#windows web hosting services

[aklwebhost]

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[enchantingdazeninja]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

How lock-in hurts design

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

If you've ever read about design, you've probably encountered the idea of "paving the desire path." A "desire path" is an erosion path created by people departing from the official walkway and taking their own route. The story goes that smart campus planners don't fight the desire paths laid down by students; they pave them, formalizing the route that their constituents have voted for with their feet.

Desire paths aren't always great (Wikipedia notes that "desire paths sometimes cut through sensitive habitats and exclusion zones, threatening wildlife and park security"), but in the context of design, a desire path is a way that users communicate with designers, creating a feedback loop between those two groups. The designers make a product, the users use it in ways that surprise the designer, and the designer integrates all that into a new revision of the product.

This method is widely heralded as a means of "co-innovating" between users and companies. Designers who practice the method are lauded for their humility, their willingness to learn from their users. Tech history is strewn with examples of successful paved desire-paths.

Take John Deere. While today the company is notorious for its war on its customers (via its opposition to right to repair), Deere was once a leader in co-innovation, dispatching roving field engineers to visit farms and learn how farmers had modified their tractors. The best of these modifications would then be worked into the next round of tractor designs, in a virtuous cycle:

https://securityledger.com/2019/03/opinion-my-grandfathers-john-deere-would-support-our-right-to-repair/

But this pattern is even more pronounced in the digital world, because it's much easier to update a digital service than it is to update all the tractors in the field, especially if that service is cloud-based, meaning you can modify the back-end everyone is instantly updated. The most celebrated example of this co-creation is Twitter, whose users created a host of its core features.

Retweets, for example, were a user creation. Users who saw something they liked on the service would type "RT" and paste the text and the link into a new tweet composition window. Same for quote-tweets: users copied the URL for a tweet and pasted it in below their own commentary. Twitter designers observed this user innovation and formalized it, turning it into part of Twitter's core feature-set.

Companies are obsessed with discovering digital desire paths. They pay fortunes for analytics software to produce maps of how their users interact with their services, run focus groups, even embed sneaky screen-recording software into their web-pages:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-dark-side-of-replay-sessions-that-record-your-every-move-online/

This relentless surveillance of users is pursued in the name of making things better for them: let us spy on you and we'll figure out where your pain-points and friction are coming from, and remove those. We all win!

But this impulse is a world apart from the humility and respect implied by co-innovation. The constant, nonconsensual observation of users has more to do with controlling users than learning from them.

That is, after all, the ethos of modern technology: the more control a company can exert over its users ,the more value it can transfer from those users to its shareholders. That's the key to enshittification, the ubiquitous platform decay that has degraded virtually all the technology we use, making it worse every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

When you are seeking to control users, the desire paths they create are all too frequently a means to wrestling control back from you. Take advertising: every time a service makes its ads more obnoxious and invasive, it creates an incentive for its users to search for "how do I install an ad-blocker":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

More than half of all web-users have installed ad-blockers. It's the largest consumer boycott in human history:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

But zero app users have installed ad-blockers, because reverse-engineering an app requires that you bypass its encryption, triggering liability under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This law provides for a $500,000 fine and a 5-year prison sentence for "circumvention" of access controls:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Beyond that, modifying an app creates liability under copyright, trademark, patent, trade secrets, noncompete, nondisclosure and so on. It's what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business model":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

This is why services are so horny to drive you to install their app rather using their websites: they are trying to get you to do something that, given your druthers, you would prefer not to do. They want to force you to exit through the gift shop, you want to carve a desire path straight to the parking lot. Apps let them mobilize the law to literally criminalize those desire paths.

An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to block ads in it (or do anything else that wrestles value back from a company). Apps are web-pages where everything not forbidden is mandatory.

Seen in this light, an app is a way to wage war on desire paths, to abandon the cooperative model for co-innovation in favor of the adversarial model of user control and extraction.

Corporate apologists like to claim that the proliferation of apps proves that users like them. Neoliberal economists love the idea that business as usual represents a "revealed preference." This is an intellectually unserious tautology: "you do this, so you must like it":

https://boingboing.net/2024/01/22/hp-ceo-says-customers-are-a-bad-investment-unless-they-can-be-made-to-buy-companys-drm-ink-cartridges.html

Calling an action where no alternatives are permissible a "preference" or a "choice" is a cheap trick – especially when considered against the "preferences" that reveal themselves when a real choice is possible. Take commercial surveillance: when Apple gave Ios users a choice about being spied on – a one-click opt of of app-based surveillance – 96% of users choice no spying:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/96-of-us-users-opt-out-of-app-tracking-in-ios-14-5-analytics-find/

But then Apple started spying on those very same users that had opted out of spying by Facebook and other Apple competitors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Neoclassical economists aren't just obsessed with revealed preferences – they also love to bandy about the idea of "moral hazard": economic arrangements that tempt people to be dishonest. This is typically applied to the public ("consumers" in the contemptuous parlance of econospeak). But apps are pure moral hazard – for corporations. The ability to prohibit desire paths – and literally imprison rivals who help your users thwart those prohibitions – is too tempting for companies to resist.

