It is rather sad, but not uncommon these days, that various forums on the 'net allow anyone to register and use a pseudonym to say things that they would never say in public or if they had to reveal their true identity.
Sometimes these thoughtless dolts link to my website, and say...
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
New Way of Showing Cop Galleries
I think it is working -- Check it out to see the galleries from the recent Police Motorcycle Competition that I attended last weekend.
If you will, send me a message to tell me how it works for you.
I have had a recently retired cop friend check it out for me. He has nothing to do but ride his Harley and give me grief (using his witty charm) by sending ransom demands. He and another local cop who I have known since grade school both said that the new gallery seems to work for them. Yea! It will take time to integrate it throughout my website, but I've done a quick-n-dirty redirect to make it "go live" already.
Life is short: use new products that can help make life easier (especially if they're free! Thanks, Coppermine!)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Website Host Changed Yet Again!
In an uncharacteristic departure from my usual happy, peppy self, this is a "rant warning." Here goes....
My "bootedman" website went down when there was a server issue at Hurricane Electric on September 4. They were unable to resolve it quickly enough for my preferences -- eventually, it took them 60 hours to fix it.
Because I had encountered numerous times of service outages (but none as long as the last one), I decided to migrate my website to a different web host, "DWHS Hosting". It took about eight hours to migrate my site on September 4 - 5, and it got up and running nicely and seems to run quickly. So far, so good.
However, I learned on September 5 (which was a U.S. national holiday) when I had a technical problem that their customer service is unacceptably slow. You cannot call them on the phone -- you only get a recording saying how important your call is, and promises that someone will call back. They never did.
Then on September 11, I encountered another serious problem, and submitted several "support tickets" to explain what was going on -- only to get a reply via email many hours later with no solution and blameshifting the problem to my ISP.
On September 12, I submitted more updates about the problem, and I finally got a response asking if I had Skype. Sheesh... I don't want to Skype with anyone -- I just want the problem fixed. Arrrggghhh! Okay, don't use DWHS web hosting. Their service works fine when it works, and as long as you do not need technical assistance. If you do, forget about it. They have poor customer service. While DWHS is U.S.-based, I think their "customer service" is only one person. I have had to migrate my site again to another web host.... uggghhh. I hate this. What a mess.
I would go back to Hurricane Electric in a heartbeat if they could give me a better promise of up-time. But they are honest, and cannot make such promises.
Before finding another web host, I called the potential new company's support line to test it, as well sent them an email. In both instances, I received a prompt and courteous reply by a U.S.-based, English-speaking human being. How refreshing!
By the way, if you sent me an email or tried to use my "write to me" page on my website yesterday, the email may not have been received or the mail form may not have worked. Please try again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Life is short: keep going until you get it right and get some form of response in a timely manner.
My "bootedman" website went down when there was a server issue at Hurricane Electric on September 4. They were unable to resolve it quickly enough for my preferences -- eventually, it took them 60 hours to fix it.
Because I had encountered numerous times of service outages (but none as long as the last one), I decided to migrate my website to a different web host, "DWHS Hosting". It took about eight hours to migrate my site on September 4 - 5, and it got up and running nicely and seems to run quickly. So far, so good.
However, I learned on September 5 (which was a U.S. national holiday) when I had a technical problem that their customer service is unacceptably slow. You cannot call them on the phone -- you only get a recording saying how important your call is, and promises that someone will call back. They never did.
Then on September 11, I encountered another serious problem, and submitted several "support tickets" to explain what was going on -- only to get a reply via email many hours later with no solution and blameshifting the problem to my ISP.
On September 12, I submitted more updates about the problem, and I finally got a response asking if I had Skype. Sheesh... I don't want to Skype with anyone -- I just want the problem fixed. Arrrggghhh! Okay, don't use DWHS web hosting. Their service works fine when it works, and as long as you do not need technical assistance. If you do, forget about it. They have poor customer service. While DWHS is U.S.-based, I think their "customer service" is only one person. I have had to migrate my site again to another web host.... uggghhh. I hate this. What a mess.
I would go back to Hurricane Electric in a heartbeat if they could give me a better promise of up-time. But they are honest, and cannot make such promises.
Before finding another web host, I called the potential new company's support line to test it, as well sent them an email. In both instances, I received a prompt and courteous reply by a U.S.-based, English-speaking human being. How refreshing!
By the way, if you sent me an email or tried to use my "write to me" page on my website yesterday, the email may not have been received or the mail form may not have worked. Please try again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Life is short: keep going until you get it right and get some form of response in a timely manner.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Web Hosting Challenge Resolved
With regret, I had to abandon Hurricane Electric to serve as the host for my bootedman.com website and migrate it to another web host. I say that I regret having to take this action because I have been very loyal to Hurricane Electric and they've been very good -- until now.
