January 9, 2012 - 22:24
I had been thinking off and on for some time that I did not need a personal laptop anymore and finally went ahead and sold my Macbook Pro. I do about 95% of my computing at my desk so it just didn't make sense for me to look at MacBooks again when I was ready to upgrade. I wanted something I could attach my own monitor and keyboard to but a Mac Pro was out of my budget. I settled on a Mac Mini. I decided to get the Server Version so that I could get the Quad Core i7 processor with hard drives that I could stripe for faster disk access. I have only had this setup for a couple days now but I am impressed with how well setup drives two monitors and everything runs very smoothly.
November 1, 2011 - 20:17
About a month ago I had posted about my intention to move my e-mail services over to Google Apps. I did move my e-mail over for a short time but decided to move back because I really didn't care for it. There were also a number of logistical reasons that I don't use it anymore and use my own VPS for e-mail. One of the biggest reasons is the ability for me to backup my data. With my VPS and CPANEL, I can very easily create a backup of my complete domain and download it to my computer to keep a backup. Backing up a domain of Google Apps Data is not as easy. Another reason that I am not using it anymore is because one of my original intentions to move was to see how well it worked so that I could eventually move my Church's e-mail over to Google Apps. That is not a possibility anymore since Google has revised their terms of service and excluded Churches from getting their free service like other non-profits do. I really do prefer the CPANEL interface to managing my e-mail accounts anyway.
September 12, 2011 - 20:16
I have been hosting my own e-mail for some time now but have decided that it's really not worth it for me at this time. I can continue to host my website on my VPS and host my e-mail using a personal domain on the low end google apps for free. There are some issues with hosting your own e-mail server that are just not worth it. Many ISP's and spam lists will blacklist IP ranges based on bad e-mails from a particiular host and even if your server is just one IP address in that range, they will blacklist. Using the G-Mail SMTP server makes it easier to send out e-mails. I also like the web interface of Gmail much better than the ones that came with my cpanel host. The biggest drawback with Google is the 10 account limit for free domains. Thankfully my needs are small enough.
April 16, 2011 - 22:00
I had upgraded my blog from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 and most things were working there. I had planned to just deal with some diminished functionality for now but after a couple weeks decided I couldn't. The biggest issues for me was the lack of a functioning blogapi and the twitter module. I use them both on my site. I use blogapi so that I can compose blog posts from my Mac using an external editor. I also like to add things to my blog using iblogger on my iphone. I could not get either working with Drupal 7 yet. I also use the twitter module to post things from my blog to twitter and that feeds into facebook. As I am training for the 3-Day I use both of those tools quite a bit so I guess I won't look at upgrading to Drupal 7 again until after my walk in August. I really wish I could have kept the blog on Drupal 7 because I really like the new interface and usability features.
April 3, 2011 - 00:00
Well I finally spent some time getting my website updated. When I updated my blog from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 I lost some functionality and now most of it is back. I wanted to get things back to where I wanted them so that I was ready to post training blogs as I begin my training for the Twin Cities 3 Day in August. I like to post entries when train so that my donors know that I am working to get ready for the walk. In addition to adding a content type that lets me track my miles of walking, I can actually track my walk maps this year as well. I am adding a little each time I have time to work on the website.
Pages
