Sam Iles's Blog

I want to tell you about the web host I use: VPS.net, a great company who provide Virtual Private Servers (VPS). For those who don’t know, let me explain what a VPS is.

Typically, there are two types of web hosting solution: shared and dedicated. If it’s shared, you’ll be paying (usually a set monthly fee) a web hosting provider for a set amount of bandwidth and storage to be hosted on a single physical server with many other websites (often around three hundred or so). A dedicated server is exactly that – a single piece of hardware which you host just your site on. It would be roughly the same effect as buying your own Dell server and having it in your house.

Generally speaking, the people choosing shared hosting will have small hosting needs requiring little power and people choosing dedicated will either need a lot of power or a lot of control (i.e., different programming languages or database support).

VPS.net is a compromise between the both. They offer “Virtual Private Servers”. They are essentially virtual instances of an operating system installed onto one machine (much in the same way that Parrallels or VMWare allows you to run Windows within Mac OS X). Each virtual machine believes itself to be the sole owner of the hardware and doesn’t believe there to be any other servers sharing it, whereas several virtual machines will be on the server hardware itself.

This allows the user to have full and total control over the operating system (in our case, Ubuntu Sever Edition) and to do whatever you want with it (as if you were paying for a dedicated server) while keeping the cost down because the hosting company can have several accounts of the same hardware.

The way VPS.net does this is great. They offer your VPS dedicated, guaranteed processing power and RAM. They sell their VPSs in nodes – one node represents 0.6Ghz of CPU, 376Mb of RAM, 10Gb for the storage and 250Gb of bandwidth. You can have a server with just one node or go all the way up to 16 nodes, giving you a huge 10.8Ghz and 6788Mb for the CPU and RAM respectively.

You can install everything you need for a server (Ubuntu, Apache, MySQL, PHP for LAMP for example) on your VM with just one node. Or, you could separate the database off onto an entirely different VM to increase speed (depending on your usage need, of course). You can also edit the number of nodes your server has on the fly very quickly. As your website gets more popular (or you anticipate more popular periods) you can add a node or two and your server instantly gets faster and able to handle more traffic. Needless to say, you can’t do this so easily with a traditional hardware server.

VPS.net make the creation of servers very simple. They offer a number of Linux and Windows templates for you to use. For example, you can get an Ubuntu template with full LAMP installation or you can just get Ubuntu and configure it all yourself (I always choose the later – server admin is FUN!). Each server can be created in a number of locations in the USA and Europe.

The uptime they give is great. In year or so I’ve been using them, the only uptime we’ve had is from faults of my own (pushing new server configs with reckless abandon then rushing to fix it). Literally – no downtime that’s their fault.

The speed is amazing, too. They seem to be always updating their hardware and, despite me being on one of their slightly older cloud locations without their newest architecture, they remain exceptionally fast.

VPS.net offers many services for free. You can get ISP manager – for free, Blesta – for free, SSL certificates – for free, Ksplice – for free. The list goes on. They also have a great DNS system which is free and offer a CDN solution through their partner, Level 3.

And one of their best traits – support. Their forums are populated with wonderfully helpful people and are great for general support but, if your problem is more specific, you can open a support ticket. They’re like email, only within the VPS.net website. And, they are fast. I think the record I’ve experienced is getting a response to a ticket in just under two minutes. Often, it’s like having an IM conversation with them! They are super fast and super helpful.

If you need a web host and are hosting multiple websites (we have around ten sites on a singe server) or need the power and customisability and you have an admiration of awesomeness then VPS.net is the way to go.

So yesterday I went to an event called ‘Comic Con’ in London. You may have heard of it: they have the biggest and most famous in San Diego and also have them in New York and Boston – and other places I expect. It’s my first time at such an event.

And jolly fun it was too. What follows is an explanation of what happened.

I set off very early on the train and got undergrounds and DLRs until I arrived at the huge Excel exhibition centre in London. As the trains got closer, I started noticing more and more people cosplaying (dressing up as a character from a comic book or TV show or movie in a usually home and hand made costume), so I knew I was getting closer.

It just so happens that the centre had scheduled us at the same time as some Britain’s Next Top Model event (it’s a big centre). We had the majority of the space on one side and they had a smaller area on another side.

It was exceptionally funny seeing a bunch of teenage girls, done up to the nines, with a little too much makeup on – probably hoping they’d get spotted by a modelling agency or something – queueing up on one side while we, a bunch of all ages dressed up as Star Wars characters, queued up on the other, outnumbering them by ten to one at least.

After being shepherded through the lines by Stormtroopers (yes, actual Stormtroopers were managing the lines) I entered the huge convention hall.

So awesome.

There was comics and manga and anime and Japanese stuff and steampunk and toys and books and board games and food and art and oh so much more. Anything a geek type person would like. So much Dr Who – just so much awesome.

And the cosplay is awesome. I’d say that around 75% of people were cosplaying (I wasn’t, I should add). Many of the outfits where relatively simple but a lot are just incredible. So meticulous, so wonderful, so beautiful. The European Cosplay Championships took place there today, so that gives you an idea of the quality. In fact, it’s worth going even just for the costumes (my favourite was a fully knitted Cthulhu costume and a mac dressed as The Doctor who was literally the spitting image of Matt Smith).

In terms of what I did: I spent a long time browsing manga and comics and the various stalls. I also played some Magic with a guy for 20 minutes or so, played some of the unreleased Batman: Arkham City and a lot more. I bought a lot of manga and a few comics. My favourite manga series I got is called Neko Ramen, and it’s about a cat who runs a noodle store (need I say more?). I also bought this little guy for my little brother:

At the train station on the way back I got a free Burger King (well, chips and a coke) because the woman forgot to give me my receipt and you get a refund if they do that! And, to top off an awesome day I met Carol Vorderman at the train station and I got her autograph:

Wow. Can’t wait to go again!

Love it.

I made another! My second website in a few days. (Too much time?)

You know when you’re talking to someone online and veganism comes up and they say “urm what do you eat?! TWIGS?!”

Now you can direct them right here: WhatAVeganEats.com

Like the retro design?

Also, if you’d like to help the cause and can think of a cool veganism related domain name, why not purchase it and direct it right to the site? Or, let me know about it. And, of you can think of something which should be added to the site, let me know that, too! The more people know, the better.

The spec for the new Kindle format is out and, at a glance, it looks remarkable.

Kindle Format 8

Finally, some real comics/graphic novels support!

Caroline Lucas, on the proposed EU referendum:

I support EU referendum because I am pro-democracy, not because I’m anti-EU.

I happen to agree.

I also think it should be a proper, legal referendum. Not the one planned where we’ll simply get the result and David will say “that’s interesting” and move on, but a real one. Sure, the public isn’t the smartest bunch of people in the world, but it’s their country, let’s let them decide.

Which way would I vote? I do not know yet. I’ll know closer to the time, if it does happen.

I made a new website! Ever need a way to easily back out of an Internet conversation without seeming too rude? Just direct them right here:

YIAITM.com

Inspired by one of my favourite Simpson’s quotations, which I just watched about 30 minutes ago. The Internet is a fast place…

I, for one, welcome our new unicorn overlords.