Originally, I started to create this website using so-called "free" hosting by my ISP. But I learned quickly that the ISP was very slow and cumbersome to use. After about four months of struggling with the ISP's hosting, I talked about it with Larry and his husband Bill of hotboots.com. Bill is a real whiz when it comes to this stuff, and gave me some good advice. Both Larry and Bill recommended Hurricane Electric to host a site. Hotboots.com is hosted there and Larry has had nothing but praise for their reliability of service. So I purchased web hosting from them in April, 1996, and "bootedman.com" was born.
Man, a lot has changed with that site over five and a half years. I also have learned a lot more in my self-taught manner on how to write web pages including HTML, PHP, and javascripts. What took me an hour to do in 2006 takes just a few minutes today -- and that's good because I do not nearly have as much time to tinker with it as I once did.
As of the time I am writing this post, the server at Hurricane Electric that hosted bootedman.com just came back on-line after a 60-hour-plus outage. Such a shame. By their own admission, they have never had such an extended period of having a server be off-line.
H.E. has about the best Customer Support in the business -- always available by phone and responsive to email. Even throughout our Labor Day weekend, they still had someone who would take a call, even if he could not help me much and did not have any answers as to the nature of the problem with their server.
Fortunately, I kept a complete off-line backup of the website, so I was able to upload it to another host. That took eight hours--it's a huge site with 500 individual pages that all are internally linked, over 360 pages on the "Boots Wiki" knowledgebase, and over 8,300 images.
Now I am doing a lot of background checks, correction of missing links and pics, and other details. The site is working again, as is my email on that domain. I regret having to make this migration and make it permanent, but I was left with no choice.
Life is short: don't let loyalty get in the way when it comes to making business decisions.
Originally, I started to create this website using so-called "free" hosting by my ISP. But I learned quickly that the ISP was very slow and cumbersome to use. After about four months of struggling with the ISP's hosting, I talked about it with Larry and his husband Bill of hotboots.com. Bill is a real whiz when it comes to this stuff, and gave me some good advice. Both Larry and Bill recommended Hurricane Electric to host a site. Hotboots.com is hosted there and Larry has had nothing but praise for their reliability of service. So I purchased web hosting from them in April, 1996, and "bootedman.com" was born.
Man, a lot has changed with that site over five and a half years. I also have learned a lot more in my self-taught manner on how to write web pages including HTML, PHP, and javascripts. What took me an hour to do in 2006 takes just a few minutes today -- and that's good because I do not nearly have as much time to tinker with it as I once did.
As of the time I am writing this post, the server at Hurricane Electric that hosted bootedman.com just came back on-line after a 60-hour-plus outage. Such a shame. By their own admission, they have never had such an extended period of having a server be off-line.
H.E. has about the best Customer Support in the business -- always available by phone and responsive to email. Even throughout our Labor Day weekend, they still had someone who would take a call, even if he could not help me much and did not have any answers as to the nature of the problem with their server.
Fortunately, I kept a complete off-line backup of the website, so I was able to upload it to another host. That took eight hours--it's a huge site with 500 individual pages that all are internally linked, over 360 pages on the "Boots Wiki" knowledgebase, and over 8,300 images.
Now I am doing a lot of background checks, correction of missing links and pics, and other details. The site is working again, as is my email on that domain. I regret having to make this migration and make it permanent, but I was left with no choice.
Life is short: don't let loyalty get in the way when it comes to making business decisions.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Significant Server Outage
I am dismayed and extend apologies to visitors of my "bootedman.com" website because it has endured significant outages due to problems of some sort at the host, Hurricane Electric. My site was not available for over eight hours on the night of August 30 through the morning of August 31, then again on September 4 it became unavailable at 5am (my time) and is STILL DOWN on Monday! Worst friggin' outage I have observed, ever.
It seems like Hurricane Electric has had minor outages happen every now and then, but nothing this long. Short outages of a couple hours have happened to me before and I have grumbled about it to the extend that they migrated me to another server.
I know I am sharing a server with other accounts, but this duration of unavailability of my website is truly a sad reflection on Hurricane Electric's claims of reliability and up-time. I cannot afford nor want to pay for a dedicated server -- heck, this is just a hobby site, after all. I am just disappointed and know that it is frustrating for visitors to get a "not found" or "timeout" error when they try to visit my website.
