Dynamic graphing is uber cool

As we continue to get more servers to run our websites, one of the complications that arises is monitoring. As part of the solution, I created a few service monitors to let us know if something goes down. However, being proactive is better than being reactive. Enter graphing.

We now have a dedicated machine showing us cpu and memory line graphs with overlaid text for each server, as well as some bar graphs for network activity to each machine. In the interest of going modern and trendy, I even decided to use a CF card for booting and slax as the distribution for this machine.

Now, on to monitoring the memcached hits vs. misses.

Baked taters are Russian?

I just saw a BK commercial where some dope in a whopper jr costume was at Wendy's asking for a whopper jr. They offered him a baked potato and he responded, "What is this, Russia?"

Uhm... BK, that was dumb. Get a marketing department with a clue before you go offending more farmers.

A drawback of LinkConnector?

Those who know me through ToolBarn know that I use LinkConnector for our affiliate program management. They offer "Naked Link' technology, which essentially shows an image on the affiliate site and runs some JavaScript on the merchant side to track referrals.

As I have started looking at affiliate marketing closer, it struck me that only approved sites can pass a referral for an affiliate. This means any RSS feeds don't count, making LinkConnector a questionable program for bloggers.

I know, I'm on the merchant side so I shouldn't be so concerned about getting a few "free" sales, but as a blogger I see this as a potentially crippling weakness.

Now, they do offer traditional link tracking campaigns as well, but that eliminates most of the reason for using LC in the first place.

Just something for bloggers to keep in mind... A JS redirection page would probably be a good idea so the referrer gets properly set.

Terrorist Google Bombings?

The latest Google bomb for "dangerous cult" has a group claiming responsibility for it. This reminds me of a terrorist group claiming responsibility for a physical bombing. Here we are in the digital terrorism age already... I wasn't ready for that yet.