If you work in a call center, then I’ve got something for you!

YOURmousepad.ca has a line of call center related mousepads for sale! These mousepads were specifically designed to use in call centers and are funny, motivating, and also demotivating. If you or a friend works in a call center, you should order yourself (or your friend) one of these mousepads ! They’re only 6 dollars, and it helps TechieNATION pay for it’s hosting!

Because of demotivationalpics.com (a website I inherited a couple of years ago) I’m equipped with a Heat Press and a printer with a bulk ink system. (I give-away demotivational mousepads during contests on this site) I currently have too many blank mousepads and transfer paper. (I’ve just launched a website about this : www.YOURmousepad.ca )

In your comment, please leave me your email so that I can contact you to get your shipping address, and the image you want printed on the mousepad.

….. I haven’t updated this site in a long time, I’m curious how long it will take for 5 people to take the time to read this article and comment.

As usual, we are having a great time! Using the list of camp grounds we rated last year, we picked lot 153 in the Dunes section this time. We can walk to the beach in about 3 minutes! It’s very secluded yet right next to the bathrooms…. Very handy!

The mosquitoes are out strong which has been irritating Marina a lot, but the racoons are slightly less annoying this year.

This is also the first time i get to use the screenhouse marina got me last year for my birthday!

Thats all for now, i may post more texts or pictures via my cell. I will be here for another 2 days!

Everyone that knows me is invited to Oka Beach on saturday june the 6th for my birthday! My cell will be on saturday to give people directions…. Hope to see u there!

What is a BBS ?

Bbs’s were the predecessors to the internet.  Before the internet was known or publicly available, techie’s like us used BBS’s.  Basically, a BBS is a computer with software that enables people to call in via modem. Bbs’s were not connected to the internet, since there was no internet,  so BBS’s had dedicated phone lines going into that computer in order to receive calls from people calling in with their modem’s. Most Bbs’s only had 1 line connected to it, which means there could only be one user on it at a time.  The more popular Bbs’s had 2 or 3 dedicated phone lines.  Doing this back in the day was complicated. There was no WINDOWS for multi tasking, and getting multiple modems and multiple “windows” of the bbs software to run on a single PC running DOS was not so simple.

About BBS’s :

The fact that most bbs’s only had 1 phone line wasn’t much of a problem because since you had to DIAL IN to these’s bbs’s, most users were local (Otherwise they would be paying long distance call charges).  You didn’t have to worry about being able to have the whole world logging in like you do now days.  There were a few BBS’s that were owned by large companies that had T1’s going into them, (Each T1 means about 23 users can connect at once) these sites were usually used for live chatting with other users, but they usually required you to pay in order to use the bbs. (Those T1’s cost thousands of dollars a month!)  These BBS’s were very popular because chatting on a computer was a totally new concept for everyone.  Remember, there was no IRC, MSN, or anything like that.  (There basically wasn’t any internet !!! …. well there was, but it was too expensive and most people didn’t know it existed at the time)

What does a BBS do ? :

Bulletin Board System’s had more or less the same basic functions of the internet.  You could send private messages to other users of the BBS, you had forums where you would talk about all sorts of random things, you had online games that you could play against the computer or other users of the BBS, and you had file transfers so you can share files with users of the board.

About File Transfers (and speeds) on Bulletin Board Systems  :

File transfers worked differently on BBS’s compared to today’s internet.  All users had to keep an upload/download ratio.  So basically, for example, for every megabyte of files the user uploads to the BBS (That others can download later) that user gets the right to download 2 megabytes worth of files from the BBS.  It’s important to remember that back in the day, BBS’s had 2400 Baud Modem and UP TO 33600 Baud modem as time went on.  This means the maximum transfer speed was between 2.4kb/sec to 33.6 kb/sec.  This is slower than most cell phone’s internet connections now days.  Downloading (or uploading) a single image file could easily take an hour back then!  (Right before the extinction of bbs’s, most boards that survived had upgraded to 56K modems which is as high as it gets on dial-up to this day.  (Which is still VERY VERY slow compared to basic high speed internet)

Still don’t get the hype about Bbs’s? :

Most people I talk to about my BBS days don’t understand the point.  I have trouble understanding that they don’t understand. ;)   Anyone that uses the internet now, would have loved BBS’s back in the 90’s if they knew it existed.  A BBS was the closest thing to the internet that existed back then.  It was the only way to send a “digital” message to someone, the only way to play online games with multiple people, the only way to get pictures, programs, e-books, sound files, and random information ! Bbs’s were slow, only had local people calling in, but that’s all that was available at the time.  BBS users and SysOps (SYStem OPeratorS - The owners of the Bbs’s) were basically the pioneers of the internet !

