I mentioned in a previous post that I decided to make a DIY blog, even though most of my endeavours would probably be blunders. After I decided that, I spoke to a friend trying to convince her to do it with me, and we thought of another blog we could do together. At the same time, though, I still want to do the DIY. So to let you know, I won’t be creating a separate DIY blog, I will just add it to my mommy blog.

The domain I was going to use for the DIY blog (makeshiftwings.net) will become my friend’s personal domain now. When the new server I ordered is turned up I’m going to move her site to the new server and new domain.

I did go ahead and order the new server for my domains. I also ordered a new server to replace one I already have because I can get these 2 servers for just barely over what I was paying for the other one. The one I have now is more than I need and is missing something I do need. I’ll let you know before the move, though, so you know when to expect some possible transition issues.

Blogging has finally made it big, they’ve made a television show about it. There’s a new show out on the CW called Gossip Girl where a girl blogs about the lives she observes. Basically, and obviously, she watches her neighbors and blogs about them like a gossip queen. The story narrated by Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Pulse) and the show is from the same creator as the over-popular ‘The O.C.” - so you know it’s going to be an instant hit. I just hope it doesn’t end up giving blogging a bad name.

The show seems pretty interesting, I may pop it on just to see if it can live up to the hype. I’m not big on gossip and drama, but when they make a show about something I do every day I have to admit, I’m curious. I haven’t ever heard of any of the other actors in it, but that’s not saying much. I don’t get too heavy into TV because I value my sanity, I usually just watch TV for *maybe* 20 minutes a day. Let’s see if this show can hold my interest for an entire hour.

Check it out. Gossip Girl on The CW starts Wednesday, September 19.

Currently, TBW is hosted on an E-Starr server with my other clients’ sites. The major drawback to sharing a server with other people is that they don’t care about the server. They don’t realize that if you install a Gallery script with Fantastico and just let it sit there, in 3 months someone’s going to find a way to spam it or exploit it. When you add 200 of these people to a server you’re bound to run into trouble.

So I’ve been thinking lately about getting my own server for my sites. I know they’re not big sites, but the added protection I need on the servers to keep hackers away from my clients causes a few issues for my own sites. I’d like to get my own server that doesn’t have to have a firewall and all that added protection.

I don’t need a big server for this, just one that can hold a few sites. My sites are mostly wordpress and don’t get insane amounts of traffic, so even a small server would be just fine. I’ve been thinking about the AMD 64 3000 offered by GNAX. I’ve used them for several years so I know they’re reliable and it’s fairly inexpensive. This site isn’t quite making enough to cover the cost of the server, but it may be more incentive.

Really, their AMD XP 1800 would be enough for my small sites (I used to run it as a client server years ago) but I like knowing that if I were to get bigger my server would have the power to handle it. Do you run your own dedicated server for your blogs? What stats did you pick?

Backups are an essential part of any website. Most hosting companies will offer backups with their services, but you shouldn’t rely only on the automated backups they offer. I can tell you first-hand that the cPanel automated backups are not 100% reliable. I ran into a problem once where they just stopped running altogether but I didn’t notice.

The only real drawback to saving your backups to your own computer is that you don’t have it anywhere else, and creating a backup disk each day is tedious. And with my personal computer getting older, I’m a little worried about losing my digital photos and all my past work. I keep everything.

This is where keeping an online backup is handy. But you can’t simply pick any website to upload your files to. IDrive is an online backup service that encrypts your files for added protection. They offer up to 2GB completely free. If that’s not quite enough, like 5 years worth of photos, they have a 50GB storage package for $50 per year.

The features on both packages are amazing. They have a ‘continuous backup’ feature which will allow you to automatically back up your (updated) files every 10 minutes. You simply download it, install it, and you’re ready to go. Or if you want to make a manual backup you simple drag and drop it in like you would moving files from folder to folder on your hard drive. Then you have the detailed statistics you can refer back to if necessary.

I’ve just set up my account today, I’ll update you later on how it goes.