web hosting suggestions?
23:36, 25 November 2007
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I'm looking for suggestions for a company to do my web hosting AND email hosting. I am looking to hear from actual customers who are satisfied with their service and want to recommend such -- not from companies themselves.
Some background: for many years, I paid a LOT of money to a web host that also provided me server space for my email addresses. The good part was that it was oh-so-reliable -- in 10 years, it went down *maybe* once for a significant period of time, and customer service was awesome (immediate and responsive). But I decided that the charges were WAY too much, and went looking for another web and email host. I went with an organization that was MUCH cheaper, and said to cater to nonprofits and small businesses. Sadly, while I've saved a lot of money, service has been awful ; my email or web site has gone offline at least four times in less than two years, most recently for four days, and customer service, when I can reach him (sometimes takes days), just shrugs and says, "Sorry."
Please contact me with your recommendations. Thanks.
Speak Out for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia
07:59, 25 November 2007
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She has become known as the "Qatif girl", a reference to the largely Shia town in Saudi Arabia where she lives. In March 2006, when she was 18 years old and engaged to be married, she was at a mall with a close male friend. They were attacked by a gang of seven men. Both she and her friend were gang raped. Four of the attackers were convicted of kidnapping, but the court also sentenced the rape victim and her friend to receive 90 lashes each for the crime of "illegal mingling". In November 2007, the court INCREASED the woman's sentence to 200 lashes and six months in jail. It also banned her lawyer from the courtroom and took away his licence. The Saudi justice ministry said the sentence was justified because the woman was in a car with an unrelated man.
Yes, that's right: Saudi Arabia has jailed a gang rape victim, and will soon unleash a horrific physical punishment upon her. That a woman who has been raped should deserve any kind of punishment at all is hard for most of us to grasp -- that she will be further brutalized is incomprehensible and absolutely shameful.
The woman's husband has stood by her in a very public way; through CNN, he is appealing to the international media to increase pressure on the Saudi government to have the sentence reversed. He said "The court proceedings were like a spectacle at times. The criminals were allowed in the same room as my wife. They were allowed to make all kinds of offensive gestures and give her dirty and threatening looks." Yes, in the 21st Century, this kind of shameful behavior is happening.
There has been little response from the USA administration -- apparently, Saudi Arabia gets a blank check when it comes to human rights, but Burma better watch out!
You can read more about the story from Human Rights Watch. And you can take action by writing the Saudi Arabia Embassy in the USA, and telling them that such behavior is outrageous and shameful to Islam and humankind. Also, write your congressional representative and tell him or her that you expect MEANINGFUL action to be taken on their part to speak out about this outrage. Use respectful but FIRM language. Remember: silence means approval.
