Jason’s Random Thoughts

Earlier this year, Vic over at BloggerUnleashed challenged bloggers to make $25,000 this year and, after much deliberation over what specific niche I should tackle first, I decided to say “fsck it” and tackle the one that bothers me the most. This isn’t to say that I won’t start up another site to look after the other niche (which is insanely undiscussed on the internet), but I just don’t have the time or the resources available to handle both, as well as j2fi.net, and the few other blogs that I guest post for.

So what’s this fabulous niche? Well, Vic suggested going the local route and earning lots of money by becoming the hometown authority on a specific subject. This would have been a great idea while I was still in Vancouver and had a huge local readership to pull from, but it’s a little bit harder here in Japan where the majority of the locals are clearly not proficient with English. Instead, I’m going to focus on the “green” thing and poke holes in much of the horse manure we’re sold by manufacturers of “green products”. Nick had done something similar a few months back with his post on Sharp “Eco” Air Conditioners, but there are far more products out there that people should be made aware of.

What does this mean for j2fi.net? Well … after writing 525 posts, most of which have been politically charged as of late, I think I can step back from a daily post routine and settle with a friendly 5-per-week schedule. Of course, if there’s something that bothers me on a given day, I might just put out a sixth. It really depends on time, though. However, while I was buying some domains over at GoDaddy, I decided to snap up one of the few top-level domains that are available for my full name. I’d really like to get the .com and .net domains … but those have been taken by squatters and I’m not paying their asking price … yet.

What niches are next? I’m glad you asked. The next two that I’m thinking about will help English-speaking foreigners in Japan. I’d love to get a restaurant review site up and running for people who just don’t know what or where to eat in and around this country, as well as a site that helps people understand their Japanese electronics which have frustratingly obscure labels for insanely obvious functions. I already have a few posts for those two sites written, and I might just throw them up on j2fi.net for a little bit until I get the time to move into professional blogging properly.

This would be so much easier if I didn’t have to choose between writing and sleep … but, with help from Vic, Courtney Tuttle and MsDanielle, I’m sure that I’ll learn the ropes with earning an online income without pissing off the readers soon enough. Once a respectable income starts coming in, perhaps I could switch to part time with my current employer and put much more effort towards the various projects that are up and coming.

So, that said, I’m off to set up the new site and write some content. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on its progress and look forward to the challenges that await my first real online venture.

Edit: It appears that I misunderstood the addional domain assignment process through MidPhase’s cPanel. The customer service team was not aware of my upgrade request because the system said that I didn’t need the particular upgrade I thought I had needed after clicking “Add More” domains. That said, after a few emails with the very helpful billing manager, I managed to figure out what I needed to do, and got it done just fine. Thanks go out to Jasmin for shedding some light on my own stupidity
Why do some companies insist on making it difficult for customers to give them money?

For business days ago I put in a request for an upgrade with my host, MidPhase. I’m venturing into a few new areas and need greater control over my account and its resources. All in all, it will cost an extra $24.95 USD per year, not including any fees they might collect when I register new domain names. Depending on the success of these ventures, I’ll need to spend a bit more to handle all the streaming media and storage space requirements. So, assuming MidPhase wants to make things easier for me and process the application I needlessly had to fill out last weekend, I’ll be sure to give them a bit more business.

But this does raise the question: Why is it taking so long to “process” an upgrade request? Wouldn’t this just be a simple matter of taking a couple of bucks from my credit card and changing a setting on my account? Heck, why isn’t this a completely automated process?

Excessive Lag Reaching Timeout

I’ve been pretty patient with MidPhase for the most part, tolerating unacceptable amounts of downtime, slow support through the forums and a change of hands (they’re now owned by a UK media group), but with so much time on my hands, I’ve had the opportunity to look at some of the competing offers from other vendors. This might have just made MidPhase’s price structure obsolete in this customer’s eyes.

Three companies I’ve heard lots of positive feedback for are BlueHost, MediaTemple and Webhosting Pad. Comparing thier packages and prices to what I pay and receive now, it’s clear that I could save money within 14 months by purchasing a package through another company.

I really don’t ask for much from a web host. Just the following things:

• 99.9% active and verifiable net connectivity time (just because the server is running while the net connection is down does not mean my server has 99.9% uptime)
• PHP & MySQL (or access to a MS SQL Server 2000 or better database)
• affordable (no more than $12 a month)
• FTP and SSH
• POP email accounts
• Multiple Domain and Sub-Domain hosting on the same account
• 500+ Gig of transfer
• 50+ Gig of storage space
• rapid support through forums or email (6 hour turnaround time)
• PayPal payments

If all of this is met and I have the option of having a shell account that permits eggdrop bots all with the same account, then I’d really hop on board.

But, of course, if I wanted to have absolutely everything, then I’d need to host my own server. It’s a shame that Japanese ISPs filter out port 80 just like their Canadian counterparts. I’d have no qualms with hosting my own server from home on some ancient Pentium 3 500.

