1. K9-Mail – I wasn’t a fan of the default Android mail. Blackberry really was great about one thing; email. With K9-Mail, it gets a little closer as you can set how often you want email pulled off the server, whereas I believe the default Android mail system only does that for Gmail.
2. Google Talk – If you don’t have unlimited texting for your Android, the Google Talk app is a great alternative. You can text all you want w/out incurring any overage fees for texting too much. The only drawback is that the other person needs Google Talk as well.
3. Facebook – I’m hardly addicted to it, but it’s become a standard app. It’s so easy to take pics, upload to Facebook, tag people, reply, send messages, etc.
4. TweetCaster – I think this is, by far, the best Twitter app for Android. The primary reason is how it handles multiple accounts. I’ve tried others and almost switched to TweetDeck, but there were definite pros with TweetCaster that I couldn’t find elsewhere (i.e. autofill for names, quick follow, etc.)
5. WordPress – It’s just like it’s Blackberry counterpart, but as with most apps, it’s improved over time. I’m able to take a picture with my phone, share it via the WordPress app (like Facebook) and it will upload it into a post.
6. Reddit Is Fun – If you like Reddit, but want something better than their mobile site, this app makes surfing Reddit, well, fun.
7. CraigsNotifica – This handy unofficial Craigslist app makes searching and tracking items on Craigslist a breeze. Plus, as the name implies, you can set up notifications to alert you when a new item that matches your query is added.
8. Pandora – With a new phone, I tried a new service and even paid for Slacker. It didn’t get along with my phone and I’d frequently have to relaunch it, which is a pain while driving, or mowing the lawn. Pandora, even though you can’t cache stations, works much better.
9. Gas Buddy – As gas prices continue to rise, I’m finding that I use this app more and more. It serves a singular purpose, and that is to help you find the lowest gas prices in your area.
10. Google Sky Map – The coolness factor of this app is off the charts! Turn this app on and you instantly have in front of you a map of constellations and planets, wherever you point your phone. My son was learning about planets in preschool & he loves this app too!

Obviously, there are a lot of other apps I use and some I would include based on frequency of use, but, like Droidin (the best LinkedIn app I could find), they just aren’t that great. I also use Tapatalk for a few forums I frequent, but many forum scripts have their own built in mobile versions that are just as good.

What are your favorite Android apps?

• WordPress – This free app from WordPress has allowed me monitor and update all of my blogs from just about anywhere.
• Pandora – There are several free streaming music apps for the Blackberry. With Pandora I can enter favorite bands or songs and channels with similar music is created.
• Facebook and MySpace – I’ll just lump these together, since they pretty much do the same thing – updating the social networking sites.
• Google Sync – Blackberry has its own calendar, but I already use Google Calendar. This app syncs the two, as well as you contacts.
• Google Mobile App – Sometimes it’s too time consuming to bring up a the Blackberry browser and manually typing in your query. With this app, you can speak your question, or keywords and it will search for you. (Apparently, this does not work on the Blackberry Storm)
• UberTwitter – This is pretty much the king of Twitter apps for the Blackberry and retains most, if not all, of the functionality Twitter.com offers. Of course, it’s no match for a PC client like TweetDeck.
• PayPal – There’s not too much to this one, but being able to send payments and check your acct history while traveling is pretty cool.
• The Weather Channel – I prefer this weather app over others, like WeatherEye, because it offers a longer forecast and has less intrusive advertising.
• Poynt – From locating businesses, restaurants movie times and gas prices near you, this app does a lot!
• Blackberry Messenger – This one is pretty muck a given. It’s a quick and easy way to chat and share pictures with friends and famiy.

Most of the Blackberry apps listed above can be found at BlackBerry App World and the CrackBerry App Store. Enjoy!

A Brief History

DigitalSpace.net was one of the first hosting providers I used. Their rates used to be reasonable, just $3/mo, or $36/yr, for starter sites. It used to be a smaller company with live chat support and they were pretty helpful, especially when I was still sort of starting out…

I learned quickly that DigitalSpace.net’s plans were very limited, but it seemed to be the norm at the time, and it was hard to beat the price. When I say limited, I mean one database, eight sub-domains, no cPanel, no SSH access, no add-on domains, $50 to restore from backup, etc. Unfortunately, I can’t reference the old plans, so that’s what they currently offer… or don’t offer.

Eventually, one of my sites got too big for any of their smaller plans and they wanted me to pay around $100/mo, but I would be running that site at a loss. Fortunately, I found ASmallOrange, which offers VPS plans at very reasonable prices (and shared hosting plans starting at $25/yr). While not the perfect, managed, solution, it suited my needs and I was able to transfer the site over without too much hassle and minimal downtime.

Where Things Went From Bad to Worse

DigitalSpace.net got bought out by Jumpline in 2007 – their logo now states “digitalspace a Jumpline company” – and everything went to hell. Their support is atrocious, their plans are extremely limited, and they’ve raised the rates to the absurd! Needless to say, I had already moved most of my sites elsewhere, but still had two of my sites, and two of someone else’s sites hosted there.

