There are several factors that one needs to consider when deciding between Microsoft SQL server 2005 Standard Version and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition. There is a vast pricing difference, per processor, $220.00 per month for the Standard version and $55.00 per month for the Workgroup version, so I will be examining the major differences between to the two.

PARAMOUNT Servers have been designed with small businesses in mind. They
have been designed to take away the complexity in hardware configuration and
software configuration. They have been designed to be fully managed which
includes any four of our management options. All this, built into one
expandable, fast and scalable server solution.

Hardware Configuration:
# Processor: Intel Core2Duo E6320 Dual-Core 1.86 GHz 4MB Cache
# Memory: 2048 MB RAM
# Bandwidth: 10000 GB
# Hard Drive: 250 GB SATA
# Management: Fully Managed

Pricing:
Linux: $199 per month
Windows: $209 per month

So, in my list of weird interests, I <3 economics. So an article in the BBC News sparked my interest a few days ago.

The World Economic Forum recently published a study ranking the most “networked economies,” meaning which country has the most network integrated market economy. Surprising to some, though not to many, two clever Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Sweden, came in first and second, with the crafty Swiss coming in third.

However, the USA rose three places from last year to now be 4th on the list. USA! USA!

The WEF stated that this “shows that a coherent government vision on the importance of ICT, coupled with an early focus on education and innovation, are key.”

For someone as nerdy about economics as I am, this is pretty cool. It means that we are prepared, if not already, running a paperless economy with increased efficiency due to the speed of communication and data transfer. Efficiency=money, meaning network integration is really an economic revolution of epic proportions. Of course it has been developing for several years, but it’s just another effect of the evolving market economy that again proves Adam Smith’s theories in “Wealth of Nations” correct regarding the ever-diversifying means of transferring information and capital through an economy by means of the division of labor. A veritable pin factory, if you will, composed of corporations, data centers, servers, re-sellers, etc. But this also speaks to the integration of the world economy as a whole, relying more on networks to transmit information creating a more communicative world, enabling further negotiations and trade.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can also see this as somewhat self-validating to both us and others who are members of the IT industry in having created and aided a new way of doing business, as well as continuing to support the trend in an effort to remove both paper and inefficiency as we move into a completely…cliche alert…digital age.

As I raise my glass of tea, a toast to the networked economy.

To read the article yourself:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7338252.stm

With the increasing popularity of rhythm games starting way back when with Dance Dance Revolution and in Japan with BeatMania and Guitar Freaks, it was only a matter of time before the ultimate rhythm game would be released and take over as (in all likely-hood) the #1 party game of all time. Right around Christmas 2007, Rock Band was released for the Xbox360 and Play Station 3. It was an instant hit. Rock Band, much like the now famous Guitar Hero games, touts the ability for everyone to “become a guitar legend” and play some of the most popular songs of all time — as well as a plethora of songs by independent artists. Where Rock Band differs is obvious: It allows up to 4 players to team up and play in their own “band”.

Picking your instrument of choice can be difficult at first, but the best way to learn is to simply sit down and play it with no experience at all. Starting off on the easier level (there are 4 difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert) will provide fewer “notes” at a slower pace than the higher difficulties and allows you to get accustomed to how the controllers work. When you reach the point that you are scoring 97% or higher of all notes hit on most of the songs, it’s time to move up in difficulty. The learning process is even faster if you can sit down and play through the single player “tour” and unlock the songs as you go. This of course also makes the songs available to the other members of your band who have not played the game before, and will thus keep the excitement going strong.

As you increase in difficulty level, it is important to practice the songs in a band setting in order to get better scores, thus making more “money” to buy those cool outfits or custom instruments, and in turn gaining more and more “fans”, allowing you to unlock new areas in the game for your band to tour in. The difficulty of each instrument depends on the person who is playing it. The guitar instruments start you off only having to use 3 of the note buttons on the guitar, adding a fourth button in the medium difficulty. In hard, the fifth button is (sparingly) used and the speed at which the notes fly by increases. In expert, the fifth button is more common and the notes tend to go by at increasingly faster speeds. For the singer’s portion, the game gets increasingly less lenient when it comes to being too high or too low pitched for the particular lyric you are singing. With the drums, the combinations and patterns become increasingly complex and come at you at faster and faster speeds. On a side note, the drums automatically start you off having to play 5 notes (4 for the snare drums, cymbals, and high-hats, and 1 for the bass drum), making the drum quite possibly the most difficult to play, especially for someone with no ability to keep a beat going.

