Positive Internet Blog
The latest in news, thoughts, and fun about getting the most out of the cloud, hosting, managed services and open source software. Subscribe to our RSS feed.
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Apr112012
Positive Internet helps set another world record with the Big Egg Hunt
Anyone visiting London in the last few months will have noticed that large eggs have appeared throughout the city as part of The Big Egg Hunt. These intricately decorated pieces of public art played their part in promoting an auction - both online and at Sotheby's - in aid of the magnificent charities Action for Children and The Elephant Family.
We at Positive Internet were asked to supply and manage the hosting infrastructure for the live online auction. Working with our client, we agreed on and then provisioned a managed failover cluster, also known private cloud. We took the responsibility seriously: the thought of the final moments of such an important live event's ruination by a server crash or network glitch is the stuff of bitter nightmares. Not to mention that such a failure could deprive this charities of hundreds of thousands of dollars that they depend on to continue their great work.
In the end, the hard work paid off, because the online and Sotheby's auctions raised well over a million dollars for the worthy causes, with the Positive Internet managed cloud never missing a beat. Alan Newman of Sensible Development, Positive's client who supplies the live auction software, coordinated the whole project between Positive, the charities and creative agencies.
After the successful end of the project, Alan said,
"We have worked with Positive Internet for many years: they understood exactly what was required for this high-profile project, and tailored the cluster so it'd cope with bursts of extremely popularity. As part of the VIP managed service, Positive engineers offered live support throughout the auctions. They made sure everything went without a hitch. Positive is a partner rather than a simply a 'provider': everyone from senior managers through to the oncall engineers is a pleasure to work with. It's clear they care about our projects as much as we do".
Such kind validation of our team really helps our egg-os. Of course, we work egg-stremely hard to ensure our managed service always entails this level of attention to detail; however, when we muse on the work that Action for Children egg-sel at, it's egg-straordinarily gratifying to know that our service has played a part in allowing them continue doing it so egg-selently. This evening, we're egg-suberant to find out that this is the second project in which we've been involved that's won a Guinness World Record! Indeed, it's won two. Frankly, we're oeuf-er the moon. (sorry - we'll egg-ress now).
For projects large and small, managed hosting and cloud servers from Positive Internet can help make your next commercial or non-profit project a worry-free success. We especially love supporting the great work of non-profits and offer donations or substantial discounts so that you can focus on doing more good. Get in touch with us today.
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Mar292012
Podcasting: now remarkably unremarkable (and that's a great thing!)
Positive Internet though our Jellycast service are veterans at podcast hosting and distribution. Since we won the Guinness World Record with Ricky Gervais for his podcast we continue to help host and manage top-rated global media extravaganzas for people like Stephen Fry, and for organizations like the British Council.
Our most recent client to reach the iTunes top podcast slot is Iain Lee's Pocket Radio Show. From just an idea discussed to a global sensation in mere weeks, this is just another of those unremarkably remarkable success stories that the team at Positive Internet helps make possible.
Iain, a well-known television and radio personality, decided to devote his proven talents to podcasting. This is podcasting 2.0: professional, interactive, with the sophistication of a traditional radio program but with the immediacy of new media. All the finesse one would expect from a professionally produced program is there: phone-ins, interviews, jingles - the signifiers of "proper" broadcasting that just a few years ago would have demanded the backing of a huge established media-organization to marshal, but today require little more than a microphone, a laptop and an affordable mediacasting account with Positive Internet or Jellycast.
As the podcasting has evolved, an increasing number of professional people are focusing on podcasting as their primary or even sole means of communicating with the public. The freedom that podcasting gives creative people has been an obvious lure from the start; as audiences have proven themselves loyal downloaders, an increasing number of popular podcasters are finding that they are able to sustain themselves financially through cultivating this audience, by obtaining sponsors and through democratic patronage from their followers.
Thus, Podcasters now control their own media destiny in ways unimaginable under the old broadcasting hierarchies. This freedom is intoxicating. Listeners enjoy the closer relationship they have with the broadcaster, without the alienation of intrusive middle-men.
In a sense, then, what is now remarkable about podcasting is how unremarkable it has become. We take for granted the ability to select and download audio programs at will. Commutes, flights, jogs and even hospital-stays now seem unimaginable without our favorite stash of comforting audio-accompaniment. And popular podcasts, like Iain's, are garnering tens of thousands of loyal listeners by the day.
Just a decade or two ago, the notion of getting radio-sized audiences by recording something in one's basement and uploading it to a service like Positive Internet's Jellycast Podcast Hosting would have seemed absurd science fiction. Now becoming a radio star is simply another in the range of services we offer. We work hard to ensure that our mediacasting bandwidth, reliability, support and speed is second to none, so that we can fade into the background and allow our hundreds of media champion clients to shine, and some to propel themselves all the way to the top of the charts. Just like Iain has done over the last few weeks. -
Feb292012
Leap Day: Freedom and Privacy Edition
Happy Leap Day!
