How to choose a web host

I have been researching on web hosting providers available since more than 3-4 years. And even today whenever I’ve free time or whenever I get distracted I click on those web hosting ads while surfing around. I researched a lot but I dont regret it.
When I decided to move my blogs to personal website, with my name in url, I had to buy sever space to host my websites/blogs. And to do that I had to choose the perfect web hosting company.

Bluehost

I was very cautious while selecting and finalising the web host service website where I would run my websites from. So I looked as many webhosting firms as I could & searched for bad or negative comments. I was looking for a service provider with zero negative remarks. I think that was easy to scrutinise because you find at least one bad comment from un-satisfied customer anyways. But it was not quick task as there’re plethora of webhosting service providers, plus there’re resellers and local agents. It’s a big market for website hosting, online server and data center industry.
I had few criteria already set that brought down the number by almost half.

  • I wanted shared hosting server.
  • I wanted a webhost account where I can park and host multiple (preferably unlimited/ 10+) domain names.
  • I wanted great customer support and “online chat” feature was must.
  • I didn’t want to use local service providers of any Indian resellers in general. (yes, Indian webhosting companies have long way to go before they could provide the worldclass service.
  • Basically I wanted flexibility, freedom, support, so Yahoo was out of question.

However there’re general selection criteria, such as, Checking whether the webhost only host clean websites or not, else you might end up in the blacklist of Google/yahoo etc. If your website using shared IP address, your emails might be treated as spam & directly go to junkmail box if other websites on your IP are ‘spamming around’.  There’re are special webhosting companies who host pornographic, warez, file-storing websites, which involves heavy traffic and needs lots of storage space. Better stay away from them.

I’m not claiming that these are the best rules (/criteria) to select a webhosting services. You can have your own selection criteria, it can be different but the point is you should list what are your needs and what exactly you’re looking for and I’m glad that you’re reading this page now. :) The reason for researching before deciding your web hosting service provider is the commitment period is usually long, if you pay for long-term *say more than 1year rather than paying per month, you’d save atleast a dollar per month with most of the shared hosting.

After a lot reading on net and research I signed up with BlueHosts shared hosting.

Bluehost is safe, reliable, best in support, pre-sales queries, literally 24×7 costumer care by online chat. You get flexibility to do anything on your website, e.g. run forums, blogs, photo gallery, all scripts are automatically installs and are free of cost! So, what are you waiting for? I’ve had a dream of running my own website & I’m doing it at affordable cost with bluehost!

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Have GMAT queries? Ask on forums, get prizes

Participate on forums and get prizes worth thousands of dollars! Yes, you heard it right,  (when I say forums, it got to be BTG) Beat The GMAT has launched the GGG, Giant GMAT Giveaway (that’s what they’re calling it) and top participants on the Beat the gmat forums during next one month, will get a chance to win mega prizes sponsored by GMAT coaching institutes such as ManhattanGMAT, Veritas, Grockit, Knewton, Kaplan etc. So what are you waiting for? start participating on forums, ask question, solve problems, answer queries climb up the ladder-leaderboard & get listed!!

For more details visit the official announcement, & if you’ve further questions, please divert them to the forums. Thank you.

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get my wordpress theme log

The wordpress theme currently I’m using is build for Amrute.Me online network.

I first made this wordpress theme available for downloads in June 2009. And now I’ve realised that I  must write a log of all changes that I make in the theme, including the release date. Automatic upgrade option is also in my mind but it’ll be done later.

The version number will be given according to the date, month & year of the release of the new theme.

For instance the current version/or the latest updated theme available currently has 10.1 version, Meaning: I released it in year 10 & 1st month, hence 10.1

This page will be updated as and when changes in theme need to be logged.

