Twitter Joins Us on Verio

Let me start by saying, I'm dropping in on a conversation taking place at Techcrunch, Twitter and on the Joyent blog regarding the continue server outages at Twitter. I use Twitter but have been too busy this past week to even notice their recent round of outages. I found out today they had been hosting with Joyent and last night made the switch to Verio.

We've been a Verio reseller for over 10 years and all our client websites, and our personal sites, are hosted at Verio. A few years back we put some personal sites on a couple servers at TextDrive and everything was fine for a while. Then TextDrive was acquired by Joyent and we started having more and more downtime. It wasn't too much of a problem as these were just personal blogs. But when Beach Walks started taking off, which we initially hosted at TextDrive, we could no longer accept the outages and moved everything off the Joyent servers and terminated all our accounts.

It's a PITA (pain in the ass) managing servers. I've been doing it for 12 years now. We started way back in 1996 hosting all our own servers in our little office in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When the count of servers grew to 10, and I started sleeping in the office to make sure they stayed online, I knew it was time to look for a datacenter.

I did a lot of research over a three month period, looked at all the big datacenters, some of which are no longer around, and finally decided on Verio. Verio is more expensive and very stingy on hard drive space. But the support it top notch, their bandwidth reliable, and most important, in the past 12 years our sites have never been down for more than an hour in the worst cases. Usually if there is an outage the servers are back up before we even knew about the problem.

Obviously we don't require the resources that Twitter does. And there's a lot of technical discussions and general agreement that Ruby On Rails (RoR), on which Twitter is built, has a very difficult time scaling for applications the size of Twitter. I tend to agree and would love to see Twitter re-tooled on a more stable platform such as PHP. But application server preferences aside, the first thing any company should do is not skimp on their hosting provider. You definitely get what you pay for when it comes to hosting in my experience.

So, we wanted to take this opportunity to welcome Twitter to the Verio family. I'm still not convinced RoR is the platform on which to build a heavily trafficked service such as Twitter. But it is definitely going to help now that Twitter is housed in a world class data center such as Verio.

WebClips for Your iPhone

UPDATE: There have been other postings that say making a larger icon, 158x158 for example will produce higher quality results. We haven't found that to be true. BUT, we have standardized on 60x60 for our Webclips icons and until Apple actually produces its own icons for its own website(s), we'll be sticking with the 60x60 size. Thanks to @cdevroe (Colin Devroe) for pointing out the original article that discussed the larger 158x158 format.

There was a new iPhone update today, and Apple is sweetening the scene for those who've resisted hacking their iPhone. One of the coolest new features is the ability to add an icon to the main screen that will take you to a web site of your choice. iPhone will grab a square screen capture of the site and show you the URL under the icon.

Or! You can create a webclip which generates a custom icon for iPhone users. Think of it as a favicon that works with your phone bookmarks.

This feature was released less than 24 hours ago; and I'm happy to brag that our tech guy, Shane Robinson, has already mastered the process and started branding our company web sites. Shane got started with this HowTo from vjarmy:

Create a 57x57 PNG.
Name it "apple-touch-icon.png"
Throw it in the root folder of your website. (Not the root of your server, the root of your web documents.)

More details about iPhone at the Apple Development Center.

Here are the direct paths to our three iPhone WebClips:

Blog as Weather Report & ISP Status

We had a large winter storm here on Oʻahu last night. Power was off intermittently, but is now working.

Our main internet connection, via Oceanic Cable, is down. That includes TV service too - so we won't be watching any OC16 or HGTV today!

My internet service via my cell phone, the AT&T Edge network, is also down. Calling and internet services are both unavailable.

Our third redundant backup, EVDO service on the laptop from Sprint, is working and so Shane and I are taking turns on that.

If you need to reach us you may call our land line at 808-262-9409. That is working.

Funny that I did a Beach Walks with Rox episode yesterday on appreciating all those things that just work in the background for us. Even though our main pipeline (and somedays it feels like a lifeline) is down, I very much appreciate all the tech workers who are out in the rain trying to put it back together!

Boycott Facebook & Related Sites

Let me stipulate a few facts:

• I live my life online.
• I have gotten very used to a certain (large) lack of privacy in most traditional senses.
• I am in favor of business relationships with independent media creators.

But the way that Facebook's Beacon is setting cookies and sending my very specific online behavior (at selected sites) back to it's databases not in the aggregate but assigned to my personal data, is going too far.

