Categories
Website

Recent Website Downtime

Annnd we are back! I want to apologize regarding the recent downtime of the website. I gave out my website information to quite a few people in the last two days and it is unfortunate that they most likely were greeted by the server error that plagued the website.

From what I understand, a few days ago my hosting provider upgraded the hard drive configuration on the server. Afterwards, anybody who attempted to access it was greeted with the following error:

 

I checked my files and they also disappeared! Luckily, I maintain very frequent backups and I have been able to restore the front page exactly how it was, however the remainder of the website will need a little bit more time to fix.

My recent participation in the CDA Cares Sacramento event made working to get the issue resolved a little difficult due to time constraints. However, what was frustrating about this whole ordeal is the fact that it took the support staff over 24 hours to begin an investigation even though the  forums were flooded with this issue. Once when they were aware of the problem, members of the community worked together to get things running smooth again. We were also told by the CEO that the server should be more optimized, and as a result running faster, than before once when the system settles down.

While a few days of downtime is not a big deal in the long run. It does impact the websites reputation as a reliable and professional source. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that occurred from this error. I am defiantly looking into a backup server that will take precedence in the case of a future server malfunction.

Thank you all for being patient! Check back VERY soon for a few new posts!

UPDATE:  The website is now back exactly how it was before this dilemma. WHEEW!

UPDATE 2: It looks like the problem has become more widespread now and has effected all the servers.  For some reason my website is still operating (maybe because the issue was already resolved for me a few days ago).  Anyways I should be on a new server now!

Categories
Dental School Website

Almaz Dentistry is Now Half a Year Old!

Good evening! I am excited to announce that AlmazDentistry.com is now a half of a year old. WHO HOOO! The popularity of this website has been unbelievable! The number of private email questions has been going through the roof as the website grows its community. I am always excited to find a personalized email question in my inbox from a reader.

To celebrate our first six months, I decided to do some spring cleaning and release a nice update to the website that introduces switching banners. This new feature will allow popular content to be visually displayed in a large banner at the top of the home page. These can range from plain images, images with links,  youtube videos, countdown timers, etc. If you visit the home page, you will see a banner supporting Smile Train, an organization I hope to help donate to in the near future. Clicking on the banner links to Smile Train’s website. This allows readers easy access to more information about the organization. As the site continues to grow, more features will be added, things will only be getting better!

I have also added a nice little feature that links to posts that are “Recommended for You” based on the current ones you are reading. Keep on the lookout for it in the bottom right corner of the screen!

For those who are applying this season, I STRONGLY urge you to turn in your application ASAP. Based on reports at StudentDoctor.net, we are in our 6th wave of applications being delivered to dental schools. Postponing your application any further WILL significantly increase your chances of become a rolling admissions applicant. This will TREMENDOUSLY hurt your chances of getting into the dental schools you desire.

One of my next topics will be secondary applications in preparation for the wave of secondary applications soon to be released! Expect this post in the upcoming week. I am also working on a new addition to my portfolio series, so keep an eye out for that. I will be returning to work as a full-time dental assistant starting next week and content may slow down during this time. As a result, I am looking for a partner to become an important part of the AlmazDentistry.com team as a writer. If you are interested, please submit your contact information using the Ask Elias form.

As always, enjoy the rest of summer and get ready for another exciting year towards your future as a dentist!

Categories
ASDA Pre-Dental Society Website

Introducing the Pre-Dental Society of UC Irvine

Hello everybody, I would like to introduce the new Pre-Dental Society of UC Irvine!

After some discussion we decided to rename the UC Irvine pre-dental club, previously named American Student Dental Association at UC Irvine (ASDA@UCI), to Pre-Dental Society of UC Irvine. The decision of a name change came due to several reasons. The first being the fact that most other pre-dental clubs at universities use the name “Pre-Dental Society”. This change would improve our clubs visibility to pre-health students across campus through the use of a standardized and easily recognizable name.

The second reason is because we are not associated to ASDA (a pretty big deal!). I learned this my freshman year during my interview for the pre-dental board. I asked how our $30 dollar membership fees managed to cover our costs as well as ASDA member registration fees which are roughly $50 dollars. The interviewers told me that we were not actually associated to the organization. Later on, out of curiosity, I researched how the club ended up using the organization’s name and I learned that in 1999 the American Student Dental Association started a program to bring undergraduate chapters to universities. The program flopped and as a result it was completely abandoned by ASDA. Details about what caused the program’s termination have been difficult to find since this occurred over 10 years ago.

