My Twitter account has been left abandoned since January 6th and Google+ since December 31st. Santa got me a Lenovo 120e and Bryan’s selfish self bought an 8gb ram upgrade and ssd. I’m rocking Visual Studio 2010 the pro edition with Git (thanks Ruby on Rails), and a custom color theme because it’s easier on my eyes and frankly looks cool.

The last 2 years I cut back on Asp.net (I still worked on projects) and primarily focused on Ruby on Rails and some PHP. 2011 was the year of e-commerce, blogs, a CMS and a whole lot of E-Commerce SEO and PPC. 2012 is looking like an even crazier year with bigger and better projects.

Where do you find the time?

My hobby is learning as much about the Internet as I can. I love code, Internet Marketing comes natural and frankly I’m a genius with time management. You see… Star Trek has had a major influence on me. If you’ve never seen Star Trek the next generation I highly recommend that you watch at least the last 4 episodes of the 7th season. In the Star Trek Universe one of the messages that the show conveys is that humans constantly strive to better themselves. You see I have a fond memory of my father reading books about becoming a better person. You know those books that teach you confidence and the other load of crap those 5 dolloar books at the gas station sell you. I guess bettering myself has roots from my fathers genes and Star Trek just kicked them into gear is the way I interpret it.

Back to the reason behind the post

I’ve already stretched myself thin. It’s Friday night at 2:30 a.m (I’m completely sober man). I decided to take a break on the back end of an Asp.net 4.0 application that is beyond anything I accomplished last year. Before I encrypt my Web.config file I decided to take a break and write a quick post with my usual taste of bad grammar and geek.

I’m going to be busy for awhile. Man this is going to be fun.

Google release Currents today on Android and IOS only. Google Currents has been long been rumored as the Flipboard, Pulse competitor. I like the idea but there’s a few things that are off. While Google Currents is new I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt but my initial thoughts is that it’s almost there. To understand my pet peeves with Currents you have to understand a little about my reading addiction habbits.

I’m a Google Reader Addict

I read allot of tech feeds. In case your interested I updated an old post to include my recent Google Reader stats. I was hoping that Currents would be the next Google Reader, but it has it’s shortcomings.

My 2 Gripes about Currents so far

My opinion might change the more that I use Currents, but for now here’s my initial thoughts.

You have to download the subscriptions when you open the app which is slow. Google Reader is fast. You open the Google Reader app new feeds are there. It’s almost magical.

It’s Android and IOS Only

I like reading through the browser when I get home. It’s usually how I warm up to a long night of coding.

I’m pretty sure that Currents will get better over time. If Google can pull this off I can see myself using Currents full time.

I’m not going to attempt to discuss the privacy mess that happened with Carrier IQ if you want to read an interview with the head of marketing from Carier IQ . I’m not really that bothered because I root my Android phones, I have an Iphone 4 on IOS 5 on Verizon. If you were following the news Verizon wasn’t a Carrier IQ customer. I bet Verizon has their own system written without frameworks and all custom code. I would love to see that code. Anyway I wanted to list the T-Mobile phones that have Carrier IQ installed because I’m a T-mobile USA customer.

HTC Amaze 4G
Samsung Galaxy S II
Samsung Exhibit II 4G
T-Mobile myTouch
T-Mobile myTouch Q
LG DoublePlay
BlackBerry Bold 9900
BlackBerry Curve 9360
BlackBerry Torch 9810

Since HTC didn’t the release the Titan on T-mobile my last choice for a smartphone has been the Galaxy Nexus. I’m reluctant to get another Android phone. I’ve been burned by Android updates before and for some reason my phone runs great at first then down the line I start to notice little quirks such as crappy battery life and the spotty browser.

Galaxy Nexus Reviews are out

While there’s lots of places to read the Galaxy Nexus reviews such as Engadget or Mashable there’s only one man as picky as I am and that’s Joshua Topolsky of The Verge. You can Read the Review Here.

