mikiem

Hmm... Mine fell one foot and was ruined.

Oh boy do I want to, but I need to figure out where to move them to! GoDaddy's support is in Arizona, clear, well trained, and answer the phone quickly, 24x7. Admittedly, I don't reedit often, but good/fast/easy support is important, and can be vital. I am not sold that the support will be acceptable with the others. I desperately want to move away from goDaddy, but don't know where to go to!

Bank of America. Sure they are huge, evil and have horrible telephone service, but their web interface/bill pay is pretty decent.

Think this is the very first thing anyone does when handed two pieces of neodymium. I know that I did this within a minute of my first experience with two free and loose neodymium magnets. I watched many others do it too. The look on one's face is always of shock and disbelief that this magnets were so strong, mixed in with the pain, even though you warned them before.

If you solve a a real problem in a new way, you should be here... Best of luck to you. The Healthcare Industry can use disruption, new ideas, and optimization. I wish I could help in some way, but I can't. Cheers!

I wish my company and I were more portable. I'd leave CA too! I totally agree with this particulsr blog post.

Reminds me of The Mythical Man Month (book): "Adding more programmers to an already-late project will result in the project becoming even later"

I am just curious, but would a FOI request work for a current/open/active investigation? Seems like that would be a very exploitable process (by the "bad guys") if it would.

M5 Hosting does offer Scientific Linux for dedicated servers: http://www.m5hosting.com/scientific-linux-dedicated-server.p... But you are correct, it is hard to find. Some dedicated server hosts will install it if you ask, but larger hosts and VPS providers might not be so eager to depart from their standard images/platforms.

I am the founder and current CEO of a dedicated server host. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies do often contact us regarding activity emanating from or related to our network. Its the same for any host and the bigger you are, the more often it happens. Rarely, a local law enforcement officer from within or outside of the US get cranky when you tell ask them to get a subpoena (makes work for them). However, in my experience the FBI and other three letter agencies are very professional, fair, and genuinely want to do it right. Getting a subpoena is no big deal at all for them. Usually the US Attorney is right down the hall from them, in the same building.

They do officially have policies and programs designed to befriend local businesses in the area of a field office. They just want to catch the bad guys and not mess with the innocent. They want people to like them and trust them. They count on the cooperation of businesses, especially hosting and access providers. There are civilized processes for everyone to get what they want.

There are the cases of people trying to get information who are not actually law enforcement, and that is one of the many reasons you must ask for a subpoena... To protect yourself and your customers privacy. The FBI can get one in a very short time.

Where this all goes bad is when you do not respond to subpoenas for subscriber information, when you don't hand over the disks, etc. If you do not comply, then what alternative does the FBI have but to come and get it?

My guess?... The host didn't play nice with or respond promptly to the FBI.

I love this kind of thing... It started at almost kind of sort of science, the it wasn't, then it was, it became legend, then people research it to see just where it came from.... And no one really knows. I love this cultural-socio-anthropology. Thanks for sharing. I will undoubtedly add this to my vocabulary.

I am the founder and current CEO of a dedicated server host. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies do often contact us regarding activity emanating from or related to our network. Its the same for any host and the bigger you are, the more often it happens. Rarely, a local law enforcement officer from within or outside of the US get cranky when you tell ask them to get a subpoena (makes work for them). However, in my experience the FBI and other three letter agencies are very professional, fair, and genuinely want to do it right. Getting a subpoena is no big deal at all for them. Usually the US Attorney is right down the hall from them, in the same building.

They do officially have policies and programs designed to befriend local businesses in the area of a field office. They just want to catch the bad guys and not mess with the innocent. They want people to like them and trust them. They count on the cooperation of businesses, especially hosting and access providers. There are civilized processes for everyone to get what they want.

There are the cases of people trying to get information who are not actually law enforcement, and that is one of the many reasons you must ask for a subpoena... To protect yourself and your customers privacy. The FBI can get one in a very short time.

Where this all goes bad is when you do not respond to subpoenas for subscriber information, when you don't hand over the disks, etc. If you do not comply, then what alternative does the FBI have but to come and get it?

My guess?... The host didn't play nice with the FBI.

