1. TypePad:
If you want to host a blog, TypePad is the way to go. They are a part of the Six Apart group, which in addition to TypePad includes Vox, LiveJournal, and the Movable Movable Type publishing platform. TypePad promises to “work tirelessly” to give good service. They host extremely popular blogs like The Dilbert Blog and Cute Overload. If they can host the daily traffic on those sites, they can certainly manage yours in a Digg situation. If you run into trouble, they provide support seven days a week, 365 days of the year.TypePad is conscious of bandwidth needs. A Support Knowledge Base article concerning bandwidth limits assures users that content will not be affected in the event that an account goes over bandwidth limits. They’ll let you know if you’re in excess of your limit and work with you to find a solution to the problem. What’s even better is, for the time being, TypePad will not charge you overage fees. They plan to do so in the future, however. If you continually go over on your bandwidth, they’ll get you set up with an upgrade for your account.
TypePad offers three account levels as well as custom-priced business class. The basic level includes 2GB of bandwidth each month for $49.50 a year, the plus level offers 5GB of bandwidth each month for $89.50 a year and the pro level gives 10GB of bandwidth a month for $149.50 a year.
Media Temple is a different kind of hosting company. They use grid hosting over shared server and short path bandwidth whenever possible. The best part? They give you 1 terabyte of short path bandwidth. Yes, that’s 1,000GB.
Media Temple’s highly effective alternative to shared servers, grid hosting, is unique. Instead of putting your entire site on one server that’s prone to bad neighbor traffic spikes and hardware failures, Media Temple uses on-demand scalability with literally hundreds of servers at once, eliminating the chance that your website will become overloaded. It’s built to handle spikes and surges like the Digg effect. In the rare circumstance that your usage hits extremely severe levels, they will shut down your site; however, you can call ahead of time to have this preventative measure taken off of your account. 99.97% of the sites that they host never exceed their bandwidth allocation.
Media Temple doesn’t slack off on support, either. They promise 24/7/365 customer support and challenge you to call them on New Year’s Day at 3 AM. 90% of their staff is dedicated in some way to support functions, so they’ll be there when you need them. Hosting with Media Temple’s grid is $20 per month.
3. Rackspace:
Rackspace offers award-winning managed hosting with Fanatical Support. Their Managed Hosting and Zero-Downtime Network offers an enterprise-grade solution that’s sure to hold up during a Digg.
Rackspace’s Zero-Downtime Network has a 100% network uptime guarantee. They use only high-performance bandwidth and nine different network providers to create redundancies in data flow. Additionally, Rackspace offers load balancing as an add-on if Digg overloads your server. What really sets Rackspace apart is its Managed Hosting. Rackspace assigns a dedicated team to your server with 24/7/365 support. This is especially important for the Digg effect because you know you’ll have someone keeping an eye on your server even if you’re not.
Of course, Rackspace’s excellent hosting and service comes at a high cost. Plans are individually quoted and rumored to start around $400 per month. It’s an investment, but you’ll sleep well without nightmares of a Digg taking down your site.
4. Survive Digg:
Survive Digg’s name says it all. This web hosting company is a new division of Brius Web Hosting that guarantees you’ll survive the Digg effect. They’ve come through for clients like Tutorial Ninjas and promise to do the same for you.
Survive Digg offers “Survival Kits” with features and tools aimed at helping you get on Digg and keep your website up. They use top of the line servers with custom optimized apache, php, mysql and kernel. Each server is assigned limited accounts.
Most importantly, Survive Digg guarantees 100% uptime during a Digg storm. Survive Digg offers around the clock support from an in-house team. This staff of experienced web developers, webmasters and business owners is available 24/7/365. Survive Digg’s monthly hosting is currently $35.
5. Freebies:
There are a few free web services that can weather the storm as well. WordPress and Google-owned Blogger are two of the best. Hoever, even though these hosts are dependable, you’ll miss out on useful features that are available with paid services.
