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Web Hosting - Managing Disk Space
Few things are less exciting than managing the disk space that always seems to be in too short a supply. But few things are more important to the health and well being of your site.
The most obvious aspect of managing disk space is the need to have enough. If you have only a few dozen web pages, that's not an issue. But as the amount of information (web pages, database content and more) grows, the quantity of free space goes down.
That's important for two reasons.
All permanent information on a computer is stored on hard drives. Temporary information is often stored in memory only. The two components are completely separate, though they are sometimes confused with one another. As the amount of free space on the hard drive decreases several effects occur.
Here's one way to picture them...
Imagine you had a table with a certain area and you lay out playing cards on the table. At first, you lay them out in order, the 2 at the side of the 3, then 4, and so on. But then you pick up one or two cards from the middle and discard them. Then you add some more cards. Pretty soon things look pretty random.
Now cover the cards with a big opaque sheet of paper.
You want the cards to appear in order when displayed to someone. A special robot could be designed to always pick up the cards from underneath the sheet in order. Or, it could slide a hole in the sheet over the cards to display them in the correct order (2, 3, 4, ...), no matter what order they are really in. That's similar to how the operating system always shows you information in a sensible way, even though it's actually stored randomly.
Why should you care?
Real files are stored in pieces scattered around the drive wherever there is space for them. The more free space there is, the quicker the operating system can find a place to store a new piece. That means, if you delete the junk you no longer need (and free up more space) the system actually runs quicker. It helps create space you might need, and allows the operating system to store files for you faster.
But there's a second effect.
As you delete old files or change them, the pieces get more and more scattered. It takes the 'robot' longer and longer to fetch or display the 'cards' in order. Existing files are fetched and put together 'on the fly' (say, when you request a graphical page or a list of names). But, it takes longer to put together the web page when there are more scattered pieces.
So, the other aspect of managing disk space is to keep the pieces of the files more or less in order. A utility that does that is called a 'de-fragger' or de-fragmentation program. You can request that a system administrator run it, or if you have the authority, you can run it yourself. That keeps the 'cards' in order and allows for quicker access to them.
So, managing disk space involves chiefly three things: (1) keeping enough space to store what you need to store, and also (2) keeping enough free space to make new file storage quick and (3) making old file retrieval fast by keeping things orderly.
When only a few files are involved the benefit isn't worth the effort. But as the number and size of the files grow, to thousands of files or several gigabytes of data, the effect becomes more noticeable. Keeping things organized then makes a significant difference in performance.
Much of this can be automated using utilities. Some will delete files in a certain folder older than a certain date. A de-fragger can be set to run automatically during times of light usage, or quietly in the background at all times. Discuss the options with your system administrator and help him or her do the job better by keeping your house in order. You'll benefit by having a better performing web site.
Family Entertainment – How to Get a Free Ticket for your Child Free tickets are not something that can be found very often, but every once in a while there is a company that offers a free ticket for your child. How about a free ticket to the circus? Almost all children love the circus and there will be that point in time when a child sees the circus come to town and wants nothing more than to go to one of the shows. Honestly, circus visits can break the monthly budget that was planned so carefully, not taking in account such activities. Well, the circus actually offers a free ticket to children of all ages, as long as that ticket has been requested within baby’s first year. On his or her own web page, the circus offers the ticket to anybody that signs up for it. As babies grow, many new things come along, baby will learn to crawl, baby will get the first teeth and at some point baby will be big enough to visit the circus. The First Circus program is for parents and their newborn up to twelve months that are living in the Unites States. All the parents have to do is to visit the circus own homepage and sign up for the program, to receive a free ticket voucher and a special personalized baby certificate. The certificate is printable online and the ticket voucher will be sent to the parent’s home address. The voucher can be exchanged for a free ticket to any of the participating circus performances, anytime, anywhere. The voucher does not have an expiration date. Unfortunately for parents that did not know about the program and whose children are older than twelve months there is only the possibility to receive a commemorative certificate and no free ticket. Therefore it is important for all parents to find out about this wonderful program that will help their child to their first circus experience without breaking the parent’s bank account. On the other hand, the circus visit is free for children under the age of two as long as they sit on an adults lap. By the way, if a child was adopted after the age of twelve months there is still a chance for a free ticket as long as the parent requests it as per direction on web page within the twelve months after adoption. In general the circus will only give a way one free voucher per family per year, but they will make exceptions for parents of multiples. Parents of multiples will have to check out the circus page and follow the directions given there. Since it is not possible to order more than one free voucher besides the few exceptions, every duplicate order that is done by parents after signing up for the first time will delay the original order for the free voucher. It might be also important to know that this free ticket is a very good deal, since children’s tickets have the same price as adult tickets for circus performances. Sometimes, in bigger cities there are special offers from bigger supermarket chains or other places, where a discount on tickets is given, but in general the circus itself does not offer any other discounts. Any parent should take advantage of this First Circus program, since it is not often that companies do give away tickets for free. Circus also has never lost its magical and still pulls the crowds and makes children gasp in astonishment or laugh out loud when seeing the circus clowns. How often do children nowadays have a chance to see elephants stand on their back feet, artists balancing on ropes or swinging and flying through the air and funny clowns fall over their own feet? Communication Key to a Better Work Environment Everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carole. On Christmas Eve, poor Bob Cratchit, who is working late again, spends his day working up the courage to ask his boss, Mr. Scrooge, if he can have Christmas Day off from work to spend with his family. When he finally does get up the nerve to ask, Mr. Scrooge lets forth a tirade over lazy people using Christmas as an excuse to have a day a off from work. This fictional story unfortunately rings true for a lot of people who have to work up the courage to ask for things from their employers. An employee who has to feel about their employer the way Bob Cratchit felt about Mr. Scrooge is not a very happy and productive employee. To get the most of out of your workers, you have to create a much more hospitable working environment. To create a better working environment, keeping the lines of communication open is absolutely crucial. How does communication work in your office? Do you get the impression that everyone is walking around on eggshells around you? While this kind of fear from your employees may be good for your ego in some senses, it is really bad for your business. When your employees don’t feel like they can talk to you, you will lose control over what is going on with your business. You may be the boss, but your employees are the ones who are actually on the front lines. To know what is really going on out there, you need your employees to communicate honestly with you. If they feel that you are unapproachable, they will hide problems and concerns from you, and you won’t be able to act to fix them. You can’t expect to run your business with half of the information about what is actually going on, and so your business will suffer for your “mean boss” routine. There are still other problems with creating an office environment in which your employees feel like you are unapproachable. In general, there will be a dark cloud over the office when you are around. The stress will keep employee morale low, and employees with low morale are employees with low productivity. Besides, who wants to work hard for someone they cannot approach or who doesn’t show they any respect? Shutting down those lines of communication will definitely affect your bottom line as employees “phone it in” because they don’t feel invested in making your business a success. If you want a better working environment, you have to improve the lines of communication. If there has been a communication breakdown in the past, take the time to address it with your staff. If you staff is small, talk to them each one on one, letting them know that your door is always open and that you want more regular communication with them. If you have a larger staff, schedule a meeting to address the issue. Weekly office meetings are a great way to keep communication channels open and swap ideas in the office environment. If weekly meetings are not feasible, find some way of touching base with your staff on a regular basis, either through weekly emails or a weekly newsletter. Also, you should encourage your staff to communicate with each other. Sharing information among the staff is a great way to generate fresh ideas and fresh approaches to problems. If your office is suffering from a communication problem, make nipping it in the bud a priority. The pay off will be more productive workers and a whole lot less stress. Who knew work could actually be a pleasant place to be? |