética e ideología hippie de los años 60. Tienen un menú a la derecha donde, bajo el pomposo epígrafe "Nuestro compromiso", enumeran los psos que están tomando para asegurar la sostenibilidad del medio ambiente, el reciclado de componentes y la reducción del consumo. Cada ventana que se abre es de un color diferente, las letras de los títulos parecen sacadas de los primeros vídeos de los Jackson Five y las referencias son perceptiblemente psicodélicas.

¿Qué harán los de SEAT cuando se termine esta campaña publicitaria? ¿Seguirán publicando maravillosos anuncios en línea clara impresa en blanco y negro? Lo dudo. En publicidad, la novedad se asocia a la originalidad, y lo nuevo asegura la retención del mensaje (este artículo es un claro ejemplo del éxito de su estrategia, supongo). El problema es que una vez que llamas estúpido a quien no sigue tu línea de pensamiento no puedes variarla sin convertirte en idiota -o ser un hipócrita sin escrúpulos. Utilizando los argumetos de SEAT, cualquier cambio en su estrategia publicitaria supondrá un mayor deterioro del medio ambiente, y estaremos en nuestro perfecto derecho de afearles la conducta. Genial ¿?

Digo yo, ¿cómo se puede estar usando estética psicodélica en la web y minimalista en la prensa escrita? Me diréis que en la web el monitor consume lo mismo tanto si muestra una pantalla en color como en blanco y negro. Será verdad, pero que se preparen los de SEAT como encuentre un anuncio en plan Flower Power en el Dominical de la semana próxima :-)))

David LaChapelle goes Passionata

Onlangs een tvspot gezien die iedereens fantasie prikkelt! Een mooie nimf in prachtige lingerie schommelt op een paard van ijs. Het ijs smelt en wat blijft er over: een plas water in de vorm van een hart. Dit is niet zo maar reclame. Dit is pure sexiness for Passionata lovers. En wat blijkt: David LaChapelle zit erachter. Daarbovenop wordt dit reclame-sprookje begeleid door een hemels muziekje (paratiparapom!!) en werkelijk, dat blijft hangen! Heb ondertussen de site bezocht: je vindt er alles wat je zoekt en wil zien (zelfs de 'making of' pics!).

Ter info:

  • David LaChapelle: bekende video/reclame director en superregisseur van Block Party.
  • Passionata: heerlijk romantisch Frans lingeriemerk

O2 Memory Project


_DSC0759

Originally uploaded by distillerymedia

I've been in London for the past few days and stumbled upon the O2 Memory Project in London's Southbank. A beautiful industrial cylinder greets passers by and snaps 360 panoramic of the scene every few minutes. On the inside you can see the images that have been captured and through hand gestures go back in time to see what has come before. A nice effort from O2 and Jason Bruges.

Not entirely sure what it has to do with O2, which was probably a missed communication opportunity. The host who I spoke with only admitted sheepishly that it wasn't actually just a cool art project but there was a corporate father.

More information can be found here: www.o2memoryproject.com

Kicking Bad Habits: Financial Incentives, Behaviour Change and Using Information

Individual responsibility for health and self-care are key themes in recent health policy development in England. The King's Fund have addressed the issue with three papers:

  • Paying the Patient: Improving health using financial incentives identifies programmes based on both positive and negative incentives, finds that financial incentives are effective in encouraging people to perform clearly defined, time-limited, simple behavioural tasks, and also in encouraging participation in lifestyle programmes.However, healthier behaviour is not maintained and financial incentives are not effective when the behaviour change required is complex, for example, giving up smoking.
  • Low-income Groups and Behaviour Change Interventions: A review of intervention content and effectiveness considers interventions targeted specifically at low-income groups, this paper asks which interventions are effective in getting people to quit smoking, eat healthily and exercise. It reveals that the most frequently used techniques are providing information and encouraging people to set goals, which can be particularly effective at changing behaviour in disadvantaged groups.
  • Using Information to Promote Healthy Behaviours looks at the theory and selected evidence of interventions in practice, and what this can tell us about the role of information in behaviour change programmes. Information-based health campaigns are a major part of the government's health promotion strategy. A £75 million marketing programme has recently been announced to encourage healthy behaviour in children. This paper looks at the theory and selected evidence of interventions in practice, and what this can tell us about the role of information in behaviour change programmes.

Two more papers are due in the Kicking Bad Habits series before a final report is drafted.

Flogos = Flying Logos

Flogos is a pretty cool new promotional device using soap bubbles and helium shaped into any logo (36" max, 48" and colors beyond white in development). Examples on youtube include a cross, peace sign, and mickey mouse mark (see below). They claim these things can last in the sky for up to an hour depending on the mixture and weather. Not completely sure that the realistic application of these things has a whole lot of value, maybe on a larger scale, but its still pretty cool.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Web Hosting Partner Program from R1Soft, Gains Future Hosting


Novi, Michigan - (The Hosting News) - April 15, 2008 - Web hosting and Internet solutions company, Future Hosting, LLC, serving small to medium sized businesses internationally, has joined disk-based backup solutions provider, R1Soft's Hosting Partner Program.

Future Hosting, the company that developed Server Doctor, also released Future Protect in January, as a custom tailored data protection service. It allows users, even if their Web site is hosted with another provider, to tap into the company's geographically dispersed servers, so data can be backed up in multiple locations around the world. Data is backed up every six hours and stored encrypted at a Future Hosting backup location in North America or Europe.

Vik Patel, CEO and President of Future Hosting noted, ''We have been working with R1Soft for a number of months, and we have been thrilled with the flexibility and reliability of their data protection software. Joining the R1Soft Hosting Partner Program is the next natural step as we continue to pursue more aggressive implementation of our award-winning Future Protect data protection service. We see R1Soft as a long term partner of our company, and we look forward to utilizing their innovative software to provide an added level of protection for our customers.''

By joining the R1Soft Hosting Partner Program, Future Hosting will be able to implement and promote its innovative backup service more quickly. It will also have access to volume licensing discounts on R1Soft software, savings it can pass on to customers.

David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies remarked, ''Future Hosting has proven its dedication to customer service and innovation, and we are happy to welcome them into our Hosting Partner Program. Our Hosting Partner Program creates an avenue for successful providers like Future Hosting to leverage new technology to benefit existing customers and create an incentive for prospective customers.''

Founded in 2003, R1Soft is a provider of disk-based backup solutions. The company's customer list includes some of the world's largest hosting providers. R1soft products provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for over 85,000 mission-critical Linux and Windows servers worldwide. In November, 2007 R1Soft was acquired by BBS Technologies, Inc.

