ULTRAVIAS - Notebook, Laptop and mobile device reviews

Okay Lazyweb, help me find what I’m lookin’ fer. I want a mobile shoppin’/todo list app that me lady and I can both use t’ keep shared lists. I’ve got an iPhone, Susan has a Blackberry Curve — it should be easy t’ use on either o’ those devices. And o’ course, we’d want t’ be able t’ edit our lists via our desktop web browsers, as well.

It should:

• support multiple lists
• support sharin’ lists betwixt multiple scallywags
• make it super easy t’ check off items
• be able t’ sync th’ latest list updates from anywhere
• be easy t’ use on iPhone, Blackberry, or any web browser
• be inexpensive

It doesn’t have t’ have (but could):

• support store-specific lists
• be aware o’ what aisle items are on
• support recipe ingredient lists or meal plannin’ functions
• support item categories within lists

I looked at a few list applications fer th’ iPhone in th’ App Store, and I did some searches on th’ general intarwebs, but th’ apps I found all fell down in some way. The usual failin’ were that they didn’t support (or at least didn’t make it clear that it would support) sharin’ lists betwixt scallywags, or weren’t cross-platform.

Is anybody out there aware o’ such an app? Given me failure t’ locate one meself, I’m inclined t’ think that either 1) me Google-fu were weak that day, 2) th’ app I’m lookin’ fer exists but needs better SEO (this is what I suspect), 3) developers o’ th’ existin’ list apps aren’t doin’ a good job o’ highlightin’ all o’ their features (which I also suspect), or 4) there is an openin’ in that market space that would be pretty easy t’ fill. If I thought I could spare th’ time, I’d try t’ develop a service like that, meself.

I mentioned previously that the XML-RPC and Atom blog APIs would be disabled by default when WordPress 2.6 is released. This was a matter of some debate within the community, and there has been some clarification:

• The APIs will not be automatically disabled for sites upgrading from older versions. Since the APIs have previously been ‘on’ by default, they will continue to function.
• For new installs of WordPress 2.6 and later, there will be an option presented at install-time to enable the APIs. Or not. They seem to have removed that between Beta 1 and Beta 2.
• There will be options in the Write settings to enable or disable XML-RPC posting and Atom API posting individually.

This sounds like the most reasonable path to make this change without causing disruption for those who have been using client tools like Ecto, MarsEdit, or Windows Live Writer (or third-party web services which can post to blogs, like Flickr or Delicious) to post to their blogs.

Also, though this change is being made under the moniker of a security improvement, that is not to imply that the current API code is not secure. It is simply a pretty standard practice to turn off services that are not used, just as when building a dedicated email server, you wouldn’t turn on FTP unless you absolutely needed it. Stats from WordPress.com have shown that only about 5% of its users utilize the client APIs, so it doesn’t make sense to automatically turn it on for the 95% who aren’t using them.

If you are seeing this post, then you are getting pages served from my new server at Slicehost. I still have to migrate my other web sites, and figure out how I’m going to mange email, but this was a big hurdle, and I’m glad to say that it went pretty smoothly. There are still some old files that I haven’t put back in place yet, so if anything seems awry, don’t be too surprised. I know of a couple of things I need to take care of, but I’m sure there are others that haven’t crossed my mind yet. So feel free to contact me if you see anything wrong on the site (dead links, missing images, etc.).

When I was shopping for a hosting company, there were a few final contenders in consideration. But Slicehost hit a sweet-spot in the variables of price, host stats, and that certain je ne sais quoi that tells you that a company seems to Get It. “Built for Developers” — that’s a good start right there. You want Plesk or Webmin? They don’t give it to you. But you can install it yourself if you really want it. Yeah, baby — that’s my kind of hosting.

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I am preparing to move all of my web and email hosting to a new server. I’ve been fortunate to have an in-trade hosting arrangement for many years now (thanks to Jeff at Iguanasoft!). But my host’s owner is winding down some of his equipment, and I had outgrown the server I was on. I’ve secured a new server at Slicehost (a 1024slice running Ubuntu), and I’ll be transitioning my data over the next couple of weeks, as time allows.

I mainly mention this as warning that if my site appears to be down, email bounces, or any other strangeness occurs, it might be because I’m in the middle of moving things around. It will probably be another couple of days before I start shaking things up. While I’m moving thing around, I might try consolidating some of my stand-alone WordPress sites into a WordPress-MU setup. That would make upgrades and other site management tasks a bit easier, I think.

With a little luck, and a lot of attention to detail, you might never know that I’ve changed anything. Yeah, right! Watch this space for further announcements.

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I just found out that January 30th is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day. What an awesome birthday present — I’m there, dude!

I’ve been thinking about deleting my Myspace account almost since the day I got it but always opted out of doing so because of the few friends I have who don’t have Facebook accounts. But by remaining on Myspace, I realize, I’m becoming an enabler. I’m giving those friends no reason to switch over from Myspace by giving them access to my Myspace profile.

The only reason I even have a MySpace account in the first place is because at my last job, we needed to test how to format our video player embed code on MySpace. I did find one actual friend on MySpace, but since my wife and I now have email addresses for her and her husband…

The sole remaining reason for me to visit MySpace anymore would be to catch up on news about Weird Al. And really, there’s not much reason to visit it for that, because that’s not the official Weird Al website, anyhow (though, it is really his account).

I’m adding a reminder on my calendar to delete my MySpace account on January 30. How about you?

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Just as with my daily del.icio.us link posting experiment in the past, I have decided to discontinue my automated daily Twitter summary. I will continue posting to Twitter, and the most recent of my tweets will be displayed in my sidebar here. But think they should remain separate from my main blog content. I just feel like they “clutter” things up here, and the things I post on Twitter are different in scope from what I normally post in my blog.

I will likely continue to post mostly technical observations here in my blog (with the occasional side-track into non-technical areas). More personal, everyday, short thoughts will go to Twitter (with the occasional technical note). I’ve got a couple of WordPress-related posts coalescing in the back of my brain, and I hope to find time to write them up and post them soon. Stay tuned!

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