Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
I actually have no idea why I'm being extremely picky about choosing a new webhost. Maybe I'm creeped out by the WP-Memory-Usage plugin showing me that on PHP 5.2.6, a very small blog like Caramel Toffee uses at least 20.2mb memory. Imagine throwing two more WP blogs, one Wacintaki Poteto board and one SMF board into the pit. The ease of mind only comes because I know at least 99mb memory is allowed by my current host. On Tektonic, I was always reduced to tears because of the VPS memory issues. On Hostgator, I was askedto either upgrade or leave because of memory issue PLUS server load.
Oh, the heck? Caramel Toffee only gets 300 visitors at most per day. On normal days, it's either 50 or 125 or so. Even Junjou only gets 500 to 1000 visitors per day and our forum isn't as active as it once was. So what's killing the memory? Poor scripts?
Oh, back to the memory usage stuff. On PHP 4.4.8, Project Catharsis uses up 15.6mb, but that's understandable because I'm using NextGen Gallery plugin. I still need to be careful, though because Lax Host only allows 32mb memory limit. I don't think I'll move PC from Lax Host. It only costs me $10/yr with the free domain. The only dissatisfaction I have with Lax Host is that I have to manually CHMOD folders to 755. By default, new folders would be assigned to the permission of 775. I realised this when I was trying to get my CGI scripts to work. I kept getting 500 error page. Ugh.
I installed Akismet too late from getting Project Catharsis to accumulate over 1,800 spam comments labeled as 'Awaiting Moderation'. Thank goodness for Akismet. Got it to check for spams, managed to get all messages labeled as spams and delete them all in one go. I need to remember to disable comments because PC is only using WP as a CMS, not a blog.
Basically, what I'm looking for in a new host and what I need are: Apache 2.2 or Litespeed, PHP 5.2.x, MySQL 5.0.x or 5.1.x, CGI/Perl, SSI, extra bonus if the server supports SQLite. If t supports multiple domain hosting, I want each domain to have its own root, not just an add-on domain where it points to public_html/addondomain. In other words, True Multiple Domain Hosting. SSH is a big plus because I'll be needing it to do SQL dumps and direct file transfer from good 'ol {mt} to the new host. From what I've read, most free site migration services only extend to sites previously hosted on WHM/cPanel. Well, what the hell? If I'm on WHM, why the hell would I even want to waste time waiting for them to migrate my sites when I could damn well do it on my own easily from the control panel? Somehow, the offer sounds very unnattractive.
I've been offered reseller accounts, but I don't need a reseller account. I don't even need unlimited anything because well, it is limited (inodes, CPU, whatever else - what's the point of having unlimited storage when you only have, say, 50k inodes?). I only need around 2-10GB of space with at least 10GB monthly data transfer (50gb-100gb at most).
Although paying for a whole year of hosting is money-saving, I don't think I can do that. This is not about chucking out a lump of money. It's about satisfaction. I like being able to pay on a monthly basis because then I could cancel my account and look for other hosts if I'm not satisfied (or need more features) after 3 to 6 months. I'm capricious that way. If I don't like it, I move on.
I was seriously considering going for Vector Level until this evening when I get the glorious Page Load Error message. Their main site was (and still is at the point thentry is being writen) down. So much for still having 100% uptime for July (I checked their Pingdom). Hosts I'm still considering now are: Crucial Paradigm, Site5 and Webfaction. I've been considering A2 Hosting too, but then I won't get the multidomain hosting that I want although their PHP memory_limit is set to an atractive 128mb. Aquarius Storage and Pronet Hosting has the limit of 64mb, but they're offering super cheap 1 year of shared hosting for signups in July - I figure they're going to get heaps of signups. Then there's AnHosting and Midphase, Pivotal Web and a bunch others which promise high performance hosting. I also looked at Malaysian hosts like DataKL, Mercumaya and Serverfreak, but of course they only offer yearly signup (like AnHosting and Midphase).
I need something of high performance because I'm developing something (more like experimenting) with RoR (pretend you didn't hear that from me). Searching the web for something like 'Top 10 Webhosts' is of no help. Most of them are listed as TOP 10 because they offer very attractive affiliate rewards. I believed them, once, and went for Hostgator. It brought me to tears six months later and I started cursing 'unlimited plans' like there's no tomorrow.