Retailers, on-line or otherwise, have to pay sales tax on sales within a state where they have a physical presence. That's the way it is. The problem in this case is that CT wants sales tax on a sale that was referred by an affiliate... Even when the retailer (Amazon) and the customer are both not located in CT. In states that charge sales tax, most (all?) charge "use tax" of the same amount as sales tax, on items shipped to them from an out-of-state retailer that did not charge sales tax. Retailer customers almost never pay it, probably don't know it exists. Sates usually don't go after the tax for consumers, but they do go after businesses for it (at least they do in CA) presumably because the amount of tax is potentially much higher.

In other words, technically, you have to pay sales tax when you buy something, and if you don't then you're supposed to pay the equivalent amount in "use tax". In this case, CT is trying to wedge in there and get tax when neither the buyer or the retailer are in CT.

It's not a business killer for Amazon to charge and pay the taxes for every state. Many on-line retailers do. There is software and subscription services to keep billing systems up to date with current tax tables. But, who pays sales/use tax on what when a guy in CA buys something from Amazon that was referred by a CT affiliate? What about when someone in a state where Amazon has no physical presence buys from Amazon through a CT affiliate? My brain hurts and I suspect someone's getting screwed.

...and is the assumption that the Amazon music service uses AWS or something like it, and the speed of EBS or something like it is too slow at this scale for the songs to be instantly playable?

Oh, there must be something else wrong... It cant be only the load. I mean, they can just spin up more EC2 instances right? Isn't every application infinitely scaleable in "the cloud"? (tongue in cheek)

Holy smokes... Way too expensive! If you are gonna go on the "we aren't PayPal" then maybe you can get away with it, but really, wow! I have to go see if you are double or triple what we pay PayPal. Either way; bad. PayPal fucks up and cancels "subscriptions" too often, and that makes work. However, and extra couple percent in fees can pay a billing person. Call me when you have a sliding price scale. Best wishes.

No. Absolutely not. Not financially anyway. CA has a very high state income tax and very high cost of living.

...that's Apple apps. This news does not pertain to any other apps from other sources or for other platforms.

Because cloud computing is a more complicated way of delivering CPU, memory, disk (space and performance) and network. Complicated always has a much lower likelihood of being better, more durable, cheaper or more reliable.

The whole thing is just too complicated to be highly-available. There will be more problems, but I wish them luck.

Hmm.. And unfortunate name. Tux is the name of the Linux penguin mascot.

Oh jeeze anything but Apple lock in.... But don't listen to me. I am writing this reply from an iPad and use a Blackberry. I still say Android.

Radio and/or satellite from the middle of the ocean to land is much higher latency than all the way across the darn ocean. I too call bullshit.

Don't underestimate the beauty that is the cash cow.

At M5hosting.com we use Ubersmith. Its designed for hosting and it supports everything on your list. We are very happy with it, and the company is very responsive to support and to feature requests etc. I have never been entirely happy with a billing system, but Ubersmith is the best for us and we are very happy. Perhaps the worst software I have ever bought ot used was ModernBill (maybe now called Parallels billing). Good luck.

Yeah... Poor choice to tie it in with the company.

"The Human Cloud"? Wow... This cloud buzzword is really out of control now. As far as I can tell the startup cloud is a bundle of stuff... Not a cloud. What am I missing?

Well, if that's the magic email number 3, then I think maybe he lost all the subscriber who had been stalked or had been arrested for stalking. In either case, I can guess those folks didn't find it very funny... The rest of us might.

I wonder how many of the unsubscribers from message number three had just had enough of it... Having forgiven the first two... a cumulative effect.

I know that I have been very happy on several mailing lists of entites wanting to sell me stuff, but when the messages get too frequent, too long, too spammy or too far from my stated interests... Unsubscribe. I forgive a few indiscressions, but when I see this abuse is a pattern, I unsubscribe.

We use paper and toner, etc. We can buy extra on a good deal, so I was on Staples list. Started out a message every few weeks, then weekly, then daily... Unsubscribe.

I was on NewEgg's list. We use cases of disks and RAM and other commodities, so we can take advantage of exceptional pricing if the chance presents itself. We also sometimes must go to alternate sources if our primary suppliers are out of stock. I am on their list, and even told them what I wanted to see. However, they still tell me about microwave ovens and watches... Much less frequently now that I have told them my preferences, but they are still in danger of losing my subscription. They are on the line... But I'd have canceled already if they sent me offers on microwave ovens more than once in a very great while.

It sounds to me like they are saying they really don't want to sell these Dedicated Instances.