by Anura Guruge
on October 25, 2021
This has just gone live. It is a work in progress. In time it will be a full-service resource for all things ‘Bold Coast‘.
Yes, it is another of my many ‘Bold Coast‘ initiatives. But, it will be an ‘open’ & free resource. It will not be just restricted to my interests. I will urge others to collaborate, participate & contribue. So, if you are interested or have relevant content please contact me.
I will keep you posted as I add more & more content. Thank you.
by Anura Guruge
on October 2, 2021
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It is amazing the amount of housekeeping I end up having to do each time I publish a new book. I was hoping that having this NEW Website cum blog, all-in-one, will simplify things. It has. But, it has still taken me 2-weeks to get around to updating the Website. I am sure it is my old age. Well, it is done & that is what matters.
I have already told you about the book — I think. But, just in case, here is the link to the Amazon listing. It is, however, also available across nearly all conceivable platforms — including ‘Apple‘. Here is a sample.
by Anura Guruge
on September 4, 2021
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Kicking out that radical website was a brilliant, decisive, resounding & moral act. Bravo, GoDaddy. As a customer of over 22-years I am very proud of you. GoDaddy did the right thing.
GoDaddy & I go back to at least 1999, if not earlier. Those were the heady days of when GoDaddy was still making baby steps. I switched over from ‘Network Solutions‘ & for 15-years (or more) I could NOT have been happier. GoDaddy was good to I. Those were the days when (saintly) ‘Bob Parsons‘ ran the shop, with his finger always on the pulse. On paper Bob no longer has any executive clout over GoDaddy. But, this move against Texas is very much what I expect from that great man. I am sure he made a few phone calls.
GoDaddy, under Bob, was quite the magical company. I kid you NOT when I say that c. 1999 GoDaddy & I mastered Microsoft ‘FrontPage’ hosting together. Yes, there were technical issues — but, in those days, under Bob, SUPPORT was the #1 priority & they had the so called ‘Tiger Team’. That Tiger Team & I were closely, so many times, thrashing out FrontPage hosting issues. I never dealt personally with Bob, but I had access to one of his direct assistants. He would always step in & make sure I was treated well. In 2013, when Benedict XVI resigned, my (then) ‘Next Pope‘ website, hosted with GoDaddy, EXPLODED. We were getting something like 4,000 hits per second. My hosting plan never envisaged that level of traffic. GoDaddy, even before I called them, stepped in! They had seen the ‘issue’. I was later told that Bob himself was monitoring the traffic to my site. They, i.e., GoDaddy, even without asking (or charging) me kept on increasing the hosting capacity assigned to my website. GoDaddy rocked.
I am GLAD to see that they are back to being the EXCELLENT company they once were.
If you go to my ‘old blog‘ & do a search (on the built-in search bar) for ‘GoDaddy‘ you will find tons of posts — some praising them, some lambasting them.
I am still a GoDaddy customer. Most of the domains I own (& I still own a few) & my e-mail is still with them. They no longer host any sites for I. But, that is OK. I still think of myself as a GoDaddy ‘booster’. This decision, by GoDaddy, to take a stand against the INSANE Texas abortion ban made me proud of GoDaddy. The spirit of Bob Parson prevails.
by Anura Guruge
on August 2, 2021
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I had signed up for ‘CodeGuard‘ backup for this Website/blog when I got my hosting package with ‘HostGator‘ in June 2021. I got a bundled deal (or sorts) at quite a promotional discount. HostGator (& their sister outfit ‘BlueHost‘) as most people know likes to ‘encourage‘ you to get CodeGuard & ‘SiteLock Security‘ as part of your hosting. Yes, I had done my research BUT my main priority was to get this Website/blog up & running ASAP — & then worry about exactly how I wanted to refine, optimize & finetune offerings. And that is exactly what happened with Backup.
