DreamHost Apps Invitation Codes

Thanks for helping us put DreamHost Apps through its paces. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve gotten so far.

Remember, by signing up during this beta period you’ll have access to DreamHost Apps free forever.

If you’ve not yet signed up, or if you’ve got some friends that would like to sign up, we’ve got some more invitation codes for you at the end of this post.

First, however, we’ve got some exciting news to share – you can now generate your OWN invitation codes that you can distribute to your friends, family, and “other”. Just look at the top of your DreamHost Apps management panel and click to generate your codes – bingo bango!

Right now you’re limited to creating just two codes, so choose your recipients wisely!

Continue reading DreamHost Apps Invitation Codes…

I Can’t Complain

I’m on a plane.

And yeah, I know you’ve been able to write on a plane for a while now, but I’m also going to POST on a plane.

Thanks to Go Go In Flight on American, I will forever more be really red-eye on my red-eyes from LAX to JFK!

Now, the tests.

Porn? check.
VPN? check.
Skype/VOIP? check (even video was fine).
Bandwidth test: 1758kbs down, 215 kbps up, 178 ping.
Price: $12.95 for the 4 hour 43 minute flight.

I also tried running a long ping to Google, and so far, it’s been pretty impressive:

Ping statistics for 72.14.205.100:
Packets: Sent = 1167, Received = 1167, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 128ms, Maximum = 3789ms, Average = 201ms

The wifi doesn’t turn on (well, it turns on, but you can’t connect to the Internet) until they announce you may use electronic devices, but that’s only about 5 minutes into the flight.

You can access aa.com and a few other sites (wsj.com?) without paying anything.

I love farting on airplanes.

I’m really not sure what else to say.

Except maybe, “Hello future, nice to meet you… FROM THE INSIDE!”

Free Hosting from DreamHost is Here

When we started DreamHost back in 1997, we were in it to make money. Throw up a server, get some customers, collect fat checks, retire at 35. Simple!

Somewhere along the way (I think it was shortly after the fat checks showed up) we developed a conscience and decided – No fat checks!

For us it wasn’t enough to just not be evil – we realized that the only way to really feel good about ourselves was to lose money hand over fist, and just hope that we broke even somewhere along the way…kind of like a non-profit!

We took a multi-pronged approach to Operation Money Loss! We resolved to:

• Provide our employees the most comprehensive health insurance package we could find, free.
• Give away free hosting to non-profit organizations.
• Match customer donations to selected charitable organizations.
• Offset our carbon footprint through the purchase of renewable energy credits and carbon offsets.
• Provide financial support to open-source projects that we use ourselves – Jabber, MySQL, Linux-VServer, and grsecurity to name a few!
• Consistently offer ridiculous coupons that, even now, seem like a bad idea.
• Keep all our company cash in the stock market.

I’d call that a good start, but it’s just not enough.

Today we’re announcing DreamHost Apps, a completely free hosting service for web-based applications.

Well, it’s free for now anyway. We’re flirting with the idea of a $50 yearly fee once it’s out of beta…but if you sign up RIGHT NOW to help us test things out we’ll let you use DreamHost Apps for free for ever!

But wait! If you’re reading this and you’re already a DreamHost customer (and why else would you be reading this), you don’t need to worry.. you can already log in to DreamHost Apps with your same DreamHost Web Panel login!

For you, it’s really just an Ajax-ified way to manage your easy one-clicks and any domain registrations. But, for the hundred or so people out there who’ve read this blog and aren’t DreamHost customers… but do want some free hosting of a WordPress Blog, Drupal Site, Zenphoto Gallery, Mediawiki Wiki, and/or PhpBB Forum (plus Google Apps and Gmail) and aren’t afraid to do a little “beta testing” (and unlike some other web shops, when we say beta, we mean it), today must be your BIRTHDAY!

Right now usage of DreamHost Apps is by invitation only. Lucky for you I like your face and I’ve posted about 100 invitation codes in the comments of this post. If a code doesn’t work, it’s already been redeemed – try another one! When the codes run out, I may even post more!

If you’re a current DreamHost customer you’ve already had access to DreamHost Apps for months! That’s because the exact same functionality (minus the free part) can be found under “Easy Mode” in the “Goodies / One-Click Installs” section of your account control panel. There’s no need for you to sign up for DreamHost Apps because you’re already living the dream!

DreamHost Apps customers do miss out on a few perks that paying DreamHost customers take for granted, though. Apps users can just forget about FTP access, SSH access, email, and even technical support.

DreamHost Apps is provided ‘as-is’, and unfortunately technical support is not part of the ‘is’!

You try providing tech support for a free service and let us know how that works out.

For all intents and purposes, DreamHost Apps are entirely self-contained.

You can install and delete any number of apps through the DreamHost Apps management interface, and you’ll use each Apps’ own web-based interface to make application-level changes. Upgrading to full-featured hosting is just a click away!

DreamHost Apps was assembled over the course of a few months by a small team of four hardworking DreamHost Employees, Pete V, Mike P, Joshua H, and me, Brett D. In fact, this is the first major DreamHost project that Josh Jones hasn’t been personally involved in writing in a very long time, so rest assured that your data is safe and your credit card won’t be charged more than it should be!

If you find any bugs, please post them over in our DreamHost Apps discussion forum.

We’ve been working on this for a while, and we’re kind of tired. We’re just gonna take a quick little nap if you don’t mind…

Please enjoy DreamHost Apps!