Dynadot currently sells .com names at $9.99 / year but if you use this coupon:

MAY2DDOT

You can get a .com name at just $8.25 / year. Enjoy!

If you’re looking for a quick and dirty security intro, here it is — Update, update, update. Check release notes for any vulnerability fixes; if you see any, it’s time to upgrade. In addition, audit your plug-ins. Third-party add-ons are often not checked as thoroughly as the core code. Just because a plug-in is popular doesn’t mean that it’s secure.

Having said that, when it comes to more comprehensive information specific to WordPress, we’d prefer to direct you to the experts:

http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_My_site_was_hacked
http://wordpress.org/development/2009/09/keep-wordpress-secure/

As always, we welcome your questions and feedback!

top -b -n 1 -u jimgreen | awk 'NR>7 { sum += $9; } END { print sum; }'

You can even further capture the usage metric in PHP and do conditional actions:
$usage = shell_exec("top -b -n 1 -u jimgreen | awk 'NR>7 { sum += $9; } END { print sum; }'");
Now $usage contains the CPU usage of the user jimgreen.

Rackspace Cloud Pricing

1. Cloud Servers – $0.015 / Hour

But that’s just for the Cloud Servers which is priced at $0.015 / hour or $10.95 / month, no matter what you choose for the system, Linux or Windows. You manage, monitor, and secure the system yourself.

Cloud Servers bandwidth pricing

2. Cloud Files – $0.15 / GB / Month

State of the art programmable cloud storage for online data hosting / retrieval at comet speeds, Cloud Files is priced at $0.15 / GB / Month.

Cloud Files bandwidth pricing

3. Cloud Servers with Managed Service Level – $0.135 / Hour + $100 / Month

This is the ultimate Cloud Servers plan with Managed Service Level which is priced at $0.135 / hour plus $100 / month. It includes the simple Cloud Servers plan and the Cloud Files plan. Rackspace manages, monitors, and secures the system for you.

Cloud Servers bandwidth pricing

4. Cloud Sites – $149 / Month

Cloud Sites is like their classic Dedicated Hosting in the cloud. It’s fully managed with a worry-free SLA. Current pricing starts at $149 / month. It includes the simple Cloud Servers plan and the Cloud Files plan. Rackspace manages, monitors, and secures the system for you.

Cloud Sites pricing

5. Cloud Load Balancers – $0.015 / Hour

Load balancing solution on-demand, Cloud Load Balancers starts at $0.015 / hour.

Cloud Load Balancers pricing

Cloud Load Balancers bandwidth pricing

More Facts

1. Cloud Servers (Managed Service Level) and Cloud Sites are mutually exclusive. You can’t order both at once.
2. Bandwidth costs vary by product.

This maintenance will begin on Friday, November 4th at 10:00 PM CDT (4:00 AM BST) and complete on Saturday, November 5th at 6:00 AM CDT (12:00 PM BST).

The maintenance will impact customers utilizing Cloud Servers, Cloud Files and Cloud Sites.

During the maintenance window, we will be performing an upgrade to our entire Cloud infrastructure.  Please note that throughout this time there will be no access to your Control Panel or the Cloud API.

Multiple systems within our infrastructure, including internal support tools, will also be affected. As a result of these infrastructure improvements, our ability to provide support will be limited until maintenance completion. We do not expect this update to result in any downtime to the Rackspace Cloud production environment, only to the management tools and API.

For real-time updates please visit the Rackspace Cloud Status page.

If you have any further questions concerning this maintenance, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our support team, via chat or via ticket.

Best Regards,

Once connected to the server, it will prompt you for user name and password. However, is there anyway to make it all automated? Like, after you double click the PuTTY shortcut in Windows, it will automatically connect to the remote server AND supply the SSH user name as well as password so you don’t have to.

A double-click is all it takes to establish the connection and log in the remote server. Is this possible?

Yes!

Just create a shortcut of PuTTY with a command line like this:
C:\tools\putty.exe -load session_name -l your_user_name -pw your_password
Wherein session_name is the saved session name, your_user_name is your SSH login user name and your_password is the password. Change “C:\tools\putty.exe” to the path of your own putty.exe.

You can use this to make the SSH Socks5 VPN even more easier to use. See this post on Kavoir.