Again, I'm sorry this happened. It is beyond my control. Hopefully, H.E. will get get the problem fixed for the benefit of others who share that server. I regret that I have lost all faith and confidence in this web host, and have searched and found another one. I will move my site and reconfigure required files. What a pain in the ass.
Life is short: If you are looking for web hosting, I suggest looking elsewhere.
It seems like Hurricane Electric has had minor outages happen every now and then, but nothing this long. Short outages of a couple hours have happened to me before and I have grumbled about it to the extend that they migrated me to another server.
I know I am sharing a server with other accounts, but this duration of unavailability of my website is truly a sad reflection on Hurricane Electric's claims of reliability and up-time. I cannot afford nor want to pay for a dedicated server -- heck, this is just a hobby site, after all. I am just disappointed and know that it is frustrating for visitors to get a "not found" or "timeout" error when they try to visit my website.
Again, I'm sorry this happened. It is beyond my control. Hopefully, H.E. will get get the problem fixed for the benefit of others who share that server. I regret that I have lost all faith and confidence in this web host, and have searched and found another one. I will move my site and reconfigure required files. What a pain in the ass.
Life is short: If you are looking for web hosting, I suggest looking elsewhere.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Going Mobile?
While I personally don't want one of those expensive gadgets, I realize that if I am going to run a functioning website that works on all platforms, including mobile browsers, then I should try to make modifications that make the website more "mobile-friendly."
Therefore, I have been playing around and have created a mobile-friendly home page, which is available at bootedman.net -- note, that is ".net", not ".com." The ".net" version is, or should be, mobile friendly. The .com version remains the website as you've always known it.
If you have a smart phone, try this for me:
1. Visit the regular website, bootedman.com and tell me if you are automatically redirected to the mobile-friendly version of the website (as shown on this post) or if you get some error message about "too many redirects."
2. Visit the mobile version directly at bootedman.net and let me know if it works for you (or not). (Note, regular laptops and desktops can view this site and see what it looks like.)
Please correspond with me directly if you know my email address, or use this form to send me a message.
Either way, I want to hear from you, because I want to know if it is working (or not), and have no way to test it myself since neither my partner nor I have a smartphone and do not plan to get one.
Thanks!
Life is short: embrace technology, even if you don't have the technology to embrace (giggle).
Friday, June 10, 2011
Linking to .jpgs
I found a way to determine what websites are linking to images directly on my bootedman.com website. When they do that, it causes my photos to appear as if they are theirs, and "charges" me for transfer -- that is, it places a call on my web resources for one of my images to appear elsewhere -- and "charges" my website each time one my pictures appears somewhere else.
Now that I know how to detect that, I also have come up with a way to stop it. I simply change the file name of the image on my website and adjust the code on my website that calls for it. Thus, it is available, as always, on my site, but disappears from the other site.
I also learned how to block certain followers. Sure, I enjoy having public followers, but I had one begin to follow me last week, and when you clicked on his profile, it led you to a website that was promoting products for sale. This is a very sneaky way of doing what I don't allow in comments: embedding a link to a commercial website from this blog. When I see that happening, I remove it and block it. I do not allow third-party marketing of any sort from this blog (unless I write it myself!)
I don't like it when people are sneaky. I'll continue to actively monitor such behavior, and do what I can to prevent it. You want to see images on my website? Fine -- then visit my website. You want an image of mine on your site? Hello? ASK ME. I'll probably say yes, but please ask, don't behave like a lowly scumbag and steal it. Thanks.
Life is short: act honorably.
Now that I know how to detect that, I also have come up with a way to stop it. I simply change the file name of the image on my website and adjust the code on my website that calls for it. Thus, it is available, as always, on my site, but disappears from the other site.
I also learned how to block certain followers. Sure, I enjoy having public followers, but I had one begin to follow me last week, and when you clicked on his profile, it led you to a website that was promoting products for sale. This is a very sneaky way of doing what I don't allow in comments: embedding a link to a commercial website from this blog. When I see that happening, I remove it and block it. I do not allow third-party marketing of any sort from this blog (unless I write it myself!)
I don't like it when people are sneaky. I'll continue to actively monitor such behavior, and do what I can to prevent it. You want to see images on my website? Fine -- then visit my website. You want an image of mine on your site? Hello? ASK ME. I'll probably say yes, but please ask, don't behave like a lowly scumbag and steal it. Thanks.
Life is short: act honorably.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Three Million
The vast majority of visitors are driven by search engine results. I am amazed and pleased that many pages of my site get ranked within the top 10 by Google -- without my even trying. Lots and lots of guys (and women) look for information about vintage Frye boots, cowboy boots, motorcycle boots, and leather gear, while some obsess about whether to wear jeans inside cowboy boots or not. Many others enjoy photos of motorcycle police events about which I have posted a number of galleries.
