Tag: Web

The Vendor Prefix Problem

It seems that a lot of people are talking about vendor prefixes recently, and that is no coincidence. With Mozilla, Opera, and Microsoft all talking about implementing at least a subset of Webkit’s vendor prefixes, one has to wonder how we got to this point.

Truth be told, I don’t really care how we got here, but what I do care about is that we don’t go down this same, old, forgotten road again.

Yes, it sucks that your new browser doesn’t render the same as it does in Webkit because the developer didn’t implement your prefix. I understand where you are coming from.

What do don’t need to do is break things all over again. Giving into the current “one browser” isn’t going to make things better. That is only going to get us back here again with the same issues.

Take some of the blame for this Microsoft, Opera, and Mozilla. You decided that mobile wasn’t as important, you decided to just let things go and Webkit, especially Mobile Webkit has eaten your lunch.

Webkit browsers need to shoulder some as well (there is plenty to go around). Experimental features are just that, experimental. Touting those features is a dangerous thing to do, especially if you are in the position to really push for a single browser. Google, Apple, I’m looking at you.

Hey standards groups, take some of the blame as well. Technology moves quickly and has a tendency to leave standards behind when they don’t move … at all sometimes. That’s the position the web has been in and when Webkit started to really pull the top off of things, and then became popular, people jumped onto the bandwagon because the vendor prefixes provided relief and … fun.

Developers, we need to take some blame as well. We’ve been lazy and will always be. If we see an easy way to make something pretty, we’ll do it. This is what got us Flash for so long. We need to quit shooting ourselves, our users, and other developers in the foot by implementing half-baked ideas because they look cool.

Look cool and works well are two different things.

Finally, let’s not throw away all of the work that has been done by going the “easy route”. We have work to do, but Flash wasn’t killed in a day.

The way to fix this problem isn’t to give up, but to move quicker, innovate faster, and provide the “new hotness” for everyone.

Categories
Life Technology

Why No Google Apps

Last year I moved my main email address from a generic Gmail account to my own domain. The reasons were many, but the main gist of it is so that I will control my email no matter what happens with a service provider.

In the past I had signed up for my first email account with Yahoo, then Hotmail, then finally Gmail. Having my email under my own domain name allows me to switch providers for whatever reason while still using the same address. It also gives me more control, which I am a fan of when it comes to my online life.

However, I moved to Google Apps instead and that created a number of problems for me.

  • ANOTHER Google account of some sort … which included work, my Gmail account, my business, and then my personal one
  • Google having access to my personal email, which wasn’t a problem for my conscience in the past, but was becoming more of one
  • Google’s mail is not your generic IMAP account with folders, they do a lot of other stuff
  • Google has begun limiting Apps accounts and might do so again in the future

Now, the Google Apps service is still superb, and as I have said before, it is good enough that I think it has killed a good portion of the hosted email business, but I still wanted to move to something else.

Well, for now, that “something else” is Atmail Cloud. As of earlier this evening, both my business and personal email (along with This One Podcast) is now going through Atmail Cloud. They have been wonderful so far and are still working out some kinks in the whole thing, but their support has been superb. I’ll write up more about Atmail Cloud later.

So I no longer have a personal or business Google Apps account and this has simplified things nicely. Now I can enjoy Google’s services without thinking about which account I should be using. I now have only one (my old Gmail account) … and that mail is already forwarded to me.

Categories
Technology

Backups with Backup

I’ve been manually making backups of my main web server for the past year and I finally got fed up with it and decided to get an automatic system set up again. I had used the Backup gem in the past and decided to do it again.

It did everything I wanted and more.

This is the basic setup:

  • Archive entire home folder so that I can grab all of my data and my client data as well
  • Grab my custom Apache configuration
  • Dump everything in MySQL
  • Gzip the whole thing
  • Move it over to my FreeNAS box on a dedicated ZFS dataset for web server backups
  • Send me an email when everything is complete (or, in the case of errors, send me an email then as well)
  • Do this once a day when I’m (supposed to be) sleeping

Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow morning to an email from my server and everything will be working well. Currently the size of a total backup sits at 234 MB, which is not bad. By my estimation, it will take me about a year to fill up my current dataset to the point where I will have to think about adding some storage.

I think I’m good for now.

Categories
Technology

The Death of Hosted Email

I have this sinking feeling that Google Apps has killed the hosted email business. While there are many providers still slinking around, they’re essentially zombies as Google Apps continues to gobble up more and more people and businesses.

I also think this is bad.

I’m hoping that the new Atmail Cloud offering will fill the needs that I have which is basically just mail, webmail, and ActiveSync so that I can get push mail to my iOS devices. If I’m not happy with it, then my next step is to run my own server and cobble together the pieces so that it will fulfill my needs.

Stop Posting Articles on Google+

This is nothing more than my strong opinion.

Please stop posting articles on Google+.

I’m not saying don’t use Google+, don’t share links on Google+, or shun Google+ completely … that would be a different article. What I’m saying is don’t post your longer-form articles strictly on Google+ for a simple reason:

If you post it there and I find it on Twitter, have the link sent to me via email, or see it anywhere else and click to read it … I’m taken to the Google+ website. That website is terrible of reading longer-form articles, and it is absolute TRASH on anything but a desktop browser. No, I’m not going to open up a mobile app to read your article.

You are, first, giving Google control over your longer-form writing and, second, making the whole experience worse for your readers. Please stop doing it.