I’m downloading some 3D Tutorial videos, the torrent is the biggest one I have ever attempted to download .. 92GB :p

Popularity: 3% [?]

A few days back I decided to design the VPS.NET mascot in 3D.

That was a task I gave myself, after all, for most of the 90’s that was my job, 3D Illustration and Animation in a time when 3D was still a tabu word … those where the days .. to create the simplest of the objects was a pain and a lengthy process, but the results where always very rewarding.

I was most proficient on Lightwave 3D, I used it from way back in the Newtek Toaster days, around 2000/2001 I decided I was going to move to Softimage 3D (then doing a name change to XSI), so I bought (then a very very very expensive) License, but as I did that, Alias & Wavefront merged to create “Maya” … so undecided on what to learn next, I stuck to Lightwave and put my other software licenses on the shelf.

It has been over 4 years since I last fired up Lightwave, as I did a few days back, I felt like someone who returns home after being gone for 20 years .. everything has a familiar feeling, but you cant find the cutlery drawer anymore

Seeing this was to be a back to basis and I would have to re-learn where everything was, I decided it was time to move on to a new software, so I setup Maya and will do my re-education on it.

Yep, it is back to basics …

Why ?, I know I could call on a friend or two and have them do the VPS.NET robot for me, but I want to do it myself, I miss being creative and doodling in a 3D App, I actually used to be quite good at it, while a career on 3D Animation is forever out of question for me, I will always enjoy the creative process and the satisfaction of designing in 3D.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The greatest task on any job, has to be product tolerance testing.

We are gearing up for a series of tests that will define what sort of SAN we will be using on the VPS Cloud, the actual tests will be performed early next week, for now we are setting up the hardware for it, once we have done it, we will post the results here in the bog.

Here is the info on what we are planning …

Read more…

Popularity: 12% [?]

Yesterday morning, I looked on our backyard and was amused to notice a very defined line between the snow/frost on the ground and the thaw of the same.

It’s obvious it was the line where the house covered the sun rays, not allowing it to thaw the snow, still, it’s perfect lines made for a cool picture

The Thaw line in the fence and on the grass

Popularity: 10% [?]

I have always been a huge fan of website mascots, they are not just great marketing tool, but also a fantastic way for people to relate to their provider, plus for us, it’s a fun way to express ideas by utilizing the mascot, you can create cartoons, explanatory graphics, etc .. much nicer than plain text and a chart.

With that in mind, we decided to create one for VPS.NET .. here is it’s story.

Read more…

Popularity: 16% [?]

I was reading recently a post on WHT about a customer complaint that he paid $8 /month for a VPS with a certain host, and he was upset he only got 200Mhz per core on a quad core setup (800Mhz total), and not the “entire” cpu … !

That was the kind of post that makes me real happy that I dont work on Sales .. otherwise I’d tell that individual to shove it, take their money and go look for hosting elsewhere.

Lets do the math shall we ?

We know the host is using Quad Core 2.4Ghz CPU’s, and they offer “equal share CPU” .. this means they are putting (2.4ghz / 200Mhz = 12) 12 VPS’s per server, that on itself makes me doubt the sanity of the host, if they sell 12 of their $8 /month plan, it means the server brings in only $98 /month .. for Quad Core .. thats insane.

Why is it insane ?, because these are the kind of people that later on are wondering around trying to sell their businesses at any price, due to the fact their profit margins are so slim, they realize they can make more money per month by selling fries at the Mc Donald’s Drive-Thru than Web Hosting, and second, I am a firm believer you must be a very profitable company at all times, you OWE it to your customers, otherwise they are not safe with you as you are just a bankruptcy in the making ready to go off at any time (ok, I know I am generalizing here, but look at the amount of bargain basement hosts going bely up the past 5-6 years and tell me I am wrong..).

And the delirious customer ?, well, he is a by-product of the bargain basement offering, simply put, $8 for a VPS ?, such product should no exist, it creates a false statement that this technology can be sold at a certain price bracket, and that is just not true, problem is, customers expect it, and then when they get it, they want more, and again expect to be given more .. period ..

Rant Over …..

Popularity: 13% [?]

I signed up for twitter a few months back, but never got much interested on it, until recently when I started reading Everaldo’s Twitter page, and then found Twinkle for the iPhone

Now I am hooked

http://twitter.com/NullMind

Popularity: 12% [?]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said “Sometimes we may learn more from a man’s errors, than from his virtues.” .. I guess we can adapt that quote to the fact these days we learn more from when the systems fail, than when they are working fine .. such was the case today.

We had done some tests on the VPS Cloud self healing measure by shutting down a Hypervisor’s services, and always, the VPS nodes residing there, would automatically boot up on a different one in the Cloud … always below 40 seconds (yes, 40 seconds)… but we decided that was no fun, it was time to go to the datacenter and pull some cables … yes .. I love my job

Read more…

Popularity: 15% [?]

Since starting working on the VPS.net Cloud project, several people have asked me … what exactly is a VPS Cloud ?, I quickly explain it’s a conglomerate of high power servers and network based storage working in unison to allow almost instant deployment, scalability and self healing, a true utopian hosting environment…

That is usually followed by “yes .. but where is the actual cloud ?” .. and then my job just got harder.

Read more…

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s 13:30 and instead of being at my workdesk I am on a fast train back to home in Sandbach.

My father in law, a man that I was quite fond of (heck, he try to get me drunk 1 hour before my wedding to his daughter), passed away this morning in Massachussets
I had to break the news myself to Sally, and she is histerical in grief, so I am on my way to home to consol her and arrange her trip to the USA tomorrow.

What a horrible year this has been, first my dad, now hers.

Popularity: 14% [?]