donut.nu

So, I signed up with a Site5 reseller account a few weeks ago. Since then I’ve had to submit three help tickets and there’s another issue I need fixed, but the issue I’m currently battling them on has made me severely doubt tech support’s reading comprehension.

First issue was that in my welcome email they sent me the wrong nameservers and they took a fairly long time to give me the actual ones after I sent in a support ticket.

Second issue was that the FTP wasn’t working for any of the accounts I had set up so the faulty nameservers wouldn’t have made a bit of difference anyway since there was no way I could upload thousands of files via file manager.

Third issue: Someone I host needs domain.com/icons/ and icons.domain.com/icons/ to show what she actually has uploaded in those directories to keep her links alive versus a listing of Apache icons (which you can see demonstrated here if you’re unfamiliar with what I’m talking about¹). The subdomain, icons.domain.com, shows what she has uploaded to the icons directory, but domain.com/icons/ does not and neither does icons.domain.com/icons/.

I read in the Site5 Forums that they have been able to change this in a case-by-case basis. I explain very simply what is needed. I even include links. They email me to say:

Hi,

I’m able to access http://domain.com/icons/ without any problems. Are you still unable to access it? What is the error that you get?

I said nothing about errors in my original ticket. I even specifically said that when I access it it’s a directory listing of Apache icons and how that’s not what is needed.

I just ended up explaining to tech support how Apache servers work. I should be on their payroll.

I wake up this morning to this lovely message:

Hello,

What you can do is to create a symbolic link for the /icons folder. That way both icons.domain.com/icons and domain.com/icons will show the exact same content.

Please let us know if you have questions.

Dude, that’s like the exact opposite of what I want. Why would I want to do that?! I want it to display what’s actually uploaded to them, not display the exact same content².

And why would they just say ‘create a symbolic link’? How many people emailing technical support will actually know what they mean by that? Just because I understand why /icons/ displays what it does doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll know the ins and outs of .htaccess. It mostly means that I’ve been messing around with different servers for the past eight years and have seen a lot of different hosting and server situations. It also means I am a master Google-ninja extraordinaire so if I don’t understand something, I’ll just fucking Google it before I ask questions.

Does someone have good stories about Site5 and/or Site5′s support? Because right now I’m about ready to rip out my hair and I paid for an entire year in advance to save myself $100USD and because everyone says they’re so great.

Update: Partial victory! Apparently they understood enough to enable domain.com/icons/ which is good…except for the part where I said at least three times that domain.com/icons/ could be lived without and icons.domain.com/icons/ was what we were really looking for. I’m hoping it won’t be too difficult to get that enabled, but I’m not getting my hopes up. ;)

1. In that directory I actually have a file called rss.png uploaded and nothing else, but you won’t see rss.png at all, much less be able to link to it from elsewhere, like what she needs. ↩
2. Which it’s already doing, technically speaking, since both are displaying ugly Apache icons used for FancyIndexing. ↩

Customer: You’re drinking Coke for breakfast?
Server: Yeah, I always drink Coke in the mornings. I don’t know why, but it always wakes me up and makes me hyper! But I don’t know why.
Customer: …
My mum, my brother, and me: [collectively die laughing]

Nothing to do with the amount of sugar high fructose corn syrup and caffeine, yeah?

My fifteen-year-old brother isn’t exactly the brightest crayon in box, and even he said “Oh my G-d” before banging his head on the table.

Now we go back there to get breakfast all the time just so we can eavesdrop on this girl’s conversations and get our daily dose of laughter. Perhaps stupidity is good for business?

Also, grr at Site5 for the server and FTP issues I’ve had recently. Durga, the server my sites are on, was down for several hours earlier today and FTP still isn’t working on some domains, but not others. So far, since I switched to Site5 about two or three weeks ago, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. I hope things get straightened out so I can enjoy my escape from DreamHost.

Now, this would have been posted on real Blog Action Day had it not been for my server switching issues and the fact that I lost power due to a wind storm, hence my lack of posts as well as the lateness of my replies and returned comments.

I’m an avid lurker at Hugg, the environmental version of Digg, and EcoGeek¹ because 1) I’m really big on the environment because hey, it keeps us alive and 2) I’m a geek who loves technology.

I’m sort of obsessed with turning lights off and electronic things I’m not using and it drives my family mad. My family is fairly ignorant when it comes to the environment, no matter how much I babble. My dad, as usual, sort of makes stuff up if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’d be amusing if it weren’t infuriating half the time.

I’ve learned to tune him out unless he says something extremely stupid. Like people driving cars (and you know, breathing too much) doesn’t matter because Mammoth Mountain and other mountains release more carbon dioxide per day than cars.

Yep. He wasn’t particularly happy with me when I told him that the “Well, this mountain is killing trees so therefore it’s okay for humans to kill the entire planet” was possibly the worst argument I’d ever heard…and I’ve been involved in big e-drama. E-drama is notorious for it’s idiotic arguments.

