Has anyone seen this kind of crap in your e-mail recently, or anytime? What a scam!!! Does anyone ever respond to this garbage. If I could make $70 per domain sold, I might think this was a good Idea and then turn around and buy it from GoDaddy. Problem is, EVERYONE should be buying their domains directly from GoDaddy.  Of course, there are those of us who will find a great brand name and buy 5 years worth of every similar domain they can think of, but you still aren’t paying $295.  This kind of scam needs to end.  Make sure to forward it to:

Deceptive Spam (spam@uce.gov) 

More...

Update (10/17/2009)

BlogEngine.NET appears to be closer than ever to a Multi-Blog implementation thanks to work done by Jacob Proffitt found here: Multi-blog Obsession.  The SQLBlogProvider allows multiple blogs to be supported by a single SQL Server database.  Imaging the maintenance and resource requirements, compared with “n” blogs and “n” databases, or “n” folders with “n-times-x” xml files for all those posts.  Currently, this provides for a single folder and any number of application instances, all pointing at the same folder.  There may be a few potential answers to this, but only if someone deems it a problem.  I’m now running about 12 (BlogEngine.NET) blogs in a single location with a single database using the SQLBlogProvider.  A few details were worked out to bring this solution up to the 1.5.x version of BlogEngine.NET.  While looking at this, I’ve learned a lot about some new features and found some useful and straightforward applications of Linq to SQL. More...

With all the troubles I’ve had with hosting plans throughout the years, I’ve always wondered how to avoid those same problems for a second time.  Of course, I’d love to avoid them for the first time, so I Google them first.  No, not the problem, but how to avoid problems doing something “odd” with my service.  Let’s say I want to do something really strange like cancel a server or hosting service.  I know, it’s way out there, but please bare with me…I ask the Service Provider what I need to do, after starting with the on-line FAQs, help, forums, etc.  and they say go to this “special” site for canceling service.  OK, it must be “intuitive” or they would have given me more details, right!?  The stand-up comic in me wants to draw this out to its proper conclusion…lots of laughs; but the software developer, architect, infrastructure novice and business owner in me wants to lend a hand.

What Problem was actually resolved?

There are way too many scenarios to list in one sitting, but I can probably link to them from here later, or answer specific questions in comments if I see them.  But my most recent issue was due to the fact that I wanted to upgrade a 1and1.com VPS account to one that was half the price I was paying (for 3 months…and I highly recommend this.)  That wasn’t the deal maker though. More...

It's already mid-August and I just finished a round of BlogEngine.NET updates to take advantage of the new features in 1.4.5.x.  For a lot of folks, the need to Blog is what makes this platform so valuable.  But my clients, and my own interests also include adding Extensions and Advertising.  Now that there's  a Text box Widget, I can add simple ads like an Amazon link, Google AdSense, and affiliate links right in the Widget Zone without any special code.  Maybe this can be improved to target this medium, but I have to admit, if it works, I'm going to use it as is.  But there are a few things I'd like to see sooner than later.

Multiple Blog Support

What if I had 15 Blogs on different topics and some of them included overlapping authors?  I would like to support this configuration with One code base, One server or service layer, connecting to a Single SQL database or SQL Server farm.  I know I'd want this because I want it now and I have 8 Blogs, with 8 Web Apps, 4 AppPools, and 8 sets of XML Data.

SQL Server Express wouldn't cut it since my server started running into resource issues.  Not because of SQL Server but because I need 8 databases the way this configuration is setup.  Even if I upgrade my server (or hosting platform) to allow for more capacity, it doesn't scale.  Also, I will spend more time maintaining Blogs than writing for them.  So more Blogs = Less Blogging.  That's not a positive goal for me.  More...

The move is finally under way.  App hosting is a fading memory and now I'm getting back to what I know...the details.  A VPS server from 1and1 (and the 50% off discount for the first 3 months) is what saved me from dropping the whole idea of internet hosting.  I was frustrated at trying to write simple ASP.NET apps or even using proven work and finding out there was to be MUCH more time spent at configuration and troubleshooting than design and coding.

Tools need to be made much simpler for end users to do a specific task, but I need full control.  I once used a hosted server solution, which worked well for what I needed, until it became a financial burden.  The hobby wasn't paying me back anymore and I had no real need for the service so I opted for, what I believed to be, the simpler solution in web site and ASP.NET hosting.  Now that I had discovered the error in my ways, I’m back to building my empire.

Blogging should be the start of a process that will include tutorials, training, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.  I’ll embellish as time permits.  Thanks for reading.