Posted on: February 27th, 2009 by Famous Phil

Today’s blog is about Google since Jordan will be writing about Google today as well.

I wouldn’t believe it if anyone told me they’ve never heard of Google.  I’d also find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone hasn’t used Google ever or benefited from a google query.  Lets face it, Google owns the search industry!  Google also is very efficient at indexing the internet for quick searches.

In recent years, Google has released several new features including, but not limited to, gmail, google earth, google calendar, google docs, and google web toolkit.

I have not tried google docs, however have heard that their terms of service say that google can access your documents whenever they want.  I’m not sure how true this is, so I will say no more. (http://www.jordandelozier.com/2009/02/does-google-0wnz-your-soul/ verifies this).  However with storing private information anywhere on another service, you have to trust other people who have access to your account (administrators).  I’m not sure if I’d like to trust a free service with my documents, regardless of how popular they are, but thats just me.

As for the google web toolkit and google search, I use both often. I don’t think I could live without google search!  I submit a good 100 queries each day to google.   As for the google web tool kit, I love how it simplifies javascript into java.  This has helped me on numerous websites that I’ve developed.

As for google earth, I’ve tried that and it is impressive, however I don’t like the fact that it installs a program to my computer that then interfaces to an internet connection, therefore I’ve uninstalled it and haven’t used it since.

Gmail is also impressive, I tried GMail twice.  I thought that I could make it interface with imap and sync my email to every device I have.  Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that their IMAP sucks.  You cannot upload email to their servers via IMAP to a sent mail folder.  I also found that when using a text based client called pine, I couldn’t access the server due to unfamiliar directory names.  I also hate how they don’t allow unsecure access via IMAP.  I do however like their web interface.

Google calendar is also impressive, and I used this on one website that I created.  Google calendar however has a small problem with it, its embedded and you can’t customize the calendar all that much. It also uses a format that is different from the normal ICS file format so a calendar parser can’t quite parse the google ics files correctly, however this may have been fixed by now.

With mobile applications and google, gmail syncs to a smartphone correctly, however won’t syncronise tasks, calendar appointments and contacts effectively.  I found many bugs with the one software program that does exist to sync the calendar to my mobile phone.

After finding all these problems, I now pay for mailxchange from www.1and1.com.  I got my own domain and it syncs to everything perfectly.  It also provides me with standard ics files to power http://calendar.famousphil.com!   I’m sure that Microsoft Exchange can do this also, however I wasn’t about ready to pay for hosting on Exchange with the very small space allotments most hosts provide.

Because of the sync issues I’ve had and pine issues, I use 1and1′s mailxchange service, and they even provide a storage area like google docs!   I have also read their TOS and they will not release my personal email or documents unless a legal case comes up requiring they do it.  I trust their staff, probably because I pay for it.  Google should allow its customers to pay for services like syncing if you ask me.

Thats enough blabbing about Google   I like thier search and will likely always use google for all of my search needs.  Their mail on the other hand needs some work before I’d consider using it.

Tags: 1and1.com, calendar, contacts, exchange, Google, ics, mailxchange, Microsoft, sync
Posted in Technology
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Posted on: February 23rd, 2009 by Famous Phil

I would like to dedicate this entry to the Disney Film: High School Musical 3.

I began like most of the world by watching High School Musical on the Disney Channel as a night time movie to burn my Friday evening away.  I also have this strange admiration of musicals ever since I saw the first Grease back in the 1990s.  I find that musical movies have a certain vibe that other movies just don’t have.  The first movie was great and I quickly became interested in the franchise that High School Musical has obtained.  I then watched the 2nd movie and that also was nothing short of perfection like the first movie in my opinion.

