A couple of years ago, I bought some web-space from a company called Re-Invent Technologies (http://www.re-invent.com/) for some ASP.Net web space with SQL Server hosting.  I paid for a 2 year contract. 

I didn’t realise they had set me up with the dreaded auto-renew option.

About six months ago, I migrated my site to a dedicated server because I had converted it into PHP.  I knew the Re-Invent contract was due to run out anyway.

I noticed a few weeks ago that I had been charged for another year of server (about £60).  I never received an invoice or an email notifying me this would happen.  The last correspondence I had from the company was two years ago. 

So, I sent a polite email to them explaining that I didn’t use the webspace anymore.  I said that there should be no traffic coming through and that I did not get an email notifying me of the new charge.  I also, in an effort to get them to be more responsive, thanked them for the service and said I would recommend them to others.  Could they please refund my money, or at least the money for the rest of the year from now?

What I got back was as follows:

Hello

Notices are sent automatically to the email address on file about 2 weeks prior to billing.  Customers are responsible for maintaining their current contact information.

To cancel your account you would need to log into the customer portal (NOT control panel)  and click on the account cancellation link on the left.  This is the only means of cancellation as per the hosting contract.
Refunds are given only if the cancellation is within 15 days of the renewal date, as per the hosting agreement also.

Thank You

Re-invent Technologies LLC
http://www.re-invent.com

Now, I know they are not legally required to refund my money (not sure about this, actually)– but if they wanted me to host my .Net stuff with them in the future, they would have.  They could have been a little more client focused in how they dealt with this issue.  It is not signed by a person.  There is no one I can talk to.  They have not addressed my genuine issue of not getting the emails or the invoices.  There is no empathy at all in this email.  Even if it had said, “I’m so sorry, our policy is that we . . .” whatever, it would still suck, but it would soften the blow.

So, I would NOT recommend this company.  They blew it.  I’ve paid them money to host with them, and I can’t even talk to anyone.  I’m a little annoyed.

So I’m posting this for anyone who is Googling Re-Invent. Anyone who is doing a little research before hosting with them, I am giving you warning.    In fact, let me just include this for SEO: “Re-Invent Technologies Review”.

I’ve hosted with lots of companies.  When I’ve had issues, I usually get a ticket back with someone’s name on it.  This was a legal response.

My Review of Re-Invent: Very poor customer service.  They got my money this time, but they will NEVER get another penny from me. 

There.  I feel better.

Most of the professional work I do is with Microsoft SQL Server and .Net platform.  For my own pet projects, I prefer using MySql as a db engine.  WordPress (and most PHP projects use it primarily).  It’s cheap and efficient to host.

One of the features I always found SQL Server to lack is the ability to generate insert scripts.  Sure, it’s easy to script out tables, views, and stored procs– but you still have to get tricky with transferring data from one database to another.  I know people say “you can just back up the database and restore it to a new server”, but they obviously have never worked in a tight change-controlled enterprise environment where you need everyone under the sun to approve this a dedicated dba overlooking everything.  This method is overkill if you just want to replace the a record that a user has “accidentally deleted”.

MySql has a very handy feature that use frequently called mysqldump.  This will create an sql file of all db objects and store them in an sql file — data structures and data too.  Mysqldump will create one script with table create statments (and drop statements) along with insert statements for all of your data.

I use mysqldump to store local backups of my remote databases.  For example, this blog is backed up every morning– just in case my server goes down and is unrecoverable.   I occasionally back up web code with an FTP routine, but the database needs to be done more often– since it is frequently updated by me or readers of this blog with comments.

Here’s how it’s done using my WordPress database and local XP account:

1.  Make sure you can connect to your remote database from your local pc

To do this, you need to have MySql client tools installed on you local pc.  Just try to log into our remote site using MySQL Administrator. 

If you can connect from you local pc, you can use mysqldump from the command line.

2.  Write a batch script to create a folder for each day

I have a folder called “backups” with a date-stamped folder for each day of backup (ie.  2009-06-08).  Here is my code for that batch file (with my db details removed):

rem backup blog

rem create new folder name
set DD=%DATE:~0,2%
set MM=%DATE:~3,2%
set YY=%DATE:~8,2%
set YYYY=%DATE:~6,4%
set FOLDER=%YYYY%-%MM%-%DD%

rem make the new folder
cd g:\backups
mkdir %FOLDER%

rem go to folder
cd %FOLDER%

rem create the data dump
mysqldump -h 111.222.111.222 -u username -ppassword wpDBName > blogdump.sql

For the mysqldump line, use the ip address (or host name) of the remote server and user name and password.  In the example above, I am connecting to my db called “wpDBName” on host 111.222.111.222 with the user name “username” and password “password”.  It is writing out to a file on my local pc called “blogdump.sql” in a folder with a date stamp.