Beacon is getting a lot of bad press, but this article in PC World hits bottom for me.

I am going to boycott Facebook for now. Please join me. Let their traffic plummet and see how fast the users can speak.

If you think you need to use Facebook for some reason, you can use Firefox and manually block at least some of this bad behavior.

From gigaom here are some of the particiapting sites that I also plan to boycott:
The 44 sites that have partnered with Facebook include everyone from Kongregate, LiveJournal, NYTimes (NYT), Sony Online, Blockbuster (BBI), Bluefly.com, STA Travel, The Knot, TripAdvisor, Travel Ticker, TypePad, viagogo, Vox, Yelp, WeddingChannel.com and Zappos.com. I've also heard Fandango and Epicurious.

I am happy to announce our client, Here Comes The Guide does not particpate, so all you brides? Stay away from The Knot and Wedding Channel! And head over to the nice, ad-free Here Comes the Guide site and plan your wedding in peace and privacy. FYI, they have a great business model and are an excellent example of a company that provides a great service and expertly balances the desires of brides with the sustainability of bridal vendors.

UPDATE: When I said "related sites" in the title, I was referring to the 40+ sites who are in on the Beacon tracking system with Facebook, and was not lumping all social networking sites into the pot. Innocent until proven guilty applies here.

UPDATE 2: Chris Heuer provides an excellent and scholarly commentary on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's most recent apology.

I am glad there is forward movement on the Beacon situation, but this closing remark indicates there is more work to do:

Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we're releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. You can find it here. If you select that you don't want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won't store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook.

"even when partners send them to Facebook"?? Let's keep at it folks. Don't track data to individuals. Consider us a herd if you must, but let us retain the semblance of privacy that can exist in the aggregate while you attempt to figure out how to reach us. (Even though countless among us are posting on this topic daily.)

iWPhone WordPress Plug-in for iPhone & iPod Touch Users

Looking for a mobile interface for your WordPress blog and admin? Shane recently installed a new plug-in on this site, that allows me to see a lean and clean version of our web site when using my iPhone. You can get the plugin from ContentRobot and it works on both the public site and the admin area. And once the plugin is installed, your iPhone will automatically use the mobile version of the site.

On the admin page, you'll see a little checkbox. Changing this setting is location-specific, so you can leave it checked for use on the iPhone but it can stay unchecked when logging in from the web browser on your main computer.

It makes it really easy and much faster to blog from the iPhone or iPod Touch. You have simple choices once you log in: Write, Manage, Comments, Plugins, Users, and Latest Activity. I would have been happy with Write, Manage, and Comments!

The interface is very clean on the admin. Here are a few screenshots of the "Write" interface. It's great for starting a post when I am on the road or out and want to capture an idea or two as I can save without publishing, just like in fully caffeinated WordPress.

Clicking on each of the buttons in the lower part of the screen gives you WordPress functionality with iPhone appearance. Each Category, for example, has an on-off slider just like you find elsewhere on the iPhone.

Limitations
It currently only shows blog posts and not pages, but that is on the agenda for future upgrades.

Cost
The plug-in is free, however there is a PayPal donate button and we made a $5 donation. I am happy to support the open-source developers who are creating things that make my life easier!

The downside of being popular

For those of you in a hurry (and there are many!) the answer is: blog gets ignored.

For those of you interested in nuance, here's more:

1. Months ago we started planing a web site re-design. That's one of our core businesses, so it should be easy right? Wrong. We know too much. We ask ourselves too many questions. We consider all kinds of things that would not even be on the radar for many - especially, "What software should we use?" We love software; we get in there and push it hard to see what it can do for us and for our clients. At the end of the day, our wish list is huge and there isn't any one app that does it all for us. For now. So this is worthy of many delays.
2. I hope it's obvious, but if you can't settle on the bones, you can't work on the skin. We did finally settle on WordPress - another post to go over why - and therein lies the next seduction.
3. There are thousands of themes that have been created for WP! That's a lot to look through. And the bummer is that each one is coded by an individual who may or may not have a clear sense of coding the durn thing. Just when we found a concept we likes, we would get in there to do a little customization, and things would fall apart. Those of you who have worked with WP themes are now smiling.
4. Then there is the site transfer. In theory, one database (our old web site) can talk to another database (our new website). In reality, db's are fussy. They want apples to be apples and oranges to be bananas. They don't know what to do when you toss a lilikoi into the mix. So, that takes time holding everybody's hand to move the content over to its new home.
5. Server management. Our old site has been on its old server for over 8 years. Think about your house - you are moving, and you have collected 8 years of stuff. Only when it;s the web, if you don't move everything or update its info, then you inadvertently have all sorts of links out on the internet that break. Uggh.
6. Optimism maybe doesn't help. Every weekend for the past three months, we've thought: this weekend we will just knuckle down and get it finished. We already had 2 sites up (one hidden, waiting for its debut.) I didn't want to start another blog post, and have to enter it in two places! So my apologies to my good friend Chris Brogan, who also inadvertently got stuck as the topic of our most recent post! Chris - hope you got some good link love from that!
7. Popularity. Yes, this is the bottom line. If we hadn't been so popular, with people contacting us to do all sorts of fun things for them, we would have had plenty of time to get the new site up. Fortunately, people love us regardless, and for that I am a happy person today. Is Twitter a measurable distraction? Most days no - much more of an inspiration for me.

So it is with very little fanfare that we present the new old (or old new) site version. We've downsized, simplified, and I am SO ready to get back to regular blogging.

[update march 2008 - this post refers to yet another expired version of our site. We just keep updating it! As new things come along. When did you last update your site?]

How to Create Special Effects for Online Video

I’m sitting in the DIY session at Pixelodeon on Special Effects with Rudy of Galacticast and Eric of Indy Mogul. Please enjoy these tips and links!

Key Points

• Storyboard before you shoot. It will save you time and help you film complex-looking scenes bu using perspective and lines of motion to create the effect. It will make the shooting go so much faster too.
• Get a little bit of cheap lighting to help light your scene. Good lighting will make it easier to apply special effects in the editing process. Household lighting can be used!
• Search craft stores and garage sales to assemble stuff for making props. A little bit of spray paint can really create a realistic looking item.

Links
Rudy & Casey's Galacticast
Rudy & Casey's Production Company
Eric of IndyMogul.com

Source Material
Detonation Films - free footage of
SpinExpress - Search for creative commons media
Free Sound Project
The Force - star wars fan site and tutorials
Rebel's Guide - best book ever!
Fast Track USB - device for capturing live instrument sound and remixing
GarageBand - sound effects and make your own music

Pixelodeon

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Not Enough Time for a Blog Post? Just Tumblr Instead.

Problems finding time to blog but have more to say than you can using Twitter or Jaiku ? Tumblr may be the perfect solution.

If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

Tumblr (totally Free) is what's referred to as a "tumblelog." According to the Tumblr FAQ : "To make a simple analogy: If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks. You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create."

There's even a Wikipedia entry on Tumblelogs that describes a definition by Jason Kottke dating back to 2005.

You could also describe a Tumblelog as a Micro-blogging platform. Perfect for dumping in quick notes, thought, ideas, quotes, pictures, videos, etc. Anything that you might come across in your Web travels that you find interesting but that don't require a full blog posting. So you can use a Tumblelog right along side your blog and not instead of your blog.

If you don't yet have a blog, a Tumblelog may be a great way to get started. Tumblr is one of the better known tumblelogs and has a list of great features that make it actually fun to use.

Once you've created your free Tumbler account you can login to your Dashboard where you're greeted with a very attractive and sleek interface. A row of six easily identifiable button across the top of the page allow you to select which type of Tumblr entry you'd like to create.

Selecting "Text" or "Quote" produces a simple text entry field into which you can type whatever's on your mind. Selecting "Photo" presents you with a button that allows you to upload a photo from your computer. "Video" allow you to easily paste in code to display a video from YouTube or your favorite video sharing site.

One of my favorite Tumblr options is the "Chat" type. By simply entering text in the following format your page displays a chat or IM (instant messenger) type of dialog:

Here's an actual Tumblr Chat from my own Tumblr page.

So if you haven't started blogging yet and you'd like to dip your toes in the water without setting up your own blog, Tumblr might be perfect for you. And even if you already have a blog or consider yourself a power blogger, Tumblr might be perfect for posting those little gems you find while surfing that you'd like to share but don't necessarily want to post them to your regular blog.

If you have a Tumblr or tumblelog please leave a comment with a link. We'd love to see it!

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