Here are some tips for playing the various instruments that may be helpful for you. When playing the guitar, make sure to experiment with the hammer-ons and pull-offs used in the game (best practiced in practice mode). Another point of interest is the guitar that comes with Rock Band has a second set of 5 keys closer to the strummer that are intended for use when playing the solo portions of songs. These keys can also be used during the rest of the song and are sometimes easier to use for people with smaller hands, and do not require you to strum when playing the notes of a solo (solo sections are on a background of blue). When using the drum kit, it is absolutely imperative that you be sitting down in a comfortable chair without arm rests. It is also best if you always end with the pedal fully depressed at the end of a note and to keep it depressed when you have a space in between when it is not being used as keeping your foot angled upward will quickly tire your leg out, often leading to a burning sensation in your calf. It is best to wear loose clothing as you will often work up a sweat when playing on the higher difficulties. For the singer, try your best to remain standing when playing, as sitting down will often make it more difficult to reach and sustain the higher pitched notes due to your diaphragm not being able fully rise and fall. This affects the amount of breath held in your lungs and thus, your ability to hold a note. Lastly for the singer, keep about 3-4 inches between your mouth and the microphone to keep your pitch from being distorted by an overabundance of vibrations on the microphone itself. Lastly keep a drink nearby, as you will most definitely have lost your voice by the end of the night.

All in all, Rock Band can definitely keep the party exciting well into the following afternoon. It is best played at parties where there is a decent amount of people and plenty of your favorite booze. That way, if you are afraid that you may sing horribly or miss too many notes and cause the band to fail as a whole, you can blame it on the alcohol.

I previously owned midPhase shared hosting, founded it in 2003 and it was successfully acquired in 2007. We started the business with little capital, and we knew from day one that we wanted our core business to be shared hosting, so that’s all that we focused on. Aside from that, we didn’t have the capital or the resources to provide dedicated hosting when we knew that there was a great market for it. I’m sure a large portion of existing SingleHop clients that read this will have heard of midPhase, because such a large portion of our client base was previously a midPhase customer! Looking back though, I wish that we had the resources or the ability to offer servers sooner than we did, but we decided to simply not bother with it. Don’t make that same mistake, that if you can’t afford servers you simply won’t offer them. There can be a middle ground, and that’s reselling dedicated servers.

We’re working hard right now to have a reseller control panel out very soon, and shared hosting companies will clearly play a big role in it’s success. As we develop the reseller system we’ll have a unique perspective having owned and operated a large shared hosting company myself. We are already working with some shared hosting companies, names that we’ll soon announce, so if you are interested, fill out our partners form here- http://www.singlehop.com/partners/index.php

I was always keen to getting in to dedicated hosting, because shared hosting was so successful, and some portion of those clients will inevitably grow and need something larger. Offering dedicated servers can diversify your product line very easily- even if you only provide as an upgrade path for clients that need a server. Either you give them the option, or they’ll go to someone that will, so why not have it available? You’re losing revenue if you don’t.

So, while doing my habitual daily tech news browsing, I came across and article in the technology section of BBC news. It is an article regarding a report released by Symantec regarding malwares in circulation. Apparently, there are now more than 1,000,000 in circulation. Apparently a 136% increase from the first 6 months of 2007. Rather ominously, the article refers to an “increasingly profession digital criminal underground.”

This article serves to reinforce the need for security in not just your personal home computers, but also you dedicated servers. We provide a number of services to combat these attacks.

The first service I’ll mention is a managed service that we offer called Security and OS Updates. This service means that we will update your server/OS/kernel with the latest patches for security and stability when they are released. This keeps your system as up to date as possible to repel attacks. Also included in this service is a security audit of your server when requested.

Also, we offer another managed service called Server Side Virus Scanning. This is basically what it sounds as well as also covering requested security audits.

Another managed service to consider is Spam Filtering. For a domain that is covered with this service, spam is filtered out, which increases efficiency, as well as the fact that spam can contain malwares, which are thusly filtered out.

We can also offer a hardware solution, that being a firewall. We offer Cisco PIX 501 firewalls, which are a useful tool in blocking attacks and intrusions.

