The obervent amongst you would have noticed that the blog has been offline for the past few days - basically we were subject to a hack effort which resulted in the blog being taken offline by the Datacentre (and they never bothered to notify me neither!).

So basically the hacker proceeded to upload malicious files onto the server, mainly phishing related - I noticed this a few days prior to being taken offline on one of my other websites hosted on the server and brought it to the notification of the server administrators - I thought they might beef up security, ban some IP’s, or do something. No, that costs money, and all the administrator is interest in is profit - letting his clients go way down the list of his priorities isn’t going to get him far! Remember what the doormouse said - feed your head (whatever that means).

I’ve been too busy lately to be dealing with the middle men who haven’t a clue what’s going on - the server admin hires anyone any 12 year old with access to a computer and basic English as a Support Rep! I’ve sent around 15 emails to various support reps, the datacentre, as well as the server administrator - none of the above have responded! That’s charming isn’t it? I pay THEM to host my websites and for the apparent 24/7 live support and 99.5% guaranteed uptime. Hmm there are countless times when my websites have been offline and the ‘live support’ is set to BUSY.

I think I will be hosting on Irish soil from now on - afterall support is only a phonecall away, and you’re talking to someone who knows what they’re on about. It’s a little more expensive but I think from here on in it’s worth the investment. I’m presently on an emergency hosting account which I have on Hosting365 until I get around to sorting out some permanent hosting - will get onto a few sites to see what deals there are

Until then please bear with me whilst I get the backup online. I’m having difficulty uploading the database at the moment as my internet is patchy to say the least and has been for the past two days - will be moving to Digiweb soon *hopefully*. IBB is doing my head in, every so often it gets stroppy and refuses to connect or will suddenly crash. And the Vodafone Mobile B/B isn’t much better neither - so Digiweb seems like a good alternative (a neighbour moved to them recently and is happy with them).

To top it all my car has cost me a fortune on parts - have’nt time to fit them neither. Have to send the cylinder head off to a specialist to get it refaced and ported before refitting with a new head gasket, and manifold. Fitting an alarm system I got off eBay has been a nightmare as it’s not earthing properly meaning it won’t arm! And a few bits and pieces I bought off eBay (mainly tools) have yet to arrive despite being ordered from the UK 14 days ago - and my paying for premium postage!

Roll on August 19th - off to Spain for a week of relaxation…

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I’m looking for a host for a few turnover development websites, probably hosting for around 10-15 websites, mostly blogs.

I’m looking for hosting with the following specs:

• cPanel (reseller account with WHM preferred)
• Around 4GB space, and a suggestible amount of Bandwidth
• Decent Uptime, and Server Specs
• A Reasonable Monthly fee, I have few intentions of paying annually anymore as I’ve been burnt too many times with those ‘Fly by Night‘ hosts who take your annual fee and run after a month!
• Unlimited Databases and Email Aliases/Forwarding
• If Shared Hosting, Unlimited Addon Domains or atlease 15 addon domains
• Support not essential - I’ve enough experience with cPanel and WHM to be able to sort myself out unless it’s a server or backend problem

Can you suggest any hosts? I’m looking for personal experiences with such hosts, but bear in mind these websites will be turned over at a fast rate so I don’t want to be paying the earth for the monthly fees. Just simple shared (although reseller preferred) hosting with cPanel a must!

Any suggestions welcome :thumbsup:

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I’d just like to point out, that this post is my personal opinion and experience and doesn’t reflect whatsoever on FireStats - just a disclaimer so the nice people at FireStats don’t go taking my house for my bad mouthing of them

Anyway, I’ve taken the decision to uninstall FireStats from my blogs, I’ve taken this decision after encountering numerous problems with the plugin, mainly with the load it puts on my database and subsequently my website.

Other errors included fatal errors resulting in having to reinstall the plugin - my idea of a stats plugin is it records information over a long period and emits graphs etc… However, it isn’t that effective when you’ve to often reinstall the bloody thing!

It also doesn’t record some visits, I’ve checked this out by logging on to the blog on a friends computer and upon returning home it hadn’t logged the visit - where it logs most actions from my IP and certainly others, it often fails to record some.

