Category: Just Saying …

Finally got the last finishing touches on the latest project. I alluded to the project in the post “Do You Have Control of Your Web Site?”. This new site was one of those sites that was ‘orphaned’ (to use a kinder word than ‘abandoned by the hosting provider’). There was a limited backup of parts of the database, but I had to do lots of manhandling of the database to get it into the proper format.

The site is a memorial to suicide victims, called “Suicide Memorial Wall“. It’s a place where the families and friends of suicide victims can post names on a memorial wall. As you three long-time readers know, our son Jason took his life after suffering from manic-depression for about 10 years. Since that time, we (mostly Pam) have been involved in various on-line support groups.

This site, along with several others, which you will find on the “Outreach” page of the Suicide Memorial Wall, was originally hosted on the OneManHostingCompany (OMHC) servers, which have had some issues with reliability and availability. So the owner of the site decided it was time to move the sites (content and databases) to a new hosting company (we chose BlueHost, since I’ve had good luck with them for several other sites I help manage).

The problem was that I couldn’t get FTP access (or access to the databases) from the OMHC folks, despite numerous email requests (that were mostly routinely ignored). That required a convuluted process of ‘scraping’ the sites (when they were available) to get some of the source code. But the databases were unavailable.

So I have spent at least 150 hours rebuilding several of the sites that used to be on OMHC. And I finally got the Suicide Memorial Wall done, along with the support forum site for the families and friends of suicide (Suicide Grief at http://www.suicidegrief.com/), and the Parents of Suicide-Friends and Family of Suicide at http://www.pos-ffos.com/ )  These two sites, among others, are a significant source of support of people who have been touched by suicide.

If you are so affected, or know of others that are affected by suicide, I urge you to visit those sites. They will be an immense help. I am pleased that I could help the groups and members by rebuilding the sites. But it would have been a lot easier with better support from the OMHC.

For those that wish to pay attention, here’s the month’s wrap-up.

Enjoying the new job at a local government agency (which is the same type of place I used to work at in California). I work as one of the Web Applications Specialists, so I take care of web applications (like their Content Management System) and other servers. Similar to what I used to do, so there’s a good fit. It’s a part-time gig at the moment, which is nice. And it’s full benefits, which is saving a lot of money on my medical costs. Since I retired out of state, I used COBRA as the medical benefit, and that can get quite expensive (more than $1K/month). My medical benefits cost at the new job is under $500/month.

And the job will go full-time in 2-3 weeks, since the other part-time person (the other “half” of my position) is leaving in two weeks. That was expected, and was part of the job deal. So, full-time for me, which is nice. It keeps me busy (and out of the house, which is an advantage my wife Pam is enjoying). The commute is not bad: a bit farther than in CA, but less congested. Commuting in a snowstorm will be a new adventure, though.

I’ve been keeping busy rebuilding a web site (see the previous post). It’s a database-driven site, so lots of PHP programming with a bit of Javascript thrown in. It’s been a big project the last 6-8 weeks (less the two-week ‘appendix vacation’), but it’s now only a few days from going ‘live’. I enjoy the web site programming, which I do in my comfortable recliner, often while watching TV.

The weather here in Utah has been cold lately, with a few snowstorms thrown in the mix. I am still enjoying the snowfall; the Wasatch mountains always look nice with a white covering. Although parts of the area, especially closer to the mountains, get a lot more snow than we do, the last storm just deposited a couple of inches in my front yard. And the neighbor snuck over with his snowblower and took care of the driveway, so that was nice.

Family is fine; Stacy (youngest) is expecting in April, and the other grandkids are as cute as usual.

And I am getting addicted to “Angry Birds” on the Droid.

I’ve been spending a lot of time recreating about 10 web sites. The reason? The web site owner, who does not have technical skills, can’t get control of her sites.

Here’s the situation. The web sites, which provide a needed social and emotional support system, is hosted by what appears to be a one-man web hosting company (we’ll call it OneManHosting Company – OMHC). The web site owner creates some of the content using FrontPage, then transfers it to the OMHC servers. Some of the sites are just basic web pages, and other sites have databases. OMHC has coded some of the pages (using PHP as the language) to display the data.

OMHC has been having some infrastructure problems the past two month, resulting in the sites not being consistantly available to the public.  The issues appear to be related to DNS issues combined with server issues, although even that is not clear. The end result, though, is that trying to load the web site results in a “site not found”.

The web site owner has communicated repeatedly via email to OMHC, with limited response. Customer service doesn’t appear to be a strong point with OMHC. Since the web sites provide much-needed social and emotional support for it’s users, the unavailability of the sites is significant to the visitors.

