Choosing a good domain

Everyone knows how annoying it is to spend hours thinking of a good domain only to find out it’s taken. In the YouTube video above, Internet entrepreneur and amateur comedian Chris Pirillo pokes fun at this unfortunate fact of life. Using Wordoid as an example, he points out how useless and shoddy domain generators can be.

If a domain generator can’t help me, I find a thesaurus to be very helpful when registering domains. There are a number of online word tools that will bring up a variety of synonyms for any given word. The best domains are all taken, but there are still many good ones out there!

CENTR releases video explaining DNS

Ever wanted to show a less-than-tech-savvy friend or family member how DNS works? CENTR, the Council of European Top Level Domain Registries, has released a new video detailing the inner-workings of the system.

In case you didn’t know, DNS stands for Domain Name System. It is essentially responsible for converting domain names into IP addresses. Even if you have a good understanding of how it works, the video is still worth checking out.

The coolest home server setup ever

Home servers are starting to become commonplace, but ever meet anyone with an entire data center in their house? In the video you see here, the owner has a home server room that contains a wide array of equipment. In all, there are 9 server racks– more than many businesses own!

Just what are these systems used for? Two process video from the 25 security cameras the man has around his house, some store files, one records TV, and others serve as web servers. There’s only one problem I see see with this setup. Why isn’t it in my house?

Tour the MasterCard data center

Few data centers are more important than the one owned by MasterCard in O’Fallon, Missouri. Millions of people swipe their credit cards every day, purchasing anything and everything from coffee to cars. However, few take into consideration the raw computing power that makes all this possible.

This YouTube video shows an inside look at MasterCard’s data center. The facility processes some $1 trillion dollars transferred in 40 billion transactions. How much information is this? The center holds 652 terabytes of data– 175 times the size of all the information in the Library of Congress.

If that weren’t enough, the building contains 743 miles of conduit, 412 miles of wire, 100 miles of copper cable, and 160 miles of optic fiber. Built like a rock, the data center can withstand winds of up to 125 mph as well as a slew of natural disasters. Finally, it generates enough electricity to power a city of 30,000 people!

Source | MasterCard.com (PDF)

Data center construction- Lego style

When people think of data centers, they often envision large rooms full of loud servers. This YouTube video shows the data center in a much more innovative way– its construction from start to finish, all with Lego bricks.

With high-speed connections and millions of pages to visit, I think too many people take the Internet for granted. We can see as much of the web as we care to from our chairs, but rarely do we see the systems that power it all. The engineers who design these server facilities and the people who work tirelessly to run them deserve more credit.

Video explains cloud computing

Confused about what cloud computing is, or need an easy way to explain the new technology to a friend or coworker? The above video does a great job of introducing the topic without being too mundane.

Cloud computing is great for business because of its scalability. No matter how much or how little resources you use on a particular day, the cloud will scale to meet your needs and charge you accordingly.

Of course, this type of hosting solution isn’t necessarily right for everyone. Just like traditional hosts experience downtime, cloud providers have suffered major outages in the past, too. And if you know that your resource usage will stay constant, a dedicated server still might be a better value.

Meet the explosion-proof data center

You’ve seen data centers that can survive a nuclear blast as well some of the most secure data centers in the world, but how many server rooms can survive the impact of a direct explosion?

The video above shows a bomb-proof data center design in action. Dubbed LSR 18.6E, it’s scalable so that multiple units can be placed adjacent to one another and also theft-proof. Price is by inquiry only, so it’s likely out of most companies’ price range.

Watch a live domain auction

We hear about domain auctions on a daily basis, but rarely does one get the chance to see such an event live. The video above shows the sale of Ad.com during T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon Valley in April.

The winning bidder was Divyank Turakhia, who paid £946,137 ($1.4 million USD) for the name. Turakhia is a technology entrepreneur who own a number of premium domains and start-ups.

As you can see, domain auctions are serious business. Most are done online, but it’s not uncommon to see the most valuable names sold at events like T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

Al Gore makes appearance in .eco promo video

As if his starring role in An Inconvenient Truth wasn’t enough, former Vice President Al Gore appeared in a promo video today launched by Dot Eco LLC for the .eco gTLD.

The .eco domain extension is one of many to be proposed next year when the new gTLD system goes live. Two companies, Dot Eco LLC and BigRoom, are currently fighting over rights to the name.

Each has a different plan for implementing the extension. BigRoom would limit registrations to certain companies and organizations, while Dot Eco LLC would let anyone register a .eco. Both competitors feel there is a solid demand for the name among companies who want to show their earth-friendliness and eco-related non-profits.

Personally, I haven’t seen anyone jumping up and down about the prospect of registering a .eco domain. The idea is an interesting one, but I think the applications will be too limited for the name to really take off. How many people really need a .eco website?

Web hosting gone wild

In this heart-wrenching saga, a man sets up a server in his home. His wife is fine with it at first, but soon, the servers seem to multiply and after some time, the guy is running a full-fledged web host from his home.

There are two lessons to be learned here. First, be careful who you host with. Believe it or not, there are all sorts of fly-by-night web hosting companies operating on home DSL connections. These firms may offer low prices, but often lack the technical expertise to fix real problems when they arise. These hosts don’t stay in business for very long.

Second, while there are some people out there knowledgeable enough to do so (namely system admins), don’t try to go the cheap way out and host yourself. DIY web hosting never ends well, mainly because when things go belly up, chances are good you won’t be able to fix it.

Many ISPs also block the ports used by web servers. Those that do won’t let you run a data center from your basement. If the scenario in “Web Hosting Gone Wild” were real, the ISP would have noticed an unusual amount of bandwidth being used at the man’s house and cut off his Internet access. Still, what geek doesn’t dream about having a data center in their living room?