Open Coffee Entrepreneur Group » SQL

Attend this FREE seminar on Storage, SSDs and reduce your Cloud storage costs.

stewart — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Good afternoon

I have put together a roadshow across EMEA to discuss and learn about
Storage, SSDs and reducing costs using the cloud, Disks and mixing your
architecture.

I Hope you can join us for lunch or dinner at an informative seminar on
how to think about storage in new ways.

This 3-hour seminar is aimed at technical audiences and consists of two
parts.

The first is a technical session addressing the need for a new storage
paradigm. We will address three use cases:

* Reducing the cost of storage by incorporating the Cloud Storage,
Disks, SSDs and RAM into your storage hierarchy.
* Increasing observability and performance of your LAMP stack
application by incorporating SSDs.
* Providing varying service levels to your customers from a single
storage device.

The second session will provide an in-depth view into Sun's first
offering in the Open Storage space. This session will talk about how to
incorporate SSDs in a Hybrid Storage Pool and how Analytics can enable
fine-grain observability in your storage system.

The sessions are a mix of slides, demos, and open discussion.

Select from the list below to learn more and register.

Brussels - May 18
Zurich - May 19
London - May 19
Amsterdam - May 20

To register and for more information go here

--
<http://www.sun.co...; * Stewart Townsend *
Manager Startup Essentials EMEA

*Sun Microsystems, Inc.*
http://blogs.sun....
http://twitter.co...
Phone x18133/+44-161-9058 133
Mobile +44 (0) 7876 396788
Email [address removed]

PHP w/templates, MySQL, clean Web 2.0/AJAX interface design

Ronny Ager-Wick — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:10:00 +0000

John,
I can see you've decided not to be burned more times then 
Maybe one of the problems you face is because you specify the technology
to use up front. Of course if you already have an existing system, this
may make sense. To get to use the real hackers, the best developers
basically, you should let them decide the technology (except if they
suggest .net of course, which is a sign they're not really hackers
anyway :-b ). Although lots of great systems has been build using PHP up
though the years, a lot of the best developers has become "fed up" with
it, especially as so many wannabe developers that are only in it for the
money (the type of people that normally only use proprietary
technologies) has flooded the marketplace, making it difficult for
entrepreneurs like yourself to spot the really good ones.
When I recruit sub contractors I use my own experience as a developer
and software architect for more than a decade to evaluate whether
they're any good. It's still not a fool proof method, but the chances
for a hacker to find another hacker will always be much higher than a
non-hacker finding one - it takes one to know one.
(OK, I admit that doesn't help you much - you don't have a hacker, but
you need one to get one...)
As mentioned in an earlier thread, you want a hacker because they a
really good one is generally 10x more productive than an average one.
You might have to pay more, but you certainly get more as well. But be
careful, you can't just use the price as a guide to how good they are.
I've had absolutely amazing developers charging average rates and I've
seen completely useless ones charge sky-high rates. YMMV, basically.
I can't recommend myself, because I stopped using PHP ages ago, and I am
mostly involved on a higher level, managing the process, designing
complex database structures and making sure everyone understand each
other. Also, most of the devs I normally work with are overseas, and you
wanted UK based ones. I have to say most of my clients also prefer UK
based people, but given the choice between an average developer here and
a real hacker overseas, the choice is easy.
Just my 2¢, hopefully you can extract some useful information out of it 
Ronny.

For the record:
hacker = *really* good software developer, who doesn't have to have
prior knowledge about something in order to achieve something useful in
a minimum amount of time - they'll just do it, learn as they go along
cracker = bad hacker (the ones that hack CIA, etc)

a cracker is usually also a hacker but a hacker is not necessarily (or
rarely) a cracker.

John Hamlen wrote:
> Dear Fellow Entrepreneurs,
>
> Does anyone have a developer/company they are dying to recommend with expertise described in the subject line?
>
> I have a project that won't be a simple, hack-some-existing-code type affair. It will include elements such as interfacing to an SMS gateway.
>
> I've got my fingers burned a couple of times going through Elance, so I'd much rather rely on a personal recommendation than Elance feedback and uploaded examples of their work.
>
> Any recommendations much appreciated! UK based guys/girls preferred.
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> John
>
>
>
> --
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> http://www.meetup...
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>
>

How can we test a developer's skills?