Founded in 2001, Future Hosting is privately held Internet Solutions provider specializing in managed hosting, including both Dedicated Servers and Virtual Private Servers. The company has developed competitive pricing models, and offers a 3-hour Service Level Agreement. Future Hosting is based in Livonia, Michigan.

For more information about R1Soft, please visit: www.r1soft.com.

To learn more about Future Hosting, please visit: www.futurehosting.biz.

For more information about Future Protect, please visit http://futurehosting.biz/futureprotect.htm.

To learn more about Future Hosting, please visit: www.futurehosting.biz.

Server Intellect Web Hosting Company, Premieres Affiliate Partner Program


Orlando, Florida - (The Hosting News) - April 14, 2008 - A new custom developed Affiliate Partner Program, has premiered at advanced Windows-based, Microsoft Certified, shared, virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated web hosting solutions firm, Server Intellect.

Designed to allow partners to earn commissions for referring purchasing customers, the Affiliate Program was designed by the company's in-house development team, and includes extensive features, such as drill down sales reporting to analyze details of each sale, Referring URL, IP Address and Browser UserAgent, complete sales and click statistics with historical reports, campaign management with page specific redirects, and extended length 365 day cookie tracking.

Eric Pratt, President and CEO of Server Intellect noted, ''Server Intellect has spent years building our world recognized brand and we have a solid reputation for high quality web hosting services. By capitalizing on our strong reputation and competitive pricing, Affiliate Partners can now reap the rewards of our years of hard work. Whether you are an experienced webmaster with resource sites, a development firm with clients who are in need of web hosting services or someone who simply knows others that may be interested in our products; you can now earn a substantial income by partnering with Server Intellect.''

The Server Intellect Affiliate Program also includes an extensive collection of hosted graphics to promote Server Intellect coupled with an HTML Link Generation system allowing for easy Copy and Paste code with link and campaign codes already imbedded.

Mr. Pratt added, ''For years our customers and independent web promoters have been asking to partner with Server Intellect, and I am very proud to finally offer this opportunity to the world. This is an incredible development for our entire team and I am highly confident in the long-term success of this new program.''

Affiliate Partners may earn up to $75.00 by simply referring purchasing customers to the Server Intellect website. Affiliates have the option of receiving a check payment each month or Server Intellect service credit.

In March, Server Intellect debuted Microsoft Windows Server 2008 on its entire line of managed Windows dedicated servers. Windows Server 2008 was released by Microsoft just last week. Server Intellect has become one of the first Windows web hosts and Microsoft Gold Certified Partners to offer Windows Server 2008 (formerly codename Longhorn) on its dedicated servers. The updated operating system represents the most substantial upgrade of the Windows Server product line since Windows 2000 was released eight years ago.

The new operating system includes many upgrades and additions to web, security and virtualization technologies, including the newly implemented Hyper-V. The operating system also includes major expansions to Active Directory, Terminal Services, and introduces the long-awaited Windows PowerShell.

Windows Server 2008 is available in multiple editions to support the varying server needs of businesses of all sizes. Server Intellect will offer two main versions of Windows Server 2008, the Web Edition and Datacenter Edition. The web addition is offered on all dedicated servers at no additional charge, and the Datacenter Edition starts at $50/monthly. A full listing of differences between the two versions is available on Server Intellect's web site.

A subsidiary of Client Intellect, Inc., Server Intellect is a provider of advanced Windows-based Shared, VPS, Application, and Dedicated Web hosting solutions. The company was founded in 2003 and is located in Orlando, Florida.

To learn more about the Server Intellect affiliate program, please visit: www.serverintellect.com/affiliates.

For more information about Server Intellect, please visit: www.serverintellect.com.

Dedicated Server, Data Center Firm, Rack-Soft, Deploys Multi-Tenant DNS Update


Wilmington, Delaware - (The Hosting News) - April 14, 2008 - Server management and data center administration facilitator, Rack-Soft, has launched its latest release of multi-tenant DNS management software, the new 4PSA DNS Manager.

The release is based on the new Rack-Soft's development framework and comes with over 80 additional features. Developed as a server level application that delivers DNS hosting consolidation and automation to service providers and businesses, 4PSA DNS Manager centralizes domain zone records from any hosting server, based on any control panel or operating system, in order to increase manageability and to create a single, fail redundant DNS infrastructure.

Bogdan Carstoiu, General Manager at Rack-Soft noted, ''4PSA DNS Manager 3 was redesigned to fulfill the complex demands providers face today. The new version helps our customers increase infrastructure redundancy and automate all DNS related operations. Not only that the new framework offers a strong foundation for future developments, but it also improves the product speed and makes it scale better. Rack-Soft also changed the licensing agreement for 4PSA DNS Manager, allowing anyone to use it with up to ten DNS zones for free.''

4PSA DNS Manager operates without any administrator intervention and allows customers to use the regular hosting control panel to manage DNS zones, so the provider can organize the DNS infrastructure without any impact on end users. The software also provides a full featured web based interface that is used by system administrators for configuration purposes or by DNS customers to manage their DNS zones and settings.

The application enables hosting providers, Internet service providers, and Data Centers to automate DNS infrastructure management and allows end users to manage DNS zones in a perfectly controlled, highly available environment. 4PSA DNS Manager 3 provides many new features, including classless zone delegation, support for non-continuous reverse zones, SOA record replication, integrated configuration backup, and more control options. The new version comes with a web services API that can be used by third parties to access and control product features remotely.

4PSA DNS Manager is available for Linux operating systems in a wide range of formats, including ISO image, VMware image, and Virtuozzo/OpenVZ templates. The product can be downloaded for free and can be used with up to ten DNS zones. Commercial licenses start from US $249 and include 12 months of technical support.

Rack-Soft is a developer and integrator of software solutions for the server market, utilized by ISP, HSP, small and medium businesses. Rack-Soft products are developed to simplify server management, data center administration, and voice communications. Rack-Soft implements CMM (Capability Maturity Model) in order to maximize software reliability.

To learn more, please visit: www.4psa.com.

Managed Hosting Contest from PEER 1, Awards Big Room Studios


Vancouver, British Columbia - (The Hosting News) - April 14, 2008 - Provider of online IT infrastructure, PEER 1, has released the winner of its Growing Pains Free Hosting Contest, with a prize of 12 months of free managed hosting, valued at over $2,400.

Tim Mateosian, co-founder of Big Room Studios, has won a managed hosting server, which includes 1 TB of monthly data transfer and bi-weekly vulnerability scans. The open contest received more than 1,000 online entries from viewers of the premier episode of ''Growing Pains,'' the company's humorous video-short series.

