Daily Technical

Ever give much thought to the number of add-ins you have installed in your favorite web browser? Yeah, me either.

But, now that many of us are in Spring Fall cleaning mode (I drafted this post in the Spring….), why not take a few minutes to review the add-ons that you have installed in your browser of choice (assuming that you know what a browser is – mine is Firefox).

You may be surprised at the number of ‘extras’ that pile up in your web browser over time. Are you really using all of the browser extensions you have? Google Toolbar, Yahoo Toolbar, (insert anti-virus/malware/spyware name here) Toolbar, etc., and the list goes on endlessly. For me, the answer is no. I routinely install new extensions to test / play / learn and more often than not, forget to remove them if I’ve lost interest or moved on to the next useful plug-in.

Many of these extensions / add-ons / tools are like are the crud that we’re hoarding in the basement or attic – put there because we knew that we would have use for it – eventually – but have since forgotten about it and it is now collecting dust and simply taking up space. In terms of your browser, toolbars take up precious screen real-estate, resources can take a hit and in some cases, sites may not behave properly.

For example, Firebug is one great Firefox add-on and one that I use frequently to analyze sites (Fiddler is a good one for you IE users), but some sites don’t play nice with this app and can cause a poor user experience.

There are tons of useful extensions out there. Just take the time to clear out the ones that are stuck in the attic and you’ll have the room to bring home the next new shiny add-on that’s new and improved.

Agree? Disagree? Have useful comments? Feedback is welcomed.

So I am about to begin migration for my company from host “A” to host “B”. This is not a co-lo setup, we are moving to a fully managed hosting environment. During this process (which began months ago) I’ve found a lack of documentation around migrating between hosting vendors. I found this surprising (unless I’m just not looking in the right places) considering that our setup is fairly common. Dozens of websites, a handful of 3rd party developers and of course, a handful of various server configurations dependent upon the application running on it. I have, however, found that certain small companies specialize in specific aspects of a hosting move, such as ensuring that all of your SQL DB’s are properly transferred and fully accounted for. But I have found no one that looks at the big picture.

I’m fully willing, able and have the staff in place to manage the migration in house (which is the road I’ve chosen) , but it would be reassuring to find a ‘checklist’ of sorts that confirms that we have thoroughly thought through all of the facets of the move. Would love to know if anyone has come across this sort of thing.

If all goes well – and I’m confident that it will – maybe I’ll post the list here if there is any interest…

So, I’m a n00b. Up until now, I’ve never had a reason or believed that there was a purpose for me to start a blog. Let’s face it, who would really want to read about what some unknown yoyo has to say? A recent change in jobs has prompted me to revisit this decision and I have come up with what I think are 2 valid reasons for me to start blogging:

1. I’m responsible for Web Ops for an online travel company. As I’m sure oodles of people are well aware, there are more travel blogs around the web than you can shake a passport at. I think it is worthwhile for me to understand more about participating in blogging culture in order to transfer this experience to my current job responsibilities.

2. Again, I am responsible for Web Operations. In the last month or so, I’ve come to realize that there aren’t a lot of Web Ops specific blogs / sites / conferences around, that don’t focus primarily around programming or setting up the most kick ass Apache server (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). But I would like to see if this blog can essentially tap into a what I would think is an existing pool of people in a position similar to mine that are looking to share and promote thoughts, ideas and information about running their respective companies website operations – more from an infrastructure planning and day to day management perspective rather than hands on coder and sysadmin.

So that’s it. My first blog post on my first blog. Whew…