Dan — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:57:00 +0000

Interesting experience Mohammed.

I've also found syntactical questions on paper are not very useful. After all, when is a developer going to write an entire program outside of an IDE? Syntax documentation is a few clicks away, but an excellent developer likely works with a basket of languages underpinned by competant problem-solving skills.

A paper test of pseudocode plus general problem-solving abilities is revealing. If a developer struggles with abstract problems then the quality of their practical coding ability is called into question.

Some famous examples from the past here: http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/29/technology/brain_teasers.biz2/index.htm.

Dan

2009/4/27 Mohammed Seedat <[address removed]>

Hi all I've been watching this thread and I thought I'd give my experience from the other side:

I recently had 2 interviews of which 1 I got the job and the other I am sure I didn't (I wasn't told because I'd already accepted this one).

For the job I didn't get (I assume): A new web startup company complete with Guitar Hero in their small office. Interviewed by 3 guys – founder, tech guy and another. I was asked questions relating to the job in terms of business and marketing and then given a short paper test by the tech guy. It was very simple but for some reason I froze and couldn't write a very very simple program nor identify the output from an even simpler programming without looking incompetent. I answered his SQL questions but it seemed like
he was testing my memory ability rather than by general SQL knowledge (it's easy to forget the general order of syntax when you're not working in front of a text editor or a GUI!). For some reason this interview made me feel rather stupid and not very good at what I do.

For the job I did get: Again a new web startup company complete with funky flooring. I had 2 interviews. First with 2 ladies who were not technical. This was a complete barrel of laughs and I felt comfortable with them and they with me. The second interview was an hour long "discussion" with a developer who was assigned the task of establishing my identity. In both this technical interview and my failed technical interview the interviewer was in their late 20's with similar backgrounds and speaking styles. However I as a developer felt much more comfortable with this chap and his "discussion" approach. We covered many technical concepts and likes/dislikes. I
didn't have to prove I could write code because my past projects already established my competency. The interview culminated in a discussion about spell check implementations and speed issues so it wasn't as lightweight as you might imagine.

I've experienced many different interviewing styles over the years from being interviewed by a camcorder and an anonymous man to more friendly "chat" type interviews. The differences are stark and ultimately I believe the kind of people that usually get through the net are the one's that reflect the behaviour and attitudes of that particular interviewer on that day. It all seems a bit pot luck for both the interviewer and interviewee!

From: Tim
Hawkins <[address removed]>
To: [address removed]
Sent: Monday, 27 April, 2009 13:18:07
Subject: Re: [entrepreneur-1056] How can we test a developer's skills?

when interviewing engineers and developers i tend to use the following rules of thumb.

1. pose questions that show wether somebody is knowledgeable or deductive, knowledgeable people often appear to be very good, but are often not adaptable. you want deductive programmers.

2. Im more interested not in what people know, but in how they fill in the gaps in their knowledge. a good engineer knows how to use resources, books, internet, open source etc to find a problem solution that they may not know.

3. Look for generalists, people
who write code that solves classes of problems, not specific problems.

4. look for people who show enthusiasm for the application, if they dont get turned on by your application then its just working for money, and they are unlikely to go the extra mile.

5. dont be too driven by qualifications, most of the really good people i have worked with have been self taught, and motivated to keep current, see 4 above.

6. look for people who will ask for help when they need it, there is nothing worse than an engineer that grapples with a problem for days when a simple question would clear it up.

7. ask them to describe the most elegant thing they have seen, and tell you why it was elegant.

For the reasons above, im not really keen on mechanical testing of skills, you need to just chat to the candidate and get a feel
for their approach to things.