We are going to use this lovely extra day in February to just remind everyone that Internet titan Google is changing their data use and privacy policies, which they even say is important stuff. Yet, the vast majority of gmail, search, youtube, and so forth users will never read this and never understand the high price they pay to use these "free" services.
Free Internet friends over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have put together a great guide on steps you can take to delete your Google history before the March 1 deadline and thus hopefully minimize the harm. In general, you'll also learn more about these changes and why they are so important.
Good luck!
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Jan192012
Richard Stallman speaks tonight in Boston about SOPA, PIPA and Internet Freedom
There is still some space available to hear the founder of the Free Software movement and President of The Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman speak about the proposed SOPA and PIPA laws and what we need to do to secure the freedom and power of the Internet.
Full details about this great event, including how to register for free, can be found on our events page.
See you all tonight!
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Jan182012
Free hosting for sites participating in the SOPA & PIPA blackout
Positive Internet is pleased to offer free hosting for sites participating in the SOPA & PIPA blackout today, January 18, 2012
The Positive Internet Company, a specialist GNU/Linux hosting, cloud services provider and Free and Open Source software advocate, supports its clients who are shutting down their websites on January 18, 2012 in opposition to the pending US SOPA and PIPA legislation by providing a them with free hosting and managed services for the duration their site is blacked out.
"Our clients, whether big or small businesses, are making a great sacrifice by shutting their sites down for an entire day to educate their users about, and protest against, these potential laws that seek to restrict Internet usage and we want to do all we can to support them in this important stand for Internet freedom," says Scott Molski, Vice President with Positive Internet. He continues, "it's a small sacrifice that all hosting providers who care about their customers and and the future of the Internet should make. We ask all of our hosting colleagues to join us in providing this aid to these sites and applications who are turning off their businesses to stand up for what's right."
Nick Mailer, founder of The Positive Internet Company and veteran Free and Open Source software evangelist adds that "SOPA and PIPA represent the latest in a decade-long string of attacks against the core principles of network self-determination and liberty. These principles have been the bedrock of the Internet's success, and are not simply ethical niceties but at the basis of its use in a properly free market. As with previous threats, we will not allow our species' communicative freedom to be held hostage by a handful of old-media oligarchies."
The Positive Internet Company is a leading managed services and hosting provider specializing in open source and Free software. Positive partners with startups, small businesses and some of the world's largest organizations including popular media sites like Rocks Paper Shotgun and Stephen Fry, major broadcasters like the BBC, banks, financial services firms, NGOs, political parties and entertainment groups, including the ever-popular 'Angry Birds' franchise. Positive has become the preferred choice for Free and open source managed hosting and cloud services, standards compliance, security and disaster-recovery.Positive is also hosting a number of free educational events to discuss SOPA & PIPA, "cloud computing", and how to get the most out of and avoid the pitfalls of "the cloud". Speakers include Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation, Nick Mailer, co-founder of The Positive Internet Company, and Yuriy Rusko, co-founder of Forumatic and contributor to PHPBB, the leading Free and Open forum and community software. Register today at http://www.positive-internet.com/events. Events from January 19-25 in Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey.
For more information, questions, etc. contact:
Scott Molski
+1 646 660 3252
scott.molski@positive-internet.com@posipeople
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Jan172012
Dr. Richard Stallman to speak in Boston about Freedom in "the cloud", SOPA and PIPA
On Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 6:30pm in Boston, MA, Dr. Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation will give a talk "What the ideas of Free Software imply for network services" as part of the Freedom in "the cloud": is it possible? event hosted Positive Internet.
This event is not technical in nature so anyone who uses the Internet should attend to learn about many of the freedoms in place and how we can preserve them in light of technical change and legal movements such as SOPA and PIPA.
Registration is free for this great and timely talk by the leader of the Free software movement. Register now.
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Jan172012
What's SOPA and why is Wikipedia down?
The Wikipedia community made a bold move in joining the January 18th protest against SOPA. They "blocked" their English-language site for the day. This gave users a taste of the void that might occur were the SOPA or PIPA bills to pass, with the subsequent draconian powers executed.
However much one might be frustrated by the loss of factoid-validation for a day, the temporary loss of Wikipedia is a price worth paying to bring the problems with these Bills to a wide attention. One day's symbolic blackout is a worthy investment in the continuing free and open Internet.
To learn more about the educational efforts by Wikipedia concerning SOPA and PIPA, visit Wikipedia's SOPA announcement.SOPA and PIPA would not achieve what they claim to wish to achieve. Furthermore, there is already plenty of legal recourse for those who believe their copyrights have been breached; indeed, laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act are already considered by most technically-savvy observers to be overly draconian. SOPA and PIPA take the kangaroo-court problems of the DMCA and make them astronomically worse. They take the approach of shoot first, ask questions later. And when they shoot, they use cluster weapons.
