Webpage

I have purchased a domain name! Soon I will be going live (with a simple little webpage). At the urgings of my friend I checked out GoDaddy and was ready to buy (credit card out). Holy crap was that a rough time. I've never been fooled into paying for fake antivirus software when they infect your computer and extort you, but I imagine it would be similar to buying webspace at GoDaddy. There were so many up-selling options I couldn't figure out what I had agreed to purchase and what they were trying to sell me. They offered deals but it wasn't clear what you needed to do to get the deal.

Another feature I didn't like about GoDaddy is that they would automatically renew your domain name unless you requested they not do that. That seems like a good feature if you want to be sure you don't lose your domain but if you want to host your webpage somewhere else you'd then have to pay a transfer fee. So if you didn't have automatic renewal, when your domain name registration came up for renewal GoDaddy would (as a courtesy) renew your domain and hold it for a month. But then you would have to pay $80 to get it back. At the end of the month, if you didn't buy your domain back from GoDaddy they could resell it to someone else, or set it free.

Another web hosting service I checked out was www.bluefur.com, a Canadian shop based in Surrey. Not the most professional webpage with some out of date information. I especially liked the stock photo photoshopped to be wearing their logo. In their terms of service they say they will not host "...illegality, unacceptable content, links and behaviours include but are not limited to:... Pornography and sex-related merchandising". Hosting porn isn't illegal (UPDATE: is it?), so why won't they host it? Morality reasons? If so, what other views do they hold that they would censor webpages for?

Ultimately I decided to host at Doteasy because that's where LMR hosts and they've had a good experience. It was cheap and small which is what I was looking for but I hear they spam your e-mail account a lot. When the time came to purchase, I could buy spam protection but I declined. Perhaps I'll just forward to gmail and let that be my filter.

UPDATE: is webpage pornography illegal in Canada? In my brief google searches about this question (details of which I will not relay here) I couldn't tell. Presumably talking about pornography is protected by free speech but selling pornography might be under different rules.

Quote

The Slashdot quote. No reason, just thought it was cute.

If you want me to be a good little bunny just dangle some carats in front of my nose. -- Lauren Bacall

New Post

Every January I always seem to be short on posts, probably because January is rather boring. So no matter how inane, here's another post.

1) I have finally managed to go skiing this season and while the weather at Whistler was fantastic, the snow was pretty crappy. Actually, its amazing how little snow there is and how all the rocks are poking up out of the ski runs.

2) I was watching my Angel DVD with commentary and it was supposed to be a gross-out scene with rats. The director said shooting rats is difficult, that you need to constantly move the camera to make action because the rats actually tend to just sit around and look cute.

3) Vancouver is still in a cold snap (insofar as I generally need to wear a thin pair of gloves). This is a problem because the buildings are freezing, heating just can't keep up. Plus Vancouver houses were built with the understanding that "this is Vancouver and since it is always so warm we don't believe in insulation, or double glazed glass". I'm freezing.

4) Thesis is out the door. Microsoft word kept screwing up my formating. I think next time I'll use LaTeX, which shouldn't be too tough since I have no problems with HTML.

Winter in Vancouver

Well, since I've come back to Vancouver the snow hasn't disappeared. I've never seen it stick around for so long. It isn't a particularly large amount of snow, especially compared to Ontario, but its a lot for Vancouver. There are many cars stuck in large snowdrifts that clearly haven't been moved in weeks. Side streets just aren't plowed and every time there's a new snowfall cars and buses get stuck.

On Sunday Sachi and I were working late in the lab when the buses stopped coming up to UBC. We had to walk home, for me it was 8 km. The entire walk home we pushed cars out of snow drifts and this was when I got to drive a cab.

The cab van was stuck when Sachi and I volunteered to push it out. The driver just did not understand how to rock a vehicle when it was stuck in the snow. We pushed and pushed (with the fares) but we got nowhere. The driver shoveled and eventually just asked me to drive it.

Now the rain has started and the streets are a slushy mess.