Not long ago I removed Adobe Flash Player from my iMac. Despite all the political things between Apple and Adobe I did this mostly for performance reasons. I am often working on photos in Aperture while having a browser window open and I find that Flash just running ads in Safari use a ton of resources. Since disabling it I see a noticeable gain in speed and responsiveness on my machine in general.

Now I’m not entirely without it, I have Google Chrome installed as my secondary browser which has Flash built in, so when I want to watch Hulu it’s still possible. However I’ve started to notice that most websites offer HTML5 video options and I got an excellent extension for Safari to make most sites default to it.

John Gruber wrote an excellent piece on how to do this and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

That said there are two things that annoy me right now.

1. Google Analytics relies on Flash for it’s charts… which is unnecessary… it could all be done in HTML5
2. Boing Boing….

I’ve mentioned before that Boing Boing uses a ton of Flash, when I called the hypocritical Cory Doctorow a hypocrite (well he is).

Well it turns out, this is what happens when you visit the BoingBoing.net main page in safari without Flash installed:

Forcing my computer to auto-download useless SWF files? Good job gentlemen. You suck again.

Noticeably this does not occur when you read their site through a RSS reader. Maybe they should just stop being hypocrites and stop running Flash ads?  Are you listening Cory? Probably not.

In recent weeks I’ve been working hard at cleaning my apartment, throwing things out and simplifying constantly. My hope is that if I really manage to throw out stuff, organize and streamline I’ll be able to keep the place in better shape consistently.

So far, so good.

That said a big part is just general cleanliness. To which I owe much of my help on my Roomba 530 cleaning robot.

I’ve had the little guy for around 3 years and have gotten used to doing routine maintenance to clean it and keep it running smoothly. However, recently one of my brushes broke. It’s completely removable so I decided I could just order a new one and install it myself.

However when I went to the site they didn’t have the brush I needed (6 bristles for a 500 series). I figured it had to be there, I was just missing something. Confused, I called their sales line to attempt to order the proper part.

When I got the rep on the phone he immediately introduced himself and asked for my name. I explained to him that I was having this issue with my 530 and I couldn’t find the proper part. He apologized and informed me that it was a common issue and that the part had actually been redesigned to a stronger three brush design and knew exactly which part I needed.

A few moments later I had ordered the parts I needed (and some extra filters) and I was off the phone with the receipt in my inbox.

Sounds pretty simple right? Here is what stood out for me:

• The employee lead with a friendly greeting that did not at all seem forced. He didn’t at all seem annoyed that I didn’t know what part I really needed.
• I was calling sales with what was essentially a support issue and he was able acknowledge my concerns, tell me why I was having trouble and offer me a solution in a matter of moments.
• The transaction was fast! I spent no time on hold, I was on the line, speaking to someone and had everything resolved in less than 5 minutes.

Too often these days companies separate their sales and support to a degree that one department cannot assist you with both without transferring you. In my experience today it was no trouble at all. The employee was clearly spoken and genuine. You could tell he was not reading from a script, he had his own friendly personality showing through. The experience did a lot to impress me with their company, obviously so much so that I felt to write a blog entry. I will happily recommend them to friends and family now too. Other companies could learn a thing or two from iRobot.

Thanks iRobot!

Today I am pleased to say that I smoothly and transparently switched from 1and1.com to Bluehost as my hosting provider for Subism.com and VampiresTheMovie.com

By the end of today Shotspan.com will be moved over.

By the end of the week MediaRebellion.com will be moved.

By the end of the month LongPork.com will be moved as well.

In short, I’m moving all domains I either own or run to Bluehost, be they active or inactive.

This of course begs the question: Why?

The answer: Because 1and1 let me down.

I have been a loyal 1and1 customer since the company’s launch and have been a happy advocate for them the whole time. However in the last year or so I’ve tried, and failed, at doing more sophisticated things with my WordPress install.

Turns out 1and1 didn’t like that. Automatic updates wouldn’t work. Image uploads would fail, my database would crash, plugins would cause my whole backend to freeze up. It was exhausting. There were features of my blog that I was simply unable to use and just accepted it. Sure enough as I researched and troubleshot the issues, I’d always find someone else having the same problem, and interestingly enough they were always on 1and1.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago when I caught my friends Mindy and Leyla tweeting back and forth about WordPress issues. Turns out Mindy was experiencing many, if not all, of the same issues I was, and Leyla was advocating she switch to Bluehost.

Needless to say due to these constant frustrations I decided that I was fed up with both WordPress and 1and1 and that it was time to switch both out. (something I swore I’d never do again after leaving MovableType) I finally decided to take a look at ExpressionEngine which Jeffrey had suggested to me long ago.

Yesterday, I purchased a license to ExpressionEngine and signed up for a free two week trial of Dreamhost (which Abe and Jesse have both suggested in the past).

Immediately after signing up I was not impressed with Dreamhost. The package of unlimited everything was very nice but the lack of phone support (which I’ve rarely used anyway) seemed to me to be kinda cheap on their end. To top that off, as soon as I got my test domain configured I was greeted by this:

error id: “bad_httpd_conf”

Off the bat, a fresh configuration and I was getting an error. Really Dreamhost? A quick Google search led me to understand that this is a common thing for them and has been since at least 2008. Extremely easy to fix but extremely common. My line of thinking was this: if it’s a known issue that many users experience and they’ve had it since 2008… their priorities aren’t right. I don’t want a host that expects me to live with issues common enough that they should have already worked out.

I trudged on anyway, fixed the issue and installed ExpressionEngine. From there I did some reading and poked around at the back end enough to realize I am in over my head. ExpressionEngine is more of what I want (less blog centric) but less of what I know (easy templating systems). I am still curious about what I can do with EE but it’s too much for right now. Luckily they have a 30 day trial so I am going to return my license for a full refund and look at it another day.

I also wasn’t pleased at the Control Panel options on Dreamhost and maybe it’s just me but the whole thing felt kinda sluggish and cumbersome.I decided to cancel my two week trial after only one day.

But this brought me back to square one.

Today I got up and registered an account with Bluehost, I was able to discover a $3.99 monthly unlimited plan and signed up for two years (with phone support thank you!). I was going in mostly blind and without a trial option but I read some comparison blogs that people had written and I generally had a good feeling.

So far I couldn’t be happier.

My biggest gripe about 1and1 was that it had specific incompatibilities and problems with WordPress and I was delighted to find that Bluehost offered one click installs of popular CMS systems, WordPress included. I immediately tested it and set it up with all the things I wanted to do before: file uploading, caching, twitter and url shortening plugins. Everything worked like a charm, as did the update system.

From there I set up Google Apps for my domain and I am pleased to say I am up and running smoother than ever. I can’t wait to push it further.

What gets me the most out of all of this is the benefit of smaller companies. The fact that 1and1 has so many issues with what is by far and away the most popular CMS used by bloggers is a disgrace and really is inexcusable. Bluehost is tiny compared to 1and1 but Bluehost immediately knew their user base, they offered me every thing I needed to get setup right from their Control Panel. Their support site is clear and easy to navigate and even offers video tutorials of how to set things up so that you don’t have to call support. I’m excited to move my business to them and I have really high hopes.

‘Nuff said.

Of all the places I’ve spent my time. No place has as many fond memories for me as Yankee Stadium.

I shot this image almost exactly two years ago at the 2008 MLB All Star Home Run Derby. This would be the second to last game I would spend with her.

I only just now finally getting the chance to assemble it in Photoshop and Aperture. This is my tribute to the most important stadium in all of baseball and my one true home.

May she rest in piece.