Technology

I have mentioned a couple of times recently that I am starting to look for a new web host for several different reasons, the first being bandwidth and CPU usage. I still don’t know if I am going to switch or not but I have found a couple of different providers that I am looking into one of which is Host Arcadia, who is also sponsoring this review.

Host Arcadia has a couple of really good plans that I am looking at. One of the things that really interests me is that their biggest plan, Zion, has 2.5 times the bandwidth that I currently get from my provider for less than half the price. The also let you pay a yearly rate. At $130 a year for the biggest plan, that’s what I pay for five months at my current provider.

The starter plan that they offer which is good for most folks is only $3 a month but you have to pay for that one a year at a time, so it’s $36. Not bad at all. In addition to the extra space and bandwidth you get from their hosting plans, Host Arcadia also throws in webmail, unlimited email accounts, unlimited MySQL databases,cpanel, and Fantastico.

They also have a pretty nice affiliate program that I am going to be looking into as well. If you are interested in web hosting or reselling you can get in touch with them at 1-845-784-1614. They are running a pretty nice Grand Opening Reseller Promotion as well at $9.95 a month for 3GB space, 80GB bandwidth, cpanel and Fantastico along with unlimited hosted domains.

I also like the fact that their servers are hosted in Atlanta. Being a southern boy myself I prefer to use things that are “local” although that pretty much doesn’t matter now except for the fact that my current provider is either somewhere out west or in the northeast and occasionally I have DNS issues with them.

This post is sponsored by IDrive-E. IDrive-E is a supplier of online backup services. I have been getting interested in online backup suppliers over the last couple of months and have reviewed a couple of them as well. IDrive is one of the leading suppliers and offers free backup space up to 2GB without any kind of bandwidth or file restrictions. This could be pictures, documents, or even music. They also offer the option to upgrade to the paid plan, IDrive-E Pro as well. The pro plan is only $4.95 a month or $49.50 a year and offers unlimited storage space.

I went ahead and signed up for the free plan for the time being so that I could check it out. Sign-up is easy, Name, user name, password, email address, and a captcha gets you started at which point you download the application, which is about 7 megs. The install ran pretty much flawlessly under Windows Vista. During the install you pick an encryption password with which your files will be encrypted, so don’t forget it as you won’t be able to recover your files without it.

After you have picked the password it will prompt you to restart your computer. It’s not required to use the IDrive-E interface but if you want to use mapped drives and Windows Explorer it is. Using the IDrive interface is fairly easy. You just pick the files that you want to backup, and either schedule a backup, or tell it to backup right now. I went ahead and did a manual backup and decided to store some pictures. I am sure that I have more than two gigs of photos on this computer but will store as many as I can. Here’s a shot of the main interface.

Once I picked Backup Now it scans the files…

…and then starts the Online Backup. Apparently I did have less than two gigs. I had forgotten that I have not put all of my pictures back on here since I rebuilt my PC earlier in the year…

Overall it is a pretty cool service and a nifty companion app. I am considering signing up for the pro service. I am interested in seeing how well I can access my media files online as I may install this on my media center. I have close to 800Gb of videos and movies and it would be nice to be able to free up some of that space here. If it’s fast enough I may just use them via a mapped drive.

I’m not a real huge multi-player game fan although I’ve played my share of death matches, but my son is. As a matter of fact he really enjoys World of Warcraft. One link I sent him recently was to Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide. It’s pretty cool and there’s even a video with commentary that explains the whole deal. I have played in a couple of different MMORPGS and I can tell you that it’s hard work to level quickly, but it can be done. The hardest part for me, particularly since I don’t play a lot of online RPGs is that I never know who to talk to to find quests, or spend half my time just asking questions about how to do stuff. This guide takes care of those issues.

Technorati : Warcraft

One of the things I am really lousy about doing is sending greeting cards. I’ve got a box or two of Christmas cards tucked away in the closet that I bought several years ago that just seem to not get sent year after year. The same thing goes for birthdays, anniversaries, etc…What I have taken to doing the last couple of years is just sending online cards. With PictureSandbox Greeting Cards you can send your own “phreeting” (photo + greeting) that you have personalized like these.

…breathing a sigh of relief. Good deal. I would have hated to lose my keyboard to a shitty replacement.

…after having spilled coffee on it yesterday morning. I thought I had snatched it off my desk fast enough and gotten everything wiped up but when i got home last night most of the keys on the right side were sticking. A little cleanup later..

The keys are drying right now. Hopefully everything will be slick once I get it back together. I hate the keyboard I am using right now. The keys feel mushy and everything is just slightly different which makes for a ton of freaking typing errors.

According to this article using black Google rather than white Google saves energy. Why’s it always got to be about black and white any way? Damn racists… Anyway, that means my web site is saving you money every time you come here. You can send all extra proceeds to my Paypal account.

Even though I post quite often about skinning and Windows customization over at my tech site as well as here, one thing I don’t talk about much and is one of the oldest ways to customize your desktop, is wallpaper. Just by changing your wallpaper you can change the entire feel of your working environment on the computer.

This review sponsored by vcars.co.uk is a web site where you can find all sorts of wallpapers and screensavers for download. Check out some of the Ford wallpapers and screensavers. This one is a pretty low res picture of the Ford GT40, but the full wallpaper is much better.

They also have plenty of other cars to choose from as well, such as the Mustang and the Iosis. I had never even seen an Iosis before I saw the wallpaper and it looks really sharp. I am hopefully getting a new car this fall, and that or the ‘stang with the pony kit would just be too sharp.

As I mentioned before they also have screensavers. Check out this Ford Screensaver that is posted at Youtube.

That’s pretty cool. I generally just stick with whatever generic screensaver is installed on my PC at the time, but those are pretty nice.

I have never used cars for my wallpaper before but some of these are pretty sharp. They also have a ton of other sweet makes and models aside from Ford to choose from, including Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Hummers, Porsche, and quite a few more. If you are an auto enthusiast this is the place for you.

This is the Ford Iosis that I mentioned. It looks pretty sharp.

VCars sells Used Cars, and even though I am not currently looking for a used car, I do love the wallpapers. They are a network of 50 manufacturing specific websites that helps you find used cars in your area. They update the car listings daily, so there is always something new to look at.

Anyway, back to the wallpapers. Check out this Mustang wallpaper.

I have loved the Mustang ever since I was a little kid. My mom had one from the late sixties when I was small, and then had a Mustang II back in the seventies. A true muscle car. When I lived with some friends about twenty years ago, one of them had a very old baby blue Mustang convertible that I fell in love with.

My site must have been down today. 26 hits. Very strange..