ashamel

Have just been looking at web hosting, specifically from a site called Just Host. I won't link to it, because the site is offensively hard sell. Not only that, every review site I could find had the same hard sell language, and most had the same javascript code offering discounts.

I have some issues with my current provider, but at least they're not actively scary.

My ISP wants me to reduce the size of my website, saying I am using 80G. I checked. I have 24G of my own stuff, and 30G of access logs that are automatically generated, and which I never use.

(This is after I moved almost all my voluminous photos and art over to picasa last week, based on previous prompting.)

Hopefully they can run du again and sort it out.

But it gives me an excuse to look at my actual usage stats, via google analytics.

25,387 visits in the last month: pretty cool
71% of them from search engines: uh, yeah

17% of page views are of the map of Dante's Inferno, so either the literary scholars are getting mobilised, or people are looking for game hints.

The more exciting stat, being how much ad revenue I have earned for all this: $0.00.

(But I did get contacted by someone who wants to reprint our Lloyd Kaufman interview, so literary scholars rejoice.)

My website and email appears to have died. Apparently I never got the note about updating my payment details.

All should be good soon.

Eddie Campbell on how to get a Hollywood deal.

Also, the pain of virtual friends.

My interview with Rocky Wood is now up on Tabula Rasa. He's Australia's own Stephen King expert, and his latest book Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is out now (after spending a not inconsiderable time at the printers. Like years).

Meanwhile, there are photos from our lovely dinner party of last night.

And Saints Row 2 is basically the same as the original, with some of the rough edges polished, more customisation and extra activities. This is not a bad thing.

AbeBooks have sent me recommendations, from their inventory of millions:

BookTitle01 by BookAuthor01
BookTitle02 by BookAuthor02

They know me well.

Someone recently put up a youtube video in which she was looking for a guy she had met briefly. It has been found out as a hoax to sell menswear. Apparently this is alright because (says the marketing company) "At the beginning of the 20th century there was a novel [by H. G. Wells] called War Of The Worlds and, when War Of The Worlds became a radio show, people actually thought the world was under attack and they didn't actually reveal that it was just a radio show."

Right. I can see how that broadcast 70 years ago justifies this, as opposed to a) being mostly irrelevant and b) the relevant bits actually showing why this is a bad idea.

However, it should also be pointed out that the radio broadcast did come with plenty of disclaimers, and reports of widespread panic were sensationalised greatly. Because of a popular program on a different station, quite a few people came in late and missed the initial disclaimers, but that isn't quite the same.

Kyla's review of the Under the Blue Moon festival is up at the website. It is expanded from her article in Black Magazine, and includes photos.

The best ever explanation for why I am not a goth is found in the first line.

Kyla's story A tour of the city of assassins is up at the new look Ticonderoga Online. She introduces it here.

Or livejournal has.

Or maybe I just hit Post at the wrong time.

Whether or not lj's problems are a beat-up, it seems a useful time to get an archive happening, and ljArchive is a zippy solution. Precisely what I do with the archive in case of emergency is yet to be determined, but it's nice to have it all anyway. I note my first ever comment conversation was with benpeek regarding Nikita.

I also set up an insane journal, just for the hell of it -- and because facebook is really not the same.

(Apparently ljArchive requires .net, which I'm not really a fan of -- just on general principles. But I downloaded it recently for the D&D 4e character generator, which turns out to be very nifty.)