NOTE: the -p switch does not have a space between it and the password.  This is bizarre, but that’s how it works.

Save to the above code to a file with a .bat extension.  I called mine “backup.bat”.

3.  Create a scheduled task to run this job.

Use Windows Scheduled Tasks to automatically run your batch job.  This can be found in Control Panel and is easy to use (Wizard Generated).  I run my job at 4:10 am.  To save the environment, I shut down my pc at night, but a bios task wakes it back up at 4.  At 10 minutes past 4, my databases are backed up (just before I sit at the keyboard with my coffee to catch the final innings of a Padres game).  Once a week, I have a similar job that will back up all web code via ftp.

That’s it, the majority of my disaster recovery problems taken care of.  I have the data stored on my local pc and on the server.  It would be easy to run the same script from another pc if I need to, also.

As you can imagine, this daily backup can take a good deal of disk space.  Each sql dump is about 3mb for this site.  I usually clear things down every few weeks and delete backups that are over a week old.  I don’t replace my backup file every day because it could be a few days before I realise anything has gone wrong.  I may script this at some point in the future.

I’m blogging about this because a few days ago I was playing around with my Plesk settings on my Ubuntu VPS and everything stopped working.  I had to restore to my last VPS backup– which was a few weeks old.  That would have meant losing all my WordPress blog posts and (more importantly) the comments I’ve received from them.  Luckily, I have this backup method in place so I didn’t lose anything.

If you are not backing up your databases (even if they are hosted with a web host), you should really consider it.  It is a trivial task to set this up and could save you in the future.

I hope someone out there finds this useful.  Drop me a line (or post a comment) if you found this to be of any help.

Back in 2000, while I was working for a small dot com in Reading, someone asked me how much I bought online.  As the office geek, they assumed I sat at home ordering things from boo.com or any of the other online retailers who participated in the early online gold rush.  I told this guy that I don’t shop online– I don’t trust the online retailers.  I can still remember his response “Isn’t it ironic that our web developer doesn’t trust the web?!?”

I didn’t trust the web.  More accurately, I didn’t trust all web developers.  Back then, everyone was rushing to build an online store and no one was investing heavily in security.  People could literally hack into other people’s accounts by playing the query string on the url.  I want to give these people my credit card info?  Back then, some high profile breaches made a lot of people stay away from online shopping.

But everyone has come around now– including myself.  Online retailing has proven itself far superior to bricks and mortar retailing (Royal Mail and other shipping companies seem to be the week link in the chain).  I couldn’t imagine not having online banking.  Still, I mainly stick to the large retailers (like Amazon) or anyone who uses PayPal–minimising the exposure to my credit card number.

Back in 2000, the public was still skeptical about the info they handed over online.  They are definitely not so skeptical anymore.

But social networking is the other end of the extreme.  I guess I’m a fan.  I blog, I like to tweet, I have a Facebook account (although I don’t use it as much) .  It is a lot of fun.  I have to admit that there is something exciting about adding some transparency to your life.  It could be that no one wants to know anything about me, but if they did it’s not hard to find out.  It feels honest to put yourself out there for who you are.

I have an online identity.  But that’s my decision.  I can’t make that decision for my family.

Back to trusting the net — I don’t mind uploading some pictures of myself to Facebook or this blog, but I don’t include pictures of my family or personal information that doesn’t belong there.  I see too many people who post (potentially embarrassing) pictures of their kids or spouses online.  This is weird at best, scary at worst. 

Sure, it might not seem all that bad to post some pictures online of my small kids doing something cute.  Our kids are the biggest part of our lives, so we want to share that.  Why not put them on a pedestal?  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But, kids grow up and have to create lives of their own.  They will become independent individuals who will create their own stories and identities. 

