2018-01-16
The good old days are over
In December 2002, i tried to run my own dedicated "Root Server", but i had not enough Linux skills to get it running only via PuTTY and a command-line interface, although i already had some experience with SuSE Linux 6.x on the desktop computer through a GUI, also known as Graphical User Interface. They even sent me a printed copy of "1&1 Root-Server Benutzerhandbuch", but i was a student at school, with no time left for studying a user manual, and still doing everything else. In 2005, i got me a "Managed Server" at 1und1, so i could keep up with the high traffic on my websites. On two occasions, i even had 2 servers running at the same time, because i needed to upgrade the server, by moving from one to the other. For example, in 2009, i had to move to another web hosting company, to keep the loading times of my pages low, at a reasonable price.
To give you an idea: In December 2015, i had over 12 million HTTP hits, with over 5 GB traffic, and in December 2017, i had over 13 million HTTP hits, with over 7 GB traffic. Years before, there was even more going on. FYI, i became quite good in optimizing efficiency. But i can't get it to break even since a while: I'm just not getting enough from advertising to make it all work. Google Adsense and Amazon Associates are not cutting it anymore. After 14 years, in January 2018, i cancelled my dedicated web server, and i'm sharing a random server with other customers again, almost like twenty years ago, in 1998, when i had my first websites hosted for free on FortuneCity. But i had a lot of fun, while we grew up together. I hope we stay in touch and think about the good old days, when everything was still possible. Maybe we do something great at a later point. Thank you, Internet.
The Irish band The Corrs released a nice song in 1998: "I haven't slept at all in days. It's been so long since we've talked. And I have been here many times. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. What can I do to make you love me. What can I do to make you care. What can I say to make you feel this. What can I do to get you there. There's only so much I can take. And I just got to let it go. And who knows I might feel better, yeah. If I don't try and I don't hope."