Tralfaz

Category: Tech

  • The plug has been pulled – Canceled my MT hosting

    A couple of months ago, I awakened to a horrifying announcement. My web host, Media Temple, had been acquired by the sleaze peddlers at GoDaddy. Ugh.

    I had been hosting with MT since 2009, and had been very satisfied. Great performance, flexible, and when I needed it, awesome service. They were not an inexpensive solution at $20 a month, but I felt confident in paying the premium at the time.

    Fast forward to early 2012. I got drafted into putting up a website for a local non-profit that I volunteered at. They had registered their domain with GoDaddy, so I just sucked it up and got the mid tier GoDaddy hosting package, and set up their site.

    As a webhost, GoDaddy wasn’t terrible. The support was better than I thought, but the one thing that annoyed the fuck out of me was their constant blasting me with offers.

    Buy more domains! Really CHEEP domains!

    UPGRADE your email!

    Blah blah blah. Being a marketing person, I understand the power of promotion, and generating interest. But FFS, web domains are not an impulse buy. The same with hosting upgrades.

    Of course MT swore that they wouldn’t change one bit by being bought by GoDaddy. That changed in mid November when I got email blasts from MT offering a service to “Tune up my website in advance of the holiday rush”.

    Last weekend, I moved the last of my web properties to my new VPS, backed up all the files on my MT site, and put it all in a safe place.

    This AM, I started the process of canceling my account. I will technically have access to it until December 29, but I am done. The plug has been pulled.

    As my domains come up for renewal, I will be moving them to a different registrar. By the end of 2014, I will be completely out of MT and the taint of GoDaddy.

    I do wish the staff and team at MT luck, but I have had enough experience with GoDaddy to know that I want to have nothing to do with them, AT ALL.

  • Apple Passbook – way cooler than I thought

    With the IOS 6 update on the Apple devices, one of the features that came with it was this thing call the “passbook”. I remember looking at it, and scratching my head, not really “getting” what it was for. I looked at the applications, and thought “so what”, and then promptly ignored it.

    Fast forward to last week. I was in Boston at a conference, and sitting on the show floor, I used the US Air application to check in online. There was an option to send it to the “passbook”, and on a whim I clicked on it.

    Bam, my boarding pass (with my trusted traveler ID precheck) was in the passbook. Way cool. No need to print my boarding pass.

    That got me thinking, what else might it be useful for? I had long ago installed the Starbucks app. Mainly to help me find a cuppa jo when I was out and about, but I got to wondering if it also worked. So I dug up my old starbucks ID and password (ancient, 2010 or so when I registered a couple of gift cards). Not only was my account still active, but there were three cards with a balance remaining on them, so I was able to move them all to one card, and then, you guessed it, send it to my passbook.

    To test this, this AM I hit Starbucks on the way in for a hot chocolate (I am still caffeine free, 7 weeks today), to try it out. Open the passbook, select my starbucks card, scan the code, and boom, $3.73 was deducted from my total, I got my hot chocolate, and I was away without having to open my wallet.

    Now I am on a mission to find out what else I can do with this. I know you can do movie tickets (but I rarely go to the movies).

    Way cool technology.

  • Apple lameness – Python edition

    I am an Apple person, fully vested, using their computers, their devices, and in general I am very satisfied. But I just had a bad experience, and I need to vent.

    I upgraded a few weeks ago to OS-X 10.9 (AKA “mavericks”, and it has gone reasonably well. However, 10.9 seriously broke python. First, Apple is always 2 or 3 releases behind. Usually not a big deal, as I am not on the bleeding edge, more of a hobbyist.

    But 10.9 broke it badly. Like it was throwing segmentation faults non stop, and pretty much unusable. Hell, I couldn’t even load the built in math module without it tossing a segmentation fault.

    I had set up my python the way I like it, I added the good packages (Apple does include numpy, but they miss a lot of other very useful modules) I use. Took me some time to get it all setup the way I like it, and they frigging broke it.

    Sigh, so I spent about 6 hours yesterday. Installing and compiling 2.7.6 which fixes what Apple broke. That required reinstalling the command line tools. Then I had to update and install numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and about 2 dozen prerequisites for these modules. Grrrr. That seriously interrupted my drinking time…

    I almost decided to go back to using EPD, but I know that pretty much sucks. Sigh.

    Apple does so much well, but when they mess up, they mess up mightily. I hope they fix this soon.

    (Oh, and the newest version of matplotlib has the XKCD graph styles. Totally worth the upgrade…)

  • Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks – re-learning linux

    One of the reasons that I have contemplated often the jump to a VPS for my web hosting was the freedom to do what I wanted. That was always balanced by a bit of fear that I might f*ck up my VPS linux installation.

    I had played with linux often, in the past, but never seriously. It ran a firewall on my home network back when I had an ISDN line, and I had built some inside the firewall file servers with old RedHat linux. But that was child’s play. Going VPS means I am out there on the internet, and I am responsible to not mess it up.