The fact that the majority of web users block ads reveals a strong preference for not being spied on ("users just want relevant ads" is such an obvious lie that doesn't merit any serious discussion):

https://www.iccl.ie/news/82-of-the-irish-public-wants-big-techs-toxic-algorithms-switched-off/

Giant companies attained their scale by learning from their users, not by thwarting them. The person using technology always knows something about what they need to do and how they want to do it that the designers can never anticipate. This is especially true of people who are unlike those designers – people who live on the other side of the world, or the other side of the economic divide, or whose bodies don't work the way that the designers' bodies do:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

Apps – and other technologies that are locked down so their users can be locked in – are the height of technological arrogance. They embody a belief that users are to be told, not heard. If a user wants to do something that the designer didn't anticipate, that's the user's fault:

https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/

Corporate enthusiasm for prohibiting you from reconfiguring the tools you use to suit your needs is a declaration of the end of history. "Sure," John Deere execs say, "we once learned from farmers by observing how they modified their tractors. But today's farmers are so much stupider and we are so much smarter that we have nothing to learn from them anymore."

Spying on your users to control them is a poor substitute asking your users their permission to learn from them. Without technological self-determination, preferences can't be revealed. Without the right to seize the means of computation, the desire paths never emerge, leaving designers in the dark about what users really want.

Our policymakers swear loyalty to "innovation" but when corporations ask for the right to decide who can innovate and how, they fall all over themselves to create laws that let companies punish users for the crime of contempt of business-model.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited

Image: Belem (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desire_path_%2819811581366%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[spiders-around]

YOU MUST MAKE A WEBSITE

Oh wow, look at that! YET ANOTHER post urging you to make a webbed site! What a completely new thing that people haven't made a thousand masterposts for already!!

• Making a website might look scary. It is Not.

At first, I too thought making a website was too much work. It really isn't! It turns out that all you need is

an HTML file,

a web hosting service and

w3schools tutorials,

and that's about it!

This post will point you towards these resources, and others I found useful while figuring out how to make a website.

• VERY QUICK EXPLANATIONS:

What's HTML and CSS?

HTML is the content of your webpage, the skeleton of it. What shows up in a webpage is what's written in the HTML file!

CSS is the way the HTML is styled; the colour of the background and the letters, the size of elements, the font, all that!

Do I absolutely NEED JavaScript for a website?

Not at all! You don't need to worry about learning it before getting started.

• What do I make a website for? What do I put in there?

ANYTHING AND ALMOST EVERYTHING. Here's some ideas for pages from a post of mine were I was very normal about websites:

You can make a page that's only pictures of your pets.

You can make an interactive adventure.

You can make your own academic blog full of your own essays or articles.

You can just post a ton of art or make a full music page.

You can make a blog and infodump eternally, give book reccs and reviews. You can host a thousand virtual pets and nothing else.

Upload entire books in a single html file. Make a wikipedia for your ocs. Make a fake site for a random fictional place (restaurant, hotel, whatever). You can make a thousand fanpages/shrines about your favorite media. You can upload your own webcomic and make it all like a fancy website and shit.

I could keep going but, for the sake of "brevity", I won't.

• WEBSITE EXAMPLES!

If I started listing the websites I know, this post would be bottomless. Here's only seven:

https://publictransit.neocities.org/ - A webbed site, for sure

https://ribo.zone/ - A personal site

https://leusyth.neocities.org/ - An art archive

https://solaria.neocities.org/ - Personal website with A Lot of stuff (it'll come up in a bit, because it offers web making resources)

https://hog.neocities.org/ - The Hogsite

https://thegardenofmadeline.neocities.org/ - Another personal site! It also has a web resources page and has made another masterpost like this one (but better)

https://spiders.neocities.org/ - My own website, which must be weird to see in mobile . sorry

• You've convinced me. I want a webbed site. Where do I start?

https://neocities.org/

FIRST OF ALL: Neocities. It is a free web hosting service, and it's the one I and the sites I linked use!

When I first started, my website was a black page with red letters and a drawing, and nothing else! It was like that for a month, till i started picking up on how to do things.

Here's what helped me get an idea of how to make things work:

https://sadgrl.online/learn/articles/beginners-guide-neocities

An absolute beginners guide to neocities -- while when you make an account there you get a tutorial page from the site, this one's extra support for that.

https://www.w3schools.com/

Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and MANY other coding things for free. All the tutorial/reference pages have live testing windows for you to mess with!! helped me a LOT while figuring this stuff out!

https://htmlcheatsheet.com/

https://htmlcheatsheet.com/css/

Cheatsheets for HTML and CSS, respectively. It includes a JavaScript one too!

https://sadgrl.online/webmastery/

Sadgrl's webmastery resources! Also includes the next resource listed here:

https://sadgrl.online/projects/layout-builder/

Sadgrl's layout builder; not a lot of customization at a first glance, but I've seen wildly different websites all using it as a base, plus it works using CSS Flexbox, so it generates a responsive layout!

