DreamHost, the company that automatically charges my credit card every month for hosting the files and database information for this website, accidentally charged all its customers for the entire year.  Whoops.  I, as well as several thousand other customers, was greeted by an email Tuesday morning that said my credit card was automatically charged for the next 12 months, which is exactly 12 times the amount I'm normally charged (I pay month-to-month).  I immediately contacted the billing team and calmly, though firmly, described my problem.  Several hours later I found out it was a system wide event, and then all the big guys wrote about it.  It turns out it was a simple, honest mistake, and it's being taken care of as I write this. 

First things first, I like DreamHost.  They provide great features at fairly good prices.  There's no way my website would ever come close to outgrowing my storage space and bandwidth allocations.  Plus, they have lots of smart, active users, so there's plenty of troubleshooting information available online.  I've been with DreamHost for over a year and a half, so I know how some things work, and I'm comfortable with them. 

However, I'm looking into a new host.  To be honest, I was thinking about it before this fiasco.  But now that this happened, I decided to actually try out a new host.  The thing is, DreamHost made a simple mistake.  It's January, and they made a mistake with the date.  They wrote '08 instead of '07.  It's an honest mistake and everybody does it.  But since my credit card is involved, I'm not ok with it.  If it only affected my website and its functionality, I probably wouldn't care.  But since it's a billing issue, it affects my personal finances, and that's just too close for comfort. 

So as much as I like DreamHost and don't want to do this, I'm saying goodbye. #technology

Sun Microsystems bought MySQL.  Hopefully Sun will turn this simple, free database application into a useless, bloated, error-prone product like Java. 

It's slightly similar to Amazon's Kindle and its wireless service with Sprint: 

It comes with EVDO wireless through Sprint, which means that, inevitably, there will be world class Awful Crap that Kindle owners will confront, because it is impossible to involve a mobile carrier with a technology without infecting that technology with Awful Crap. When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

Hooray for big companies ruining things! #technology

It's been almost two years since I last redesigned my website, and I've been thinking about changing things around for the past several months.  Every now and then I'd get an idea and start writing HTML for a few days, but it kept trickling off for one of several reasons: 

1. It looked too much like the old design.
2. I couldn't decide on colors.
3. I couldn't figure out positioning with css and divs.

I got an idea sometime late last week and went with it.  That idea is what you're currently looking at.  I wanted something simple and clean, and most of all, I wanted something new (I was sick of the old design).  Instead of wasting more time designing and testing things, I decided to just upload the new design and figure it out from there.  So there might be a few problems here and there which I'll fix as they occur.  For the technically minded, here's what's new: 

1. A fixed-width layout.  No more percentages and scaling.
2. Less PHP-processed linkage in and around the site.
3. (Possibly) standards-compliant.
4. No more fieldsets!
5. Tables, not divs.  I hate divs.

If I get sick of this design in a day or two, I might go back to the drawing board.  I just needed something new. #technology

I get annoyed when people who should know their stuff don't know their stuff.  Especially when "knowing their stuff" is pretty specific and would seem to be not only relevant but essential to proper job performance. 

Case in point #1:  Trying to buy an iPod from Best Buy the week after Christmas.  Walked in the store, prepared to buy one, only to be told they're out of stock and won't be in for a few weeks.  When asked if one could be bought from the website, the portable music center employees (2) said the website would be out of stock too.  A normal person would believe them because, after all, who better to ask about portable music players than the people who work in that section of Best Buy, whose only care in the world is the sale of portable music players and the information required therein.  But what do I find on the Best Buy website?  iPods.  Billions of them.  On sale.  With free shipping.  Thanks Best Buy portable music center.  Pull your heads out of your butts and know your stuff.  At least check your own company's website. 

Case in point #2:  Who would know more about video games than those dorks at GameStop?  Apparently some other dude, because those dorks don't know crap.  I went in to buy some games and asked one of the guys a question about one of the games.  I realize there are no less than five different gaming systems currently on the market, and each system has somewhere in the area of hundreds of games.  There's no way a person could know every game on every system.  However, if a game has a recognizable name and has been around for a few years, I'd expect a GameStop dork to know about it.  Or at least to have read a review.  Or at least to be able to make up a quick lie on the spot.  But, no.  I got none of that.  All I got was a pasty, facial-haired, "Sorry sir, but will that be all?"  Yes that will be all.  Thanks for nothing. #technology

Instead of starting with a cell phone and shoving a cheap little camera into it, I think cell phone makers should start with a legitimate digital camera and add some simple phone capabilities.  That would make a much better camera phone. #technology

For my future reference, here's a brief listing and comparison of server log file analyzers: 

• AWStats - The one I currently use.  Written in Perl.  Not too ugly.  Unconfigurable.
• Webalizer - Kinda ugly.  Looks to be configurable.
• Analog - The one DreamHost uses.  Kinda ugly.  Looks to be configurable.
• WebTrends - The one that costs money.

