Ages ago I was looking for a host. There were two criteria the host needed to meet. I wanted a free host, that allowed me to hotlink. Hotlinking is linking to non-viewable files. This means you can take images from this host and put on some other site of your's. Or you can put your downloads on this host that allowed hotlinking and link to them from another site.
That last thing was what I wanted to do. I had put my website on a really - and I really mean really - crappy host and wanted to have a place to put my downloads. I couldn't put them on the crappy host, because it didn't allow .exe files, or any archives. It took me a while, but I found something in the end, ugtech.net.
It had PHP and mySQL support and gave me a reasonable amount of space and bandwidth (100mB - 1000mB/month). Allowing hotlinking basically also meant there were no ads on your website. This is because any host that forces ads on your websites, doesn't get any hits if you are only hotlinking, thus only hosts without ads on your site (and only very few of those) allowed hotlinking. Besides all that UGtech provided cPanel. All of this couldn't even compare to any other free host.
I became active on the ultrageek-tech forum. And when they needed a moderator I applied. Being a very active member, I was the one chosen for the job. At that moment I was the only non-owner with rights on the site :D. Because the service was so amazing they attracted an amazing amount of "customers". And the 'ebay-offer' the owners intended to use to raise money, didn't work as good as they had hoped. Due to these two things they discontinued providing free hosting. They provided $1/month hosting instead. Moderators and administrators on the forum got to keep their hosting.
Later I moved my site to this host. And also started using it for about anything. A game I made for school was put on there, as they simply provided the best hosting I could get for free. Over the years, though, the forum died out and it started to get really hard to get support, even for those who paid. And they once even did not have a domain name for a couple of days. The same thing that happened now, happened back then, they didn't renew their domain and some dummy page was put up by the provider.
This time it happened just when I and I admin on the forum where discussing whether we could put some new life into the service, possibly even offering free hosting again. And this time it wasn't fixed within a few days. I checked the domain every day for a couple of days, but it didn't help. So I went looking for a new host, and when I had put my website up on the new site and I was browsing to it, my browser showed me my ugtech.net website URL, so I decided to have a look what happened if I entered it. Without expecting anything from it, I entered the URL and ended up on my own website. Then I also tried the ugtech.net front page, which also turned out to work.
The cPanel is currently broken, so the service isn't back to where it was before they lost their domain. And even back then the forum was dead and it was hard to contact about anybody. The start is there, though, and you should not be surprised when I post that ugtech.net is providing free hosting again.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Friday - the day of inspiration
It's friday night. The moment of the week I drink the most alcohol, and also the moment of the week I am pretty creative. Just like I wrote the post two before this one on a Friday night.
Anyway, that's also the moment I think of my blog. Don't know why I think of my blog on Fridays, but I do.
I do have quite a lot of stories to tell: ugtech.net is back after having been gone for a while, I signed up with a new host, Marek is releasing his DVD, I am busy with a PHP project, I found some new music to listen to and there was a student strike today. I really should write more on my blog - as I just said, I have way more than enough material to write about. So I will try to tell you about it in the near future, even though I don't feel like telling all about it right now.
For now, just consider the following surge of creativity:
Editor's note: Please note that I wrote this when it was very late and I had had quite a couple of beers. Even though I was quite aware of what I did, the following piece was influenced by both factors. Though the general idea of these feelings - I'll leave it up to you what the idea is - are really true, but the specific subject I wrote about is bothering me a lot less in daily life than this piece may make it seem. Alcohol and tiredness - and not having anything else on my mind - (almost) inevitably lead to me thinking about it, though.
Messed up.
It's still messed up.
Even when she's not there.
Even when she is far away from here.
I still can't stop thinking of her.
Perfect - good = still good.
So still I should try.
Having a good life.
Without her.
The best.
Make the best.
Get all of it you can.
I should not be stuck in my mind.
Move on and find some other girl, I should.
Even if you're still up there.
You're not leaving.
Won't forget.
Drowning.
Drowning in work.
I drown myself in projects.
Just so I don't have to face the reality.
A bit of PHP here, some C++ there.
All as a goal of life.
It's my way.
Survive.
Anyway, that's also the moment I think of my blog. Don't know why I think of my blog on Fridays, but I do.
I do have quite a lot of stories to tell: ugtech.net is back after having been gone for a while, I signed up with a new host, Marek is releasing his DVD, I am busy with a PHP project, I found some new music to listen to and there was a student strike today. I really should write more on my blog - as I just said, I have way more than enough material to write about. So I will try to tell you about it in the near future, even though I don't feel like telling all about it right now.
For now, just consider the following surge of creativity:
Editor's note: Please note that I wrote this when it was very late and I had had quite a couple of beers. Even though I was quite aware of what I did, the following piece was influenced by both factors. Though the general idea of these feelings - I'll leave it up to you what the idea is - are really true, but the specific subject I wrote about is bothering me a lot less in daily life than this piece may make it seem. Alcohol and tiredness - and not having anything else on my mind - (almost) inevitably lead to me thinking about it, though.
Messed up.
It's still messed up.
Even when she's not there.
Even when she is far away from here.
I still can't stop thinking of her.
Perfect - good = still good.
So still I should try.
Having a good life.
Without her.
The best.
Make the best.
Get all of it you can.
I should not be stuck in my mind.
Move on and find some other girl, I should.
Even if you're still up there.
You're not leaving.
Won't forget.
Drowning.
Drowning in work.
I drown myself in projects.
Just so I don't have to face the reality.
A bit of PHP here, some C++ there.
All as a goal of life.
It's my way.
Survive.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Dynamic input for Marek's GameEngine
I have been working on a GameEngine fro quite some time now, loosely following tutorials from marek-knows.com. I made a lot of changes making my GameEngine different from Marek's, but now I have made the first "really different" part. I had talked with Marek about his way he handles input, which was obviously not done too well (all inline code), so he said, why don't you go ahead and try to do it as you want - if nothing else it will be a good programming experience.
So I did. (okey, I was planning to do so from the beginning) And after a while he also asked if I could make a video about what I changed. And that I also did do. For now I have had enough of the GameEngine, but anyway - look marek's forum for my video (it's hosted on google video, but the forum has all comments and such are on the forum). Also you can download my current version of the GameEngine.
So I did. (okey, I was planning to do so from the beginning) And after a while he also asked if I could make a video about what I changed. And that I also did do. For now I have had enough of the GameEngine, but anyway - look marek's forum for my video (it's hosted on google video, but the forum has all comments and such are on the forum). Also you can download my current version of the GameEngine.