Open Source Mailing Lists – Why You Should Sign Up

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Tim

If you've got a website, an application or a server doing just about anything, chances are you're running some open source software on it, be it a web server like Apache, or an MTA like Courier.

You've been told that these pieces of crucial software are open source and have community support, and community driven development. You look around for this 'community' and find some really old, poorly designed websites, documentation that hasn't been touched in years, and 'news' posts that don't have a lick of CSS used.
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Re-imagining Fiber Optics With Orbital Angular Momentum Chips and Laser Beams!

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Tim

Developed by researchers in China and the United Kingdom, a new type of microchip has the ability to send out laser beams. These beams have the unusual property of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), or orbital angular momentum. The new chips have implications for the future of optical communications technology.
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Refer a Friend & Save at VPS.NET

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Terry Myers

Today we’re announcing our all new refer a friend special. Starting today share your coupon code with a friend, and you’ll receive $40 in free service credits, which can be used towards any of our services. Best of all, your friends will benefit too, as they’ll also receive $40! Together we’re giving away $80 in total service credits.

There is some fine print – first, we’ve capped the number of referrals at 5 for the month of May. Additionally, to prevent abuse, the credits will be applied 70 days after the signup date. Both accounts must remain active for the full 70-day period.

Not sure where to start? We’ve written a pre-written tweet for you, with your client ID in the control panel at http://control.vps.net/.

Take me to the Cloud, Scotty!

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Terry Myers

Our office has been buzzing with excitement about Star Trek Into the Darkness premiering this Thursday. I'm pretty certain that there are even a few employees who have already bought their tickets to make it to the premier showing. We wanted to have fun with our customers for the movie, so what better way than to make it part of our Social Media Monday contest? It's time to embrace your inner Spock, and take your favorite Star Trek quote and turn it into something VPS.NET or Cloud Related. Internally we've come up with, "Take me to the Cloud, Scotty!"

To enter the contest just direct a tweet to @vpsnet or respond to our Facebook status update with your quote, and we'll pick our 5 favorites. The contest will end Thursday May 16th at 11:59 PM EDT.

The first place winner will receive a Star Wars Enterprise Plush Toy & a Mini Star Trek Phaser gun. We'll be giving the runner ups a Mini Star Trek Phaser gun and a Star Trek Enterprise Mug. Cool, right?

Get those tweets and status updates in!

PHP Built In Web Server [Developer Tips]

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Tim

If you're a web developer and deal with any type of server side platform like PHP, you know the amount of overhead that goes into just getting your code to run, let alone develop. In the past with PHP, you'd have to install a web server, set up some sort of virtual hosts, add a new DNS entry for each project and make sure the web server had some way to transfer and receive data from the PHP interpreter. Only then would you be able to actually run your code in a browser. Well, those days are over.
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Top 5 Benefits of Using a Gentoo Linux Operating System

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Tim

Do you get adrenaline rush by just being on the bleeding edge of programming or computing? Is your dream computer experience filled with images of you customizing every aspect of your operating system? If so, Gentoo Linux operating system is the ideal distribution for you.

Gentoo Linux is a free and open source operating system that allows the user to compile the source code depending on the selected configurations. This feature greatly improves overall system efficiency since the computer is not overburdened with unnecessary programs, and executable programs are optimized to suit the user's exact needs. However, because of the long hours needed to compile the source codes, this operating system is not suited for programming greenhorns.
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Prevent Slowdowns on your WordPress Site

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Tim

Bloggers, both novice and advanced, usually use one blogging platform or another to make their website work efficiently. Among the many blogging platforms is WordPress, an impressive blogging platform with over 40 million posts a month, one that is used around the world, with support in over 120 languages. Just a few of the major players using WordPress as their preferred blogging platform are: UPS, CNN, CBS Radio, TechCrunch, NBC Sports and TED.
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Are You Using A PHP Framework Yet? You Should!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Sajan Parikh

PHP continues to be a widely used web programming language as it's one of the easiest languages to pick up, learn, and make beautiful things with. However, the reasons PHP is such an easy language allow for some absolutely terrible code to be written and put into production. Without some help, you'll never be able to create applications on a large scale with a large team easily. You might think you can, but you can't. Why? PHP on it's own is very poorly structured, doesn't enforce any sort of order, nor does it impose any discipline on you. Which is fine for small things, but can become a monstrosity of a codebase in a larger application. This is where PHP Frameworks come in.
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