RF Cafe Update - Move to a VPS

Greetings:

Thanks to all of you who visit RF Cafe on a regular basis (as well as to those who happen upon an RF Cafe page as the result of a search engine result), the bandwidth requirements have grown beyond what a standard shared Internet server can reasonably be expected to handle. As a result, I have had to move the entire website over to a Virtual Private Server (VPS), which, rather than sharing an Internet backbone connection with 40 to 50 other domains, now shares it with only 4 or 5. That should translate into faster page delivery. The cost is about a factor of 5 higher, but it is long past time for the move.

Over the past year, I have practically lived in front of my computer reworking the HTML code to conform to the most recent Web standard (HTML4.01), and to clean up code for overall efficiency. There is still a lot of work to be done. Side note: HTML 5.0 is set for release in 2022. At the same time, I have been adding hundreds of pages of technical content, which helps draw even more people to RF Cafe because the search engines pick up the pages. All the major search engines spider RF Cafe a few times each day; usually if something is placed on the homepage in the morning, it will show up in Google by evening.

Advertisers continue to report that RF Cafe provides excellent exposure to potential customers as a result of the prominence in professional realms and search engine hits. This is especially important to companies in the poor economy. Print advertising in the magazines is tremendously expensive, and often does not result in nearly the number of leads as RF Cafe supplies (according to many of my advertisers). You folks are responsible for rewarding supporting advertisers, so thanks also for that.

Believe it or not, I have to reject requests for advertising space - particularly in the banner ad locations. Restrictions on the number of ads are done to try to balance quality of exposure for paying customers with the need to keep RF Cafe as efficient as possible.

The page load speed is admittedly slower than most websites, and that is primarily due to the ad graphics having to load. Limits are placed on ad graphic sizes, and I use graphics software to reduce other graphics sizes as much as possible while retaining high enough quality to be easy on the eyes. HTML code is kept to a minimum by through the use of CSS and by not using large JavaScript or DHTML code sections for drop-down menus and fancy effects that normally just annoy people because even in 2010, there is too much inconsistency between browser types and versions to guarantee equal results.

Since I do not send out uninvited e-mails (nor have I ever sold or given e-mails to anyone), and do not advertise anywhere, RF Cafe is entirely dependent upon you. If the opportunity arises, please recommend RFCafe.com to your friends and colleagues. You are encouraged to send me recommendations for website links, articles you have written (I can publish elsewhere unpublished articles and provide links to published ones), photos of your professional/personal or electronics projects, humorous stories, or just about anything else.

As always, I greatly appreciate your visitorship, and hope you continue to return on a regular basis. Take care.

Posted February 11, 2010

Kirt Blattenberger