How to Prevent a Hilarious Neon Sign Failure

Plenty of people use neon signs for a multitude of purposes. They can advertise a bar, a business, or they can just be cool decor. However, these neon lights, with all their good intentions, can sometimes go awry. I mean, imagine owning the Canal Street Bar and having the “C” burn out…yeah. Could be bad for business. However, for those who wish to utilize these neon signs, there are some ways to prevent these embarrassing displays.

1. Design

When deciding on a name for the establishment or designing the text for the sign, go through and block out each letter, just to see what would happen if one of them were to burn out. Try to avoid anything disastrous.

2. Preventative maintenance

As with any piece of equipment, it’s better if the problems are taken care of in a preventative manner instead of a reparative one. Having someone routinely come out to service the sign and make sure all the wires are intact and the bulbs aren’t burning out is a good idea.

3. Replace them – quick

It’s really important to make sure that every day, someone checks the sign to make sure nothing’s out. If it is, get the repairman out straight away – don’t let a sign sit in disrepair. While it may be funny to passerby, it also sends the message to customers that the business doesn’t care enough to take care of the issue – or that they can afford it. A burnt out sign doesn’t inspire much confidence in the consumer base.

4. Power down

If part of the sign burns out, turn it off. If the repairs can’t be done immediately, go low-tech with a replacement sign until it can be fixed. Don’t sit around with a sign on the fritz. Also, make sure to turn the sign off when not in business. This will save the bulbs and extend the life of the sign. I mean, there’s really no point in burning the electricity 24/7 for a business that’s only open 12 hours.

5. Learn the basics

Depending on the size of the sign, see if it’s possible for someone on the premises to learn how to do some amateur repairs on the sign. The internet is a wealth of knowledge, and it can save business owners time and money to be able to make basic repairs on their own. Always remember, safety first; and check a few different sites to make sure all the information adds up.

The 5 Best Places to Sit While Surfing the Web

In an increasingly hectic world, it is difficult to find moments to get comfortable. We curve our backs, hunched over computers, muscles stiff from office chairs. Students doing research, office workers at a desk, children reading at the library, and others are forced into uncomfortable and unhealthy positions during daily tasks.

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The 10 Worst Horror Stories About College Apartments

Ah, college. The days when we threw responsibility and obligation to the wind, and lived like we would never die. On good days, we even got some studying in. Cleaning up after ourselves was optional, and while we might have measured our independence by how many dishes we could stack in the sink, it probably made for some interesting horror stories about college apartments near UCF.

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What Every College Student Needs to Know About Borrowing Money

In a shaky economy with an unstable job market, it’s more important than ever before that those students planning their higher education take every precaution necessary to borrow money wisely.

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A Crash Course In Webmaster Lingo

The language of running a website can be daunting. Neologisms, abbreviations and words that span multiple definitions can throw even the most experienced web user off, let alone a webmaster getting their hands dirty with Windows web hosting. The webmaster lingo iceberg is too big to crack in one short article, but here are some of the most common terms you can expect to see.

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The Five Most Extreme Places to Work

Work for many people is not all that fun, and many would rather avoid the drudgery of work as long as possible, looking forward to the fun of the weekend. So, in the spirit of “it can always be worse” here are the five most extreme, awful, and dangerous places to work.

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How to Tell if Your Server is Safe

Keeping your server safe is one of the biggest concerns for website owners and IT managers. If your website is unsecured, it can lead to major hassles with downtime. It also can cost you business and make your customers very unhappy. This is a very bad scenario, so it is important to make sure your website is safe at all times. The best way to make sure that your server is safe is to keep it well protected. Follow these tips to ensure your server is safe and that you and your clients’ date is protected.

Keep Your Software Current

One of the easiest ways for hackers to penetrate your server’s security is by exploiting software that isn’t regularly updated. Prevent this by always installing any patches or updates to your server software the instant they become available. This is especially crucial when it comes to security updates. Keeping your software up-to-date is one of the most important steps in knowing that your server is safe.

Configure Things Offline

When it comes time to reinstalling server software or reconfiguring it, make sure to always do this offline. Anybody who makes changes to their server configurations while connected to the Internet is asking for trouble. While you are changing the software, your server will be unprotected. It is usually just a matter of minutes for an unprotected server to get attacked if it is online. Be smart and perform all of your server upgrades offline.

Keep Things Simple

One of the easiest ways to know that your server is safe is to keep its purpose simple. You should always use one server for one purpose. While you can use a server to run multiple applications, this will increase the chances of it getting attacked. If one of the applications becomes vulnerable, suddenly every other application that is on the server becomes vulnerable as well. Limiting the server’s purpose to one application is a great way to limit risk and know that your network is as safe as possible.

Keep Security Tight

The password for the server should be something very difficult to crack. It should have multiple cases, numbers and letters that make it as tough to crack as possible. The password should never be shared outside of the IT department, and it should be limited to as few personnel as possible. You should also regularly update the password for maximum security.

Use a Good Host

If your server is not on the premises of your business, then it is up to the host to maintain the security. This means you need to have a lot of trust in the hosting company. Using a reliable and trustworthy host like Singlehop is one of the best ways to know that your server is safe.