On 27 Apr 2009, at 13:00, iqbalgandham wrote:

Hi

Its actually not that hard, aside from there fitting into your overall company culture, which is something you can deduce yourself. What I always do (if I can meet the person face to face) is to give them a pen and a piece of paper, and then get them to write me 3 programs

1. A simple one which asks them to open, red, write etc from/to a file
2. Something which asks them to pull info or insert into a database
3. Something a little more advanced which asks them to carry out a calculation, i.e count the number of primes between 1-1000 etc etc

The key is the pen and paper, you will be surprised how many coders cannot do it with pen and paper, since they like to
code, run it, see if it works, then try again and again. If a coder can do it on paper, they will be on a diff level to most you will meet.

Also note, that you do not want to make the questions too difficult, since what you need coding will usually come down to working with a DB, inserting, deleting etc etc.

Also check out

http://www.techinterviews.com/perl-interview-questions-and-answers

they have segments for each language, and OS,
This is MS interview questions, they deal with OS, algos etc

http://halcyon.usc.edu/~kiran/msqs.html

Here are a few from google, MS , amazon etc

http://placementsindia.blogspot.com/

Also note, when stuck between two coders, who are equally as good, get them to
a) Write a paragraph of text explaining what they did last summer on holiday
b) Create a 3 slide ppt, showing what they do at work

Why? because whenever you are stuck between two people, the one who can write things down, and present them clearly and coherently and concisely wins

Iqbal Gandham
L: www.iqbalgandham.com/in/iqbalgandham
W: www.iqbalgandham.com
T: @iqbalgandham
S: feelin_tired

From: Tom Watts <[address removed]>
To: [address removed]
Sent: Monday, 27 April, 2009 11:55:03
Subject: [entrepreneur-1056] How can we test a developer's skills?

Hi everyone.

Long time listener, first time caller.

I was hoping that someone on this group could offer some advice…

We're in the business of building and running online communities for research and innovation, which we deliver to brands and agencys. Part of our proposition is the
delivery of our bespoke social network tool.

To date, we have been working with an external agency, who have done a good job at building our product to specification. However, as business ramps up, we are looking to refine the product and introduce new features and services. As such, it has become necessary to recruit a developer, who is versed in the use open source tools (LAMP).

We've looked around and have a good final list of candidates, who we feel could be a good 'fit' to our existing team.

The one area that we have yet to test for is the ability to actually code – including their approach to coding. Not having these skills internally, it is difficult for us to achieve this. As such we were hoping to find some form of test that we could give them.

In my mind, I thinking of a simple 1-2 hour exercise, whereby the candidates could make a simple web application/service/feature, which would demonstrate their skills. We
have a friendly developer who could then look through what they have made and give us an idea of their abilities.

Is there such a test that people know of? If not, perhaps there is a different approach that someone has used successfully?

Either way, I would very much appreciate any ideas people may have.

Thanks in advance

Tom
–
Tom Watts
Director

w: dubstudios.com
t: +44 (0) 20 8123 3452
m: +44 (0) 7791 163 866
skype: tomwatts22

dub I Communities for Insight & Innovation

Youmeus Ltd t/a Dub Studios is registered in England and Wales, Registration No: 6167745 and registered at The Pines, Boars Head, Crowborough, East Sussex. TN6 3HD

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www.pluginseo.com

t: 0208 816 89 79
m: 07809 684742

How can we test a developer's skills?

Mohammed Seedat — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Hi all I’ve been watching this thread and I thought I’d give my experience from the other side:

I recently had 2 interviews of which 1 I got the job and the other I am sure I didn’t (I wasn’t told because I’d already accepted this one).

For the job I didn’t get (I assume): A new web startup company complete with Guitar Hero in their small office. Interviewed by 3 guys – founder, tech guy and another. I was asked questions relating to the job in terms of business and marketing and then given a short paper test by the tech guy. It was very simple but for some reason I froze and couldn’t write a very very simple program nor identify the output from an even simpler programming without looking incompetent. I answered his SQL questions but it seemed like
he was testing my memory ability rather than by general SQL knowledge (it’s easy to forget the general order of syntax when you’re not working in front of a text editor or a GUI!). For some reason this interview made me feel rather stupid and not very good at what I do.