To read the BBC News article yourself, the link is as follows:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7340315.stm

Hello Everyone,

This may seem like an insignificant fact, after-all, almost every business is a member of the BBB. To SingleHop, however, it means that the BBB is recognizing our unique platform to provide highly personal, highly customizable and high quality hosting services to our members. To view our BBB accreditation page please visit this link: BBB Verification Page for SingleHop, Inc.

Membership in the BBB requires that we, as a business, conduct ourselves in a professional and reasonable manner. We are required to abide by strict advertising guidelines, and are required to address customer complaints promptly. Both things that we already do on a day-by-day basis.

Combined with our other recognitions, including two-time winning of the coveted FindMyHost.com Editor’s Choice Award, receiving the Best Dedicated Server Provider award from the Web Hosting Directory and the extremely-hard-to-get Editor’s Choice Award from the Web Hosting Magazine & Buyer’s Guide, this accreditation serves to further solidify SingleHop has a high-quality provider of affordable managed dedicated servers.

And with that, I’m out.

Dan Ushman
Co-Founder, VP Marketing
SingleHop, Inc.

SingleHop is currently experiencing minor latency issues on a small segment of our network at this time. Our engineers are diagnosing the problem and expect the problem to be resolved in approximately 3 hours. During this time you may notice abnormally high pings and intermittent connection drops to your server. If you have any questions or would like updates, please contact your Account Executive for more information.

We appreciate your continued patience in this matter.

–
SingleHop Network Operations
http://SingleHop.com/

As a growing business in a competitive industry, it’s important that our business runs as lean as possible without cutting the value of the service you provide. By that I mean if you’re a restaurant, you obviously don’t want to buy cheaper ingredients if it reduces the quality of your service, reduces your value proposition. In our business, the areas that we can’t reduce quality are obvious- support, the quality of our hardware, the networking gear we use and so forth. However, there are a number of areas that every business can reduce costs, and below I’ve aimed to highlight 10 common areas frequently overlooked.

1. Merchant Service Fees
I’ve been in the merchant services industry, and still am to some extent, and I’m the first to admit that pricing is key here. If you aren’t under contract with your current provider- and there’s a 99% chance you aren’t- try renegotiating with your current provider, and also send over your past three months of statements to other providers. This is a price game for the most part. Also, it’s estimated that over 10% of all credit transactions are from debit cards, and the banks take less risk on debit cards, so they’ve recently opened a cheaper category exclusively for debit cards referred to as the 4-tier pricing system. Ask your provider and others about that. A company that I have ownership in, www.ProcessingPoint.com offers it, so you can start there!

2. Long Distance Fees
Cutting your long distance bill doesn’t reduce value, so shop this around. If you’re stuck on keeping landlines, than talk to providers about bundling long distance and your landline services.

3. Advertising, mainly though your customer acquisition costs
It’s very important to track your acquisition costs. You can get free tracking by using Google Analytics, but make sure to take the time to build in the conversion tracking. While not all campaigns are going to produce direct results, you should still be able to track the effectiveness of campaigns, and if they aren’t performing talk to the publisher you’re advertising with to reduce your rate. You’ll find that they normally will, so just have an acquisition cost in mind, track it, and go back and re-negotiate if needed. It’s also important to of course make sure your conversion problem isn’t on your end, so also make use of bounce rates in Google Analytics, and work to constantly reduce that.

4. Froogle !!
I love Froogle. If I’m ordering something basic like a particular APC model, or something that I won’t need support for that essentially comes from the same manufacturer, shop it on Froogle! I’m not one to buy essential gear on eBay, but Froogle can be a great cost-cutting measure for new purchases.

5. Wireless Bills
If you aren’t stuck on your current provider (or don’t have an iPhone!), contact your local wireless shops, and see if they’ll compete for your business. If you have 10 or so lines it shouldn’t be a problem, and you’ll find that in one way or another they’ll even find a way to take care of your contract termination fee.

6. Land lines -> VoiP
Prior to switching to Asterisks, we were using a Nortel system with landlines. The Nortel system cost us $20,000~ or so, and was incredibly inflexible. When we needed to do anything to it we would have to pay a technician $150 an hour to sit in our office calling Nortel to find out how to do something. Save yourself the headache, get better service, and cheaper monthly recurring costs by paying someone to set up an asterisks box for you, and switch over to Voip. Nine times out of 10 it makes sense.