(basically, a responsive layout is one that translates well in different sized screens)

https://www.tumblr.com/fysa/728086939730919424/wikitable-code?source=share

Tumblr user fysa made this layout imitating a wiki page!

https://brackets.io/

At some point, you might want to do things outside the Neocities code editor and get one outside the site. I recommend Brackets, because my old as fuck computer can run that and absolutely nothing else apparently, and it works wonderfully! Though I recommend either turning off the code autocomplete or using it after a good while of already using the Neocities code editor, so you get used to coding on your own.

http://www.unit-conversion.info/texttools/text-to-html/

Turn your text into HTML code! i use this kind of pages for my lengthy blog entries that I don't feel like formatting myself.

https://imagecompressor.com/

COMPRESS YOUR IMAGES.

The heavier an image is, the more your site weighs and the more time your page will spend loading. You don't want that, specially if your site is heavy on graphics. This might help!

https://solaria.neocities.org/guides

Some CSS, JavaScript and Accessibility guides! Worth checking out!

https://eloquentjavascript.net/

This is a free, interactive book for learning JavaScript! NOTE: It is very intuitive, but JavaScript is HARD!! I still haven't learned much of it, and my website does fine without so don't worry if you end up not doing much with it. It's still useful + the exercises are fun.

And now, accessories!

• Silly stuff for your page :]

https://gifypet.neocities.org/

Make a virtual pet, copy the code and paste it in your HTML file! You'll get a little guy in your webbed site :]

https://www.wikplayer.com/

Music player for your website!

http://www.mf2fm.com/rv/

JavaScript silly effects for your site :]

https://blinkies.neocities.org/geoblinkies

Blinkie search engine!

https://www.cbox.ws/

Add a chatbox to your site!!

https://momg.neocities.org/

Infinite gallery of gifs. i've spent hours in there looking at moving pictures and out of them all, the ONLY gif i actually ended up using on my site was a rotating tomato slice. it is still there. trapped.

https://wrender.neocities.org/tarotinstructions

A widget that gives you a random tarot card!

https://www.websudoku.com/widget.php

Sudoku widget!

That's about it for now! I don't know how to end this!!! Remember to have fun and google everything you don't know :]

[aklwebhost]

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[smellslikebot]

"how do I keep my art from being scraped for AI from now on?"

if you post images online, there's no 100% guaranteed way to prevent this, and you can probably assume that there's no need to remove/edit existing content. you might contest this as a matter of data privacy and workers' rights, but you might also be looking for smaller, more immediate actions to take.

...so I made this list! I can't vouch for the effectiveness of all of these, but I wanted to compile as many options as possible so you can decide what's best for you.

Discouraging data scraping and "opting out"

robots.txt - This is a file placed in a website's home directory to "ask" web crawlers not to access certain parts of a site. If you have your own website, you can edit this yourself, or you can check which crawlers a site disallows by adding /robots.txt at the end of the URL. This article has instructions for blocking some bots that scrape data for AI.

HTML metadata - DeviantArt (i know) has proposed the "noai" and "noimageai" meta tags for opting images out of machine learning datasets, while Mojeek proposed "noml". To use all three, you'd put the following in your webpages' headers:

<meta name="robots" content="noai, noimageai, noml">

Have I Been Trained? - A tool by Spawning to search for images in the LAION-5B and LAION-400M datasets and opt your images and web domain out of future model training. Spawning claims that Stability AI and Hugging Face have agreed to respect these opt-outs. Try searching for usernames!

Kudurru - A tool by Spawning (currently a Wordpress plugin) in closed beta that purportedly blocks/redirects AI scrapers from your website. I don't know much about how this one works.

ai.txt - Similar to robots.txt. A new type of permissions file for AI training proposed by Spawning.

ArtShield Watermarker - Web-based tool to add Stable Diffusion's "invisible watermark" to images, which may cause an image to be recognized as AI-generated and excluded from data scraping and/or model training. Source available on GitHub. Doesn't seem to have updated/posted on social media since last year.

Image processing... things

these are popular now, but there seems to be some confusion regarding the goal of these tools; these aren't meant to "kill" AI art, and they won't affect existing models. they won't magically guarantee full protection, so you probably shouldn't loudly announce that you're using them to try to bait AI users into responding

Glaze - UChicago's tool to add "adversarial noise" to art to disrupt style mimicry. Devs recommend glazing pictures last. Runs on Windows and Mac (Nvidia GPU required)

WebGlaze - Free browser-based Glaze service for those who can't run Glaze locally. Request an invite by following their instructions.

Mist - Another adversarial noise tool, by Psyker Group. Runs on Windows and Linux (Nvidia GPU required) or on web with a Google Colab Notebook.

Nightshade - UChicago's tool to distort AI's recognition of features and "poison" datasets, with the goal of making it inconvenient to use images scraped without consent. The guide recommends that you do not disclose whether your art is nightshaded. Nightshade chooses a tag that's relevant to your image. You should use this word in the image's caption/alt text when you post the image online. This means the alt text will accurately describe what's in the image-- there is no reason to ever write false/mismatched alt text!!! Runs on Windows and Mac (Nvidia GPU required)

Sanative AI - Web-based "anti-AI watermark"-- maybe comparable to Glaze and Mist. I can't find much about this one except that they won a "Responsible AI Challenge" hosted by Mozilla last year.