Then what makes a good article for the web?

I recently found a new writer to write about some application reviews. He sent the first review to me, it’s about BC. His writing is good but still not that much desirable. It’s rather long with tedious paragraphs and little section heading (even if there were, they were too short and non-informative). Just not the kind of article people would like to read on the web. So I replied with a brief list of requirements:

1. I’m looking for articles of real personality in it that instantly gratifies the reader in the first 10 seconds they stop on the title and first paragraph / picture. For example, an article that yells and calls names (not necessarily so, just making a point). This blog does it masterly: http://www.copyblogger.com/

2. Use short paragraphs. Use short sentences but strong words that’s heavily opinionated.

2.5. Use lists (ordered, unordered) and tables that are 10 times more readable than plain text blocks / paragraphs. People attentions are very very short on the web and they generally hate large blocks of tedious texts.

3. Don’t be afraid to offend people – like this review: http://www.kavoir.com/2011/09/seomoz-pro-review-bad-bad-bad.html

4. Section the article well and title those sections well so readers can find something very very quickly. For example, the section title ‘Features’ does nothing other than driving the readers away – why should they read what the features of BC are in here while they can easily find them on the official site? Few of them would keep on reading when they see this title because there’s nothing interesting there that they don’t know. So are ‘Flexibility’ and ‘Cost’. They practically said nothing – a waste of readers’ attention. Even “Cons” is a better title because it said something about what to expect in the following paragraphs. “Flexibility” and “Cost” are neutral words that should be used in manuals and official texts, etc.

5. It’s very very kind of you to write more than 1,000 words, I really appreciate it. But if you can do the writing the way I described above, I’d still pay you a solid $xx even if you only wrote 300 words. That’s the quality I want. Articles never have to be lengthy to be good.

Your idea?

It’s all simple and to the point. Period. And I never looked back after using them. Though it’s very much painful for me to manage the vps box myself, it’s a great learning experience after all and I did learn a lot!

Linode is probably the cheapest VPS in all unmanaged hosting companies but it’s far from the worst. In opposite, they are the best and most cost-effective. RAM of 512MB hardly comes by at less than $20 / month these days. And they have got a very hearty community of users! They are eager to help those who need tips to set up and harden their boxes against security breaches.

Their control panel is very cozy – not fancy but just to the point. Everything’s well aligned where they should be. Very well organized. Easy to use and very intuitive. I love it very much.

They also have a very comprehensive documentation library that you could look up stuff in case you don’t know how to do something by yourself.

The only down time I experienced was a power outage or something that lasted about 3 hours. Other than that, it’s all a breeze. The server is responsive and stable.

I would recommend Linode to anyone who’s good at managing the hosting server themselves!

4.8/5 from me.

Managed Hosting provides more value than colocation and dedicated hosting because it frees more of your IT personnel from mundane infrastructure related tasks, personnel that can now be reallocated to understanding and supporting your business more effectively.

Managed Hosting also provides greater responsiveness than fully outsourced solutions because it emphasizes a flexible bottom-up approach to delivering value that puts you fully in control of your OS, application infrastructure and application. In addition, Rackspace  Hosting also delivers a number of key services designed to keep your applications secure, stable and responsive to your changing business needs.

Store Files

Securely store files in the cloud and access them anywhere via a virtual network drive on your desktop or on the web. There is no learning curve; it works just like any other drive, drag and drop, copy and delete. Store an unlimited number of files with an included 10GB per user and additional storage available on demand.

Share Files

Ditch the file server and USB key for sharing files amongst workgroups. Assign access permissions for individuals and teams across multiple drives. Sharing large files has never been easier.

Backup

Easily restore lost files with automatics backup. Set the backup schedule and apply it to specific files, folders, or an entire drive. File change monitoring and de-duplication makes the process fast and consistent. Receive backup updates on your desktop, by email, or RSS. Never worry about data loss again.

Synchronization

Sync files across multiple teams and desktops. Assign folders on multiple local machines to sync with the online drive. Files are updated as changes are made and are synced online as well as on teammate’s computers. Go offline and keep working; the files will update as soon as an Internet connection is established. Never work on an outdated document again.

Remote Access

Don’t be glued to the desktop. Work from anywhere with secure remote access to your files. Access files through a web-based interface or your favorite smartphone.

