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Thursday 18 March 2010

my new job

Today I have accepted a new and challenging position after a series of gruelling, demanding interviews and in depth technical tests. My new role is working for Dreamhost as a BMC Patrol Monitor Agent.

My key responsibilities are as follows:

• Write a blog article offline using Performancing.
• Post draft.
• Preview article in WYSIWG format on the blog.
• Blog is slow and unresponsive.
• ssh to Dreamhost server which is slow and unresponsive.
• Run 'w' to determine load average which is slow and unresponsive.
• Raise ticket with Dreamhost technical support.
• Wait for a period of time.
• The performance problem is 'resolved'. Perm any one from:
1. 'Denial of Service attack' - now resolved by firewall configuration
2. 'Users in breach of Terms of Service - accounts now cancelled
3. 'Users producing abnormal heavy load' - now migrated to another server
4. Machine was recently rebooted that should solve problem

Repeat whole pointless exercise the next time. Repeat ad infinitum.

So anyone with any recommendations for a reliable hosting provider capable of hosting a low bandwidth personal WordPress blog, please make themselves known.

I'm really starting to regret leaving the warm, cozy, uncomplicated world of hosted WordPress.com.

an unusual load average

I might have been dreaming but I swear that the load average on this DreamHost server was over 400.

Now I realise DreamHost is offering inexpensive, shared hosting but this is a little excessive.

I just wish they'd told me I would be co-hosted with Amazon, Yahoo and eBay.

here we go

The mySql database for this WordPress blog was unavailable at 18:45.

Service was restored at 19:15.

free 20GB memory stick

Forget Box.Net. Forget Mozy. Forget memory sticks. Forget USB hard drives.

DreamHost have upgraded the 'basic' $7.95 per month hosting package from 20GB to a staggering 200GB disk storage.

As this humble blog currently occupies 0.01%, I have plenty of capacity for my photos, documents, CV (in txt, doc, PDF, LaTeX formats) and all my homework. In fact, as my hard disk is a paltry 40GB, I have room for absolutely everything.

And if that wasn't enough, Dreamhost are giving me a further 1GB every week.

initial impressions of Dreamhost

I have been pretty impressed with Dreamhost so far:

• Configured putty for SSH access.
• Installed Joomla (one-click)
• Upgraded to PHP5 (one-click)
• Installed MediaWiki (one-click)
• Installed Gregarius (all by myself)

The only minor issues I have encountered is that I can't disable telnet (insecure) and my analog stats didn't get refreshed today.

Dreamhost have a blog, a Wiki, support forums and any idiotic questions (after ignoring all of those) have all been answered promptly and courteously.