Rajan Sodhi, Vice President of marketing at PEER 1 noted, ''The best thing about this contest is that it truly helps Tim solve his IT 'growing pains' and expand his business. Business and tech managers go through many IT challenges as their online demands grow. Sharing their stories in entertaining ways can help others navigate the complexities of running an online business.''

Headquartered in Portland, Maine, Big Room Studios specializes in offering combined online services, which primarily include web and print design, web development and IT support and consulting. Started in 2002 by Mateosian and his brother, the company now has clients throughout North America and the UK. Mateosian has been a PEER 1 customer for nearly six years and has worked in the hosting industry for more than 10 years. He has always loved computers and technology and started in the industry as a hosting reseller. The business grew to include advanced web solutions when his brother, a talented programmer, joined and created a web framework for the firm. PEER 1's self- managed hosting is the ideal solution for this kind of programming, since the Mateosian brothers require more control over the server environment in order to run their web solutions.

Mr. Mateosian added, ''I am excited about winning the managed hosting contest. This is extremely good timing since our company is growing quickly and we were planning on expanding anyway. And I have never won anything before."

PEER 1 will be holding a new contest, calling for contestants to create and upload their own "growing pains" video, in conjunction with the upcoming second episode of ''Growing Pains'' due out in May.

PEER 1, an IT infrastructure provider, believes in the limitless opportunity of the Internet and the business growth and continuity it provides for its more than 9,000 customers. PEER 1 delivers highly scalable managed hosting and co-location solutions to ensure customers' online presence is always fast, always available. Since 1999, PEER 1 has grown to include data centers and network points of presence in 17 major cities across North America and Europe. Serving a variety of companies, PEER 1 offers solutions that grow through every stage of web commerce, regardless of company size. The company's headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol PIX.

To learn more about Big Room Sudios, please visit: www.bigroomstudios.com.

For more information about PEER 1, please visit: www.peer1.com.

The Planet Dedicated Server Web Host, Receives Corporate Relocation Award


Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - April 14, 2008 - Privately held dedicated web hosting company, The Planet, has received the Landmark '08 award for ''Best Corporate Headquarters Relocation,'' for opening its Bayou Place headquarters in December 2007.

Consolidating its offices in downtown Houston from two locations in north Houston, the Planet was nominated for the award by its real estate brokers, Jackson and Cooksey Ltd.

Douglas J. Erwin, Chairman and CEO of The Planet noted, ''When we evaluated new locations for our headquarters, our goal was to find a creative, open space that would provide an environment where our employees would enjoy coming to work everyday. The Planet's Bayou Place provided the exact footprint we envisioned. It had been vacant for almost 20 years and offered an open floor plan with untold possibilities. The team of experts who helped us, including our own internal facilities organization, was committed to our vision of excellence. It takes teamwork to make this vision a reality, and they all delivered. When potential employees interview, they see our commitment to an extraordinary workplace.''

Sponsored by the Houston Business Journal, The Planet earned first prize in the category against competition from far larger projects and companies. Nominee finalists included Bechtel Equipment's regional headquarters and the Reed Hycalog world headquarters and technology center.

Andy Iversen, Senior Vice President of Jackson and Cooksey remarked, ''It takes tremendous vision to take long-term vacant space and create a new corporate headquarters. The Planet's Doug Erwin told us he had always wanted to create an office environment in an airplane hangar, and this was a close match. The project is one of the most creative we've had an opportunity to represent.''

A broad range of companies partnered with The Planet to create its new headquarters location. Following is a partial list:

Developer: The Cordish Company, represented by Taylor Gray
Real Estate Brokers: Jackson and Cooksey Ltd. brokers included Senior Vice Presidents Andy Iversen and John Beach, and Senior Associate Anthony Squillante
Architect: Kendall/Heaton Associates' Jory Alexander led the design and architectural team
Contractor: D.E. Harvey Builders, represented by Rusty Gorman, Eric Lowe, Charles Gates and Javier Escalona

Ultimately, The Planet endeavors to provide:

  • High levels of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
  • Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
  • Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
  • Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
  • Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business
The Planet is a leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting over 22,000 small and medium size businesses and 6.7 million web sites worldwide, using the best choice of servers, software tools and support, backed by enhanced facilities and network connectivity.

For more information about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

Web Hosting Solutions Firm, R1Soft, to Exhibit at MySQL Conference and Expo


Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - April 11, 2008 - Developer of near-continuous data protection products for Linux and Windows, R1Soft, will showcase its products and True Granular Restore technology at this year's MySQL Conference and Expo, to be held April 14-17 in Santa Clara, California.

At the largest gathering of MySQL developers, users, and database administrators. This year's show provides an opportunity for R1Soft to educate the MySQL community about its Continuous Data Protection software for MySQL database servers. R1Soft's database backup technology, True Granular Restore, is the first of its kind for MySQL, allowing developers and administrators the ability to restore individual tables to original or alternate locations using an easy-to-use web interface.

David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies remarked, ''Since we introduced our MySQL CDP product, we have seen a rapid adoption from administrators tasked with maintaining mission critical MySQL environments. The usual reaction we hear is , 'Wow! Someone finally solved the MySQL backup problem. While other vendors were sitting around waiting for a new MySQL backup API, we developed a new Linux device driver to facilitate near-Continuous point-in-time MySQL backups. I look forward to interacting with database users at this year's conference.''

R1Soft's MySQL data protection product is the only product capable of MySQL hot backups for both MyISAM and InnoDB table types. The technology provides a complete server backup and allows databases to be backed up as often as every 15 minutes, without interrupting or slowing down a busy production database in any way.

Mr. Wartell will host a conference session at the show titled, ''MySQL Backups Go near-Continuous.'' He will discuss the changes to MySQL data protection, including current MySQL backup technologies, the coming MySQL backup API, and the future of MySQL backup and restore.

R1Soft will be at booth #509 on the floor of the exhibit hall, where it will offer a variety of promotional materials and run its popular prize wheel. Attendees have the chance to win one of many floor prizes, including CDP Starter packs, t-shirts, penguins, and cash.

The 2008 MySQL Conference and Expo brings over 1,600 open source and database enthusiasts together to harness the power of MySQL and celebrate the huge MySQL ecosystem. Peers and experts from a wide variety of companies and countries will gather at the MySQL Conference and Expo, to discuss and learn from some of the leading visionaries in the open source world.

