• 05/12/2012 - ArtistServer Version 2 on the Horizon
• 05/31/2009 - 18 More Social Sites Added to SocialNetwork.in
• 05/25/2009 - Run Your Own Remix or Music Project at ArtistServer.com
• 05/22/2009 - AudioBoo.fm and YouNoodle.com Added to SocialNetwork.in
• 05/06/2009 - mp3tunes.com - no option to close your account
• 03/17/2009 - How to run a Remix Project
• 09/28/2008 - My Lovely Wife Lou is Pregnant
• 12/14/2007 - ArtistServer News and a new site: FreeMusicLicensing.com
• 09/18/2007 - AritstServer and ToneThis Serve Up Indie Ringtones
• 09/11/2007 - Running LightTPD and PHP on Windows

• 400,000+ users
• Both a free and upgrade version
• Windows only
• Most popular 'mobile' download at Download.com
  
• Download ToneThis

For an overview of ToneThis, watch this interview and demo with Raj Singh, founder of ToneThis:

http://www.podtech.net/home/3993/lunchmeet-tonethis-gets-your-media-on-your-cell-phone

When you first see the demo of the software, take note of the right side panel.

ArtistServer has partnered with ToneThis to provide music with Creative Commons licensing and currently loads as the default content provider when you launch ToneThis. The mp3 used in the demo is by an artist on ArtistServer - very cool! Check out the screenshot below:

This is a great opportunity for artists to gain more exposure and take advantage of a great marketing tool - ringtones. We are serving over 110,000 page views to more than 60,000 unique visitors per month within the ToneThis application alone!

Not all songs are available through ToneThis, only those with one of the following Creative Commons licenses:

• Attribution
• Attribution Share Alike
• Attribution Non-Commercial
• Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
• Public Domain

• High availability – Able to support a large number of simultaneous users
  
• Free – I can't afford to purchase solutions, and I'd like to move more into open source solutions
• Stable – While I am looking for mature solutions, I will try newer options if they look promising, but they need to be stable
• Focus on serving files – If possible, the soltuions will need to be ideal for serving files and supporting byte ranges (ffwd an mp3)
• Can Run on Windows – I'd like to move to linux, but I'm hesitant to change everything at once.

From the lighttpd Web site: http://www.lighttpd.net/

lighttpd is used by many well-known sites. The typical scenario is using lighttpd as off-load server to push out static content and leave to complex work to another server. One example is YouTube. They have a farm of servers which push out the thumbnails you see before you see the movies.

Security, speed, compliance, and flexibility--all of these describe LightTPD which is rapidly redefining efficiency of a webserver; as it is designed and optimized for high performance environments. With a small memory footprint compared to other web-servers, effective management of the cpu-load, and advanced feature set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) LightTPD is the perfect solution for every server that is suffering load problems. And best of all it's Open Source licensed under the revised BSD license.

light footprint + httpd = LightTPD (pronounced lighty)

For my specific case, I now have a test server setup with lighttPD and PHP, and have started working on a translation of my file serving/streaming/tracking code. Once I have the code up and running, I can start testing on linux server and consider removing Windows from the equation. Making a platform change would provide even better performance and a higher number of concurrent users. Why not do it now? Because I'm new to PHP and don't want to change all the elements at once. After I gain a comfort level with PHP, I can start working with it on linux.

Windows + LightTPD + PHP

1. Install Windows Server: I'm using Win2000 Adv Server. Remove all the items from the installer that you won't need on a server, like games, etc. Uncheck everything that deals with IIS, the mail server, and ftp. I suggest using other options for FTP. I don't know of a mail server to use, so if you must, install Microsoft's mail server.
   
   Once Windows is installed, run Windows update and reboot accordingly. Do this until you finally do not see any more updates. With Win2000 Server, I had to upadate 'Windows Update' then do a few updates, then about 54 updates, then another 9, then a few more... so it takes awhile.
2. Download: Now download all the software you'll need to run the server. In my case, this will include:
   • LigHTTPd for Windows: http://wlmp.dtech.hu/down_lighty.php?lang=en
   • PHP: http://www.php.net/
   • FileZilla Server: http://filezilla-project.org/
   • VNC: http://www.realvnc.com/download.html
   • Notepad ++: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
3. Install: VNC Server – for remote access, Notepad++ for editing config files, and FileZilla as your FTP server
4. Install LightTPD: I suggest installing to the root: C:\lighttpd
5. Install PHP: I suggest installing to the root: C:\PHP - during installation, you will be asked to select your server, select 'other CGI' as 'lighttpd' is not a listed option.
   
