Dreamhost PS activated!

Engage Warp speed…3!

I just got in Dreamhosts’ new shiny and exciting Private Server thingy after just 2 short days. In all honesty I was expecting at least a few weeks of waiting so I was quite surprised when I got an email informing me that it has been activated

It may have to do with me sending a question their way from the support page, to ask them a few questions relating to this. You see, I was not certain how much of a difference that would make for me, if it was worth it and if I should go for MySQL or Web Server hosting.

You see, I’m still quite a small fry at the moment and between the 3 blogs I’m hosting, I’m not averaging a lot of visitors. I always assumed that by being this small, a shared hosting plan is the best choice. Unfortunately I kept running into performance issues and even though I optimized and tweaked, they just went on and I was sick and tired of having a single page take on average 5 seconds to load and, too often for my liking, upwards of 10. I was even afraid that I was starting to get on Dreamhost’s support nerves with all the support tickets I opened for performance

It was at the point where I was considering moving to another hosting service (possibly on a virtual server) that my eyes fell on the new Dreamhost PS option, suddenly appearing in my Dashboard. Quite the timing. The reason why I decided to stick with Dreamhost still is that I just love the merry way with which they do business and their support has been very nice in my experience so far. I just felt I should give them another chance.

The PS option mentioned that this is by invitation only however and googling around a bit, I found a few people talking about it but none had any real experience. They were mostly saying that it sounds like a good idea but they were not going to use it because so-and-so hosting was better. Nothing tangible. Since I exchanged a few emails with Dreamhost support and I am now live with it, I thought I might write a few things about it.

Dreamhost PS Performance

I’ve only had the thing running for a few hours now so I can’t make much of a comparison. It does feel much faster for me but it could just be the placebo effect.

PHP

I did try to run my heaviest page just to see the experience: From an average of 10 seconds (due to the heavy php involved) it dropped down to 2.5 secs. This seemed a major improvement, however on a second test I did 8 hours later, the speed was 12 seconds again. Not certain if it’s affected by mysql, slow feed replies or whatnot. Nevertheless, doing a few more tests, the average seems to be 2.2 seconds. This should be in part because of Simplepie’s feed cache.

Gallery

Here the difference is much more striking. My Gallery2 installation used to be unbelievably slow more often than not. I would be lucky if I could get times below 5 seconds per page. Now the average seems to hover at around 2 seconds again and this is, frankly, a very pleasant surprise. Even The Wesnoth Journals gallery seems to have picked up unbelievable speed and that was the one that drew quite a few complaints. Awesome!

Wordpress

Here the speed difference did not seem so striking initially. Average speeds hovered at around 2 seconds again which is a speed that I was reaching after my own optimization quite often. The difference now of course is that the speed seems to stay at that average instead of spiking to 5 - 10 seconds without reason. I have not seen one page actually going higher than 5 sec. Same thing persists in both the ACP (which has a heavy theme and is not theme optimized at all) and the Wesnoth Journals.

However a susprise awaited me on my more thorough testing this afternoon. For the first time Ev4r, I get sub second speeds, consistently! And this is without WP-Cache activated! If anything makes the whole page exceed one second, it is the Intense Debate comment script who’s speed is dependent on external servers, and even then the delay is never more than one more sec. This is truly amazing. With WP-Cache, the speed seems to stay consistently subsec!

The Wordpress Dashboard speed, as expected, has improved considerably as well and finally I don’t have to wonder why it sometimes takes so goddamn long to load :D. Average speed of Admin Panel items seem to be:

• Dashboard ~ 2 sec
• Plugins ~ 3 sec
• Automated Plugin upgrade ~ 1 sec (!!!)
• Settings ~ 1 sec
• Write ~ 1 sec (!!!)

The multiple exclamation marks are on items that truly impressed me since they always seemed to take a inordinate amount of time to load (around 5 secs) and the change is most striking.

Drupal

Here the speed confused me a bit. In my single Drupal installation averga speed hovered at around 3 seconds where suddenly it dropped to subsec again. Cannot really say if the server had a momentary slowdown at the start.

And with that, my little performance check ended. I think the change is quite obvious and for now I am quite happy with the results. I am still curious to see how this will fare during the more active afternoon - night hours (for me, for you Americans it will be morning - afternoon). If things turn around considerably, I will write about it.

Some Dreamhost PS Q&A

During my email conversation with the Dreamhost support, I had the opportunity to ask a few more questions about the service in order to make sure it is right for my needs. I will place the answers here in case anyone else has similar queries.