The Conclusion :

Even though the era of bbs’s is now finished, you can still find a few online that can be accessed via TelNet. There are even a few rogue dial-up bbs’s still up and running.  Bbs’s taught me how to research things online, how to use a computer, and it’s basically where I learned to touch type.  Being a SysOp of my own bbs taught me valuable business skills such as marketing, customer service, and negotiation that I use to this day in my work and the way I run my telecom business.  For those of you who never got to know bbs’s but are internet addicts, you’ve missed out on the beginnings of the online world that we know today.  For those of you who used to go on Bbs’s, I hope this article brought back a few good memories from the past ! (Feel free to share them in the comments!)

Thanks for reading and for visiting TechieNATION !

What started TechieNATION in the first place was a post written about my now famous Solar Power installation in Kingston which provided a small amount of power for the first time to my little sisters off-grid home.  They have 10 acres of land, a small 600sq foot house, and have chosen to live “the simple life” for the moment.  Their only source of water is from a well at the bottom of a hill 100 feet from the house, and is powered by hand.  (a Good’ol fashioned well pump).  Last Christmas my Mother, Girlfriend, and I put our money together and got them solar panels. This years TechieNATION christmas project was a portable shower that could fit under their bed.

They’ve been sponge bathing for the last few years with the exception of the occasional warm shower at a family members home. This is what prompted me to try and build a portable shower that takes little room and no electricity.

This shower could easily be adapted for camping, trailers and RV’s, and installed in a more permanent and visually friendly manner.

Here are the parts used for construction :

• Large Rubbermade container that’s designed to fit under beds from Zellers
• 2 Thick pieces of scrap wood with holes drilled into the middle so that copper pipes can slide into it.  (I took apart a broken pallet from a loading dock and used that wood)
• 6 Feet of 3/4inch Copper Pipe. I used the thicker copper pipe to make sure it doesn’t bend and can properly hold up the shower head, pump, and shower curtain.
• a 3/4 inch copper pipe coupler so that I could split the pipe into 3 foot pieces and then screw it back together into a 6 foot piece. (This way the pipe fits into the rubbermade container when put away)
• A Guzzler brand hand pump that can move 8 gallons of water per minute if you want it too with about 18 feet of lift. (This is an excellent pump, it’s designed as a primer pump for boats before you turn on the electric pump)
• about 8 feet of garden hose.  The hose was cut into 2 pieces. I put on the hose connector myself to the short piece on top that goes between the pump and shower head. The shorter the hoses, the less amount of water is required just to fill the piping.
• A single setting shower head from Canadian Tire along with an adapter to be able to connect it to a hose.  (Shower head connectors and hose connectors are different sizes)
• About 12 feet of flexible copper tubing which was used as the shower curtain holder.
• 2 shower curtains. (There’s only 1 in the video, and as you can see it only goes half way around)
• 4 clamps to attach the pump and shower head to the copper pipe at the appropriate locations.

This shower had to meet the following criteria (I think) in order for them to like it and use it :

• They had to be able to hide it from sight and have it not waste any space in their small house.
• It had to take NO electricity because they don’t have enough solar panels to spare for anything other than lights.
• It couldn’t use water pressure to pump the water to the showerhead because they don’t have any water pressure at all. So it needed a manual pump of sorts to get the water from a bucket below.
• I REALLY wanted to connect it to a real shower head to make it more realistic.  It would have been easier to use a hose sprayer (and probably just as functional) but I really didn’t want too.
• It had to be efficient on water because it’s a lot of work to collect and heat in the first place.
• It had to look good.  (Ok so I failed miserably at that part, but it’s my first attempt, I could make it look a lot better looking with a little more time)

Lots of people have commented that I should have a water bucket on the top so that they don’t need to manually pump.  I agree.  However doing this would require making the whole structure much more solid, and there is very limited space above the shower head once it’s put up. (The shower head is a little over 6 feet up) If this was mounted permanently, I would put a temporary water holding tank up in the attic and have the shower head come out of the ceiling.  The pump would be mounted on the wall and only be used to move the warm water from the bucket below to the “tank” above in the attic.  Then they would turn on the shower head and have a hands free shower.

Here’s the video of the portable shower getting put together :

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, and suggestions below ! I read and answer almost all comments !