The Six Cutest Animal Bath Accessories for (Human) Babies

All babies love animals, don’t they? Well, they’re babies so we really don’t know a lot about what they like. But what we do know is what we like to see our babies wearing: cute animals! Babies and animals seem to go hand in hand. And why not? Both of them are just so gosh darn cute!

This article will present you with the six cutest animal bath accessories currently on the market. If you’re not taking out your credit card by the end of the article, you need to get to the doctor because you may not have a heart in your chest!

Nursery Critter Wraps

These cute critter wraps for your very own critter are so adorable that you’ll want everybody to see your little rascal dressed as an elephant or a piggy. They’re functional items that will help keep your baby warm after their daily bath. Cute, functional, reasonable price. What are you waiting for? Pick up a nursery critter wrap (or a few) for your favorite little critter today.

Sea Animal Bath Set

Your little one has to take a bath. Well, what little ones love to have in the bath with them are toys. These cute little sea animals will keep your child occupied all throughout the bath, letting you relax and get through the bathing as quickly as possible.

Animal Bath Sponge

“This little piggy went to the bath…” Well, that’s not exactly how the famous nursery rhyme goes. However, this animal bath sponge in the shape of a pig will gladly get in the water with your children. These cute sponges will ensure that bath time is not a dirty affair!

Fisher Price Handy Hippo Bather

Hippos are known for being quite the bathing beauties in their natural habitats. Let this handy hippo bather from Fisher Price turn your child into a bathing beauty whenever they’re placed into it. The bather is of sturdy construction that will withstand the bathing rituals of any and all children you may have.

Fisher Price Animal Krackers Rinsin Fun Tub

Another fun tub for your gorgeous little one. This well constructed bath tub will help easily clean your little one without a lot of fuss and muss. At least from the tub. Your child may be a different story.

Fisher Price Precious Planet Whale of a Tub

Your child can have a whale of a time in this cute tub. Thar she blows!

If you want great baby bath products to use with these wonderful animal bath accessories, visit www.schoolofwash.com. Don’t forget that at School of Wash, you can also get bath products for yourself. Your kids don’t have to have all the fun. You need to get clean, too!

This Dog Looks the Way I Feel On Thanksgiving Day

Every year our friends and family gather from far and wide to sit around a table for Thanksgiving. We play a fun game of touch football, have a few laughs, give thanks, and eat until our belly hurts. I really love the nip in the air, frost on the ground, smell of turkey in the oven, and the feeling of togetherness that happens on this day. It is hard to put it all into words of how much I enjoy Thanksgiving, but this dog’s face kind of says it all.

Smile and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Photo via: Reddit]

10 Hilarious Christmas Decorations

Christmas is the time of year where everybody can get together and have a good time without taking themselves too seriously.  In honour of this festive tradition, below is a compilation of 10 hilarious Christmas decorations.  So grab yourself a glass of eggnog and a mince pie, and prepare to Ho Ho Ho.

This reasons that these decorations are hilarious are twofold; one, it sarcastically captures just how lazy we can all be at Christmas, and two, because spelling the word ‘ditto’ in lights is no mean feat in itself.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

I have often wondered why nobody ever takes the time and effort to adorn their toilet with Christmas decorations; now I know why!

Source: egotvonline.com

For some reason, the owners of this Christmas tree ladder feel that a window cleaner’s best friend is a more appropriate symbol of Christmas spirit than a Christmas tree.  They obviously know something we don’t.

Source: trendhunter.com

I don’t know which is worse, the fact that whoever put this dazzling display on their house either intended it to look this way, or that they didn’t just quit while they were ahead.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

I haven’t got the faintest idea what a skunk has to do with Christmas, but for some reason someone has decided that it would make a must-have Christmas tree decoration.

Source: jezebel.com

This slice of genius treads the fine line between hilarious and distasteful, in my opinion, it’s the former.

Source: urbantitan.com

In another awesome display of laziness, someone has put this phrase the wrong way round and decided they can’t be bothered to rectify it; or even more worryingly, nobody has noticed yet.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ more than an illuminated rendition of Santa engaging in an act of public urination.  However, Santa’s penchant for milk and mince pies may have rendered him with a weak bladder, not exactly ideal when you’re flying around the globe delivering millions of presents.

Source: urbantitan.com

These unnerving candles have managed to capture the angelic sweetness of a choirboy, and completely ruin it by making it look like he’s being publicly burnt for witchcraft.  The sight of one of these with a half-melted face is bound to give anyone nightmares.

Source: jezebel.com

This one is guaranteed to terrify little children, and what exactly a dead reindeer has to do with getting in the festive season is anybody’s guess.  Hopefully Santa can still manage to deliver all his presents this year, seeing as Blitzen is destined to end up as reindeer burgers.

Source: urbantitan.com

If these unorthodox decorations have made you contemplate what you are planning to do with your Christmas decorations this year, in my opinion, it is probably best to start with a good quality real or artificial Christmas Tree as a starting point.  From there, you can let your creativity run wild.