I swear this is becoming like an annual post.

Last year on March 19th I wrote about Why I Left DreamHost, and here we are a year later discussing why I left BlueHost.  Unlike the DreamHost debacle where I was angry enough to spit fire, the BlueHost split has been a bit more amicable.  There were some definite rough moments this year, but overall it wasn’t that ugly.

Over this past year I discovered that I just simply no longer fit in a shared hosting environment.  While they promise you the world in unlimited storage and bandwidth, they really can’t deliver.  At least once over the past year all my sites were shut down and threatened with deletion as I had too many files on the server.  It seems they don’t want you to have more than 50,000 files, and due to a script I was running with Mark Hopkins to test a new site, it had auto generated over 250,000 files.  No problem, we deleted them, but BlueHost gave us no warning we were in violation, they simply shut down the sites and told us to get out.  After begging with them, I got them to turn the sites back on, and we got the files cleaned up.

In general shared hosting accounts simply aren’t going to work any more except for the smallest of sites.  These companies work on an idea of volume, and while departing BlueHost, I did some checking and discovered that somewhere around 1,000 sites were hosted on just my one server.  While servers can take a pounding, that is just way too many sites on any one unit.

So, I have moved over to HostGator … hold on, don’t scream, “But they’re a shared host, too!”  Yes, they are, but they also offer dedicated servers, and that’s what I’m renting now.  Yes folks, I’ve gone crazy and just said “I’m done with this!” and gone for my own server.  HostGator leases their servers from The Planet, and while I could have gotten it slightly cheaper by going direct, HG offered better phone support, and considering how many times I’ve had to call them, it’s been worth the extra money.

While I do feel like I’m paying through the nose, and I don’t make anywhere close to how much this costs me back in advertising, I’m a lot happier.  All of my sites are on this server now (which is nine), plus I am hosting two sites for friends.  One is paying me a small hosting fee each month, while the other gets like six hits  a year, so I’m not charging them.  So, I am much deeper in the hole financially, but if I really want to keep my sites going, this was the only option, and I have to say I love having complete control over the server.  I am nowhere near it physically, but I can reboot it, run diagnostics, the whole bit from the comfort of my desk.

I have no clue how HostGator is as a shared host, but as a dedicated server host, I’m loving them.  All of my technical problems have been handled quickly, my server was set up in no time and I feel you can tell how much faster the site is.  (SeanPAune.com has been on the server now for a few months)  Expensive?  Yes.  Worth it?  I think so.

I know most blogs just starting out have to go with shared hosting so as not to break themselves, and I wish you all luck because all the shared hosts I have been with have ended up driving me insane.  Here’s to (hopefully) never moving again.

It’s Friday, and that means Steven and I pack extra doses of cynicism in this episode as we do every Friday as we take on all of the TechMeme headlines.  Ah yes, what a great way to end the week every week!

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Apple Starts Accepting iPad Applications; Launch Apps Must Be Submitted By March 27 – TechCrunch
Apple Swears iPad Partners to Secrecy – Business Week
One on One: Christopher Poole, Founder of 4chan – Bits
Hope You Enjoy the Smell of Napalm in the Morning – Daring Fireball
Twitter Search Results to Show Popular Tweets On Top – Mashable
Apple CEO Steve Jobs joins Schwarzenegger to push organ donor registry – Mercury News

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The Addams Family is headed back to the big screen … but in a way it’s for the first time.

Everyone is familiar with the 1960’s television series and the two 1990’s movies, but those weren’t the true Addams Family.  Both properties were based off of cartoons drawn by Charles Addams for The New Yorker, and while the characters were all the same, they were different at the same time.

The original comics were more about an extended nuclear family that just happened to have a morbid and dark bent to them.  They were classic and mesmerizing, and it’s easy to understand how they metamorphosed into the versions we are more familiar with, but nothing has ever quite approached the tone of the originals.

All of that is about to change thanks to film director Tim Burton.

It has been announced that Mr. Burton will be directing a 3-D stop-motion version of the comic strips as one of his upcoming projects.  (Lets get it out of the way, Johnny Depp will be Gomez, Helena Bonham Carter will be Morticia and Danny Elfman will do the music … no, none of this has been announced, but, come on, it’s Burton)  It is not known when this film will be released, but seeing as it is stop-motion it will have a rather lengthy productions schedule.