Now that I’ve seen High School Musical 3, I’ve seen the end of the current “series” as we know it.  I seriously doubt that this could turn into another simpsons with 17 runs +, although the plot could be easily carried onto college.  Although I might be selfish sometimes and want this, I do believe that there exists too much of a good thing, and High School Musical going further could easily touch into this category, just like the Simpsons have.  While i’m on this topic, I might as well mention that the reason why I’m not for a 5th season of Kim Possible is because I believe that the series ended on a really good note with the end of Season 4, unlike Season 3 which ended with me crying at the end (wanting more)   High School Musical 3 has definately ended on a good note as well!

High School Musical in its entirety has been excellent thus far and the entire crew has done a spectacular job.  I’m impressed with filming and the amazing chorography!  I wish at times that I could perform some of the moves that are accomplished in each of the films, however I’m afraid that I’m a computer scientist and my best work is done behind a desk.

I have considered audio engineering and learning how to take a picture and train my already good eyes and ears.  I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I’m really good with audio / video editing and getting the right angles for both the camera and microphones.  Someday, I might want to end up working on a movie or at a movie production company, but at this point, that decision is yet to be made.

One final note, like http://caps.kpfanworld.com, I plan on adding a section here on my website for caps of the 3rd HSM movie   I hope to have that up in a few days.

Tags: high school musical 3 computer engineering sound audio plans goals
Posted in My Site, Personal
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Posted on: February 18th, 2009 by Famous Phil

As the owner of a hosting company, I have made several decisions regarding which server to use, what kind of control panel should I provide, should I add features to my hosting, how many resources should I include, etc.  In my opinion, one of the most important decisions in hosting is choosing how your users will use the service, meaning what control panel should I use?  There are many options for Linux including, Plesk, LXAdmin, and the most popular: CPanel.

CPanel is the control panel that I choose to use for Matthouse hosting accounts, but why did I choose CPanel, what are its advantages and disadvantages?

I suppose I should first begin with a small description of what CPanel is.  CPanel allows the hosting client to modify all aspects of their site from an easy to use web-based interface such as FTP accounts, Email accounts, statistics, subdomains, additional domains to host, etc.  CPanel makes it very easy for the hosting company to give the client total control of their website without the requirement of providing full server access.

Here are the advantages of using CPanel:

1. Its very easy to install, just install Linux and run the installation script, it will configure most of your server automatically
2. Cpanel provides a very easy visual interface where you can manage your server.  There are several panels that are meant for administrators, clients, and even email users.  There are also very easy to follow tutorials posted on CPanel’s website for those users who may not know where to start
3. Cpanel automates most of the hosting experience which reduces stress on the hosting company

So, what are the disadvantages of hosting with CPanel?

1. I personally believe that CPanel is meant for websites that are small to medium. CPanel itself is a resource hog and requires at least 256MB of ram on the server to run, and this amount probably won’t even run a website getting 200 hits a day without running out of memory or running into swap space on the server.    Most servers will have much more RAM than this, but a base install should not require more than 50 to 60MB of ram.
2. On a default install, CPanel usually is optimized for a dedicated server with 4 to 16GB of RAM.  Even the VPS Optimized version of CPanel requires additional configuration to keep CPanel within check.  If you don’t do initial configuration in Apache, etc, you may run into memory errors easily since Apache will start up 20 to 30 processes at 1 to 6MB a piece.  In addition, most of the Apache configuration is default and many modules are missing such as Source Gaurdian which will protect PHP code from hurting your server.  In addition, CPanel doesn’t secure SSH or FTP, you you should still install a firewall and tighten SSH security.
3. CPanel is software which contains vulnerabilities just like any other software.    Cpanel updates run nightly, however what happens if someone discovers a security risk and decides to attack your server before the updates are pushed to your server covering the vulnerability?  To come back to my past disadvantage of Cpanel is meant for small to medium sites, I believe this aids to the arguement that big sites are more likely to be hacked than smaller sites.
4. CPanel costs money to license. This is rarely a factor to most big sites and companies because they have that kind of money to spend for something easy to use, however CPanel licenses are not cheap.  This really could be neither and advantage of disadvantage, but its worth sticking on my list of points to consider.