I was asked to help with the technical issues of the web site unavailability problems. I’ve communicated with OMHC, again with limited (and sometimes no) responses to my emails. Since the availability of the sites is important, we (the web site owner and I) decided that it was best to move the hosting to a new hosting company (we chose BlueHost, as I have had great success with them for other clients).

Now it is not terribly hard to move a web site to a new hosting company. You copy all of the pages via FTP, and you export the databases to a SQL file on your local computer. Then you transfer the pages to the new host location, and use the phpMyAdmin program to create and import the databases from your backup copy. Once all the pages and databases are moved, you change the nameservers to the new host’s values. (Nameservers are what point the web site address to the hosts’ systems and the host’s server that contains your content). The process is fairly easy technically, although it takes a bit of time to transfer the files. Figure about a half-day’s worth of work to move an average non-commercial web site.

The Problem

But, here’s the problem. OMHC doesn’t have a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) connection to the web site files. And they don’t have a “Control Panel” type of interface that allows access to the databases. Both items are normally available at hosting sites. Except at OMHC.

So, a bit more effort is needed. An email to OMHC asking for FTP access (not very hard for a competent hosting company to install). Once FTP is available, I can install a simple program that gives me access to the databases (assuming I have the database user name and password). Alternately, the email asked OMHC to send me the page files and a database export via email (or even burn the files to a CD/DVD). Not technically difficult to do.

Except that OMHC, showing their ‘great’ customer service skills, basically ignores multiple requests to provide the page files and databases. In fact, since OMHC has done the programming for the access to and display of the data, they are claiming that they ‘own’ the database (and the PHP files, since OMHC coded the PHP pages).

This is an interesting claim, IMHO. I’m not a lawyer, but it appears to be reasonable to assume that if visitors are inputting data (such as via a message forum, or form entry) in response to the service provided by the web site owner, then the web site owner should own (and have control of) the databases.

To further muddy the waters a bit, there was no actual agreement (contract) for the programming work for the databases. The web site owner has been paying a yearly fee for the web site hosting services, plus additional fees for the programming. But, again, it would seem to me that the web site owner, even absent a written agreement/contract, still owns the web site content, including databases.

So, we have web sites that aren’t available to use, databases and web site files we can’t get copies of, and a valuable support for clients that is unavailable.

That’s been what I have been doing for the last several weeks. I’ve got a program that will copy web site’s pages to my computer. It’s good for HTML pages, but not PHP pages. But it’s a start; it saves a bit of time in rebuilding a site from scratch.

One of the web sites was a message forum, so I installed phpBB (a great message board open-source program) on the new host, set up the forums, tweaked some settings, and got it on-line fairly fast. Some other sites were just HTML pages, so the web site copying program helped with that.

The database-based site was a bit harder. The database has about 9000 records, and there was a copy of the data in text form. I spent quite a few hours massaging that data, getting it into a new database. But there are data input forms to create, processing routines to create, pages to re-create (lots of page code cleanup). I’ve probably got 40 hours into this project.

And Your Point?

The point  of this diatribe is … if you have a web site, does your web site belong to you? If you have had someone ‘build’ some pages or databases for you, is there a clear ownership of those pages and data? Do you have a current backup copy of your database or web site? Are you confident in the technical skills and availability of your web site host? Is the technical support for your web site acceptable? Do you have a process (and the technical expertise) to recreate your web site in case of hosting problems?

Who has control of your web site?

It all started the middle of last month. It seemed like a bit of stomach flu, you know, the kind whether you are not sure if you need to sit or kneel in the small one-seat library (the room with the fan). So I stayed home from work (a new job; had just been there a week), doing the liquids and chicken soup. To no avail.

Went to the doctor two days later (Thursday), he though stomach flu also, so advised rest and bland foods. Sunday rolls around, still sick. Just enough energy to use the TV remote. Not enough energy to use the computer (that is quite unusual).

So went to the ER on Sunday afternoon. Had an x-ray that possibly showed some internal blockage. Got a CAT-scan that showed the same thing. So was admitted to a nice room (single) in the hospital. Was feeling slightly better on an ice water (plus IV) diet. Got some real food for breakfast and lunch on Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon, that food left the building the way it came in.

Doctors decided that there might be some intestinal blockage. Scheduled for some laparoscopic poking around on Thursday. Wednesday my atrial fibrillation kicked with the irregular heartbeat. This happens occasionally, but usually resolves within 2-3 hours. It still hadn’t resolved by Thursday AM, and the anesthesiologist wasn’t happy about an operation with an irregular heartbeat, so spent Thursday with various drugs trying to get the heartbeat back to normal.. That happened late Thursday night, so Friday AM the doctors approved the surgery.

That happened Thursday afternoon. The doctore poked a few holes in my abdomen, stuck the camera inside, and looked around the intestines for a blockage. Didn’t find one, so he decided to head for my appendix. And found that infected and impacted, so removed it.