I had got the ‘basic’ CodeGuard offering — which is what I had been steered towards. It only comes with 1G of storage. I blew past that this weekend. I deleted a month worth of backups. But, I was still above 1G. I pruned it down to just 3-days of backups. Still not enough. Yes, it was easy enough to upgrade BUT I realized that I would be on a slippery slope. 3-months down the road I would have to upgrade again. This Website/blog is NOT getting any smaller. So, I looked around again.
I already had WordPress’ ‘JetPack‘. It was one of the first plugins I installed. I have been with ‘WordPress.com‘ for 13-years. Though it had never been all plain sailing, on the whole, I had managed to get what I wanted accomplished. I do know the differences & tie-ins between the ‘.com’ & ‘.org’ arms. But, I already had Jetpack & as such I was already dealing with the ‘.com’ even though I was self-hosted. Plus, push come to shove, who better to backup a WordPress site than WordPress itself?
But the kicker was, & I sought confirmation from them via e-mail, the UNLIMITED backup storage. Pay for a year & DONE. No constant harassment to upgrade (at least for more storage). It wasn’t exactly cheap, BUT it wasn’t outrageous either. For what they offer, it was fair. So, I did the deal.
by Anura Guruge
on July 1, 2021
This post migrated over from my old, now archived,
nhlife.wordpress.com, blog.
After more than 20-years I have FINALLY got around to consolidating my Website & blog in one place — under my ‘guruge.com‘ domain. THIS IS IT!
After about a month of research & soul searching I finally opted to go with ‘HostGator‘ shared hosting & WordPress.
‘guruge.com‘ was at Weebly. I was NOT enamored with the Weebly editor. Clunky.
I tried nearly everything out there. You name it, I must have tried it.
Truth me known, I was with HostGator previously — albeit with their template-based ‘Website Builder‘. That was OK, but was too rigid.
In the end, hosted WordPress (outside of wordpress.com) made most sense for I.
But, what FINALLY & decisively made me opt for HostGator is their support.
I had been impressed with their CHAT support. It is very good. Most of the time it is from India (with a lot of female associates) & they have been OUTSTANDING. WOW.
But, I tried the 24/7 phone support a few times. The phone support tends to be from the U.S. Wow. They just go out of their way to be helpful & they know their stuff.
Yes, I know that ‘BlueHost’ & ‘HostGator’ & a number of others are ALL owned by the same ‘investment’ company. But, I think HostGator support is superior to that available from BlueHost.
PLUS, HostGator claims to give you UNLIMITED disk storage. I like that.
So, that is why I went with HostGator. I can’t say enough good things about them. And their pricing is NOT bad too — & yesterday (i.e., June 11, 2021) I could cash into their 70% off rates (as opposed to the 60% rates). SMILE.
by Anura Guruge
on June 12, 2021
I cannot really explain it but it has taken me 20-years to add a companion blog to my Website, i.e., guruge.com. Well, as they say, ‘better late, than never‘. Partly, of course, it was the huge popularity & success of my ‘nhlife‘ (& also ‘nhlifefree‘) blog. That blog still has over 12,700 posts & over 1.6 MILLION hits! But, alas, its success was starting to get in the way. It was getting ‘trolled’ too much & too frequently. Even a few years ago I would have persevered. But, I no longer have the time or patience. Plus, moving on gave me this opportunity. To revamp my Website (after 7-years) & also fuse a Blog, in my name, to it. So, the deed is DONE.
I have archived ‘nhlife‘. It is still there. People will be reading it for decades to come. But, I will be free of dealing with the annoying trolls.
So, this is a fresh start. I am excited. That ‘nhlife‘ did not bear my name per se always bothered me. My posts are so much a reflection of me that they should bear my appellation. Well, as of now my blog will categorically be THE ‘guruge’ blog without any room for misunderstanding.
I hope you will continue to visit & follow this blog. I promise that I will NOT disappoint you. That is not my style, nor my record. Thank you.