3rd Anniversary and another year passes by

We have completed three years of our existence on Oct 13th, 2009. We thought the business would fare well this year, but from Jan till Dec, the whole year, we have seen the worst performance in our segment, and so does our business. However, this has proved to be an excellent time to figure out who our real friends are!

Some of the web domains which we thought of developing and popularizing have expired and we have seen them go out of our hands. Our hosting service was not available for a full day due to our delayed payment, something that we have never imagined. We have seen our employees leave (or asked to leave) for various reasons. Today, as we complete three years, the owner is the sole employee of the company. Still, we have no regrets and we are enjoying this lean phase as well. The best part is that we have sought help from our friends, partners and well-wishers and they did exceed our expectations. We are grateful to all of them for giving us a helping hand at the need of the hour.

It doesn't matter in which corner of the world we are in or how big we are; all that matters is what we do and how we do it. In these three years, we caught the attention of some good companies and individuals around the world, not because of our list of clientele, turnover or some unique product. It is all because of our openness and agility coupled with tech-savviness, quality-consciousness and technical strengths. So, with a great year ahead, we are poised to grow and serve more clients in the coming months. Again, we thank everyone who stood by us all these years.

Floods in Vijayawada

We thank everyone for contacting us to find out whether we are fine. We are watching the situation closely and The UX Group is safe from flooding as of now, as the flood water hasn't entered Vijayawada city yet.

We have been watching the histrionics, short-sightedness and the after-effects of systematic weakening of the basic administrative structure by the so-called leaders. None of them have the courage to own up this disaster! They blame the next state, they blame the officials of relevant departments, they might blame you and me too. However, when politicians and criminals interfere with the functioning of administrative mechanisms, and when the inept project contractors are taken care of so well (rather than the common man) by the state government and when corruption is encouraged by the government itself, this is very well expected and should be an eye-opener.

Our so-called leaders were so busy mourning for a whole month, that they do not have any energies left to worry about this disaster. They are just making fun of common man's trust in them. The question now is: Does it really matter to them, now that the elections are over?

Partnerships review month

We dedicate this month to review our existing partnerships and to have some new ones, using which we can offer some more innovative services or solutions in our niche areas. Keep watching our company site for the updates.

A note on Joomla upgrade from 1.5.11 to 1.5.12

After the recent upgrade of our sites from 1.5.11 to 1.5.12, while trying to edit a content page, we noticed that not all editing buttons could be seen at the top of the edit window. TinyMCE, our default editor, has got updated in this upgrade alongwith some security and other fixes. Googling, we figured that we have to edit the TinyMCE editor plugin's functionality to "Extended", apply the changes, and go to the extra settings that are now visible for that plugin, and enabled all that we needed. Hope this helps others.

Sun T1000 server sitting pretty in the server rack at last!

This brand-new Sun Fire T1000 server, which we never got a chance to even power up all these months since it arrived has finally been placed where it should belong to! Came with Solaris 10 pre-installed. Our engineers set up DHCP, connected a network cable, and powered it on. We figured its IP fine, but it took us a while to find out the ALOM sc admin password (It is the last 8 characters of its serial number!) for the user "admin". Once we got in, we played around a bit before we shut it down and place it in the rack.

Well, we couldn't place the other server we have (Sun Fire x2100 M2), which we have been using all these days, since the rackmount kit seems to be optional. Need to check with them and order one soon. Overall, a productive day well spent.

Summer Hosting Offer - Pay only 50% on annual plans!

We have just launched another hosting offer, in which, for all the annual plans that we offer, you pay only for 6 months and get hosting for one full year. Since there are limited number of promotional coupons, we suggest that you check out this promotional offer and use it for your hosting needs. We assure you a trouble-free hosting experience with TUXG Hosting.

Oracle buys Sun: Sad to hear

We would've been happier, had IBM closed the deal with Sun Micro; but Oracle buying Sun? To do what? Remembering the past, if this deal hasn't gone through, would they have created UBS (Unbreakable Solaris)? Shame on them for creating UBL in the first place! It is anybody's guess what they have achieved with UBL.

If everything goes smoothly regarding this buy, we need to rethink whether we have to continue our SSE partnership or not. In all probability, we might not. Let's see if Oracle changes its mindset and becomes a better company that we would want to deal with. As of today, we don't want to.

Joomla! Day Pune 2009

Here is a chance to attend the first ever Joomla! Day in India, to learn more about Joomla CMS and to meet others working on Joomla in India. We will be there. If you plan to attend, reserve your seat by March 15th in order to get the early bird discount. Hope to meet you all out there.

Web Hosting Offers - Valid till end of Feb '09

Our friends at ServInt have passed on two coupons, that can be used by anyone who reads this post. Both the coupons are valid till Feb 2009:

Offer-1:
$100 off the setup of any Dedicated Server
Coupon Code: valentine-vs

Offer-2:
50% off the first month of any VPS or SuperVPS
Coupon Code: valentinevps

You can order your Dedicated or VPS Server -> here.
BTW, we have been a happy customer of ServInt
for 4+ years and we can recommend them for their top-notch service.

New design of SolarisMadeEasy Site

It happened somehow finally. Solaris Made Easy , one of our sites which gets lots of diverse traffic (despite nothing much currently ;-) ), has a new look finally. We uploaded the new design today. Hope we get time to add all the content in the near future. Keep watching...