Just Add A Regular Watermark - It doesn't take a lot of processing power to add a watermark, so why not? Try adding complexities like warping, changes in color/opacity, and blurring to make it more annoying for an AI (or human) to remove. You could even try testing your watermark against an AI watermark remover. (the privacy policy claims that they don't keep or otherwise use your images, but use your own judgment)

given that energy consumption was the focus of some AI art criticism, I'm not sure if the benefits of these GPU-intensive tools outweigh the cost, and I'd like to know more about that. in any case, I thought that people writing alt text/image descriptions more often would've been a neat side effect of Nightshade being used, so I hope to see more of that in the future, at least!

[vnahosting]

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[realdirtfacts]

Selling your merch and shipping from home with Fourthwall

I've been selling @shiftythrifting Junk Boxes - our curated secondhand mystery boxes - since 2017 using different platforms with different levels of success. I moved to Fourthwall in 2022 and my teeny tiny business has only grown since then! FW is free to use and you get ALL the money from your home sales save for the credit card processing fees. I don't miss the fee structure from our previous hosts, so I thought I'd write up a little guide on how easy it is to get started.

Things you need to start shipping from home:

A scale, and it doesn't need to be an expensive or large one! Even a kitchen scale works for small stuff.

Packaging and packing materials for the product(s) you're selling.

Access to a post office and/or a printer.

Funds set aside for postage. You'll get this money back with your Fourthwall payout when the month rolls over.

(Optional but handy) A ShipStation account.

Make yourself a store if you haven't already. You can sell print on demand, digital stuff, and your own inventory in one place but today we're talking about selling from home, so add a product and pick the middle option.

You can customize everything about your product on this page, from adding size and color variations, the materials used to make it, size charts, inventory, and more. Get an accurate weight of what you're selling in its packaging and add that here. Hit save and you have your first listing. Gonna be selling a variety of products? You can duplicate the listing with the meatball menu! Change the name, photos, and anything else that needs changing and have your second listing up in a couple minutes.

Didi protip: I like to put people's reviews right in the listing. Lots of photos help sell your product, but there's nothing like a positive review from fans!

Fourthwall's Collections feature lets me put my Junk Boxes in their own little section where I can set them to hidden or mark them sold out if I get sick or am on vacation. This lets me easily turn the self-fulfilled part of my store off while folks can still purchase print on demand and digital stuff and sign up for memberships.

Didi protip: If you are in the US, the US postal service will pick up your outgoing packages free of charge on any regular mail day. Just set up a pickup on USPS.com!

When you've made your first sale, you can either make the label yourself or connect directly to ShipStation through Fourthwall's app integration. That's brand new and I love it so far. My labels pop up in ShipStation about 24 hours after a purchase, giving people a little window of time to adjust their order or make changes before I ship it.

At that point, all that's left is handing it off to the postal carrier of your choice! Boom, you're done!

A final note from me, I moved ShopShifty to Fourthwall so I could have one address for ALL my merch instead of splitting it between Patreon, a print-on-demand store, and the Junk Box store. It's proven to be the best choice I've made in years and has saved me a ton of money in marketplace fees, Paypal's cut, and web hosting charges. This has genuinely been the easiest way to sell my merch!

[emiplayzmc]

One random fact about each and every one of my Addisons because I CAN:

-Target (Main Pink, jewellery maker, Cyber Shoes manager, tea shop owner)'s fav Light World flowers are bleeding hearts and foxgloves.

-Sample (Main Blue, Cyber Shoes II customer service) has insomnia. Only in his worst mental states can he actually sleep, but only very lightly.

-Banner (Main Orange, fashion designer and caterer) has a borderline unhealthy obsession with making Victorian-era clothes specifically for themself to put on display in their own closet. They can count on one hand the amount of outfits they've actually worn of that time period.

-Broadcast (Main Yellow, news / shopping channel host. Their only host.) is aromantic. YIPPEE.

-Spam (Addispam, email-man and ever-changing intern) learned how to make cars in his spare time by himself before he made it big. He never had actually used them, though - just kept them in an unused alleyway and mix-n-matched them in his spare time between delivering emails and internships.

♤~♤

-Click (Banner's boyfriend, baker and party caterer, Pink) lives in an attic above his bakery. It's small, but it feels like home to them. It has a stained glass window overlooking a highway on the other side of Main Street.

-Vice (Sample's co-worker / girlfriend, Service's Trojan, cashier at Cyber Shoes II, Orange) breaks into Sample's apartment at night to raid his fridge / watch TV for a while. She doesn't know that Sample is awake every time she does this and just lets her get away with it (they live in the same complex). She loves the nights that he makes stuff with leftovers for dinner.

-Snap (Broadcast's co-worker and best friend, camera-man, Green)'s favourite drink is a Shirley Temple. They've never been a fan of alcohol.

♤~♤

-Gamble (Mobile and Clickbait's father, casino owner, Blue), despite being an online advertisement, doesn't know much about how to actually use the Internet beyond posting his casino ads. Mobile tries to help him learn by giving him social media accounts, but he's basically like a grandpa using Facebook.

-Mobile (Clickbait’s elder sister, mobile advertiser [mainly in gambling / lottery / casino apps] and casino bartender, Yellow) prefers to go by Cooper / Couper, or Coop / Coup, her middle name - a reference to Martin Cooper, inventor of the mobile phone.

