Time to disconnect…
Aaah summertime… The best time to take some time off from work and to disconnect. I recently came to realize that it had been a long time since I last took some time off and with recent changes in my personal life I thought it would be a good idea to take some serious time off this summer.
So… The next 4 weeks I’m going to try and disconnect. I want to try and not read email, stay off Twitter and Facebook and really relax. Some of my Twitter followers were already taking bets on how long I would last ;) But I’m serious about this… I want to catch up on reading, catch up on gaming and just recharge my batteries… How long do you think I will last? ;)
Anyway… This post was really just to say that my blog, Twitter and Facebook pages will be a lot quieter than usual the next 4 weeks. Enjoy the summer!
Happy Holidays!
2010 was definitely a year with some spectacular roller coasters… I’ve been thinking all morning about which highlight I would pick if I had to choose one. Adobe MAX was definitely a huge highlight for me this year. The keynotes, MAX online, meeting Martha Stewart and William Shatner, the amazing buzz and meeting some amazing people at the MAX Bash, … It’s going to be tough to top that this year! But the biggest highlight is probably seeing how great the Flash community is. From the people that organize great events like FOTB, FFK, AUGXL, FITC, Flash Camps, user group meetings, … to the people that share code / help others and the people who read my blog and/or follow me on Twitter and Facebook. You guys are truly amazing. Wow… This is starting to sound like some acceptance speech for some award or something… Ehr… Before it gets too mushy… ;-) Happy holidays! 2011 is going to rock!
Blog theme update
“Hey Serge, what happened to that blog design contest winner? When is that theme going up?”. Aaah yes… I got that question a couple of times in the last few weeks. Sadly Marten (the winner) mailed me with the message that he would not be able to finish the actual WordPress theme… Since that was a part of the contest, I could not just ask someone else to transform the PSD in to an actual theme. I couldn’t really cut the prize in half and so I decided to keep it for a future contest.
Around the same time, I came across Canvas by WooThemes and decided to build something on top of this framework theme. February has been really busy so I didn’t get around to building it yet. But… Tonight I noticed that someone/something inserted a link to a malware site (If you’re on Windows, please double check if the malware link didn’t install anything on your machine. I apologize if it did.). From the first investigation, I noticed some weirdness going on in the theme files and thus decided to expedite the theme switch. It’s now using a default Canvas theme but hopefully the code injecting security hole is now gone.
If you still see something weird, it would be greatly appreciated if you could let me know. Thanks!
Haiti needs your help! Show your support and help raise awareness!
I know this is extremely off topic but nonetheless I think it’s well worth pointing your attention to. I’m sure you’ve heard about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. According to the Red Cross, 3 million people (1 in 3 Haitians) are affected by the earthquake.
While Haiti is definitely not around the corner for most of us, you too can help. You can help by donating to the Red Cross, Unicef, Oxfam or other help organizations. Even the smallest amount can help. I’ve donated €25/$36 to the Red Cross which will be matched by Adobe.
You can also help raise awareness by adding this little widget (as seen on the right) I created this morning to your site. It’s extremely easy! Just click on the “grab and share button” and add it to your social network page, blog or site. After you’ve added it to your site, ask your friends to do the same.
Happy holidays!
Happy holidays! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a spectacular New Year’s eve. 2010 is going to be amazing with some really exciting new releases. Just trust me on that one ;-) I’m taking some time off so the blog may/will be quiet for a few weeks. See you in 2010!
(In case you were wondering, I created/rendered this image with Blender and did some color adjustments in Photoshop CS4.)
Why I switched to Rackspace Cloud + get a $25 voucher for your new account
Before I start about why I moved to Rackspace Cloud, I want to make it clear that I had no problems with my old host whatsoever. I’ve used Hetzner for my hosting the last oh… 5 years or so and really haven’t had any big problems. So why did I move? First of all, let me explain what I used for hosting at Hetzner. I used one of their managed servers to host some of my friends’ blogs and random sites. On top of that, I had a dedicated box for my blog and my ColdFusion install. The biggest reason I started looking for another solution was that I had no time to keep my dedicated box up to date, which was really starting to become a problem. So I looked at a number of hosting companies to see what they offered. With the Dollar to Euro ratio being what it is today, I favored US hosting companies. For flexibility, I also favored cloud hosting. I like the fact that I don’t have to worry about my server the next time I get featured on Techmeme.
So what do I like about Rackspace Cloud?
I really like their offering and how easy it is to choose. Cloud Sites is basically a managed solution. $100/month gives you the equivalent of a 2.8GHz machine in a clustered environment. You also get 50GB of space, 500GB of monthly bandwidth, automatic backups, SSL support and access to a live, fanatical 24/7 support team (and they really are fanatical!). You can even mix a LAMP server setup with a .NET setup. (I really hope they will add ColdFusion to this mix as well… *hint* *hint*)
They also have an offering for Cloud Servers. These are virtual dedicated machines and this is what really persuaded me to go for Rackspace Cloud. I really like that you only pay for what you use. If you’re not using the server, you don’t pay anything. This is perfect for development and testing servers but also for setups that you don’t use as often. The Cloud Servers are also flexible. You can start off with their smallest server (10GB HD/256MB RAM) and scale it up when you need more space or RAM. The Rackspace Cloud control panel is very easy to use and gives you a great overview of how much your servers are consuming.
I ended up signing up for a Cloud Sites account and also signed up for a 40GB HD/1GB RAM Cloud Server. I moved all the blogs (including this one) and sites to the Cloud Sites account and installed ColdFusion 9 on the Cloud Server. The move was a very smooth ride! I’ve been using this setup for a month now and was very happy to find out that I’m now paying a little more than a third of what I used to pay for my hosting (obviously also thanks to the Dollar to Euro ratio).
If you want to try Cloud Sites yourself, I have a $25 promotion code for you.
Just use the promo code [email protected] when you sign up for a new Cloud Sites account and you will receive $25 off your first month’s Cloud Sites hosting bill. But hurry up… The promo code is only valid until December 1st.
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