Thank you for visiting TechieNATION in this past year, and I hope to hear from all of you over the new year !

I have spent the last 3 days installing imagemagick on the server hosting this site,  and learning how to write bash scripts, so that I can come up with this :  A demotivational (or motivational if you are so inclined) picture generator !

Basically, you upload a picture, insert a title and description, and the website will generate your very own de-motivational poster ! It still has a few bugs, but it’s basically operational ! Try it out by clicking here !!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the makers of imagemagick for this amazing image manipulation software that can work entirely from the command line !  I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time but never could until I discovered imagemagick.  It’s really not easy to use, but it works!

My Cell phone carrier, Fido, has never sold blackberry services. (Which is strange because they’re owned by Rogers who was the first to offer blackberry service here in Montreal) I’m an email addict and this has been a pain.  About 6 months ago they finally offered a service like the blackberry, (Called blackberry connect) but was only supported on a specific Nokia brand telephone.  (Although lots of people have been successfully able to use the fake fido blackberry service with unlocked blackberries)

After a visit to the nearest Fido Store in downtown Montreal, I’ve discovered that things have finally changed! (Fido used to have a very easy to use website with all the information that is needed, now they’ve completely changed it and I can’t find anything I wanted on it.  So I had to go in person. Fido, if you’re reading this, what were you thinking?!)

Despite their now crappy website, I’m a big fan of Fido.  They give good service and have affordable prices.  I was happy to hear they now supported the 3G Wireless High speed Network.  They had 2 phones that I could see myself using.   The Iphone, and the Samsung Jack. (Also knows as the Samsung Blackjack 2, or the Samsung i616)

The Iphone I have used, was very impressed with the touch screen interface, but was just too expensive and lacked certain techie features that I can see myself using.

The Samsung Jack, I didn’t even know existed until that moment.  It looks like one of the common blackberry models that are out there.  I tried the Qwerty keyboard right away, and it worked great, which was almost the only thing I cared about since all I REALLY wanted was a phone with email support and a keyboard that with time I can learn to type REALLY fast on with my 2 thumbs.  (I used to have a Blackberry RIM 950 like the picture on the right, and the keyboard on that thing was amazing.  In the end, I could almost type as fast on that as on a regular pc keyboard.)

The Samsung Jack runs on Windows Mobile 6.1.  It includes windows Media Player, Office, VPN Access, email and exchange server capabilities,  and has a built in GPS.   There is a slot for a Micro SD card on the side which makes it easy to swap out music or video’s.

Other than the obvious email access, there is one thing I REALLY LOVE about the samsung jack.  It can be used as a modem for either high speed internet or dial-up !!  This means that I can connect my cell phone to my Windows PC via bluetooth or USB Cable.  The PC will give me the option of setting it up as a dial up modem or as a network adapter.  If setting it up as a network adapter, that PC will now have high speed internet ! (Although it will be part of the Data plan on the cell phone)  Otherwise, I can set it up as a dial up modem, in which case the speed will be much slower but the call will fall under the voice plan of the telephone.  (In my case I have an unlimited voice plan)  This will be handy for me to connect to remote phone systems while outside of the office, which can only be done via modem with special software.

All in all, I’m very happy with this cell phone.  The volume quality is great and loud (I have bad hearing over the phone), the interface is easy to use,  I’ve dropped it a couple of times already but it has survived.  I’m not all that impressed with the battery life though, although it’s not a deal breaker as far as i’m concerned.  To make things better, in the end I got this phone for FREE (since I renewed my agreement) and even got a free $80 nokia bluetooth headset.

If you need a new cell phone, I suggest the Samsung Jack thanks to all the features that techie’s will love.

Visit Fido, they’re one of the better cell phone carriers in Montreal despite their awful “new” website. For a full list of features about this phone,  visit this link!

Stay tuned for a review of my girlfriends new Iphone !

I’ve decided to mix my day job with TechieNATION a little bit.  Every week, I will post pictures of one of the server rooms I have visited that week.  For each server room, I will give as much information as I can collect from the customer.  What kind of servers they have, what kind of fire protection they’re using for that room, what kind of battery back up system they have, the size of the company, etc etc etc …  Usually the phone system is in the server room so I will mention that as well.  I will post everything I know except for the actual NAME of the company since it may cause security issues for them.