This post is getting too long for my liking. I shall go back to lamenting and searching and comparing, then.
p.s/ Webfaction is winning my heart like WHOA at the moment~
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
Web Diary Professional with PaintBBS & Shi-Painter/Shi-Painter Pro integration 私の新しいシンプルなＰ－ＭＥＭＯです：） これからもっとお絵かきをする！ (LINK)
I wonder if there are English versions of their softwares, because all of them are really cool~ It's a bit sad that you need to understand Japanese in order to fully utilise their scripts. I spent one day getting Web Clap and Web Diary Pro to work (because I desperately want to use the integrated PaintBBS, Shi-Painter and Shi-Painter Pro that Wordpress and Wacintaki Poteto have been depriving me of). After hours of getting either '500 Internal Server Error' or '403 Forbidden' and a few more hours of tweaking the skin files, I now have a fully working Oekaki Log (or P-Memo, which sounds cuter). I'm so happy, because now my oekaki belongs to only me instead of a whole community. The fact that it's actually a blog is a big plus.
I was deciding between Nicky!, Web Memory and Web Diary Pro for a few days before settling on the last of the three. Nicky! is pretty decent, but not as flexible as WDP. If you're thinking of installing your own oekaki blog, I recommend WDP to the extreme (LOL). Here's some extra bits of information to those who aren't familiar with web claps and the likes:
- Web Clap: It's widely installed on Japanese sites, including blogs (like those hosted by FC2). Webclap is simply a script that let visitors 'applaud' your website content. They can also leave comments if they want to. It's like the karma system, only web clap means giving good karma. I wonder if they have something like Web Boo! for the opposite effect. Hahaha.
- Oekaki: The downside to being familiar with oekaki is not knowing how to exlain what it is, like what I'm feeling. Just think of it as drawing using Java appletsand then publishing the piece of art as a blog entry (or in a more popular case, pictures on bulletin boards). See, I suck at explaning what oekaki is, so feel free to Google it up if you need more info.PaintBBS, Shi-Painter and Shi-Painter Pro (the last is my favourite) are three most famous applets ever created for this purpose. Why the heck isn't it integrated with Wordpress yet?!
As I was working on the scripts, I drew myself a brand new avatar. I think is decent. I don't know. It might be one of the most decent avatars I've ever made for myself.
Notice that all of them are in the same colour scheme. This is because I've designed for them to be integrated into my fanwork gallery, Toffeepops. Yup, that's my finalised circle name. The last was discarded, and I registered under Toffeepops instead. It's cute anyway. Toffeepops is multi-hosted, but the main gateway is hosted by 2Style, under the domain Sweety.Jp. I wanted Psycho.Jp, but I made a very stupid mistake... by giving them the wrong e-mail address. Moron. This is a part of Project Catharsis and the simplest site I've planned/made since 2004. It's like going back to basics - less coding, more styling. Lol.
Okay, I can't stay awake. I need to go to sleep for a while even though it's only 7.55pm.
Originally published at Ini Aku. You can comment here or there.
Nak main DS pun, sama la jugak. Boleh patah wrist kalau main balik The Wolrd Ends With You. Hmm... Tapi takpe. Aku sekarang tengah dengan happy nya kerja volunteer sebagai Japanese-English translator untuk beberapa projek online (projek tu semua termasuklah subbing dan scanlating anime/manga, ye). Planning manga 'Parapsychic' aku pun lancar je. Boleh tahan jugak la kot produktifnye cuti ni.
Oh ye...
Kepada sorang lelaki separuh-Japanese yang kupanggil Bakahiro (baka aho sukebe! Biar la nama sebenarnya dirahsiakan), silalah berhenti meng-stalk blog-blog aku kat internet ni. Aku takkan layan ko nye, serius. Ko pegi melutut mintak maaf kat Keith pon, ko mintak maaf la macam mane kat aku pon, toksah harap aku nak endah. Kan dah aku cakap dulu; blah la ko dari hidup aku. Tak paham-paham bahasa lagi ke? Tipu la sebab ko dah pindah permanently duk Jepun ko dah lupa bahasa Melayu. Sekian terima kasih :P
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
Sorry for the inconvenience. It feels weird that some people called me (or at least thought that I am) Adi because they misunderstood.
