jonlee.ca

Virtual Private Servers (VPS for short) are a relatively new type of offering from some web hosts.  Traditionally, web hosts offer a choice between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.  Shared hosting is cheap but performance leaves much to be desired, especially for sites that expect to have any decent amount of traffic or to perform database intensive queries.  Dedicated hosting on the other hand, although expensive, allows you to run your website off of your own machine on a rack, giving you dedicated resources for your website, hence the name.

VPS lies somewhere in between the two options.  Disk space and RAM are dedicated to you, but CPU cycles are shared.  Often times, web hosts will tell you that you have a certain amount of disk space available but in reality, a single disk might be shared amongst several users and the web host assumes that not everyone will be using all of their allocated space.  This is known as overselling. The same applies for memory/RAM.

Advantages of VPS

• Burst memory: although your site has dedicated RAM, when a huge traffic spike hits (for example, if you get front paged on digg or reddit), RAM usage may go beyond what is allocated to you.  In this case, reserve memory is automatically borrowed from the cloud until the traffic subsides.  Occassional burst memory on VPS is supported by some web hosts such as inmotion hosting.
• Scalability: VPS packages come in many forms, from basic plans with little disk space and reserved RAM to full out e-commerce plans with a lot of disk space, unlimited databases and lots of RAM.  Start-ups can easily start with the most basic plan and scale up to the more expensive plans as user base grows.  The great thing about VPS is that everything is virtual, so upgrading from one plan to another is instant and just takes a click of a button — no physical hardware upgrades required!
• Server customization: The VPS runs on a virtual machine with it’s own installation of an operating system and webserver. This means you can customize the server however you would want, just as if you had your own dedicated server.

Given these advantages, I don’t see any reason to stick with shared hosting if you are a web developer. The price difference between shared hosting and the lowest VPS package is small and the customizability is unparalleled.

Eventually you may outgrow what Virtual Private Servers or even a single dedicated server can offer but I think we can all agree that this is a problem we’d all like to have!

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you’re anything like me, you love to get your hands on new gadgets even though the old one works perfectly fine.  Take a very relevant example: the iPhone 4.  I have a perfectly functional iPhone 2G, but the iPhone 4 looks so gorgeous (reception issue aside), that I’m definitely going to pick one up once it comes to Canada.

But what do I do with the 2G? For a phone that is no longer really in demand, it may not be easy to sell on eBay or craigslist — at least not for a price that can justify going through the trouble of dealing with buyers or even scammers.

What is Tech Twurl?
Tech Twurl offers a service for those that have gadgets at home they want to get rid of to sell electronics.  The concept is simple, you send them your old gadget, and they’ll send you cash as payment.  Although prices are generally a bit lower than the best price you could get trying to sell the item yourself, the convenience is unparalleled.

The Prices
Obviously, the newer and more in-demand your electronic is, the higher price Tech Twurl will offer.  The price also depends on the quality of the product and the accessories (including things like original packaging).  Take for example if you bought the latest 32gb iPhone 4 but you are annoyed by the reception issues and have lost your receipt so you can’t return it to an Apple store.  Tech Twurl will offer you $585 for it (at the time of this posting).  That’s about double the subsidized price you would’ve paid for it.

For an older phone that I’ve used like the Samsung SGH-U900, Tech Twurl’s offer is $68, just a few dollars under the current market value on auction sites.  Again, that difference more than pays for the convenience.

How to sell your electronics
The steps to selling your electronics on TechTwurl is easy.  First, look up the electronic in question (as well as answer a few questions about the physical and working condition) and they’ll give you a price.  No bargaining required.

Next, if you agree to the price, Tech Twurl will send you the necessary shipping equipment, entirely prepaid.  Print out the shipping information, package it up in the provided box and drop it in the mail.  Immediately once they receive your package, you’ll see the payment in your Paypal or a check in the mail. Easy as pie.

Types of Electronics
Currently, Tech Twurl takes the following categories:

• Cellphones
• Cameras
• MP3 Players
• PDAs
• GPS
• Camcorders
• and even calculators.

If you don’t find your item on their site, don’t worry, they’re constantly adding more listings.

And coming soon… Textbooks! For all those University books you kept as reference but end up just sitting on your shelf collecting dust.

Conclusion
Definitely check it out, it doesn’t cost anything or even a sign-up to look up your old electronics. There’s really no easy way of getting rid of your old stuff for cash!

Popularity: 1% [?]

On multiple occasions, I’ve stressed the importance of backing up your files and documents. I’ve also reviewed Mozy as an online backup solution. However, there’s a new competitor in town called Dmailer backup and it gives Mozy a good run for its money. Well, it’s not exactly new as the company has been around since 2001 but I’ve just recently found out about it.

What is Dmailer Backup?
Dmailer Backup is a piece of software that lets users automate the backup process, providing continuous incremental backups for specified files. Incremental backups means that you can ‘go back in time’ to previous versions of a file, not just the latest one. This is especially useful for anyone that does any sort of programming as debugging is made tons easier by comparing old versions of files to current ones. Now Dmailer Backup itself is used to manage backups, but you still need to provide a destination to backup to — for example, an external hard drive or usb key.

