skippy dot net

I've made a number of substantial changes to the way I host skippy.net through the years. I started out hosting on an old server in my bedroom, attached to my DSL line. I eventually got tired of dealing with hardware, and moved to a virtual private server at Tektonic. I was reasonably happy with that arrangement: it gave me full root access on my own server, and freed me from having to worry about hardware maintenance. Tektonic was, in fact, my second choice for VPS hosting. My first choice was Slicehost, but at the time there was a waitlist for new customers.

Eventually I got to the head of the line at Slicehost, created my Slice, and moved my sites over to a VPS hosted there. I was more than happy: the service was extremely reliable and the pricing was perfectly fair. I've enjoyed using -- and recommending -- Slicehost for about a year now.

In the decade that I've been running skippy.net, I've added and removed a bunch of other non-web services. I started out hosting all my own email, and managing my own anti-spam configurations. Almost two years ago I migrated to Google for Domains, and have been extremely happy to be out of the email management business. I ran a number of mailing lists via GNU Mailman at various times, but have moved many of those over to Google Groups. I currently run a private Subversion repository to track some of the side projects on which I work, but have been committing changes less and less frequently.

Currently, the only things I regularly use are web applications: this blog, and blogs for friends and family. This leads me to ask the question: why am I paying for -- and maintaining -- a complete virtual private server? I'm certainly not getting my money's worth these days.

So yesterday I began looking in earnest at shared hosting. Rather than manage my own complete server, my little websites would be just that many more sites hosted on some big server farm somewhere. It's a somewhat daunting process to find a reputable shared host. Everyone's needs are a little different, and the service offerings are all just a little different from one another, so there's few real apples-to-apples comparisons available. I have a pretty good idea of how much disk space I need, and how much bandwidth I'll consume on a monthly basis, so that's an easy metric to use when comparing shared hosting plans. I'll have to make do with whatever control panel is offered to me. I'm not thrilled about using CPanel, or any other control panel, but I realize that's the nature of the game when I switch to shared hosting.

I'd love shell access, which I'm told is offered by some shared hosting companies if you simply ask for it. I suspect it's a chargeable add-on from other hosts. If I have shell, I'd really like access to the Subversion client tools, so that I can check out the latest versions of Habari directly to the server, rather than to my laptop, then upload the files from my laptop to the server.

Aside: I wrote "my server" instead of "the server" several times in the preceding paragraph. That shows how deeply ingrained my sense of ownership in my hosts has been over the years. It will, no doubt, take some time to get used to using a shared host.

I keep looking at the option to pay extra for a dedicated IP address, so that I can install an SSL certificate. I like the idea of HTTPS, especially when accessing the admin side of this blog from an untrusted network, but really -- it's just a blog. I'm not doing e-commerce, so HTTPS is probably one of those things to which I've grown accustomed without really having a need.

I've heard as many complaints as I have praises for Dreamhost. The same holds true for MediaTemple. Given the number of complaints generated by people I know personally, I think I can safely discard these two as options. I've heard a limited number of complaints against A Small Orange over the years, and a great many positive things. Given their longevity and the ratio of praise to complaint, I'm reasonably comfortable selecting them as one of my top candidates.

And at the end of the day, the process of switching from one shared hosting provider to another is substantially easier than switching from one VPS to another, so it's not like I'm committed for all of eternity to whatever host I select. In the latter instance, I need to build up the server and tweak its configuration to my standards. This takes time, but it ensures that I get exactly what I want, every time. In the case of shared hosting, I get what the host offers me, which may or may not be what I want. Case in point: A Small Orange runs CentOS for their servers, which means I'm stuck with PHP version 5.2.11. I've been used to PHP 5.3 on Debian for some time now. It's a small point to quibble, but a number of small points can slowly add up to become a very big problem on the whole.

I'm still looking at hosting providers. If you use one, and are happy with it, please tell me so in the comments. I'm not in any particular rush to move things around, so I'd like to take my time to make sure I find a host with which I'll be happy.

According to the DNS registry, skippy.net was created on January 08, 1999. My earliest post is dated March 13, 1999, though the Internet Archive Wayback record only goes back to October 13, 1999.

I know there are a lot of people who've been active online for much longer than I, but I think it's worth a moment's reflection to consider just how much has changed in the last decade. I was one of the few people I knew to have a website. I used to hand-craft each page on my website. If you wanted to comment on something you would have sent me an email. I used to crop and resize digital photos to very small sizes.

Now having a website is, in many ways, redundant, what with the Facebooks and LinkedIns and other social networking sites. I upload full-size images to Flickr and don't worry about thumbnail generation any more. Commenting on sites is the norm, and any site that doesn't support commenting is somehow weird.

