Slamdot

We’ll be including Phusion’s Passenger (mod_rails) in our feature lineup for Slamdot 2.0 due out in June. This will replace our current FastCGI setup and should improve overall performance for everyone using Rails on our servers. The most important part of this switch is that it’ll enable us to move over to Apache 2 (finally!) which will be great for everyone.

Overall, we’ve got some great things coming (hint: multiuser and reseller functionality) that we’re excited to start showing off here. We’ve been quiet lately as we’ve been working like crazy on the new Slamdot and now we’re ready to start blowing the whistle on some of the new features coming!

You can easily create a Slamdot-specific browser for your Mac OS X desktop with Fluid and the high-resolution logo provided below. We got the idea from our friends at 37signals and wanted to join the fun!

You can find more great icons for other web apps at the Flickr group for shared Fluid SSB icons. Very cool.

We were recently featured on Web Host Directory back on December 3, 2007, in their Feature Host Interview. We really focused on our unique control panel, our mission of simplicity and our goal to keep up with the latest technology to better serve our customers.

We’d like to thank Web Host Directory for featuring Slamdot. We certainly appreciate it, so thank you WHD!

We’d like to extend our wholehearted thanks to all of our customers for a great 2007! We look forward to providing you with more great new features and excellent service in 2008. We truly appreciate your support and we wish you success for the new year! Be on the lookout for a major update in the near future. It’ll be well worth the wait.

We just want to congratulate the Rails core team and the many, many contributors for shipping Rails 2.0 yesterday. We’ve been tracking its development for quite some time and we’ve made all of the necessary steps to ensure Slamdot is Rails 2.0-compatible.

We’re going to finish sprucing up the code and implementing the new goodies in Rails 2.0. Once we release the Rails 2.0-compatible version of Slamdot, it will include many of the major feature requests that we’ve received. One of those features in particular is the ability to share access to your account with friends, family, co-workers, etc.

We’ve already rolled out Rails 2.0 across our servers, so you’re free to go give it a whirl and see what all the excitement is about!

With the recent announcement of the long-awaited IMAP functionality available from Google, we’ve had a lot of customers asking how to go about setting up Google Apps to work with Slamdot. So, let’s get this party started, shall we?

Step 1: Sign up for Google Apps

If you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to first sign up for Google Apps. There is a free plan that will work well for most people.

Assuming you already have a Slamdot account, you’ll already have a domain name to use with Google Apps. So, on the first step of the signup process, make sure that you enter the domain name that you’re using with Slamdot into the existing domain field. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Step 2: Verify domain ownership

Once your account has been created, you’ll receive your login information and instructions for verifying your domain ownership. We recommend that you simply upload the HTML file that Google Apps generates to your public_html folder. This is by far the quickest and easiest option to get up and rockin’ right away.

Step 3: Enable services for your domain

Now that your account has been created, you’ll need to turn on the services that you wish to use from Google Apps. For example, you might choose to enable Gmail, Calendar, and Docs & Spreadsheets for your domain.

You probably won’t need to enable Google Page Creator since your Slamdot account includes web hosting space for your web site, including more powerful features like PHP, Perl, and Ruby on Rails to give your site a dynamic backend.

You should setup custom web addresses so that URLs like http://mail.yourdomain.com and http://calendar.yourdomain.com redirect to your Google Apps hosted applications.

If you’re going to allow Google Apps to handle your email hosting, go ahead and setup email accounts for any users that you created under Slamdot. In the next step, you’ll be routing your email to Google Apps, so you’ll want to make sure it’s ready to accept your mail.

Step 4: Modify your DNS settings at Slamdot

At this point, you’ve enabled the services that you want to use from Google Apps. Now you need to configure Slamdot to allow Google to take over email hosting, as well as setup any custom web addresses you created.

First, log into your Slamdot account with your email address and password (or OpenID). Click on your hosting plan from the Dashboard to access its Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab and proceed to the DNS link.

Here, you’ll need to remove any existing DNS records that may conflict with your custom web addresses that you created. For instance, Slamdot automatically created an MX record and an A record, called mail, by default when you signed up. If you’re going to be hosting your email with Google Apps, you’ll need to remove the existing MX record first by clicking on the trash can icon next to the record. If you used mail for your custom web address, you’ll also need to remove the existing A record for mail.

Now you need to enter the CNAME and MX records provided by Google Apps.

If you’re allowing Google Apps to take over your email hosting, then you need tell Slamdot not to worry about it any more. To do that, simply click on the Email tab and then click on the Edit Email Settings button on the right-hand side.

Toggle the radio button next to the word No and you’ll be all set. Click the Update email settings button to save your changes.

If Google Apps will be handling your email, go ahead and remove any existing email accounts at Slamdot. You can also delete any forwarders, mailing lists, autoresponders, or vacation messages you setup since they will no longer be necessary.

Step 5: Have fun with Google Apps!

Once Google Apps has verified that you’ve configured your DNS settings properly, your services will be provisioned. After a few moments, you can start playing around with the various services you enabled. If you’re using Google Apps for your email, you’ll need to reconfigure your desktop email software to use Google Apps for POP or IMAP access.

Should you have any trouble getting Google Apps to play with nice with Slamdot, shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to lend a helping hand. Good luck!

Today we launched the first of many application installers to come to Slamdot. Application installers help you easily setup popular web-based software for your website.

WordPress installer

The WordPress installer sets up a new WordPress blog for you with just a few clicks. The installer ensures that your file permissions and configuration parameters are all set properly. You’ll be blogging in no time!

Ruby on Rails installer

The Ruby on Rails installer automates the creation of new Rails applications. All you have to do is provide a name for the application and your database connection details. The installer handles the rest of the setup process.

Enjoy!

We hope that you enjoy these two new features. We will be adding additional installers by request. So, if you’ve got a favorite script or web application that you’d like to see included, shoot us an email and we’ll take a look!

We’ve gotten a lot of emails in response to our recent photos of the new office from people interested in seeing our business cards.

So, here’s a closeup…

Kale designed the cards, and we got them printed at OvernightPrints.com. We’ve had nothing but great service from OvernightPrints.com (they even helped with the Spot UV coating for the logo area) and we’re happy to recommend them.

Well, we’re all settled in now! It’s been a long couple of days, moving and hauling furniture around, but we’ve made it! We’ll be working out of the new office starting tomorrow.

Here are some new pictures of the place.

We’ve just leased a new office in downtown Knoxville! The building has a really cool feel to it, and there is a fondue restaurant - The Melting Pot - on the bottom floor, and a bar/cafe just above it on the second floor. Our neighbors are friendly and we’re excited to be moving in to the new space. Here are some pictures of the new Slamdot headquarters:

We’ll keep posting more pictures as things progress. We have quite a bit of work to do, but we’re looking forward to working out of the new location.