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
- With a few ESOL students @ Avondale College, and the flag Maria brought to class (120609) -
Other than admitting to the fact that I am hopelessly in love with my own name (this has nothing to do with narcissism, thank you very much), nothing particularly interesting has been going on around me lately. I'm back to being snappish, easily annoyed, feeling like wanting to sleep the whole day without doing anything and anything else that you can associate wih extreme laziness. The weather the past few days were not helping either. Waking up to a white blur out of the tall window was not a pleasant experience, just like having temperatures above 15 degrees celcius during winter was kind of uncool (literally).
I've been switching from books to books, one piece of writing to another, sites to sites - unable to focus on anything. Even this entry feels forced. I haven't been updating my other journals as well. Those are just a few examples of my laziness at the moment. The biggest accomplishment during this reign of ultimate boredom is probably that I've managed to write over 10,000 words of fiction in a week. They're actually pieces that I really had fun writing too.
I guess I should go back to my DS. It's been a long time since I updated my gamelog. What a shame. It's time to go hunting for good DS games again. I'm also putting DSi on hold. Nope, not going to buy it anytime soon, at least until they find the proper flash cart for it. I'm still extremely happy with my red DS~ I'd rather buy a second Wii or a new UMPC.
I'll be back to feeling very, very bored after this. Huffs.
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
- Chocolate Steam Pudding, Chocolate Waffles, etc @ Chocolate Boutique, Parnell, Auckland, NZ. -
I went to Atie's place with Mira at around 6.30pm last Thusday and waited for our friends from Australia to join us for a little sinfully chocolatey indulgence time at Chocolate Boutique. There were Rozi, Sarah, Umai and Kak Fad (Kelsey's not there, though). I've only been there once, and I went alone last time; so it wasn't that interesting. Since I knew we would be going as a group, I just knew it was going to be fun. I'm not the type who's comfortable walking in a crowd, but they're a bunch of lovely friends. Being able to join them while being known as the not-so-sociable girl (at least not anti-social) eating, talking, laughing and just having a good time with them is something I consider precious.
We took the link bus and arrived a little bit further than our destination, but it was okay. It was a short walk down, no worries. After a random camwhoring moment, we ordered for our chocolatey treats. Yummy, yummy chocolates in all forms. I ordered their Chocolate Waffles because of my sudden craving for waffles (saw the easy-cook waffles at Foodtown, but it's not in my budget at that time), and a glass of Mocha Affogato (melted milk chocolate + 2 shots of espresso + ice cream) to slurp. Poor Atie took my espresso as chocolate and got the strong taste of coffee burn her tastebuds. Sorry dearie~
Acap arrived way too late to join the feast. The funniest think he said was probably "Where are the other guys?", because there weren't any (though I kind of expected Dyau to tag along, but I guess he was sleeping?) After the food, we camwhored for a while and walked all the way back to the city from Parnell. It was a pleasant experience it you don't count the cold. My back was sweating under my jacket and sweatshirt, so no probs there. Mira pointed out to a fancy shop selling equally fancy stuff.
"Look, it's like the Phantom of the Opera!"
That was what set Atie, Sarah and me into a long conversation about our Foundation days back in IPBA in which we parodied PotO in small groups, under the supervision of Miss Pat. I was the Phantom in my group. Sarah was a memorable La Carlotta. I still remember LOLing at her 'Where's my doggie?!' lines, and the part where the (imaginary) grand chandelier fell atop her (imaginary) doggie. Fun times! We agreed that we kind of miss those days. I hope I still have the video recording of our parodies at home. I know I took them, so they must be there!
Before going home, Mira and I went to Foodtown for minor grocery shopping (because I already did most of them the ther day). Sweet night was sweet indeed, and our house was not that cold. That's about everything for now. Some photos have been uploaded to FB, and are available for viewing here.
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
I went to Atie's place with Mira at around 6.30pm last Thusday and waited for our friends from Australia to join us for a little sinfully chocolatey indulgence time at Chocolate Boutique. There were Rozi, Sarah, Umai and Kak Fad (Kelsey's not there, though). I've only been there once, and I went alone last time; so it wasn't that interesting. Since I knew we would be going as a group, I just knew it was going to be fun. I'm not the type who's comfortable walking in a crowd, but they're a bunch of lovely friends. Being able to join them while being known as the not-so-sociable girl (at least not anti-social) eating, talking, laughing and just having a good time with them is something I consider precious.