So when would I recommend a CPanel installation?  Thats simple, I’d recommend it for hosting companies that host many sites on a single server.  It reduces stress on the hosting company, and generally these servers have plentiful resources to handle CPanel in its entirety.  Also sites that are generally on shared CPanel hosting are not big enough to have a good probability of being hacked.

When would I not recommend installing CPanel.  I would personally say never install CPanel on a large site that gets over 5000 unique hits a day or more.  CPanel may make administering the site easier, however most sites that are this big bring in a lot of revenue  and paying for CPanel could be just slightly cheaper than hiring an experienced server administrator or a friend to run the server without CPanel.  Installing the core components and configuring them manually will also ensure that you have minimal code that can be hacked (Yes, web servers are software).  I’ve always been taught that the less code you use, the less likely there will be problems with it.

Thats all the time I have.  I might follow up on this depending on how many comments I receive.

Tags: CPanel, Host, hosting, Linux, Manager, Web, WHM
Posted in Hosting / Server Administration
|| 24 Comments »

Posted on: February 13th, 2009 by Famous Phil

Jordan,  the founder of codecall (http://codecall.net) requested that I blog about my experience with Windows Mobile Applications, more or less, talk a little bit about my favorite applications.

I have a XV6700 Mobile Phone with a Modified ROM image of Windows Mobile 6.1 along with a Verizon plan consisting of little talk time and primarily data.  I use my phone mainly for email, next to remotely controlling lights in various locations I reside (including but not limited to my college dorm room).  I rarely use it to talk / text, and that is the primary reason why you get a faster email response from me than you would ever get by calling me.  I feel weird holding a Windows computer to my face and talking to it, so I generally ignore phone calls

Anyways, The number one useful application on my phone is called Meeting Mute.  It is shareware, meaning you have to pay 8 dollars for it.  You can get it from: http://www.pocketconcepts.com/MeetingMute.html This was written for pocket pc 2003 and I had to adknowledge that there is a bug in this program when ran on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, which is the category mute functions don’t work because Microsoft changed the database backend for categories.  I really like this application because it monitors my live calendar, then mutes my phone if I’m supposedly in an appointment.  Being a college student, this application mutes my phone while I’m in class, and I never have to fear being embarrased by having my phone ring during class.  I’ve never had that happen (mostly because I don’t give my number out freely), however just incase, its useful to have!

The next application I couldn’t live without is called 1&1 Sync, which is an addon to 1and1.com’s MailXChange email service.  This is a Microsoft Exchange – like mail software that is open source.  This syncs my smartphone’s contacts, files, calendar, email, tasks, and texts (if I want) to my online email inbox, and it auto syncs every 5 minutes to keep my email up to date on my phone.  With this, I have eliminated the need for internet browser based email like gmail, atmail mobile, hotmail mobile, etc.  It has also eliminated the need for me to sync my phone to my comptuer manually since it automatically happens with the pc’s software to do the same sync with outlook 2007/2003.  One small missing feature is a bookmark sync, which I am still looking at implementing sometime in the near future!  I seriously recommend this service from 1and1 because it works so flawlessly, and this software for my phone is great!

The next application that i use is free!  Its pocket putty.  Pocket putty is a mobile based ssh client from http://www.pocketputty.net/.  This software helps me do server administration from my phone when my laptop is not convient to pull out and use.  I can easily login to my servers and look at top and kill processes / restart services from my phone quickly and easily.  Since it supports ssh keys, I have keys auto configured so I don’t end up struggling to type in complex passwords that I can never remember.  I would recommend pocket putty to anyone who is a linux system admin (or windows admin with an ssh server running with powershell).

Next up is mundu’s IM client.  I use trillian on my pc, however on my phone, there is nothing else that is closer to trillian other than Mundu.  You can get Mundu for 20 bucks from http://mundu.com/ I use it for IM while I’m in the car and don’t feel like getting on a laptop, and don’t need to be on long.  For example, I often use mundu for sending messages to other admins with quick messages that I may not remember for later.