The largest gathering of MySQL developers, users, and DBAs worldwide, the event reflects MySQL's wide-ranging appeal and capabilities. The open atmosphere of the MySQL Conference and Expo helps IT professionals and community members to create the best database applications, tools, and software through expert instruction, hands-on tutorials, readily available MySQL developers, and guru business advice. Users gain the knowledge they need to rapidly build solid applications with MySQL that scale with the enterprise.

Founded in 2003, R1Soft is a provider of disk-based backup solutions. The company's customer list includes some of the world's largest hosting providers. R1soft products provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for over 85,000 mission-critical Linux and Windows servers worldwide. In November, 2007 R1Soft was acquired by BBS Technologies, Inc.

To learn more about the conference, please visit: http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2008.

For more information about R1Soft and Continuous Data Protection, please visit: www.r1soft.com.

Digiweb, Web Hosting, Data Center Services Firm, Acquires Novara Hosting Service


Dublin, Ireland - (The Hosting News) - April 11, 2008 - Web hosting and broadband, telecom provider, Digiweb, has acquired veteran web hosting services firm, Novara, as well as its host.ie and register.ie brands.

The deal is the first consolidation in Irish web host market in 10 years. Award winning web hoster and domain registrar Novara operate under the trade names host.ie and register.ie and add over eight years of intensive industry experience in the Irish webhosting market to Digiweb's existing specialist hosting team and datacentre services.

Dan King, Hosting and Managed Infrastructure Manager with Digiweb noted, ''Our drive to bring better services and value to the Irish hosting market has been further strengthened by the acquisition of Novara. We're absolutely thrilled to welcome Novara's experienced and knowledgeable team to Digiweb, and look forward to supporting existing Novara customers with the same expert team and top service they already enjoy, and offering them now a single solution provider for their hosting, datacentre, broadband and telecoms needs.''

The Irish hosting industry has been fragmented for some time and this represents the first major acquisition and consolidation in the Irish market in 10 years. Digiweb's re-entry into the hosting market in 2006 has seen them capture significant market share and high profile customers, hosted from their custom-built datacentre in Blanchardstown. Digiweb has also reported that it is eyeing further acquisitions in hosting and voice in Ireland and the UK regions.

Eoin Costello, Founder and Managing Director of Novara remarked, ''Novara customers and staff will benefit hugely from Digiweb's proven commitment to the Irish hosting industry. Digiweb's determination to become the number one provider in the Irish hosting market, there being a wholly owned Irish business with strong customer service and business growth as a focus, made them the obvious choice as the best long term home to our customers. We know that they will be well looked after.''

Digiweb Ltd is one of Ireland's leading Telecoms and Internet Services Providers, offering Wireless and Fixed Broadband, Telephony, and Web Hosting services. Digiweb is 100% Irish owned and run, and currently employ 155 staff in Dublin, Dundalk, Waterford and Limerick. Digiweb was the 2007 Irish Telecommunications Company of the Year, and 2007 Irish ICT Company of the Year, and has been ranked by Deloitte in the Top 3 fastest growing companies in Ireland for each of the last 3 years. Digiweb has also been ranked within the Top 100 companies by Deloitte for the past 3 years in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Digiweb is a provider in the Irish broadband market having established an extensive wholly owned telecoms network across the country. The company also services clients throughout Ireland and Europe for Web Hosting, Data Centre Services, and Satellite Broadband, and is currently developing wireless networks in a number of northern European countries.

To learn more, please visit: www2.digiweb.ie.

Dedicated Server Security Firms, Entensys, BrightCloud, Form Integrated Alliance


Paris, France - (The Hosting News) - April 11, 2008 - Hosted security services firm, BrightCloud, Inc., and software vendor and developer of Internet connection sharing products, Entensys, have begun a joint technology partnership to integrate the BrightCloud services into UserGate Security server.

Designed as a complete Internet Sharing software solution for protected Internet access, the BrightCloud Service will be integrated into the UserGate Proxy so that customers can implement web filtering as part of the proxy solution.

Alexander Levchenko, President of Entensys noted, ''The integration of the hosted BrightCloud Service with UserGate server provides users with a state of the art web filtering experience for managing their Internet access. This technology partnership shows our commitment to providing our users with a great user experience built upon superior technology covering maximum of existing Internet websites.''

Browsing the web, users will be able to implement acceptable internet usage policies appropriate for them. The web page request is handed off to the BrightCloud Service and the BrightCloud Master Database to determine the category of the website, and the integrated UserGate policy engine implement the appropriate policy.

Quinn Curtis, CEO of BrightCloud remarked, ''We are very pleased to announce this technology partnership. UserGate is a very successful product in the marketplace, and a perfect fit for the BrightCloud solution. Combining the Entensys product with the hosted BrightCloud Services provides UserGate customers with the security and peace of mind that they are being protected by the next generation of web filtering.''

The integrated hosted BrightCloud Service enables UserGate customers to protect themselves from websites that have been compromised as well as to enhance productivity by limiting access to non-productive resources, reduce exposure to legal liability, maximize IT resources by managing access to peer to peer websites, or IM or other internet communication websites. The BrightCloud Master Database, contains over 125 million sites, as well as supports multiple categories and confidence scores for each site. It also provides coverage of the major languages and others, including German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian.

Entensys Corporation is an international software vendor and developer of Internet connection sharing products, the provider of the popular UserGate Internet security server.

BrightCloud, Inc. is building the next generation web filtering database. BrightCloud provides security vendors with hosted security services that extend the value propositions of web filtering across the internet's Long Tail, which includes both the most popular sites as well as those sites less frequently visited, but visited nonetheless.

To learn more about Entensys, please visit: www.entensys.com.

For more information about BrightCloud, Inc., please visit: www.brightcloud.com.

The New Guards: Why MoveOn Matters

The New Guards: Why MoveOn Matters Posted by David All Sun, 2008-04-20 18:10 Jon Henke's blog post, "New Guards," ... and embrace Web 2.0 strategies. While the Internet has grown rapidly, the Party apparatus and its top officials are operating in a disconnected, Web 0.5 world. The result is that our message is failing

Posted in TechRepublican.com ( 407 links from 189 sites)

Assassin's Creed Maps To Templars And Flags

Ok some might call me a perfectionist, but I truly am not ... it! When you mouse over a pin, a Web 2.0 popup box will show you a picture of the location plus

Posted in Shades Of Twilight ( 8 links from 4 sites) by ELiTe

Have A Passion For Music? Fuel It With Sony...