I’ve decided to resort back to the ol’ reliable Google Analytics - I’ve found over the time period it has performed well, as I’ve kept it active as I have with FireStats.

Don’t go flaming me saying I should have installed the latest version etc…, well infact I have tried the latest version as well as the BETA version and found them both to have the same problems. Don’t get me wrong, FireStats is a great concept, just needs to fix those bugs, and until then I’ll be sticking with Google Analytics!

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Yes with some luck, I’ll be ditching those wretched L-plates with my pending application for my driving test. I’ve been told the waiting list has been reduced to less than 6 weeks with contractors been brought in to reduce the application congestion - I’m hoping to get either Clonshaugh or Swords as my test centre (both ran by SGS), but I didn’t have the option on the booking form.

My sudden motivation to apply for the test came recently with an announced ‘blitz’ held by the Gardaí - nationwide. They’re pulling cars at random and checking for everything, especially unaccompanied Learner Drivers, following the new legislation in Ireland in the past month which prohibits any Provisional License holder to drive unaccompanied. So those of you reading who have driven unaccompanied and continue to do so I’d recommend you find some fully licensed driver to sit beside you - as I believe the penalties include a heafty fine and the impounding of the car! You have been warned!

And on a final note, congrats to Mr. Roche (dont’ know if he reads this or not) for passing his Bus Driving Test yesterday. You’re not a bread van driver anymore! :thumbsup:

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Whilst downloading the latest instalment from the Mozilla family in the form of Firefox 3.0 (yes I’m only downloading it now!) I came across Firefox As Gaeilge which I thought was pretty cool - I don’t know why, but Irish is never on a list of preferred languages for software installations.

I honestly can’t think of anyone who could use this version of Firefox though - a lot of friends and family can speak some Irish…but none would want to surf the net As Gaeilge… :drunk:

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Everyone that knows me, knows how forgetful I am - it has been said that I have the memory span of a goldfish. You’re guaranteed that if you say something to me, and I don’t make note of it, I’ll forget it - most of the time non-intentionally!

Anyway, I’ve noticed that I had forgotten about 10 or so domains which I had in my possession, which I had intention of developing of using for parking or resale etc… But as the above mentions, I forgot about them until they all came up for renewal when I got an email from my registrar about their imminent expiration.

So now I’ve got a catch-22 situation - do I pick the few I like/think are worth money to renew, or do I let them expire as the chances of me remembering them again are slim? It is a dilemma, as many of them have good keywords and phrases and could potentially help to raise funds when needed.

I think it’s time to devise a list, and maybe try to find some type of online itinerary service to help me keep track of stuff, and I suppose to aid in planning ahead and to help achieve online targets. :dumb:

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I did an online IQ test this evening and it came back with 139, bearing in mind that genius is 170, I’m proud of myself if I do say so myself - and I didn’t cheat! Of course it’s not accurate, just a bit of fun - like that Brain Train I suppose…now where did I leave it :help:

Give it a go yourself - www.free-iqtest.net

On another note, I’m apparently smarter than 72.6% of you f00ls! www.am-i-dumb.com

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Well we made it back from Cork in one piece, although only barely. I tried to keep you updated via my Twitter feed (on far right sidebar), but I’ll give you the whole story about what happened.

As I said we were delivering a little red bus, which I used to own - but decided to give it away due to the amount of problems that arose with it - such as brakes not pulling on n/s/r wheel (left back wheel!), and some ‘minor’ electrical faults.

We left our yard in Wicklow at around 7pm, to head for the N8. All was going smooth, we adjusted the brakes before we left so we could stop without being slammed into oncoming traffic. We also filled the bus to the neck with parts for down in Cork - a complete set of seats, glass and some tyres (surplus to our requirements).

All was going well, until just as we entered the N11, we noticed the batteries came loose from their cradle. A quick fix, just had to put the retaining bar back into place and lock it down. Then came the issues, about 5 miles up the road, we had a small electrical fire in the form of the stereo exploding and catching fire. Reminds me of an episode of ‘Only Fools and Horses’…

Ironically, the bus in the video is similar to the one we drove to Cork, except ours didn’t explode - we believe the fault was caused by a faulty radio.

On the way, we needed fuel, so stopped off at the Esso just at Kill, Kildare. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the guy working behind the counter. He was from India, but had a fascination about Irish buses and was full of questions about it, and even went to the trouble of taking down the registration number!

