Good morning everyone!
You know, it’s been a long time since I’ve been so happy to see a week come to an end, but I have to say I’m definitely happy last week is over!
It all started ten days ago when issues at my webhost inadvertently took down all of my automation websites.
I’m sure you can imagine that as a full time online trainer and blogger that’s as close to a worse case scenario!
And while the server did come back up early Saturday morning, behind the scenes several of the sites were not fully working, hampering my publication schedule for last week (you may have noticed I didn’t publish any new lessons, videos, or blogs last week…)
So after talking to my current web host’s tech support, I came to the conclusion that this would probably be the best time to search for a new web host.
After doing some research (and shelling out a small fortune,) I began the week long process of migrating all my automation sites over to the new server.
Now that alone would have been enough to throw my week into chaos, but on top of that Windows 10 on my main PC decided to stop booting.
After hours of trying to run startup troubleshooters and attempting to revert to restore points, I was no better off and had to resort to reinstalling everything.
Unfortunately that only bought me 48 hours, after which Windows 10 again found it could no longer completely boot up, nor could it repair itself or revert to restore points.
So I assumed my SSD was going bad and I rushed in a replace and re-installed all the software I use a second time.
You would think those two issues would be enough for one week, however at the same time Google had decided to start marking every website that doesn’t use HTTPS as being “not secure” in Google Chrome.
UGH.
So with everything else going on I also spent much of the week (and half of the weekend) securing SSL certificates switching all of my automation websites over to HTTPS.
And while that work still continues on this week (any blog post or page that displays a picture using HTTP instead of HTTPS will get that page marked as insecure) the lion share of it has been completed.
Even with all of the problems that occurred last week, I’m happy to say the week wasn’t a total bust.
The newly moved websites all seem to be working well, and there is the relief that the almost every page on every site no longer shows “Not Secure” in Chrome.
And, knock on wood, the new SDD and Windows 10 seem to be getting along just fine.
I was even able to record three new lessons for my upcoming Micro800 course, Nano Basics, which I plan to launch later this week in an early access sale.
That said, I do pray that all of last week’s issues are truly behind me and I can get on with creating new affordable automation courses for all those out their who need to learn how to use these products on a budget.
Have a great week 😉
Until next time, Peace ✌️
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Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
Eliminate commercials and gain access to my weekly full length hands-on, news, and Q&A sessions by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
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[…] A week full of challenges […]
Wow, Shawn, that pretty much tops my week. Surprising about Win10; we don’t use it at work, of course, but I do at home on several machines and have found it rather stable. But then, I don’t subscribe to any of the beta builds, as I’m sure you don’t either.
Personally, I’d rather switch to Linux, but everyone else in my house is stuck on windows. So I go along.
I was gonna chide you about not switching to HTTPS, but I see Google got there first.
Is no fun switching web hosting services. I do feel for you on that one.
Sorry I missed your post Rich, I check the forums (TheAutomationForums.com) daily but not these comments.
[…] A week full of challenges […]