Month: June 2006

I’m not satisfied with my current webhost, TextDrive.com, and I’m looking for suggestions/alternatives.

TextDrive has provided good support, mostly, and the $25/month for shared hosting is reasonable, though clearly not the cheapest out there. I have a handful of domains (<10), and pencoyd.com, running clock is the only active one. The 2GB storage and 10GB/month in bandwidth are fine, and I do want to run WordPress (at least). I’m hardly a power user, but my vanity appreciates the opportunity to make bigger mistakes to challenge myself technically, so more features are appealing (if not truly important).

The two major failings of TextDrive?

First, the shared hosting goes down too often. There was a stretch in the spring of this year where the server I was on (bidwell, for any TD customers… but hardly the only one with problems) went down at least once a week for 1-3 hours. This went on for ~6 weeks. When that server goes down, clock goes down (unfortunate) and our e-mail goes down (very frustrating, and what’s pushing me over the edge). The TextDrive forums are full of frustration.

Second, the webmail default set-up (and the rest of the control panel) is poor. TextDrive gives you enough control that I should probably be able to install something better myself…but I suppose life is too short, or my priorities are elsewhere, or something. Anyway, it’s been a persistent pain point. I’ve been told about Fastmail, which would be a separate solution to the e-mail issue (for an additional price).

But I think it’s time to solve both problems at once, if possible. TextDrive isn’t the worst I’ve used, and the individual, real support contact I’ve gotten along the way is impressive. But I don’t want to need it!

The webhost recommendations I’ve gotten so far are, in no particular order:

• MediaTemple
• Network Redux
• Dreamhost
• Lunarpages

I haven’t done my research yet on any of these. Hoping, before I start, that the LazyWeb will throw me a bone and short-circuit/accelerate my research.

I watched X2: X-Men United mid-week on DVD. The impetus was the release of the third X-Men movie. Although box office numbers have been great for the one in theaters now, I don’t want to see it without having seen both of the previous films.

Pretty solid film. Magneto (Ian McKellen) is quite a villain, and the plastic prison (which we saw briefly in the first film) is well executed. I don’t think I missed anything by seeing it at home versus the theater, though. Metacritic score of 68, although users were much higher, at 83.

During Memorial Day weekend, I finished Orson Scott Card’s final novel in the Ender series, Shadow of the Giant. Ender himself is almost nowhere in this novel, as Bean is once more the lead character. The spotlight is shared with Peter (the Hegemon) as post-alien war Earth continues to shake out. As an exercise in geo-political possibilities, Shadow of the Giant shouldn’t be dismissed.

Card doesn’t always hit home runs, but after reading all eight of the Ender novels, I’d say that five or six are definitely worth the time, with one all-time classic. Card has written dozens more… I may dip in later.

The Ender novels

Focusing on Bean and (to a lesser degree) Peter:

• Ender’s Shadow (First close look at Bean, and his upbringing. Almost as compelling a character as Ender himself.)
• Shadow of the Hegemon (Close look at Peter, Ender’s older brother.)
• Shadow Puppets (The end game begins for post-alien-war Earth.)
• Shadow of the Giant (final book of the eight)

Focusing on Ender:

• Ender’s Game (The must read epic which started it all. I’ve read it three times.)
• Speaker for the Dead (Ender’s post battle life begins.)
• Xenocide (Following Ender further.)
• Children of the Mind (Skip it.)

(Thanks, Vin, for the loan.)