My brother (age 15) says I wouldn’t be against gas-guzzling vehicles if I drove². I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

Right. If I drove I’d cease to care about the environment. Because nobody who drives cares about the planet, clearly. I never said the men of my family had good logic skills (because they don’t and generally lack common sense as well).

If the entire world owned cars at the rate USians³ do, we’d likely all be dead.

What You Can Do

Last week was No Trash Week. I didn’t participate, but I’m definitely going to try in the future. It’s a really interesting site as they have tips to help you reduce the amount of crap you throw in the bin, a FAQ, a few projects you can undertake, as well as a forum.

The Compact is a project in which you do not buy new items for an entire year. This means you don’t buy new products of any kind from stores, web sites, etc. You buy used, borrow, barter, etc. I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions because I know I’ll never stick to it, but I think I’m going to seriously try this in 2008. It’ll definitely be difficult because I have an addiction to buying books. It seems the Amazon Marketplace, eBay, second-hand shops, as well as Freecycle.org will be my friend in 2008. I also need a new computer since I fucked up my beloved MacBook Pro a few weeks ago with evil milk. I’m still crying about that, by the way.

10 of the More Obvious Things

1. drive less
2. take public transportation
3. walk to your destination
4. ride your bicycle to work
5. recycle
6. don’t let water run unneeded
7. use rechargeable items instead of disposables
8. don’t litter
9. turn off lights and other things when you’re not using them
10. donate even $/£/€1 to an organisation listed at Blog Action Day’s website or one of the top 12 environmental organisations who use their donations well.

17 of the Perhaps Less Obvious Things

1. eat less meat
2. use your own bags at shops
3. download music from iTunes and other online music stores instead of buying physical CDs, cassettes, and/or records
4. use a laptop instead of a desktop computer
5. buy local produce rather than imported produce
6. buy water-efficient showerheads
7. pay attention to packaging
8. use fluorescent light bulbs
9. quit smoking
10. start a vegetable garden
11. bring your own cup or ‘travel mug’ to your coffee shop
12. volunteer
13. join Greenpeace
14. reduce or offset your carbon footprint
15. offset your blog’s carbon footprint!
16. educate yourself on green issues–it’s a fantastic way to start
17. do something

For Teens

Many teenagers feel as if they don’t get a say and that’s often true. Your parents may not care about green issues, but talking to them (and not just once) is a great first step. There are things just you can do without involving your parents as well.

• Eight Ways to Go Green at Red is an article geared towards teens.
• Forum Thread: Looking for Suggestions for Teens to Go Green at the TreeHugger Forums
• Green Teens Hug the Web at News.com is an article about a study that says more environmentally-oriented teens flock to the internet.

A Few of Random Earth-Related Links

1. Ten First Steps from Lighter Footstep has ten ways for you to get started towards a more sustainable green lifestyle.
2. 13 Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Go Green from MSN Money is a great article for those of us for whom money is an issue.
3. Yahoo! Green is Yahoo!’s contribution to the fight against global warming. Hank Green of EcoGeek (and Brotherhood 2.0) was involved in the project. One thing you should never say to Yahoo! is “I’ll google it” because people at Yahoo! do not google things.⁴
4. 10 Amazing Sea Creatures You Didn’t Know About at Green Expander reminds me why box jellyfish scare the shit out of me. That plus sharks and the brain-eating bacteria that live in lakes remind me why I like pools. As long as the filters don’t suck out my innards.
5. Daughter’s Efforts to Save Planet ‘Really Annoying’ from the Nashville Scene includes a cute kid and irritating parents who whine about their daughter’s interest in saving the planet and her stuffed polar bear, Blanco.
6. The 10 Rarest Animals in the World and 10 of the Most Endangered Animals at Green Expander are both prime examples of how much humans have harmed the earth in the past 100+ years. Many of these species were thriving 100-150 years ago, but some are now down to as low one individual animal of the species left. Some of them are an example of how much humans harmed the environment long before cars were invented as well.
7. 10 Amazing Animals Saved from Extinction at Green Expander has some of the success stories–many of which would be far more fantastic if global warming wasn’t such an issue today.
8. Extinct in the 20th Century at Green Expander shows that while there is still a chance to save many of the species listed as endangered now, for others it’s too late.

Pictures of Seals

If you hate seals, you’re probably evil.

All images contained within this post are royalty-free and come from stock.xchng.

1. Which I found via my favourite vlog, Brotherhood 2.0–go nerdfighters! ↩
2. That’s right, I don’t drive. I drove around a local church’s parking lot a couple of times when I was 17, but never even tested for a learner’s permit. Not only am I afraid of driving, but as it says on my about me page, I’m an avid pedestrian and I’m actually fond of taking public transportation. ↩
3. A term I’ve nicked from others to refer to Americans from the US. I quite like it, but I may be alone. ↩
4. Secretly, they probably do. We all know which is the superior search engine here. ↩