Who is Hosting This? is a simple but useful website that will tell you which hosting company hosts the site whose URL/address you enter. It seems pretty accurate.
I am constantly looking for new, better hosts and find it useful to see what popular, fast websites are using.
I predict that the iphone will do very well initially with early adopters and Apple fan-boys (and girls).
After initial demand has been met (6-12 months) there will be down swing as people realize that the competition offerings are pretty comparable. Initial limitations of the iphone primarily limited battery life and the lack of a replaceable battery will also be a factor.
Version 2 of the iphone (plus a non-phone ipod version) will fix some of the problems and sales will rebound. Also prices will start to decrease.
After a couple of years, Apple will reap a healthy percentage of new sales but not dominate the way that the ipod has. I think a market share of 5-10% in the medium to long term is likely.
Spider-Man 3 is a good movie but I think my favourite part of the experience was seeing it at an IMAX theatre in Toronto. Not because of the big screen but because there were no commercials before the movie. Well, there was one promo for IMAX itself but after that no commercials, no coming attractions, just the feature. Definitely worth $3 extra.
As for the movie itself (minor spoilers to follow) I liked the action sequences and especially the Sandman, both the acting by Thomas Haden Church and the computer-generated version. The plot was typical Spidey with Peter Parker having his ups and downs. The only annoying plot hole was that alien symbiote that just happened to land near Peter, sat around in his room for days doing nothing, and only doing its thing when malevolence was needed.
A really nice cameo by Stan Lee, too. Really hokey but what would you expect when he either wrote his own lines or got to approve them.
The fight finale with multiple superheroes/villains was almost too much to take in. I’d like to see it in slow motion. Also with the big IMAX screen you can’t view everything at once–but it does put you more in the middle of the action. A worthwhile trade off.
Lunarpages offers shared web hosting. I tried it for a couple of days but canceled very quickly. They did give me most of my money back.
My main complaints are:
When I canceled I discovered that they were not going to refund the $8 for the free domain they offer. I didn’t really want the domain (I was transferring my own domain) but just took it because it was part of the package. However, it does state on their website (but which I missed) that the domain registration is non-refundable.
Lunarpages is highly rated but not by me.
Stick it to the man…
Frankly, I don’t have an HD player and don’t plan to buy one (until I can get a combined HD/Blue Ray player for under $200; oh, yeah, and an HD TV). But I do like free speech and the idea that this number by itself (i.e. without a program to use the number to do a crack) is a threat to any industry is ridiculous. I applaud the folks at digg.com for reconsidering their original stance and siding with their users.
The 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0.WS website has a very interesting collection of ways that people are expressing themselves. Power to the people.
The latest sad situation at Virginia Tech is another reminder of the news media’s complicity in all of this. Pasting the killer’s image on the front page of newspapers and showing his videos on tv may sell but it also shows would-be murderers that they too can get their 15 minutes of fame.
I hate to predict but seeing that the record-breaking death toll resulted in more ink and publicity may only lead to other disaffected people to try to set new records of mayhem.
It’s not just the celebrity killers that the media build up. It’s the whole celebrity culture that drives people to be famous in any way possible. If someone is a little unhinged and wants to get their important message out, becoming a celebrity is clearly the way to do it. If you aren’t lucky enough to be a movie star, rock star, royalty or rich heiress then resorting to extreme, violent measures may seem the best way to go.
Fido is the heartwarming story of a boy and his zombie. Yes, zombie. It’s a campy, funny movie but also touches on some serious issues. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In an alternate 50′s universe where zombies have been domesticated, Timmy’s family gets a zombie who turns out to be more compassionate than his distant father. Aside from small problems, like when the zombie eats their neighbour, he is welcomed by Timmy and his mother. But not his father who developed a fear of zombies when his own father tried to eat him and he had to kill him.
In its own bizarre way the world makes sense but the situations are crazy enough to drive the humour.
The Merlin Show | Thirty theoretically productive frames per second is a new video podcast where Merlin Mann does interviews, gives tips, and generally expounds his productivity philosophy.
The interviews so far have been insightful. I very much enjoy his summary wrapups where he explains what one might have learned from the interview.
Battery technology has not kept up wit our power-hungry electronic devices. Laptops barely get a few hours of life with current technology.
I predict two technologies will help get us to the point where we can go at least a day (the practical minimum) between charges:
1) flash drives – as capacity goes up they will replace standard hard drives and draw much less power. They are also smaller and more rugged than spinning media.
2) capacitor-based batteries – holding a large charge and quick to recharge. Just a “few” more bugs to work out before they are ready for commercialization (I hope!).
BubbleShare is a photo sharing website. I’ve tried various others including shutterfly, photoclub, and flickr but this is my current favourite.
I especially like the range of “links” they provide to albums including embedded slide shows that you can paste into your own website or blog. Check out my photos page for examples.
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