As for the prices, I recently got an invoice for $95.40/yr for each starter account, which used to be $36/yr. Apparently, they provide more space, but starter sites typically don’t need that. They could have just offered a different, intermediate, plan, but it looks like they just needed an excuse to raise the rates. Perhaps it was because people, like me, have left en masse. They claim to have hired more support staff, but based on the time it took for them to reply to my support tickets, I doubt that is true. If so, they hired some incredibly lazy and/or incompetent people.

The Most Recent Head Ache

Because of the recent price hike, even though they offered to discount them to keep me, I’d had enough. I just finished transferring the last four sites away from DigitalSpace, but they weren’t the least bit helpful. Apparently, I no longer had shell access and was not allowed to tar the sites for backup or removal purposes. Eventually, they did this for me. Then, I found that I no longer had access to phpMyAdmin, so I couldn’t export the databases. That also meant that I’d be unable to repair them if something went wrong. That issue eventually got resolved.

Their support system doesn’t allow for email replies, so you’re required to log in and jump through several hoops to reopen the ticket and reply (it’s automatically closed after each of their replies). A response can take a day or two, even though they claim to offer 24/7 tech support. ASmallOrange allows for email replies and issues are resolved, or responses provided, typically within ten minutes. ASO also has a support forum as well as a FAQ and wiki with many solutions to commonly asked questions.

Problems With DigitalSpace.net:

• 24/7 Support did not provide responses after hours
• Phone support is only available M-F during business hours
• Support tickets take around a day or longer to get a response
• Responses from tech support were vague, or incorrect
• They took one site offline without warning for sending out a newsletter
• They set arbitrary limits on email sending and bandwidth use
• Forced to use Plesk instead of cPanel
• They more than doubled rates ($36/yr for starter plan to $95.40/yr)
• Only one database included in Starter or Basic plans
• No Shell access with Starter or Basic plans
• Limited to 8 sub-domains with Starter Plan and 16 with Basic plan
• Could not get SSH to work with Advanced plan
• They charge $50 to restore from a backup

Emails from DigitalSpace.net Support:

Issue: Can’t tar files via SSH
Reply from Geoff Storbeck (Tue Jun-30-2009 02:34):
Unfortunately you will not be able to use ‘tar’ on a shared hosting account. You may want to look into our VDS hosting for more shell-enabled commands.
Note: This would require me to upgrade my hosting just to transfer a site away.

Issue: asked them to backup sites for me
Reply from Geoff Storbeck (Tue Jun-30-2009 21:44):
This has been completed.
Note: It was not.

Issue: phpMyAdmin not installed or configured
Reply from Tim Robison (Wed Jul-01-2009 17:17):
I was just able to add a new user to the database and make it the default. Any of your domains that are doing this, just create a new user for the dbwebadmin.
Note: Users existed already – why the need to create more?

Issue: they only backed up one site
Reply from Geoff Storbeck (Wed Jul-01-2009 23:06):
This has been completed.
Note: Finally!

Issue: phpMyAdmin drops to file not found error
Reply from Frank Kuria (Sat Jul-04-2009 10:47):
The timing out is possibly due to the fact that phpMyAdmin has some file size limits so if you have large databases it may not be possible to backup using phpMyAdmin. You may want to try to use SSH enter the command
mysqldump toyotace3 > toyotace3.dmp
View the helpful link below for more details.
http://support.digitalspace.net/article/view/2004/Using_SSH_to_Import_and_Export_your_Data_and_Databases
Note: I already tried this and I couldn’t log into or use SSH

Issue: SSH not working, asked for better instructions
Reply from David Metcalf (Sun Jul-05-2009 16:30):
When exporting through phpmyadmin, check the box to save it as a file but do not enable any compression. This will allow for a successful export.
Note: He obviously didn’t read the thread to see that I’d tried this already.

Issue: already tried phpMyAdmin, asked them to export database for me
Reply from Geoff Storbeck (Mon Jul-06-2009 21:20):
I have created the dump file for you and placed it in your /private directory.
Note: Finally!

Issue: waiting for response to support ticket
Reply from Frank Kuria (Sat Jul-04-2009 10:49):
Please see response to your issue. If you still have problems, please let us know. Thanks.
Note: Gee, thanks.

I should point out that the dates and times in the support tickets above do not appear to be accurate. For example, I received the last two responses at the same time, but the dates are two days apart. Their system is flawed, which makes it difficult to show accountability. Fortunately, Gmail seems to thread the emails correctly.

As for the tech support representatives at DigitalSpace.net, I hope that  their future perspective employers Google their names and will find this post showing how inept they were in accomplishing a simple task. I’m sure a large part of the blame could be placed on DigitalSpace.net policies, but I’ve seen ASO handle similar requests within minutes. It took DigitalSpace.net nearly a week to allow me to transfer four sites, with eight databases away. That is just not acceptable.