Rackspace offers a complete portfolio of compute platforms as well as Hybrid Hosting to make them all work together seamlessly.

Hybrid Hosting means you get the best of both worlds: Dedicated Hosting for mission-critical applications, plus the flexibility and fast provisioning delivered by the Cloud.

Whether you require Dedicated Servers and Cloud Servers operating independently for different workloads, or a seamlessly integrated architecture for bursting extra compute cycles, Rackspace Hybrid Hosting allows you to mix and match compute platforms to best suit your needs.

Benefits of Hybrid Hosting

• Enables the right fit between application needs and compute platform
• All your hosting is under one roof
• All bandwidth used between Rackspace Cloud and Dedicated Managed Servers is secure and provisioned at no additional cost
• Backed By Fanatical Support

How does it work?

Built on dedicated, branded servers running VMware, these environments are protected by your dedicated Rackspace firewalls. They are designed to provide you with the best of both Cloud and Managed Hosting. So, the most important benefits of the Cloud-resource and budget optimization with rapid scaling up or down – can be had with the higher security and improved reliability of a Rackspace Managed Hosting Solution.

Our Managed Private Clouds are an even more secure and reliable approach to public Clouds.

And the best part is, you don’t have to invest in or build and manage your own Enterprise class private cloud to make it happen. We make it happen for you from the data center, to the network, to the VMs. All the nonstop work – purchasing the components and licenses, configuring your Private Cloud, patching operating systems and troubleshooting issues whenever they pop up – is taken care of on our end.

All you need to do is decide if one of our three recommended configurations will do the trick for you. Or if you want a built-to-fit solution based on your specific needs, we can do that too. Our around-the-clock Fanatical Support will take care of the rest.

The Smart Way to Scale

1. Rapid VM provisioning makes scaling easier.
2. Purchase custom configured VMs as you go and pay for them only when they’re turned on.
3. Dedicated network and host machines provide added security.
4. Automatic recovery keeps your up and running by providing redundancy.

We are pleased to announce the general availability of Cloud Connect in the US. Through mixing-and-matching compute platforms in a “hybrid” scenario‚ Cloud Connect provides you the ability to link these multiple platforms into a seamless compute solution.

This new service provides you with the opportunity to engage with existing and new clients by creating the best configuration and optimal compute solution for their unique business needs. Important Definitions

• Hybrid Hosting: A single customer using multiple Rackspace platforms (i.e. Dedicated Hosting‚ Private Cloud‚ Rackspace Cloud‚ Email & Apps)
• Cloud Connect: The linking of multiple Rackspace platforms (with an F5® load balancer or ASA firewall) into a seamless compute solution (i.e. Dedicated Servers + Rackspace Cloud)

• The minimum configuration for Cloud Connect should be at least 5 servers in total between Dedicated and Cloud devices

• Scalable Web Apps:
  • Dedicated Hosting with high performance‚ fully configurable gear for supporting predictable load
  • Leverage the Rackspace Cloud for spikes in load and scale storage on demand
• Test‚ Development & Production:
  • Develop‚ test and stage on scalable‚ fast-to-deploy Cloud Servers
  • Promote directly to the Dedicated Hosting production environment
  • Scale up massively for full scale load testing‚ pay only for the time you’re testing
• SaaS‚ VAR or Web Developer:
  • Mix-and-match Dedicated and Cloud Hosting to best support your customers’ individual needs and usage patterns
  • Connect Dedicated and Cloud to enable multi-customer central management of your SaaS application

• Enables the right fit between customer application and compute platform
• Provides a private‚ isolated link between Rackspace Cloud and Rackspace Dedicated environment‚ utilizing an F5 Load Balancer (LTM 1600 or higher) or Cisco® ASA firewall (5510 or higher)
• Provides existing Dedicated and Cloud server service levels

Learn more from Toby Owen, Rackspace Product Manager for Hybrid Hosting Solutions, on our blog.

If you’re a .NET developer, small-to-medium sized business, or IT administrator, spinning up new servers takes little time and cost as little as $0.08 per hour. Watch a quick video to see how easy it is to create a Windows Cloud Server.

You can learn more about Cloud Servers for Windows, including pricing information, online at our website.