Sony Ericsson has brought a fabulous gift for all the music lovers in the form of the latest Sony w810i mobile phone ... or from a computer via the USB 2.0 port. This software helps you rip CDs fast and efficiently. Apart ... browser. So, you can browse through the Web sites of your choice with the conventional look-and-feel

Posted in Jontys Blog ( 0 links from 0 sites)

Yami No Matsuei’s Interesting Blog To Explore

Ran into Yami No Matsuei's Blog the today. While I'm not sure what that means it is Vincent's Blog, and definitely has some interesting perspective on some things. The blog certainly has a Web 2.0 feel and is intuitive and...

Posted in Teknosis ( 388 links from 56 sites) by pc9323

We Need A Second Brain

MySQL5 Web Hosting, Perl Scripting And Developing Blog wrote an interesting post today on We Need A Second Brain Here's a quick excerpt We always like to inform our readers about things we really like and along those lines here is a short on one of the best startups of Web 2.0. Second… For more information, click here

Posted in Web Hosting ( 0 links from 0 sites)

Dion Hinchcliffe: RSS and ATOM a hallmark of WOA...

From Dion Hinchcliffe, discussing how Web 2.0 success stories driving WOA and informing SOA and in his of 4 things that define what WOA ( ... -Oriented Architecture, Web 2.0 ... Web-Oriented Architecture) will look like in the enterprise: "A rich web of REST resources

Posted in ChiefTech ( 104 links from 50 sites) by chieftech

Thoughts on Sunlight Foundation : voice and...

Thoughts on Sunlight Foundation : voice and power to the people Our company, Howdys, Inc ... journalism gave me huge impact. Web 2.0 has been a hot topic here in Japan too - but I've always thought ... by utilizing Web applications. The Sunlight Foundation was one of them. "The Sunlight Foundation was founded

Posted in ShunEguro.com ( 1 link from 1 site)

Time Relevant Widget Needed?

Author and designer Jeffrey Zeldman recently left an interesting comment in a post where he discusses removing the Ma ... -not because you manually inserted the photos, but because time-linkage between web applications is possible ... between web applications is possible. The social feed aggregators like FriendFeed or Social Thing

Posted in Bloggers Blog -- Blogging Tools ( 2 links from 2 sites)

Eating the IT Elephant: Moving from Greenfield...

A Practical, Start-to-Finish Approach to Managing, Evolving, and Transforming Legacy IT SystemsFor every IT executive, manager, architect, ... , and visualization tools--including Web 2.0, semantic software

Posted in Addison-Wesley Professional - Home Page ( 28 links from 22 sites)

HP Upline Still Unavailable!

HP Upline has been down since Wednesday 4/16 for me and its still down ... be on his desk first thing Monday morning. Com'on! How can Web 2.0 start-up's do it and one of the biggest

Posted in Memory Leak ( 2 links from 1 site)

Dedicated Servers of HostMySite.com, Chosen by Search Engine


Newark, Delaware - (The Hosting News) - April 18, 2008 - The web hosting services of www.hostmysite.com, and content delivery network company, www.pantherexpress.com, have been chosen by eZanga.com, Inc., in order to upgrade, improve and enhance the company's online services and search engine offerings.

HostMySite.com will manage the operation of eZanga.com's infrastructure. According to the company, the search engine recently increased its available resources by 500%, when it partnered with HostMySite.com in order to allow for additional growth. HostMySite.com will create a more dynamic network while providing a greater scalability, therefore expanding the eZanga network in the future.

Richard K. Kahn, CEO of eZanga.com noted, ''We wanted to offer a much faster site to our members and clients with quicker response times.''

eZanga.com also chose Panther Express, a high performance Content Delivery Network (CDN) specializing in rapid delivery of multimedia and large files, to guarantee fast response to customers of their graphically intense website, regardless of where the user is located geographically. With the newly increased performance of eZanga.com, users will experience optimum speed and delivery.

The new agreements are expected to be a great enhancement for eZanga.com, Inc., as the company prepares for its five year anniversary on May 29, 2008. New business ideas are being forumulated, with an upcoming celebration and major giveaway. According to the company, the prize is described as something ''ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else.''

eZanga.com, Inc is an online services company specializing in pay-per-click advertising. Members of its search engine enjoy premium search along with chances to win monthly prizes and cash giveaways. In addition, advertising advantages include personalized account management and expansive tool sets. Advertisers also receive eZanga.com's real time solution, the Traffic Advisors fraud prevention advanced filtering technology.

Panther Express Corp. is a high-performance content delivery network (CDN), which includes a low-cost infrastructure. Founded in 2005 by former DoubleClick CEO, Kevin Ryan and DoubleClick Co-founder and former CTO Dwight Merriman, Panther Express's goal is to provide rapid, reliable and scalable performance with the best prices and terms. Panther Express is privately held and based in New York.

HostMySite.com was founded by partners Lou Honick and Neil Heuer in 1997. The foundation of the culture at HostMySite.com is a top-down commitment to complete customer satisfaction. HostMySite.com provides individuals, small businesses, and large corporations with affordable dedicated servers, VPS hosting, and SAS 70 hosting, supported by 24x7x365 live support through toll-free telephone, email, and live online chat.

For more information about HostMySite.com, please visit: www.hostmysite.com.

WINDOWS XP SP3 5508 RED Edition FREE Rapidshare...

One DVD ISO "RedXPSP3" x86 2.32 GB (2,495,938,560 bytes) Windows XP Professional SP3 - 5.1.2600.5508 Build 2600xpsp080320-1628 (If you like with more programs integrated then stick with Win XP SP3 Reloaded Glass) Improved over older version WINDOWS XP SP3 5508 Reloaded Glass. Now it is more compact, only 2.32GB!

Posted in RapidLeak: Download FREE Rapidshare Links for Free ( 51 links from 33 sites)

Monday, May 5, 2008

Colocation, VoIP Firm, Level 3, Debuts Content Delivery for Extended Libraries


Broomfileld, Colorado - (The Hosting News) - April 18, 2008 - Colocation, VoIP, and Internet backbone company, Level 3 Communications' Content Markets Group, has upgraded and expanded its suite of content delivery services to include a new service.

Content Delivery for Extended Libraries (CDXL) was created in response to demand from existing and potential customers with large libraries of digital assets for an economic solution to enable them to monetize their entire libraries of audio and video content - regardless of each asset's popularity.

Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst with In-Stat noted, ''Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are transforming how people gain access to rich media, and the network has to be about more than moving lots of bits quickly. Level 3's Content Delivery for Extended Libraries brings a new level of network performance, storage capacity and economic efficiency to the CDN market.''