I use and recommend ASmallOrange, which offers extremely affordable starter plans (Tiny Orange). For $25/yr you get a relatively small amount of space, but unlimited sub domains, databases, email addresses, add-on domains, etc. Their support is extremely fast and helpful and they also have a support forum, FAQ and wiki that answer many questions if you don’t want to wait 10-15 minutes for an emailed response to a support ticket.

A spreadsheet I created to work out my hosting restructuring shows me saving around $500/yr by using ASmallOrange over the other hosting co. and taking advantage of adding on domains to existing accounts, rather than creating separate accounts for each site.

It’s taken several days and I’m still waiting to be able to back up my databases at the old host in order to transfer the sites. Once I get the sites moved and I’m done with the old host, I’ll let you know who they are and why I’m glad to be done with them.

UPDATE: I got a reply back regarding backing up the databases; however, I found that it looks like they only backed up one of the four sites. So, I just reopened the support ticket and asked that they back up each of the four sites. What a freakin’ joke!

UPDATE: I finally got them to backup the rest of the sites and I’m in the process of moving two sites over. For one, I’ve gotten it unpacked, database imported and nameservers changed. I’m just waiting for the DNS to propagate before I get back to work on the second one.

UPDATE: Got the first two sites moved over and trying on the third, which has three databases. I have the site unpacked and one database imported. The second database isn’t making it, so I’m having ASO support look into that. The old host, I believe, is giving me problems and I can’t get phpMyAdmin to allow me to export the third database. What a pain!

UPDATE: It’s been almost a week and every day I think I’ll have the problem resolved. Unfortunately, they don’t offer phone support over the weekend, so I’ve had to wait to call until today. They claim to offer 24/7 tech support, but I have yet to receive a response after hours, and they typically take about a day or longer. I’ve now given all info over to the new host to see if they can log in and figure something out. I’ll also be calling today, but I’ve read from others that it can take about an hour to get through… great…

At this point, I can only think they’re being vague and nonresponsive on purpose. It’s gotten personal. I’ll be posting all support ticket responses with employee names and whatever personal info I can dig up. If they want to cost me money by keeping my site down, perhaps I can cost the company future business and their future employment for their inept staff. I’ll have to weigh the cost of satisfaction vs. the price of _____Sucks.com

UPDATE: Issue resolved. Site moved. Let the public flogging begin… soon.

I would really have no reason to post this photoshopped picture, except for the fact that it has really pissed Sarah Palin off… It’s now getting much more publicity. Well done Caribou Barbi!

I had pretty much forgotten about the domain name until today when, on a whim, I searched for it on GoDaddy.com and found that it was available. So, I snatched it up and, using promo code “OYH7″ it was mine for under $8. Patience paid off in this case. Not only is some direct competition gone, but I got his domain name and didn’t have to pay a premium for it.

Let this be a lesson to those of you who have a domain name no longer in use – if someone makes a fair offer, take it, especially if you’re not going to do anything with it. Squatting only works if you’re willing to sell.

The person claims that they paid and could not log in. The email address that they contacted me and filed a dispute with is not in the system, so I can’t verify any of the claims. I also cannot check the logs to see if the person did, in fact, log in and use the membership.

My only thought is that the claimant has multiple email addresses under one account and used a different one to register than he did to contact me and file the dispute. There is no way for me to know and he hasn’t responded to my email yet. And, he’s cancelled the subscription, so he’s not due the ability to log in at this point anyway.

It’s a small fee, so I will be refunding the amount without too much of a hassle, but it does irk me that this can and did happen and I don’t have any answers, yet, that will help me avoid it in the future. Another concern is that the person simply wanted to access the information to copy it and use it elsewhere. If the fee is disputed, and I issue a refund, he gets it for free. Therefore, it’s important that I get this figured out.

The frustration with PayPal mainly stems from the fact that I cannot adequately communicate, nor resolve, this situation via their system without refunding the money. It largely works in the buyers favor because he immediately escalated it from a dispute, which allows me to respond, to a claim, which doesn’t. Here are my three options:

• I can provide proof that the item has shipped
• I have not shipped the item and I will refund the payment
• I can provide proof that I refunded the payment for this transaction

Well, I can’t provide proof that the buyer got what he paid for without verifying who he is in the system and whether or not he was able to log in. I can’t make sure he has access, and he’s already cancelled the subscription, so I can’t give him access at this point. I don’t want to refund the payment without knowing that, so I can’t provide proof that I refunded the payment.

There’s no way for me to select one of those three options, or to post the facts to the PayPal Resolution Center. I would like to respond to get more information and to clarify that, despite his claims, he did not contact me numerous times. I received one extremely brief one line email with no name or other information, which seems suspect in and of itself.

This is a huge relief. As it is, with the recession, I’ve seen a fairly substantial decrease in online revenue, but it usually ebbs and flows, so I may do better next month. We’ll see…

Thank you for all the support in contacting politicians and the media. It looks like we applied enough pressure to have a positive effect on small businesses in California. Let’s hope other states will follow suit.

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