For the job I did get: Again a new web startup company complete with funky flooring. I had 2 interviews. First with 2 ladies who were not technical. This was a complete barrel of laughs and I felt comfortable with them and they with me. The second interview was an hour long “discussion” with a developer who was assigned the task of establishing my identity. In both this technical interview and my failed technical interview the interviewer was in their late 20’s with similar backgrounds and speaking styles. However I as a developer felt much more comfortable with this chap and his “discussion” approach. We covered many technical concepts and likes/dislikes. I
didn’t have to prove I could write code because my past projects already established my competency. The interview culminated in a discussion about spell check implementations and speed issues so it wasn’t as lightweight as you might imagine.

I’ve experienced many different interviewing styles over the years from being interviewed by a camcorder and an anonymous man to more friendly “chat” type interviews. The differences are stark and ultimately I believe the kind of people that usually get through the net are the one’s that reflect the behaviour and attitudes of that particular interviewer on that day. It all seems a bit pot luck for both the interviewer and interviewee!

From: Tim
Hawkins <[address removed]>
To: [address removed]
Sent: Monday, 27 April, 2009 13:18:07
Subject: Re: [entrepreneur-1056] How can we test a developer’s skills?

when interviewing engineers and developers i tend to use the following rules of thumb.

1. pose questions that show wether somebody is knowledgeable or deductive, knowledgeable people often appear to be very good, but are often not adaptable. you want deductive programmers.

2. Im more interested not in what people know, but in how they fill in the gaps in their knowledge. a good engineer knows how to use resources, books, internet, open source etc to find a problem solution that they may not know.

3. Look for generalists, people
who write code that solves classes of problems, not specific problems.

4. look for people who show enthusiasm for the application, if they dont get turned on by your application then its just working for money, and they are unlikely to go the extra mile.

5. dont be too driven by qualifications, most of the really good people i have worked with have been self taught, and motivated to keep current, see 4 above.

6. look for people who will ask for help when they need it, there is nothing worse than an engineer that grapples with a problem for days when a simple question would clear it up.

7. ask them to describe the most elegant thing they have seen, and tell you why it was elegant.

For the reasons above, im not really keen on mechanical testing of skills, you need to just chat to the candidate and get a feel
for their approach to things.

On 27 Apr 2009, at 13:00, iqbalgandham wrote:

Hi

Its actually not that hard, aside from there fitting into your overall company culture, which is something you can deduce yourself. What I always do (if I can meet the person face to face) is to give them a pen and a piece of paper, and then get them to write me 3 programs

1. A simple one which asks them to open, red, write etc from/to a file
2. Something which asks them to pull info or insert into a database
3. Something a little more advanced which asks them to carry out a calculation, i.e count the number of primes between 1-1000 etc etc

The key is the pen and paper, you will be surprised how many coders cannot do it with pen and paper, since they like to
code, run it, see if it works, then try again and again. If a coder can do it on paper, they will be on a diff level to most you will meet.

Also note, that you do not want to make the questions too difficult, since what you need coding will usually come down to working with a DB, inserting, deleting etc etc.

Also check out

http://www.techinterviews.com/perl-interview-questions-and-answers

they have segments for each language, and OS,
This is MS interview questions, they deal with OS, algos etc

http://halcyon.usc.edu/~kiran/msqs.html

Here are a few from google, MS , amazon etc

href="http://placementsindia.blogspot.com/">http://placementsindia.blogspot.com/

Also note, when stuck between two coders, who are equally as good, get them to
a) Write a paragraph of text explaining what they did last summer on holiday
b) Create a 3 slide ppt, showing what they do at work

Why? because whenever you are stuck between two people, the one who can write things down, and present them clearly and coherently and concisely wins

Iqbal Gandham
L: www.iqbalgandham.com/in/iqbalgandham
W: www.iqbalgandham.com
T: @iqbalgandham
S: feelin_tired

face="Tahoma" size="2">

From: Tom Watts <[address removed]>
To: [address removed]
Sent: Monday, 27 April, 2009 11:55:03
Subject: [entrepreneur-1056] How can we test a developer’s skills?