It'll be interesting to see what the next decade brings, and how the kids of today will approach the technology that will always have been a part of their lives.

People often raise an eyebrow, or otherwise express surprise, when I tell them my email address. "Skippy?" they say. This is usually followed by "Why Skippy?" The answer is surprisingly mundane, but that won't stop me from writing a lengthy post about the matter! And it has nothing to do with peanut butter, or a kangaroo.

Adolescence

For most of my childhood I was Scott. When I hit middle school I was usually called by my last name at school, since there was another Scott in my class. Presumably the other Scott was the cooler one, because he got to use the name. I've never figured out the social stratification that occurred to relegate me to my last name.

In middle school I also started playing sports at the local recreation center, having decided that the sports teams at my parochial school were off limits to me. I played both football and basketball. The coach for both teams was the same guy. The coach had a hard time remembering my name. I think there was also another Scott on the team, but I think he dropped out after just a couple of practices. Nonetheless, at the very first basketball practice the coach declared that he would never be able to remember my name and demanded that I give myself a nickname.

Looking back, I have no idea why he thought any nickname I might provide would be any more memorable than my given name. In reality, of course, I didn't disappoint: I suggested "Toothpick". At the time, I thought myself clever for selecting this moniker, and felt that it was fitting: I was tall and lanky. If I wasn't the tallest (and skinniest!) kid on the team, I was an extremely close runner-up. I played basketball for several seasons, and football too, and Toothpick I was for all that time.

Teenager

In 7th and 8th grade I attended OWjL Camp (usually dubbed "Nerd Camp" by those who didn't go). During one of these summers (probably the latter), I was listening to a lot of Alice Cooper, and had recently seen his Raise Your Fist And Yell tour. I was only too happy to share my enthusiasm for Alice Cooper with my fellow campers, and one of the counselors dubbed me "Coop". That appellation stayed through my time at camp, and immediately faded from use when I returned home, since no one I regularly fraternize with attended OWjL camp with me.

By the time I reached high school, I was back to Scott for most people.

College

In my sophomore year of college, I moved into a giant Victorian house with four of my buddies. Every adult I knew cautioned me against this course of action, but I assured them that we were all really good friends and that it would work out okay. Living with me were Jay, Pat, Bryan and Tom. Jay, ever the comedian, dubbed the house "The Love Barn" (with the supporting catchphrase of "Help put the barn back in love!").

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Love Barn. In hindsight, it was a great experience, and we had a lot of fun there. While I was actually living there, though, it was a veritable hell on earth, with five strong-willed egotistical guys constantly trying to one-up one another. I couldn't live out the entire lease, and left after about 9 months. I was lucky to be able to still call Tom a friend at the end of my residence.

At the Love Barn we did basically three things: watch "Talk Soup" with Greg Kinnear whenever it was on, play Super Mario Kart or Madden '97 (the latter was the preferred conflict resolution method, and more often then not determined who's turn it was to wash dishes), and occasionally do our home work. One day, Tom, Bryan, Pat and I were engaged in a Madden '97 tournament ladder while Jay was at class. Jay came home early and burst into the living room announcing "We need nicknames!" This was not uncharacteristic of Jay: he would often make wild pronouncements with little provocation.

Jay looked at Tom and declared "You're like a little elf boy! You ARE an elfboy!" Thus was Tom ever after known as Elfboy. I fell next to Jay's gaze and he exclaimed "Skippy!" with no other commentary. After this, Jay ran out of steam, and assigned no more nicknames. Instead, he retired to his room to do his homework. There was a surprised silence in the wake of his exit, but then the four of us returned to our game. Tom and I each secretly believed that the moment had passed, and that the nicknames would not stick. Boy were we wrong.

As time went on, more and more people referred to me as Skippy. As it became commonplace amongst all my friends, so too did it trickle up to my parents, who would call me by my nickname when they called or came to visit me at the Love Barn.

Now You Know

So that's the exciting tale of "Why Skippy?" I've been Skippy for over a dozen years now. I answer to it automatically whenever people -- even complete strangers -- say things like "Damn Skippy!" People have experimented with various permutations: Skip, Skipford, Skipmeister, Baron Von Skippy, and who knows what else. There are a great many people who know my given name, but only ever refer to me as Skippy. Although I rarely refer to myself as Skippy, there are occasions where I'm better known for that name (or this domain) and so rely on it when introducing myself.

Skippy is not a particularly common nickname (except, apparently, for pets), and yet I still find it extremely hard to secure the skippy username when signing up for new online services!