    Gulp.

    I have been up and running for a month now, and nothing serious has happened. Fortunately, the VM is pretty well configured out of the box. I haven’t had any real issues with the box (apart from needing to restart Apache a couple of times). And I am enjoying “remembering/relearning” how to do the basic things again. I still am fearful that I will blow it in a big way, but by and large, as long as I keep it patched, and keep all the software I am running up to date I feel confident that I will be OK.

    I still worry about a SHTF event, and I will be instituting a backup process on a weekly basis. But, so far, it has been a positive experience.

  • Apple- What Happened – iTunes

    For years people, knowing I am an Apple fan, have grumbled about iTunes and how much of a POS it is. And for years, I have responded back that “It’s way better on the Mac”, because the Windows version has been a veritable homeless abortion in all its incarnations. Yes, by the time it was in version 9, it was getting cumbersome to navigate, but at least it was solid and reliable on the Mac.

    Version 10 fixed a lot of the navigation, and capabilities, particularly for those of us with 17K songs or more in our collections.

    Version 11 was fine too. But then the iOS 7 launch happened, and iTunes was updated to support it. Now it is a crashy, bug ridden, processor hogging program, especially on my Mac’s. Sigh. Now I have to apologize to my Windows friends who I have been telling that iTunes works fine on a Mac to.

    Because it fucking sucks even on the mac now. I find myself force-quitting it 2 – 3 times a day it seems. Grrrrrrr.

  • Getting Spoilt – MacBook Air edition

    In July, I splurged and bought a Mac Book Air. My MacBook pro was a little aged, and I wanted to go for a smaller, lighter laptop, yet I didn’t want to go too small. Plus I am a Mac person.

    I have been using it pretty heavily, and it has been super solid. It has enough storage, it is fast enough, and while I would like the retina display, I am really grooving on the 12+ hours of battery life I am getting on it.

    My macbook pro is semi-permanently attached to a sweet 24″ monitor, and my Drobo for backups, and the Mac Book Air is my walking around computer.

    This last weekend, I was moving websites to my new hosting account (see ‘A Bad Day – Webhosting“) , so I unplugged the MBP and relocated to the couch. Oh. My. God. That thing is friggin HUGE compared to the Air. Yes, it is a 15″, and it is from the generation before the Retina display, but compared to the Air, it is heavy, huge, and cumbersome (it also has a quadcore processor, 16G ram, and a terabyte of disc).

    It honestly felt how I thought a 17” laptop felt. Too big.

    Nope, I don’t think I will be going back to that monstrosity. It will remain my stationary system until it dies, then I will probably replace it with a Mini.

  • Groovin’ on my VPS – moved 2 websites

    So, after a brief support interaction with my new hosting company, A Small Orange hosting is who I went with, and I haven’t been disappointed, I am up and life is good. I have learned how to use cPanel, and its companion WHM. Really slick tools, and really easy to use. I now have 4 domains setup, and have 3 more to move, and four subdomains. I have learnt a few things:

    • WordPress is really easy to move.  I moved my wife’s site no sweat. took about an hour, and I played with it before I re-jiggered the name servers. Easy peasy.
    • Joomla is less so easy. My main site is still hosed. Apparently there is a PHP setting that I need to figure out. Might be a good time to go from Joomla 2 to 3. But that hasn’t been painless so far. (FWIW there is dogshit for information on how to best make the transition on the web. Sigh). I can’t even get it moved to a local LAMP server and running. Something is hosed, not surprising, as I am constantly fucking with it, so I am sure I am the cause.
    • One of my joomla sites, a 3.1 moved really easy. Move all the files, backup the database, recreate the database, set the configuration, and BAM, it just worked.
    • I like having complete control of my MySQL instance. At Media temple I had exceeded my database account limit early on, so I had to use the same credentials/account for more than one database. A security risk.
    • My next main goal is to get my SSH keys generated and installed.

    So far, I am digging on the new hosting, and I am really pleased with my hosting provider.

    My goal is to first move all my hosting to my VPS, then cancel my hosting account on Media Temple. Then, as my domains come up for renewal, I will move them to another registrar. But I realized when I moved my main domain (tralfaz.org) that soon, Media Temple will begin to morph with GoDaddy, and move away from using tucows for registration. I will be long gone before that happens though.

  • Taking the plunge: Going VPS

    Earlier this week, I learnt that my hosting provider, (MT) has been sold to GoDaddy. While they assured their customers that they would be independent, and that GoDaddy was trying to change their reputation, I know that it was just a matter of time before the douchebaggery of GoDaddy infected the ethos of MediaTemple.

    I had used a shared hosting account that worked remarkably well. I have 9 domains and 5 active sites (and two test bed sites) on there, and have been pretty satisfied with performance, and extremely satisfied with their support. But I have gotten to a scale where being constrained by a normal hosting account was an annoyance. Several times I investigated the process to move to a VPS (virtual private server), and never took the plunge. Just too much effort.

