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Themebot Back Online
At 7:47 AM on March 1st, the hosting account for Themebot was disabled due to resource usage issues. Considering the traffic levels that Themebot has grown to, this did not come as a surprise. Actually, it is amazing that the site was still running on a shared hosting plan with more than 1,500 visitors a day. Kudos to Site5 for not overcrowding their servers. All in all, they have been a good hosting provider over the past year and despite numerous site optimizations, the time had finally come to upgrade to a more robust server. Currently, Site5 only offers shared hosting through their website.
Enter Liquid Web. Themebot has found a new home. The decision to go with Liquid Web was based on many hours of research, comparison shopping and calls to sales reps. I have been recommending them to clients who need more power than a shared hosting plan. Also, my colleagues and I purchased a dedicated server for a project we are currently working on. Now it was Themebot's turn. I have enabled server uptime monitoring with Pingdom to find out if Liquid Web can truly deliver 100% uptime as guaranteed.
Ubuntu 64-bit on a Dell XPS M1330
The following is a mini-review of the Dell XPS M1330 and my experience running Ubuntu 64-bit Gutsy 7.10 on this laptop over the past two months. Before getting the XPS M1330, I had been using Ubuntu 32-bit on my Latitude D830. I'm one of those people who actually needs two laptops. The Latitude D830 is my workhorse stay-at-home computer with dual-pointing devices and expansive 1920x1200 resolution screen. The XPS M1330 is my thin-and-light secondary laptop that I use when away from home so I don't have to tote around client files and data. I also need the M1330 for testing web designs, since it has a more standardly used screen resolution.
At first, I installed the 32-bit version of Ubuntu, since I had the install CD lying around. I had ordered 4GB of RAM to upgrade my system, which hadn't arrived yet. After receiving the RAM, I started thinking about installing the 64-bit version of Ubuntu, so I could have access to all of the RAM. Most 32-bit operating systems only allow you to utilize between 2.75GB and 3.5GB of RAM, depending on your motherboard chipset. While pondering Ubuntu 64-bit I did some research and it seemed that the general consensus was to stick with 32-bit for the time being, due to incompatibilities and whatnot. I figured I had nothing to lose and decided to give Ubuntu 64-bit a shot.
GNU-GPL, Free Software, Free Stickers
A few weeks ago my friend and I had the opportunity to attend a seminar at a local community college with Richard Stallman entitled "Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks". If you don't already know, Stallman launched the GNU Project in 1984, founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985, pioneered the concept of "copyleft" with the GNU/GPL license and created the GNU development tools used by Linus Torvald to produce the Linux Kernel. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work he has done and for his contributions to society.
XPS upside down equals SEX
I often have moments of brilliance upon first waking up in the morning. This morning, I woke up and glanced over at my XPS M1330 laptop which I had placed by the side of my bed before going to sleep the following evening.
Then I saw it... Clear as day.
If you look at the XPS logo upside down, it spells out sex. Subtle, but amusing. I'm sure this played a factor when the Dell R&D (Research & Development) team were deciding on what to call the product line and how to craft the logo.
Or, is it just me? Do I have a single-track mind? Do I wake up each morning thinking about sex? I'll let you be the judge.
A New Year, A New Layout
If you've visited Themebot before, did you notice something new? Just in time for the new year Themebot launches with a fresh design. Not that the old layout was bad. It was functional, but not that exciting. Several concepts and revisions were tinkered with before settling on the current design.
Happy First Birthday Themebot!
Not many people chipped in during the first round. Hopefully there will be more sponsors this time around. Five bucks isn't too much to ask is it?
Today, November 7th, 2007 is Themebot's first birthday. Exactly one year ago themebot.com was launched. A lot has been accomplished during the first year and there is much more to come. A big thank you to all of the members who have added their themes, and to the open source developers who make Themebot possible!
Traffic is increasing and it is time to upgrade to a more robust server. All Themebot wants as a birthday present is a shiny new VPS server. It will only take one hundred people Chipping In $5 each to raise enough to purchase a VPS hosting plan. The goal is to raise $500 before the end of the year. Anyone who Chips In $10 or more will be given special thanks and their website will be listed on this page. The links will be sorted by amount sponsored. Enter the URL for your site in the "Add special instructions for the Merchant" section during checkout to be listed. The ChipIn widget is in the right sidebar, in case you missed it :)
Ubuntu Gutsy on a Macbook - Forget OS X Leopard
Mac OS X Leopard is Now Available! My question is, does anybody care?
I'm very happy with Ubuntu Gutsy. It is free, stable, can be customized with beautiful themes, has tons of quality easy-to-install applications, and most importantly -- I'm more productive than when I was using Windows XP. Since it is free, I decided to create a free advertisement to promote Ubuntu Gutsy. I guess you could call it an open source ad :)
Themebot for Sale!?
Not too long ago, Themebot received an acquisition inquiry from an online advertising firm. This came as a surprise since Themebot is somewhat beta and still in active development phase. A friend suggested I hire a lawyer to handle this. After mulling it over, I decided it would be better to get a feel for the situation before dropping coin on a lawyer.
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