Mr. Burton has a history with stop motion having done The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride, so he knows what he’s doing, and he creates some amazing looking work.  Will he be able to stick close enough to the source material without infusing too much of his own sensibilities?  True, his concepts are historically close to that of Charles Addams, but it would be preferable to have this stick exactly.  Luckily Mr. Addams’ foundation is listed as an executive producer on the project, so hopefully they will keep it faithful.

Can’t wait to see how this turns out!

Scattercast is 87 … and I wanna go to the prom … in a dress.

- An update on Dexter.

- Why is Tiger Woods still in the news every time I turn around but hardly a word here in the states about David Beckham’s possibly career-ending injury? You have to love our press.

- Is that a green ring on Ryan Reynolds finger? Have a look.

- Some more thoughts on the Mississippi prom case. (Link to PDF of the motion for the injunction.)

Here’s a link to the MP3 for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Steven and I take a look at the latest news from Google: Google TV.  When is everyone going to stop getting excited about new Google products?  They haven’t had a hit new product in ages, and yet the blogosphere goes all nuts every time they announce a new one.  Folks, name the last hit product Google built.  That’s okay … we’ll wait for you to think back to Gmail.

$334 million for selling YouTube … never knew that … and it makes Steven and I wonder if we are in the wrong line of work.

More thoughts on location based services.

Someone lost their job -cough-

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Google Coming To Your Television Via Google TV – StarterTech
Google TV Should Finally Push Apple TV Beyond A “Hobby” – TechCrunch
It’s Inevitable: Google TV – Technologizer

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Ah, those lovable rapscallions at the Westboro Baptist Church are back for another round, but this time they are taking on someone who won’t just ignore them.

On March 27th Kevin Smith, director of such films as Clerks, Dogma, Cop Out and more, will be giving one of his talks in Kansas City.  You can’t exactly call them “lectures” as they are more just him telling stories about the more insane things that happen in his life.  Well, apparently since he will be in the “neighborhood”, Fred Phelps and his band of loons will be making an appearance at the show … for a whole 45-minutes.

(apologies for the language it contains)

Mr. Smith, never being one to shy away from controversy, has spent most of the day taunting them via his Twitter account.  Or more specifically he has been exchanging barbs with Megan Phelps-Roper, a member of the church who sounds like she is related, but I can’t find the connection on Fred Phelps Wikipedia page.

As I’ve said before when this “church” tried to say that Santa was going to take you to Hell, and they were going off to protest a Lady Gaga concert, I just simply don’t get these people.  Do they honestly crave attention this much?  They know that people view them as idiots, and yet they appear to revel in this fact.  Reading Ms. Phelps-Roper’s Twitter stream, you can tell she is ecstatic that Mr. Smith is mocking her.

If you are a devout follower of the Bible it does say you should spread the word of the Lord, but does it have a passage I missed that said something about “act completely insane while doing it, and make sure to be as offensive as possible”?  I mean, I’ve spent my time in church, I’ve read the Bible, somehow I think I missed that passage.

I suppose to each their own, but I can think of much better things to do with my time than to be a national laughing stock that most people consider to be mentally unstable.

Steven and I are joined tonight by our long-lost hosting buddy Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins tonight as he discusses how his SXSWi experience differed greatly from Jolie O’Dell’s, and why he wonders what she was really up to during the show.

We also turn briefly to this constantly trumped up story about Gowalla and Foursquare being locked in a cage match.  Mark presents some really interesting real life case studies of why all of this location stuff is a bunch of hot air.

A brief mention of Mark’s fanboy moment upon meeting Leo Laporte … can’t say as I blame him.

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Why SXSW Sucks – Jolie O’Dell
Why SxSW Doesn’t Suck – SiliconANGLE

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If all of the rumors are to be believed, things could be definitely looking up for Conan O’Brien.

Since Conan O’Brien left The Tonight Show, his future has been looking uncertain.  There has been no word on him getting a new talk show, and the only bright spot for him seemed to be his upcoming stage tour that was announced last week.

Well things have definitely started to swirl around the goofy late night show host.  It seems the rumors that the Fox network was interested in him are proving to be true.  According to the Los Angeles Times, top Fox executives, including network owner Rupert Murdoch, are open to bringing the gunny man to their late night time slot.  There are some hurdles still, such as Mr. O’Brien was working with a $90 million a year budget at NBC, but Fox would like to bring it in under $60 million a year.

