DreamHost: a better Google Apps choice than Google?

[Update: if you enter my promo code on signing up with DreamHost, you get $50 off your 1st year fee (max discount). The code is: KATEVA.]

Lunarpages finally pushed me over the brink.

I suspect Lunarpages is discovering the limits of an outsourcing strategy. I've seen more than one company make that mistake.

The good news is that I'm discovering greener grass at DreamHost, such as WebDav support, full control over DNS CNAME and email MX configuration, SSH/Telnet support and robust Google Apps integration.

As I've noted in prior posts, Google Apps works tolerably well when you do register your domain and sign up for the services at the same time. Google hands off the registrar function to eNom or Go Daddy and everything works. The downsides are you don't have unified management of your domains and you're limited to what Google offers. Meaning no real file management.

On other hand, Google Apps can be pretty frustrating when you try to use a domain held by, say, Lunarpages. The MX and CNAME configuration is complex, and when something breaks there's no-one who owns the problem.

From what I see of DreamHost, it looks like the best of both worlds. Every domain, even the throwaway "dreamhoster" domain I'm using for initial setup, can have a companion Google Apps service. So you get consolidated domain ownership through DreamHost (they're a registrar as well as a hosting service), Google Apps functionality, and file services.

I'll update this post as I learn more during my upcoming domain migrations.

Update 8/30/08:

There are two ways to configure your companion Google Apps with Dreamhost

1. optimal: In this case domain_name.com and www.domain_name.com resolve to the files you host at DreamHost. Calendar, docs, mail, sites, and start map via CNAME to ghs.google.com. You can't change these CNAME values. You can add new ones, but these are fixed.
   
2. Google Apps only: domain_name.com and www.domain_name.com resolve as controlled by Google Apps; there's no real role for DreamHost file hosting. DreamHost assigns fixed, non-editable, CNAME values for calendar, docs, sites, start and www and configures email for Google Apps. Unlike Google's usual Google Apps registrars (eNom for example), you can't change these settings. So if you prefer "wiki" to sites there will still be a CNAME for sites.
   

How to move files from one web site hosting service to another

I'm working through my migration from Lunarpages to Dreamhost.

I'll have a series of posts outlining what I learn during this migration; it seems like the kind of topic that could sue some sharing.

The first step in my migration was to sign up with Dreamhost. I googled on "dreamhost coupon" and found a code that gave me $50 off, so my 1 year contract cost $70. I have 2 months left on my Lunarpags contract so I can take my time on the migration, transferring one domain at a time.

I haven't told Lunarpages I'm leaving of course; there's no need to muddy the waters. If they care they'll figure it out from the domain transfers anyway.

The next step is to move my files. I figured I'd learn about SSH/Telnet and tar balls -- but Lunarpages doesn't includes SSH with my account.

Lesson: Confident hosting vendors, like Dreamhost, provide services that make it easy to switch -- like Telnet/SSH on every account. You want a confident vendor.

If I did have SSH/Telnet access I'd use the advice in these two posts. The author's site is a bit hard on my eyes, but the content looks good ...

• Raymond.CC website inaccessible - Migration (June 2006)
• Website Hosting Migration (Jan 2006)

So I'm doing the old FTP down and up procedure. Tedious, but I have the time. Once the files are on Dreamhost with a temporary server name I've verify things are working. Then I'll be ready to switch domains.

Update 8/28/08: I figured out a better way. DreamHost has a web based FTP tool, so you can ftp from the old domain to DreamHost. Of course one could always do this from Telnet/SSH -- but I'd forgotten about command line ftp. It's been a long time since I've done that.

Update 8/29/08: Well, the net2ftp web tool was a bust. I couldn't see how to get it to move files from LunarPages to DreamHost -- and there's no documentation. On the other hand, Lunarpages allowed me to download a tar.gz archive of my entire site with one click. Kudos to them, I'd no idea that was possible. So now I'm FTPng it to Dreamhost and I'll see if I can expand it there either from the Net2ftp web interface or by activating my SSH access.

Update 8/30/08: I'm impressed with how worthless most of the online advice and documentation was about this. Here's what worked (thank you Raymond.cc)

1. Go to Lunarpages Backup control panel and click link to download a backup file (tar.gz) of my Lunarpages site.
2. FTP the 640MB archive to my DreamHost directory.
3. Enable Bash SSH access on DreamHost.
4. Download and install Tunnelier for Windows (I did this from my XP machine).
5. SSH to DreamHost and run "tar -xzf backup-faughnan.com-8-29-2008.tar.gz"

At this point everything had been restored, but they were in the wrong folder. So I had to move them. This is where I really missed tools like Norton Commander, never mind Finder or Explorer!