Hi everyone.

Long time listener, first time caller.

I was hoping that someone on this group could offer some advice…

We’re in the business of building and running online communities for research and innovation, which we deliver to brands and agencys. Part of our proposition is the
delivery of our bespoke social network tool.

To date, we have been working with an external agency, who have done a good job at building our product to specification. However, as business ramps up, we are looking to refine the product and introduce new features and services. As such, it has become necessary to recruit a developer, who is versed in the use open source tools (LAMP).

We’ve looked around and have a good final list of candidates, who we feel could be a good ‘fit’ to our existing team.

The one area that we have yet to test for is the ability to actually code – including their approach to coding. Not having these skills internally, it is difficult for us to achieve this. As such we were hoping to find some form of test that we could give them.

In my mind, I thinking of a simple 1-2 hour exercise, whereby the candidates could make a simple web application/service/feature, which would demonstrate their skills. We
have a friendly developer who could then look through what they have made and give us an idea of their abilities.

Is there such a test that people know of? If not, perhaps there is a different approach that someone has used successfully?

Either way, I would very much appreciate any ideas people may have.

Thanks in advance

Tom
–
Tom Watts
Director

w: dubstudios.com
t: +44 (0) 20 8123 3452
m: +44 (0) 7791 163 866
skype: tomwatts22

dub I Communities for Insight & Innovation

Youmeus Ltd t/a Dub Studios is registered in England and Wales, Registration No: 6167745 and registered at The Pines, Boars Head, Crowborough, East Sussex. TN6 3HD

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How can we test a developer's skills?

Simon Whiteside — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:28:00 +0000

I suggest you ask your friendly developer to write down 5 difficult
questions for each of those technical areas, along with the answers.

Then set this test to your candidates. If it looks like they’ve scored
more than 80%, it’s worth starting an email dialogue.

Narrow down via email to 4 or 5, and then do interviews via Skype. That
should narrow you down to 2 or 3 which you could meet up with in person.

Tom Watts wrote:

type="cite">
We’re using…

Redhat
MySQL
Apahe
PHP
Javascript

Flash (though very lightly)
Wowza (again, not a main focus)

–
Tom Watts
Director

w: dubstudios.com
t: +44 (0) 20 8123 3452
m: +44 (0) 7791 163 866
skype: tomwatts22

dub I Communities for Insight & Innovation

Youmeus Ltd t/a Dub Studios is registered in England and Wales,
Registration No: 6167745 and registered at The Pines, Boars Head,
Crowborough, East Sussex. TN6 3HD

2009/4/27 Patrick McCarthy <[address removed]>

style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">

size="2">Hi Tom,

size="2">

size="2">Is the language just PHP or are you using others?

size="2">

size="2">Regards,

size="2">Patrick McCarthy

size="2"> target="_blank">UK2.NET

From: [address removed] [mailto:[address removed]] On Behalf Of Tom
Watts
Sent: 27 April 2009 11:55
To: [address removed]
Subject: [entrepreneur-1056] How can we test a developer’s
skills?

Hi everyone.

Long time listener, first time caller.

I was hoping that someone on this group could offer some advice…

We’re in the business of building and running online communities for
research and innovation, which we deliver to brands and agencys. Part
of our proposition is the delivery of our bespoke social network tool.

To date, we have been working with an external agency, who have done a
good job at building our product to specification. However, as business
ramps up, we are looking to refine the product and introduce new
features and services. As such, it has become necessary to recruit a
developer, who is versed in the use open source tools (LAMP).

We’ve looked around and have a good final list of candidates, who we
feel could be a good ‘fit’ to our existing team.

The one area that we have yet to test for is the ability to actually
code – including their approach to coding. Not having these skills
internally, it is difficult for us to achieve this. As such we were
hoping to find some form of test that we could give them.