The US Government and its agents could command search engines, Internet Service Providers and hosting companies arbitrarily to block and change websites - sometimes completely - after little more than a complaint about one posting on one forum of the site. The host would be ordered to keep the block running automatically ad infinitum, at the very fundament of the Internet. As you can imagine, this would raise the costs of Internet services, as the industry would need to implement tools and procedures to comply with these new laws: tools that serve nobody's interests except those of the censors and their agents.
It will also dramatically shift the balance of power on the Internet. Even now, the DMCA has been used to chill free speech. SOPA and PIPA take that to the final extreme, where media oligarchs and worse will be able to flag sites as violators of SOPA and PIPA, and destroy their online presence totally and radically beyond the purview of any judge.
The peculiarly wide-ranging and ambiguous scope of the proposed legislation can be seen in its bizarre title: "To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes. —H.R. 3261". "Other purposes"? What "other purposes"? This is left to the imagination (quartering soldiers? Who knows?) . And it is astonishing that a Bill should wilfully confuse property with copyright licenses, which remain two distinct legal entities, however successful the propaganda phrase "intellectual property".
We join with and applaud sites, especially those with such broad audiences as Wikipedia, in bringing awareness to this proposed legislation, which is so inimical to liberty and free markets.
If you'd like to learn more, and are in New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Washington DC on January 19-25, please register for one of our free educational events about Cloud Computing and SOPA or a discussion with Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation about SOPA and freedom in "the cloud". -
Dec272011
Happy PosiDays!
Excuses, excuses! We have been rather busy this last year establishing our new PosiCloud and CloudCare Managed Cloud services, gliding more and more clients over the PCI compliance mountain and, as ever, helping some of the most popular sites and services on the web tick along merrily. We'll also have some big anouncments for you January!
Almost inevitably, updating the PosiBlog took rather a backseat to this, but our New Year's resolution is to remedy the paucity of posts here! We hope to provide tidbits on this blog more frequently, and look forward to hearing from everyone about topics you think we should cover. Feel free to mail us at good@positive-internet.com with feedback and ideas, or throw us a tweet on our new Twitter accout - we're @posipeople
In the meantime, we wish all our clients, customers, suppliers and staff all the best. Naturally, we remain on duty throughout the festive period, so should you need help at midnight on Christmas Eve, or a quick chat at 3am on New Year's day, we'll be around, bushy-eyed and bright-tailed. Our five global data centers will remain staffed by security as well as our professional Linux engineers at all times. With perhaps just a little more tinsel than usual.
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Dec232011
Daddy, What Did You Do?
From our colleagues at Positve UK:
The only thing more amazing than the Internet is how we take it for granted. In fact, we can actually slip into holding it in slight contempt. It remains the butt of many a radio panel-show's tedious jokes ("haha, Wikipedia is not always reliable. haha, the Internet contains pornography" and so forth). You'd have thought that nearly 20 years of the Internet's absorption into public consciousness would have dampened such fatuous punchlines. But no, the audience titters still, as if in eternal sympathetic vibration with the 90s collective memory of "it's just a geeky CB radio fad".
Recently, the director Steven Soderbergh discussed his latest film on a radio review programme. The movie makes fun of blogging, which he terms as no better than "graffiti on a bathroom wall". His leading man even wore prosthetic buck-teeth so he could be the "typical blogger". Quelle dérision! Soderbergh mused, happily, that in his test-screenings, the audience gained almost orgasmic pleasure every time the Internet was attacked. They couldn't get enough of Net bashing, which they enjoyed more than the rest of the film put together. The film-reviewers interviewers chuckled along, in amiable agreement. That they then immediately promoted the Internet podcast in which this interview was being promulgated didn't seem to phase them.
Such cognitive dissonance abounds. Even while they giggle nervously, most of the technophobic titterers would rather have a limb extricated than their smartphone. They would sooner cancel the whole postal service than one Email account. However they sneer at wikipedia, they would whimper if ordered to visit the public library every time they needed to look up a footling fact or all-encompassing concept instead of using this astonishing online resource.
In this season of Goodwill to all Men, we should pause to consider what an astonishingly lucky species we are to have managed to coalesce about us something as miraculous as the Internet. A miracle can be defined in a number of ways. One definition that captures its essence without having to rely on playing supernatural games is to term a miracle any happenstance that was somewhat unlikely, and did not necessarily follow the predicted contextual logic of the times. SUch a miracle emerges as a delicate butterfly from a cocoon of capricious chaos. Such a miracle might be seen as something delicate, something as fragile as a growing crystal, however ubiquitous and sturdy its eventual shape. Its formation was mercurial and unlikely and, were we to reverse time and reset the experiment, so to speak, would likely not follow the same path again.