Stay tuned, the first SERVER ROOM OF THE WEEK post should be up at the latest by next Monday ! (Dec. 8th, 2008)

The most popular part of this site however, is the fact that I give free Norstar *tech support over the telephone.  I walk people through phone programming that usually requires them to call in a phone technician and pay a high price for the service call.  All my work is donation based.  Meaning if we help you, a donation is very appreciated although not necessary.

If you have a Norstar phone system or flashtalk/callpilot voicemail system and need some help with the programming, please visit TELiNPHO Communications Free Tech support page that will help you prepare for the call and pass along the contact information.

Yes, this was a shameless plug for my other business site …  I had nothing to write about today, and Google was taking it’s time to scan some of the new pages of the site so I thought I would help it out by writing this post.  (It’s amazing how fast links that I put up on TechieNATION show up in Google)

* Meridian and Norstar are trademarks of Nortel Networks

Being ‘Green’ at your work can improve your pay, position, and responsibilities.  Doing it at home can improve your way of life and health.  Doing it within your city can improve the value of your neighbordhood and create new friendships and a strong sense of community.

Being green isn’t about making sacrifices or doing more hard work, it’s just a matter of adjusting how certain things are done in order to get the most out of the natural resources that we rob from the earth.

Lets take a closer look at some of the simplest things we can do :

Being green at home :

Being eco-friendly in your home is easy, and it pays off fast. At home it pretty much just comes down to saving energy, and recycling. Here are some tips with a short explanation of why you NEED to do this :

• Change out any of your old regular light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights. They take only about 1/3 the power that regular bulbs take, and they seem to last a lot longer too.  They’re more expensive than regular bulbs, but you’ll probably notice the difference on your very first electric bill if you’re one of those people who always leave their lights on.  (With that said, STOP LEAVING YOUR LIGHTS ON!)
• As your old appliances break down, don’t have them fixed.  Replace them with Energy Star rated appliances. (Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products) This means your fridge, dishwasher, washing and drying machine, television, hot water tank, and your PC monitors.  (the old CRT monitors take LOTS of power compared to the new LCD ones)
• If you leave for the day to go to work, remember to turn off the computers, lights, TV’s, etc etc … It really does make a noticeable difference at the end of the month.
• Recycle. I have always had a hard time remembering to recycle.  A few years ago in order to recycle we had to sort through all the recyclables ourselves and put them in different bins.  This was ridiculous and did not encourage me to keep recycling.  The city of Montreal has recently made it easier for me to recycle. Basically :  They cut down on garbage collection. They used to come twice a week, and now they just come once a week for garbage and once a week for recyclables.  This has forced me to start separating my garbage from my recyclables in order to not have too many bags of stinky garbage sitting around while waiting for garbage day.  I applaud Montreal for this because it really has given be a kick in the behind to start doing this.  It’s working out well, I like it.  You should try it.  You might be surprised at the amount of recyclable materials you’ve been throwing out all these years.
• In the winter, turn down the heat a couple of degrees and dress up warmer instead.  (Don’t go nuts to the point that you’re wearing a winter coat indoors though!)
• For more tips about ways to be green at home, I suggest signing up to this newsletter that sends out daily tips and tricks by email.  (This newsletter is targeted mostly towards women who want to be green at home)

Being Green in your Community and at your worplace :

Like I said at the beginning of this article, everyone knows about being green, yet not many people help out.  Lots of people just need some encouragement and some help in the sense of giving suggestions and explaining how helpful it would be if they followed them. Simon Stapleton has made a great point in his recent e-book entitled Why ‘Green’ and Other Niche Causes are great career builders.  Not only does being green help your business, but in doing so it can help you advance at work and get some much deserved recognition. It’s a Win-Win !

Here’s a quick excerpt from his (free) book :

My idea for you is that charity work has a huge potential for exposure in
other business functions other than your own. Charities are generally
small (but not always) and require its workers to get involved in more
than their niche. It is in this way that offering yourself to a charity for
gainful employment could offer you engagements you may never have
found yourself in. You won’t just find a more diverse business
environment to learn from. You’ll probably find a higher degree of social
and cultural diversity, leading to greater self-confidence and self-
esteem. Your work will add to your society, culture and community.

I strongly suggest you visit SimonStapleton’s website which is focused on career development. He’s one of the few people that understands that being green can be a career development tool too. Go Simon !