- Chocolate Steam Pudding, Chocolate Waffles, etc @ Chocolate Boutique, Parnell, Auckland, NZ. -
We took the link bus and arrived a little bit further than our destination, but it was okay. It was a short walk down, no worries. After a random camwhoring moment, we ordered for our chocolatey treats. Yummy, yummy chocolates in all forms. I ordered their Chocolate Waffles because of my sudden craving for waffles (saw the easy-cook waffles at Foodtown, but it's not in my budget at that time), and a glass of Mocha Affogato (melted milk chocolate + 2 shots of espresso + ice cream) to slurp. Poor Atie took my espresso as chocolate and got the strong taste of coffee burn her tastebuds. Sorry dearie~
Acap arrived way too late to join the feast. The funniest think he said was probably "Where are the other guys?", because there weren't any (though I kind of expected Dyau to tag along, but I guess he was sleeping?) After the food, we camwhored for a while and walked all the way back to the city from Parnell. It was a pleasant experience it you don't count the cold. My back was sweating under my jacket and sweatshirt, so no probs there. Mira pointed out to a fancy shop selling equally fancy stuff.
"Look, it's like the Phantom of the Opera!"
That was what set Atie, Sarah and me into a long conversation about our Foundation days back in IPBA in which we parodied PotO in small groups, under the supervision of Miss Pat. I was the Phantom in my group. Sarah was a memorable La Carlotta. I still remember LOLing at her 'Where's my doggie?!' lines, and the part where the (imaginary) grand chandelier fell atop her (imaginary) doggie. Fun times! We agreed that we kind of miss those days. I hope I still have the video recording of our parodies at home. I know I took them, so they must be there!
Before going home, Mira and I went to Foodtown for minor grocery shopping (because I already did most of them the ther day). Sweet night was sweet indeed, and our house was not that cold. That's about everything for now. Some photos have been uploaded to FB, and are available for viewing here.
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
Myself (left), Atie and Kelsey @ Hulu Cat Tea House, Auckland, New Zealand (170609).
I have revamped the entire blog, minus the jumbled up tags, as a silent promise to make this blog more active from now onward. Yes, yes, I say that all the time, but I really hope I'm able to keep it. Why is it so hard to spend at least 10 minutes per day to write a journal entry that I can go back to in the future? I really need to work on my poor time management skills and my ability to write more serious stuff - fandom doesn't count.
I've finished practicum in New Zealand last Friday. While I'm glad to not have to commute from Auckland City to Avondale College, I do feel a pang of sadness. Just a tiny wee bit. It's not because I miss the school or the students; it's just that it is a reminder that I now have less than a year and a half to graduate. It's a reminder that this is my last year in the university, doing headache-inducing third stage courses, preparing for another year of training back in Malaysia. Mmhmm. It makes me nervous. So, so nervous.
Putting that aside, Mira and I left the cocoon of our warm house (not that warm, but warmer than the pre-winter chill outside, at the very least) to join Atie, Felicia, Wira, Dyau, Hijrah, Danial and Kelsey at Hulu Cat. Kelsey and Dan are here for he term break, over from Brisbane. Once there, I had a sudden craving for kare- ramen. The closest thing they have there is kare-udon (seafood, of course), so I settled on that. Yummy. The worst part, though, was the Caramel Latte. For $6, it sucked big time. It tasted exactly like Nescafe Freeze. I'll never ever order that drink again.
Alright, that's it for now. I have to catch the Link Bus to Chocolate Boutique, with Mira and Atie, as well as a few others. Ciao.
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
Myself (left), Atie and Kelsey @ Hulu Cat Tea House, Auckland, New Zealand (170609).
I have revamped the entire blog, minus the jumbled up tags, as a silent promise to make this blog more active from now onward. Yes, yes, I say that all the time, but I really hope I'm able to keep it. Why is it so hard to spend at least 10 minutes per day to write a journal entry that I can go back to in the future? I really need to work on my poor time management skills and my ability to write more serious stuff - fandom doesn't count.
I've finished practicum in New Zealand last Friday. While I'm glad to not have to commute from Auckland City to Avondale College, I do feel a pang of sadness. Just a tiny wee bit. It's not because I miss the school or the students; it's just that it is a reminder that I now have less than a year and a half to graduate. It's a reminder that this is my last year in the university, doing headache-inducing third stage courses, preparing for another year of training back in Malaysia. Mmhmm. It makes me nervous. So, so nervous.