Leveraging its robust Content Delivery Network and its highly scalable origin storage solution, Level 3 has introduced proprietary intelligence into its infrastructure which enables content to be delivered dynamically on the optimal path to end users. Level 3's patent-pending solution will enable customers like content owners/aggregators, sports leagues, broadcasters and user generated content sites to monetize a larger portion of their assets, including their long-tail, or less frequently requested, video and audio content by storing and delivering their entire library economically and efficiently. The dynamic intelligence built into Level 3's CDXL solution automatically positions customer content on the Level 3 infrastructure based on popularity and removes the need for customer guesswork about which assets will be popular in certain regions at any given time.

Dave Mansueto, Co-founder of Liberated Syndication remarked, ''Libsyn provides a do-it-yourself publishing platform for podcasters and new media producers and makes thousands of podcasts available to the public. Using Level 3's CDN services, Libsyn has significantly improved its online delivery of high-quality audio and video podcasts to millions of loyal fans. We are excited about Level 3's CDXL service, because we believe it will enable us to effectively distribute the podcasts using our services and better serve content that may be targeted toward niche audiences.''

Grant van Rooyen, President of Level 3's Content Markets Group commented, ''Our customers with large content libraries have been looking for an economic solution to enable them to monetize their substantial digital assets. We believe that the business of providing a solution for the efficient delivery of entire libraries of content, not just the most popular titles, will be increasingly important as online content distribution matures. Level 3 is excited to deliver a solution that enables customers like Libsyn to build a viable business model for monetizing their long-tail content.''

Level 3 Communications, Inc., an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world. Through its customers, Level 3 is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers. The company provides a comprehensive suite of services over its broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice services and voice over IP services. The services are designed to provide building blocks that enable Level 3's customers to meet growing demands for advanced communications solutions.The principal components offered by Level 3's VoIP Enhanced Local service include network trunking, local telephone numbers, local number portability, the safety of E-911, operator assistance, caller ID, directory listings, and directory assistance. The service is designed to allow Level 3 customers to retain the flexibility to manage and control end-user features without the difficulties of implementing complex interconnection arrangements.

For more information about Level 3, please visit: www.level3.com.

Dedicated Colocation Web Hosting, Ubiquity, Includes SSH, Linux .NET Framework


Bloomington, Illinois - (The Hosting News) - April 18, 2008 - Provider of shared, dedicated, and colocation hosting services, Ubiquity Hosting Solutions, has added SSH user-level access and Linux .NET Framework emulation through the Mono Project, to its list of advanced hosting features.

In addition, two new and unique Linux tools to be added to its web hosting services, effective immediately. The first of these tools provides web developers, which, according to the company, is a rare service within the Linux web hosting industry, labeled ''jailed shell access.''

Clint Chapman, Chief Technical Officer for Ubiquity remarked, ''Linux is capable of so much more than what most web hosting companies are doing. We decided that the time had come to start delivering the full potential of what we offer.''

With this tool, webmasters are given the authority to connect to the web hosting provider using Secured Shell Handling (SSH), allowing the capability to compress and decompress files on the web server, execute Linux bash scripts, monitor system health, and a large variety of other features. Security in this environment has been maintained for the reason that Linux shell commands available to the webmaster have been ''jailed,'' which in turn will limit the availability of potentially dangerous commands to the users.

In addition to SSH, Ubiquity has stabilized the Mono Project's open source tool which emulates .NET Framework in a Linux web hosting environment. Through Mono, Ubiquity has successfully assembled a stable and effective platform for running ASPx scripting from a Linux system, in hopes of bridging the gap between Linux and Windows web hosting which otherwise exists.

Intel's modular approach to the Multi-Flex server chassis has allowed Ubiquity to provide a platform with full redundancy at the hardware level. This system uses redundant motherboard and CPU interfaces, isolated from the rest of the system, which interact with redundant, external NIC and PDU connections. Hard disk storage is supplied by a RAID 5 virtual drive pool in the systems storage controller, also isolated from the systems motherboard and processing resources, such that in the event of a motherboard failure; a fail-over node can be started almost instantly.

Corey Northcutt, Chief Communications Officer with Ubiquity Hosting Solutions noted, ''We're all pretty excited about this. It's clear that as technology has been advancing, the market has come to have higher and higher expectations of uptime and reliability. By going both modular and redundant at the hardware level, we now have a uniquely powerful tool in meeting that demand.''

Ubiquity has stated that the issue plans to roll-out the Intel Modular Server throughout Q2 and Q3 of 2008 until services in all five cities which Ubiquity operates in have been converted to the Multi-Flex system, and is currently placing all of its new customers in the system already live in Ubiquity's Chicago data center.

Ubiquity Hosting Solutions is a brand of Nobis Technology Group, LLC, a privately-held Linux web hosting organization which joins a variety of successful hosted service companies together, in a versatile environment. Ubiquity currently provides data center services in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York City.

To learn more about Ubiquity Hosting Solutions, please visit: www.ubiquityhosting.com.

Web Solutions Provider, Sonic Foundry, Names Executive Vice President


Madison, Wisconsin - (The Hosting News) - April 18, 2008 - Automated rich media communications technology firm, Sonic Foundry, Inc., has appointed a new Vice President of Sales, as it moves forward to expand initiatives in education and training markets.

The company known for rich media webcasting and knowledge management, named Robert M. Lipps as its Executive Vice President of Sales, having joined Sonic Foundry in 2006 as Vice President of International Sales and recently assumed expanded responsibility for U.S. central sales. He holds 15 years of sales leadership, business development and emerging market entry expertise in the technology and manufacturing sectors, including sales and channel management at Adaytum (now Cognos, an IBM company), Esker Software and Best Power (now Eaton Corporation). He will lead the company's global sales organization including oversight of domestic, international and channel sales.

Rimas P. Buinevicius, Chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry noted, ''We are very excited to expand Rob's role at this important stage in the company's evolution. I'm confident his experience and management strength in sales will further accelerate our business growth as we reinforce Sonic Foundry's leadership of the education and training marketplace.''

Coincident with the appointment of Mr. Lipps, Sonic Foundry announced that the company and Darrin T. Coulson, Chief Operating Officer, have mutually agreed to a separation of employment. Sonic Foundry has recently directed additional resources toward the higher education market, a sector that is now demonstrating the fastest adoption rate for its Mediasite platform. These actions continue to show progress that resulted in further customer acquisitions within colleges and universities during fiscal Q2.

Key wins and projects with several top-ranked business schools will be announced during the next fiscal earnings report. The company's activities are also aimed at expanding corporate training and event webcasting applications.