I might try Analog again.  DreamHost added a bunch of configuration options that seem to fix what I thought was wrong with it. #technology

Yesterday, I received an email at work that looked like this: 

Subject:  URGENT Safety Alert
To:  Everyone
Attachments:  Safety.doc

Please read, post and execute immediately. 
Thank you.

Like I've said before, if you don't take the time to write a good email, I won't take the time to read it.  If you tell me to read an attachment for some "urgent" or "important" information, I'll ignore it simply because it's in an attachment. 

Just for fun, I looked at the attachment.  It was about ice on the sidewalks and how we should be careful to not break our skulls open so nobody gets sued.  Appropriate, yet stupid.  The contents of the message could have been easily summarized in one line:  "Watch out for ice on the sidewalks."  Done.  Again just for fun, I replied to the email and said this: 

Subject:  RE: URGENT Safety Alert
To:  Original Sender

If it's that urgent, why put it in an attachment?  People are less likely to read an attachment than the actual body of an email message.

I phrased it in such a way as to come across as a semi-criticism while not sounding too mean (since I don't even know this person).  I also only replied to the original sender because it wasn't appropriate for a reply-all.  I sat back in my chair and snickered. 

About an hour later, I got a response: 

Subject:  RE: URGENT Safety Alert
To:  Me
Cc:  My boss; my boss's boss; her boss; her boss's boss

The reason for sending an attachment is that [some group] in [some department] wanted to accentuate the urgency of the matter with descriptive lettering.  Also, our e-mail system does not allow us to use anything other than Rich Text format. 

Since you have taken the time to ask the question, I've taken the time to answer it.

My heart stopped when I read the Cc line.  She told on me.  She replied to not only my boss, but to my boss's boss, a person I haven't even met because he's too important.  People lose their jobs for less than this.  I was a bit scared to say the least. 

But then I thought about it.  I hoped to get a reply from my boss's boss saying something like, "Yo lady, what's your problem?  You're telling on this guy for some petty little bullcrap?  Grow up."  I didn't get a response from anybody (yet).  Feeling proactive, I went to tell my boss to expect the email in his mail box, but he had already read it.  And he was laughing.  He said to not worry about it and proceeded to tell me a story about a guy who sent an angry email to the biggest boss in the place, and even he didn't lose his job.  I was relieved.  I said, "If I knew I was dealing with a child, I wouldn't have sent that email." 

In conclusion, a great way to get me to hate you is to tell on me. #technology

Microsoft Outlook has the option of requesting a read receipt for emails you send.  If your recipient reads the email you sent, a message gets sent back to you, assuming the recipient allows the read receipt to be sent. 

People at my job send out stupid emails.  And they send a lot of them.  And they send them to about 2000 people at once.  Every time I receive a mass emailed message that asks if I want to send a read receipt, I consider clicking no because the sender likely doesn't even know me, let alone care if I read the message or not.  Instead, I click yes, hoping the stupid sender is overwhelmed by 2000 read receipts all at once.  Have I mentioned I hate mass emails? #technology

As a frequent reader of tech geekery websites like TechCrunch, I often stumble upon companies and services offering a "private beta" because they're not quite ready for prime time.  This seems like a good idea when you want people to try out your service but you know it's not perfect and don't want to disappoint the masses. 

However, I'm taking the official stance that private betas are a bad idea.  For people like me who either don't have any experience being a beta tester or don't have the credentials to get an invite, private betas equate to a road block.  If there's no simple way around it, I quickly lose interest, and you've forever lost me as a customer (since I can't remember the last time something was in private beta and eventually came out, still maintaining my interest).  In the off chance I put my email address in your "Tell me when you're out of private beta" mailing list, I likely won't remember why I was interested in your company in the first place, so again, you've lost me as a customer. #technology

I've noticed lately that ESPN's websites are, quite simply, great.  The one I have the most experience with is their Fantasy Football site, which is designed in such a way that it makes me feel like I'm paying money to use it, though I'm not.  It's a combination of the easy-to-read layout, the lack of obtrusive ads, the simple yet powerful functionality, and the cruft-free URLs (I have a thing for that).  I'm consistently surprised that they offer this stuff for free, and I'd like to shake the hands of the members of the web design department and say, "Thanks for not being someone like Yahoo or Weather.com, who treat me like a criminal trying to access their proprietary information." 

The same is true about their mobile site.  To be honest, there's an ad at the top of every page.  But for whatever reason, I find it incredibly easy to ignore.  Other than the ad, the site just has simple and to-the-point content.  Sports scores.  Team profiles.  Play by play. 

It seems like ESPN is providing a service out of their own good will, not running a website for profit.  I know they must make some amount of money from this, otherwise they would discontinue it.  But the simplicity and usability of their websites makes me feel I'm getting something for free, which is unusual these days.  Kudos, ESPN. #technology