• Q: I experience considerable slowdowns with my wordpress installation and it’s certainly not my setup. I think it might be MySQL as I don’t see anything loading for a few seconds and then everything comes up together. However every time I tried to put a support ticket for this, I see the web server under heavy load. I’m now not certain if I should request MySQL or Web Server hosting.
• A: Go for Web Server. From my results I can see that MySQL hardly plays much of a role after all. My speed improved dramatically from just a small Web Server hosting plan.

• Q: If I request Web Server and see that it does not make much of a difference, can I switch to MySQL and vice-verca.
• A: When you request either a web or MySQL PS, since it must be physically setup, you are requesting one or the other and they are not interchangeable. If you decide you want either, you must visit the provisioning page to request whichever you decide you would like and if you want both, you need to request both individually at the same page of the panel-

• Q: How do I request both a Web Server and a MySQL PS? I can only select one through the radio buttons
• A: Request one, then go back and request the other.

• Q: If I decide I don’t want this service anymore (say, because it does not make much of a difference) can I return to my previous shared hosting?
• A: They won’t be able to move you back if your usage is above what is expected for a shared server account which is the base 150 level of the PS service. As long as you are below that level consistently, then there shouldn’t be a problem moving you back to shared, or at least giving you a discount on it.

• Q: The information also mentions that I can adjust my RAM and CPU usage in real time. However, if I adjust my usage within the month one or more times, how much am I going to be charged?
• A: You will only be charged at that rate for as long as you keep the slider AT that rate. So it’s all pro-rated. If you keep it at 150 and then move it up to 1000 for an hour, then back down to 150, you will only be charged the 1000 rate for that hour. No more, no less.

• Q: I see the slider gives me the max burst I can get as double. Does that mean that if my rate is not enough I can increase the slider only up to that burst?
• A: No, once activated you can increase your rate to the max of 2300 at any time, even if you started at 150.

• Q: I ordered it. How long does it take usually?
• A: No idea. In my case it took 1 day

• Q: The rates are vague. How much should I order for a small site with just a few thousand per month?
• A: Low. I have four worpdress and two gallery2 installations hosted at the moment and my load is around 100Mb of RAM. My CPU is still at 10. My biggest spike was when I disabled WP-Cache and loaded my lifestream 5 times where my RAM jumped to 155.

So, that was my initial review of Dreamhosts shiny new upcoming Private Servers. I hope I have provided you some information to make the correct choices

Deactivating lasers with my dick!

Yesterday I saw Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny and I loved every minute of it. You may not appreciate it that much if you are not a Tenacious D fan but I loved it.

The soundtracks are amazing and the epic song in the end is all the money. The movie is a general comedy with a lot a explicit language (which I don’t mind at all) and it follows the supposed meeting of Tenacious D until the writing of the song “Tribute”.

I will let the first videos speak for themselves.

Download Go and see it!

Now!

Sicko

Just saw it and I must admit that I was seriously impressed. I honestly believe that this is one of the most important film for this year, to say the least. If it manages to improve things over at the other side of the Atlantic then that can only be for the best.

I especially liked the fact that Moore did not put so much personal opinion on the film (other than the dramatic music at key points) but rather let the facts speak for themselves. The way the it showed the top executives of health care companies fighting tooth and nail to stop a “socialistic” health care system and then immediately showing propagandistic clips against communism/socialism. How many of the people in the committee and the chief congressman that served pass a “better” bill for old people got new jobs in health care companies. All this little facts, they served better than any monologue Moore might have made to make the point.It was especially touching when the Americans received free medical care in “evil” Cuba. The way they could just not believe their ears and how they were reacting was brilliant. I do not know how set-up this whole thing was but, seriously, it didn’t seem fake.

After this plays in the U.S. I am pretty much convinced that Moore will be labeled as totally unpatriotic and a Communist - since this seems to be an lethal branding in that part of the world - by, of course, people with a vested interest in health care profits.

The only note I want to make, is that even the first world countries (Canada, UK and France) that he went to get examples of “communistic” health care systems were an appropriate way to compare to US, it bears to notice that they are pretty much the cream of the crop for human treatment. They would no be able to afford all that if they did not have some other nation to abuse.

All in all, this film perfect exemplified the major problem with Capitalism, especially in America. It marks the big difference between Positive and Negative Freedom. You mighthave the most liberal government in the world but it will not make an ounce of difference to be allowed to do something if you are no able to do it because you are, say, a lowly wage slave.

How much more until people wake up do something about things like that I honestly do not know? How can they suffer being played for such fools by their own government is beyond me.

UPDATE: I just discovered this webpage when reading the comments on a diggpost about how the healthcare and pharma companies are getting ready to attack Moore. It seems that Moore was treated to one of those hospitals for tourists that are pretty amazing. It’s a good thing to get the other opinion on this and try to find the answer that lies in the middle.

