Is VizaWeb Hosting worth it?

I have finally received an email from VizaWeb, just as I hope the rest of you have. For those that did not, I am including part of the email. So far I am undecided on moving.

- >
As you may have noticed, the VizaWeb network experienced a total outage on Wednesday at 1:00p until Friday Morning 9:15a CST. While none of your data for your account was compromised or lost, you would not have been able to access your site during this time. Please accept our sincerest apologies for this inconvenience.

(Parts Deleted)

We are still investigating this outage and will have more details later. VizaWeb is committed to providing you with the best service and features for hosting your business and life with us.

Rick Mueller
President and CEO
VizaWeb Inc.
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If I am to continue with VizaWeb then some changes need to be done. My biggest problem with this company deals with communication between the service provider and the customer.

1. A status page needs to be placed on the VizaWeb website for all of the servers. It should list each server with a status report.

2. When the network experiences a ‘total outage’, then an email should be sent out to all immediately. This email needs to say what is believed to be the problem and an estimate till correction.

3. As a follow-up to #2, if unable to restore by the estimate, a new email needs to go out with a new projected timeline.

4. As a follow-up to #2, an email needs to be sent out upon restoration. This email should explain what happened and what was done to correct the problem.

5. In addition to the status page listed on item #1, VizaWeb each month needs to let us know the status of where the company is going. This could be as easy as planned up grades to the software or servers. This could be done as an email or as a blog style entry on the VizaWeb website.


In addition VizaWeb said that the network experienced a total outage. VizaWeb is host at The Planet down in Texas. When the problems began, I check The Planets status page. All of their connections were good. So just what exactly were these network problems?



Monty
qcetech

Why don't they tell us this stuff?

I found the neatest little website about Windoze XP that tells me things I never heard of and how to modify the Registry to make it happen:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm

For instance, a simple tip in the thousands of tips says:

"No To All When Overwriting Files

Added 4/5/02

When overwriting files in the Windows Explorer, there is an option for Yes To All.
This would overwrite any files you would normally be prompted for.

To have No To All, simply hold down the Shift key while you click on the No
option."

How easy is that? Did YOU know about it? I usually tell it to overwrite Yes-To-All just to stop it from asking me a thousand times on duplicate MP3 files moving them around....(sigh)

Wish I'd known about this years ago...

....or how about......

Logging in as Administrator

Added 4/11/02

If you want to log in as Administrator, but it is not show on the Welcome screen,
Hold the Ctrl-Alt key and press Del twice.
This will bring up the normal login and you can log on as Administrator

To unhide the Administrator account so it does show up:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList
Unhide the Administrator key by giving it a value of 1

Did you know about that? I never paid it much attention, before.

....or how about....for you Outlook users:

Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages

Updated 4/20/02

To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:
Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0

How easy is that?!

This website is just great reading and tinkering, but if anyone screws up their registry and it won't boot, I don't wanna hear about it. IT WASN'T MY FAULT!

I did this one because I'm an old fart from DOS 1.0, know all the commands and I can copy/move/delete files a thousand times faster in DOS than stupid Explorer can, even if the guy running it has an MSCE.
It puts DOS in Explorer!....(c;

Opening a Command Prompt to a Particular Directory from Explorer

Added 3/18/02

If you want to open a command prompt to a directory that is selected in the
Explorer:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory \ shell

Create a new key called Command Give it the value of the name you want to appear in the Explorer. Something like Open DOS Box
Under this create a new key called command Give it a value of cmd.exe /k "cd %L" Now when you are in the Explorer, right click on a folder, select Open DOS Box, and a command prompt will open to the selected directory.



Well, I thought you might find something of interest on this website. Most of his registry edits have an link that will download the edit file he is talking about. Sure wish I knew as much about XP as this guy does. Hell, I wish MICRO$OFT knew as much about XP as this guy does!

Your humble hacker,

Monty

a

Download kubuntu-6.06.1-desktop-i386.iso

The Red Pigeon.....

The mayor of Houston Texas was very worried about a plague of pigeonsin
Houston.

The mayor could not remove the pigeons from the city. All of Houston was full of pigeon poop. The people of Houston couldn't walk on the sidewalks or drive on the roads. It was costing a fortune to try to keep the streets and sidewalks clean.

One day a man came to City Hall and offered the Mayor a proposition. "I can rid your beautiful city of its plague of pigeons without cost to the city. But, you must promise not to ask me any questions. Or, you can pay me five million dollars and ask one question." The mayor considered the offer briefly and accepted the free proposition.

The next day the man climbed to the top of City Hall, opened his coat, and released a red pigeon. The red pigeon circled in the air and flew up into the bright blue Texas sky. All the pigeons in Houston saw the red pigeon. They gathered up behind the red pigeon. The Houston pigeons followed the red pigeon as she flew eastward out of the city.

The next day the red pigeon returned completely alone to the man atop City Hall. The Mayor was very impressed. He thought the man and the red pigeon had performed a wonderful miraculous feat to rid Houston of the plague of pigeons.

Even though the man with the pigeon had charged nothing, the mayor presented him with a check for 5 million dollars and told the man that, indeed, he did have a question to ask and even though they had agreed to no fee and the man had rid the city of pigeons, he decided to pay the 5 million just to get to ask ONE question.

The man accepted the money and told the mayor to ask his question.

The mayor asked: "Do you have any red Mexicans?"



Monty

The New Stella Awards.....

It's time again for the annual "Stella Awards"! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee


That's right, these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts that happened in the U.S. during 2005. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratchers handy. Here are the Stellas for the past year:


To kick things off the right way, there was a three-way tie for 5th place. Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.


Also in 5th place is Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California – you knew California had to be in the list somewhere, right? - who won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps. Go ahead, grab your head scratchers.


The last of the 5th Place winners was Terrence Dickson, of Bristol Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to subsist for eight - count 'em, 8! - days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

Keep scratching

There are more.


Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stellas when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in it's owner's fenced yard Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Grrrrr ... scratch, scratch.


Third Place went to Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on soft drink and broke her tailbone (coccyx). The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions? Scratch, scratch, scratch

Hang in there, there are only two more Stellas to go.


Second Place: Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware, sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms.Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000 ... oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.


Finally, (may I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please) this year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home - from an OU football game, no less - having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich.

Don't look so incredulous. Remember, we're talking about Oklahoma here.

Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set.

The Oklahoma jury awarded her - you are sitting down, right? - $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home.

Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might buy a motor home.



Monty

At the Butcher Shop.....

A butcher shop owner noticed a mongrel dog pounding on the front door with his paw. He went to the door and opened it. The dog came in and sat down and barked a little, until, the butcher noticed the envelope in the dog's mouth.

In the envelope was a note asking for 5 pork chops and 5 chicken legs and also contained 16 dollars. The butcher prepared the order with the dog watching every move. The dog took the package and then held the envelope open with his paw and counted the change.

Then the dog went to the door and waited for the butcher to open the door for him.

The butcher was amazed at the dog's capabilities and decided to follow the dog home. The dog only went about two blocks and turned into a modest house. The butcher noticed that the mailbox listed M. E. Pettybone CPO, US Navy Ret.

The dog put his plunder down and then turned around several times and then seeming to be frustrated he threw himself against the door several times and then ran around the house, back up onto the porch, and began to press the doorbell non-stop. In a moment the door was answered by the old Chief, who began to scold the dog.

The butcher intervened and said that the dog was a genius.

"Genius... ha... you think he is a genius? This is the second time this week that he forgot his key"



Monty