In my mind, I thinking of a simple 1-2 hour exercise, whereby the
candidates could make a simple web application/service/feature, which
would demonstrate their skills. We have a friendly developer who could
then look through what they have made and give us an idea of their
abilities.

Is there such a test that people know of? If not, perhaps there is a
different approach that someone has used successfully?

Either way, I would very much appreciate any ideas people may have.

Thanks in advance

Tom

–
Tom Watts
Director

w: target="_blank">dubstudios.com
t: +44 (0) 20 8123 3452
m: +44 (0) 7791 163 866
skype: tomwatts22

dub I Communities for Insight & Innovation

Youmeus Ltd t/a Dub Studios is registered in England and Wales,
Registration No: 6167745 and registered at The Pines, Boars Head,
Crowborough, East Sussex. TN6 3HD

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Regards,

Simon
--
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Simkin Solutions Limited

Clients Include: Politics Home, WENN, FileFX,
Favy, Mather Communications, Sibelius

2a Royal Chase, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8AY
Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 4045429
http://www.simkin.co.uk
Skype: callto://swhiteside
Second Life: Simon Hagoromo

How can we test a developer's skills?

Tom Watts — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:12:00 +0000

We're using…

Redhat
MySQL
Apahe
PHP
Javascript

Flash (though very lightly)
Wowza (again, not a main focus)

–
Tom Watts
Director

w: dubstudios.com

t: +44 (0) 20 8123 3452
m: +44 (0) 7791 163 866
skype: tomwatts22

dub I Communities for Insight & Innovation

Youmeus Ltd t/a Dub Studios is registered in England and Wales, Registration No: 6167745 and registered at The Pines, Boars Head, Crowborough, East Sussex. TN6 3HD

2009/4/27 Patrick McCarthy <[address removed]>

Hi Tom,

Is the language just PHP or are you using
others?

Regards,

Patrick McCarthy

UK2.NET

From: [address removed]
[mailto:[address removed]] On Behalf Of Tom
Watts
Sent: 27 April 2009 11:55
To:
[address removed]
Subject: [entrepreneur-1056] How can we
test a developer's skills?

Hi everyone.

Long time listener, first time caller.

I
was hoping that someone on this group could offer some advice…

We're in
the business of building and running online communities for research and
innovation, which we deliver to brands and agencys. Part of our proposition is
the delivery of our bespoke social network tool.

To date, we have been
working with an external agency, who have done a good job at building our
product to specification. However, as business ramps up, we are looking to
refine the product and introduce new features and services. As such, it has
become necessary to recruit a developer, who is versed in the use open source
tools (LAMP).

We've looked around and have a good final list of
candidates, who we feel could be a good 'fit' to our existing team.

The
one area that we have yet to test for is the ability to actually code –
including their approach to coding. Not having these skills internally, it is
difficult for us to achieve this. As such we were hoping to find some form of
test that we could give them.

In my mind, I thinking of a simple 1-2 hour
exercise, whereby the candidates could make a simple web
application/service/feature, which would demonstrate their skills. We have a
friendly developer who could then look through what they have made and give us
an idea of their abilities.

Is there such a test that people know of? If
not, perhaps there is a different approach that someone has used
successfully?

Either way, I would very much appreciate any ideas people
may have.

Thanks in advance

Tom
–
Tom
Watts
Director

w: dubstudios.com
t: +44 (0) 20 8123 3452
m:
+44 (0) 7791 163 866
skype: tomwatts22

dub I Communities for Insight
& Innovation

Youmeus Ltd t/a Dub Studios is registered in England and
Wales, Registration No: 6167745 and registered at The Pines, Boars Head,
Crowborough, East Sussex. TN6 3HD

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Domain registration and management service recommendations

Matt Rogers — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:13:00 +0000

We’ve
looked for this (although our search was global rather than Euro) and finding a
company who covers everything is not simple. In the end we used a mixture of:

style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>· style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Uk2.net

style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>· style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Moniker.com

style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>· style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Letshost.ie

style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol'>· style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Netnames.co.uk

HTH.