Zpiderman three

I saw it. It was not particulary good. It was just another superhero movie that was basing it’s success more on brand recognition (spiderman fans) and amazing CGI. The scenario was very weak and the acting sub-par.

Things I particulary loathed

• The whole “Americans love Spidey” thing they put on all the fucking time . It just look silly!
• Parker getting “the evil look”. That always annoys me to no end in Holywood movies. Whenever the good guy becomes bad, he will invariably start dressing in black and change his hairstyle (This time parker became emo). It tried to pass the notion that only people who dress trendily and have conventional looks can be “good” when nothing could be further than the truth. Just once I’d like to see a realistic transformation to extreme selfishness.
• Spiderman striding in front of the American flag before going into the final combat. FFS! I guess we could count ourselves lucky that he was not dressed in Red, White and Blue as well…
• The Sentimental / Crying scenes. That was just so corny and fake that everyone in the cinema ended up laughing every time Parker cried.
• Not. Enough. Venom! They finally put the best Spiderman villain in, and they end up showing him in action for something like 15 minutes. And he’s a true villain this time, not like the other pussies that were stealing for their daughters and projects and shit. Just pure evil.
• Mary-Jane becoming the damsel in distress all the fucking time.

As always, the trailer of the movie was more interesting than the movie itself, and in this particular case, the trailers of the other movies were more interesting as well.

The cinema experience as always sucked. No surround sound, talking, not big enough screen and other shit like that.

Τριακόσιοι

Ένα μόνο θα πώ.

απλά δείτε το…

Εγώ σκατοπορώθηκα. Είδα και το trailer του Pirates of the Carribean 3 και σκατoπορώθηκα ακόμη περισσότερο.
ΥΣ: Ουρίστε και ένα ωραίο λινκ για ένα τύπο που έκανε σύγκριση τις εικόνες απο το κόμιξ με τις εικόνες απο την ταινία για να δεί κατά πόσο έμειναν πιστοί στην αρχική ιδέα.

Crap TV

These last two weeks, since I’ve been missing my computer and since the only remotely english channel on the TV was MTV I have been watching that.

Ugh!

How, and by “How” I mean “How in the nine fucking circles of dante’s fuckin’ inferno” can people watch this humongous pile of steaming crap that passes as MTV these days? I mean, I turned the damn thing on hoping to watch a music video or something to pass the time until I got my PC back…
Music Videos? Hah!

From the total MTV programme, I would say that 5% is music videos…on a generous day.

50% is Adverts (mostly about mobile phones and mobile games and mobile flirt and other mobile shit)

5% is some absolutely horrible comedy series about a family of rich black people. Completely humorless.
40% is Fake Reality TV

*shudder*

Ohh, how horribly horrible are those reality shows. If you think Big Brother was bad, I challenge you to turn on MTV for 1 fucking tortuous hour.

First of all, they are completely, and I mean absolutely mind-numbingly obviously fuckin fake!

Let’s see what we have:

Pre-exhibit: So that I do not have to write this after every exhibit below, I’m going to state it here because it is the standard in every of those horrible shows. The dialogues are all pre-made and ready. They are not, at all, improvised or “real”. The persons have been instructed exactly when, how and what to say. In the worst case, they are given a generic guideline (Get angry here and curse here). This is unbelievably fuckin’ obvious.
On to the shows:

Exhibit a) NEXT: A “Fake-ality show” where a guy (Usually into bodybuilding, Surfing, Sport and other jock stuff), or a girl (Into R&B, Puppies, etc) will go on a short date with 5 people, one after the other. Each of those people will earn an amount of dollars equal to the time where they stayed on the date. If the original guy or gal gets bored she will shout NEXT and then the other person will come out. If he/she doesn’t then she will give a choice to the other person to either go on a second date or take the money.
Now, these 5 people that are in the “NEXT Bus” are almost always the same type. If the original actor (which is what he is. Or maybe I should say bad actor) is a guy, the girls will be (in almost the same order as well): Young/Immature girl (Rejected), Bad girl (Rejected), Cute Girl (Rejected), Normal (as in trendy/bland) girl (Accepted), Fifth girl (does not matter)
If the original actor is a girl, then it will have a Soft/Romantic guy (rejected), Dweeb (Absolutely rejected), Stupid guy (rejected within the first minute if possible), Normal guy (Accepted) and Fifth guy (Does not matter).
Other than the bad acting and the bad dialogue, they also go to completely stupid activity dates (Sheep Shaving? Cow Milking? Oh gawd!). How the HELL can people see this?