One day of recovery, and home on Saturday, 12 days after this all started. Two weeks later, the ‘plumbing’ is still not quite normal (which is normal, I guess). But I have gone back to work, and am generally a bit better.

The advantage is that this ‘diet’ has resulted in a loss of about 18 pounds (that’s a good thing). I’m just not thrilled about the technique involved.

Still not quite at full energy. And the diet is not quite normal yet (no MOINK Balls for me). “Output” is not quite normal yet, although improving.

And I am back on the computer again. There was minimal computer use during that two weeks (the first week at home). And I have had excellent care at the hospital, and much spoiling at home by my good wife. And some interesting computer work since returning home (as you will see in the next post).

So, my appendix has gone the way of my gall bladder. Out through a small 1/2″ incision.

Things are  a bit better than before.

The town of West Yellowstone (MT) is the western gateway into Yellowstone National Park. As a result, it is primarily a tourist town. Just about all of its business cater to the tourist trade, which is international in scope. It is not uncommon to hear many different languages spoken as you walk down the sidewalks of its main streets.

As with most tourist towns, there are a plethora of souvenir shops. There are T-shirt shops, of course, plus localized gift shops that have all manner of wildlife- and geyser-oriented themes. And there are many different places to eat.

In the case of BBQ places, there are two choices that I saw on my visit there last week. On the main street in West Yellowstone there is “Buckaroo Bill’s” and the “Beartooth Barbeque” jointz.  And therein lies our Tale of Two BBQ Jointz.

Pam and I first went to the Buckaroo Bill’s place for a late lunch. Since it was the tail end of the tourist season, the town wasn’t very crowded. Buckaroo Bill’s has an outside dining area with picnic tables, and an inside area with about 6 booths, plus a ‘covered wagon’ dining area that was closed (so we didn’t get a look at it). The interior decor is framed pictures and sayings of various sorts. Each booth has a wall-mounted paper-towel-roll dispenser, with salt/pepper but no sauces. Outside is a gas grill in a half-barrel, plus an inside kitchen area.

The menu is standard fare, with BBQ items like pulled pork/chicken/beef, burgers (beef and bison), pizza, and tacos. There is also a child’s menu of the usual items. I got the pulled beef with tater tots on the side, and Pam got a pulled pork with a side salad. The waitress was by herself; there were only three other tables occupied since it was mid-afternoon. So service was attentive, and the food was quickly delivered.

Both sandwiches were hot and drenched in a BBQ-type sauce of some sort. The tater tots were hot an crunchy. Pam said that the salad was great, with shredded cheese, tomatoes, olives, and crunchy garlic-flavored croutons. The sandwiches? They were OK, but to this “BBQ Beginner” suspects the meat was used the crock-pot-cooking style.

I later took a look at the grill; it was a standard open half-barrel with propane gas burners. There was no indication of any smoker on site. I asked the waitress how they prepared their ribs, and she said that they use a rub then bake them in a covered pan, adding the sauce at the end.

Buckaroo Bill’s BBQ joint is a wannabe BBQ joint.

The next day, I stopped into the Beartooth Barbeque joint. It has all indoor seating, with about 15 tables (4 chairs each) and an area for barstool-eating, with about 12 stools. The waitress seemed attentive to the 4-5 tables that were occupied at that time (this was early dinner hour). I went up to the cashier area, and noticed their own branded BBQ sauces in bottles. A look at their menu indicated that I was in a more traditional BBQ joint. Their menu proudly stated that they hand-rub their meat, then slow-cook in a wood-fired smoker.

Beartooth BBQ Beef Brisket with Beans

I ordered a beef brisket to go, along with a side of beans and some sauce. In a few minutes, I was ready to go with my order in a Styrofoam container. Getting into the car, I quickly noticed the smokey smell of the brisket. Back at the hotel, I took a look inside the container. There was a mound of shredded beef brisket, with some large chunks. You could see the smokey ring on the beef chunks, which were easily shredded. The beef was inside a standard-looking sesame hamburger-type bun, with a small container of sauce. I took a taste of the sauce, which (to this BBQ novice) was pretty good with a very slight ‘bite’ to it, and no overpowering vinegar taste or order. As you can see by the picture, there was also a nice slice of red onion (very sweet and fresh), pickle, and more.

The beans were in a medium-thick sauce, quite tender, and a nice flavor, without any chunks of beef. They were quite tasty. And the beef brisket sandwich was tender and juicy even before I added the sauce on top. Overall, a winner of a meal.

