These best practices apply no matter whether you keep your current account, upgrade your shared account, or move to a VPS or Dedicated Server. (Many of these were gleaned from readings on webhostingtalk.com and lowendbox.com.)
Pay Monthly
It can be very attractive to pay annually or even prepay several years in advance because hosting companies often provide deep discounts or “freebies” such as a free domain registration. This can be a mistake for a number of reasons:
You may be happy with your host now, but service or performance may deteriorate over time
The company may go bankrupt taking your prepaid money with it.
The company may be bought out, and you may not like the new management.
Make your own automated backups
Many web hosts make tout their automated back ups, but relying solely on them is not a good idea unless you like Russian Roulette. See points 2 and 3 above.
Use a host that allows shell access
Even if you use a shared account, you should still choose a host that allows shell access. This greatly facilitates making your own automated back ups.
Do not register your domain with your webhost…even if they offer free registration
It is slightly less convenient, but it tremendously adds to your mobility. If you leave web hosts, but your host registered your domain, it adds another barrier to leaving. If there is a dispute with your host, or if your host goes out of business, you still have access to your domain name, and since you made your own back ups it’s fairly easy to get back up and running without losing too much in time or content.
I’ll go over the steps in how to do this in the next installment.
Consider an alternative DNS host (nameservers)
Some web hosts, such as Lunar Pages, make it very difficult to customize your DNS records. Managing your own is slightly more complicated, but it is vastly more flexible.
I’ll go over how to do this in the next installment.
It’s pretty inexpensive and easy to set up a website these days. Companies like Hostgator and Dreamhost have you search for a domain name, fill out a couple forms, enter a credit card and congratulations. You now have a website. After a while, you may feel that your needs have outgrown your account, or that the service is not up to par or that your website is too slow. It’s obviously time for an upgrade, but from what to what?
From What?
Chances are you originally signed up for what is known as “Shared Hosting”. On a shared account, you share the server (computer hardware) with up to several thousand other users. If you get lucky, most of the websites are barely used at all, and your performance is decent. If you are unlucky, you may share the server with several other high traffic websites, which may impact the speed of your own site. Additionally, you share an e-mail server with several thousand other accounts, so if one account is flagged as a spammer, it may prevent you from sending any e-mail at all to some domains.
To What?
You essentially have three choices. You can upgrade to:
a bigger shared hosting account and hope you have better luck. Sometimes these will be called premier or business plans.
a Virtual Private Server (VPS).
a Dedicated Server.
Shared Hosting
If you don’t need the additional bandwidth or storage space of the premium shared host, then you are really just paying for a fancy name most of the time. You are not really paying increased performance. But what about “unlimited plans”? To quote the T-Mobile Commercial, they’re more like Um…Limited plans. They’re just hoping you’ll be lured by the word unlimited but not take them seriously. If you do take them at their word, you may find that you account is suspended.
If you do opt for a shared hosting plan, you should get a “metered” account that has an allotment of a specific amount of hard drive space and bandwidth. Companies with such plans are generally less likely to oversell their servers.
VPS
A VPS is similar to a shared account in that multiple accounts are on the same server (computer), but in this case, the server is divided into several virtual machines. You have complete control over your virtual machine, so that you may customize it however (mostly) you like. VPS’s can be used to host website, e-mail servers, ventrilo (online gaming chat) servers, and even Minecraft.
There are two basic types of VPS—mananged and unmanaged. Managed accounts are very similar to shared accounts in that the webhost company takes care of most of the chores of managing the server, but you pay for the privilege; usually $25 or more per month compared to a comparable unmanaged account. In an unmanaged VPS account, you are solely responsible for installing and maintaining your server. The webhost will install a barebones operating system, and you will get to do everything else. The benefit is more control and a deep discount.
In a VPS, whether managed or unmanaged, you will also get to choose your operating system, usually Windows or Linux. Typically Linux accounts are much cheaper than comparable Windows accounts.
Accounts are usually priced based on the amount of disk space you are allotted and the amount of memory you can use. VPS servers can be oversold, so it’s a good idea to test your new VPS quite heavily while you are still in the money back guarantee period. It’s also a good idea (no matter what kind of plan you have) to pay month by month rather than yearly.
There are several virtualization methods available, such as OpenVZ, KVM, Xen, and “Cloud”. OpenVZ often gets a bad rap as being “easy” to oversell, but in reality, any VPS can be oversold, so choosing a reputable company and testing your VPS is still the best way to go. In many cases, upgrading your shared account or going with a better company may be a better option than VPS.
