V11.10 October 2009
From DreamHost
0. Introduction. 1. Live Chat Support! 2. Django! 3. cPanel Importer! 4. Registration Only? You Can Still Park/Redirect/Cloak/Manage DNS! 5. DreamHost PS Even More Efficient With Auto-Unloading Apache Modules! 6. New Dream Halloween! 7. New Charity! 8. DHSOTM ######################################################################## 0. Introduction. The hardest part about writing any October DreamHost Newsletter is the same hardest part about writing any DreamHost Newsletter: getting started. Which is to say, the Introduction. Which is to say, thinking of what to write in the Introduction. Which is to say, what I'm doing right now. So, if I can just get through this part, the rest is downhill! Downhill like a skier though, not downhill like the economy. ######################################################################## 1. Live Chat Support! Ah, that's better! I finally feel comfortable and can just continue with this newsletter, knowing that without even the least bit of effort each section will be clear, concise, and clever! They will practically write themselves from here on out. Soooooo good. If only our tech support tickets wrote themselves! Like the time we tried that robot-sales-chat thing, oh yeah! That thing worked GREAT! Well, now we're giving it another go around, except this time our chat responses write themselves _with the help of HUMANS_! What I'm trying to say is, we've now got 24/7/365 Live Chat support available from our web panel (there's a link at the top of each page near the "Help is on/off" button)! With one small caveat.. you need either a DreamHost PS or our Premium Support add-on! You can add a PS at any time from: https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=vserver.provision And you can add Premium Support ($9.95/mo) from: https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=support.msg (Just act as though you're going to submit a ticket.. it's there at the end.) Sometimes too, generally when we're super bored, we've been opening up the live chat to everybody. So if you happen to see the link at the top of our panel even when you're not a PS user and haven't signed up for Premium Support, PLEASE REMAIN CALM. ######################################################################## 2. Django! Well, I must say that section 1 turned out rather well. And, I really can't see section 2 turning out any worse itself. I'm excited. And you would be too if you'd ever tried the old way to install Python's Django framework on DreamHost.. http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Django Has the new way! And although it's not exactly "one-click" it's pretty djang slick! So I suppose if one were inclined one could say that we now "officially support Django"! So please stop suggesting it. ######################################################################## 3. cPanel Importer! By now you've probably already forwarded this newsletter to all your non-DreamHost friends, along with some pithy commentary like "Oh hahas, DHse newsleterry guy is funnys!" and "I alwys knew DJANGOZ was teh dreamhosts" and of course, "Live chat == ASL?! l0l" And so by now your friends are 100% sold on switching from their scrappy cPanel-based host to our 100% golden DreamHost-Web-Panel-based host... except for one problem. Their understanding of the inner workings of web hosting is on par with their understanding of the inner workings of the written word. Which has always been a problem. Until... https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.migrator rendered it MOOT! Now you can just give us your old cPanel host login information and WHAMMO McPRESTO VAN CHANGO!!!! .. we'll import everything over! All you have to do is change your domain(s) nameserver info. (Plus, if you're sophisticated enough to have already exported your cPanel dump, we can take that too.) And that's so simple, even a gecko can do it! ######################################################################## 4. Registration Only? You Can Still Park/Redirect/Cloak/Manage DNS! File this one away, right next to section 3, in that area of your brain labeled "not useful because I already have a full DreamHost account". Unless of course you have an area of your brain labeled "things I can tell my friends who are considering switching registrars or need a place to do full DNS for their registered domains but are too cheap to get actual hosting". In which case this would go perfect there. I almost don't want to re-state the section name in its body, because it was so long and descriptive, but here goes anyway: Even if you don't have a full hosting plan, if you've registered a domain through us, you can manage DNS entries, as well as set up domain parking, redirection, and "cloaking". If you're keeping score, we actually announced this feature before, like a few months ago. But I believe this time it works. (That's scored as one point for the October newsletter.) ######################################################################## 5. DreamHost PS Even More Efficient With Auto-Unloading Apache Modules! Now HERE'S a section that doesn't need any re-stating due to its excessively long and descriptive heading if I've ever seen one! So all I'd like to add is, that means you will automatically use less memory on your DreamHost PS (and therefore use less dollars) if you don't have SSL enabled on any of your domains. OR if you don't use PHP at all you can now disable mod_php to save memory at: https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=vserver.settings (six points) ######################################################################## 6. New Dream Halloween! And although this section probably needs the most expounding, I plan to do the least: http://blog.dreamhost.com/2009/11/03/nightmare-host-2009/ Be sure to not accidentally skip over this blog post too: http://blog.dreamhost.com/2009/11/06/info-redo/ And uh, follow us on twitter or something: http://www.twitter.com/dreamhost And our status updates too: http://www.twitter.com/dhstatus Wow, this newsletter really IS getting easier to write. ######################################################################## 7. New Charity! Ooh, this is a big charity month for DreamHost! First off, big thanks in July-October to those 15 who donated $577.65 to "Teach for America", which we then matched! http://www.teachforamerica.org/ Secondly, we are a sponsor of the "Grand Rapids Give Camp" (Michigan) happening THIS very weekend: http://www.grgivecamp.org/ "GiveCamp" is a weekend-long event where technology professionals - from designers, developers and database administrators to marketers and web strategists - donate their time to provide solutions for non-profit organizations. http://www.givecamp.org/ is the main site.. they do these Give Camps all over the country, and if you're reading this, whether you like it or not, you probably fall into one of the categories (designer/developer/non-profit) they cater to! Thirdly, we just renewed our annual sponsorship of Mission Rugby, who do double duty as our collections team: http://www.missionrugby.com/ Fourthly, please consider donating now to "Therapeutic Living Centers for the Blind" who are a care center in Los Angeles for Blind people that also have _another_ disability. Of course, all donations will be matched by us! http://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.charity The president of TLC is also the CEO of our data center company, Alchemy.net. Full disclosure blah blah blah! ######################################################################## 8. DHSOTM And now, for the part I look forward to the MOST in each newsletter, simply because it requires the least creative thinking on my part, this month's DreamHost Site of the Month winner: http://artbloom.net/ Ironically, this month's winner is a site dedicated to comparing the "journey" artists go through in their career, as they (hopefully) get more and more awesome at what they do. It's like a little microcosm of the DreamHost newsletter, in reverse. http://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.dhsotm Is the place to be to submit your site for all to see! ######################################################################## Aw, over already? Josh Jones! P.S. Newsletter REALLY going downhill for you? Unsubscribe at any time: https://panel.dreamhost.com/id/?tab=contact