A handy feature is to select only specific types of files to backup.  For example, for most people, the important files that require backing up are .doc and .txt files.  For a web developer, one could simply add .php, .html, .css to the mix.  This avoids wasting valuable backup space on those large HD movies (unless you wanted to of course).

Also, Dmailer Backup is a single executable file that does not require installation and works perfectly with U3 usb devices, perfect for that portable web development usb key.

What is Dmailer Online?
Dmailer Online is essentially an online storage space that can be utilized by Dmailer Backup.  Upon sign-up, you are provided with 2GB of online storage. Rest assured, the storage is both password protected and encrypted with one of the strongest encryption algorithms available, 448-bit Blowfish. Like some other backup services, the first 2GB is free.  In fact, Dmailer were the first ones to offer 2GB for free, setting the benchmark for backup services everywhere.  Although this is enough for most people, those that have a lot of multimedia to back up may prefer to pay $35 per year for 30GB or $70 per year for unlimited storage. That works out to less than $3 and $6 per month respectively!

The great feature about Dmailer Online is that the files can be accessed simply from a web browser, so you can access your backups from any computer without having to install any software first.  The web user interface for file access is a search engine that’s intuitive, fast, and easy to use.

Mac Compatibility
There aren’t many online backup solutions out there that support platforms other than Windows. Cross-platform support is greatly appreciated by myself and other Mac users. There’s no Linux support yet, but I’ve been told this is a feature in the works, so Linux users can feel included soon.

Mozy vs Dmailer
There are a few similarities between Mozy and Dmailer. Both offer 2GB of online backup storage for free, both are automated and encrypted, and both run on Mac. Unlike Mozy, Dmailer are the pioneers of “‘dual backup”, which can provide you with an offline backup solution in addition to an online one, all from a single interface. Online backups are safe from things like break-ins and local disasters, but offline backups are easier to access and quicker. If you accidentally deleted a large file that you want to recover, it may take a while to download the backup from an online server, so it is always handy to have an offline backup as well.  So I think Dmailer provides a good integration of both types for maximum ease of mind.

Popularity: 1% [?]

BitTorrent is a great protocol that allows for distributed (legal) file sharing.  Since its inception in 2001, it has grown substantially and currently accounts for more than half of all internet traffic by some accounts.  Part of this enormous traffic growth can be attributed to the recent popularization of HD content.  Unfortunately, Internet speeds have not grown along with the demand for larger and higher quality media files.  Furthermore, many Internet Service Providers have been instilling bandwidth limitations in order to remain profitable (or to become more profitable).

In a country and age where bandwidth is at a premium, it is very important none of it goes to waste.  You don’t want to have to download gigabytes of data only to find out later it was the wrong file, a fake file, or worse: an infected file.

All this preamble was simply to introduce the best BitTorrent search engine I’ve used thus far, VerTor.  What sets VerTor apart from other engines and trackers is that it verifies the content of every torrent file (hence the name).

How does it verify torrent files you ask? Here are some of the ways:

• Lists all individual files contained within a torrent file
• Scans all contained files for viruses (using Clam Win)
• Captures and displays a preview of actual screenshots of video
• Splits a sample of audio files for preview
• Checks to make sure files are not password protected
• Checks for DRM protection on files

Can’t find a torrent you want on their site? You can download the torrent file on another site and upload it to VerTor for verification without taking the plunge yourself.

The site is also very friendly for users new to the whole concept of BitTorrent.  Torrent files can even be opened using the web-based BitLet software so you don’t have to install or configure a client on your own computer.  One disadvantage is that it takes a while for VerTor to verify torrents so it takes a little while for new content to be verified and listed on the site.  A small price to pay for peace of mind in my opinion.

All in all, VerTor is a great site and an excellent example of the type of services the web is capable of these days.

Just remember, make sure what you’re downloading is legal and not copyrighted!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Ever wonder what you would do if you encountered a bear? Or if your parachute wouldn’t open in mid jump? Whether you prefer to stay in the comfort of home or like to take adventures, I’m sure some of these questions have crossed your mind.

Now’s your chance to put your “traveller IQ” to the test! Tripbase has a fun travel intelligence quiz that will test your “travel-savvyness” based on how you would react in various extreme scenarios.

75% of the world!

Quiz by Tripbase

I did the quiz myself but only got 75%, it’s not as easy as it looks! I found that what seems to be the most logical answer were in fact incorrect.  I went out of my way to look up some of the answers on Google and was quite surprised by what I found.  So go ahead, do the quiz. It might even save your life in the future.

If you’re the traveling type, Tripbase.com itself is a neat site to check out.  They offer suggestions on places to travel based on things that you like to do and present everything you’ll need to know to plan the trip including hotel costs, flight costs and required spending money!  It’s even been described as the Match.com of travel planning!

Popularity: 2% [?]