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-James

Goodbye Hostmonster

Posted by james on Jul 11, 2008 12:00 AM

I used to use HostMonster for my website hosting for quite a while. I chose them because they had tons of features that I never used (Ruby, Perl, SSH, etc) and were pretty cheap (something like $5/mo if you sign up for 2 years). They've been barely adequate at times, and bad at others. Most of the problems stem from completely unprofessional server maintenance and unhelpful tech support.

But for the past few months, I've been on Godaddy for hosting. While I do have complaints about them, they're still tons better than HostMonster was.

Servers have gone done often for no reason at all for small periods throughout the day (15 minutes here, a couple hours there). Longer outages usually prompt me to contact their tech support, at which point they claim that they've checked and nothing is wrong until I prove that something is happening on the server, at which point they usually state that "an admin is working on that server". Then there are the random server config changes that break my site every once in a while. They also lost *everything* for a few days, then restored the whole server from backups.

So in the end they were frustrating to deal with, and my older simpler host <a href="http://www.e-rice.net/">e-rice</a> was much, much better. Their prices were lower, they offered the basics (no fancy ruby, etc), and the server admin was personally available usually within a 4 hour time window. Amazing service, great prices... just a great cheap host. Those are hard to find, even harder to trust. I'd recommend anyone starting out to use e-rice, then move up to a larger host when the time comes. Most websites will never need more.

With my new host, Godaddy, I already had my domain names through them. They had a ton of space and enough features (python, ruby, jsp, etc) with a decent price. I was a little wary since I heard some mediocre things about them, but decided to try it anyway. Their uptime has been great so far, no outages that I can recall (unlike HostMonster, which was down at least once a day). My biggest complaint with Godaddy is their crazy burdensome admin interfaces. I must log into the main godaddy.com website, then click on my hosting accounts, then click on the hosting account I want, then "manage hosting account", then I get into a second hosting admin panel. From there, I must click on the task I want, the specific database I want, then "open manager", and I get a third admin panel (phpmyadmin).

I have to do this every time, there's no way to directly log into the hosting panel without going through the main site first. That means if my login times out, I have to repeat the process. And while the admin panels are a bit slow and annoying, the phpmyadmin is incredibly slow and takes 30 seconds or more to load up. I may start installing phpmyadmin on my own site and avoiding use of their built-in versions.

Besides the admin section nightmare, goddady has been good so far. They have some funny quircks with .htaccess files and similar, but nothing that's caused too much trouble so far.

So goodbye hostmonster. You've been adequate at times, and a thorn in my side at others.

Skype hates Windmill

Posted by james on Jul 2, 2008 12:00 AM

We've been using Windmill for browser UI testing, and recently I ran into a problem.; I installed skype on my machine, which by default installs a firefox plugin. The next time you startup firefox, it loads a "Thank you for installing skype" page instead of whatever you were trying to reach. This happens once for each profile, including new profiles.

Windmill creates a new temporary profile each time it tests, and then loads up the testing page to start testing. However, now instead of loading the windmill testing page, it loads the skype page which screws up teh whole testing process. You can't change the profile since it's created fresh each time windmill tests. You can't avoid the initial skype page, since that always loads once for each new profile.

The only solution I can see is to delete the skype firefox extension. But since the extension is installed for firefox globally and not in an individual profile, you have to delete it in the main firefox folder. By default, it's:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox\extensions\{B13721C7-F507-4982-B2E5-502A71474FED}
Delete that folder to prevent the plugin from installing for new profiles. This will allow Windmill to run normally.

Installing a Mishimoto Radiator on a 2G DSM

Posted by james on May 4, 2008 12:00 AM

My stock radiator started to go bad (massive corrosion), so I started looking for replacements. I could have bought a generic radiator for 200-300 at my local store, or an OEM for ~500 online. I decided to go with a Mishimoto aluminum radiator. It looked good, had some positive reviews, and was reasonably priced. I also got 2 12" Mishimoto slimline fans to go with it.

My first impressions were that the package was good, and the radiator looked very solid and well built. The fans were all-plastic, including the blades, but were stiff enough.
In the boxes, 1 radiator and 2 12" slimline fans
Shiny
In packaging, 1 radiator and 2 12" slimline fans (not installed yet)
The radiator feels pretty solid. The fans are plastic, but they're pretty stiff.

Pretty thick
Disconnect the negative battery terminal and tape off the post
Drain the coolant into a tub. You may be able to reuse it if you keep it clean
This is the radiator drain plug, on the bottom (left/driver's side?). Right next to a whole lot of rusted metal (bad).
Remove the coolant overflow reservoir.
Remove the upper and lower radiator hoses.
Hoses out of the car.
Disconnect both fan connectors.

Remove both fans (may require some creative angling)

Both fans out of the car.
Remove both upper raditator mounts, and remove the radiator. This is the old radiator. It was horribly corroded, and the fins would fall off like brittle paper. It's just a matter of time before this fell apart and started leaking.


This is from just leaning the radiator on its side. All those fins just fell off!
This is the new radiator resting on top of the old one. To install, do everything in reverse. The stock fans bolt right onto the posts (with 3 screws each instead of four). I used worm/screw clamps, they're so much easier to use than the stock-style hose clamps. They're cheap too.
The old radiator resting above the new one
Hook everything back up, make sure the bottom drain plug is closed, and fill with fluid. For some reason, my radiator drain plug would leak slightly if I screwed it all the way. Instead, I keep it one turn out.
With the stock fans, there's not much clearance. Slimline fans would be a good idea if you're going to be doing anything in the turbo/exhaust area.

Looks good, works well, done. Not too bad.

I didn't install the slimline fans since they didn't come with the mounting hardware (why??). I bought those separately ($10 on ebay), basically just a few zip ties, springs, and pads. I'll post up that part when I get the parts in. For now, the radiator is working well and keeping the temps low. I'll have to keep an eye on the drain plug to see if it's leaking any. But for now, everything looks good.

My DIY Projector

Posted by james on May 3, 2008 12:00 AM

15 pictures.

I've wanted to make a DIY Projector since I first learned that people were making these, back in college. It's a pretty simple idea; commercial projectors simply shine a bright light through a small LCD and through a projection lens onto the screen. They're bright, look good, and are very portable. However, they're very expensive, and the bulbs cost about $250-350 to replace. That's a huge maintenance cost! Even cheaper projectors on sale in the 300-400 range will need replacement bulbs eventually, which means within a few years the bulbs will far outstrip the initial projector cost.

We can make a DIY projector ourselves. It's cheaper (my budget is around $300), and uses cheaper bulbs (around the $20-50 range) that last longer (20,000 hrs vs. 3,000 hrs for a commercial PJ). However, DIY PJ's are much larger (since smaller items are more expensive), are not as bright, and take a lot of work to get them just right. But that's half the fun, making it yourself.

I just got my last shipment of parts, so now I have almost everything I need:
-18" FL Beseler projection lens
-400w electronic ballast
-400w metal-halide (MH) bulb
-650mm and 220mm FL fresnels
-17" 4:3 Xerox LCD (not widescreen, unfortunately)
-Temperature controller for the fans

I need to figure out the heat shield (a piece of glass or lexan) and the enclosure (probably MDF wood). Once I get this working, it's movie nights every week! I can't wait.