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You may remember that last year around this time we reported that we placed fourth in the DevProConnections Community Choice Awards.
Well I’m proud to announce that this year we placed – fourth!
Again.
And just like last year, we’ll take it, since the top three are the same behemoths that eclipsed us last year (Amazon, GoDaddy and DiscountASP.NET).
We feel pretty good about placing above Rackspace, another monster host that could lose more customers than we have and not even notice it.
But next year – you’ll see – we’re going to crack that top three!
We’re working hard on some cool new stuff (if I tell you about it now, they’ll fire me), but suffice it to say that we’re always working to make Winhost the world’s best hosting platform, and the kind of place where your sites can be proud to live.
Here’s to fourth place, and nipping at the heels of the giants!
I don’t know who put them there, but there are several desks and office chairs taking up parking spaces in the underground garage here at the office.
I assume they are left over from a bank that recently vacated, but I have to say that I’ve worked for hosts in the past that would see this as a perfectly viable alternative “work space.”
In fact, it would have been a step up in some of the places I’ve worked.
I’m not naming names, but if you worked in the hosting industry in Los Angeles in the decade from 1996 to 2006, you probably know the two hosts I’m talking about.
(Their initials were Affinity and PowWeb.)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Last year you turned out in force and voted for us in the DevProConnections Community Choice Awards, and we placed fourth behind some industry heavyweights!
Well guess what? We are nominated again! And it would be great for this still scrappy upstart to show the big boys what we’re made of. If you have a couple of minutes to spare, we would appreciate your vote!
We’re listed under 10. Hosting Service. Voting closes on Friday the 28th, so please pop on over there as soon as you have a chance.
It would be quite a feat to move up in those rankings considering the competition, but anything is possible, right? Vote!
And thank you for your time, your support, and most of all, thanks for using Winhost!
A few minutes ago the space shuttle flew directly over our offices here in Pasadena.
Well, that’s not something you see every day.
Better pictures to come, but here are some phone pics in the meantime.
(Updated pic:)
Here in Los Angeles there will be an annular solar eclipse visible on Sunday, with the moon covering 86% of the sun at its peak. Since it’s not necessarily wise to look directly at the sun, we made some ultra-high-tech eclipse viewers available to everyone here in the office.
The first 20 or so were snatched up pretty quickly, but there are still a few available if you find yourself in my office between now and Sunday.
And if you are in my office on Saturday or Sunday – get out of there! Jeez, there’s no privacy anymore.
If you look through the eclipse viewer and you aren’t looking in the direction of the sun, here’s what you see:
It’s actually pretty cool to look at the sun through these things, but also a little weird. Your brain seems to know you shouldn’t be doing it, but it’s safe, and the sun doesn’t look so tough when you filter out all that light.
On June 5th we also get to watch Venus pass in front of the sun. which is just as cool as a solar eclipse, but much more rare. It will probably look less impressive too—a little dot crawling across the sun—but I’ll still be out there looking at it.
The last time we could see that was 1882, and if you miss it on June 5th you’ll have to wait until 2117 for the next one.
At which point we’ll all be way too old to look at the sun.
It’s that time of the year when gift baskets start to show up at the office. We appreciate the gesture, and many of us appreciate the stuff inside the baskets.
With some exceptions. There has been one particular basket that has been in the break room for a week or so, and it is completely empty. Except for the half bag of Huckleberry popcorn.
You may ask, “Hey, what is Huckleberry popcorn?” To which I’d have to answer, “I don’t know,” because I’m not putting that stuff in my mouth. Apparently someone has eaten some of it. But the fact that it’s still there after a week tells me it is not currently the most popular thing in the room.
If anyone wants to try Huckleberry popcorn I’ll send it to you. But I can’t be responsible for what happens to you if you eat it. You’ll have to sign a waiver of some sort. At the very least.
You might remember that back in September we asked you to vote for us in the DevProConnections Community Choice Awards. A lot of you must have responded, because we placed 4th!
You might think 4th place is nothing to brag about, and usually that’s true. But look at who we placed 4th behind:
When you look at those kind of heavy hitters, the fact that Winhost, as a relatively young upstart, managed to rank anywhere near them is kind of amazing.
We work hard to provide the best hosting service anywhere, and it’s great to have the .NET hosting community tell us that we’re doing a good job.
And most of all, we thank all of you who voted for us. You are the reason we get out of bed every morning (or every afternoon, for those guys on the night shifts) and look forward to coming in to work.
So yeah, maybe we’re the only people who are goofy enough to announce losing, but to us, it’s a major win.
Like a lot of companies, we have a lot of whiteboards in the Winhost offices. Dozens of them. Most are full of important technical schematics, notes and other sorts of everyday tech company things.
But outside of the break room there is a whiteboard for suggestions. Meaning ways to improve the service, provide more value, bring more users to the fold. A few days ago someone decided to add “Company softball team” as a suggestion. You can see what happened after that:
The yellow text says, “MURDERBALL,” and I’m not sure I want to know what that is.