-Clickbait (Mobile's younger brother and Click's Trojan, clickbait advertiser [mainly making Couper's ads more flashy and clickable], casino bartender, Cyber Shoes II supervisor, gossip columnist, Pink)'s only 'true' friend is a young Werewerewire named Amp that he met in the Dark Web.

-Service (Manager / owner of Cyber Shoes II, Orange) has tapped Vice, Clickbait, and Sample's phones to monitor their activity on their phones, much to their displeasure.

♤~♤

-Hanahaki (placeholder name, Purple)'s favourite flowers are lavender and wisteria vines.

-Patient 0 (placeholder name, Pink) is one of the oldest Addisons to exist and hates being one. Not like Spamton and Sample do with just 'being a Darkner in general,' but actively hates the Addison species, and has days where he wants to destroy his casing to be unrecognizable as one... unfortunately he has enough damage to his endoskeleton as is without uncovering his entire inner skeleton.

♤~♤

[welcomingdisaster]

Many Sentences Monday!

i was tagged by @meadowlarkx & @thelordofgifs to share some fic! i'm super self indulgent, so here's the first scene of a "maglor comes to aman" fic with a twist.

1: The Pipe.

The little room is not decorated how he would expect. 

Though of course it is exactly as it should be. There are the many intricately woven banisters, hung along the walls, clearly Maedhros’ choices, his style. There are the gouache paintings of leaping long-legged horses, their features exaggerated by movement, so dynamic they seem almost birdlike, painted plainly by Fingon’s hand. There’s the huge padded armchair in a tasteful shade of forest-green—Maedhros—and the short coat of brilliant crimson slung over its back—Fingon—and the tangle of vines outside the windows and the short-legged hound on the duvet and the tabby cats outside and the ornate teal-and-lilac service set on the counter, certainly gifted because neither of them would pick it, and the open easternmost window and the smell of roasting garlic. 

It is the things which are not there, which he has come to expect. 

It is the outhouse, the lack of indoor plumbing, the candle-gems set into the walls, look of slight confusion on the face of the servant when he turns to feel for the light switch. It is the realization that he cannot call; cannot send a telegram; that is had not occurred to him to pack a typewriter and so all his correspondence and his writing will again be hand; that his poems, should they ever again be published in this land, will need to be painstakingly copied, word by word, onto the parchment. 

It ought to be easy to fall back into it. He had missed it, he tries to remember. He had thought the world noisy and overwhelming. He had wanted to run from it. He’d seen soot stains on trees that had once been virginal, had once been white, and his head had spun with it. He had watched the factory-smoke rise and thought it unlovely and unworthy of living for. He had stared at the monstrous bulk of a locomotive, had tasted its bitter smoke on his tongue, and felt the awfulness and sublimity of invention as he had at the gates of Angband. 

And yet he is happy that he has taken along his gramophone. 

No one had expected him. 

News of the boats do not come; gossip travels through word of mouth and webs of osanwë across the city and into the countryside, but his hosts are out hunting. There are two servants only in the house; a quiet young maiden, barely seventy, there to mind the horses and the goats, and a man who had clearly once been a soldier, watching the house in the owners’ absence. 

They speak to him in Sindarin, faintly accented with entirely different accents. The maiden, Cinnogil, lives there full-time, though mostly with the animals; she is responsible for the horses’ training and upkeep, and to this duty she dedicates herself with a fierce passion. He does not ask what brings her out of her house so young, as he would have asked in another life. 

The man, Singdan, is there only some of the time. He lives close by, he says. He comes and helps with the cooking and the cleaning, at times, in exchange for gems and for fresh cuts of hart and for legal work, now and again. 

But really it can barely be called an estate. 

“They keep a room for you, I think,” Singdan tells him, as he helps him unload his mule and stack his luggage in a jumbled heap in the mud room. The short-legged dog weaves around their ankles when make their way down the hall, lit by sparkling silver gems, the walls decorated with rugs far too warm and too heavy for the climate. “They have for as long as I have known them.” 

The room—his room—is at the end of the hall. His eyes trace the walls; the simpler, more elegant decorations in silver, the blue and white bedspread, the lyre and the flute, the inkwell, the bottle of aged rum with the books on the bookshelf, the ceramic horses on the writing table. Someone has hung a change of clothes for him in the corner closet. 

There is no dust, no trace of disuse. Only one thing out of place—the mahogany pipe on the windowsill. 

He crosses the room and picks it up, holding it up to the light. It is well-used. Warm from the sun streaming in through the glass, streaked slightly on the inside. 

Out of them three only Maedhros smokes. Likely he had sat here, and had the window open. 

(Why is there so much guilt, with that thought?) 

“Shall you come and dine,” Singdan asks, “while we wait?” 

Thank you. He is not hungry. 

---

tagging @eilinelsghost @outofangband @melestasflight @polutrope @grey-gazania @that-angry-noldo @searchingforserendipity25 & @polutrope @jouissants anyone else who hasn't done it yet and wants in!

[frtools]

As promised, I managed to get rhe flash sale tracking (and new item tracking) working on the new (hopefully cheaper) system.