Dedicated Server
Dedicated servers are similar to VPS in how they run (managed or unmanaged) but instead of sharing a computer with other users, you get the whole computer to yourself. Dedicated servers are generally much more expensive than VPS. Personally, I think that unless you are making enough money to justify the cost of a dedicated server, you are better off going VPS (or even shared).
Bottom line
Know why you want to move webhosts. You are more likely to choose a more suitable webhost.
Balance your needs with you budget. Do you have thousands of active members in a forum or are you running a blog that not even your mother reads? Do you have half a dozen websites that you maintain? Are you making money off your website? How vital is it that your website not go down?
How adventuresome are you in terms of learning new things? How much hand holding do you need?
Check your current website’s statistics and see how much disk space you are using and how much bandwidth you used each month in the last year.
Ask yourself if you could save disk space and bandwidth by moving video files to Youtube or Vimeo
This little concoction is the product of experimentation with Thai curry paste. It’s quite flavorful and with a light, fresh taste, and unusual vegetable composition.
Curry Sauce:
1 can coconut milk (approx 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 tsp curry paste (available from most Asian food stores; we have used yellow and panang paste with good results
1-2 tbsp fresh ginger (sliced or minced) or 1 tsp ginger powder
3/4 bunch of cilantro (stalks included)
1/4 tsp red or cayenne pepper
Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Taste and add salt if necessary.
Stir fry:
1 pound ground pork (we’ve tried chicken, turkey, and ground beef, but pork is the best tasting)
1 onion diced
1 sweet potato diced
2 celery stalks diced
2 carrots diced
1 cup broccoli florets cut small
1 bell pepper diced (we prefer red)
1 squash or zucchni diced
Should be about five cups of vegetables total when diced.
Heat saute pan over medium heat. Place small amount of coconut oil in pan and brown pork with a pinch or two of salt. Dump meat in a bowl, and add a little more oil. Place harder vegetables in the pan (carrots and sweet potato) and add pinch of salt. Saute until they just begin to soften. Dump in bowl with meat. Repeat the process with broccoli and squash. Then repeat again with celery, onion, and peppers.
Place pork and all vegetables back in the pan and pour curry sauce over the meat/vegetable mixture. Stir occasionally until warmed through. Serve over jasmine rice.
Permaculture is not a word. It’s a paragraph. Some of what I’m putting here is controversial. Permaculture, at its core, is a way of thinking about the world and solving problems in a systematic way that goes beyond sustainable. As Geoff Lawton says, “Don’t plant a tree; plant an ecosystem.” It’s best know applications are to agriculture. High level practitioners are able to achieve feats that are seemingly miraculous (see video for an example).
The word was coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Bill Mollison put together a course teaching the system, and anyone who has taken a PDC (Permaculture Design Course) does permaculture and can use officially use the word. Of course anyone can learn or use Permaculture.
Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of infighting in permaculture (mostly among posers). As an example, Mollison and Holmgren told Sepp Holzer that they thought that what he practiced was permaculture and wanted him to use the word, but other lesser practitioners insist that Holzer does not practice permaculture as he has not taken a PDC.
Another problem with permaculture is that it is infested with hippies. There’s nothing wrong with hippies per se, but a large proportion of them seem to do a lot of hating in the name of love. Another problem with some hippies is what I call toddler syndrome, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s your is mine.” Some of them will accuse successful permaculturists of not following the permaculture ethics because they make a profit and do not share it with the accuser.
Another problem is what Paul Wheaton calls purple breathers—the injection of New Age style religious elements into the Permaculture Design Course. There are people who simply insist that you can’t do permaculture without drums, chanting, and the earth Goddess. This particular problem seems mostly to be an American issue. Paul Wheaton maintains that this insistence (and the denigration of profits) prevents many farmers from adopting Permaculture. Geoff Lawton states that their are no supernatural elements to Permaculture and no Permaculture Design Course should incorporate them into the curriculum (although after hours is fair game)
These three issues have subsided somewhat as two of most prominent permaculture promoters in the U.S. are pro-profit and pro-results. Their influence has helped attract a large number of new people to the movement who do not share the hippie hang ups.
Personally, I see permaculture as a way that Christians can fulfill the first commandment in the Bible, to fill the earth and have dominion over it. Destroying the earth somehow doesn’t seem to be an appropriate part of that plan. Whatever you believe about carbon and Global Warming, there is no doubt that humans have destroyed a large number of resources, most spectacularly seen in the desertification of the Fertile Crescent and sub-Saharan Africa. I think that more Christians should be involved in Permaculture as a way to help the poor, improve their own lifestyles, and fulfill God’s commands.