Founded in 1991, Sonic Foundry provides rich media communications and knowledge management, providing enterprise solutions and services that link an information-driven world. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, the company has received numerous awards including the 2007 Frost and Sullivan Global Market Leadership Award, Ziff Davis Media's Baseline Magazine's sixth fastest-growing software company with sales under $150 million and Deloitte's Technology Fast 500. Named a Bersin and Associates 2007 Learning Leader, Sonic Foundry's webcasting and knowledge management solutions are trusted by education institutions, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies for a variety of critical communication needs.

To learn more, please visit: www.sonicfoundry.com.

Dedicated, Reseller Web Hosting Firm, AYKsolutions, Expands Peer 1 Data Centers


Schenectady, New York - (The Hosting News) - April 17, 2008 - Shared, reseller and dedicated hosting solutions firm, AYKsolutions, has added three Peer 1 datacenter facilities in the United States, to increase dedicated server offerings and offer wider geographic diversity.

The new facilities, located in Los Angeles, Calif., San Antonio, Texas, and Ashburn, Va., provide access to Peer1's robust international network, with tier-1 carriers including MCI and AT and T. Dedicated server customers with latency-sensitive operations will be able to utilize the new locations to meet their connectivity needs and provide capacity for expansion.

Artyom Khmelnitsky, President of AYKsolutions noted, ''Peer1 provides our clients with the peering locations we need to ensure the fastest possible routes for data. With this, we can also avoid the expense of third-party networks, and subsequently pass the savings along to our clients. Our customers benefit from today's announcement in a variety of ways, including in the additional service choices and in the new technical opportunities these three facilities offer.''

AYKsolutions will continue to offer dedicated servers in three existing facilities, located in Atlanta, Ga., Chicago, Ill., and Jacksonville, Fla. Dedicated servers start at $59/monthly and are powered by either cPanel, DirectAdmin, or Plesk. Customers can select between Windows and Linux platforms at no additional cost. The company also offers live chat for sales and customer support.

A few months ago, AYK debuted the launch of a new version of its corporate web site, which represents the largest major website adjustment change in the company's four year history. The new design also allows the company to more quickly and easily introduce special offers and other promotions for customers. The company will use the added flexibility to implement a series of promotions planned for early 2008.

With the new design, AYKsolutions has made aesthetic changes to its brand, and has improved the usability and flexibility of the site. The company will also be able to more effectively market and sell products and services on the new site, through a series of backend and frontend design improvements.

AYKsolutions has also introduced a series of service enhancements along with the new site launch. Namely, the company has upgraded its business and customer support management software to Ubersmith, increasing efficiency and allowing customers to more easily manage their hosting account through a single portal.

Incorporated in 2004, AYKsolutions, LLC currently serves thousands of personal and business clients, located in the United States and abroad. AYKsolutions provides professional, efficient and quick technical support 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days a year.

To learn more about AYKsolutions, please visit: www.ayksolutions.com.

Earthlink's New Edge Networks, Unveils MPLS Service Classes Over DSL Networks


Vancouver, Washington - (The Hosting News) - April 17, 2008 - Eartthlink's New Edge Networks business communications unit, has reported that it has become the first telecommunications company to offer a new network service, designed to allow businesses to tag and prioritize data traffic over DSL access using up to five MPLS classes of service.

New Edge previously announced plans in January to offer up to five classes of service over DSL and on Monday launched its service following nearly three months of successful testing. According to the company, until now, data traffic tagging and prioritization with true classes of service were available only on more costly T1 lines with MPLS.

New Edge offers its new service directly and through selling partners nationally in most areas where DSL is available.

Greg Griffiths, Vice President of Marketing for New Edge Networks noted, ''This breakthrough service helps small and midsize businesses avoid network congestion problems due to the convergence of communications applications such as VoIP phone calls and other latency-sensitive services over DSL access. Network bottlenecks and data traffic congestion bog down application performance and business productivity.''

To stay competitive, small and midsize businesses are deploying a myriad of new applications to drive efficiency, improve customer service, and enhance profitability. But as applications and data traffic mount, a business is faced with the need to get more bandwidth or better throughput. Many businesses are deferring desirable applications because they cannot yet make a business case to step up to the next performance level, which is usually a T1 line with MPLS.

Mr. Griffiths continued, ''MPLS with class of service over DSL closes the large pricing gap between traditional business-class DSL and a full T1 line. It also allows businesses to add additional applications over their DSL-based network without the risk of compromising performance.''

New Edge is pricing its new service with a $100 premium over the cost of a fully managed DSL-based private network, which averages about $140 a month, per location. This price step-up includes bandwidth optimization with up to five classes of service over DSL access, improved service level guarantees, and a Cisco router upgrade.

In contrast, the monthly cost for a T1 line can start at about $500, depending on distance and geographic area. With some carriers, MPLS classes of service and T1 network management are added options. With MPLS class of service over DSL, businesses can hold down their monthly communications costs while optimizing use of high-speed, low-cost DSL access commonly used for wide area networks.

Mr. Griffiths added, ''MPLS over DSL also is an attractive cost-saving option for businesses that previously were forced to use T1 at all locations. Now businesses can mix and match access technologies based on the specific needs at each location without compromising the value of key MPLS benefits.''

New Edge instituted improved service level guarantees on its new service. These include an 18-hour mean time to repair (MTTR) for a DSL line with the class-of-service option. The industry benchmark MTTR for a regular DSL line is 24 hours. In contrast, the MTTR for a more costly T1 line is four hours. New Edge also is extending its service level guarantees for class of service on T1 MPLS lines to DSL.

New Edge is targeting businesses in various industries that have diverse location sizes where a blend of DSL and T1 technology is of value. These industries include banking, manufacturing, transportation, and retail, among others. Businesses in these industries typically use multiple applications over their networks and plan to add others.

New Edge Networks, based in Vancouver, Wash., is a wholly owned subsidiary of EarthLink Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK). New Edge Networks builds and manages private networks for businesses and communications providers. Through its nationwide backbone network with almost 900 switches and Internet routers, New Edge Networks uses any blend of network and access technologies (MPLS, frame relay, ATM, xDSL, cable, wireless, and satellite) for providing high-speed connections at any business address in the United States. Network options include any combination of access, network management functions, and on-site installation services. For more information visit www.newedgenetworks.com or call 1-360-693-9009.

To learn more about the service level guaranty, please visit: www.newedgenetworks.com/support/sla.xea.

For more information about New Edge Networks' MPLS networks with class of service over DSL, please visit: www.newedgenetworks.com/products/mpls.

For more information about New Edge Networks, please visit: www.newedgenetworks.com.

Data Center, Colocation Provider, T3, Integrates Intelligent Networks


Fort Myers, Florida - (The Hosting News) - April 17, 2008 - Data center and colocation services firm, T3 Communications, Inc., has integrated Intelligent Networks LLC into its services, as a division of its offerings and solutions infrastructure.