So — this is the Tale of Two BBQ Jointz. Buckaroo Bill’s is a tourist trap. Not authentic BBQ, although it was filling. But Beartooth Barbeque appears to be the ‘real thing’ for BBQ in West Yellowstone. We will visit it again the next trip to Yellowstone. Your next visit to Yellowstone (an impressive place in it’s own right) should include a trip to Beartooth Barbeque. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

I’ve been sitting here for the past couple of hours watching all of the comments from people that have their web site hosted at BlueHost. BlueHost has two data centers, and at one of them there was a power transformer failure (perhaps fire). Their local electric utility asked them to shut down the data center (except phones) because of the extra load on the power system, so BlueHost did a orderly shutdown of their server farm.

What they didn’t do was take advantage of social networking to alert their customers. Of course, their phone lines were overloaded, so lots of frustration out there.

A lot of people were complaining about lost revenue for their sites. And I am thinking: what was their plan for a service interruption of their web site? Do they have a backup data center? Is their data even backed up? Or are they just relying on their hosting company to take care of everything?

Admittedly, there are things that a data center can do. There can be properly configured backup data generators (with a transfer switch to isolate them from the local power grid). There can be a disaster plan whereby there is better communication to their customers (such a Twitter / Facebook / web page status hosted elsewhere). The BlueHost folks didn’t do well in the communication department; it took until about 2 hours into the outage for them to start Tweeting.

But, all of the whining people out there saying that the outage is costing them money … what is your responsibility to keeping *your* site up for your customers? What data backup plans do you have in place? How are you communicating with *your* customers about problems with *your* site? Do you have a plan? Have you practiced your plan?

We’ve talked about data backups here before. We’ve mentioned that we use Carbonite to back up the data on our home computers. I manage several sites, and I have database backups emailed to me daily (and I have used those backups to recover from damage database tables). My backup plan — my Disaster Recovery Plan — is not perfect; it could use some tweaking.

But — what is your plan?  Comments are invited.

Got a new computer for back to school? Is it safe to use? Is it ready for the evil hackers that are out to get you? Here’s some advice to make the new computer a bit safer. This is also good advice for ‘old’ computers.

My mantra has always been ‘safe computing’, as my two (or three) regular readers know. I’ve posted safe computing tips for years. And I have set up a lot of computers over the many years since I got my first IBM PC back in the 80’s (that’s the 1980’s, smart-aleck!). Here’s what I do to make the computer safe. (This advice is for Windows-based computers. For all you Mactivists, please go someplace else. You too, Linuxists. I just don’t want to argue with you.)

After taking it out of the box, I start it up, and remove any excess software. That’s all the trial-offers and limited-use stuff that usually gets installed on a computer. This includes any limited-time anti-virus software, or anything else. Just remove those programs.

Next step: connect to the Internet (through a wired connection if possible, because it’s faster) visit Microsoft’s www.microsoft.com/protect site and get all of the updates. Set up for getting and installing Microsoft Updates automatically. This may take a while, and a few restarts, but go ahead and do it. Very important. Read a book while it all gets done.

After all the MS updates are installed, get back to the Microsoft site and install Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). It’s free, works really good, and you don’t need any other anti-virus program (that’s why you uninstalled any anti-virus software that came with the computer). Check for any updates again, and do a full MSE scan of your system. (That will be good for another couple of chapters in your book.)

Now, go to www.adobe.com, and installed the latest Adobe Reader software. You can also install the latest Adobe Flash software. Then start each program and use their “update” choice to check for the latest stuff.

If you want, go to www.firefox.comand install the latest Firefox software, if you want to use that as your browser. Do the update thing there too, just because.

At this point, your computer will be fairly safe. Install any other programs you want, check for updates. Then do another MSE scan (a ‘quick’ scan is OK here) to ensure all is well.

Your computer is now ready, and probably the safest it will ever be. The next part involves the ‘safe computing practices’ that are done by the entity between the keyboard and the chair. (That’s you!).

Don’t open email attachments that you didn’t expect. Be wary of anything that asks you to install some add-in to view the latest video. Stay away from the web sites that you don’t want your mom to know you visit. (You know which ones those are.) Don’t join Facebook or Twitter or other ‘groups’ that ask you for your personal information. Make sure that your passwords are changed and fairly complex. You should also change the default passwords on your router (that’s the box that connects you to the Internet). Set up your wireless connection with WEP encryption, with a password that is not the default. (Go ahead and write the password on your router, is case it is forgotten.)

And then think about how you are going to backup all of that data (your music, documents, pictures, etc). What kinds of things will you lose if your hard disk dies. Or your computer is stolen. Or your house is flooded, or burns down. Maybe you think those are remote possibilities, but they do happen. (I use the Carbonite backup service, because it works and I don’t have to think of doing backups.)

Safe computing practices are important. Unless you don’t care about everything on your computer (or your bank account) just disappearing without a trace.

Be careful out there.