For the last year or two (I’m getting old I can’t remember crap) I’ve been doing allot of Ruby on Rails development. When I first got into Ruby on Rails I loved it. It was easy to create a basic CRUD application, the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) methodology and above all else the structure of a Rails app. If I were to look at someone else’s Rails app I’d immediately know where to look to see how the thing was put together. I can’t express how many times I’ve almost thrown up after looking at other people’s Asp.net and PHP code. With all of that said the one thing that urks me is how much of a cluster fuck it is to host a rails app.

The Shittiest Part of Ruby on Rails is hosting

I spent allot of money my first month of rails development. Primarily because I had a hard time finding a good host. I didn’t feel like becoming a system admin so that I could get a few of my rails apps online. After my long search I decided to go with Webbynode. Webbynode was by far the easiest way (at the time) to host my rails apps. I’ve had a few problems with Webbynode for the last couple of months and decided it was time to move onto another host. This time instead of a VPS I decided I wanted to see how the shared hosting offerings were nowaday’s.

Why a Shared Host

I build allot of Ruby on Rails applications under lock and key. Most of them finished some of them not. I tend to get an idea, build the application, hit a road block then I dump the project for awhile and come back to it later. I needed a host where I have an unlimited amount of domains for my Ruby on Rails applications. Bandwidth isn’t a concern because I don’t advertise any of my Ruby on Rails applications.

Shared Hosting isn’t that bad anymore

While Shared hosting was a pain when I first started Rails dev it isn’t that bad anymore. I looked around at a few hosts and contacted support to see how fast they responded and decided to go with Hosting Rails. It was $9.95 U.S. on a month to month basis and it’s real easy to setup a Rails application.

The Account Screen

Once you log into your account you’ll be greeted with your account information such as your name, phone number and address. While the login screen is looks old it’s simple and to the point which is different than Godaddy’s bloated back end system.

My Products Tab

Things start to get interesting under the My Products tab. This is pretty much the gateway to your cpanel and administration controls. Under the view details tab is where you can edit ftp information, edit your cpanel password and other administrative features. The control panel link takes you directly to their implementation of cpanel. For those that have worked on a LAMP stack have more than likely used cpanel before. What I found interesting though is the lack of nameserver information anywhere. Luckily your nameserver information was emailed to you once you opened the account. I could have missed it but I’m pretty sure it’s not anywhere within their administrative interfaces.

Initial Setup

This may sound strange but there was none. My application was already made for me. I logged into FTP and sure enough my basic application was there. All that I had to do was ssh into the server, upload my app and migrate mysql and presto my application was loaded and ready to go.

Conclusion

I’m pretty happy with Hosting Rails so far. The setup was painless and I love the fact that I have cpanel for my Rails apps.

Tonight Google and Samsung unveiled their newest creation the Galaxy Nexus. While impressed with the offering there’s a few questions that I have regarding the device such as where is the menu button and the battery life. According to This is my Next the Galaxy Nexus seemed laggy.

It’s still too early for me to decide whether I’m still going with the HTC Titan if it’s ever released to T-Mobile or whether I’m buying the Galaxy Nexus.

Decisions.

When Windows phone 7 came out I immediately bought the HTC HD7 on T-Mobile. The reason was simple really, I feel as though Windows Phone 7 brought the best of both worlds that I lacked in Android and IOS. Unique hardware, updates, long battery life and a quick UI.

I remember unboxing the HD7. The Hardware was gorgeous. It had a big 4.3 inch screen and a kickstand. But that love affair quickly faded when I started using the software. I’ll admit that I have the early adopter syndrome but at the time Windows Phone 7 wasn’t finished. It took forever to open applications, the browser sucked and the one thing I couldn’t stand was the lack of a google reader app.

I lasted less than 24 hours with Windows Phone 7

I took the HD7 back for a craptaculous mytouch 4g. While I’ve lived with Android and IOS for the last year I feel as though it’s time to revisit Windows Phone 7 (7.5 Mango)again. I think Microsoft got it right with the latest Mango update.

I don’t care about the app count

I’m going to be brutally honest. I use maybe 5 apps at the most. Google Reader, Email, Google talk, Amazon and Netflix. I’ve downloaded (spending hundreds of dollars in the process) a crapload of apps that I’ve used once. While Windows Phone doesn’t have a big app catalog like Android or IOS it has the ones that count.