As the expressions goes, “Google never forgets.” None of us had “Google baggage” to contend with growing up.  When I was feeling awkward in social situations in elementary school, at least I didn’t have to contend with the fear that someone could Google me and find that picture of me dressed as Batman when I was 5.  I don’t have to worry about someone finding an online comment made by my parents 10 years earlier that I had a bed-wetting problem and asking the online community for advice.  As far as the other kids in class knew, what they saw is what they got.  I made my own social mistakes and learned my own social lessons.

I know that Facebook is closed and that you invite people into your world.  People can only see your profile if you allow them to.  Everyone can’t Google you and see the pictures you post– you need to give permission.  But we are still putting our safety back into the hands of developers.  We are relying on the promises made to us by a company in 2009 that may change by 2014. 

There was a story by BBC News last week about sites that store copies of deleted photos after you delete them: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8060407.stm

I’m not saying that all this is bad.  It’s just different.  Maybe this is a rebellious luddite streak that I’ve been suppressing for the past decade manifesting itself.  I mean, no one should expect the kids of today to grow up in the same conditions we grew up in.  Their world is different.  But, I just think we need to think about the consequences of our online actions before leaping in. 

So, in the social networking hype– just like with the ecommerce hype of a decade ago, I’m skeptical.  I value the identities of my family members far more than I do my credit card info.

In the past week, two friends have posted new movies on YouTube.

Ted Falagan (that’s what the T. stands for) my childhood friend and writer/director has made another new film with his Fault Line players in San Diego called Killers and Casualties:

Having grown up with Ted, I have to admit that I’m just a tad bit jealous here.

Charles Nwokolo, a friend I worked with at BNP Paribas, posted this topical video on the state of fame:

I’m starting to think that maybe I’m wasting my time with all this . . . typing.

I started out this morning with the realization that I’m not ready to go to China.  A visa for China requires 6 months time remaining on your passport.  Mine is due to expire in a few months.  So, I need to renew my passport, transfer my UK visa to the new passport, and apply for a China visa.  This is going to time-consuming and expensive.

One thing I really needed was some passport photos.  The London U.S. Embassy site puts the fear of God into you about not having the right type of photos:  “Don’t get them from a machine.”  “Make sure they comply with standards.” “Any problems with the photos and your application will be REJECTED!”  So, I decided to use one of the photographers they recommended.

I went to a tiny place at Charing Cross called The ID Photo Shop (http://idphotoshop.co.uk ).  It’s a nice little hard-to-find place in the Charing Cross underground station.  It’s not a chain, but they have a nice informative website. 

The shop is hard to find.  On entering it looks like a sandwich shop—I think the business shares the location with another shop.  I actually walked into the place and asked the sandwich guy to take my picture.  He directed me around the corner to talk to the guy who runs the other id photo place.

It is run by a guy named Samir.  He knew all about the photos I needed for my US Passport and for the Chinese visa application. 

In addition to passport photos, the shop also advertised “professional photos”.  I asked what this was (I’m ever the hayseed sometimes) and he told me that this is what people use to put on CVs and media types use it for press releases etc. 

I have been having a hard time finding a new photo for this blog and other places like Facebook, etc.  It was a big self-indulgence, but I asked if he could make a professional photo for me.  After he took the passport photos (no smile—not even a smirk!), he took about a dozen photos for my professional picture.  He talked me through various poses and let me choose one I like afterwards.  The price for this picture?  Same as the passport photos: £4.95.  It’s much better than anything I could have done on my own and I think about as well as any portrait studio could have done for much more money.

So, here’s the new look as compared to my old pic.  I’m not used to looking at pictures of myself, but I think Samir did a great job.

Old picture (taken by me)	New picture

Yeah.  I’m getting older.

This place is hard to find, but well worth the visit if if you need a “professional” picture.

It was a nice find and I highly recommend it.

My site was down for a little over a day because I upgraded Plesk to version 9 on my VPS.  It caused the PHP and Mysql adaptor to stop working.  The site gave me this error:

Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.

It took me more about an hour Googling this to find out what the issue was.  Plesk modified my php.ini fil while upgrading. 

The guy that helped me the most was Donncha O Caoimh which his blog post on Holy Shmoly: “Cannot load mysql extension. Please check your PHP configuration“.  I’m really glad he posted that.  I’ve never met him, but he really helped me out.

Problem solved in less than an hour.  5 years ago, before the blogging explosion, this problem would have taken me days to resolve (at least!).  Thanks to Donncha.