Everything was fine until when we passed Urlingford, when the brake warning light lit up the dash. We pulled over, and found nothing out of the ordinary, we had ‘brakes’, although the word ‘brakes’ is optimistic. We knew that it was just a short in the dash.

We arrived in Cork at around 12:30 that night, and found we had no handbrake, and barely any foot brake. So we had to block it up, and park it on level ground. It was then time for a drink and then to bed! As we were up at 8:00 the next morning with intentions of buying a coach down there - sale didn’t go ahead as the owner stripped the bus bare and still wanted money for it!

The day went grand, until when we went to go home. Another bus we bought developed an injector fault and wasn’t idling right, but as we were rushing to get back to Dublin for the next morning we loaded up a Fore Scorpio that was down there - that apparently ran 100%. Well that assumption was incorrect, as before we even got on the road it began to backfire and immediately we knew the electronics were shot.

We eventually got back at 2:30 am on Wednesday morning - absolutely knackered! I had the fortunate task of finding two of my sites down upon my return, and also found the server in which this blog is hosted was having load issues.

Maybe I shouldn’t go away as often as I do…

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It is with great relief that I can say that I’m a free man for three months! I finished up for the last time on Thursday with Business - both History & Business exams went very well in my opinion, came out of both of them after an hour and a bit really happy with what I submitted.

Of course, here I am whining about a few summer assessment exams, while there are Leaving Cert students nationwide who are pulling their hair out and cramming those last bits in! I have a few friends who are doing the Leaving Cert this year, although they are grand on the facade, they are pretty stressed and worried. I’ve only done my Junior Cert a few years ago, and found you calm down after the first exam - although it could be a different story with the Leaving Cert, as unlike the Junior Cert you’ve to study for it!

As soon as I was finished, I was ushered into work by ‘the boss‘. He had bought two new coaches and had no one to help move them, although I haven’t a license for a bus, I have got one for a car. So my job was to drop him to the dealer to pick up the first bus, and follow him to our depot, then do the same for the second one. I felt very honoured, as not everyone is allowed to drive Steve’s classic S-Class Merc!

I’m presently waiting for a few call backs on job applications, I’ve put a few fingers in some pies, as I want to make some money this summer. I now own more vehicles then I did last summer, so that means more expense. I also have the burden of Car Insurance, increases in Petrol prices (although I’m considering getting a Diesel) and I’ve to pay more for my hosting as I’m presently moving all my websites onto a new hosting account - a master reseller account.

Also, you may note I’m somewhat getting into this Twitter thing. I’m presently experimenting on some services and plugins for Twitter, such as Twitterfone and Twitterfox. There are more, but I’ve either dumped them or haven’t yet tried them, I have intentions on doing a review on them shortly.

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In the past I had a Twitter account, but I never seen the usefulness of it and thought that it was one of those fly-by-night setups, like most of the blog addons these days! Although, with myself planning to be away alot during the coming summer I would like to keep you updated on what I’m doing and when.

So the thought arose of Twitter as a quick update system, with mobile blogging in the process - although I wouldn’t really fancy seeing my phone bill afterwards… Email blogging perhaps? This may be the only solution, as I don’t want to log into my ACP on a strange computer - I’ve had a forum hacked from some dodgy fecker getting into the ACP from a strange computer which I was using.

Anyways, feel free to join me on Twitter - add me, respond, do whatever. I’m new to it, so I haven’t picked up anything more than posting using a Firefox plugin and from SMS message on my phone… :ponder:

On a final note, I’m nearly finished my exams. All has gone fairly well until today, had Irish and Accounting on Tuesday - both fairly easy exams, although the higher level Trading, Profit and Loss account tripped me up a bit. Irish went okay, I have some Irish anyway so it made it that bit easier. And then the dreaded higher level French - Did ‘okay’ in the verbs (all tenses), crap in Diary Entry, not great in Letter, and ‘okay’ on two Reading comprehensions.

But I’m putting all that behind me for History and Business tomorrow - my final two exams, and probably my two best subjects. All that’s on the History is two essays out of seven choices and Business is mainly communication and trade disputes/laws :thumbsup:

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