Cletus

This post was taken from Toxic Masculinity on Facebook. I did not write this little ditty.

A couple years ago I was working security at a bar in northern Virginia. I overheard a table of college kids arguing about gun rights and gun control and it was getting far too emotional so I did what any sane combat veteran would do and attempted to exfiltrate. I must not have withdrawn as surreptitiously as I intended, because I was stopped in my tracks when a 5-foot-nothing brunette seemingly leapt in front of me and blurted out “excuse me, can you help us?”

I’m sure I must have looked irritated as I cycled through the possible quips and excuses I considered available to me but being uncertain that she wasn’t some Senator’s daughter, I caved: “What’s up?”

She basically leads me to this table of 2 other females (probably both named Karen) and a very soft looking male.

Becky: “So, we were just talking about current events and, you know. So, you look like you’re probably in the military, right? Like the Army?”

(When you accuse someone of being in the military you probably don’t need to give an example)

Me: “Similar.. yea”

Becky: “Right. Okay. So, do you think civilians should be allowed to own guns?”

Me: “Most of us. Yes.”

Becky: (clearly not happy with my answer) “Okay, so, why do you think you need a gun?”

(At this point it’s almost 2am and I’ve just given up on patience. Hold my beer)

(With intentionally overt condescension): “Oh, honey, I don’t. I don’t need a gun.”

Becky stares at me blankly, so I continue, but with a more serious tone:

“I could follow you home, walk up your driveway, and beat you to death with the daily newspaper.

I could choke you to death with that purse.

I could take a credit card, break it in half, and cut your throat open with it.

With enough time and effort I could beat your boyfriend here with a rolled up pair of socks.

I could probably dream up six dozen other ways I could easily end your life if you gave me an hour or so.

If I wanted to, I could wrap my hand around that beer mug and kill all four of you before you could make it to the exit. The worst part is, in your utopian little fantasyland, there ain’t a thing any of you could do about it.

I don’t need a gun.

You need a gun.

You need a gun because of men like me.”

Call me a jerk, but if you want to keep your guns, these are the conversations we all need to start having.

I have worked in the web hosting industry for about 10 years now professionally.  But I have used the products for nearly 20 years.  I am by no means an expert.  But I am good at what I do know and can normally fix most issues brought to me.

What I can’t fix is stupid.

Let’s use this scenario.  Your entire business model depends on your web presence.  Your income, business revenue, everything comes through your website.  Email.  Orders for products or services.  Sales leads.  Everything.  Why, WHY would you go to the lowest bidder?  Or, why would you not build some sort of redundancy into your web presence, even if manual?

In the “Budget” web hosting industry, there are generally 3 types of hosting offered.  Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Dedicated Servers.  People in the industry know we can get more granular than that but those are the basic levels.  The one thing that all 3 of those platforms have in common is that they are ONE SERVER.  One machine.  One computer.  Just like your laptop, desktop or even your phone/tablet, they are a single machine.  If you drop your phone in the lake and it dies, you are generally out of a phone.  If you pour coffee on your laptop you are generally out of a laptop.  This is no different.

For people that don’t know, I will break down the levels of hosting real quick.

Shared – You share the server (computer) with other accounts.  Each account can have 1 to unlimited domains on it.  Let’s use 10 as an easy number to use mathematically.  And these numbers do not represent any particular policy for any particular company.    Shared server number A201 has 100 accounts on it.  Each account has 10 domains/websites.  That’s 1000 websites all being presented to the world at http://www.thisismywebsite.com.  Potentially at the same time.  If any one of those sites is compromised (hacked) and is doing “stuff” that requires a lot of the server’s processing resources, CPU, memory, hard drive space…  it absolutely WILL affect the other 999 websites.  Slows them down, stops the flow of email or even causes them to not be available.  This type of hosting is what made websites affordable for nearly everyone in the country.  I personally have a shared account that costs $12.00 per year.  Think of shared hosting as living in an apartment building.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) – VPS hosting is similar but a little more segregated.  Your account is assigned a specific amount of resources.  CPU, processors, hard drive space.  No one else can encroach on those resources.  However, it is still one server, one machine, one computer, sliced up into private sections.  Far fewer accounts typically and far less likely to be affected by other users on the machine.  Other VPS accounts.  Not totally immune from cross effects but far less likely.  The webserver you are reading this article on is a VPS.  This of VPS hosting as living in a townhouse or rowhouse.

Dedicated Server – Just exactly what the name implies.  You have the machine all to yourself.  no aspect of it is shared with anyone else.  (Unless you get a shady provider that is actually using large VPS and selling them as dedicated.  That’s some sketchy shit right there.)  This of dedicated hosting as living in a single family home.

The one common thing that we have with all of the above?  ONE SERVER.  One machine.  ONE POINT OF FAILURE.

Why would you put your absolute life blood in the hands of a third party without a back up plan?  It’s YOUR revenue stream.  Your income.

BACK UP YOUR WEBSITE!  BACK UP YOUR EMAILS!  Have a contingency plan in case of a catastrophic failure of your ONE server.  I personally back up my sites daily OFF SERVER and have a duplicate server standing by to bring my sites back up with in minutes in case of a failure.  I do this and I DON’T depend on my servers for my revenue stream.  Total cost?  $30 a month.  How much is your income worth?

I can fix servers.  I can not fix you being stupid.  Don’t be stupid.

Facebook is broken.  The last time I looked they had 55,000 servers in 12 different data centers around the globe.  And they are down.

Yet web hosting customers call their hosting company when their ONE server is unavailable.  ONE.  I have said this so many times.  You put all of your eggs in one basket for your web footprint.  And you pay on average about $25 a month.

You complain about load times, time to first byte, unavailability.  Well guess what.  Facebook has one million times the server power of your little account and they are down.  It happens.

The next time your ONE POINT OF FAILURE…  fails.  Consider how much you are paying for it and the fact that you are relying on ONE computer to present your website.

Technology breaks.  Buy more.  Have a contingency plan.  Don’t be fucking stupid and more importantly, don’t take your frustrations out on your hosting company because you are a cheapskate or haven’t planned past the front of your booger collector.