Name of the wordpress theme: ‘johnyc’ (click here to download the theme)

Ver Date of release LOG
10.1 19 January 2010
  • Removed Google adsense code from footer
  • Added global google analytics code
  • Added ad on top
  • Changed 404.php page, added search feature and few suggested pages link.
9.6 9 June 2009
  • First release for public, made in zip format.
  • changed header image
  • Added footer notes in php, added ad-line, blend with parent site
9.3 10 March 2009
  • Pre-release version used on two blogs
  • three columns separated by chain & strip, white background, border 1px black
9.1 15 January 2009
  • Borrowed basic structure from cleave designs
  • modified for Amrute.Me online network.

I know when I present it I should present it in a professional way… hmm I promise I’ll be better next time.

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Twitter added colour in my life

I’ve been living my life like a zombie; twitter came and added colour in my life. Believe me, not that I mentioned about my life earlier, Twitter changed all my schedule and working activities.

Yes, I am talking about my pet- dog, the puppy is merely 4-5 months old. Can you believe that after watching this video? We are teaching him few commands, apparently not in English, unlike most of the dogs out there who only understand English, our Twitter listens to Marathi instructions. Oh yeah!

Well, I”m also talking about twitter.com the website. (in fact that’s the reason I named my puppy twitter) I’m so greatful to the founders of twitter who build such a nice application & all twitter coders who used its API to make it more popular.
Twitter helps you discover so many interesting people from around the world. And best part is it gives you the opportunity to successfully interact with them. Seriously no other communication medium, website or tool had such accessibility. Imagine emailing/IM big corporate guy or any celebrity & expecting reply!! Now you got my point, right?
So if you still are not on twitter, what are you waiting for? Join now! & Follow me there! I promise I may not answer your phone calls but I’ll reply you on twitter. // ;) //

For starters, here’s an introduction to the twitter from horse’s mouth, the founder of twitter & blogspot Evan Williams

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starting social tourism

Tomorrow I’m going on trip to attend Agricultural Expo by Kisan.in at Pune with my father. By its advertising and marketing efforts I’m sure that it’s going to be India’s largest agri-show. It’s a 5-day expo with lots of programs and agro-products promotion. We’ll be visiting the venue on 17th, the 2nd last day of the exhibition.
The reason I’m writing this post and mentioning my travel details is we’re doing something interesting here. No, no, we dont have any stalls there… And I’ve no big interest in such exhibitions anyways. But we’re going to visit few more places nearby.

We are planning to visit आधुनिक उर्जा ग्राम Adhunik Urja Gram (The Mordern Energy Park) by Mr. Chandrakant Pathak. It’s located on Bombay-Bangalore Highway NH-4 between Lonavala & Pune. I’m looking forward visiting the place and meeting him in person. I’ll be travelling and meeting such people who’re involved in rural development, social services, alternative technology, environmental issues much in coming year. Yeah! didnt I tell you in my last post, coming year is going to be exciting! You may call it “social tourism” in Marathi I call it Samajik Paryatan सामाजिक पर्यटन!

I think I’d have more to write once I personally visit it, mean time dont forget to check my biking routes and other details… I have made special post for that using Google Map

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biking 300

I’m going to drive more than 300 km tomorrow on motorbike. Well! it’s not that I am doing it for the first time. I’m sure my last scooter journey was longer than tomorrow’s. But this time it’s gonna be different. Firstuff: I’m blogging about it; I’m on motorbike CD-100 & not on my scooter; I’m not alone, yes I’m going with my Dad.
Following map has our journey details and remarks.

View My trip to Pune, Kisan exhibition. in a larger map

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what’s going on in my mind?

Current status? long time no see! yeah! I’ve made lots of ‘status update’ kind of posts after hibernating for months. But I guess it’s better than not posting at all, right?
So What’s going on in my mind? What’s up?
Well nothing much, I am kind of celebrating vacation/break. I was out for my cousin’s wedding & was at his place before the wedding for ~10 days after wedding there was a family get-together for 3 days at my native place. Therefore I was offline (without internet) for more than two weeks, although I was checking my mails on my mobile :P .