Battery Life

I primarily use my IPhone because of the battery life. I’ve had multiple Android phones that suffered the same issue. Crappy battery life. I seriously think that it’s a joke that I have to sacrifice features such as brightness to make it through a day of phone use. I don’t have that problem with the IPhone. I easily get through a day of heavy surfing, Netflix and book reading and emails with battery to spare. One thing I’ve heard around the web is that Windows phone has excellent battery life.

I want a big fucking screen

One thing I can’t stand about the IPhone is the small ass screen. I’m getting old and since I work on a computer all day my eyes start to strain at night. The Windows phone that I have my heart set on is the HTC Titan. It’s a 4.6 inch beast of a phone.

I don’t need flash

The Geek in me always thought by not having flash I’d be missing out. To be honest all that I need is YouTube videos. I’ll read a post about something geek and what I find is that everyone is using YouTube, which works on Windows Phone 7.5

Updates

I am done with rooting my Android phones. I give up. Something is always broken. Plus why in the hell should I have to crack my phone in order for it to work right? While Microsoft had issues updating Windows Phone 7, they came back with a vengeance and updated several phones on different carriers without a hiccup. That is impressive. Within weeks of the Mango update nearly all of the first gen Windows Phone have been updated. The only issue that I have is that it took them so long to release updates for Windows Phone 7.

Am I getting a Windows phone 7.5 phone?

I’m loyal to T-Mobile. The phone service rocks, my Internet is fast and I have unlimited internet. The HTC Titan is not released in the U.S yet, but if the rumors are true the Titan is going to AT&T. There’s no way in hell I’m switching to AT&T.

The thing that doesn’t make sense to me is that if Windows wants people to buy their phones they need to make sure that they put all models on all carriers. I know that’s a fantasy because the carriers decide which devises go on their network, but as a loyal T-Mobile customer I feel as though all the good Windows Phones are going to AT&T. Who knows maybe the carrier gods will be nice to me for once and will grant me my HTC Titan on T-Mobile.

I started my blog in 2007. Fast forward to 2011 and I’ve posted irregularly and about different crap that I find amusing but for some reason people keep reading this crap. I’ve topped 5,000 daily unique visitor’s and decided it’s time for a change. Why did it take me so long, I don’t have a clue but I decided it was time to roll up the sleeves and get working on a new design. Well, here’s the new design. I hope that you like it. It’s a continued work in progress while I iron out a few of the design ascetics and add/remove plugins. I decided to go with WordPress and that it was time to own my own content (I was previously on Blogger and your content is on Google’s servers).

Converting Blogger to WordPress was easy

One of the reasons it took me so long to make the change is that I dreaded changing one blog platform to another. I was surprised to find that exporting Blogger posts to WordPress was a breeze but I did run into a minor quirk; the url’s still linked to the old blogger url’s. Besides that, everything from the posts, tags and even the images imported into WordPress without a problem

After months of development work I’m proud to anounce Cutie Pie Hair Ties. Cutie Pie Hair Ties is my wife’s website build entirely in PHP. I’ve wanted to build an easy to use e-commerce website for awhile and decided to build my own from scratch. Cutie Pie Hair Ties sells, Hair Bows, Hair Clips and more!

Oh Macbook air you were great while you lasted. We had allot of fun together but I’ve realized it’s me, not you. You see I have this CR-48 that runs Ubuntu. My battery lasts atleast 8 hours and it’s really fast. While I can’t watch Netflix on my CR-48 my battery lasts 8 hours and I’m not distracted by Netflix. You see I can’t own a laptop that lasts 4 hours because I tend to get 2 if I watch Netflix, and if I watch Netflix I don’t get any coding done. If I don’t code I feel guilty and drink. In the short term I may be fine but a few years down the line my Macbook air might turn me into an alcoholic. So I gave you back to Apple who has a shitty return policy when you bought something in cash (I had to wait 2 weeks to get my cash), but that’s okay it’s Apple, they do nothing wrong (gag). Goodbye my friend the next time I see you I hope that you give me at least 8 hours of battery life.