Alright alright, next one is…“I want to be me”
Now, unfortunately this is in German so I never really watched it until yesterday. From the generic outline and any english I managed to catch, the theme is about a guy or gal that wants to be himself (and incidentally want he wants to be is a totaly trendy, mainstream and accepted thing) but he cannot because he is not tall/thin/beautiful or whatever enough.
Now, this episode that I saw was about a very fat kid that wanted to be prom king.
You know what the show taught me?
You can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind into it…and have an NFL trainer, professional spa/swimming/yoga/singing lessons, you own song recording and all the judges paid off.

Yes, yes, it could be you!

- Intermission to allow me to puke -

Alright, moving right along we have “Sweet 16”

Oh the horror…

This show I particulary hate with a volcanicaly burning passion.
It is about a random girl (or sometimes a guy), who’s family incidentaly is stupid rich, and decided to give them a super sixteen birthday party. This usually involves a huge club, a lot of outrageously expensive clothes and a few guest musicians (most probably R&B, Rap or Emo Bands since they seem particulary eager to sell out for such crap)
I never really watched the show with any interest (except yesterday, where I looked at the screen once every five minutes) except from the stage where the 16 year old kids got into the R&B club and started crotch rubbing against each other.
I cannot fully explain the horror of this show unless you (poor sod) watch it yourself. What I hate most about it however is what it passes through to the viewer. “You fuckin’ pathetic mortal. You will be lucky to be invited to such a party by the un-fuckin-believably rich people having it, but don’t you dare be non-mainstream. R&B will be your king and master (emo bands are allows to bitch you aroung as well). You will never have such a party, unless your daddy can pay off MTV and buy the producers a new car.”
I also hated how the invitees loved the birthday girl that did them the honor of inviting them. And when the party girl got two, TWO, new cars, the people just loved it! GRRRR!

OK, ok, I’m going to stop now because I cannot spend the rest of my day here. I will just mention the names of some of these horrible shows fate has made me watch when bored.

“Pimp my ride”
I have been lucky enough to be chosen to have my car remade into something very cool. This is actually the least horrible show I saw.

“Date my Mom”
Random guy dates three moms and decides based on that which of the girls he will take on a date. Now other than the completely idiotic theme of this show, this also is fake. The final dialogue is so prepared that they even use a pre-determined drama pause!

“Parental Control”
Parents of a random guy or girl do not like her boy/girl-friend and turn to MTV. They each choose a candidate out of a dozen and their baby goes on a date with each. The original boy/girl-friend gets to watch the date on video. The date gets as sleazy as possible (so that the original boy/girl-friend get “upset”) and in the end the kid gets to choose between the two dates or the original boyfriend.
HOW FUCKIN STUPID AND FAKE CAN YOU FUCKIN’ GET?

There were some other fake-ality shows. But I want to leave.

Final advice. Do not watch MTV. There is nothing M about this TV. Only C.

NetΓκαϊφέ in London

Έγραψα αυτό το μακρυνάρι σε ένα post στα forum του Mazanet και μιας και είναι σχετικό με την ζωή μου εδω πέρα τον τελευταίο καιρό λέω να το αντιγράψω και ‘δω μέσα να το θυμάμαι.

—

Το πρώτο netcafe που πήγα στο Λονδίνο είχε 1 λίρα την ώρα (το στανταρ εδω πέρα), δεν επέτρεπε να κατεβάσω τίποτα απο το internet (ούτε το βιογραφικο μου), διέθετε μόνο internet explorer 5 ο οποίος πολλές φορές έκλεινε μόνος του διότι, έλεγε, έβλεπα απρεπή πράγματα (πχ την τελευταία αίτηση μου για δουλειά). Για να μην μιλήσω για την απίστευτη καθυστέρηση για να ανοίξει μια σελίδα (spyware οργασμός) και τα διάφορα παιδάκια που έτρεχαν δεξια και αρίστερα μαλλώνοντας για το ποιο θα χρησιμοποιήσει το computer της μαμάς. Μόνο η κότες έλειπαν απο εκεί μέσα. Α ναι, και μια εκτύπωση έκανε 50 pence. [1]

Το επόμενο internet gκαϊφέ (Απο συνήθεια τα λέω ακόμα έτσι, στην πραγματικότητα ούτε νερό δεν έχουν) που πήγα ήταν στο κέντρο και πάλι είχε 1 λίρα την ώρα. Τουλάχιστον εκεί μπορούσα να χρησιμοποιήσω firefox αλλα ξενέρωσα απίστευτα όταν με χρέωσαν έξτα 25 pence για το ένα λεπτο που “έκατσα” παραπάνω (που παρεπιπτόντως ήταν το λεπτό που πήγαινα απο τον υπολογιστή στο ταμείο. Παραλίγο να τσακωθώ εκεί μέσα αλλα τελικά τους πλήρωσα και έφυγα χωρίς να πω “Bye”…έτσι για να μάθουν… (Πού’ν το καταραμένο το :rolleyes:

