Category Archives: Reviews

York County Archives Deserves Some Credit

Posted on by
Reply

There’s a field I’m nearly obsessed with and it’s very rare for my age: Genealogy. I’m only 26 and have a degree in computer science, so nearly every site I visit related to genealogy makes me want to cry. Sure, the big ones like Ancestry.com are wonderful, but there’s so many sites out there that would be better in plain text. In a field revolutionized by computers, there is still mountains of information hidden in bad websites or simply not indexed. If I were to strike it rich tomorrow, I’d retire and spend the rest of my days volunteering to help convert some of this information to something more accessible.

And then, I stumbled upon the York County Archives site. WOW. My home town, has as far as I can tell, the best archives site on the earth. After finding their site, I search nearly all the local and major counties I could think of. Not one even came remotely close.

They have most of the records indexed and search-able. When you find a record, it has some information right there. Some very valuable information. This service alone would earn this site as one of my all time favorites, but it gets even better. You can order photocopies of any records listed. Now, you’re probably thinking that has to be expensive, Death Certificates from some counties run $18.00. Nope! Not at http://www.yorkcountyarchives.org/ It’s $1.50 per page for email or fax. If you go there in person it’s 50 cents.  If your total order is under $10, it works on the honor system, and they send you your documents first.

Document From Archives

Document From Archives

So, I had to try it. I submitted a request for 3 marriage applications. One containing a relative whom I’ve never been able to find out who his parents were. I hoped for 3 pages of a simple application, one for each marriage, and expected the cost to come in under the honor system of $10, so I could get a quick taste. Well, about an hour later I received an email back explaining that it was 11 pages and thus $16.50. 11 pages! I couldn’t wait to see it. While they only take Discover cards, I was forced to snail mail a check, it arrived a day later. By noon, I had a PDF in my inbox with all 11 pages. Each marriage had the application, the certificate, and parental consent! I know I’m a dork but this was really great.

Lucky for me, the vast majority of my relatives are from York County, so I may have to pay the archives a visit, at the very least I may be ordering a few pages a month for a long time.

How the site became so great is still a mystery to me, I suspected some IT shop won a contract and turned around a great project because compared to the other sites it didn’t seem like archives really worried about their sites. But I can’t find any branding on the website indicating a contractor. If this was an in house project, I’m really grateful for the people at York County Archives.

Thank you York County Archives!

Steadfast Networks – Review – Day 1

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve made the switch. I’m extremely picky about web hosts, and I don’t have many crazy requirements. I barely use any disk space or bandwidth, and although I care about uptime, I probably wouldn’t notice it if I went down for a while.

What I care about is a good price, the ability to pay monthly, quick, and instant access. I am looking for something more of a playground. I program all day at work, so I want to try out new things in my free time. If they don’t work, no big deal.

That being said, I think I found my soulmate in Steadfast Networks. Now, I’ve only been a customer for a little over 24 hours, but so far I’ve had a great experience.

I was a godaddy customer at their $4.95 a month plan. I was only allowed to host this domain. Their control panel while extensive was difficult to navigate and every major action seemed to take several minutes for the server to process. I don’t fault them, but I wasn’t thrilled.

The other day, I discovered that some web hosts are offering an “unlimited domains” under a single account. This was perfect for me, I could play on multiple domains for the same low price. So I began the search for a new provider since godaddy did not offer this service in their basic package.

After reading a ton of reviews, I took a serious look at Site5, Bluehost, and Hostgator. While Bluehost and Hostgator looked great, I didn’t like the fact that you had to sign up for a year. There’s little chance I would leave within a year, but if the service is terrible right at the start, I would want to move. So, sorry Bluehost and Hostgator.

I came within minutes of signing up with Site5, until I found hostjury.com which seems to be one of the few websites host reviews that isn’t an obvious marketing site for a web host. Site5, while it seemed to enjoy great ratings before, was recently bombing out on Site5. Supposedly, some new management was causing problems. While I can’t confirm this one way or the other, I decided not to go with them.

From hostjury, coming in around #5 was Steadfast Networks. From the reviews, the customers seemed to love them. They offered multiple domains and I could pay monthly if I so desired. After doing some snooping, I signed up with their 2nd level account at $4.95 a month.

I was blown away by how quickly I had access to the account and how wonderful their control panel was. It was simple and straight forward. Let’s be honest, most people using these control panels know a thing or two about computers and we don’t need to be glamored by graphics. We just want to be able to do things quickly ::cough godaddy cough::. I transfered a few domains from godaddy paid and free hosting and within minutes the sites were up and running. Multiple domains under a single account.

I tried their one click install of wordpress, and while it worked it was a few versions behind. I decided I’d do it myself. Steadfast’s DB tool was great, the FTP worked immediately, and everything seemed great. Within an hour I had several blog software up and running.

As of right now I’d give Steadfast Networks a 10/10. As long as the uptime is reasonable and they don’t screw up billing I don’t see where this could go wrong. I’ll try to update as I get some more time on their servers.