retroblog.net

Well, after all this time desperately trying NOT to jump on the twitter bandwagon, I caved and finally signed up. Yeah, I know, it’s old hat for most people but back when the service first started up, I REALLY didn’t think “micro-blogging” would take-off like it did.

It’s interesting to see the evolution of the service. What was once thought of as a platform for the self-absorbed, it has become a useful tool to get late-breaking news, to give feedback to major corporations and even to promote your music blog. With such a large user-base, there’s no denying that twitter has become an indispensible online tool.

So, if you’re on twitter, you can follow me @retroblognet. you can also follow me the “old-fashioned way” via my RSS feed.

as the old saying goes – it’s better late than never!

here’s an update on my ongoing struggle with my former webhost. They still haven’t responded to my emails, support tickets or my formal request to cancel my account via their client area. can it get any worse than this? they should at least have the decency to address their paying clients on what’s going on? Apparently I’m lucky to have been able to get my websites off their servers.

and I’m NOT alone in this situation. there are others in the same boat. check out some of the comments left in various discussion forums about this company –

from webhostingtalk –
pkingtom: I have been a client of SolidInternet for exactly 7 years back since they were Myacen. I was able to deal with the fact that their customer service was less than desirable. It was a little better as Myacen but SolidInternet seemed to adopt the philosophy that customer service was less needed.
I was never able to access their forums because it would not allow me to register. For months ever since they changed their site I have not been able to access my account page. So they started to automatic bill me. I did not make a big deal of it because for the most part my site was staying up.
NOW, there is a BIG problem. My site has been down since early Monday evening. TWO of their servers (server 4 and server 8 ) were down in red on their server status page when I checked up until Tuesday night. Since then, they have removed their support page (and server status page) and replaced it with a page that says “Back Soon.” They have also removed their live chat which didn’t work once you entered it anyway.
(more…)

just to update those that are wondering.. retroblog.net has finally made it over to the new webhost. It would have been MUCH easier if my former host allowed cpanel backup/restores but like I mentioned before, they “conveniently” had the feature disabled. to make matters even more difficult, they disabled access to the mysql databases as well. So essentially, I had to manually transfer all my files via FTP and then transfer all my archived blog posts using the WP import/export feature. It took a lot more time and effort, but at least NOW I’m no longer hosted on that “sinking ship” of a web hosting company.

It’s absolutely bizarre. support tickets go unanswered. no replies to emails. Their client support area on their company website doesn’t properly work either. what is the deal?? I couldn’t get a straight answer from these people. weird stuff. So it was definitely THE TIME to jump ship.

I did put in a request to cancel my account but I suspect my request will go unanswered as well.

well, guess what. I successfully moved two of my sites to my new host but retroblog is still stuck with the old host for the time being. apparently since I’ve got a ton of posts here, I’ve got to directly copy the mysql database and dump the info on the new server. problem is that the server application that allows me access the database on the old host is currently “down”. not only that but the customer support ticketing system is ALSO DOWN!! WTF!! and I’ve tried emailing support last week. nothing. who are these incompetent idiots AND why did I stay with these people for SO long???

..stay tuned.

it has been long overdue!! but I finally decided to switch webhosts. I’ve been with my current host for over seven years. They started out very reliable and had a great reputation. but in recent years customer service went to hell and downtime has become too frequent. I’ve been giving them the benefit of the doubt this past year but seeing that they’ve been unresponsive to my recent inquiries pretty much tells me that they really don’t give a crap about me and my websites.

With SO many webhost providers available, I’m very surprised that they aren’t willing to assist their long time clients.

I went ahead and purchased a new hosting plan with another host and will be transferring my websites over to the new server one at a time.

hopefully the transition will be smooth. just so that you all are aware, things might get “wonky” during the switch over.

see you on the other side!

hey all! Just checking in after a full day of being super Retro Soccer Dad. yup, most saturdays means me chauffeuring around the kids to their various activities. Today’s highlight was seeing my 8 year old score his *first* official goal during a real match. that was super cool! I hope your weekend is going well. The weather is a bit *hot* around here for early May. we’re currently over 90 degrees at the moment. but I guess that better than cold and rainy, right?

anyway, I just wanted to wish all the moms that visit retroblog a wonderful and happy Mother’s Day weekend! Hope you all are enjoying yourselves!!

take care!!

