Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) are simply a network of servers located all over the world that will distribute your content faster, more reliably, and provide redundancy to your website or webhost. There are many benefits to having a CDN. The most important one is the ability to lower your server load and provide the customer…
Category: Performance
Common Mistakes in Enterprise IT when it comes to CIO/CTO hiring.
After talking and meeting with more than several Fortune 100 CIOs and CTOs, I’ve really discovered a common paradigm. This of course is over many years of experience. It’s important to understand the role of CIO or a CTO, but it’s also important to understand when they clearly do not get it. I’m not trashing…
Fixing Google’s messy index causing 404s due to a “?” in my urls.
As of late, I noticed a problem that just appeared and it wouldn’t go away. It just started showing up and causing tons of 404s on my site. Now that’s not good. The problem was simply the following: I would have a link on my site. Let’s say the real URL is: http://swimminginthought.com/estore For some…
Encoding Video Files for Free While Leveraging the Newest Tech including GPUs.
I encode plenty of files. The files include family photos to files for work presentations and of course, web work. Leveraging a GPU (Graphics Card) can significantly decrease decode time. The only problem is that all of the GPU assisted applications cost money! or do they? Well.. I use two applications exclusively. One is free,…
Streaming MP4 Video From Your Webserver [Solved]
If you’re lucky enough to be running Apache (a good portion of the internet does), you can stream your own videos direct from your website. This involves the addition of a small module called Mod-H264. Here’s how to do it. You will need root access to do this and I am assuming you’re running Centos,…
Redundant Application and Database Infrastructures
Most people don’t backup their databases, much less set up redundancy. It’s an important thing to consider when your application / website just cannot go down. This article discusses what it will take to set up that type of redundancy and I will be following up with a document on how to do it in…
Update and Review on Recovering Space ala Percy
I’ve written about recovering space on your hard-drive using a method called data-deduplication. It’s beyond the complexities and skill of most people out there except for the select few that are the true gurus of the tech world. The original Posting is here: http://swimminginthought.com/recovering-space-hard-drive/ I just thought it would be important to point out how…
EC2 with REAL Support
Using Amazon’s EC2 infrastructure is a real pain in the butt. It’s confusing and the documentation isn’t really all that helpful in many cases. So I propose something simple.. Call it a shameless plug, but it’s about supporting the family. Sign up for EC2 through my eStore and you’ll get all the support you need. …
Is your website slow? Fix It.
Today, almost everybody has a website. Many are run on a Webserver called Apache. It’s an amazing piece of software that is ironically free and incredibly secure (when configured properly). There are plenty of content management and publishing tools out there as well. WordPress (my personal favorite), Drupal, Movable Type just to name a few. …
Looking for a PBX? Consider the Cloud.
I’ve spoken of the virtues of a cloud PBX on many an occasion. The reality is for the last 8 years, I’ve been running my phone system / PBX in a cloud for many reasons. The most important is redundancy. The system has had no downtime except for when I was applying maintenance upgrades. My…