intermittent chatter

In part 1, I wrote about shifting static sites from one server to another. This is a small addendum to that post and other posts that I will write about shifting sites. This one is about how to retrieve left-over emails. I kept this separately because the same steps apply whether the site is static or dynamic. It also doesn’t matter how you backup/restore your site. Steps to retrieve emails will remain the same.

Here are the steps in brief. Please note that these steps are to be used after DNS propogation is over and not before that. This is for retrieving mails from “old” hosting account. In my opinion, at least for a week, you need to have access to both the hosting accounts - old and new.

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Slowly people are realising the importance of paid hosting or at least professional and quality hosting. In website hosting, there is a golden rule - if something is too good to be true, then probably its not true! Many people use free/cheap hosting services to save money. But soon realise that quality of services (uptime, speed, support, etc.) is not upto the mark.

But then comes the dilema of shifting from one server to another and a whole lot of doubts set in, especially for those who have never changed servers!

• How to do it?
• What to do?
• What not to do?
• When to change DNS of domain names?
• What if I lose some important mail in the process?
• and so on …

Here I have enumerated steps of transferring a “STATIC” site. It may look a little confusing if you haven’t done it before, but the steps are pretty straight-forward once you understand the logic behind them. Here are the steps in short:

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Once there was a time when I didn’t have a single credit card. I never felt the need for any card. My dad still doesn’t have a single one. Everytime someone offers him a card, he says “I don’t want any credit!!”

I applied for my first HSBC credit card 4 years back and paid 2K as annual fees!! Times have changed and now I have 6 credit cards and all are free. The first HSBC card has also become free now, I have 1 more HSBC card, 1 SBI and 3 ICICI cards.

I had applied for ICICI card almost 6 months back and when nothing came, I thought my application is lost somewhere. But I was surprised to receive, not 1 but 3 cards after such a long time. First week of September was pretty hectic! Everyday there was some mailer from the ICICI - 3 cards, 3 pins, site password and some other miscellaneous mailers! They kept coming in from ICICI.

Some days back I received yet another marketing call, this time from Citi Bank, offerring me a lifetime free credit card. I asked whether its VISA or MASTER? Caller said its MASTER. Out of the 6 cards that I have 4 are VISA, 2 are AmEx. So I agreed for 1 more card. I was told that they only need a copy of my PAN card, LIC premium receipt and my autograph on their form.

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Some months ago, I went to ISKCON Chowpatty temple to click pictures of deities. We wanted to put some special pictures on Deity Darshan. I mounted my Nikon Coolpix 5200 on my tripod and clicked a few pictures.

I clicked with flash and was highly dissatisfied with the colour reproduction. Colours in the photographs were very much different from what I could actually see. Then I switched off the flash and clicked a few more pictures. Once again, the result was not to my satisfaction. I was highly disappointed. If a camera worth 20K can’t reproduce the colours properly, whats the use of spending so much? But I hadn’t lost hopes and knew that I was missing out on something.

Then I shifted the tripod to the other end of the temple hall. Once again, I clicked a few pictures with and without flash and this time even switched on and off a few lights in the hall. But it didn’t work. After a struggle for about an hour, I left it there for the day.

I went home and flipped through the pages of the camera manual hoping to find something that will improve the colour reproduction. Then I came across something and I was over-joyed. I tried various available modes. Also switched on and off a few lights in my room and took over 20-25 pictures. (Would have I ever done that with a film camera?) I checked the colour reproduction of those pics and immediately realised what was wrong! Afterall my camera wasn’t faulty. I was relieved.

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BlogCamp has already started and fortunately its setup with all basic tech needs - WiFi, IRC chat and streaming audio. There are loads of people around with their gadgets. Laptops and DigiCams are on almost all desks. There are some live blog competitions going on. But there are far better (and professional) bloggers around and therefore I have no intention of participating in the competitions. On the personal front, I am meeting a few new people and intend to meet a few online friends like Sathya, Kato, Ashwin, Qwertmaniac, etc. Already met Varun and Vinay here.

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Some days back, my friend and a GNU/Linux fanatic Anurag called me up to inform me that Richard Stallman is in Mumbai and will be giving a speech in the Patkar auditorium on Sunday 27th August 2006. I got excited! He surely is a genius in his own right and founder of Free Software Foundation and GNU. I attended the meet and was somewhat disappointed to hear the same old things from the great man! What is “Free” software (and it doesn’t mean freeware!), why we should use free software, etc.

On hearing the speech, I remembered a Stallman book Free Software, A Perspective, that I had read (once again given by Anurag) and the whole thought process started once again. I must say, I disagree with Stallman’s economical ideas.

“Free” software is an ideallistic approach. Very noble. Good for the society and the users, but doesn’t seem good for the programmer. I have been a programmer as well as a user. So can think from both the perspectives. From a user’s perspective, I will say I love GNU/Linux because I don’t have to spend for it and still get something thats fantastic and better than the alternatives. I can get it from someone who is willing to give it to me. Thanks to Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman.

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