[aprssig] findU server move time yet again

[Scott Miller]

> Yea, there are lots of places that do hosting like that. Interestingly  
> enough, they seem to be a lot cheaper than colo sites. One probably  

I'm sure they're using a lot of high-density blade servers.

> reason is the horsepower to serve 1.8 million dynamic pages a day  
> doesn't fit in a single rack. There are a few 2U servers that would do  
> the job, but they cost more than the 3U Dell I use. So they could put  
> three regular web servers in the space of findU's server.

Wish I could have done something useful with the redundant load 
balancers they just threw out at my old job when the powers that be 
decided to centralize network management and thought that configuration 
was just too complicated for their new centralized support staff.

> I appreciate the attempt to help. I've never made $100 a month (the  
> Google agreement forbids me from sharing any specific info (and I'm  
> surprised your agreement doesn't have the same prohibition, but maybe  
> because you are paying they are nicer to you)). Google does not share  

I don't remember any prohibition for ad buyers, but I do remember 
reading about that for site owners.  I'm just trying to make a point 
that direct banner sales might generate more revenue from fewer, more 
relevant ads.

> The ads you see are strongly influenced by the searches you have done  
> in the past. One thing I noticed is when I look at findU pages the  
> computers at work get garbage ads, while my computer gets targeted ads  

I've never heard that before... I just fired up a browser with no search 
history and no cookies, nothing to tie it to any of my normal browsing, 
and I still see the same ads.  They're the same sort of ads I've seen 
from every machine I've ever used FindU from.  Maybe some other users 
can confirm or deny this?  At the moment it's all GPS tracking devices, 
weather channel, and database stuff.  It's exactly the same on my 
heavily-used browser with a long history and a current Google login.

> turn off findU than have it look like QRZ. Garish colors, flashing  
> lights, and screaming pitchmen do sell, but I'm not going to be one. I  
> do have some pride left ;-)

But you've already got a banner ad there.  You'd just need to install 
any of a number of open source banner rotation systems.  Just because 
most ham websites look like crap doesn't mean they all HAVE to!  I keep 
hoping HRO will realize it's not 1997 any more.  AES is tolerable to 
look at now, even if you still can't find anything outside of the PDF 
catalog.  And in QRZ's defense, as far as I know, all of the flashing 
lights are the fault of the advertisers.  No reason you couldn't enforce 
higher standards.  But you're right, as it stands now, it always makes 
me think of this:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42809

Scott
N1VG