Downside « Christopher Ross

Posts Tagged ‘Downside’

20
Jan
2010

Canadian Web Hosting

Regular readers of my blog will know that I’ve been a huge fan of BlueHost for a number of years, they’re a quality outfit with great web services and tremendous support but they’re based out if the United States which, while many of you are US citizens and choose to be patriotic … has it’s downside as well.

The US Dollar

The first, and most obvious flaw in hosting anything in the United States is the US dollar itself, with poor performance over the past year a US dollar costs between 95¢ and $1.05 per Canadian dollar but in recent years past, it could have costed up to $1.50 to purchase a US dollar! That means that the $6.95 a month I pay with BlueHost actually costs me anywhere from $6.60 per month to $10.40 per month depending on influences outside my control.

On the other hand, web hosting in Canada would have cost a US customer $6.95 Canadian per month, or as low as $4.63 per month with fluctuations in the currency giving US based business a savings of up to 33% per year for hosting here in Canada.

Privacy Issues

When it comes to domain hosting for the average business, privacy is not something most think about but for larger businesses or membership based websites, hosting a website in Canada has the often unforeseen advantage of being regulated by the Privacy Office of Canada, not the US Department of Homeland Security or the Digital Millennium Act. While it could be fair to say that US based businesses should abide by these laws, businesses not based in the US may find themselves benefiting from Canadian rules over US based laws.

options

Tags: bluehost, Business Privacy, Canadian Dollar, Canadian Web, Department Of Homeland, Department Of Homeland Security, Digital Millennium, Dollar Costs, Downside, Fluctuations, Great Web Services, Hand Web, Homeland Security, Hosting Canada, Millennium Act, Poor Performance, Privacy Issues, Privacy Office, Us Department Of Homeland Security, Web Hosting
Posted in Learning

24
Apr
2009

I’ve lost everything? This can’t be good.

2 Comments

Lately I’ve seen a spike in traffic for an article I wrote last month called 25 Things to Do, Now That you’ve Lost Everything., I guess it’s good that people are finding me on the web but a lot of you guys are coming into the site using keywords such as:

I’ve lost everything
What to do, I’ve lost everything
Everything is lost, is suicide the answer?

Wow. Look, I want to be frank here … I’m not a therapist and most of my advice here is about formating HTML but I do want to share a thought with all of you, the global economic crisis aka the 21st Depression or the cluster fuck we call the new economy will get better … the world is pretty messed up right now and a lot of people have lost absolutely everything but in the end, it’ll all be OK.

It’ll be OK

Let’s say that again … it’ll all be OK in the end. This time last year, I was the Director Corporate of Technology for a leading university, I left my job a few weeks before the world imploded and it took me a long time to accept the global collapse, heck I’ve even written about it here a few times with articles like So You Lost Your Job, Now it’s Time to Live. and What to Do Now That you’ve Lost Your Job but the key is this … in the end, it’ll all work out.

How do I know that’ll work out? Because you’re already doing what it takes to make sure it does … you’re reading articles on the Internet by people who’ve been through it and come out on the other side, it’s a little like a storm and as long as you’ve got something to hang onto you’ll be OK in the end. So what should you hang onto? People, they’re all that matters.

Technology Workers

This post is sort of like a continuation of my piece, Technology Burnout, the Downside of the IT Industry where I talked about the stress levels a lot of IT workers feel and how in the end many people I’ve worked with over the past 15 years reached a point that they snapped and walked out of the industry. One such friend left his promising career and began kickboxing in Thailand, only to fall in love and have a whole new life.

Why am I telling you this? Because as depressing as it is find out my most popular SEO value this week is about losing everything, it’s even more depressing to see that so far today 12 people have found my website while surfing Google contemplating (even briefly) suicide. Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually a proponent of suicide as a choice for those with painful illnesses and I believe that everybody should have the right to choose when they check out of life but not as an alternative or a side effect of a few bad months in the economy.

What to do, instead of killing yourself

First, get over whatever it was that you just lost. Yep, that’s a big one but it’s crucial if you’re going to get back on the right track. Men, I believe have been trained to assume that our job is who we are. We introduce ourselves at parties and tell people what we do, so the loss of our job is in some ways like losing part of ourselves. Get over it. If you want to be something, order some business cards with a fancy title on it and start telling people what you are.

Are you out of money? No problem, Laid Off Technology Workers are Finding Work Online. There are plenty of jobs out there for people who are willing to look for them and try hard. Otherwise, go back to school, learn a new trade or build your own online business. Maybe it’s time to be your own boss?

Tags: burnout, Continuation, Depression, Downside, Global Collapse, Global Economic Crisis, guess, job, Keywords, Leading University, Long Time, Lost, Many People, New Economy, Promis, reading articles, spike, stress levels, Suicide, technology workers, traffic
Posted in Blog Posts

31
Dec
2008

Technology Burnout, the Downside of the IT Industry

5 Comments

For those of you who read my blog often, you’ll know that most of the time I write about how to fix a CSS problem or what to do to improve your WordPress effectiveness but coming out of the holidays, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two weeks talking to friends and I’m starting to notice a trend among a lot of IT workers … they’re giving up, moving on and simply done.

I have a friend from college, who I consider to be one of the smartest people I know. Last Christmas, at age 33 he was the Chief Technology Officer for an IT company in Canada’s largest market. Well published, respected and at the top of the industry. This Christmas he’s backpacking in Asia with no intent of ever working in the industry again. In fact, I don’t know that he even has a computer anymore.

Isolated incident right? I wish.

Another close friend left a management meeting where he was the Director of Information Security, cleared his desk and began applying to jobs as a bartender. Later that same year, a third close friend left his position as the IT Manager for a large shipping company and sells computers on commission at a local big box store. Of the dozens of IT workers I know, these may be isolated cases or statistically irrelevant but it’s begun to make me think that as a community need to look at the stress levels involved in working in our industry.

The one thing that all of them seem to have in common is that they started in the early ’90s and survived the bubbles, the busts, the millennium and nearly 20 years of ups and downs in the industry. The three I mention here all did very well, so well in fact that by the time each was 30, they’d paid off their mortgages or come close to it. Each had reached a respectable level in their industry and left on their own terms.

Maybe for a generation of video game players, this is enough?

Tags: backpacking, Bartender, bubbles, burnout, busts, chief technology officer, Desk, Downside, dozens, industry, information security, last christmas, management meeting, millennium, Mortgages, respectable level, shipping company, stress levels, technology, Ups, ups and downs, video game players, workers
Posted in Blog Posts