Στο τρίτο ήταν λίγο καλύτερα αν εξαιρέσει κανείς το γεγονός οτι οι πλάσμα οθόνες έπαιζαν συνέχεια ταινίες και δεν μπορούσα να συγκεντρωθώ σε αυτό που διάβαζα. Τουλάχιστον εκεί μπορούσες να διατηρήσεις την μια ώρα που πλήρωσες για μια εβδομάδα, οπότε το χρησιμοποιώ για να τσεκάρω τα email μου σε 5 λεπτά όταν δεν έχω χρόνο.

Το τελευταίο που βρήκα, και αυτό απο το οποίο γράφω αυτό το post, είναι επιτέλους πιο φθηνό, με 1 λίρα τις 2 ώρες και αρκετά πιο χύμα. Μπορώ να κατεβάσω και να εγκαταστήσω ότι θέλω (πχ το last.fm player για να ακούω μουσική). Το μόνο κακό είναι οταν ο διπλανός μου αποφασίζει να τσεκάρει gay/tans porno και λόγο της απόστασής, όποτε φεύγει η ματιά μου πέφτει πάνω σε άντρα με βυζιά να παίρνει τσιμπούκι απο γυνάικα…ugh. Μόλις τώρα αναγκάστηκα να βλέπω τον τυπά απένταντι μου να κάνει επίδειξη τα μούσκουλα του στην webcam του, προφανώς για να γοητέψει οποιοδήποτε πιπινάκι προσπαθούσε να ψήσει στο chat… (:rolleyes: :rooooleeeeyes!:)
Τουλάχιστον είναι φθηνό.

Α ναι, σε όλα αυτά, πλην του δευτερου, δεν είδα κανένα να παίζει παιχνίδι. Το μόνο που κάνουν είναι να surfάρουν και να κάνουν chat. Αυτό με γλυτώνει τουλάχιστον απο το να έχω τα διάφορα πιτσιρίκια που παίζουν “Κάουντερ” - όπως αναφέρει ο αγαπητός PlutoΝίκος - να βρίζουν τον “Παλιοκαμπερά”, ένα πολύ συνηθές φαινόμενο εν Ελλάδι.

Είναι και το internet της βιβλιοθήκης το οποίο είναι τζαμπε για 1 ώρα την ημέρα αλλα έχει ανάλυση 800×600 (μη σου πω 640×480) και δεν διαθέτει firefox. Πάλι καλά που το καλό παλικάρι, που ξέρει κι’αλλο μονοπάτι, βρήκε τρόπο να το εγκαταστήσει μέσα στο cache folder του exploder στον οποίο έχω δικαιώματα r/w

Αυτά. Να μην ακούσω κανένα να παραπονιέται ξανά.

…Τουλάχιστον μέχρι να βάλω τα 8mbit , τα οποία btw, θα αργήσουν πολύ ακόμα. Η ΒΤ υποτίθεται οτι ενεργοποίησε την γραμμη χθές αλλα …testicles! Λενε έχει πρόβλημα και θα είναι ΟΚ απο το Σάββατο. Μετά απο εκεί θέλει άλλες 15 μέρες ωστε να πάρει τον έλεγχο η Tiscalli, τουλάχιστον απ’ότι λέει στο FAQ.

Napoleon Dynamite

A while ago while surfing the blogosphere I saw this movie mentioned. It immediately caught my attention because I was a big geek at school and I always had a special place for nerd movies.

(spoiler)

Well, this one was nothing I was anticipating. The protagonist was a total looser, as was expected of course, but for the whole movie I kept waiting for things to change for the better, you know, in the classic Hollywood legacy.

They didn’t.
And that’s the beauty of the movie. It’s a movie about boring people having boring and all too mundane lives. The movie made me cringe at times from the way Napoleon was reacting to situations. I mean, I was a nerd but never of that magnitude.
In the end however I couldn’t help but cheer for the underdog.

This movie is a true “In your face” film against all those classic Teenage movies or Hollywood tripe like “The Revenge of the Nerds”. Although I was surprised on how boring it was at times, after it ended I couldn’t help but liking it (the 80s pop music helped immensely as well.)

I don’t think this movie is for everyone but it is worth watching just in case you like it.