Blogger’s status as a part of Google ensures that you’ll stay up. Unfortunately, the benefits more or less end there. Unlike other blogging software, Blogger doesn’t offer domain names, statistics or spam catchers. But you’ll survive Digg, for free. WordPress is another decent free host. Unlike Blogger, WordPress has a domain name service, non-blog pages, stats and a nifty tool called WP-Cache. WP-Cache does exactly what you think it does: it caches your blog pages so that you can serve them up faster and thus avoid crashing while you’re on the front page of Digg. These free hosts are effective, but you’ll do better by going with a paid host. They give you more flexibility, plus you don’t want your Digg visitors to think you’re a cheapo, do you?
]]>There are quite a few Ruby on Rails books out there. Here are a few to that would be good to work through, then keep on hand. These will provide the knowledge you need to get started as well as serve as handy references for later.
Ruby on Rails: Up and Running by Bruce Tate and Curt Hibbs: Ruby on Rails: Up and Running is a great reference for those just getting started in Rails. It offers an easy way to learn and will set you up with a solid foundation of knowledge. The book walks new users through the elements that are most important to understand, covering concepts from simple database applications to elaborate Ajax. Thin and simple, it serves as a quick introduction for those that want to jump in and learn Ruby on Rails quickly.
Rails Cookbook by Rob Orsini: The Rails Cookbook is great for learning because it’s a “how-to” book. Readers like it because it’s a “’Here’s how to do the things you want to do’ kind of book.” It’s aimed at programmers who are familiar with web development, but have not yet worked in Rails. It offers real-world challenges, providing solutions and a discussion of how the solution works. This allows users to learn how to adapt the challenges to their own applications. Rely on The Rails Cookbook for a straightforward approach that will help you learn faster.
Agile Web Development with Rails: Agile Web Development with Rails is an award winning book, co-authored by David Hansson, the creator of Rails. It’s been updated for Rails 1.2 in the second edition. It’s ideal for users who are just getting started learning Ruby on Rails because it doesn’t bother with overloading readers with too much detail, opting instead to offer details in the appendices if you’re interested in learning about them. Readers like this book because its format is great for getting your feet wet. You’re walked through the process of building a shopping cart and then later delve into exactly how Rails works. It’s written for all skill levels in an easy to understand language.
The web has a lot to offer for getting your feet wet with Ruby on Rails. Many of them provide interactive, innovative ways to learn Ruby hands on, so they’re a great option for people who learn best by just throwing themselves into something new. These resources are easily accessible, fun to use, and best of all, free.
Try Ruby!: This website offers an ingenious browser-based tutorial for the Ruby language. All you need is a web browser and 15 minutes. In this tutorial, you’ll learn Ruby by typing provided codes into a prompt screen to see how they run. Once you see how they work, the commands and concepts are explained in detail. Try Ruby points out basic concepts and common errors, helping users to lay a solid foundation for their Ruby on Rails education. Check it out for a quick, fun look at Ruby.
Four Days on Rails by John McCreesh: This guide, available in PDF, offers new users a view of the things they’ll need to do to get started in Rails development. It’s ideal for learning because it’s well organized and offers very simple tasks. This makes it easy to grasp the concepts put forth. The tutorial covers topics like how to create a scaffold code, build a to-do list application and more. As the title suggests, the document is split up into four days, but most users can work through it faster than that. Break it up into four days or hunker down for an extended session of Rails tutoring.
Ruby on Rails Cheat Sheet: When you’re just getting started, it may be hard to remember every little detail that you need to know. This cheat sheet offers a way to keep lots of useful information on hand for quick reference. The sheet offers a reference for Rails’ directory structure, pre-defined variables, reserved words, regular expression syntax and methods. The author used expert advice, including that of the Rails original developer, David Heinemeier Hansson. Keep this guide handy so you’ll have all the information you need close by.
Even if you’re not ready to launch your site yet, you need a space to play around in to see how your web applications will execute in the real world. To do this, you need to find a good host that you can trust with your hard work. Check out these hosts for reasonable, reliable service.