My website got started in early 2005 -- first on "free space" offered by my ISP -- then I migrated it to its own domain and web host in April, 2006. That is when I began to collect statistics. (A previous blog post describes why I created the site in the first place.)
In the first partial year, I had "only" about 20,000 visitors. But as the years moved along and the website expanded from about 20 static pages to now over 780 pages (included over 360 on the "Boots Wiki"), from about 200 pics to now about 8,000 -- the site gets a lot of traffic. But I'm still amazed that has happened, considering it is only a hobby site.
Happy Three Millionth, Bootedman.com. The original, the one and only, and not to be confused with my friend's YouTube channel by the same name. (That's okay, C, I forgive 'ya and know where to direct the occasional person who confuses the two of us, and enjoy our annual visits.)
PS: Congratulations to a visitor from Gottmadingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, who was the one who visited my Guide to Motorcycle Police Patrol Boots and tripped the log counter to the 3M mark.
Life is short: wear boots!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Lonely Saturday Night?
This is just an observation.
Saturday nights must be a night for web surfing. For the past ten weeks, Saturday visitors to my website spike by about 25% (more than the daily average on other days of the week), particularly from the hours between 7pm and midnight US-ET. I hope whatever you're finding, dudes, you're enjoying it!
Life is short: surf the web for leather and boots!
Saturday nights must be a night for web surfing. For the past ten weeks, Saturday visitors to my website spike by about 25% (more than the daily average on other days of the week), particularly from the hours between 7pm and midnight US-ET. I hope whatever you're finding, dudes, you're enjoying it!
Life is short: surf the web for leather and boots!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Grrrr: Web Hosting Changes Back!
Here we go again! bootedman.com and my personal website that I use for my family and to represent myself professionally have both been switched back to the former servers that each of them were on. If you had trouble accessing the website(s) yesterday, that's probably why.
It turns out that the new-to-me web hosting service was trapping email that I absolutely needed for my professional job. In a number of dialogues with them by phone, email, and on-line chat, they refused to acknowledge that it was their problem. They insisted that they were not trapping email when I know for darn sure that it was sent, yet I did not receive it. What was probably happening is that they have much more stringent filters on their servers and those filters trap a lot of stuff that they should not.
Further, there were other technical problems and concerns that I encountered. I will not bore you with the details. Let's just say that I am happy that I did not cancel my old web hosting service, so I could just point the DNS back to them for my websites, make sure the files on each site were the most recent (restored from backups), and be back in business.
Grrrrr... I wish this stuff weren't so complicated. But it's working. That's what matters.
By the way, if you sent an email to me at my BHD email address between 8 January and 15 January, then I regret that it is gone. I think that I have replied to all of my email during that period, but if I did not, then please accept my apologies and write to me again. I have not lost my email address book -- just the actual emails that I received during that week. (And I have not lost any of my professional email as that is processed by a secondary anti-spam filter, which retains copies of all of my email before sending it to me through my web host.)
Life is short: don't point fingers at others when your company is to blame.
P.S.: I am having fun with you -- if you clicked on the link to "my personal website" above, I directed you to a spoof site. That's not my personal site. Those who need to know what it is know where to find it. I do not reveal that side of me on this blog.
It turns out that the new-to-me web hosting service was trapping email that I absolutely needed for my professional job. In a number of dialogues with them by phone, email, and on-line chat, they refused to acknowledge that it was their problem. They insisted that they were not trapping email when I know for darn sure that it was sent, yet I did not receive it. What was probably happening is that they have much more stringent filters on their servers and those filters trap a lot of stuff that they should not.
Further, there were other technical problems and concerns that I encountered. I will not bore you with the details. Let's just say that I am happy that I did not cancel my old web hosting service, so I could just point the DNS back to them for my websites, make sure the files on each site were the most recent (restored from backups), and be back in business.
Grrrrr... I wish this stuff weren't so complicated. But it's working. That's what matters.
By the way, if you sent an email to me at my BHD email address between 8 January and 15 January, then I regret that it is gone. I think that I have replied to all of my email during that period, but if I did not, then please accept my apologies and write to me again. I have not lost my email address book -- just the actual emails that I received during that week. (And I have not lost any of my professional email as that is processed by a secondary anti-spam filter, which retains copies of all of my email before sending it to me through my web host.)
Life is short: don't point fingers at others when your company is to blame.
