Dumped GoDaddy

I had to change from GoDaddy as a webhost to HostDepartment because the GoDaddy server IP's were blocked from within China, which is no good to me.

I am not angry at all about this but I kind of expected a "pay for host" to have such issues resolved.

I can understand a free server being blocked, but a payed server?

Host Department gets by this blocking problem by having very strict TOS; Terms of Services and for that I am actually happy.

I would rather that then be sharing hosting with "god knows what" as a neighbouring IP site.

eg: The molesting of and fornicating with Whales Forums :)

So time was wasted, around a week in fact, but I have found my "satisfactory solution" and work goes on.

Today I have just finished setting up the email server at Host Department.
Then onto the user's Blog servers.

Oh.....busy, busy, busy, but nearly all done.

When I have got all of this webstuff out of the way it will be back to game developing....

My favourite part in it all :)

Game and Web Private Hosting

I mentioned in September that I was trying out the GoGrid servers for a potential game server.

Well all seems ok with GoGrid.
Admittedly they are still in Beta and a couple of bugs appeared in the administering of the servers but overall its a sweet system.

One down side for me that is; I thought this hosting remedy would be the "be all, and end all" solution, however as it turns out it wasn't.

With the design of the internet as it is today and still not perfect by any means, porting a client from Asia to the servers in the States was not such a clever idea.

Sure for users on the American continent its a great solution, but elsewhere in the world its slow at its best.

So back to the original plan of multiple hosts worldwide.

"dum de dum. Hey guys....meeting again."

This week I have been tidying up a new account at GoDaddy webhosting.

From tomorrow and onwards I will be moving all of the NiHao3d websites up to GoDaddy and then activate the user's blogs, emails, and what-have-you's.

GoDaddy's web services are fantastic I must say.
The only one bug-bear that I have with them is that they do not have a 24 / 7 website support chat system.

When I was dealing with GoGrid this proved rather useful as being in China meant I was always counting Z's while they were in office hours and vice versa.

But GoDaddy on the other hand works via telephone and support tickets.
Sure I could phone them in the midnight hours, but I dont really have the courage to barrage their offices with more bells ringing at ungodly hours.

So Support tickets it was, and although slow in the send / reply they always provided excellent results.

So webhosting; check,
gamehosting; check,
what next.....

Well after everything has been set up properly and considered running smoothly, then its back to the dev machines and working on the game again.

"Oh no the grindstone again"
Actually I love the dev part of it all most.
Just wish I had more time for it.

Then set up game servers for Asia....again.

and so on, and so on, and so on.

Someone once said, and its been repeated a billion times;
"Its all in a day's work" ???

I am certain that the first person to say this and all of those thereafter that repeated the words knew little about corporate life.
Nor should they.

"An afternoon is an average man's week"

Now thats how I live my life....
And I still have time for a coffee break :)

A world full of non events and then...

Recently a friend passed my over this link...

http://www.wikigogy.org/

So I checked it out.
Wikigogy was looking for a new administrator, hell I'm free, I'll do it.

So I made my very long proposal to be followed by arduous in depth questions, then when I thought I had completed a task well done the present admin says "no...you are not what we are looking for. "

Oh great, another long wasted time.

Yet on the upside.....

Last night I signed up for GoGrid http://www.gogrid.com/
so I can send my game server up to the fastest server system in the present day world.
All went through ok....

and am just waiting on a confirmation from GoGrid now to get it all started.

Sending the NiHao3d game up to GoGrid is a giant leap forward for our company.
Not only can we rest our server issues in their hands, but it means we can focus more of our attentions to the game development phase.

So onward and upward thanks to GoGrid :)

What didn't happen with Multiverse

Prior to the up and coming game convention 2008 in Singapore the NiHao Studios team went back to the table to talk again with the Multiverse team about probable partnership agreements.

And as always Multiverse were all ears; send us your presentation, show us your plan, describe in detail your proposals, and we did.

One cant complain about that, as it is the typical request made prior to a big meeting of this nature.

Then as seems typical of Multiverse, all of our ideas were received then the communication stopped.

We are getting used to this sort of treatment actually.

Yesterday one of my team at NiHao Studios sent me a link pointing to a latest news article published in an online magazine sepeaking of Multiverse and its future plans.

http://www.massively.com/2008/09/03/virtual-worlds-conference-talk-to-unveil-buffy-the-vampire-slaye/

So I go and have a read of it.

Yeap....everything I sent them has now become their idea.

All my "you should do this, and I think this should be changed to...." now has become "Multiverse announces changes to this..... and are going to do that..."

blah, blah, blah....

At first I smiled a wry smile of contempt as I read the article.
Then I felt nauseous with the feeling of being used.

At the least they could have said thank you for the ideas.

Raped?
Yeah pretty much....

....but these ideas are not copyrighted, they're not new ideas, and I could never say I created these ideas from scratch; they were simply ideas pointing to mistakes that my team had found while dealing with the Multiverse software. And some simple amendments that would have improved their systems.

But such is the nature of business, and even more so when it is over the Internet medium.

Over a time of communicating with people over the Internet with a goal of future business plans, I have found that it is all too easy to be scammed, all too easy to have your ideas taken off you, and all too easy to lose what was initially yours.

I remember what they said about Internet communicating years ago; "its fun, you can be whoever you want to be and feel free in that experience. No one can see you at your computer, your just a name and a number, so enjoy that freedom."

Then the sharks of business entered the Internet realm, and the same rules applied to them, except because of the Internet now they can hurt more, steal more, and gain more, for who's going to stop them?

So yet another mindless encounter with the children at Multiverse passes and we bid them farewell. We will not indulge in communications with them again as it is fruitless to think it worth the effort.

But we will see them at the game convention and certainly give them a handshake.
For as one underdog to another, only one can win, and usually the winner is the one with the most credibility.

Thankyou Multiverse for the added bonus of credibility.

It will prove to be useful in future meetings I am sure :)

Work-itis

Tuesday and tomorrow I join the working class in their battle for normality.

Whats worse is that I am starting my first day at work at 8:30am.

Man....Does anyone have the ability to process a thought at that time of the day?

I will need to wake up at 5am just to get enough caffeine within just to consider the idea that I am going to work at that time.

hahahaha.....maybe I have had it too good for too long.
Or maybe i know something that the working class haven't after decades of slavery yet worked out for themselves.
Whatever the answer is; I must still attend this tortuous event called work and paste on a smiling face so the other slaves feel that I fit in to this self mutilating mentality.

Oh dear....work.
What on earth has the world come to?
A world of peasant slaves offering pleasantries to the elite that determine with money that this is the way the world is meant to be.

I scream out to anyone who has had a single clue towards realising that they are slaves to a giant machine that takes them in early adulthood and grinds them down to minced matter just to spit them out to feed the next group coming in.

Are there any other people out there that still possess the ability to think?

Arrrgggghhhhh!

Save me from this mechanised monster called life, and save me from myself....
Must I really conform to this arbitrary punishment because I determine myself suitable for existence?

oooohhhhh.....life, work, money, then the epitome of our slavery....
The television.
That machine that renders us stoopid, convincing us that this is the way life is meant to be.

Well I am going to work....whether I like it or not.
But I ain't giving up my dreams, nor my goals.
And when that door of opportunity knocks again...
I will not answer it....I'll blow the bloody door off its hinges trying to escape this reality that you all conform to.