And when you start taking such a miracle for granted, you can put it on a neglectful path to destruction. You forget how lucky you are to enjoy its benefits. You forget how delicately inchoate was its formation. You assume that its features are part of a solidly inevitable march of historical progress. And your hubris bloats to the level where you even enjoy a little contempt for its stale ubiquity. Haha, that wikipedia. Hoho, those blogs. And you forget that the whole complex collection of services and social conventions that make up the Internet is predicated on a fundamental notion of liberty. And you forget that all liberty comes at the price of an eternal vigilance. And you allow the desperate, malign or merely opportunistic to take advantage of this amnesia and eviscerate the miracle. And then you walk despondently amidst the shards of the shattered crystal, wondered what went wrong. But no cyber-equivalent of humming "Where Have all the Flowers Gone" will bring it back.
Early in the New Year, the American government aims to help Big Media to eviscerate the Internet, to destroy the miracle and shatter its crystalline delicacy. As ever, Big Media is blaming "piracy" as its excuse to stamp its jackboot repeatedly on the face of our online lives, and is bundling this repression into a horrible proposal entitled SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). That there are plenty of more engaging and fruitful ways to fund creative endeavours is ignored. It seems we must all be coerced into accepting that a failing business-model from the last millennium deserves no less than full might of the State to bolster its clumsy missteps. Suffice to say, it is sadly not hyperbole to claim that the provisions of this act would help to destroy the Internet. It is technically inevitable. And it would give to the American government the same arbitrary rights of censorship now enjoyed by such places as North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Fortunately, a large constituency of the online world refuses to join Soderbergh's titterers. It is taking action, writing to Congress and fighting against the dying of the enlightened Internet. Happily, this panoply against the disembowling of the Internet includes a wide range of organisations and individuals, many of whom can be found bickering in other circumstances, including Google and Microsoft. You might assume that the fightback would also include the Internet hosting providers of the world. And you would be correct. With one glaring and shameful exception: GoDaddy. We do not make a habit of dissing or even merely discussing our competitors. It is unprofessional and usually seems peevish at best; however, in this case, when the whole industry is standing up against the forces of darkness, we wish to join our ethically-sound competitors in drawing to attention such obnoxious behaviour. This is not the first time that GoDaddy has courted controversy. But this time, it doesn't seem merely happy to exterminate the odd pachyderm: it is eager to help to destroy the Internet that gives it profit. Such behaviour brings the whole hosting industry into disrepute, and we join our honourable competitors in countering this crawlingly tawdry display.
A large campaign has formed to urge people move their domains from GoDaddy in protest at their behaviour. It might be self-serving of us to support such a campaign. After all, capitalism enjoys nothing more than the opportunity to kick a competitor when it is down. This really does go beyond that for us, though. We have always revelled in the miracle of the open Internet, and feel an existential shudder in our core whenever someone attacks it. Thus, if you have domains with GoDaddy, our hostmistress will be happy to advise how to transfer them to someone more ethical. Whilst we would, of course, be delighted to take the domains under our own wing, we will also be happy to advise on how to transfer your domains to any competitor of ours more ethically sound than GoDaddy. This means so much to us that we would prefer to take the hit in time and effort to give business to a reputable competitor than to see GoDaddy remain unscathed by their wilful defilement of the miracle that sustains us all.
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Dec152011
Are online merchants ready for IRS 6050W?
Are online merchants prepared to meet the new IRS requirements now that we are a mere five months away from the date personal returns, and usually that means small business returns as well, are due? Most commonly known as IRS 6050W, the new tax law that requires payment processors such as PayPal and other merchant account providers like FirstData to collect identifying information and then report that information to the IRS takes effect in 2011.
To many small and home based business this law is likely going to come as a shock at tax time (or now as the providers scramble to get the identifying information). We would expect that many smaller merchants might have the "cash business" mentality and are wrongly omitting income from online businesses from their tax returns as they knew it wasn't reported by third parties.
The key items to tax away from this new law is that you are going to have to provide tax identifying information to your payment processor (EIN or SSN). Then, if you exceed $20,000 in transaction value AND 200 transactions, the processor will send all of your revenue information to the IRS.
PayPal has a pretty good information page that goes into more detail and for those who are really interested you can sit by the fire and dig into the US Code.
All in all, yet another sign that the wild west era of the Internet is coming to an end. So this year and years forward, make sure you are accounting for your tax liability in all your online business and properly reporting the income to the IRS as for the first time in history, someone else will be reporting it too.While we at Positive don't get involved with the Internal Revenue Code, we host many Level 1 PCI DSS apps and sites and are PCI hosting and PCI compliance experts and can happily help you with any payment need or refer you to experts who have specialized expertise such as with 6050W.
Looking for something older? Visit the archives.