The previous system I was running was called an Azure App Service. This is essentially a simple version of a full blown virtual machine server. I was not using most of its features that I was paying for because it's an all or nothing deal. Almost all the tools were running as so called webjobs on that server. This is extremely inefficient, but it is really easy to set up.

Now I am moving the tools that are capable of it to a thing called Azure Functions. Its basically the same thing but even more slimmed down and entirely on demand. It's essentially just the webjobs part without the web server side. This allows me to host timed functions, such as the flash sale tracking, without the overhead of an entire server above it. The major thing for Azure Functions is that there is a monthly free grant of 1 million requests or 400000 gigabyte of data consumption. I won't reach either of those limits on a monthly basis. I'll mostly just be paying for storage and database usage now, which will bring hosting cost down drastically!

This is not going to be compatible with things like the discord bot or the website itself for the skin tester. But I have ideas for that as well.

Another upside is that I was finally forced to update from .net framework 4.8 to netcore6. Once I rebuild other parts I have more options such as Linux hosting which is most commonly cheaper compared to windows hosting that I was required to use up to now.

Once I get more things working you will know 🫡

[dollar2host]

Best Shared Hosting Plans for Small Businesses

The success of a small business website is directly proportional to the reliability of the web hosting service that the company uses. The selection of the best shared hosting can appear to be a hard task due to the abundance of possibilities that are available. Nevertheless, the process can be simplified by first gaining an understanding of the requirements of your company and then matching those requirements with the appropriate web hosting options.

It is essential to locate a Best Shared Hosting Plans for Small Businesse that satisfies your objectives without sacrificing performance or security, regardless of whether you are looking for a plan that is affordable, scalable, or offers specific technical support. Learn how to select the best shared hosting plan to advance your online presence by gaining an understanding of the best hosting for a small business in the year 2024.

In the case of a small business, which shared hosting plan is the most suitable?

Making the appropriate choice when it comes to best web hosting plans for small business is absolutely necessary for small businesses that want to develop a strong presence online. Given the many choices available, it is important to have a solid understanding of the primary characteristics and advantages associated with each type of web hosting in order to make an educated choice. For the benefit of a small business, the following is a list of the most prevalent types of hosting.

Windows Shared Hosting

The term "Windows shared hosting" refers to a type of web hosting service that functions by hosting numerous websites on a single server that is powered by the Windows operating system. Businesses that rely on Microsoft technologies such as ASP.NET, MSSQL, and Windows Server are the perfect candidates for this type of hosting. Shared hosting for Windows provides advantages that are comparable to those offered by Linux shared hosting, such as affordable Ness and ease of functionality.

On the other hand, due to the license expenses connected with Microsoft technology, Windows hosting is often more expensive than Linux hosting. Additionally, it is possible that Windows hosting does not support all Linux-based technologies. As a result, businesses who require particular Linux-based technologies may need to examine alternate hosting solutions. Windows shared hosting continues to be a popular option for organizations that are searching for a hosting solution that is both dependable and easy to use.

Shared Linux hosting

One sort of web hosting service is known as Linux shared hosting. This type of hosting allows numerous websites to be hosted on a single server that is running the Linux operating system. The websites that are hosted on the server share resources such disc space, bandwidth, and computing power. This configuration allows for the optimal utilization of these resources. Linux shared hosting is a web hosting solution that is friendly to your wallet and provides the reliability and security that the Linux operating system is well known for.

Due to the fact that it is reasonably priced and provides a wide variety of functions, this is an appealing choice for website hosting for a small business. The support that Linux shared hosting provides for well-known programming languages like as PHP, Perl, and Python is one of the most significant advantages of this type of hosting. Because of this, it is an excellent option for small businesses who are exploring the possibility of developing websites or web applications that are dynamic and interactive.

Small businesses can also benefit from Linux shared hosting because it enables them to share resources with other websites that are hosted on the same server, which helps to keep prices down. Given that this environment is shared, however, it is possible that performance will be negatively affected if other websites on the server experience significant levels of traffic or resource utilization. Linux shared hosting continues to be an affordable and dependable alternative for small businesses that are wanting to develop a strong presence online, despite the limits that have presented themselves.

WordPress Hosting

Exclusively designed for websites that are built on the WordPress content management system (CMS), WordPress hosting is a specialized web hosting service that is intended exclusively for such websites. WordPress websites can benefit from this type of hosting since it enhances their performance, security, and management capabilities. There are several reasons why WordPress hosting is considered to be among the best hosting options for a small business. To begin, it provides a user-friendly interface, which makes it simple for proprietors of small businesses who lack technical expertise to administer their websites.

This user-friendliness results in cost savings for organizations because they are able to manage their websites without the need for dedicated information technology staff. Additionally, WordPress hosting typically offers features such as automated upgrades and backups, which are vital for guaranteeing the security and integrity of a website that is used by a small business. The peace of mind that these features provide to owners of small businesses is important because they assist defend against the loss of data and cyber threats.

Enhanced security measures, like as malware detection and removal, firewalls, and distributed denial of service protection, are frequently included by reputable web hosting providers like Dollar2Host in order to further ensure the safety of WordPress websites. In addition, WordPress hosting is scalable, which makes it possible for small businesses to easily expand their websites in response to their expanding requirements. The website is able to accommodate additional traffic and content without having any downtime or performance difficulties because to its scalability, which assures that it can accommodate either.