P.S.: I am having fun with you -- if you clicked on the link to "my personal website" above, I directed you to a spoof site. That's not my personal site. Those who need to know what it is know where to find it. I do not reveal that side of me on this blog.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Bootedman.com Update
Dear blog readers,
Two days ago I posted a message on this blog asking for feedback about how my website was operating.
I was blown away with the response! I heard from people with whom I regularly communicate, but I also heard from many others with whom I have not had the pleasure (yet) of exchanging messages. (Though I wish the two guys from my home town who visit this blog every day would eventually get up the nerve to contact me.)
Overall, I received more than 90 responses to my "request for help" from all over the world. Amazing. Incredible. Overwhelming! If I did not reply to you (if you provided an email address), please understand that I couldn't reply to everyone. I have to work, and working gets in the way of responding to email.
What I learned is that everyone said that my website is working fine, and if anything, seems to be loading faster than before. Perhaps the drop in viewers on Monday was a residual problem of the transition from one web host to another. Anyway, it seems to be responding well now, and actually for the past two days has had about 500 more unique visitors, on average, than comparative days one week ago.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, my loyal blog readers. You have helped me a lot, and I am grateful.
Life is short: be thankful for help you receive!
Two days ago I posted a message on this blog asking for feedback about how my website was operating.
I was blown away with the response! I heard from people with whom I regularly communicate, but I also heard from many others with whom I have not had the pleasure (yet) of exchanging messages. (Though I wish the two guys from my home town who visit this blog every day would eventually get up the nerve to contact me.)
Overall, I received more than 90 responses to my "request for help" from all over the world. Amazing. Incredible. Overwhelming! If I did not reply to you (if you provided an email address), please understand that I couldn't reply to everyone. I have to work, and working gets in the way of responding to email.
What I learned is that everyone said that my website is working fine, and if anything, seems to be loading faster than before. Perhaps the drop in viewers on Monday was a residual problem of the transition from one web host to another. Anyway, it seems to be responding well now, and actually for the past two days has had about 500 more unique visitors, on average, than comparative days one week ago.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, my loyal blog readers. You have helped me a lot, and I am grateful.
Life is short: be thankful for help you receive!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Request for Help
Dear Blog Visitors,
I mentioned the other day that I migrated my website to a different web host. That migration took place over the last weekend.
I am seeing far, far fewer than the average number of visitors to my website. I am wondering if the website may be responding slowly, and people are not staying on it when it does not respond, or if there is some other reason that my average number of visitors is way down -- like by half.
Will you do me a favor? Visit my bootedman.com website (click here) and poke around to visit several pages in different sections. Watch how quickly pictures load (or if any do not load.)
Then return to this blog post, click on this link (or leave a comment on this blog post, or email me directly if you have my email address) to let me know your experience with it. You do not have to leave a name or email address on your message if you do not want to -- it just means that if you do not leave contact information, that I cannot reply to acknowledge your input.
Did it work? Was it fast or did you have to wait a long time for pages to load? Did you encounter any bugs, or "time out" errors?
I can switch it back to my previous host, which (when it was working) was very fast. I really appreciate any time you can put into this informal evaluation. Please know that if you wish, you do not have to give me your name or email address -- you can just provide feedback to me.
Thank you for your help!
Life is short: too short for slow websites.
I mentioned the other day that I migrated my website to a different web host. That migration took place over the last weekend.
I am seeing far, far fewer than the average number of visitors to my website. I am wondering if the website may be responding slowly, and people are not staying on it when it does not respond, or if there is some other reason that my average number of visitors is way down -- like by half.
Will you do me a favor? Visit my bootedman.com website (click here) and poke around to visit several pages in different sections. Watch how quickly pictures load (or if any do not load.)
Then return to this blog post, click on this link (or leave a comment on this blog post, or email me directly if you have my email address) to let me know your experience with it. You do not have to leave a name or email address on your message if you do not want to -- it just means that if you do not leave contact information, that I cannot reply to acknowledge your input.
Did it work? Was it fast or did you have to wait a long time for pages to load? Did you encounter any bugs, or "time out" errors?
I can switch it back to my previous host, which (when it was working) was very fast. I really appreciate any time you can put into this informal evaluation. Please know that if you wish, you do not have to give me your name or email address -- you can just provide feedback to me.
Thank you for your help!
Life is short: too short for slow websites.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Bootedman.com
You do not have to worry about the technical details, many of which are beyond my own comprehension. As you may not realize, my abilities with web-stuff are not as extensive as you may think. I am learning all the time, and the learning is fun -- which is why having that website is much like a hobby. It continues to challenge me and is intellectually stimulating.
