V9.01 January 2007

0. Introduction.
1. Massive upgrades!
2. Massive webmail!
3. Massive SFTP users!
4. Massive promo codes in referral links!
5. Massive DHSOTM!


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0. Introduction.

Welcome once again to (possibly) the first MILE-HIGH edition of the Jan-
uary (I broke it up like K-Fed!) 2007 edition of the world's most
written-on-an-airplane DreamHost newsletter! Not only is this probably
the highest I've ever been while writing a newsletter, it's also the
most Mexican.

Yep, I'm on my way to Mexico for nine days, which means this newsletter
just MAY be nine plus days late. I swear I'm writing this on January
31st though, but who knows if they have Internet in Mexico? I seriously
doubt it. I mean, this isn't the January *2009* newsletter, for jumping
juju beans! If it were, I'd be online right NOW from seat 29A in my
Delta Boeing 737-800 (thanks, seatguru.com!), but instead of writing
the newsletter I'd probably just be joining (or renewing my membership
in) the Solo Mile-High Club (gracias, slutsonaplane.com!)

The upshoot is, please don't be alarmed if you receive this month's
newsletter via me reading it to you over the phone from my hotel room.

However, if somehow you ARE reading this as an email, I apologize in
advance. Apparently Mexican pervs are as demanding as Gringo pervs.


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1. Massive upgrades!

Well, I've been in Mexico a few hours now, and let me tell you, I was
WRONG! The Internet is MASSIVE here! Everywhere I go, there's another
Internet Taco Shop selling access for just a peso an hour. It's maybe
a tiny bit slower getting to the main US sites than it is at home, but
who needs US sites? They've got everything down here we've got up there!

I've spent all my time perusing MiSpace, JouTube, yBay, and of course,
the biggest online bookstore for the REST of the Americas, Mississippi.com!

It's just great. And everything is JUST as good as we've got IT, if you
don't mind Spanish. They don't need to upgrade a thing.

We however, do! And did, this month! For example, sometime within the
last 31 days we upgraded the following uno click Installs:

WordPress blog to version 2.1
ZenCart shopping cart to version 1.3.7
MediaWiki wiki to version 1.9

(You can install or upgrade to these and many other website apps in just
one click over at:
https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=goodies.install
)

We ALSO upgraded Ruby on Rails to version 1.2.1 and installed these new
gems:
hoe 1.1.7
camping 1.5
unicode 0.1
ajax_scaffold 2.2.1
gruff 0.2.8

New gems, shmew gems.. we also upgraded these old gems to versions:
ParseTree 1.6.3
rubyforge 0.4.0
RubyInline 3.6.2
acts_as_taggable 2.0.2
capistrano 1.3.1
daemons 1.0.3
ferret 0.10.13
gen 0.41.0
glue 0.41.0
geoip 0.3.0
nitro 0.41.0
og 0.41.0

FINALLY, we are still in the process of rolling out PHP version 5.2 and
zend optimizer version 3.2.2 everywhere.. so if your server doesn't have
'em yet, just wait a week. JEEZ.


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2. Massive webmail!

Did I say FINALLY? Well, I really meant, "SEMI-FINALLY" because the REAL
final upgrade to talk about in this newsletter is that last week we
added two more webmail machines to our load-balanced webmail cluster,
raising the total from a disgustingly paltry four to a humbling almighty
....


SIX!


That may not seem like a lot, but it was definitely about time, and just
adding those two looks like it may have dramatically imrpoved our shared
webmail performance, available as always at:

http://webmail.YOUR-MEXICAN-SOUNDING-DOMAIN-NAME-GOES-HERE.com


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3. Massive SFTP users!

Well, so far, no Mexico in Internet. NOR the other way around! It's
February 3rd, and I have no idea if Punxatoeuannty Phil saw his mustache
or not! In our little Playa Fiesta getaway on the shores of Puerto
Vallarta we're so shut off from the outside world, I wouldn't even know
right now if the US had been overrun by pizza-eating mutant turtles, a
super motorcyclist with a flaming skull, or giant robots that can
"transform" themselves into VW Beetles.

ALL I *do* know is that before I left, we added a feature to the
"Users > Manage Users" section of our web panel:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=users.users

And as I type you can now add "sftp-only" users to your account! What's
them, you drawl? Why, they're just like "ftp-only" users, except they
can ONLY connect via Secure FTP. Now, I'm sure most of you have no idea
where to even get a Secure FTP client, and I'd be one of most of you.

But just try searching the web for perhaps "SFTP client" or "Secure FTP
client" or maybe "Unsubscribe DreamHost newsletter" and you should be
all set!


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4. Massive promo codes in referral links!

Is it ironic to you that each of these features are clearly less MASSIVE
than the last? I'm honestly asking you, is it? Because I've been told
many a time that irony is lost on me. And I'd like to FIND IT WHERE IT
HIDES!

So, it is with great irony that I'd like to pronounce we've just added a
new feature to our rewards links.. you can now include a PROMO CODE at
the end of your link (separated from the rest by a pipe "|" character)
and as long as the person who clicked that link has cookies enabled, the
promo code field on the signup form will be pre-filled with that code!

http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards-linking.html

Has the complete instructions.. and if you don't have your own custom
promo code to give your friends and colleagues, you can ironically make
your own at:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.rewards

Just another way to keep your ironic friends from forgetting to save
themselves money when you refer them.... not!

Get it?


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5. Massive DHSOTM!

And this month's winner of the DreamHost Site of the Mexico award is...
guess!! Will it be a flash-based personal portfolio or an Internet radio
station? The drama is unbearable! Unfortunately, you're going to have to
go find out for yourself, since I'm writing this from Mexico I can't go
visit the site myself. No Internet.

http://www.expansionbroadcast.com/

I do know they're the winner though! I looked it up before I left.
Don't forget, everybody is a winner on the inside! That doesn't count
though, so try and be a winner on the outside and get your super flash-
based personal portfolio or Internet radio site plastered in front of
hundreds of thousands of MILLIONS of forced subscribers to this e-letter
next month by submitting it at:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.dhsotm

RETRACTION! Last month I said we did, but this month I'm telling you, we
DON'T! Host savedarfur.org that is. Apparently we USED to, but we were
too tough on them with our onerous opt-in requirements for their huge
mailing list or something, so they're actually no longer hosted here.
They still have an active account in our system though, so I'm not
complaining...


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This newsletter brought to you by the letters M and J, and the number 5,
Josh Jones!

P.S. Just because *I'M* in Mexico doesn't mean *YOU* have to hear about
it. Ironically, we've got a page set up for you to set your contact
preferences in just the sort of way that you'll never have to receive
this newsletter again!

https://panel.dreamhost.com/id/?tab=contact

URL source: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/V9.01_January_2007

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