A better DNS and a better Registrar

For as long as I can remember, I’ve hated the tools out there for managing domains. Except for a brief, very happy period when I hosted my own bind servers, I’ve been using the
services of others. And they all stink. Off the top of my head I’ve used:

• Inexpensive Domains
• GoDaddy
• Moniker
• Gandi.net

Inexpensive Domains was actually great until they adopted the GoDaddy interface. GoDaddy is just the suck and is one of the worst internet companies in my opinion. Moniker looks like someone outsourced the development of the tools and neither party spoke the same language. I’ve looked at many others but they aren’t worth mentioning.

I started using Gandi.net a little over two years ago. They have been good for a few reasons:

• You can register international domains
• Very powerful DNS management. Though it is confusing and difficult to get the hang of.
• Did I mention flexible DNS? You can set any TTL you want. You have complete control of the zone file. Love it.

However, Gandi.net has some negatives. The management interface is very slow to load. (Not as bad as GoDaddy, though) You can’t auto renew a domain unless you pre-purchase and store funds in your account. They are in France which triggers a fraud alert every.single.time. I put my card through. The death stroke is that it takes 15 minutes for a zone file edit to get pushed to their name servers. Grrr, that one can piss you off during an application upgrade.

And then today, I found DNSimple. These guys look like they have it all. Auto renewals. International domains. Full control over DNS records (though not at the raw zone file level). And very reasonable pricing. It’s cheaper than Amazon’s DNS service. Plus they offer RapidSSL certificates. Finally, a one stop shop.

I just signed up. I’m going to give them a test and then migrate the rest Check them out: DNSimple. If you use that link, you can get 2 free months of service!

Kaleidoscope Text Comparison

Kaleidoscope is a beautiful, relatively new text and image comparison tool for Mac OS X.

When I say beautiful, I mean it has to be the most spectacular, mouth watering application I use in my development workflow.

But it has its problems. <Read on…>

MobileMe: Verily We Scorn, Scene 1.

I just bought my wife an iPhone after two years of her hating mine.  She downright despised it.  Then her killerapp came along and she just had to have it.  (I won’t tell you what app it is, but I’m sure you can guess it has something to do with Women’s insecurities.

With both of us having access to the supreme mobile device on the planet (come on android and webos!  I’m rooting for you!), I decided to go ahead and buy a MobileMe account so we could have immediate access to a shared calendar.  Gosh, I’ve lived without it for so long, (How long ago was I using Palm Treos?)  I forgot how much I wanted it.

Buying a MobileMe subscription at the same time as your phone nets you $30 off.  I highly recommend it.

However, despite all that MobileMe offers, my hopes and dreams… kaput. <Read on…>

iPhone is great, but…

I have an iPhone. I have had one since the first hour it went on sale. My wife stood inline on the day of the launch a week before our wedding. Yeah, I’m a lucky guy.

In my eyes there is nothing out there that comes close.

BUT.

That’s a big BUT.

There are some things that annoy the ever living snot out of me. As you can tell from this site, Kelly just gave birth. At one of the major events in my life, I’m holding in one hand my newborn son, in the other, the most technologically advanced phone on the planet.

And I can’t even SEND A PICTURE of him to all my family and friends!

With the imminent launch of iPhone 2.0, my blood boils at the thought of one more year without MMS.

(And for any of you freaks that say, “but you can email!” Go get your head checked. There is a time for email and there is a time for MMS.)

Five months later

I’ve held back from writing anything about the iPhone because its such a hot topic and, invariably, there is someone who will say it better than me.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much in the way said about my top issues with the phone. I really can’t believe how few people complain about these annoyances.

First, let me say that the iPhone is, without a second thought, the best cellphone on the market. I have always joked about how if my wife needed to dial 9-1-1 after we were in a car accident and I was lying unconcious with life bleeding out of me, I wouldn’t survive. She wouldn’t have figured out how to make a call! With the iPhone, I now know I will survive the crash. Well, really, at least the ambulance will know to come…

<Read on…>

Fix Home and End Keys on Mac OS X

Nothing in this world makes less sense then how Apple decided to make Home, End, Page-Up, and Page-Down work.

I’m not sure where, when, and why this started. But on every other modern day operating system, these keys work like this:

- Home -> move the cursor to the beginning of the line
- End -> move the cursor to the end of the line
- Pg-Up -> move the cursor up the length of the viewport
- Pg-Dn -> move the cursor down the length of the viewport

Now I don’t know why I am even repeating these descriptions. As much as the sky is blue and earth is below our feet, everyone knows what these buttons do.

Unless you are on a Mac. <Read on…>

iPhone. iBought. iWin.

Goodbye Sprint. Goodbye Nextel.

Here I come Cingular.

As I stated in a few posts ago I switched to Verizon from Sprint after 10 years. I changed jobs and work says that Verizon is more convenient for everyone. And, hey, they have way better coverage anyhow! Right? Okay, fine, I’ll pay the early termination to get out of my Sprint agreement if you (work) buy me a new 700p to replace my 650. Sweet deal! Right?

Wrong.

<Read on…>

Treo 700p is junk

I’m not one to bash Treo Smart Phones or Palm itself. I’m quite a fan actually. I’ve owned both the 650 and 700p. Unfortunately, for people who enjoy tools that are not overly complex and easy to use, Palm is going down the drain.

My 650 was fairly stable. Once in a while it would reboot for no apparent reason but it never affected what I was doing. It never happened during a phone call and was usually when I picked it up the first time and hit power.

I used to tell people to stay as far away from Windows Mobile as you can. Here’s the line I tell everyone. If my girlfriend and I were in a car accident and I was unconscious while she was awake, would she be able to pick up my Windows Mobile phone (specifically, my Verizon Wireless XV6700) and dial 911 to save my dying body? Not a chance in hell. I wouldn’t be typing this story right now.

<Read on…>

Why my computer will forever be insecure.

[UPDATE: Of course, a year and 2 months after I wrote this, I switched to a Mac for full-time use.]

I just got a new workstation from Dell. It’s a doozy and while not the fastest machine available, by far, the fastest machine I’ve worked on. Whew. We picked it up from the Dell Outlet. It’s a refurbished unit but offers the same warranty as a new PC. How can you go wrong? So price for performance, its the fastest machine out there.

At any rate, I’m pissed. I’ve long known about the Windows Genuine Advantage bullshit, but never really experienced it until now. At work, I was able to avoid installing WGA because of our corporate licensing. This new PC for my home comes with XP Professional. What’s the first thing you do with any new Windows machine? Yep, go and download all of the updates. (Not go and have fun with it like you would on some other machines.)

<Read on…>

Why did I ever switch to Verizon?

I’ve about f’ing had it with Verizon. Don’t even get me started on, “Can you hear me now.”

On an aside, I’ve had more dropped calls from Verizon in two weeks then in the past 6 months with Sprint. Maybe its the area I’m in, northern Detroit Metro, but Verizon has horrible service.

I cannot get email or calendar to be pushed to my phone from Doner. I could with Sprint. I’ve spent the past hour and a half trying to setup Verizon’s PC client to forward mail to my phone. (Which by the way is 13.4 times needlessly more complex the Sprint solution) I need to do this because my company doesn’t allow IMAP from the outside and they don’t support anything but blackberries, yet.

<Read on…>