I am posting this message for two reasons:
1) just in case you visit my website and get some strange error message, check back later. It takes a while for the change to be fully implemented on the World Wide Web.
2) my email address is being migrated, too. I may lose all of my email when this change takes place. If you have sent me a message and I have not responded, please try again. Messages sent to me on 8 or 9 January may not actually reach me. Or they may; I do not know.
Let's hope the transition is transparent for my visitors, and goes smoothly.
Life is short: make changes as necessary.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
This Says It All
I have blogged a lot about where visitors come to my website, and I have also blogged a lot about an obsession by many about whether men wear pants inside their boots or not. I have also blogged on occasion about how fellow residents of the United States have lost their ability to spell or write in American English.
The following image says it all. If the image is hard to read on your screen, click on it to enlarge it. Then read what was typed into a Google search.
Then laugh or cry, or both. Oh for Pete's sake. I know getting "their" and "there" mixed up is common, but this is a typical example of what I see in hundreds of searches every day. It is so sad that so many people have not learned fundamental English writing and grammar skills -- and this is for those who were born in the U.S. and educated here.
And this example does not hold a candle to the garbage that I see the kids in my own family write on their Facebook status updates. Yikes!
Life is short: lurn hw 2 writ
The following image says it all. If the image is hard to read on your screen, click on it to enlarge it. Then read what was typed into a Google search.
Then laugh or cry, or both. Oh for Pete's sake. I know getting "their" and "there" mixed up is common, but this is a typical example of what I see in hundreds of searches every day. It is so sad that so many people have not learned fundamental English writing and grammar skills -- and this is for those who were born in the U.S. and educated here.
And this example does not hold a candle to the garbage that I see the kids in my own family write on their Facebook status updates. Yikes!
Life is short: lurn hw 2 writ
Monday, January 3, 2011
In Case You Tried to Reach Me
... and you cannot ... or you think you sent an email to me, but I have not responded...
It turns out that my web hosting provider is being subjected to a huge distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack ... and as a result, it has made all domains that they host on all of their servers out of reach.
In case you tried to send an email to me, I regret that I will not see it nor be able to respond until the provider restores service. This includes email to "BHD" and "the other" me that some of you know. Both of my web-hosted email accounts are unavailable for me to view and respond to until this situation is resolved.
Nonetheless, I'll be switching web hosts soon, since this is not the first, and probably will not be the last, that their service isn't working. Even though it is not their fault, their reliability is not as good as it once was. Further, I can get larger amounts of storage and data transfer for a lower cost elsewhere. So this week, when I'm not on-the-clock for my job, that is what I will be doing: migrating files to a new host and then "making it go live." I sincerely hope it does not result in more downtime for my website visitors, nor my email.
Life is short: ... well, it just is...
It turns out that my web hosting provider is being subjected to a huge distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack ... and as a result, it has made all domains that they host on all of their servers out of reach.
In case you tried to send an email to me, I regret that I will not see it nor be able to respond until the provider restores service. This includes email to "BHD" and "the other" me that some of you know. Both of my web-hosted email accounts are unavailable for me to view and respond to until this situation is resolved.
Nonetheless, I'll be switching web hosts soon, since this is not the first, and probably will not be the last, that their service isn't working. Even though it is not their fault, their reliability is not as good as it once was. Further, I can get larger amounts of storage and data transfer for a lower cost elsewhere. So this week, when I'm not on-the-clock for my job, that is what I will be doing: migrating files to a new host and then "making it go live." I sincerely hope it does not result in more downtime for my website visitors, nor my email.
Life is short: ... well, it just is...
Saturday, November 27, 2010
No Website Updates?
Someone sent me an email asking why my boots and leather website has not been updated since November 12.
Answer is: I haven't had time. I had surgery to have a hernia repaired on 12 November, then a week to recover. After that, I began working at my new job. Then we had the Thanksgiving holiday this week, which found us entertaining 100 senior pals.
While I haven't had time to update or add to my website, but that doesn't mean that I have given up on it. I will update it from time to time, as there are things to do, or new photos to add.
I have to admit, though, that I did take Northbound Leather up on a huge discount for some formal leather a while ago. I should have the gear by Christmas and will post pictures then. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I will be traveling to Seattle on 1 December (through the 6th) for a series of work-related meetings, but I'll have time on the weekend to do some exploration as well. If you're in Seattle and want to meet up, let me know.
Life is short: time is, unfortunately, limited.
Answer is: I haven't had time. I had surgery to have a hernia repaired on 12 November, then a week to recover. After that, I began working at my new job. Then we had the Thanksgiving holiday this week, which found us entertaining 100 senior pals.
