Google deleted their own blog…it’s funny until you do it too
Posted on March 31, 2006
Filed Under Internet & Technology | 2 Comments
Official Google Blog: And we’re back:
The Google Blog was unavailable for a short time tonight. We quickly learned from our initial investigation that there was no systemwide vulnerability for Blogger. We’ll let you know more about what did happen once we finish looking into it.
Update: We’ve determined the cause of tonight’s outage. The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d’oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad.
A week ago, I would have been joining all the folks who find this very funny. How can you delete your own blog and not notice? Now I know exactly where the Google folks were coming from.
Yesterday I was cleaning up my Dreamhost account, getting rid of all the C3 stuff now that the domain is fully moved to Pair Networks. We have 11 parked domains many of which begin with “cancer”, and I was clicking through to delete each one. There’s one domain on my account, canceractionnow.org which is not C3-related. It’s a client site for the Marti Nelson
Cancer Foundation. Without thinking, I saw “cancer” and hit “delete.”
I’m sure you know what that feels like…a split second after you clicked the button, you realize that you’ve made a terrible mistake and if this was a movie everything would be in slow motion as you race to the “cancel” button while screaming “NOOOoooooo….!!!!!!” It’s not Dreamhost’s fault…they do have a screen that says “Whoa…are you sure? You’re going to delete EVERYTHING if you do this” and I barely gave it a thought before clicking the “Yes” button.
Good news: It’s a static, simple site. Just some pages and email accounts. Dreamhost didn’t delete the user account so the files were all there. I just had to repoint the domain to them. I lost all the email addresses, but there weren’t that many and they’re all forwards. No one had email stored on the server. Heart pounding moment from a very stupid mistake, but it could have been a lot worse.
Newsgator changes
Posted on March 28, 2006
Filed Under Internet & Technology | Leave a Comment
Lots of updates and changes in NewsGatorLand:
FeedDemon 2.0 is out of beta. Seems kind of anti-climatic, since what Nick Bradbury called an “alpha” was in better shape than most already-out-of-beta software.
The mothership, Newsgator, has gone through a redesign. It’s very blue. Right now, it’s also very slow. I think they need to feed the hamsters a little more.
Instead of multiple levels of membership for consumer and business that made no sense (you can get more out of the middle-level “consumer” membership than the lower-level “business” membership and pay less), it’s all in one Premium membership for $19.95 per year that includes more smart feeds and other do-dads. If I’m understanding it correctly, you get one year with all the benefits of the Premium version when
you buy one of the desktop products…FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, Inbox (formerly Outlook Edition), or SmartRead (the new not-quite-ready-for-primetime PocketPC client). After the first year, you can continue syncing to Newsgator for free, use the software standalone, or pay the $19.95 per year fee.
What are the chances that Newsgator will make more changes to their offerings/plans before my subscription is up for renewal next year? But for now, all my feeds are syncing nicely regardless of what application on what machine I choose to read them, and that’s all I care about.
Something I don’t see every day
Posted on March 26, 2006
Filed Under Internet & Technology | Leave a Comment
It’s so rare, that I felt the need to mark the moment:
My kids should have playdates on Sundays more often. 
ecto for Windows 2.0
Posted on March 26, 2006
Filed Under Internet & Technology | Leave a Comment
As I’ve said many times before, ecto is my favorite blog editor. There’s been a Windows version of ecto out for a while, but I never enjoyed using it as much as the Mac version.
Now there’s a beta release of version 2 for Windows and I’m giving it a spin. I like BlogJet and Performancing for blogging from Windows, but I’m not in love with either and I’m willing to try something new.
Alex Hung, the developer of ecto for Windows is a very nice guy. We’ve exchanged email over the previous versions, and if there’s a client that I really want to like and I want to succeed, it’s this one.
Cingular’s confusing data plans: a lesson to the wise
Posted on March 26, 2006
Filed Under PocketPC | 129 Comments
I don’t know how it works with other wireless carriers, but Cingular has some work to do to clear up confusion over their Internet access options and what works (and does not work) with each of their phones and PDAs. Picking a voice plan is easy. You decide how many minutes you want and pick the plan that offers just a little bit more than you expect you will use. Any leftovers go into rollover so you can use them on months that you go a little over.
The problem with the data plans is that you can pick a plan that you think gives you unlimited access, but you have to be very clear on exactly what you’re getting, otherwise you will be billed on a per byte basis.
Follow any Cingular 8125-related forum and you’ll see mass confusion and misinformation about what plan goes with what phone. What your phone is capable of doing and what you will be charged for are two very different things.