    The changes earlier this week pushed me over the edge. I have opened a VPS account at a smaller, highly recommended web host, A Small Orange. I am in the process of moving my main site, and getting all the bits and pieces set up the way I like. A few teething problems (like the DNS changes taking insanely long to propagate), and some incompatibilities in the PHP setup that I need to overcome, but in general I am satisfied.

    Of course, I am a bit rusty on my unix mad skillz, so I am boning up on how to manage and configure a linux system. Fortunately out of the box, they set it up well, and it is pretty secure, so I am glad to inherit that state. The VPS uses the cPanel and WHM services to manage the bits and pieces, which is pretty standard, but foreign to me, so I am learning how to wrangle these tools (they are pretty damn slick though).

    My goal for this weekend is to move my main site (which currently has a module that barfs, so I have to figure that out), and to get all the bits and pieces lined up. Should be fun. And I expect that performance will be better in the long run (or at least completely under my own control).

  • A bad day – Web Hosting

    I have been hosting my websites for the last 4 years or so on a premium provider, MediaTemple. They have been efficient, no hassle, and have offered great service when I needed it. I have 7 domains hosted with them, and their basic hosting package has served me well.

    I have sung praises to them, and have recommended them, even though they are not the cheapest supplier out there. For me, the $20 a month has been worth it for the support, the reliability, and the high quality tools they have offered.

    To compare, I use GoDaddy for one of the sites I manage (for a non-profit that I donate my time to). Their support is OK. Their tools are crappy to manage the hosting, the data bases, and other administrivia. But what I hate most of all, is the constant upselling they do. They continually try to sell more domains, more services, addons. It is enough to make me loathe logging into their website unless I have to.

    I had been plotting how to move that site to Media Temple when the prepaid period was up.

    Then today I got the email from the founder and CEO of MediaTemple. Since he wouldn’t know me from Adam, I was worried.

    I was right to be worried. He was announcing that Media Temple was being acquired by GoDaddy. A million voices were crying “Nooooooooooooo!” in my head. Of all the sleazeball, scummy webhosting providers to sell to, they had to pick the bottom feeders. The shit-birds at GoDaddy. Of course the email was full of assurances that the MediaTemple experience wouldn’t change, and that it would be autonomous from the GoDaddy. Their posted FAQ was about how GoDaddy was looking to improve their relationship with web developers, and professionals, and that acquiring Media Temple was a path forward there.

    Yeah, and pigs will fly.

    If GoDaddy wants to improve its image and reputation among the serious web developers and professionals, they should probably stop being scum of the earth, marketing bloated, pushers of mediocre products. Furthermore, they should improve their infrastructure, and tools on the back end so that I don’t have to navigate 10 pages to figure out how to set a CNAME.

    Reading the comments on the FAQ was about 99-1 against this move, and how a lot of people will be looking for new hosting. I know I will be moving completely off them.

    Perhaps it is time to go VPS.

  • Shame on Agilebits and 1Password

    I have been a hearty and enthusiastic user and advocate of 1Password. It is an awesome bit of software that greatly improves the security and experience using the internet. A password store, one of its strengths was the cross platform package, and the plugins and apps for your phone. I used it on my macs and my work PC, using dropbox to keep it all synchronized everywhere I was at.

    For $40, to get the windows and Mac package, it was well worth the money.

    Alas, the Agilebits folks have gone greedy. The version on the Mac went from version 3 to 4. A paid upgrade. Not a huge deal, I don’t mind an upgrade fee to keep software current, and up to date. But this upgrade broke the PC side. Suddenly my dropbox data store was jacked. And the plugin for version 4 on the mac just plain crashes on the PC.

    Once you upgrade your database to version 4, the PC version can still read it, but it seems to not be able to add new login credentials. Boo. And you have to jump through hoops on the Chrome browser, because it will try to load the version 4 plugin, which is NOT supported on the PC.

    The support forums claim that they are furiously working on the PC upgrade, but it will be another paid upgrade. So instead of upgrading both packages for one fee, I am going to get to pay twice for it.

    And then I found that my app for my iPhone no longer can access my logins. How much for the new version? A shocking $17.99. Really?  I have bought both the iPhone and iPad app in the past.  I could see a buck or two, but eighteen bucks?  Fuck me.

    Alas, there really isn’t a competitor.  Yes, I could go the keepass route, and have a largely manual but secure repository of logins. But there is no good way to export my 1Password data into it. And with over 600 logins recorded, I am not going to do that by hand.

    I get that it costs money to develop and improve the package, that the testing and maintenance of the browser plugins is a complex task. But the current path you are on is close to alienating an early user, who has probably referred 20 people who bought your package. You really need to think about your pricing for upgrades, and your customer loyalty.