Next up is a great program called tcpmp.  It is a free media player.  My main use of it is for shoutcast streams.  I often play the 977 shoutcast streams from shoutcast’s main website.  This is a great player with a lot of options, including a built in equalizer for when you have good quality headphones and want a better sound from them.

Blackme is the next logical program.  This free program will disable your entire phone except for the power button (sort of like a lock).  With this program, you can easily start a media stream then black your phone and save battery power while continuing to listen to music.  Its great for long term listening to music while walking, running, jogging, etc.  Please note that I do not run or jog, I simply walk   Yes, I’m a bit lazy lol.

MyMobiler is another great free application.  With this application, you can use your pocket pc or smartphone directly from your desktop.  It will show you your pocket pc’s screen on your desktop computer and with that, you can easily install applications / use your phone without touching it.  I use it often to project it onto a screen to show other people features on my phone.  I also use it to take screenshots of my phone for friends asking what I have on my phone.

I do use skype mobile on my phone.  It is a free program that enables skype on your phone.  The nice part about skype mobile is that I can use my unlimited skype account to make world wide calls for free with my data connection instead of paying for minutes which cost a lot more.  This program has ok sound quality, however it is a great addon for a phone if it can handle it.

Pocket opera is great for those who don’t like pocket IE that comes with the mobile phone.  It gives IPhone like functionality of a browser with a little speed sacrifice.  It is a great program for when I want to view a full website very small then double tap the screen to zoom into the site.  As I said, it is a bit slow, and it does cost to get this great browser!

Finally, the last program that I’m going to mention is a free IRC client for your phone called ZSIRC.  Although I’ve only used this program once (an administration emergency on an IRC server that I manage was my reason), I like it.  If I took the time to use my bluetooth full size foldup keyboard, I would be able to easily use this application anywhere to replace trillian as my IRC client.  This free program connects you to an irc server and lets you communicate with others in the room you join.

Thats all the applications that I use on my phone aside from Pocket Internet Explorer and Pocket Windows Media Player which come with the phone.  Comments on other programs might be useful to others

Thanks for reading as always

Tags: mobile, pocket pc, smartphone, Windows Mobile
Posted in Mobile Technology
|| 5 Comments »

Posted on: February 10th, 2009 by Famous Phil

Over the past week or so, I’ve been getting extremely busy with my normal college workload that is a fact of any Computer Science Major’s college career.  Over the past week, I’ve learned 5 new languages in a project for my programming languages class.  Those languages are ML, Lisp, Erlang, Prolog, and Ruby.  I’ve done limited Ruby in the past, however I have never done any string parsing operations until this project.  I’m confident I’ve finished this project fully and I intend on posting it somewhere on my homework section after I receive my grade for this project.

In addition to my programming class, I’m taking French, Algorithms, and Probability.  Of the three, French takes about 3 hours of my week for homework, probability takes about 4 hours of my week reading the book so I know whats going on, and I put about an hour a week into my Algorithms course so I know something when the test comes later this month.

Now that you have an idea of what I’m doing for college, lets move onto AdminReference.  In my free time, I’ve been looking at numerous design ideas for the site.  I’ve pretty much made up my mind that it will contain a main site and a forum.  The main site will simply be an introduction to what the site is about, while the forum will be where community members will be able to interact with each other.  The service will be free unlike experts exchange because I want an easy reference thats freely available to anyone who needs it.  Initially the site will be ad free, however if traffic grows so much that I need to put a lot of funds into the site, I may insert an ad or two although I am not a fan of advertisements on websites (I feel they slow the site down and hurt its appearence).  Eventually after some content is added to the site, I may work on making a wiki-like interface where tutorials on the forum (or whatever guides are posted) will automatically be tied into a dynamic electronic reference manual that is easily searchable.

Thats all that I really have time to blog about for today, so stay tuned for the next blog within a week

Tags: college, reference, school, server, work
Posted in My Site
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