6. LigHTTPd Configuration – I'm using version: 1.4.18
   • Open the configuration file: C:\LightTPD\conf\lighttpd-inc.conf
   • Uncomment mod-cgi – just delete the '#' in front of it.
   • Uncomment mod-rewrite - same method, unless you don't need it
   • edit "index-file.names" leaving only: "index.php", "index.htm"
   • consider trimming the mimetypes down to what you would be serving
   • edit "static-file.exclude-extensions" - set to ".php" only
   • be sure to create a file for catching errors – uncomment this line after you create the file and save it at the root.: server.error-handler-404 = "/error-handler.php"
   • Uncomment cgi.assign, delete all but php, and add a slash: (".php" => "PHP/php-cgi.exe") to this: (".php" => "/PHP/php-cgi.exe")
   • Set LighTTPD up as a service – first, click on this exe file: C:\LightTPD\bin\Service-Install.exe When I tried this, the registry entries fail, so the next step is to edit the registry and add the keys by hand (or a .reg file). Be sure to replace the lighttpd installation directory with your own. Save the following as a .reg file and double click on it to merge these keys with your registry (if the service installer did not show an error, skip this step):
     Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
     
     [HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LightTPD]
     "DisplayName"="LightTPD"
     "Description"="A fast, secure and flexible webserver - WLMP Project"
     "ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
     
     [HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LightTPD\Parameters]
     "AppDirectory"="C:\\LightTPD"
     "Application"="lighttpd.exe"
     "AppParameters"="-f conf\\lighttpd-srv.conf -m lib -D"
     
     [HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\AuthorizedApplications\List]
     "C:\\LighTTPD\\lighttpd.exe"="C:\\LightTPD\\lighttpd.exe:*:Enabled:LightTPD (WLMP Project)"
   • At this point, you may need to stop/start the lighttpd server service – I use the Computer Management Console – and navigate to the Services icon, then the actual service.
   • In your browser's address bar, type: localhost – you should now see the default index page for lightTPD. If not, possibly the registry keys were not added correctly, or you made a mistake when editing the lightTPD configuration file.
7. PHP Configuration – I'm using version: 5.2.4
   • open the php.ini file: C:\php\php.ini
   • move the upload temp and session directories, and changed their references in the php.ini file:
     upload_tmp_dir="C:\php\upload"
     session.save_path="C:\php\session"
   • locate and set: doc_root ="C:\lighttpd\htdocs"
8. Test the server
   • create a new text file in the web root called index.php
   • type this into it:
     then save
   • in your browser's address bar, type: localhost
   • you should see the php info specs in your browser
9. Alternate Setup: Unfortunately, fastCGI on Windows either doesn't work, or doesn't work very well (at this point in time), which means it won't work with lightTPD. There are many other options for you to tweak and try in the configuration file, my only suggestion is to save a copy of this first version of your configuration file as a backup.
10. Finish:
    • Be sure to setup VNC and install a VNC client on your local PC/MAC if you don't have it already.
    • Setup FileZilla and make sure it's secure. I like to limit FTP access to my office's IP address only.
    • You may want to add a firewall, I like using BlackIce http://blackice.iss.net – but it's a bit expensive. Windows 2000 doesn't come with a Firewall, and you don't want to install one that is designed for a workstation.
    • More Info:
      http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/
      http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/wiki/Docs
      http://forum.lighttpd.net/forum/1

This information is offered for free and does not imply any responsibility nor consultation. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer, but I think the best thing to do is to post to the lighttpd forums.

Good luck in your developments, I'll post again once I have made some progress.

In the past, I've expressed my views about Alexa.com's data and the Web site stats they make available. While I'm sure they've worked to improve their data processing, and have hopefully dealt with the 'gaming' issues (where people would drive their rank up), I'm still unsure that the data is anything more than a generalized indicator for the Web.  Sites like AdBrite use your Alexa rank as a means to show advertisers your site's worth, and many top bloggers quote these same numbers when talking about sites.  Why? Because it's been around for five years, and it was the only option for such data.

Fortunately, good ideas spread, start-ups come to life, and usually improve the overall market by raising the bar. In the Web stats and comparison market, Alexa was joined by Compete.com (last year?), and we can at least compare data between the two services.

I'll leave it to you to visit compete.com to learn how they get their data. Alexa gets their from their browser toolbars.  Attention Firefox users... Alexa now has a toolbar for you too.

I think the best way to compare data between the two services is to look at a specific collection of sites which are in competition with each other - a single vertical market. Since I run a social music site (ArtistServer.com), I selected to compare my vertical as an example. Below, you'll see a table which lists most of my competitors, there are many more than this, although these are what I consider "music hosting services" that cater to artists/musicians, which is ArtistServer's focus.

