my ftp died

I've been publishing online since 1996  - so why would I start a blog?

And why this blog - and not one of the others - like WordPress?

It's Monday afternoon. The date doesn't matter. It's likely that the designers of this blogging package will show it somewhere you can easily see it

On Saturday morning - just before going out to shop and eat (even virtual online people do those things) I thought I'd change the title of an article I had recently written on my storage home page. From "SSDs are computer medicine" to "SSDs are tonic medicine" - or something like that.

It would normally take me just a few seconds to make the change - and upload it to my site. That's something I've been doing every few minutes of every working day for over 14 years. It's very quick and painless.

Not this time.

Instead I got a message saying - I couldn't log in.

After checking the web site was still up (that is to say - visible to anyone who wants to see it) - I checked out some of my other sites too.

Same problem - so there was a common cause.

Sometimes these things happen - due to a temporary routing problem - server problem etc. And they fix themselves after 5 to 10 minutes. So it's not a crisis.

It was my day off - and really the change I wanted to make wasn't a big deal either. It could wait.

The web hosting company I use - NTT something or other is the current name -  has  been very reliable in the past 12 years that I've used them. So for me - contacting tech support  has been less than a once every few years experience. All my sites were affected. They're on different servers. I can't remember a time when all sites were affected. Nothing on their web site said anything about a problem. And everything on the web seemed to be working - so I assumed the problem was at my end.

I eliminated some other possible causes - even going so far as to check my firewall settings, reload an alternative version of the ftp package etc. And I had a one on one support session with Norton to see if something had changed with anti-virus settings. That was very helpful - but didn't find a cause. I paused the support session at the point where the next step was to remove and re-install Norton. I needed to get on with other stuff. I had an article to write for another publication - about my favorite topic - SSDs.

The deadline was midnight. I hope they like it. If they reject it - I'll publish it  myself.

If and when  I can get my ftp to work.

Writing the new article  (the future of data storage) for the other publication  (Broadcast Engineering  - I'm happy to say it did meet their requiremenst for the Jan 2011 issue) kept me busy till just before midnight. I emailed it - did a backup and decided to relax and read a book about SEO (search engine optimization) which is one of the things I had bought in my visit to the shops the day before.

You may ask why does a guy who works online go to a bookshop to buy a book about SEO?

My answer is - I need the exercise - because I sit on my butt all day typing and moving a mouse. And I like books - and because on the few occasions that I have ordered books online - they get lost or delivered late. It's only the books. Everything else - from dishwashers to swimming pool supplies gets delivered without a problem.

What's this about pool supplies? - Does the writing pay so badly that I need a pool guy job as well?

I'm not going to say more on the grounds I may alienate myself from other  struggling writers who don't have need of pool chemicals.

And as to the SEO book.... it is the first time in my life that I have ever read a book about search-engine optimization.

You might think that - as selling ads on my own web sites is my primary source of income - I would have read up on the subject a bit sooner. And you'd be right. I do spend a couple of hours each year - in my quieter moments looking at web marketing sites. Those I like are listed on marketingviews.com

Let's forget pool guy for the moment. And let's forget SEO guy too.

I found out this morning that the reason I couldn't upload stuff to my own sites was a technical problem with the ftp stuff on my web hoster's servers. They don't seem to work at the weekend and had only started fixing it a day or so after I had noticed it.

I'm going nuts at this stage.

My working day involves writing stuff and uploading it immediately to my sites- and then reading it from the web - and if I can't think of anything else to do - running a spell checker on it afterwards.

That's not the way I recommend to you budding web authors out there. But it works for me.

Still no ftp - after I've done some filing, paid some bills, talked to builders who have been practising their kitchen building skills in my house. It will look very good  one day - if I  live long enough to see it finished.

I'm suffering from  the web equivalent of cabin fever at this stage. I can't get my content out there.

So I decide to start a blog.

I have a love hate relationship with blogs.

I love it when thousands of bloggers link to my site.

But I hate it when a small number of bloggers - just cut and paste and steal whole articles.

It's a wicked world out there on the web.

No question which blogging package I'll try first... It's WordPress. It's used by CEOs. VPs (or their blogging drones). It's a real grown up package.

But I just want the free one. I've read that it's very good.

I do the sign-up thing.

And wait.

They say wait 30 minutes.

No sign up email.

Sign up again.

Still nothing.

I tried all the sensible things that you can do. Then I thought - well maybe their servers were affected by the same original cyber attack thingy that stopped my own web host.

I don't know. Their support page didn't help.

And it didn't recognize me when I tried to log in.

So what else can I do?

I had lots of good ideas for articles about storage stuff  which I was hoping my readers would see today.

Instead - here I am - typing into a little box in my browser screen.

And it's unlikely that anyone will see it - until after my ftp comes back to life - and I can mention it to my readers.

Why would anyone come to see this blog?

I don't even know its address at this point. So why should anyone else find it?

It's exactly 4pm Monday.

ftp is still dead - after a whole weekend and half a working day.

I guess that's what blogs are for. A way of getting around the problem.

There are probably other blogs out there - which talk about the technical problems with blogs..

But that's not a subject which sparc storage goblin guy wants to think about right now.