While I haven't had time to update or add to my website, but that doesn't mean that I have given up on it. I will update it from time to time, as there are things to do, or new photos to add.
I have to admit, though, that I did take Northbound Leather up on a huge discount for some formal leather a while ago. I should have the gear by Christmas and will post pictures then. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I will be traveling to Seattle on 1 December (through the 6th) for a series of work-related meetings, but I'll have time on the weekend to do some exploration as well. If you're in Seattle and want to meet up, let me know.
Life is short: time is, unfortunately, limited.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
My New Website Redesign
I have had a form of my Bootedman.com website since late 2004, migrated it to its own server and domain in early 2006, and have been adding to it and maintaining it ever since. It's a great hobby, as it keeps me challenged with new things to learn.
As the site has been growing, changing, and advancing with technology, I decided that the old tables from the HTML from long ago had to go, as today's website technology uses cascading style sheets (CSS) and Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) rather than straight-old HTML with code that was built for the earliest versions of web browsers.
I also had some comments that my home page appeared very "busy" with so many image icons leading to interior pages. Some users complained that the icons wouldn't load, or would cause the site to bog down and stop when viewed.
I also have had other users tell me that they liked its simplicity, so they cautioned making it too fancy with lots of "bells and whistles." The good thing about CSS and PHP is that it keeps a lot of the messy code away from view, and makes pages load faster and look cleaner. PHP also allows for added security to ward off potential hackers, as well as blocking bozos (you know, the brainless dolts who link to my website from forums where they post inane comments.)
This website redesign process has been ongoing for months. I learned these skills on my own. I really should have taken a class, but I challenged myself to learn how to do it "the hard way." Sorta analogous learning how to do long division before using a calculator.
I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.
Life is short: refresh now-and-again!
As the site has been growing, changing, and advancing with technology, I decided that the old tables from the HTML from long ago had to go, as today's website technology uses cascading style sheets (CSS) and Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) rather than straight-old HTML with code that was built for the earliest versions of web browsers.
I also had some comments that my home page appeared very "busy" with so many image icons leading to interior pages. Some users complained that the icons wouldn't load, or would cause the site to bog down and stop when viewed.
I also have had other users tell me that they liked its simplicity, so they cautioned making it too fancy with lots of "bells and whistles." The good thing about CSS and PHP is that it keeps a lot of the messy code away from view, and makes pages load faster and look cleaner. PHP also allows for added security to ward off potential hackers, as well as blocking bozos (you know, the brainless dolts who link to my website from forums where they post inane comments.)
This website redesign process has been ongoing for months. I learned these skills on my own. I really should have taken a class, but I challenged myself to learn how to do it "the hard way." Sorta analogous learning how to do long division before using a calculator.
I hope you like it. Let me know what you think.
Life is short: refresh now-and-again!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
What I Did on My Blog Vacation
I can talk about it now, ... now that the primary elections are over in my home state. Early last week, a candidate for whom I was volunteering went ballistically negative against his opponent by creating a website devoted to tearing his opponent down. I found out about it just about the time it hit the "blogwaves."
All throughout the campaign, I told the candidate that I detest negative campaigning, and that many of my neighbors feel the same way. His primary political consultant, who doesn't live in our area, is known for hitting hard, but (IMHO) is out of touch with the feelings of the residents of our area. My candidate's actions became incredibly mean-spirited and awful, and literally made me lose my lunch. I didn't sleep the night I found out about it. It hurt me that much... so I had to pull away from the 'net and reduce exposure to sh*t like that. I resigned from his campaign, and "checked out."
I put the paper recycling bin next to the mailbox, and instructed our friendly mail carrier to deposit *all* political mail in the box. I didn't even want to see it. I had already voted (since early voting is finally allowed in our state) so the volume of political mail sent to me after I voted was a waste of trees.
While away from the 'net, I spent joyful time caring for my beloved aunt. Some days, she just wanted to be held, so that's what I did... for hours. I also had a chance to play Bocce with the Bocce boys in the retirement community nearby, chattering away in Italian.
My partner had minor oral surgery last Friday, and I made home-made chicken soup which cured him of any residual pain. We spent most of the day last Saturday working on the yard. When you use compost as fertilizer, it takes longer than spreading chemicals from a bag.
I caught up on taxes, with those dreaded estimated taxes due on the 15th for myself, my small business, my aunt, and 14 other senior buds.
I cleaned house, killing more dust bunnies than we have actual bunnies in our forest. I fixed a broken garden wall that suffered the consequences of freeze-and-thaw. Lots of stuff... but I stayed away from politics, and the people who go with it.
