Transferring the mnspecialhockey.org domain - what remains of Google Apps

The last step of the mnspecialhockey.org migration took place at DreamHost. The provide an optional mixed hosting service. I had some files in a traditional ftp site on a DH server, but also Gmail and Google Apps via Google.

From their control panel I turned off the Gmail and Google Apps connection. (See the posts list below for my prior action).

Then, since DH was also the registrar for mnspecialhockey.org I switched to the new DNS servers. I'll update this post if I learn what really happens to the data that was at the old site.

See also (note, some are old)!

• Closing a Google Apps domain: document liberation and more 2010
• Closing a Google Apps project: downloading sites 2010
• Transferring a Google Apps eNom domain: Awkward!
• How to create a google apps custom domain and move your blogger blogs to your new domain (2007)
• Gordon's Tech: Migrating a domain with related Google Apps and hosting files to a new service (2008). How I configured mnspecialhockey.org Google Apps after moving from Lunarpages.
• Gordon's Tech: Google Apps: Configuration for a non-Google managed domain (2007) - original mnspecialhockey.org Google Apps

Update 8/29/10: After the transfer

The mnspecialhockey.org domain now points to a new site. What happened to the old content?

• sites: they still exist! The URLs are of the form: http://sites.google.com/a/mnspecialhockey.org/sites/system/app/pages/meta/dashboard 
• docs: they still exist! The URL is of the form: http://docs.google.com/a/mnspecialhockey.org/#all
• mail: it still exists for my account (I removed the others) with URL: http://mail.google.com/a/mnspecialhockey.org/?tab=om#inbox

In fact, I can still manage the domain using the URL

https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/mnspecialhockey.org/Dashboard

So I have, at least for the moment, answered the question about what happens to Google Apps content when the original Google App Domain is gone. Turns out, it persists. Even the Domain settings persist (Google Apps thinks the domain is still mnspecialhockey.org, even though it no longer references this site).

If this remains true, it shows there's only a loose coupling between a domain-associated Google Apps suite and the domain itself. 

That's rather nice to know. It's not completely surprising however.

Closing a Google Apps domain: document liberation and more

I'm closing down a Google Apps domain because the domain name is moving (donated) to a new owner. Since I don't know what happens to the data after I transfer the domain name I've so far:

• Exported the "Sites" pages using a Data Liberation Tool
• Deleted all the existing site user accounts

My next step is to get a local copy of all the documents. Again, the DLF has directions. This turns out to be built into the Docs framework. On export you can specify a file format, I chose RTF for documents, Excel for spreadsheets, and native for the rest (PDF).

I also made sure so share all the documents with my personal account, but I wasn't able to transfer ownership. Currently that's not supported in Google Apps.

We had the non-profit version of Google Apps (free from Google) so we had all the yummy pro features, like the ability to associated a secondary domain. I have some I could use and I considered doing that to provide a way to access data post transfer, but I decided to skip that step in the interests of time.

Closing a Google Apps project: downloading sites

When MN Special Hockey signed up with a web hosting project, I needed to transfer the domain.

The domain was managed through my Dreamhost (love 'em - click here to evaluate my discount on their ISP services) accounts. There it has associated Google Apps services. I really didn't know what would happen to the account data when I switched away the host name, so I decided to see what I could backup.

Naturally I turned to Google's Data Liberation Front - my heroes. They provide a Java app for this purpose. It can allegedly be used to move a site from one location to another! 

Sites - the Data Liberation Front

A site can be downloaded using the open-source tool available at the Google Sites Liberation Project Page. Note that this tool requires Java 1.5 or later. Once the tool has been downloaded, double-click on the JAR file to launch the application. 

It opened easily on OS X 10.6.

You will need the documentation. Instead of www.mnspecialhockey.org (didn't fit their model) I tried sites.mnspecialhockey.org and I found two sites to copy:

• http://sites.google.com/a/mnspecialhockey.org/www/
• http://sites.google.com/a/mnspecialhockey.org/mn-special-hockey-site/

From their documentation I think the values are:

• host: sites.google.com (optional)
• domain: mnspecialhockey.org (optional)
• webspace: www and mn-special-hockey-site (two webspaces)

There's an option to download revisions, but I didn't care about that. I was fine with the latest version.