There is also some question about where it would film, although NBC is willing to lease his just vacated stage to him, supposedly some of his staff have been scouting other sound stages over the past two weeks.

Apparently Fox would like to wrap this up prior to May 17th when the network will announce its new schedule, but the talks could still fall apart due to the early stages they are in.

As for “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour”, apparently there is some talk of it being turned in to a concert film.  Media Rights Capital has apparently already come forward to talk about financing it, and it is unclear if film crews would follow the entire 30-city tour, or if it would just be a film of one performance.

It looks like leaving NBC may turn out to be one of the best things Conan has ever done in his career.  Reduced money or not, it sure has built him an even larger legion of fans.

Steven and I take a look at SXSWi (South By Southwest Interactive) tonight, a technology conference neither of us attended, but yet we feel qualified to comment on … because that’s how we roll.

What we both long for is a tech conference where bloggers can go and exchange ideas without everyone and their brother coming to market to us.  There needs to be a place for us to exchange ideas without having swag thrown at us constantly as companies try to get their startups covered or want to get a syndication deal.  Oh well, maybe some day.

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Why SXSW Sucks – Jodie O’Dell
Chris Brogan at SXSW – 1938Media
The Great Privacy Con of Social Media and Web 2.0 – The Inquisitr

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Michael David Barrett, the man arrested in the Erin Andrews peephole video case, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison as the results of a plea bargain.

In July of last year, Ms. Andrews, a well-known sports reporter for the ESPN network, was stalked and videotaped in secret via peepholes in hotel rooms while she changed clothes.  Known as the Erin Andrews Peephole Video Controversy, the stalker was finally revealed to be a 48-year-old man named Michael David Barrett, a father of two, this past October.

The details that followed were disturbing as it was revealed the Chicago-area insurance executive had followed Ms. Andrews to multiple locations, recording multiple instances of her changing clothes in the privacy of her hotel room via peepholes he had made.  During the course of the investigation, it was also revealed that Mr. Barrett may have also victimized as many as 16 other women over the course of his travels.

Mr. Barrett’s plea bargain had been for 27 months in federal prison, but after the hearing yesterday, where Ms. Andrews addressed him by saying, “You violated me and you violated all women. You are a sexual predator, a sexual deviant and they should lock you up,” the judge exercised his option to extend the sentence, and moved it up to 30 months.  Mr. Barrett tearfully said he hoped Ms. Andrews could someday forgive him, but talking to the press outside the courthouse after the session, she said that would never be possible.

Ms. Andrews will be be appearing on the new season of Dancing With The Stars which begins airing next week, she said during a Good Morning America interview this morning that she considers it part of her healing process.

Mondays mean one thing around The Braindead Techcast office … MORONIC MONDAYS!

Yes ladies & gents, it’s Monday, and that’s when Steven and I take a look back at the past week and point out the extra stupid stories we see through out a week.  And, as always, there were a bunch.

We also name the Baindead Award Winner of the week.  It’s a service … represented by a bird … any guesses yet?

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Any of the hundreds of stories about SXSW and especially when it came to the so-called location war
Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats” – TechCrunch
Eighty percent of corporate bloggers stop after 5 posts max – VentureBeat
Sex.com domain to be auctioned off – Globe and Mail
iPhone Addiction Is for Real, Says Stanford Study – New York Magazine
Harry Smith Undergoes Live Colonoscopy with Encouragement from Katie Couric – mediabistro

Press the big green button to listen in!

Okay, it’s official, I’m turning into a crazy old dog person.

Back in June of 2009 we added Franklin as our fourth and final dog.  They were all cocker spaniels, we were happy and then … a friend came into a situation where she had to move to an apartment that doesn’t allow pets.

… um … er … that picture to the right is my new dog, Dexter.

He is six-months-old, a mix of Chihuahua, Pappion and Poodle.  This is a permanent move and he’s been here for five days now, and all seems to be going well.  He and Franklin our only about four months apart in age, so they are pretty much in a constant tug-o-war over toys.

At eight pounds he is our smallest dog and is quickly learning to get out of the way of the thundering herd of cocker spaniels as they plow through the house.

Yes, I am clearly insane, but it was either my house or the pound, so here he is.

Five dogs and one cat … I swear there will be no more!  (I hope …)