You know what that means? I can check several things off my list!

However, I have been forced to leave Contours gym, meaning there are a couple of goals I will need to change, as they are no longer viable. I’ll blog more about that a little later.

Sadly, I’m using mobile broadband to post this, as we are waiting for our phone and internet to be connected. It’s going to be hard. This stick is S L O W as all hell much of the time. Still, at least I had the foresight to buy the prepaid stick a few weeks ago.

Anyway, see you later. I’m off to organise my bedroom.

Never mind though, because this new computer is giving me a geekgasm. Check out the sexy spec.

• Processor : Intel® Core™2 Duo ‘E8400′ (3.0GHz, 6M cache) ;
• Memory : 4GB DDR2 Ram ;
• Hard Disk : 1TB SATA Hard Disk; 32MB cache ;
• Video Card : 512MB nVidia® GeForce 9500GT with TV-out & DVI ;
• Monitor : 24″ wide LCD w/ Speakers; 1920×1080 res; 2ms response time wide ;
• Network Card : On-board gigabit LAN ;
• Wireless LAN : 54 Mbps Wireless-G adaptor ;
• DVD Writer/Blu-Ray : DVD +/- RW Dual Layer Drive ;
• Firewire : 3-port IEEE1394 PCI Card ;
• Sound Card : Onboard 6-channel High Definition Audio ;
• Keyboard (Mouse) : Keyboard + Optical Mouse (Logitech) ;
• Card Reader : Internal Memory Card Reader/Writer (CF/SD/MMC/SM/MD/MS) ;
• Operating System : Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional ;
• Warranty : 2-Year Return to Base Limited Hardware Warranty
  Monitor 3-Year Manufacturer Limited Warranty ;

… All for $1600.
On top of that, I’ve spent a few days setting up a home office in my bedroom. It’s looking good but not yet finished. I’ll try to remember to post a photo once it’s ready.

In my comments I’ve been recommended two hosts, plus there are some more that I have been looking at and may also be good, but it’s hard to tell. Some have very few reviews, some have some bad reviews, some have good reviews which may be suspect – how do I know they didn’t pay someone to write that review?

So, I am going to really have to think about this carefully, since it is something very important to my business. Now, my current international host servage.net has a lot of bad reviews out there, though except for the hacker I haven’t encountered any problems, and their support system is great. So it’s not only the good reviews I have to take with a grain of salt. Some decent companies can have their names tarnished by just a couple of angry customers – and given how huge Servage is, it’s natural that there are a handful of people that aren’t satisfied.

So I’m brought to a point where I may just have to fling myself at a host, and if I’m not satisfied with it, I’ll need to move.

Here are some of the plans weighed out. Included are the things I consider somewhat important.

Now, I don’t necessarily want to be a reseller, but it might be good to have that option there.

So looking at these laid out this way, I can see that each company has its strengths and weaknesses. I suppose I have to ask myself what is most important to my business, taking into account the most balanced plans in the table.

MD Web Hosting has some awful reviews, but the cheapest domain registration (not shown in table) and okay plans. It also has a large reseller program.

FlexiHostings is, ironically, the least flexible when it comes to Add-on domains, offering no more than three. However, it is great in most of its other stats. If I chose this, I wouldn’t be able to host any client websites through my account if I wanted to do so. It also has the odd scathing review. Bonus: I have had a personal recommendation.

Net Logistics is well-rounded, but can be pricey. It offers a reseller program, but comes short of FlexiHostings in terms of most of its stats. It may allow for up to 6 domains, but that hosting is $40 per month, which is simply too much for my fledgling business. I can actually get better value, in respect to this factor, at FlexiHostings.

Web City is apparently an offshoot part of the Enetica reseller program, and supposedly may have congestion problems (though I’m sure it’s probably better than Servage). It is quite good in its other respects, however. This is heavily edited thanks to comment #1; I was misinformed. Bonus: I have had a personal recommendation.

XKO is a little bit of an enigma. Its plans aren’t spelt out that well, but it seems like a nice little business. I think it may be a small operation compared to the rest, which I do want to support. Plus they have the whole “green web hosting” thing going on, which is pretty cool.

So, which one?

I just don’t know. I will sleep on it. Feel free to help me out if you want, but I guess the decision is ultimately my own.

I was playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles on it earlier, and I paused it to go with my sister to buy a new computer (more on that shortly). When I returned, it was off. I picked it up and tried turning it back on. The light popped on and I heard the fan start, then it switched off immediately after that. It felt hot. Really, really hot. I don’t know what the Genesis emulator did to it, but it was really overheated. I was worried, and let it sit for a while. Fortunately, once cool, it worked again. Better that it powered off instead of melting something, I suppose. But, it scared me quite a bit. I don’t want to lose this computer in the way I lost my IBM a couple of years ago. That one developed a design flaw that caused the monitor to go blank, and when my uncle was tinkering with it, it died completely. I was just lucky that I had backed up the hard drive when the bug first started to make the screen intermittently go blank.

So, anyway, I went with Allyson today to Harvey Norman, and she bought an Asus Eee PC for her next trip – she is going to America to be maid of honour in her friend’s wedding in San Diego.

It is a 7.8 inch (I think) netbook that runs some version of Linux. It’s really user friendly (well, once we got over problems with the wi-fi), and came with OpenOffice.org, Skype and Firefox already installed. I think it is excellent! But I can’t believe my sister got Linux before me!

Oh well. Anyway, it’s been an interesting day. Now I need to spend my evening working on my comic, which I haven’t been doing, instead procrastinating with Sega games (I got Hyper Sonic in S3&K, that’s got to count for something!). My nephew Jake is eager to read it once I’m done, so I have to make it, if only for him.