It worked, but the result was not pretty! Without style sheets it renders poorly in Safari, and  some of the character encoding was off. Still, the bulk of the content was there including associated PDFs that were a part of the site.

The Java app is pretty simple. You have to quit and restart to do a second site. Still, did I mention it worked?

The language hole in Blogger's comment spam filtering

This comment evaded Blogger's comment spam filters ....

На нашем Видео каталоге вы можете Посмотреть Видеосюжеты, захотите на Простой видео сайт

It contained an embedded link.

The language is Russian [1]. Google translate gives us ...

On our video directory, you can watch video projects, you want for a simple video site

Blogger needs to treat non-blog-language posts as spam, or at least require review with auto-translation to the native language. This one should have been caught.

If I get another one like this (presumably later today) I'll have to turn on authenticated commenting until Google catches up.

[1] Why would anyone bother to post spam in a language that cannot be read? Well, for one thing, Google's search engine can "read" the link, and so the source gets link kharma. It's also a way to find vulnerable blog targets to further exploit. I'm sure there are other benefits, such as very foolish people curiously clicking on the link; those people likely have vulnerable machines that are easy to pawn.

Cautionary tale about Google Apps for business

Bad outcome with using free Google Apps for business operations.

A few quick comments:

• Dreamhost is the best way to use free Google App. They give you document hosting, domain registration and control, support and service, and associated Google Apps. (see my kickback deal with promo code KATEVA). I use 'em, I like 'em. Unusual company.
• The connection between Google Apps and domain name is tenuous. App content and services will survive domain divorce.
• Gmail has the same problem. So do all Google services, including identity management. There is no support. That scares me.
• Google Apps pricing is a great deal for a school or even a modest business, but it scales oddly and it's too much for a paid Google Apps family account. I'd like to see Google offer more price/service options.

Facebook documentation: How do Pages work anyway?

Apple, like Galactus, is beyond Good and Evil. Google, by contrast, is the cool-kid-wannabe that sold its soul to the Devil for a pittance.

Facebook though, Facebook was born evil. Alas, it cannot be avoided. For example, I help maintain the Minnesota Inline Skating Club facebook page.

Maintaining that Page has been painful because, as one might expect for a demonic creature, Facebook is essentially undocumented. For example, I couldn't find any explanation of the rules for broadcasting "Page" status updates to "followers". (Admin posts go to all Page followers, but I think non-admin posts either go nowhere or are shared only with personal friends.). Nor could I find explanation of best practices for "Page" ownership. (Use an email address specific to the Organization to create a Facebook account that will manage the Page. The best way to proceed is to use the "Create a Page" link to create a Profile and a Page together.)

Thanks to a Pop17 post, however, I have found a few FB official pages that sort of hint at documentation  ....

• Facebook Platform
• Known Issues on Facebook
• Facebook Pages*

Buried in a post on the last link, I found the Box.net hosted Facebook Pages "manual". I guess FB doesn't have a server. The 10 page "manual" doesn't answer any of the questions I listed above.

* Couldn't they have come up with a more searchable and meaningful term than "Pages"? Like I said, pure evil.

Apple's battery charger - hold off for now

We tried NiMH chargers a few years ago, but we gave up because of high battery defect rates and short battery lifespans.

Apple claimed to address the latter, and I was willing to try them out on the former.

Unfortunately the first two batteries we charged were defective:

Amazon.com: John Faughnan "John G...'s review of Apple Battery Charger 

The first two batteries I charged generated a blinking yellow signal. Either the batteries or the charger are defective; I suspect it's the batteries.

It could be just bad luck, but I suggest waiting a while before ordering a charger.

I'd hold off on this device for a while. Wait until there are at least forty Amazon reviews so we find out how common this problem is.