From Christmas day through January 6, if you refer a friend, they get $15 off their set-up fee, and you get $10 off your next month’s bill.

Tell your friend to use the coupon code “Stocking Stuffer” for their discount–and make sure they e-mail me so you get your $10 off. And… if they stick around for 3 months or more, you still get your kickback.

Ain’t it just a joyous season to be a Geek Niche Customer?

–
M Blaze Miskulin
President & Chief Elf
Geek Niche, Inc.

Yes, it’s that time again. Actually, it’s past that time, but I’ve got a very good reason for being late (no, it’s not because I was being lazy): We’ve been doing some upgrades!

The Plesk control panel is now up to version 8.1, and with that extra decimal comes several nifty new features.

One of the first things you may notice is that some there’s a few changes to the way things look. For example, the spam-filter section of your mail controls is now tabbed. There are a few other little tweaks in the look here and there, but nothing that should be confusing.

Now… on to the important stuff: New features!

One of the biggest is the partnership of Plesk with Fotolia. What’s Fotolia?

SWsoft (the maker of Plesk) has partnered with Fotolia, the first worldwide social marketplace for royalty free stock images, allowing individuals and professionals to buy and share stock images and illustrations. Fotolia offers the largest image bank of free and affordable royalty free photos and illustrations perfect for any medium, web or print. For a limited time, you can receive a 20% discount.

What does this mean for you? It means professional-quality photographs and graphics for your website–legally!

For the stat-hounds out there, Plesk has added the option of using AWStats instead of Webalizer. Where Webalizer gives you a nice overview of how your site is being viewed, it doesn’t let you get down to the nitty-gritty details. AWStats changes that. It gives a lot more information, and lets you see every last page hit, referrer, and keyword search. It shows you how many of your viewers are using which browsers, how long they’re staying at your site, when they’re coming in, and a whole lot more. If you’re just interested in the big picture, stick with Webalizer. If you’re obsessive about your stats (like I am!), you’ll definitely want to switch.

Right now, individual users can’t change the setting on their own (it looks like you can, but you really can’t). Just drop me a line and let me know that you’d like to switch over to AWStats, and I’ll do it for you. It takes about 24 hours for things to switch over, so you won’t get the details until the following day.

For those of you who just have to check your e-mail–even when you’re nowhere near your computer–there’s something new for you! Mobile IMP lets you check your e-mail from anywhere (provided you have the appropriate geek accouterments).

Mobile IMP is a Horde web mail extension that allows access to web mail through mobile devices such as WAP phones or PDAs. Basic IMP functionality is available, including mailbox viewing and paging, viewing messages, deleting, replying, forwarding, and composing new messages.

Don’t worry, geeks. You haven’t been forgotten. With Plesk 8.1 comes MySQL 5.0 Ooooh. Aren’t you excited?

Don’t forget to check out the Application Vault for new additions and updates of your old favorites: 37 applications free and easy to install.

And if you haven’t been into Plesk since the last upgrade to 8.0 (where have you been?!) there’s this wonderful new “desktop” that puts upgrade information, basic stats, and the most commonly-used tools all in one place. You can even create shortcuts to your “favorite” screens within Plesk.

And that’s not all! Order now and get the Samurai Tomato Slicer!! Umm…. sorry… ignore that. I was having flashbacks to the old Ronco commercials.

That reminds me, however…. It is getting close to Christmas: that wonderful time of year when Santa brings all the good little geeks new computers. And, as you know, every computer user needs their very own website. Right? Luckily for you, we have our referral program: Whenever you refer a new customer (and they let us know about it) you get 10% of their hosting cost deducted from your bill–for as long as they’re with us (some restrictions apply–of course). In D.C. they call this a “kickback”. Around here, we call it a “thank you” (it even has the approval of our ethics committee).

And…. check back here on Christmas morning. Maybe Santa will have left a little something extra under the server.

On a less silly note: we are coming up on a season which is important to a lot of people of a lot of faiths. No matter if you’re waiting for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, the Winter Solstice, or the start of the ice-fishing season, remember to take some time to step back and remember what it’s all about. Those who celebrate Ramadan have recently been through their season of charity; many of the rest of us are entering ours. Below are just a few of the options for helping those less fortunate than ourselves.

Child’s Play
Salvation Army
Red Cross
Empty Stocking Club
Any Soldier

And our very own Christmas Fairy has a few suggestions of her own.

Well, that newsletter was worth the wait. There’s nothing better than ending the year with a bang (unless the bang is the sound of a server exploding… then it kinda sucks).

Have a good December. I’ll see you next year.

—
M Blaze Miskulin
President
Geek Niche, Inc.