Slicehost: Slicehost offers Rails developers a hosting solution for those looking for low cost with a quick setup. It is a great option for cheap learning. Nuby on Rails recommends Slicehost for developer education: “Spending $20/month on your own education will be worthwhile and will help you make mistakes on your own before making them on a paying client project. Slicehost would be a great environment for that kind of self-education.” For quick setup, Slicehost provides a Wiki for a 5-minute installation of Ruby on Rails. Use Slicehost for cheap and easy Rails hosting.
RailsMachine: RailsMachine has a quick setup, so it’s easy to get started and get down to work on your Rails education. They have a gem for Ruby on Rails that minimizes setup to just a few easy commands. RailsMachine is a good option for when you’re ready to launch your site, too. They offer reliable uptime, knowledgeable staff, superior support and high quality hosting. Work with RailsMachine if you’re willing to spend money on a trusted source.
TextDrive: TextDrive is the official Ruby on Rails host, which makes it another great option for Ruby on Rails education. They have knowledgeable staff and all of the latest Rails extras, so you can be sure that they will provide you with the best resources a Rails host can give you. Original Rails developer David Heinemeier Hansson supports TextDrive because with them, “you’ll always have the latest version available as GEMs, you can keep your code under Subversion (and show it off with Trac), and have your choice of PostgreSQL or MySQL for the database.” Plus, he points out, 50% of the profits from your TextDrive plan will go to supporting Rails development.
For more information on Ruby on Rails, visit the following sources:
Ruby on Rails: www.rubyonrails.org
Loud Thinking by David Heinemeier Hansson: www.loudthinking.com
Wikipedia: Ruby on Rails: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_on_Rails
Digg Notify is a tool that informs you of the amount of diggs that your story has received. It will also let you know when your story hits the front page. Watching interest build in your story isn’t just fun: it’s crucial. If you get caught off-guard, the Digg effect can bury your site.
Before facing Diggstruction, call your hosting company to find out what they’d do in a high traffic situation. Would they leave your site down for hours while you miss out on thousands of unique visitors? Or would they take quick action to give your site the resources it needs? If you’re not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling from your provider, shop around until you find a company that is able to fit your needs. You don’t want to get stuck with an unhelpful or unresponsive hosting company when you need help the most.
Do they want notification when you’re being Dugg? Some hosts will take your site down because they suspect you’re being attacked.
Will you need a larger hosting package? Consider this: Paying $50 more per year is a lot better than being suddenly hit with $800 in overage charges. If you can afford it, go for a dedicated server rather than one that you have to share with other sites.
Can you get a free upgrade? Monetize recommends bartering. If your page is, or will be, subject to a flood of hits, try to get a free upgrade by offering to link to their service.
Even with a supportive host you will need to optimize your site for an inundation of visitors. You’ll need to deal with heavy script and large files in order to keep up.
Host your images and media files away from your site. Use a separate hosting company for these resources. Places like Flickr and YouTube offer great, free services for separate hosting.
If you don’t want to make these design changes for everyday use, at least have an uncomplicated page ready in case of a Digg emergency. If you think your article is going to receive a flood of Diggs, create a landing page with straightforward HTML where you can redirect traffic if you start to go under.
Good design is key. But, if you’re getting crushed, your site will need an extra boost to stay up. Try using cached pages. It will help with site performance and may just give you the extra edge you’ll need to keep up with the traffic.
Install the WordPress caching module.This plugin lets you serve more pages per second by caching and storing pages in a static file. Requests go through the file rather than through PHP code and the database. Johnny’s Thoughts offers a tutorial on using WP-Cache 2.0.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. If your site takes a nosedive, redirect Diggers to a mirror site. You’ll miss out on getting links, but at least you’ll get readers to your article. DuggMirror makes a copy of all stories submitted to Digg. Michi Kono’s blog offers a guide to redirecting to DuggMirror. Another option is using Coral. Shoemoney offers code for the Coral tool on his site.
Make sure these changes are helpful for your site by putting it through a stress test. Tarotoast recommends using, Apache Benchmarking, to see how your site holds up. Other resources are WAPT and Web Application Stress Tool.
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