What do you think? At first it would seems that as you move down in rank, that the numbers would have a greater variance, but that's not the case. The numbers simply jump around - for example, look at ReverbNation or Funender, how is it that their rankings are so different between Alexa and Compete?

I think if we can gain access to a third or fourth dataset from another service, the best thing to do would be to average their rankings together to give us a single ranking.  While the results would continue to just be an 'indicator' and not a real ranking, it might be a step in the right direction.

So - who is going to build the first Web Rank Aggregator? Or does it already exist?

We are not allowed to disclose how many sites are assigned to each server however I can say we do allocate a set number of sites based on the specifications of the server and each configuration has been time/stress tested before it is deployed as a production server.

• This is not written on their site.
• This is not listed as a feature of their hosting packages.
• This is not listed in the Admin area where you manage your site.
• Apparently, not even the general support staff know about this limitation.
• If they kill off your processes, they don't inform you - you would have to discover that it is happening either on your own or if you are lucky, a user would inform you
  

HostMySite.com Support:
The timeout error that you are receiving is from a program that we run on our ColdFusion servers called SeeFusion. It is set to kill any cf process that runs longer then 50 seconds. SeeFusion was implemented to increase the stability of our ColdFusion servers, which it has done. The only way to avoid this timeout on a shared server would be to use a different method of uploading, like ASPupload. Alternately, you could go to a VPS.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact us.

What percentage of Web developers and site owners are cool? Have you ever stopped to wonder? We're talking about a population that designs and builds the foundation of our digital existence. The people who provide the sites, the services, and the means for everyone to explore and experience this "World Wide Web."

Personally, I've judged it all based on my experiences, which have mostly been very positive. Fortunately, I got on this train back in 1996, back when the Web was battleship grey, and developers were hard to come by. Eleven years later, I'm now in a sea of developers and site owners, and yes, my experiences have remained very positive... until recently.

About two weeks ago, I rolled out a new version of my AddToBookmarks script, which is an easy to use solution for adding social bookmarking buttons to your pages or posts. I released the script with an open source license, and some credit/info in the files.

I wanted to see how many sites were using my script, so I do a search at Google that would locate my script: "Del.icio.us Digg Google Spurl Blink Furl Simpy Y! MyWeb," out of the first 25 results, 16 of these sites had stripped out the license and my credit/info from the script, and only 9 had left the license and credit.

Wow - Apparently, only 36% of developers and site owners are cool?!?

Actually, that's not true, as you can't conclude much from a 25 person study, although, these results are not very positive. It seems a lot of people either don't understand or don't care about open source licensing and giving people credit.

It's all very simple, if you use someone's work, and that work has a license and/or credit listed, you leave it. If you create a variation of the item, most likely the license and credit must stay with the variation.



Here are the results from my search:

Has License/Credit: 9

http://www.israelnewsradio.net/the-marty-roberts-show.html
http://www.watch4jobs.co.uk/blog/
http://www.brazil-travelnet.com/index.html
http://www.soccer-game-information.com/soccer-video.html
http://news.stepforth.com/blog/
http://www.onestopwebsupport.com/weblog/weblog.html
http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/zodiac/signsindex.htm
http://www.tophosts.com/articles/?002404.html
http://www.leadership-tools.com/advanced-site-search.html

Removed License/Credit: 16

http://forums.seochat.com/seo-scripts-10/coldfusion-optimization-3214.html
http://starrynightlights.com/blog/?m=200604
http://www.thegnuru.com/
http://ngeorgia.com/blueandgray/
http://www.europeanexperts.org/disp_zone.html?id_zone=33&lazone=VBA+(Office)
http://www.setfocus.com/aboutdotnet/default.aspx
http://rdoctor.com/symptoms_disease/content/blogsection/11/9/
http://www.roseindia.net/tutorialhelp/comment/6225
http://www.evictstop.com/bisf-mortgages.shtml
http://forums.devshed.com/business-news-124/google-to-bid-for-u-s-airwaves-if-condition-added-461312.html
http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/ASP.NET/Working-with-Parameters-with-Crystal-Reports-and-ASP-NET-2-0/
http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/184406031
http://forums.devarticles.com/technology-news-57/effect-of-google-cookie-policy-unclear-ap-107583.html
http://www.scripts.com/remotely-hosted-scripts/web-traffic-scripts/free-google-pagerank-checker-webmaster-tools/
http://starrynightlights.com/blog/?p=19
http://www.vakaruge.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=173