As some of you already know, we recently had a rash of rude, obnoxious and just plain uncool comments here on retroblog. And like most bloggers, I like getting comments for the most part but when some oddball starts posting nonsense or starts harrassing others, it just gets on my damn nerves. Why should I empower these idiots by providing a platform that allows them to post whatever crude remark comes into their pea brain with absolutely no accountability for their actions? I guess in the Wild Wild Web it was inevitable and so I had to start placing all comments under moderation. I really didn’t want to do it but after what has been happening the last few weeks, it seems like the best thing to do. What this means is that your comments will have to be approved before they appear on the site.

And just to make things crystal clear, I thought I’d post some guidelines on what I consider an appropriate comment on a blog.

1) First of all, the comment needs to be on-topic. In other words, you should be posting something about the subject at hand and not about what you ate last night at Wendy’s (well, unless THAT was what the blog was about. heh). If you want to post something off-topic or want to address another user, please use the forums to do so and not on the blog.

2) Your comment should be coherent and should add some value to the blog. If it’s something like “You rock dude!” or “you’re full of crap!” don’t count on your post showing up here.

3) Be respectful to the blogger and the other commenters on the site. I’m open to other points of view. We don’t HAVE to agree on every subject. We’re all human so we’ll never see eye to eye on every issue. But if you are going to disagree on something, please put some thought behind your statements and add information to back up what you’re saying. If you’re going to criticize, please be constructive about it and not throw a hissy fit. We’re all adults here so let’s act like it.

4) Don’t be crude. No foul language and no harassing other individuals here.

Now don’t let this discourage you from commenting here. I’m all for comments and feedback. But I feel that this process needs to be put in place to keep the site healthy and in good running order. Thanks for your understanding.

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**Update: 16Apr09 – After receiving feedback from all my regular commenters here, it appears that I may have overreacted in this situation. So, for now, I’ve opened comments back up for those that have “previously approved” comments. New commenters/visitors will still be moderated. Also, I’m going to be more proactive to placing those that don’t abide by these guidelines back into the “moderated” category.
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As I’ve mentioned recently in previous post here, the wife and I are bound and determined to get this old house of ours back into shape. We’ve procrastinated long enough and let our duties as responsible homeowners fall by the wayside. In this sorry state of the economy, you just never know what will happen in the future so if the time comes when we need to move away, we want to be in a situation where the house would be pretty much ready to be put out on the market. We still have a way to go in getting our home in tip-top shape but I have to say that the exterior looks fabulous now with the recent paint job. Next on our list is to redo the window treatments that are located on the front side of the house. The sun rises on that side of the house so most of the blinds we have currently have discolored over time. We’ve been looking at various products that are currently available and stumbled across these new Eco-Solar Shades. Not only do these shades look cool and modern but they are also energy efficient – absorbing the heat of the sun during the summer months and keeping the cold out during the winter. I like the fact that you can still see through them while the shades are down which helps small bedrooms feel less closed in. But even with the shades being viewable, they still do their job and reduce the sun’s glare as well as protect us from harmful UV rays. And lucky for me, The Shade Store is currently offering 15% off purchases made on their website by using the code: IZEA01. Not only that but they’re offering free shipping as well. Now, how cool is that?

apparently an overnight billing system glitch caused hundreds of webhosting accounts (including mine) to be shut down. The glitch caused the system to view our accounts as delinquent and in turn, automatically switched our websites off. I’ve been trying to contact my web hosting provider all day but since they’re located in Australia and I’m in the eastern U.S., it’s impossible getting a hold of someone there during EST business hours since it’s night time on their side of the world. So, just in case any of you were wondering, that’s why the site was down today. Everything has been sorted out, I think. The support team is still investigating why the billing glitch occurred in the first place.

ugh. our house is falling apart. I can’t keep up with all the maintenance that’s needed. talk about a money pit. It’s more like, a bottomless black hole. The house is overdue for a paint job and there’s a bunch of rotted wood (mainly the trim) that needs replacing. And now we’ve been informed that our heat exchanger is cracked. and since our whole HVAC unit is approximately 11 years old, it’s recommended that we replace the whole unit instead of replacing just the heat exchanger. to make matters worse, they cut off the gas to the heat exchanger so we’ve got no heat right now.

so let’s see now…

exterior paint job
+ wood replacement
+ HVAC unit replacement
= I’m oh so screwed!

happy, happy, joy, joy!