Cheers,

v:shapes="_x0000_s1026">

Matt
Rogers – Co-Founder

href="http://www.aroxo.com/">Aroxo – Earth’s marketplace style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>

3rd
Floor

Clearwater
House

4-7
Manchester Street

London

W1U
3AE

lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>

Location:
UK

UK
Cell/SMS: +447958002382

Indian
Cell/SMS: +919884690539

Email:
[address removed]

Skype:
mattrogers1975

Twitter:
aroxo

Blog:
http://www.aroxo.com/blog/mattr href="http://www.aroxo.com/blog/mattr/index.php/feed/">feed style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"'>

From: [address removed]
[mailto:[address removed]] On Behalf Of Rachel Armitage
Sent: 24 April 2009 12:59
To: [address removed]
Subject: [entrepreneur-1056] Domain registration and management service
recommendations

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Hello all,

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I’m looking for a
recommendation for a domain management service that can handle European country
code Top Level Domains from the UK (for example es, .fr). I recognise that the
requirements are different for registering different cc TLDs, but in general,
can anybody recommend a decent registration and management service that charges
a reasonable price for doing this outside of the country in question?

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Thanks in advance,

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Rachel

style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>

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Hosting question

Harry Mylonadis — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:38:00 +0000

I should mention that this functionality is also available from no-ip.com

Harry

On 23 Apr 2009, at 15:19, Omar Miah wrote:

Antony

The bit you said about using UltraDNS sounds brilliant

I looked at the website but couldn’t find the option you refer to for $20 a year?

The idea sounds absolutely brilliant

Can you give some more information + give a link to what you’re referring to?

Thanks

Omar

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 12:18 PM, Antony Penn <[address removed]> wrote:

Hi Manish,

Your email is contradictory. If you have a shared server you will not be doing any installation, config or admin as it is all taken care of for you. Maybe you are referring to ‘virtual hosts’ where you essentially hire a VM machine portion of a server, in which case you get full root access to do everything with. The problem with shared virtual hosting is usually limited CPU and limited bandwidth.

Just scan for ‘virtual shared hosting’ or ‘virtual private servers’ for this.

uk2.net do dedicated servers for £50 per month, with very excellent bandwidth

All web hosts are crap at one point, usually when they have a server outage and this can cost you a whole day or two. If that is a problem for you, I would also recommend outsourcing your DNS (someone like ultradns) for about £20 a year and hiring a second server, from a separate provider. Your DNS settings can be changed to 10 mins time-to-live and if you have a problem with server#1, change the dns to point to server#2 (and of course copy all your web files from your regular backups to server2) and you will be up and running again in 15 mins.

hope this helps.
regards,
Antony Penn

On 23/04/2009, Manish Shah <[address removed]> wrote:

Hi there,

I’m looking for a fast, cheap, no-frills, UK-based shared hosting company to host a PHP / MySQL application.

We’re hands-on and can do most of the installation/configuration/administration ourselves. We just need a quick, shared, server because we don’t think we can afford dedicated hosting at the moment.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Manish

–
Manish Shah
Equal Experts Ltd.
Office 404, 4th Floor
Albany House
324/326 Regent Street
London
W1B 3HH

E: [address removed]
M: +44 7976 249 740
T: +44 207 692 5705
F: +44 208 090 3713
W: http://www.equalexperts.com

–
Manish Shah
Equal Experts Ltd.
Office 404, 4th Floor
Albany House
324/326 Regent Street
London
W1B 3HH

E: [address removed]
M: +44 7976 249 740
T: +44 207 692 5705
F: +44 208 090 3713
W: http://www.equalexperts.com

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Hosting question

Antony Penn — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:02:00 +0000

Sorry I meant easyDNS, not ultraDNS.
There are quite a few of these services around so it's worth doing a bit of searching.