Putting that aside, Mira and I left the cocoon of our warm house (not that warm, but warmer than the pre-winter chill outside, at the very least) to join Atie, Felicia, Wira, Dyau, Hijrah, Danial and Kelsey at Hulu Cat. Kelsey and Dan are here for he term break, over from Brisbane. Once there, I had a sudden craving for kare- ramen. The closest thing they have there is kare-udon (seafood, of course), so I settled on that. Yummy. The worst part, though, was the Caramel Latte. For $6, it sucked big time. It tasted exactly like Nescafe Freeze. I'll never ever order that drink again.
Alright, that's it for now. I have to catch the Link Bus to Chocolate Boutique, with Mira and Atie, as well as a few others. Ciao.
Originally published at Caramel Toffee. You can comment here or there.
Friend A: Why aren't your journals on Blogspot?
Friend B: What's Livejournal?
They're so internet savvy, so it appals me that they don't know about Livejournal. I can be sure they have no ideas about the LJ Strikethrough that shook the blogosphere or the recent development and emergence of Dreamwidth. If you ask me to compare Blogspot with Wordpress, Livejournal and most recently Dreamwidth, I'd say Blogspot is MOST DEFINITELY on the bottom of my list. Heck, even Vox is at least ten times better.
Purpose of A Blog, and Privacy Level
Is it personal or commercial? Why are blogs suddenly popular after a few years of it's initial existence? Why do everybody have blogs now? Some keep blogs for commercial purposes, but some wants it to be personal. It makes me wonder why personal blogs are kept on Blogspot, which offers no post privacy filters. If I want to keep it personal, and allow only a few to read my entries, or even keep the blog entries to myself, I would choose a blog provider which allows me to control 'who can certain entries'. It's more effective than making the entire blog private. Sometimes, you want to share your entries with select friends. Sometimes, you just want to keep them to yourselves. Sometimes, you want to share your entries with anyone at all.
This is why I love Livejournal (LJ) and Dreamwidth (DW) so damn much. Of course, I love InsaneJournal, Greatestjournal, JournalFen (IJ, GJ and JF respectively) and other LJ-based providers too, but my best experience had been with LJ and recently DW. I can make it so that my blog entries can only be read by friends who also have accounts there. I can make it so everyone in the WWW can read them. I have that freedom.
The new development of Dreamwidth (currently in open beta) is even more wonderful. New privacy options let me have greater control of my journal entries. If you were to have a look at my DW now (http://adlina.dreamwidth.org), you can only see one entry when I actually have a total of 5 entries. Same with my Livejournal. Out of 325 journal entries (I've been using LJ for six years~ 325 is a small number, sadly.), the public eye can only read 160 of them. The rest are either private or shared with friends, who are DW/LJ users.
Ongoing Conversation and Meaningful Discussions
LJ and DW makes me feel alive. You write something, someone clicks reply, and you can click reply on the person's comment. In other words, the wonders of threaded comments (like Wordpress, but we all know WP is a bit slow to implement this features). Have a look at a sample comment thread from my LJ:
It's an ongoing conversation, people. It looks alive. If you have something you disagree with, you can always argue. The arguments can continue. Other people can also join in the discussion. The thread doesn't have to be between two people.
If you want to one person's comments invisible to other commenters, you can screen the comments. This way, no one knows about your private discussion with the other person. You can also delete their comments if you want to.
Sense of Community
You can join and create communities with LJ-based journals. What's the point of keeping your short stories or poetry or even songs to yourselves? Joining specific communities can help promote your artistic pieces. Share them with other people and get into discussions about them. It's your chance to get feedbacks and even constructive criticisms. The latter is hard to come by these days. Comments of "Wow, it's cool!" is getting so old and lame and bleh.
One of the communities I'm in helps me with my language learning. It's very useful when you have native speakers correcting your works and help you improve. Information exchange, file sharing - you name it. We have it all.
Friends Page / Reading Page
You don't have to individually open each blog to read your friends' newest entries. You don't even have to subscribe to their RSS feeds if you don't feel like it. Just click on your friends page, without the apostrophe, (or 'reading page' in DW) and then you can read the entries of everyone you have access to. If you want to comment, just click on comment straight away. Easy as that. Your friends page will also show newest posts in communities you subscribe to if you don't filter them out. I usually filter communities and individuals
You can always go to your profile and click on 'view entries' for friends or communities. Instant filter ;)
Conclusion to Friend A: No, I will never have a working journal on Blogspot.
To Friend B: I hope you have a clear idea now.
