Jul 22, 2008 | Work
And that’s me being VERRRRRY ladylike!
This afternoon I was contacted by one of my hosting companies who told me that the server that one of my biggest sites is hosted on was busy dying!!
AAAAARGH!!!! … BEEEG PANIC!
This site is crucial to us and to have it go down or lose data would be a HUGE train smash.
Anyway, they had already formulated a plan – clever chaps. Thank goodness. They said they were going to transfer all the data to a new server for me. That’s huge – it’s about 2.5G after it’s all zipped up – would have taken weeks to upload! (Yeah, I’ve done it myself before when we move servers and it DID literally take weeks!) Their plan was to then use one of the pointer domains to test the newly-transferred site and then, once I was happy, to sort the DNS (domain name server) out so that our regular URL (domain / web address) would point to the new server.
So that’s what happened and so far, so good – the data has been copied and testing is looking ok. We’ve found one or two glitches that have arisen as a result of the new server configuration not being identical to the last – they had done a LOT of tweaks on it for me.
But we’re almost ready to sort the DNS out and hopefully that transfer will happen pretty quickly so that the site is not down for too long. Lawd knows that would be HELL to deal with … and I definitely don’t feel like nearly 2000 angry clients climbing all over me right now!!
The hosting company has been fantastic! They’ve really pulled out all the stops for me on this one. I’m very grateful to have such a jacked team managing my server.
Whew … WHAT a day!
I’m completely shattered, can’t wait to just crawl into bed and do diddlysquat!
Jul 15, 2008 | Friends and Family, Websites
LINDA PAGE!
Kat has just emailed me to tell that she’s chosen the winning name for her new blog …
KatScan
Well done to Linda for winning the “Name This Blog” contest!!
Your $50 voucher from Amazon is on it’s way =)
And well done to Kat for getting an awesome name!
NOTE: Although Linda happens to be an old friend, and I sponsored this competition, I had absolutely ZERO influence over Kat’s decision.
Funny story … I only discovered that Linda was online and blogging when I followed the link from her name on Kat’s blog! And yes, this is the very same Linda I tagged yesterday. She and I grew up together as kids =) Isn’t Social Media the bomb?? I love this wwworld!
From Linda’s blog today:
It’s a strange thing: I started this for me, and perhaps my mother and father, but now I have to come to terms with the fact that there are actually other people out there who I don’t know (not even someone I’ve vaguely heard of!) who may be reading. I mean, OF COURSE other people are going to read it, I’m just realising the magnitude of it. Specifically because I have recently been “tagged”.
I am very much into my online social networking phenomenon that is facebook (it is absolutely perfect for me to keep in some kind of ‘touch’ with my friends who are scattered all around the world) and I do tend to follow links and look at peoples websites and things that they have published online.
I have been reading a blog of an old family friend of mine and getting to know her a little better without actually putting in any effort…I’ve been a passive friend. Are we even friends? We were when we were little. We had lots of fun together, but I’m struggling to find those memories…they are sitting in a dark corner, not wanting to step into the light, so I’ve left them there and am focusing on the new, older, wiser, broken, fixed, mother of 2 that I am observing through her blog.
We did meet a while ago. We didn’t really have the chance to connect again, it was hard to think of things to say and I admit to being completely distracted by the fact that it was my birthday and I was seeing a whole heap of other friends and family who’s friendship timeline was more intact. I was interested to see if she really was as stunning as the photographs of her I’d seen…and yes, she was fit, toned, tanned, and all grown up – my mental picture of her had to change somewhat (it was 30 years out of date).
Turns out she also follows links and things, and found me here. And tagged me. Which means that I have to share some random things with the readers out there about myself: thing they don’t already know. Since I imagine my mother to be my number one fan on this site, it’s quite a challenge to think of 8 random things that she doesn’t already know. Or my husband. That is a big challenge, so I’m thinking, I’m thinking!
What’s good is that I’m actually writing again. I’ve been thinking up some absolute beauties of late, but am finding it hard to manage that final hurdle of getting it committed to my blog! Distractions and daydreams…
Jul 5, 2008 | Personal, Websites
Everyone, this is Kat.
Kat, this is everyone =)
Back in February of this year, I came across Kat’s personal blog at www.mysinglemomlife.com. I can’t remember how I found it exactly, but I had never read a personal blog before and I was really quite moved by how open and real she was in her writing.
The other thing that struck me at the time was how much I had in common with her – she’s about my age, a divorced mom raising 2 teenage boys, working from home, someone who loves music and cats, experiencing what appeared to be ups and downs very similar to my own. Yes, there were definitely issues that we have different opinions about, but so much of her life seemed to be a reflection of mine and I could relate to many things that she wrote about.
When I found her blog writings (which she’s been doing for over 10 years now) she was venting about her frustrations with the boys and the physical pain and mental exhaustion she was going through. I have since discovered that her physical pain is on a level much higher than mine and is the result of scoliosis and subsequent recent spinal surgery. (She now has a titanium rod the size of France in her back and she is in a lot of pain.)
But I digress.
Her blog touched me. I have wanted to write for many years and have never known quite how to do it. A novel seemed too intimidating, a journal seemed boring and non-fiction seemed crazy (what the hell do I know about anything?) Seeing her blog and what she was writing about provided just the spark I needed to finally get into my own writing.
And so I created justB[coz].
