You are reading this from an unmanaged Virtual Private Server.

It's such a rare and pleasant experience to find exactly what you were looking for. Just his past week, I asked here and elsewhere for a recommended VPS hosting company. I didn't get -- nor did I expect -- many responses, but at least a couple suggested SliceHost. Positive and detailed reviews of their service were easy to find. I have now moved my various web properties, including my e-mail server and this blog, to a new SliceHost "slice" down in Missouri.

For just $20 per month, I've got complete control over a virtual quad-core server with 256MB of memory, 10GB of disk, and 100GB of monthly bandwidth. It's everything I wanted and nothing I didn't. Ubuntu OS? Check. Root access? Check. DNS zone control? Check. Reverse DNS? Check. Extra IPs? Check ($2/mo extra).

It's early days yet, but so far SliceHost has lived up to its rave reviews.

Now, unmanaged VPSs aren't for everyone: I had to install the webserver, database, e-mail server, and my own klondike firewall and scripnix utilities. But Ubuntu and apt did most of the heavy lifting.

With all that out of the house, I can finally ditch my static-IP business internet plan and switch to a cheaper residential one. I can also turn off my spare-bedroom server without fear of losing incoming e-mail. That'll come in handy shortly as I have to fix the bathroom fan which is on the same circuit.

(It's always a bad idea to run computer equipment from the same circuit as noisy electrical motors. I have specific rules -- often ignored -- specifying into which outlet the vacuum cleaner can and can't be plugged. A dedicated circuit just for the computer equipment would be a fine idea, once the bathroom is finally finished...)