All this said, let’s take a quick look at the three companies that I examined.

BlueHost

BlueHost was one of the companies I had considered back in 2006 before going with with MidPhase. They were well priced and had packages comparable to what I found elsewhere. However, because a prominent WordPress developer had sung praises for MidPhase, I had decided to go there.

BlueHost currently offers a nice 1,500 GB of storage with 15 TB (yes, TeraBytes) of data transfer. They allow for unlimited domains (including international addresses) and meet all of my criteria. They even have SSH Shell access, but there’s no word on whether they permit eggdrops on the server. Probably not, but this is definately a company I’ll give due consideration to. Some of my plans will rely heavily on PHP, Ruby and networks capable of streaming dozens of videos simultaneously. Nothing like YouTube or other video sites, but there is certainly potential for heavy bandwidth usage.

A complete list of their features can be found on their “Tell Me More” page, and it is a great list for anyone that wants to have the option to do anything with their websites.

MediaTemple

MediaTemple has perhaps one of the most robust packages available. Rather than having you share a single server with a bunch of other customers, you’re sharing the total processing power of all the webservers in the building. This means that if your site is hit hard by Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon all at the same time, the server will not grind to a halt and choke. While most of my plans will likely not have much of an impact on the social media sites, it would be nice to know the site would be up and active should those massive bursts of traffic arrive.

Like BlueHost, they offer much of what I’m looking for. 100 Gig of storage with 1 TB of bandwidth is reasonable, and they have great Ruby support and the ability to host 100 individual sites from a single account. I doubt I’d be exceeding this amount in the next few years, but it’s nice to know the expansion is there if I need it. At $20 a month, they’re the most expensive of the three options but, thanks to their grid computing, you can certainly get quite a bit of power for your dollar should it be necessary.

Webhosting Pad

The name was an instant turn-off for me but, like the old saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Webhosting Pad offers a great deal of features for a minimal price tag and they’re looking like the clear leader in my quest for a new host. With 17 Gig of storage, 17 TB of transfer and a price tag under $5, it’s hard to say no. Like BlueHost, they have everything I’m asking for from a webhost except the SSH Shell access, but this is something I can live without.

What really grabs my attention with Webhosting Pad over the other offers is the amount of unlimited features that come with the basic package. While I doubt I would ever need unlimited POP, IMAP, Parked Domains, Subdomains and MySQL databases, it’s certainly nice to know the flexibility is there should I wish to expand in every direction but down. The fact they advertize Dual Xeon servers also piques my attention, as I’ve had nothing but solid reliability from everything Xeon-based.

The Winner Is … ?

Each one of these hosting companies has a strength over the competition and it will be hard to decide which one to go with in the future. One thing is certain, though. If MidPhase can’t get back to me regarding simple things like account upgrades, then I’d be afraid to think what would happen if my server caught fire and died. Sure, it might never happen, but you never know
Do you have any experience with these hosts? Do you know of another that offers just as much but for a better price? I’d be interested to know your take on the subject.

Court proceedings for trials involving juvenile defendants may undergo a big change if the Legislative Council’s recently submitted revision to the Juvenile Law goes through.

As it stands now, observers are not permitted to attend court appearances of youths accused of a crime. Not only petty crimes like theft, but life altering cases like murder and assault. While I strongly agree that victims should have the option to attend hearings, thorough preparations and precautions are necessary.

The proposed changes recommend that victims and their families be allowed to attend trials at the judge’s discretion when young defendants are charged with murder and other serious crimes. Ordinarily, the emphasis of a trial in Japan is on meting out punishment to those found guilty. In cases involving those under 20 (the age of majority in this country), the emphasis is placed on what to do with the offenders, be it rehabilitation or some other light punishment. For the moment, privacy is strictly enforced as the law states that juvenile cases are closed to the public.

What About the Victims?

Many of the victims rightly argue that these closed-door proceedings deprive them of their right to know the details of what led to the alleged crimes. Lord knows that if we lost someone close to us in some tragic incident, we would demand the right to see the court case. It might hurt like hell, and we would never be happy with the sentence handed down, but it’s one of the tools we use to heal. To say the accused’s privacy is more important than the victims’ emotional scarring is not only ludicrous, it’s insulting.

Going further, being tried in the presence of the victims and their family, offenders can better recognize the seriousness of their actions. What better way to enforce regret than by seeing the very raw and human emotions on the faces of others? Having victims at hearings would also make it more difficult to lie to the judge.

Just these benefits alone make the resolution sound logical. But there can be some disadvantages.

Some of the accused could clam up and refuse to speak if they’re intimidated by the victims or their family.

The legislature must take care to address these issues should the revised law come into effect, and it should be up to the judge to decide when and if the proceedings are opened to victims or the public. However, if they are opened, it should be wide open. If someone is found guilty, the press should have the ability to print pictures, names, and all the accompanying slander that typically comes with a “guilty” charge.