But the general premise (and everyone else should take note here) is that ALL web hosts will eventually fail, unless you have paid for stupidly expensive multiple failover server type configuration. When failure occurs you are often at their complete mercy (and lack of ability to fix the problem quickly) so if you have outsourced your dns to elsewhere with a short TTL setting (time to live) of 10 mins rather than 2 days as is normal, then you can switch hosts that quickly to somewhere else.

I've used zoneedit for a few years and it is a very good service, but yes crap website. I think they spend their time on making sure the real guts work rather than pretty stuff.

I've also used twisted4life – good lookup/validation tools but remember having some sort of issue after a year or so, cannot remember now.

On 23/04/2009, Omar Miah <[address removed]> wrote:

Antony

The bit you said about using UltraDNS sounds brilliant

I looked at the website but couldn't find the option you refer to for $20 a year?

The idea sounds absolutely brilliant

Can you give some more information + give a link to what you're referring to?

Thanks

Omar

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 12:18 PM, Antony Penn <[address removed]> wrote:

Hi Manish,

Your email is contradictory. If you have a shared server you will not be doing any installation, config or admin as it is all taken care of for you. Maybe you are referring to 'virtual hosts' where you essentially hire a VM machine portion of a server, in which case you get full root access to do everything with. The problem with shared virtual hosting is usually limited CPU and limited bandwidth.

Just scan for 'virtual shared hosting' or 'virtual private servers' for this.

uk2.net do dedicated servers for £50 per month, with very excellent bandwidth

All web hosts are crap at one point, usually when they have a server outage and this can cost you a whole day or two. If that is a problem for you, I would also recommend outsourcing your DNS (someone like ultradns) for about £20 a year and hiring a second server, from a separate provider. Your DNS settings can be changed to 10 mins time-to-live and if you have a problem with server#1, change the dns to point to server#2 (and of course copy all your web files from your regular backups to server2) and you will be up and running again in 15 mins.

hope this helps.
regards,
Antony Penn

On 23/04/2009, Manish Shah <[address removed]> wrote:

Hi there,

I'm looking for a fast, cheap, no-frills, UK-based shared hosting company to host a PHP / MySQL application.

We're hands-on and can do most of the installation/configuration/administration ourselves. We just need a quick, shared, server because we don't think we can afford dedicated hosting at the moment.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Manish

–
Manish Shah
Equal Experts Ltd.
Office 404, 4th Floor
Albany House
324/326 Regent Street

London
W1B 3HH

E: [address removed]
M: +44 7976 249 740
T: +44 207 692 5705
F: +44 208 090 3713

W: http://www.equalexperts.com

–
Manish Shah
Equal Experts Ltd.
Office 404, 4th Floor
Albany House
324/326 Regent Street
London
W1B 3HH

E: [address removed]

M: +44 7976 249 740
T: +44 207 692 5705
F: +44 208 090 3713
W: http://www.equalexperts.com

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Hosting question

Geoff Wright — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Slicehost.com
I'd look at those guys.
On 4/23/09, Manish Shah <[address removed]> wrote:

> Hi there,

> I'm looking for a fast, cheap, no-frills, UK-based shared hosting company to

> host a PHP / MySQL application.

>

> We're hands-on and can do most of the

> installation/configuration/administration ourselves. We just need a quick,

> shared, server because we don't think we can afford dedicated hosting at the

> moment.

>

> Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

>

> Manish

>

> --

> Manish Shah

> Equal Experts Ltd.

> Office 404, 4th Floor

> Albany House

> 324/326 Regent Street

> London

> W1B 3HH

>

> E: [address removed]

> M: +44 7976 249 740

> T: +44 207 692 5705

> F: +44 208 090 3713

> W: http://www.equale...

>

>

>

> --

> Manish Shah

> Equal Experts Ltd.

> Office 404, 4th Floor

> Albany House

> 324/326 Regent Street

> London

> W1B 3HH

>

> E: [address removed]

> M: +44 7976 249 740

> T: +44 207 692 5705

> F: +44 208 090 3713

> W: http://www.equale...

>
--

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