With that introduction, here are some permaculture resources:
Books:
Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway. This book is a fabulous introduction to permaculture. Toby has a strong science background and it comes through in the text (without being boring). The focus of this book is on urban or suburban lots. If you are wanting to implement permaculture on a bigger scale, then you might want to read this second (after the book below). Otherwise this should probably be your first permaculture book. (see podcasts for an in-depth review).
Sepp Holzer is such a genius that he seems crazy to us normal folk. He owns a 90 acre farm in the Austrian alps where he has been able to pull of such feats as growing tropical citrus trees. He has a heavy focus on ponds, water, and hugelkultur (among other things). If you are wanting to implement permaculture in a larger area, this should probably be your best first read followed by Toby’s book (above).
Podcasts
My favorite way to learn about things. My two favorite for permaculture are Jack Spirko’s and Paul Wheaton’s. However, as they cover a lot of topics, not just permaculture, I have excerpted highlighted episodes below. (Warning: Paul has a tendency to ramble and get off topic and occasionally cusses).
Interview with Geoff Lawton 2 Tony Rinaudo of WorldVision gets a shout out for essentially reforesting Niger with nothing but a pocket knife. His work was brought to worldwide attention because the difference could be seen from satellite.
Pour 2 quarts of milk into a 3 quart container and add one packet of dry powdered milk (enough to make one quart).
Turn oven on for two minutes
Microwave milk until it is 120 degrees (about 6-8 minutes)
Cool milk until it is 110 degrees
Add 1 cup live culture yogurt and stir
Place container in oven
You’ll need to monitor the temperature of the mixture. You want to try and keep it between 100 and 115 degrees. (Turning the oven on for two minutes every two hours does the trick for me. Helps if you have a probe thermometer.)
Remove when done 4 -8 hours. The longer you leave it the gellier it will be but the tarter it will be.
Step 2: Make Yogurt Cheese
Pour Yogurt into a colander lined with cheese cloth. Place a weight plate and small weight on top (can of soup works).
Place colander over large bowl and refrigerate over night.
In the morning, the bowl will have whey which you can use for protein shakes
The colander will contain the yogurt cheese (add some chives and garlic powder, and you have an awesome dip.
But we’re going to use ours to make frozen yogurt.
Step 3: Make Frozen Yogurt
Empty yogurt cheese into a large bowl and add
4 Cups Yogurt Cheese
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup agave nectar (or Light Corn Syrup)
1/2 cup passion fruit juice (about 10 fruits worth)
Everyone loves chili. Here’s my original take on the stuff. I now make my own chili powder according to Alton Brown’s Homemade Chili Powder recipe. This chili is mean mean not because it’s hot, but because it’s so good you can never go back. The recipe is very flexible and can give you anything from a non spicy stew all the way to inferno hot.
Ingredients:
1 – 1.5 lb ground beef (to make veggie chili, just leave this ingredient out)
0 – 4 cans beans to taste (I like to use 2 cans of kidney and 2 cans of black beans)
4 – 8 garlic cloves thinly sliced or minced
2 medium to large onions
10 Roma tomatoes (seeded and diced)
6-8 Tomatillos
6 – 10 Bell peppers (use any combination of colors you feel like)
Spices: chili powder, cloves, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon
Directions:
Dice all veggies. Seed the bell peppers. (Seed hot peppers and remove membrane if you don’t want it too spicy.)
In a large pot or dutch oven, sweat the garlic in small amount of oil
Add meat and brown meat with salt, black pepper and 1 tbsp chili powder; drain (or not)
Add all veggies and beans to pot and mix thoroughly.
Begin to heat the mixture on a medium-low setting. (You don’t need to add any liquid, as the veggies will release their water providing the liquid, but don’t turn up the heat too quickly or it will scorch.)
Add spices to taste. Here’s my suggestions:
2 – 3 tablespoons of Chili powder
1/4 – 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tablespoon cummin
1/2 – 1 teaspoon black pepper
dash of cinammon
When chili begins to bubble, turn down the heat; cover, simmer for 1 – 2 hours. Taste. I like it like this, but some people think it’s too concentrated and prefers add some water to thin it back out.
Congratulations. You have just made Mean Mean Pat Chili. Serve with cheese and your choice of bread, corn bread, crackers.
Notes: You can also use additional peppers. One of my favorites is to add in an habanero pepper.
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