For Cingular 8125 owners, it’s a choice between:
MediaNet: This is the plan that’s for regular WAP enabled phones and smart phones. It’s what people who don’t have a Windows Mobile phone select, as well as a phone like the Cingular 2125 smartphone. The key difference appears to be whether or not the screen is touch enabled. If your phone comes with a stylus, you shouldn’t be on this plan. Unlimited (with a voice plan) is $19.99 per month and includes text messages and other features that don’t necessarily require a full-featured PDA to work. Here’s the tricky part: by default, the Cingular 8125 is set to connect to wap.cingular with a proxy. The proxy won’t work if you’re connected to the Internet through a wifi hotspot. The 8125 is one of the first Cingular devices that has both wifi and EDGE/GPRS support, and out of the box you can’t switch smoothly between them. You have to either uncheck the proxy, which may mean slower connections or use a browser like Opera which ignores the proxy setting altogether. If you change your connection to the more open isp.cingular and disable the proxy and you have the MediaNet plan, you may be charged per byte even though you have what you think is an unlimited plan. MediaNet is supposed to connect to wap.cingular, not isp.cingular. Cingular doesn’t want 8125 owners to use this plan, although many do because they ordered it online, had it “grandfathered” in from a previous phone or they got a clueless Cingular rep who didn’t know better. The Cingular 8125 works just fine with MediaNet and it’s the cheapest option, but if you’re not careful on how you configure the phone and how you use it, you may have a tremendous bill. It seems that Cingular reps are telling customers that they’re using the wrong plan when and where they can. Some have a clue, many don’t.
PDA Connect: This is the plan that is supposed to be selected for the Cingular 8125. It’s the lowest level of Cingular’s business data connect plans. Unlike MediaNet, it doesn’t include any text or instant messages so you are charged a dime per unless you also add a MEdia plan. With a voice plan, it’s $39.99 month for unlimited access. You can use the isp.cingular address for your EDGE/GPRS connection, with or without Cingular’s proxy settings. Here’s the catch on this plan: If you use your phone as a USB modem for your laptop (also known as “tethering”) then you will be charged per byte. Laptop connect is only on the much more expensive plans (around $80 per month). I bring this up because this review from PC Magazine says:
EDGE performance was excellent on Cingular’s network. I got download speeds ranging from 117 to 182 Kbps using Pocket Internet Explorer and using the 8125 as a USB modem for a Dell laptop.
Now, it’s likely the reviewer already had a Laptop Connect plan on her wireless number since she tests multiple devices, but it’s very unlikely that anyone reading this review does. I will be sending her a link to this entry. She really needs to be clearer on this. It’s not even an option to add to the phone without going through a Cingular customer service representative. Yes, you can use an 8125 as a modem…but those per-byte charges add up and Cingular does not give you any kind of warning…on the phone, in the box, or on your account screen…that you are racking up the bucks until the day of reckoning (the monthly bill) arrives.
You have to dig into Cingular’s “Explanation of Rates and Charges for Current Cingular Customers” which is buried at the bottom of their Data Plan page to read (bolding mine):
CINGULAR DATA CONNECT UNLIMITED PLANS—ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT INFORMATION
The Data Connect $79.99 and PDA Connect plans may only be used with approved, certified devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing, (ii) email, and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force and field service automation). The plans may not be used with server devices or with host computer applications. Such prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, continuous JPEG file transfers, automatic data feeds, telemetry applications, automated functions or any other machine-to-machine applications. The plans may not be used to provide full-time connections, including without limitation, private lines or frame relay. Cingular PDA Connect plan: may only be used with compatible palmOne Tungsten W, palmOne Treo, Siemens SX56/66, Motorola MPx200/220, Audiovox 4100 or similar Cingular-certified devices provided that the device is not being used as a modem with other equipment (e.g., computers or ruggedized handhelds) through use of connection kits, other phone/PDA-to-computer accessories, Bluetooth or other wireless technology.
So there you have it…while the Cingular 8125 can physically and technically be used as a modem, the unlimited plan you probably have doesn’t allow for it. And you can’t buy a Laptop Connect plan easily (for $80 per month, why would you want to?).
And even if a customer is on the right plan, Cingular’s billing is still run by hamsters on a wheel. Check out what greeted me when I went to check my bill online yesterday after my first full month with the PDA Connect plan:
A heart attack is a nice way to start a Saturday morning, don’t you think?
It appears that even though I was on the correct unlimited PDA Connect plan, something somewhere went wrong and I was charged for every byte of those 41 MB I consumed last month. First thing I was asked was if I used the phone as a modem. The answer was the truth: no. I have enough trouble right now with ActiveSync, I didn’t want to do anything that had the potential of disabling my computer’s connection to the wired or wireless Internet. Just isn’t worth it. When I want to go online with the phone, I use the phone. The folks at Cingular don’t know what went wrong but they agree it’s wrong and the charge is being reversed.
bk_keywords:Cingular 8125