7. Outsource your hosting / Allow your provider to manage your infrastructure
This is where I get my plug, but honestly- there’s no need to have in-house staffing to manage your servers. There are plenty of companies, like SingleHop, who can provide it for a fraction of the cost, and who have the infrastructure in place to do it much better. Pick up a dedicated server from us, or if you aren’t quite ready for a dedicated server, check out midPhase for shared hosting, or any number of the thousands of shared hosting companies.

8. Outsource your Human Resources, but be careful
Outsourcing HR is a great move. Administaff, SOI are two companies offhand that provide outsourced HR. SOI, I believe is the cheaper of the two, but they both do a great job at consolidating your various employee benefits and combining them in to one bill. They also free up time by handling things like W2’s, paying employees, and so forth. Be careful though to have a full understanding of the fees that they charge, but this is one area that SingleHop saves money in by outsourcing, and that I’ve had previous businesses save money as well in.

9. Take checks over Credit
This goes in line with #1, Merchant Fees. When an existing client wants to pay with a check, we welcome it. This isn’t to say that you should post a sign saying you have a $25 minimum credit card fee, because that simply deters business (and by the way is against Visa regulations), but let your clients know that you’ll happily accept their check as payment.

10. Seek at least three bids on absolutely everything that you can!
This isn’t exactly one area to cut costs, but it should to nearly everything. We try to make a habit of putting together a quick description of what we’re looking for, and kicking it out to at least three vendors. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you start to save money on things that you wouldn’t expect. Shop it around, just like we expect you’ll do with your SingleHop quote!

Zak

Today this blog post is about something very near and dear to my heart. As many of our Turkish clients and visitors to our website have guessed, considering I have possibly the most Turkish name a person can have, I am, quite obviously, Turkish (half). Today, has been a sad day for many Turks, including myself. At least definitely for fans of Fenerbahce.

For the first time ever, Fenerbahce advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup. Unexpected by most, but not to those who love and know the team. Famed for an aggressive style of play, full of vim and vigor, they advanced. However, today, their glorious run was ended.

Though deemed improbable by many, Fenerbahce handed Chelsea their first defeat of the tournament last week. In a stirring comeback at Sukru Saracoglu stadium, they came from one goal down in the first half to defeat the Chelsea Blues with a score of 2-1.

Although they lost today, Fenerbahce has proved to the world that they are world-class competitors, having taken the likes of InterMilan and Sevilla out of the competition. As the Euro Cup approaches, Turkey can be energized by Fenerbahce’s progress (even though it is an internationally populated squad) and the performance of the team as a whole and the native Turkish players.

Congrats to Chelsea for their progress and looking forward to meeting you again.

The Fenerbahce Song:

1907 de dogdu askimiz
Sari-Lacivert rengimiz oldu sarkimiz
Sporun her dalinda bizim sanimiz
Hic bitmedi bitmeyecek bizim askimiz
Sari-Lacivert rengimiz
Fenerbahce herseyimiz
Hicbirseye degismeyiz
Cunku Fenerbahceliyiz

Sampiyon Fenerbahcem, ne istersen iste benden,
Istersen donatalim dortbiryani bayraklarla
Istersen inletelim dortbiryani sarkilarla
Istersen eglenelim davullarla zurnalarla!

Fenerbahcem, sen cok yasa
Canim feda olsun sana
Hicbirseye degisilmez
Senin sevgin bu dunyada

Senin sevginle geldik su serefsiz dunyaya
Konusmayi ogrendik, ilk sozumuz Kanarya.
Ne Besiktas ibnesi, ne de Cimbom kahpesi
Inletiyor her yeri SAMPIYON FENER sesi.
Artik bu son olmali gerisi olmamali
Soyletme artik FENER aci hasret sarkisi

Fenerbahcem benim, biricik sevgilim
Soyle senden baska kimim var benim
Seninle aglarim, seninle gulerim
Soyle senden baska kimim var benim

Sari lacivert rengim, vazgecilmez yeminim
Sana canim feda, Fenerbahcem
Yagmur camur demem, her macina gelirim
Yollarina duserim Fenerbahcem!

Beraber yuruduk biz bu yollarda
Beraber islandik yagan yagmurda
Simdi sira geldi Sampiyonluga
Haydi bastir sanli sari kanarya

Sensiz hayat bir iskence
Dilimdesin gunduz gece
Satir satir hece hece
En buyuksun Fenerbahce