Schools were expected to switch their names from ASDA, but, apparently, it was never enforced strictly. By 2012, most organizations switched over to “Pre-Dental Society” with our own UCI club being one of the few exceptions nationally. After learning about my new position on the next years board, I spoke to the other 2012-2013 board members and we decided that it was time we left the ASDA name behind and moved on to become the Pre-Dental Society of UC Irvine. While this move may result in losing some connections with contacts we have accumulated over the years, it also has the benefit of making it easier for dental-career-curious individuals to find us. Since helping other students is what we are here to do, this is a very important benefit to us!

Another side effect of the name change was the fact that nearly everything we have must be redone to accommodate the new name. Everything from our website to our constitution needed to be rewritten to reflect our new name and goals of the organization. I took on the task of building the new website because of my long history building websites. Immediately following finals,  I started extensively working on these projects. After nearly 20 days of coding, debugging, repeat, I would like to announce the new website for the Pre-Dental Society of UC Irvine!

I find the website design to be very professional looking which is important for a pre-health organization, and I am particularly proud of the adaptable structure of the website that allows a fairly significant modification of content using a drag and drop interface. Keeping the website editing simple is important just in case next year’s board (or the one after that) has no web experience.

There is still a ton of work to do as part of the name change process, but I really enjoy doing it. The more I refine our documents, the more I realize that this review needed to be done someday. Many of our documents are the victims of poor editing throughout nearly a decade and as a result have lost their professionalism.

Now that much of the work is done on the new website, I will be back on here writing more frequently! I am looking forward to writing several new blog posts throughout the summer. If you are waiting for a specific topic, please submit a request through my Ask Elias page and I will be sure to write it!

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Get those Dental School Applications in! July is almost here!

Categories
Website

Upgrade Failure: Cause of Recent Server Outage

Hey everybody!

Sorry for the outage. My website hosting provider decided to upgrade the server’s hardware. The upgrade was needed since the website has been having major issues loading content properly and in a timely manor. Unfortunately, during the upgrade process something went wrong and caused this website to crash for the previous 5 days. I have finally been able to get in and modify the settings to allow the website to operate as minimally as possible to prevent any stress on the server that will cause further downtime. As a result, many of the features this website may be temporarily offline. It was a necessary decision in order to get the main part of the website, the blog posts, publicly available again.

I will update this post once the repairs are made and this pre-dentistry website’s functionality returns to normal. I had a post about resumes planned; however, that is temporarily on hold until conditions return to normal as well!

EDIT: Annnndddddd we are back to full function! I am expecting to release the blogpost about resumes tomorrow!

Thank you for your patience!

-Elias Almaz

Categories
Advice Background Information Portfolio Tips Website

Welcome to the Portfolio!

I am happy to announce a new section of the website titled “Portfolio” in which I will be writing guides on what kinds of documents you should have ready to pull or reference for any professional occasion. It will also include instructions and tips on how to write and perfect some documents like resumes, cover letters, etc.

I started a portfolio of my life my senior year of high school. In this portfolio I have copies of different resumes, cover letters, letters of recommendation, awards, certification, Continuing Education Units (CEUs), etc. The portfolio also has documents that guide me when I need to create new versions of resumes, write letter of recommendation request letters, and any of the other documents mentioned above. Having a resource like this always within my reach is very beneficial in any professional situation. For example, tomorrow, I have an interview for a research position at the UCI Medical School. Rather than writing a new resumes and looking for other documents to bring with me, all I need to do is open my portfolio and pull papers based on the occasion. For this occasion, I will likely bring some awards along with my resume that demonstrate my ability to work in a team. Doing this puts much less stress on  me in anticipation for the interview.

If you like this idea, get ready for a series of guides covering all kinds of documents you should have prepared and any other documents you should add into your comprehensive portfolio. I will be scanning in many examples and templates that I have accumulated over the years. These should help you get ideas as to what to include and how to format things for maximum efficiency.

 

Have a good weekend!