Specific examples of being green at work :

• Recycling. I really hope your work is already doing this. If they’re not, it’s the obvious first step. If you thought you used lots of paper at home, imagine how much paper you and your collegues throw out in a day at the office ! It’s very easy to get a little add-on for your existing garbage cans that collect paper for recycling. There are also companies that will come pick up your recycling if the city you’re in doesn’t have a service for that yet.
• Power : Talk with the IT department and replace all old CRT monitors.  (Don’t forget to dispose of those properly!  Electronics CAN be recycled too you know!) Instruct everyone to shut down their PC’s and monitors when they leave at the end of the day. When it comes time to get new printers and copiers, make sure they’re ENERGY STAR certified products.
• Use a bicycle or public transportation to get to work.  In Montreal, bus passes are tax deductible which has made it a lot easier to start convincing the business’s themselves of buying bus passes for their employees. You’re saving major money on gas and you’re being green at the same time !
• Keep coffee mugs at work in order to save on people using Styrofoam or plastic cups that just get thrown out after a single use. (That’s a major waste)
• “Message” notes. Do you remember those pink message papers the receptionist gives you with all your missed calls and messages from when you were out of the office ? Does your office still use them ? (As a phone technician, I can say that LOTS of people still do)  In this day and age of voicemail and email, there’s no good excuse to keep this up other than the familiarity of it.  It’s time for some change.
• Every company is different. Look around, ask questions, and make a plan that suits your business.
• Company Policy : Turn all these things into company policy.  One at a time.  You’ll be building the companies credibility, and you’ll be helping yourself and everyone around you be in a more eco friendly environment.  There are some phone directories now that ONLY have listings for eco-friendly companies.  Making a few changes at the office can open up a new level of marketing options for your business that no one knew existed!

I hope that this article might encourage some of you to get moving.  You don’t have to do it all at once.  Start at home, and as you learn and experience the benefits first hand you might want to start having a more active role in the promoting of green products and habits.  It’s literally becoming a matter of keeping the planet in a state that will be able to continue to support human life.  The planet itself will survive for billions of years, but will we ? The way we’re going now, the answer is a simple NO.

I took part in the Laval Flash mob which was organized by a well known geocacher called Landbehrt.  Over 100 people suddenly arrived at the Montmorency metro (subway) station and got onto the same wagon at the same time.  We basically had a mini geocaching party that lasted about 15 minutes in the metro wagon.  We exchanged geocoins, gave out toys and candy to the children, and had a great time meeting other geocachers from the area !

If you don’t know what geocaching is, you should read my past post about it here !

This is the video montage, courtesy of TechieNATION, about the WWFM Laval event. (GC1GRC4)

If you would like to download the high quality video, please right click this link and “save as”.

A small preview of posts to come :

WWFM Laval : World Wide Flash Mob organized by geocachers all around the world.  This was very interesting.

Toll Fraud : After over 10 years of working as a phone tech, I’ve gotten my first call about a new customer who is getting frauded.  Someone was using their phone system to call oversea’s at night time.  It took all of 10 minutes to fix, (I was NOT the one that installed the system) but it was VERY  interesting the way that it was done.  This was happening at a government owned office !

Stay tuned for these 2 articles which should be available within a few days at the most.  If you would like to submit your own articles for TechieNATION, please email digitalmind@techienation.com

Step 1 : Figure out how much power you use daily.

I know that it’s a pain, but it’s inevitable.  Make a list of all the electrical appliances you use, figure out how many watts it takes, and estimate how many hours per day you use it.  Multiply the total watts of the appliance with the hours used and that’s your total for that particular electrical product for one day. Do the same for all your electrical things and add them all together.  Now you know how many watts of power you need to generate per day for everything.

Tips :

• Voltage * AMPS = Watts (Lots of power adapters only list the voltage and current, so you need to do the math yourself to get the total Watts it takes)
• Watts are measured on a 1 hour basis.  (So a lightbulb that takes 60 watts uses 60 watts PER HOUR it’s on)
  
• Some appliances are VERY hard to figure out the total power consumption.  If you can call the manufacturer’s they often have these specifications.  (Usually measured in KiloWatt hours per YEAR) Just divide it by 365 to get the number of kilowatt’s in takes per day.  Multiply that by 1000 to get the number of Watts it takes per day on average.
• Use a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure the exact power consumption that something uses. (These are AMAZING and not expensive : Especially the find out the power consumption of things like fridges and computers)

Step 2 : How many hours of sun do you get per day ?

Figure out the average minimum of sunlight that you get per day.  For me, here in Quebec, I figure 4-5 hours of sun per day.  This is the average all winter long.  We get much more in the summer, but I think it’s best to measure based on the minimum average you’re getting.  This means that I’ll have power to spare in the summer.

