Checking In

Hey Gang!

Once again, it's been too long so I suppose I should probably write something. Things are hectic as always, but I won't say busy because that annoys one of my readers (you know who you are!). I'm finishing up my web "class" which has really just been me reading various books and abusing old friends into coming over and showing me how to do this whole web development thing. It has been a fascinating journey, and I've actually learned quite a bit, but what I've learned most of all is that I don't want to be a web developer. I have always respected them, but now, even more so. What these guys and gals are able to do with the digital medium is nothing short of amazing.

My last major task for the web project I'm working on is securing an administrative directory within the website. I've read about a hundred online tutorials about how to use .htaccess and .htpasswd and I really do understand how they are supposed to work. The problem is that the website I'm working on is hosted on GoDaddy and while they have an amazingly inexpensive service, they don't necessarily do things the way everyone else does. I tried configuring the security the way all the online tutorials told me to, and that didn't work. Then I find out that GoDaddy has recently (as in within the last three months) published a new utility on their "hosting manager" website that supposedly configures everything for you. So I delete all the files I've tried to create manually, and I use their GUI to secure it. Well, that didn't work either. So I remove all the settings, start from scratch and try again. Guess what? Still no good. Finally, I decide to call tech support. I find out that they don't have an 800 number, but they do have a long distance number you can call. I called it and waited on hold for half an hour (using their long distance number). I got a perfectly pleasant, non-accent, English speaking person on the phone. I explain my situation, and he and I test a few links and he determines that it's not working correctly (thanks genius). He tells me that since they don't support custom .htaccess files that it's not truly covered by support. I stop him right there and tell him that I didn't use a custom file. I used THEIR interface to create THEIR file from THEIR admin pages. He asks me to wait on hold while he checks this out (long distance). After about 10 minutes, he comes back and says that he spoke with some other techs and they said that I should remove the settings I created and try creating them again. I stop him right there and ask him if it would help to know that I have tried removing and creating these settings using THEIR interface two or three times already and it still isn't working as advertised. He asks me to wait while he talks to people again (long distance). After about 10 minutes, he comes back and tells me that he is going to have to escalate this call and open a ticket and if I could just patiently wait (long distance) while he typed in the information, he would get my ticket processed. After another 10 minute wait, he came back on and informed me that it will take 24 to 48 hours before someone will even look at the problem and that they will contact me via email when they have something to tell me. We part company with pleasantries. He was a very nice individual, and we were both calm and polite during the entire call. I just wish that their online utility did what it advertised, and I wish I wasn't put on hold so often for so long, but I've been on the flip side of that call, and I know what he was going through, so I can't really blame him (much). I just can't believe they don't have an 800 number. Hopefully, I will have a solution soon so that I can put this whole web development thing behind me.

In other news, there was a really large SCA event this past weekend, and this upcoming weekend is the next Crown Tourney (yes, I'm fighting in it), but this post is now way beyond long enough, and I'll type more about the SCA stuff later (probably after Crown, so everybody wish me luck).