I’m excited. In the last couple of months, my brother-in-law, Steve, and I have been contemplating getting our own server in order to get a better price for web hosting. Recently, we’ve been corresponding extensively with OnSmart Networks (a New York based company that I’m currently hosting JoeyDay.com with) about setting up a virtual private server. We have been greatly impressed with every answer they’ve given so far. It’s really looking like this will be a great way to get cheaper hosting and every feature we could dream of. As of right now the plan is to have the server up and running on August 10.

We’ve already spoken with five individuals who have committed to hosting a domain on our server. Including Steve and I, the $50/mo cost of the server will be split seven ways, which totals out to $7.15 per person. If we get too crowded within the 1GB of space we’re allotted, an extra GB only costs another ten bucks a month (about a dollar extra per person).

We’ll be sending out an email by the end of the month that will have information about the plan and some basic terms of agreement; we’ve got a PayPal account set up so that people can login to pay the monthly dues by credit card; and we’ve secured the domain, FellowSites.org (not up yet) for use as a headquarters for payment and information purposes.

If you are interested in hosting with us, let us know.

[Updated by Joey on July 24, 2003 · 3:37pm]

I don’t know if you are like me, but I am almost constantly fighting popup ads. What you may or may not know is that most of these popup ads are generated by components installed on your computer called “spyware”.

I deal with spyware a lot with customers at work. We have a product that is supposed to block popups. It does a pretty good job with JavaScript popups, but it can’t usually block spyware. We usually recommend the following sites/downloads to customers with spyware.

and.doxdesk.com: parasite — Doxdesk has some great information about known spyware parasites: what they do, where they come from, and how to remove them. It even has a quick and dirty JavaScript that will attempt to detect spyware on your computer. I’m looking at the site right now and it says I have something called “IPInsight” installed. It also gives you a direct link to information about removing whatever you may be infected with.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware — The free version of this software will scan for and help you remove spyware components from your computer. They also have a Professional version (for a cost) that stays on all the time and detects as spyware viruses are installed on your computer. I run the free version (never felt like buying it, but it would be nice) program about once a month—whenever I notice stray popups—and I usually find 20 or 30 new components each time I run it.

If any of you have never used either of these resources, I encourage you to do so. Let me know what you find.

Janene recently completed a website for her Professional Writing class up at the U. The topic of her website is Stress Management. I’ve given her site it’s own directory on JoeyDay.com. You can get to it from the link above or from Janene’s page in the Friends section. I think she did a wonderful job.

I know everyone’s going to think I made it for her, but I didn’t. I taught her HTML and she did the bulk of the coding by herself. On the day it was due her class went to the computer lab (at the Sandy campus) so they could put the finishing touches on their sites and upload them. Since hers was already uploaded she used the time to help other people fix their HTML. I hope this experience has helped her to appreciate what I’d like to do for a living. 😊 

I saw this story on our local news (channel 4) last night. I couldn’t find a link for it, but today while perusing a bulletin board I frequent, I discovered that someone had found a link to the story.

After watching the story, it really creeped me out. This not only happened on one camera… but three seperate ones. They only display a few images on this site, but last night on the news… they showed quite a few. It was rather freaky.

Here’s another article I was able to dig out.

If you don’t visit the University very often, you aren’t aware of the crazy construction they have going on (with Trax and who knows what else). You never know what roads you can take or where you can park. It’s quite annoying. Anyway. Today I parked at the stadium during my math class (like I always do) and when I got in my car after class I saw a ticket on the car in front of me. I thought to myself that’s too bad and then I saw a ticket on my windshield!!!

The parking nazi’s came and gave me a ticket! How dare they give me a ticket, I can’t afford another one! (I received my first ticket a couple weeks ago…I think the parking nazi’s are after me.) Anyway. I accidently parked in the A section of the stadium. I didn’t see a sign that said it was A parking so I decided to appeal the ticket.

They don’t have a sign, I shouldn’t have to pay. Right?

I drove down to the commuter services building and said I need to talk to someone about this ticket (as I waved it in their face). They asked me to fill out a form and wait. A few minutes later I met with a Parking Nazi Officer and I told him my story. He looked at my record and said since you have a pretty clean record, I’ll take care of it for you. I smiled and said thank you and he said make sure you pay close attention next time or ride your bike.

Ride my bike? Are you kidding me?