Legal systems should never protect killers, rapists, arsonists or those who willfully assault others. Age should have no bearing on the matter.

Of course, the last issues that would need consideration is the size of the courtrooms. Juvenile rooms are typically big enough for the judge, the defendant, and two attorneys. At a piddly 20 square meters, there’s very little room for spectators. This means court schedules could be pushed back to accommodate the victims’ right to attend. The last thing we want to see is Japan turning into the next Canada, with its two-year wait time for legal proceedings.

All in all, I think the introduction of these changes will be a welcome addition to the juvenile law. While there are still many areas that could stand a little improvement, this will open the door for further discussions on the matter.

It appears there’s an Englishman in Japan that has found himself in some pretty dire straits.  A long-time resident of Japan and father of two children, David received some pretty bad news last year:  he has a rare disease that makes it impossible for his bone marrow to produce new white or red blood cells, making him insanely succeptable to disease and even the most trivial of germs and bacteria.

Luckily, he still has a little time, which means it’s up to us to spread the word that we have a person in need of help.

Why Ask Gaijins?

Bone marrow is a tricky thing to transplant, and we can’t take it from just anyone.  Donors must meet six very strict criteria, which means the odds of finding two people that match are about as likely as finding an envelope with money in a men’s washroom.  While it is possible, the odds are stacked well against you.  It is possible to get some marrow from America, however, there may not be enough time for that option as it takes far too long to be useful.  Since Japan does not currently have a donor exchange program with Europe or Canada, David’s chances are pretty slim.

What Can I Do?

Caucasians living in Japan are encouraged to have their blood tested at a local Red Cross and fill out a donor card.  The entire process is supposed to take about ten minutes.  It’s completely free and you get a free drink for your time.  Of course, if you do happen to have a compatible marrow type, you could be directly responsible for saving this man’s life.

If you have 10 free minutes on your way to work this week, I’ll ask that you consider getting yourself checked out.  If you don’t have 10 free minutes, I’ll ask that you leave your home 10 minutes earlier.  It’s hard enough being a gaijin in Japan, some days.  Let’s not make things even more unbearable for those of us in need.

If you’re outside Japan and still want to help, please spread the word and let’s try to help David get back on his feet.

Most of the information contained in this post was taken directly from Help-David.com.  If anything is incorrect, please let me know so that I can correct the matter as soon as possible.

There has been a very clear trend lately, and it has me wondering of other bloggers are noticing similar trends. IE users are disappearing.

According to the stats for this site, 72.4% of all visitors to j2fi.net in 2007 used some version of Internet Explorer. The majority had used IE6, but this has changed over the last few months as more people have upgraded. At the same time, FireFox was used by 24% of my readers and the remaining browsers fought for the remaining percentages.

However, in the first six weeks of 2008, the numbers have been quite different. FireFox is beating IE by such a huge margin that I’m wondering what caused this mass exodus of internet users.

Looking at the Source

After examining the main sources of traffic to this site, I learned something semi-interesting. StumbleUpon users are 98% made up of FireFox users. Regardless of whether these people are on Windows, OSX or Ubuntu, only 2% of these net-savvy visitors want to use something else.

Readers who come from Google are typically split 40/40 between IE and FF, with other browsers making up the remaining 20%. Those from Technorati are predominantly IE6, while those from Yahoo tend to use IE7 and older versions of FireFox.

While it comes as no surprise that readers from social networking and social media sites are made up predominantly of FireFox fans, what does surprise me is the speed at which IE was overtaken. However, it seems that this is just a small piece of the internet pie, which is still predominantly IE.

According to Market Share, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to hold three quarters of the internet while FireFox is in a distant second with almost 17%. Since this goes against the puny sampling I have with my stats package, as well as those of fellow bloggers, so I looked for the reasoning behind the discrepancy. Using the Market Share Worldview (which is not free), we can see that most countries are split in a similar fashion … with IE taking upwards of three-quarters the market. One country where this is drastically different is Japan, where 90% of users are content with IE6 and 7.

Well, What The Deuce?

It seems we can blame high IE numbers on those who just don’t upgrade or otherwise enhance their computers. These people are perfectly content to use their systems with the very same configuration they had when buying it, or after installing whatever software they might have done when subscribing to the internet. And who can blame them? If something works, why replace it?

The broswer people use to surf isn’t something that I think about very often, but after seeing the drastically different numbers on my stats page, as well as Nick’s post about IE6 users, I decided to add a bit to the discussion. I prefer Opera, myself, but so long as something works for us, there’s really no need to change.

That said, I’m interested to know how Market Share goes about getting their numbers. The numbers do seem quite skewed towards Microsoft’s products.

Have you noticed the same type of change on your sites?  Does FireFox actually have a larger market share than the marketing reports show?  I’m curious to know your take on the situation.