It is as a direct result of Kat’s personal blog that I found the inspiration I needed to start my own blog and use this space for anything and everything I wanted to write about. My very first post credited her with providing the spark of enthusiasm I needed to get going with this personal venture. Unlike Kat though, and as an aside, I don’t intend to make any money from justB[coz] – any reviews I write here are entirely off my own bat and I receive no compensation at all. Kat is unfortunately not able to go out and work so she relies on her blog for income and I admire her greatly for that. She is a survivor and she does the very best she can with what she has.
This lady has a special place in my heart. I still keep up with her writing as much as I can and support her to the best of my ability.
So you can imagine my delighted surprise when I got home from the birthday bash last night (which was very cool BTW) to find that Kat had left a comment on my blog! A beautiful, encouraging comment that was full of warmth and wisdom. I was ecstatic, and incredibly honored that the person responsible for setting me off on the blog path had come to visit my little space and taken the time to write a message to me.
I’m very chuffed! I just had to share that with you and let you know who she is and what she means to me =)
Jun 12, 2008 | Randomness, Websites
I always keep beady eye on my log files, to see who, when, where and how people land up on my site. It struck me yesterday that a lot of folk are entering this site via my post “What you can do to help in Cape Town” after Googling for info on various charities and NPO’s – they are looking for general stuff like “donations Cape Town” and specific information that includes locations and contact details of various organizations.
I am so chuffed that I have been able to contribute to our community in some small way and it got me thinking about how to maximize on this so that a whole lot more people can benefit – both those who are in need and those who are in a position to give but just don’t know how.
So this morning, I got an idea for a new website. I haven’t thought it out thoroughly, I don’t know how viable it would be and I don’t know if there is already something similar out there. What I do know is that this idea is not for me – I have way too much on my plate already and I don’t have the contacts or resources to set it up and keep it going – but I feel like I need to get this idea “out there” in the hope that perhaps someone will like it and run with it.
The website would be a “mega charity” site – that is, it would be an online representative vehicle for every type of charity and NPO in South Africa.
- Each charity would have a dedicated profile page, displaying their logo, information about their cause, where and how they operate, display a few photos, appeal for what they need (aside from money), contact details, banking details etc. They could manage this information themselves.
- The site would carry a fund raising events/calendar section outlining various things happening to raise money in each province.
- Site users can opt in for newsletter updates.
- They can browse through all the charities to find one they want to contribute to.
- Or they can search based on criteria such as Province / City and/or Type (animals, homeless/children/battered women/etc)
- Registered site users can make pledges online – exposure can be given to companies with the biggest pledges via discounted advertising space or a mention in the newsletter and individuals can be encouraged to pledge by offering some kind of reward like a gift voucher or similar (would need to organize sponsorship)
- The site or charity profile pages can display fund raising targets and corresponding pledge amounts.
- The site COULD act as a direct recipient for online donations and distribute funds accordingly, but this could be tricky (?) And I’m not sure how ethical it would be, but perhaps a fraction of online donation transactions could be kept to keep the site afloat.
- Possibly allow users to donate to the site directly, to help keep it running …
- Loads of advertising / sponsorship space
- Hook up with local celebrities and companies to generate some link love and establish credibility.
OK, that’s it! Use it … or not =)
Jun 9, 2008 | Gadgets 'n Stuff, Websites
As you know by now, I’m a true gadget gal – a sucker for all things new and clever and I’m also a bit of a closet geek … shhhhhh, keep that to yourself please =)
So today I was jumping around the interwebs and came across something I’m really glad to have accidentally discovered and I thought I’d share it with you.
Nudjit is a site that publishes gadget reviews for South Africa.
Personally, I think that’s a fantastic angle and very helpful as so many gadget and tech sites and feeds that are anywhere close to being good simply don’t cater for us here on the Dark Continent.
“The site aims to inform, entertain, and alert South Africans about the gadgets that are available to us. Our gadget reviews don’t just highlight the technical aspects but will also judge how well they work, where one can get them, and if our local technology infrastructure can actually support these electronic toys.
The site offers detailed written reviews, quirky video posts, aggregated gadget news from all across Africa, user ratings, and hot links from popular gadget sites from around the world.”
Nudjit covers a wide range of topics and includes product info from all the top brands – as it applies to the South African consumer. Gotta love their tagline, can’t get more SA than that =)
The main gadget categories are:
- Audio/Visual
- Computing
- Gadget News
- Gaming
- Mobile
- Photography
- Software
- Stuff (GPS / Household)
Although the site looks like its fairly new, and some of the content is a weeny bit thin at this stage, I think it has huge potential and I’ll definitely be subscribing to their feed to follow all their latest gadget news. The latest post is by Justin Hartman, author of Chapter 7 of the new SA Blook and co-founder of Afrigator.com. He’s in Berlin at the moment, attending the “HP Connecting Your World Conference” and, as part of the journalist welcome pack, he was given a pre-release HP iPAQ 910c Business Messenger phone! Lucky bugger =) Anyway, you can scoot over to Nudgit and read his first impressions of the phone.
The site design is clean and the layout is beautifully simple – you just can’t get lost on it! That’s important for me – I don’t have time to navigate my way around complicated designs that are fencie just to show off the designers’ skills – nothing chases me away from a website faster than a nav system that tests my problem-solving skills. Nudjit isn’t one of those sites …
I enjoy that the reviews and comparisons are subjective and honestly written and because they offer more than just the bog-standard technical specs, they are both informative and entertaining. Site users can also leave comments and ask questions, which is a great interactive feature, and one that is quickly becoming the norm amongst succesful online businesses.
And I also happen to know that the chaps behind Nudjit are extremely knowledgeable and are greatly respected in the tech and web world so I am quite happy to trust their opinions.
Thanks guys, well done!