I have some business in New Delhi in coming weeks & I am planning to go for skiing at Himachal Pradesh & I’m (kind of) researching about it… so if you’re familiar with HP or been there-done skiing, ping me or feel free to comment below. While more thinking of it, I though why not take a 7-14 day full-fledge skiing course! I dont know whether I can afford that option or not (time wise & money wise… will see) but I’d at least do skiing this time for sure. I’ve been cancelling delaying it forever & now I dont think I’d let it go.

One more update, I’ve left BeatTheGMAT gang, yeah it’s sad thinking that I wont be there on btg with Eric & team but life goes on & we got to move on, right? (I guess I’ll have to edit my “about blog” am not associated with any GMAT study/ preparation forum any more.)  I’m currently working on an exciting startup & it’s gonna be real (yeah, you guessed it right it’s not some dotcom!) So stay tuned you’ll soon hear more about it. 2010 is going to be exciting.

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Rural rant

I’m adding new flavour to my blog. A new category dedicated to my rural rants, life at countryside and philosophy.
I’m born and brought up in rural area of a third world country. And I still live in the same village that my great great grand father migrated and settled to.

People or living beings migrate for good. Most of the times they migrate because they see better prospects and better life than the one they’re currently living in. They say that those who migrate, progress in life. I want to question that belief. I want to try, and I want to prove that you can excel in life even living in rural area. Yes, I know many have proved that & I dont have to prove anything new, but I want to make it even solid. Your  location is irrelevant to achieve excellence. & by the way did you read “the world is flat” by Friedman? Anyways I think I’m going off the topic here.

So the point (and purpose) of this post is expect me talking about rural life some times. :)

see you.

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Removing Feedburner please update your feed url

Hello dear subscribers,
here’s a quick update -=->
(This blog post is especially made for those who read my blog through feed reader such as Google reader, bloglines, my yahoo, MS Outlook, or Linux akregator etc. For rest of you, just ignore the post. Thank you.)

I am deactivating Feedburner, a feed manager/ distributor service from Google. If you subscribed to my blog recently that is in last 6-8 months, chances are you’ve automatically subscribed me via feedburner url. In that case please change my feed url to simple n straight feed://http//pranav.amrute.me/feed/

I think it’s wise to switch back to basics, also I think it’s bit annoying seeing adsense ads in your RSS feeds. So I’ve removed it. No adds on feeds :)

If you want GMAT specific articles, simply click on that right cartoon sitting on the bench.

Although dont panic, if you dont understand a word here; this post wasn’t even necessary. But WTH! Following figure will help you understand & google will take care of rest.

feedburner's notice

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Updates, I’m alive

I haven’t updated you guys since long, I know. But I want to let you k now that I’m online, active & alive. Just that blogging is too time consuming in this jet-age. so I more often do micro-blogging rather than updating this blog. As you can notice on this site itself you can follow my tweets and connect me via facebook.

That doesn’t mean that end of this blog or website, but I’d add posts here when I have something significant to say. In fact I’m in the process of adding many static pages to blog. Notice resources, & GMAT books recommendation pages? they are in html, I’ll add them in this blog and also, many other resourceful webpages in pipeline.

On personal front: We’ve got new puppy (male dog). He’s cute & looks just like fantya, the dog we had 10-15 years back. I named him twitter. For naming actually I used the social media. Asked this question on Gtalk status, orkut etc & got tons of responses….(Ah now I feels like Chris Pirillo :P ). My cousin suggested that name & I really liked it. So I’m not acting like a zombie anymore. yep check profile page to know my current hobby/habits/interests ;)

On Amrute’s website front: I’ve just renewed my domain to year 2012. So we dont have to bother much about those issues now.  Also I just had shoutout at Amrute orkut community to invite amrute to this website. So I expect some signups as well. :)

On beat the GMAT front: yes, Eric & David are fine tuning the website & new revamped website will be open by this weekend, 15 Nov. For time being you can check getting started at Beat the GMAT page.

~Enjoy~

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