Step 3 : Figuring out how many solar panels you should get to meet those needs.

Divide the total amount of watts you need per day by the amount of average sun hours you get per day.  This will tell you how many watts of power you have to generate per HOUR in order to have enough power.   SO :

Solar panel wattage needed = total watts used per day / total sun hours per day

So lets say you use 2000 watts per day, and you have 5 hours of sun per day. 2000/5 = 400

That means you need a total of 400 Watts worth of panels at the minimum to get enough power everyday. Solar Panels are rated in Watts.  Just like all appliances, that number is a PER HOUR amount. So a 100 Watt panel generates 100 Watts per hour of sunlight that hits it.

A quick note about buying solar panels :

Solar panels usually come in one of two voltage ranges : the 12 volt range that is used to charge a 12 volt battery bank. These panels usually output about 18 volts to charge your 12 volt battery bank.

Other panels come in 24 volts so these are used to charge a 24 volt battery bank.  These panels will output over 30 volts when in the sun.

You can connect 2 12 volt panels in series in order to make it like a big 24 volt panel to charge a 24 volt battery bank. However using a 24 volt panel to charge a 12 volt battery bank is not as easy. So if your battery bank is going to be 12 volts, make sure you get the right panel !! (Usually panels over 100 Watts automatically come in 24 volt configuration.)

Step 4 : Sizing your battery bank.

Your battery bank should never be discharged more than 50%.  (And that’s already pushing it because others say not to discharge more than 30%) So using the number you got in step 1 (Your total, daily power consumption) we will figure out the size of the battery bank we need.

Battery bank size in watts = daily power consumption * 2  (Or 3 if you have money to spare)

Batteries are labeled with the voltage and Amphour capacity.  Simply multiply the 2 together to get the total WATTS that the battery can generate.  So if you use 2000 Watts per day, you need a battery bank with a capacity of atleast 4000 Watts.  (The less you discharge your batteries, the longer they will last, so it would be better in the long run to have a battery bank of 6000 Watts, but not necessary)

Quick Notes autbout battery banks :

• Battery banks are usually setup in 12 volt or 24 volt configurations. This is done by connecting batteries together in series or in parallel.
  
• When batteries are connected together in series, the voltages of the batteries being put together add up but the amp/hour capacity stays the same. (So : 2 6 volt batteries rated at 225 amphours connected in series = a battery bank of 12 volts 225 amp hours)
• When batteries are connected together in Parallel, the voltage stays the same, but the amphour capacity adds up. (So 2 6 volt batteries rated at 225 amphours connected in parallel = a battery bank of 6 volts, 450 amphours.)
  
• Click on this link to see my post about what kinds of batteries are used for renewable energy systems.

Step 5 : Get to work !

Now you know how many solar panels you need, how many batteries you need, and how much power you use on a daily basis.  You’ve done some of the hardest work already ! What’s left now, is choosing an inverter for your system, and getting the right electrical cable to go between the panels and the battery bank. This cable can be very expensive (It’s not regular power cable, it needs to be a higher gauge in order to not lose power) so keep the panels as close to the battery bank as possible !

Start shopping and go green !

If you’re looking for LOTS of information on solar power and wind power systems, you might consider buying these sets of e-books that are filled with tips and tricks for solar and wind power.

Feel free to leave any questions or comments below !

Webhostingrating.com is a site that is aimed at reviewing and rating different webhosts. You can submit webhosting companies and give it a rating, and ofcourse you can use the site to know what others thought of a particular web hosting company.  They also have lots of information that is important to know about when choosing a webhosting company, and they go in depth to explain the differences between the choices. The advantages of Linux web hosting versus windows hosting is explained, as well as the benefits of having a dedicated server and helping you decide if you really need one.  Although chances are if you think you need one but you’re not sure why, you probably don’t.

That’s all for now, I’m going to go add a couple of bad reviews and 1 good one for my current web host. I guess the moral of this article is very simple : If you’re looking for web hosting, do your research, ask your friends, and visit sites like webhostingrating.com to know what other people think.

Stumble Upon has been great for bringing traffic to TechieNATION, and I’m very grateful for it. However,  my bookmarks are paying the price.  I used to have 10-12 sites in my bookmarks.  After only a couple of months of using Stumble Upon I now have over a hundred sites that I didn’t want to forget about.  There are so many pages I want to go back and re-read, and maybe blog about, but I can’t stop hitting that magical stumble button and getting more !

DAMN YOU STUMBLE UPON !!!!