What is the Safest Free Website Hosting Service Available to the Public?
This is a good question. Unfortunately, there really is no “safest, free” web hosting service out there. However, I will discuss the good, bad, and the ugly of using a “free” web hosting service.
Please remember anytime you use a “free” online service, the service itself is not really free. Why? Well because they have your data. Today, data is like a product to sell. People can sell data they collect to people like advertisers and private companies who can make use of it (for good reasons…or bad reasons).
Unfortunately this data is usually personal information you provided through a “free” e-mail account, “free” instant messaging service, “free” video call (e.g., Skype), “free” web hosting account, “free” file storage (who puts their personal files [like photos] on a random, who-knows-who-really-owns-it server anyway?), “free” video hosting service (e.g., YouTube), etc. You get the idea.
The companies that provide free web hosting services are very likely selling your data to other companies. In addition, this is why if you do anything personal on your “free” web hosting account, it really is not private.
The Good
- No technical knowledge of hosting websites needed to get started
- No worry about making backups (if using a good provider; I would still make my own backups to be on the safe side)
- No worry about server maintenance (e.g., replacing failed hardware, restoring a server operating system because of a successful hacking attempt, managing server upgrades, etc.)
The Bad
- No control over how much disk space you can have (since it is free, you cannot demand them to give you more disk space than they already provided you with)
- No control over how much bandwidth you can have (since it is free, you cannot demand them to give you more bandwidth than they already provided you with)
- No control over service outages (they probably will just silently fix the issues with little to no notifications about what happened)
- They usually will not be very reliable, since they are not making much money (from web ads) if any money at all.
- You probably will not know who really is running the free web hosting service. While that is not necessarily a problem, I personally would want to know who is hosting my web sites.
The Ugly
- No control over your data (they have your website data you do not!)
- Anyone at the company (or individual hosting free accounts) can snoop in your website data that you have uploaded to their servers.
- Your “free” web hosting service with _all_ of your data could be deactivated and erased with no prior notice for _any_ reason they deem acceptable.
- Your data may also be stored permanently in backups the free hosting service makes, which means when you delete data off their servers; it really is not deleted, since they can restore your deleted data from a backup!
- They can up and “disappear” overnight, taking your websites with them (in other words, do not be hosting your business website on a “free” web hosting service!). Since they are “free”, they have no obligations to any of their users.
You may want to consider carefully reading the “Terms of Service” agreement for “free” web hosting providers to see how they deal with their users’ privacy.
Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers
What Does the Bible Say About Evil?
Isaiah 5:20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 32:6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
For a fool speaks nonsense,
And his heart inclines toward wickedness:
To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry person unsatisfied
And to withhold drink from the thirsty.
John 3:20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
Mark 7:21-22 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
Job 4:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity
And those who sow trouble harvest it.
Proverbs 4:14-16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Do not enter the path of the wicked
And do not proceed in the way of evil men.
Avoid it, do not pass by it;
Turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;
And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.
Proverbs 8:13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverted mouth, I hate.
Proverbs 12:20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,
But counselors of peace have joy.
Romans 2:8-12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;
Posted in Christian
Biblical Account of the World Wide Flood
Genesis 7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.” Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.
Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.
Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.
Posted in Biblical Accounts, Christian
Signs you are Dealing with an Online Troublemaker
This is a short blog telling you about a few things that online troublemakers do, and how to spot them in a conversation.
Please remember that not everyone who posts online sounding upset is a “troll”. They may have just had a bad day, and something someone said set them off.
Also just because someone calls someone else a “troll” does not necessarily make them one. Many times people will call other people “trolls” just because they disagreed with them. That is not right nor honest.
- Personal attacks
Many times, online troublemakers (e.g., trolls) will post a quick message with a personal attack in it. They usually will have little to no discussion about the topic at hand, and they will just seem to want to call people names and taunt people. Basically they will give pointless talk with little to no technical arguments.
Conclusion: If an online poster (in a comments section or forum) keeps “trash talking” (abusing) users, they are probably just out to cause trouble and nothing more. It is best to ignore such posters. As they say, “don’t feed the trolls”.
- Out of Context
You may find online troublemakers posting unrelated information.
For example, a discussion is going on about Windows and a fella comes on and starts saying how bad Windows is and how MacOS X is a much better choice.
This person is a troll. Why? He is posting irrelevant information that has a good chance of causing people to become agitated. While there is a chance that he is honestly posting information, it would be unlikely given the circumstance.
Conclusion: Posters who post off topic for no apparent reason usually have an agenda that is not in your (or anyone else’s) best interest.
- Fake Sincerity
These people are harder to spot. They usually come in the form of wanting to know more about a subject, but when you engage them in conversation, it starts to become apparent they already made up their mind on the subject, and for some reason wanted to debate it with you.
I think people who do this are trying to trick you into believing just like they do, without you realizing it.
Conclusion: These posters are definitely wasting your time playing dumb. They were not even open to an honest, mature conversion to begin with. Do not ask me why people do that, but it is dishonest.
- They have the “know-it-all” attitude
These posters like to post to show off their knowledge (as well as feed their ego). They really do not care if you learn anything from what they said (assuming they are correct to begin with).
They just like hearing themselves talk and they like thinking that everyone around them assumes they are smart.
Conclusion: If you see a post online that seems to go on and on with a hint of bad attitude, you have a clue that this person will not take criticisms of their posts lightly, and may even argue with you even if you have shown proof to disprove what they said.
- The “you are wrong!” kind of people
These people usually will reply to someone saying “Your spreading FUD“, “your an idiot”, “your stupid”, “you have some mistakes of what you said…”, etc. You get the idea. They typically will give little to no technical arguments. They basically just say you’re wrong without explaining why you are wrong.
In my opinion, whenever someone says “your wrong” but they cannot explain why, they don’t have any argument and just disliked what you said. That’s silly.
Posted in General, Internet and Servers, Society