Cloud Hosting

A web hosting service known as cloud hosting is a form of web hosting service that hosts websites by utilizing a network of virtual computers. Scalability and flexibility are made possible as a result of this, as resources may be readily and quickly scaled up or down in response to changes in the amount of traffic. Due to the fact that websites are not dependent on a single physical server, cloud hosting provides exceptionally high levels of stability. Due to the fact that it is both scalable and reliable, cloud hosting is an excellent choice for website hosting for a small business.

The pricing approach is based on a pay-as-you-go concept, which enables organizations to pay only for the resources that they really employ. When compared to traditional hosting methods, which frequently require companies to pay for resources that are not being utilized, this enables firms to realize cost savings. Cloud hosting also provides better security features, such as regular data backups and built-in security safeguards, which are characteristics that are offered by cloud hosting. As a result, websites are better protected against cyber threats and the loss of data. In general, cloud hosting is a hosting option that is both versatile and trustworthy, making it an ideal choice for small businesses that are trying to develop a strong presence online.

Choosing the Right Hosting Plan for Your Small Business: What Should You Look for?

It is necessary to take into consideration a number of important aspects when selecting the best shared hosting plan for a small business in order to guarantee that it will fulfil the requirements of the company. Choosing the best shared hosting plan for your small business can be accomplished by following these guidelines:

Scalability

To determine whether the web hosting plan supports scalability, you should consider. You may find that you need to update your web hosting plan as your company expands in order to meet the demands of increased traffic and data storage.

Measures to Ensure Safety

One should look for web hosting plans that provide a comprehensive set of security features, including free SSL certificates, DDoS protection, malware scanning, and regular backups. In order to safeguard your website and the information of your customers, these elements are very necessary.

Availability of Storage Space and Bandwidth

It is important to take into consideration the quantity of bandwidth and storage space that the best shared hosting plan provides. Make sure it is adequate to meet the requirements of your website, taking into account the size of your files and the volume of traffic that is anticipated.

Email that is personalized

Ensure that the best shared hosting plan you select has the ability to create individualized email addresses. The use of this into your communications lends an air of professionalism and contributes to the development of your brand identity.

Customer Support

When searching for best shared hosting providers, look for those that offer dependable customer support services, preferably 24/7. Therefore, this is quite important in the event that you come across any problems with your website that require rapid care.

Critical Reviews and Reputation

It is important to conduct research on best shared hosting providers for small business in order to learn what other users are saying about their services. Take into consideration web hosting service providers who have a solid reputation in terms of dependability, performance, and customer support.

Conclusion-

For the purpose of developing a powerful presence on the internet, it is essential to select the most suitable hosting for your small business. Obtaining a plan that satisfies your requirements can be accomplished by first gaining an understanding of your demands and then giving priority to aspects such as price, scalability, and security. The selection of a trustworthy shared hosting provider is essential, regardless of whether you choose to host your website using WordPress, Linux shared hosting, Windows shared hosting, or cloud hosting.

Dollar2Host is a reliable hosting service providers that provides smaller businesses with a variety of hosting choices that are specifically designed for them. Considering that Dollar2Host offers features such as robust security, scalable resources, and good customer support, it is possible that Dollar2Host is an excellent choice for hosting your company's website.

Dollar2host Dollar2host.com We provide expert Webhosting services for your desired needs Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

[diknfc]

"Affordable Cloud Hosting in India: Why NetForChoice Stands Out"

In the rapidly evolving digital era, cloud hosting has become the backbone of businesses worldwide. Companies are moving away from traditional hosting solutions to embrace the flexibility, scalability, and affordability that cloud hosting provides. In India, NetForChoice has established itself as a leading name among managed cloud hosting providers, offering world-class services tailored to meet diverse business requirements.

This blog explores why NetForChoice stands out as a premier provider of managed cloud hosting solutions in India, focusing on their innovative features, support services, and hosting options like cPanel hosting and Plesk hosting for Linux and Windows environments.

What Makes Managed Cloud Hosting Essential?

Managed cloud hosting is a service where the hosting provider handles server management, maintenance, security, and support, allowing businesses to focus on growth. For enterprises, it ensures operational efficiency, enhanced security, and optimal server performance. With top managed cloud hosting providers like NetForChoice, businesses gain access to enterprise-grade solutions that deliver high availability, data protection, and scalability.

Why NetForChoice Stands Out

NetForChoice is more than just a cloud hosting provider; it’s a trusted partner for businesses aiming to achieve IT excellence. Here are key aspects that make NetForChoice a leading name among managed cloud service providers in India:

1. Comprehensive Hosting Plans

NetForChoice offers a wide range of hosting solutions, including:

cPanel Hosting India: Perfect for businesses looking for an intuitive interface to manage websites and email accounts. Their best cPanel hosting in India provides robust tools for effortless management, even for users with minimal technical expertise.

Plesk Hosting Providers: NetForChoice also excels in Plesk web hosting, which offers unparalleled flexibility and control for both Linux and Windows environments.

Linux Hosting with cPanel: For developers and businesses seeking secure, reliable hosting, NetForChoice’s Linux hosting with cPanel combines the power of Linux with an easy-to-use dashboard.

