So the other week I have been working on my dedicated box, just to make it a bit easier to work with in the future. One of the things I was trying to understand and learn was yum update and bash scripting. So why not combine the two? Right.. This blog entry is the result, hopefully also of some use to others.

Here is a short reminder and some tips about how to be smart about your JTV account.

Bigger PHP applications, such as vBulletin can gain a lot of increased performance from running a PHP op-code cache/accelerator such as APC.

Here are some instructions on how install APC on various systems, my personal experience is with what appears the most common: 32bit CentOS 5 Server.

Today I read on vBulletin.com that Google’s PageRank has been updated again. So I bothered to take a look. Let me start by saying that I do care and do not care about page rank. It doesn’t bother me a bit if a site has 1 or 2, or 4 or 6 or 10. But I do like to see my own web sites get a bit of page rank. Inside my head I go ‘yay, others thought it was worth linking to my site’. For me, it was a bit of bad news hehe.

At this moment I can not browse the web without running into a Top X list, and some are fun or nice to read, but the majority of them are just made without any thought. For example, there was an article on Digg about top25 movies from 2007, but a good handful were all made and released in 2006. But ok, maybe the author meant the ones he’s seen in the last year. What I haven’t seen yet is an Apple Top 10 list of products and services they offer through their stores. So I guess here it is. Yes, I am not doing any research either. I am going to wing it, but I will try to provide some arguments why I made the pick.

The categories are Software, Services, Accessories, iPhone, iPod, Laptops, Computers, Underdogs, Failures, and Rumored.

## spoiler ## And if you think ‘damn this blog is long’ let me spoil it for you. The winners in my eyes are for handheld devices and iPod, and media experience the iPhone, no doubt. And as computer system the new 24″ iMac has no competition. ##spoiler##

In the last few years I have hosted the vBulletin Fans Chat Network over at irc.vBulletin-Chat.com and we have grown quite a bit. We are still what is to be considered a small chat network, but we are an open network, have a flexible group of staff and have a growing group of supporters and chatters.

Each year I review the situation and decide whether to stop or continue with the chat network. After all, I pay it out of my own pocket or use the few donations we receive. And it could be that we’re paying too much for too many services when we perhaps only need half of the resources. Or, we might have grown so much that we need to double our set up and increase capacity. To just name a few questions I ask myself when the time is there again to make that decision.

There are quite a few domain names that I own, and they have to be hosted too. Some are small few page-sites, and others are medium to large. But they will all do just fine with shared hosting-, or virtual private server hosting solutions. And each account is only using about 50% of the capacity.

Individually each account is affordable, cheap, works just fine, and could work with a few parked and add-on domains. But as soon as a site peaks in traffic there could be problems. And some have the potential to do so. However, all together the bills I pay add up to quite a bit. A solution was needed, but the solution must have potential to grow without doubling the costs quickly.

Over the last six months I have spend quite a bit of time and money into updating my home entertainment system and my little office. Changes included upgrading my internet service provider account and purchase new hardware, and most recently replacing a few ugly wooden planks with a new, more shiny, bigger one. And there is more to come.