In addition to its voice, data, and colocation services, T3 now has the ability to offer structured cabling and professional deployment of wireless networking, WAN, LAN networking as well as video and professional services. Running the Intelligent Network's operation are the entrepreneurs Msrs. Richard Thomas and Dempsey Anderson. Both are experienced professionals with more than 4 years of successful deployments covering customers such as Fort Myers International airport, Town of Fort Myers Beach, USAF, ATT, Hilton Hotels, Best Buy, CVS, Circuit City, among many more.

Adam Sewall, President and CEO of T3 Communications, Inc. noted, ''This gives T3 a significant opportunity to deliver further value to our existing and prospective customers via a vital and necessary element in the telecommunications landscape; structured cabling and professional services. Richard and Dempsey are truly quality individuals that we can count on to meet and exceed the highest standards of customer service and professional delivery of these quality networks. As an adjunct to our core telecommunication and data services this truly expands our reach and capabilities.''

T3 Communications, Inc. is a full service facilities based telephone company headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida with sales and data center operations in Winter Haven, T3 offers businesses voice, data, collocation and disaster recovery services as well as a full compliment of telephony solutions including VoIP, PBX, telephone systems, managed services, structured cabling and IT support. T3 is the true local phone company serving Florida business.

To learn more, please visit: www.t3com.com.

Web Hosting On-Demand CRM Market Report, Released by Tier1 Research


New York, New York - (The Hosting News) - April 17, 2008 - A new report released by New York-based independent research firm, Tier1 Research (T1R), has analyzed the financial and industry implications of developments affecting public and private companies within the hosting, IT, communications and Internet sectors.

The On-Demand CRM Marketplace report provides analysis and perspective on key technology trends and developments in the SaaS market. The report found that since software as a service(SaaS) can be a cost-effective delivery method for software functionality, it is rapidly gaining acceptance.

Wesley Kennedy, Senior Analyst at T1R and author of the report explained, ''The global growth story for the on-demand CRM market is clearly an exciting one. And while the rising tide will lift all boats, it is evident that some boats will rise higher than others. Those companies that are levered to the fastest-growing sections of the market will clearly be the greatest beneficiaries.''

Nowhere has this adoption been more evident than in customer relationship management (CRM) - a front-end customerfacing platform consisting of sales automation, marketing automation and customer service. While the on-premise enterprise CRM market has reached relative maturity and is expected to experience annualized growth of 6.2% through 2010, the on-demand CRM market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 41.0% through 2010.

T1R analysts find that growth from European enterprises will be driven by the demand for point software applications as opposed to pplications that can be integrated or are already integrated with other applications. Meanwhile, unlike the U.S. and Europe, many larger enterprises in Asia have not yet adopted a CRM platform (onpremise or on-demand). The on-demand value proposition will be much more compelling for larger organizations in Asia. As a result, T1R analysts expect larger enterprises to lead the charge in terms of on-demand adoption, with
smaller companies following suit 12-18 months later.

Mr. Kennedy continued, ''The market has become so competitive and the established vendors have such a head start across all enterprise sizes and geographic locations that a new entrant to the on-demand CRM world would not be able to survive.''

The 37-page report, titled 'On-Demand CRM Marketplace,' analyzes where growth for the on-demand CRM market is coming from and which vendors are best positioned to capitalize on that growth. It also looks at the growth prospects for respective on-demand CRM vendors and examines whether the on-demand CRM opportunity for each vendor is appropriately valued.

T1R, a division of The 451 Group, is headquartered in New York. The company analyzes the financial and industry implications of developments affecting public and private companies within the IT, communications and Internet sectors - with a particular focus on hosting, Internet infrastructure and IT services. Clients include institutional investors and technology vendors, along with end users and venture capitalists. The clients leverage T1R's analytical insight for idea generation, trend identification, due diligence and grounded opinions, as well as metrics and forecasts on companies and industries covered.

To learn more about T1R, please visit: www.t1r.com.

Dedicated Server Provider, FastServers.net, Combined with Layered Technologies


Plano, Texas - (The Hosting News) - April 16, 2008 - The Chicago based managed hosting company, FastServers.net, will be acquired by on demand IT infrastructure provider, Layered Technologies. Financial transaction information of the deal was not released.

Jack Finlayson, Chief Executive Officer of Layered Technologies noted, ''Thousands of clients rely on the exceptional service offerings of FastServers.net, and the combination of the two companies will expand the range of offerings and provide additional scale for client growth. We look forward to bringing these two exceptionally talented teams together to service our customers and meet the demands of the high growth hosting industry.''

The acquisition will combine the expertise of FastServers.net in managed dedicated hosting with Layered Technologies' leading Grid and unmanaged offerings. The combination of Layered Technologies and FastServers will offer a new range of superior services significantly benefiting customers.

Ian Andrusyk, President and CEO of FastServers.Net remarked, ''With Layered Technologies and FastServers.net working together, business owners will view their managed service provider as a valued, long-term partner that helps manage IT infrastructure.''

Layered Technologies will begin immediate integration of the two companies' operations, product development, distribution and customer support organizations to ensure a smooth transition and immediate value for customers, employees and partners. Combined, the company will serve over 6,000 clients.

Layered Technologies enables customers to forego capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world's largest consultancy and integration firms.

FastServers.Net features managed dedicated servers combined with exclusive DEFCON Management Services. FastServers.Net provides full server monitoring and recovery, patches and upgrades, advanced technical support, and enhanced security features. By partnering with leading vendors such as Microsoft, Red Hat, cPanel, Plesk, HELM, InterNAP, Urchin, and others, FastServers.Net's goal is to deliver solutions for all organizations.

Based in Frisco Texas, Layered Technologies, Inc. is one of the five largest global providers of on-demand hosting and utility computing solutions, providing dedicated, partially managed server hosting solutions primarily for the small and medium-sized enterprise SME market. They provide customers with the highest quality technology, infrastructure and support services that enable them to operate servers at secure Tier III/IV data centers, while saving them the capital and operating costs typically associated with purchasing and maintaining their own servers at co-location facilities. Layered Technologies servers and associated network facilities are used by customers to host a variety of Internet-enabled applications, including content and e-commerce Web sites, software as a service (''SaaS'') offerings, online multiplayer games, shared Web site hosting services, and streaming multimedia content distribution and delivery, among other applications.

To learn more about FastServers, please visit: www.fastservers.net.

For more information about Layered Technologies, please visit: www.layeredtech.com.