Plesk Windows Hosting and Plesk Linux Hosting: Ideal for businesses needing a sophisticated control panel to manage their hosting environment, whether it’s Windows or Linux-based.

2. Tailored CRM Hosting Solutions

NetForChoice also shines as a leading provider of CRM hosting solutions. By offering cloud-hosted CRM providers like Salesforce, Zoho, or HubSpot, the company ensures that businesses can efficiently manage customer relationships in a highly secure and scalable environment. Their CRM cloud hosting services are optimized for speed, reliability, and seamless integration, helping businesses boost productivity and customer satisfaction.

Key Features of NetForChoice Cloud Hosting

1. State-of-the-Art Infrastructure

NetForChoice operates from Tier-3 and Tier-4 data centers across India, ensuring unmatched reliability and availability. These facilities are designed to deliver a guaranteed uptime of 99.995%, minimizing the risk of downtime for businesses.

2. High Performance with SSD Storage

To ensure fast website loading times and improved application performance, NetForChoice provides SSD storage in their hosting plans. Whether you choose cPanel hosting India or Plesk hosting, you can trust their robust infrastructure for consistent high performance.

3. Fully Managed Services

As a leading managed cloud service provider in India, NetForChoice offers fully managed hosting. Their expert team takes care of server updates, security patches, and performance monitoring, freeing businesses from the complexities of server management.

4. Scalability and Affordability

NetForChoice allows businesses to scale their hosting resources as needed. This flexibility, combined with competitive pricing, makes them a go-to choice for companies looking for cost-effective cloud hosting solutions.

cPanel Hosting with NetForChoice

For businesses prioritizing ease of use, cPanel hosting providers like NetForChoice are a game-changer. Here’s why their cPanel hosting India is among the best:

User-Friendly Interface: cPanel provides a graphical interface to manage web hosting tasks like domain management, email configuration, and database handling.

One-Click Installations: Users can easily install applications like WordPress, Joomla, and Magento using Softaculous.

Enhanced Security: NetForChoice integrates advanced firewalls, malware scanners, and regular updates to ensure a secure hosting environment.

Perfect for Beginners: Even users with minimal technical skills can navigate and manage their websites effectively.

Plesk Hosting with NetForChoice

NetForChoice also excels as one of the leading Plesk hosting providers, catering to both Linux and Windows environments.

Comprehensive Dashboard: The Plesk interface is clean, organized, and intuitive, providing granular control over hosting operations.

Multi-Platform Compatibility: Businesses can choose between Plesk Windows Hosting or Plesk Linux Hosting, depending on their application requirements.

Built-In Tools: Plesk offers features like Docker support, Git integration, and WordPress toolkit, making it ideal for developers.

Customizable Plans: NetForChoice’s Plesk hosting solutions are tailored to meet the needs of different industries, from SMEs to large enterprises.

Benefits of NetForChoice CRM Hosting Solutions

For businesses seeking cloud-hosted CRM providers, NetForChoice delivers unmatched expertise and reliability:

Scalability: Scale resources up or down based on user requirements.

Enhanced Performance: Optimized hosting ensures CRM applications run seamlessly without interruptions.

Data Security: Advanced encryption, firewalls, and backup mechanisms protect critical customer data.

Integration Support: NetForChoice’s CRM hosting is designed to support seamless integration with other business applications.

Cost-Effectiveness: Affordable plans for CRM cloud hosting help businesses minimize IT expenses while maximizing ROI.

24/7 Dedicated Support

One of the standout features of NetForChoice is its exceptional customer support. Their team of certified professionals is available 24/7 to address technical issues, ensuring uninterrupted operations. Whether you need help with Plesk hosting, cPanel hosting, or managed cloud hosting, the NetForChoice support team is just a call or chat away.

Use Cases Across Industries

NetForChoice’s versatile hosting solutions cater to various industries, including:

E-commerce: High-speed hosting with advanced security for online stores.

Healthcare: Secure hosting solutions that comply with data protection regulations.

Finance: Reliable hosting for financial applications and CRM platforms.

Education: Cost-effective solutions for e-learning platforms.

Why Businesses Choose NetForChoice

1. Competitive Pricing

NetForChoice offers some of the most affordable plans in the market without compromising on performance. Their transparent pricing and flexible subscription options make them a top choice for businesses.

2. Enterprise-Grade Security

With features like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and advanced monitoring, NetForChoice ensures that your data remains safe from cyber threats.

3. Unparalleled Expertise

With over 30,000 satisfied customers and a track record of delivering over 35 million server deployments, NetForChoice has the experience and expertise to meet any hosting challenge.

Conclusion

For businesses in India looking for reliable, scalable, and affordable hosting solutions, NetForChoice is the go-to provider. With their robust managed cloud hosting, cPanel hosting, and Plesk hosting options, they cater to diverse needs while maintaining top-notch performance and security. Additionally, their expertise in CRM cloud hosting makes them a valuable partner for businesses aiming to enhance customer relationship management.

Choose NetForChoice today and experience the difference that a trusted managed cloud hosting provider can make for your business. Whether you’re just starting or scaling operations, NetForChoice is equipped to help you achieve your goals seamlessly.