Oh, and I accepted an offer for my dream job. Yep, my lay-off is over. I go back to full-time work doing what I love in a couple weeks. The job is conveniently located in my home town, so the commute will be easy. I am anxious to begin a new chapter in my life, doing what I love to do, and for which I have won international recognition.
...and I watched my candidate lose ... he shot himself in the foot and deserved what happened as a result. So sad, so very sad.
Great break: now back to blogging.
Life is short: remember the priorities, focus on the positive, and separate yourself from negativity.
All throughout the campaign, I told the candidate that I detest negative campaigning, and that many of my neighbors feel the same way. His primary political consultant, who doesn't live in our area, is known for hitting hard, but (IMHO) is out of touch with the feelings of the residents of our area. My candidate's actions became incredibly mean-spirited and awful, and literally made me lose my lunch. I didn't sleep the night I found out about it. It hurt me that much... so I had to pull away from the 'net and reduce exposure to sh*t like that. I resigned from his campaign, and "checked out."
I put the paper recycling bin next to the mailbox, and instructed our friendly mail carrier to deposit *all* political mail in the box. I didn't even want to see it. I had already voted (since early voting is finally allowed in our state) so the volume of political mail sent to me after I voted was a waste of trees.
While away from the 'net, I spent joyful time caring for my beloved aunt. Some days, she just wanted to be held, so that's what I did... for hours. I also had a chance to play Bocce with the Bocce boys in the retirement community nearby, chattering away in Italian.
My partner had minor oral surgery last Friday, and I made home-made chicken soup which cured him of any residual pain. We spent most of the day last Saturday working on the yard. When you use compost as fertilizer, it takes longer than spreading chemicals from a bag.
I caught up on taxes, with those dreaded estimated taxes due on the 15th for myself, my small business, my aunt, and 14 other senior buds.
I cleaned house, killing more dust bunnies than we have actual bunnies in our forest. I fixed a broken garden wall that suffered the consequences of freeze-and-thaw. Lots of stuff... but I stayed away from politics, and the people who go with it.
Oh, and I accepted an offer for my dream job. Yep, my lay-off is over. I go back to full-time work doing what I love in a couple weeks. The job is conveniently located in my home town, so the commute will be easy. I am anxious to begin a new chapter in my life, doing what I love to do, and for which I have won international recognition.
...and I watched my candidate lose ... he shot himself in the foot and deserved what happened as a result. So sad, so very sad.
Great break: now back to blogging.
Life is short: remember the priorities, focus on the positive, and separate yourself from negativity.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Blank Page
I found the most interesting and useful internet page -- it is called, simply, "Blank Web Page." (See it by clicking here. I promise, it won't hurt your computer nor introduce bad things like a trojan or a virus.)
I build in re-directs from some of my website's pages to this page from time to time. A "re-direct" simply means that if you think you are visiting a page on my website, it ends up somewhere else and entirely off the domain of my website.
Unfortunately, some people who participate in various on-line forums include a link to my website. They make comments about what appears on the website page to which they are linking. Most of the time, I can't see what they're saying, but I can guess. Since they linked to me without permission and I have no idea what they're saying, I redirect them elsewhere. I don't want them on my site.
Forums for CHP officers, Finnish motorbikers, die-hard Harley bikers, and even some brain-dead chick's blog have linked to some pages on my website and then have been re-directed to "Blank Web Page."
Whoever invented "Blank Web Page": thank you for creating it. I had no idea something like this would be so useful.
Fortunately, the people who link to my site and get re-directed to a blank page quickly loose interest and stop visiting. Then I can rest my website back to usual.
Life is short: outsmart dimwits.
I build in re-directs from some of my website's pages to this page from time to time. A "re-direct" simply means that if you think you are visiting a page on my website, it ends up somewhere else and entirely off the domain of my website.
Unfortunately, some people who participate in various on-line forums include a link to my website. They make comments about what appears on the website page to which they are linking. Most of the time, I can't see what they're saying, but I can guess. Since they linked to me without permission and I have no idea what they're saying, I redirect them elsewhere. I don't want them on my site.
Forums for CHP officers, Finnish motorbikers, die-hard Harley bikers, and even some brain-dead chick's blog have linked to some pages on my website and then have been re-directed to "Blank Web Page."
Whoever invented "Blank Web Page": thank you for creating it. I had no idea something like this would be so useful.
Fortunately, the people who link to my site and get re-directed to a blank page quickly loose interest and stop visiting. Then I can rest my website back to usual.
Life is short: outsmart dimwits.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)