I then used the following Bash commands to rearrange and cleanup (as usual unix documentation is awful):

• rm -r mydirectoryname: removes mydirectoryname and all files it contains
• ls: list directories.
• cd mydirectoryname: change to mydirectoryname. Also use cd .. to move up.
• mv mydirectoryname .. : moves mydirectoryname and all files up one directory level
• mv * .. : move everything in local directory up one level. (There's supposed to be a switch for mv that forces an overwrite of existing files, but it didn't work for directories.)
  

If you want to switch to DreamHost my coupon code of KATEVA will get you the maximal coupon discount of $50 off a 1 year subscription.

Sync Outlook, iCal, iPhone, and Google Calendars

Macosxhints.com - Sync Outlook, iCal, iPhone, and Google Calendars doesn’t add anything new to my recent posts on this topic, but it’s a good summary and a very good discussion. The (comcast) Plaxo angle is an interesting option for work calendars if one could obtain corporate approval – or tolerance. Alas, post Comcast acquisition I suspect Plaxo’s interests will be focused on easier problems.

Canon PowerShot SD1100IS carries the “lens error” curse

Canon’s new cameras are out, so the prior leaders are on sale. The SD1100IS is “only” $180 or so. Beware, however, it carries the lens error curse …

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)

… This was a great camera--until it stopped working completely within 3 weeks. There was no 'incident' or warning... but half an hour after making some movies, I went to turn the camera on and I got the message "Lens Error, Restart Camera." I've tried everything, and I can't even retrieve the photos onto my computer…

This is a known design or manufacturing problem with recent generation Digital ELPH cameras. A handful of negative reviews on Amazon tells us the SD1100IS is infected. I wouldn’t buy one at any price.

I would only look at purchasing an ELPH released within this month’s batch.

I love Amazon’s negative reviews …

Synchronization is hard - more evidence

I've ranted about how hard synchronization is.

Here's confirmation from a former Sync Services engineer: MildMannered Industries - MobileMe. (via Gruber)

Synchronization is hard to get right, and small errors grow with each sync until they become big disasters. It's impressive Exchange/Outlook sync works as well as it does, and the original Palm/Desktop sync success never got the respect it deserved (though Palm wisely kept things as simple as possible).

Apple has never done Sync well. The old .Mac service, and the built-in OS X sync services, have been plagued with problems.

Bottom line -- MobileMe isn't going to be healthy for a long time -- if ever. In particular, email sync makes no sense in the IMAP era.

If you insist on using Apple's sync solutions, be sure you have good backups and a way to restore from backup.

Are any compact digital cameras more reliable than Canon's models?

I was very impressed when I was able to buy a Canon SD1000 for $170. I'd been pretty fond of my prior Canon compacts, and the new model was still "made in Japan".

I've learned to be less impressed by "made in Japan". The focus motor abruptly stopped working at age 10 months. The camera didn't even last long enough to qualify for my excellent AMEX extended coverage -- I have to work with Canon (yeck).

It seems this camera is known for early death of the focus mechanism: Disruptive Conversations: My Canon SD1000 camera dies... "Lens error, restart camera". I also see from blog post comments that Canon isn't very good about honoring their 1 year warranty.

In retrospect, Canon quality took a dive with the release of the SD600. Of course even the relatively robust S410 died of mode switch failure, but any company can have that sort of design problem. The recurrence of the same problem with the SD600, however, was clearly a bad sign.

So Canon quality is pretty feeble now.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? When these compact Canons work they take great pictures, and until recently camera technology was moving so fast it was reasonable to upgrade a compact camera every 1-2 years. So there was an argument for building for a short life and low purchase costs.

An argument, but not a good argument. It's not like the cameras give us a one month warning of impending doom -- they fail in use.

I hate that.

Anyway, cameras aren't improving nearly as fast as they were in 2006. Now it's reasonable to replace a camera every 3 years instead of yearly.

So Canon's quality/price ratio is wrong for us.

But does the competition offer more reliable compact digital cameras? I doubt anyone offers a 2 year warranty, for example.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I haven't had any luck so far, but I'll update this post with what I learn. If I find that Nikon, SONY or Olympus are offering a higher quality alternative, or even better warranty service, I'm ready to switch.

Update: The Olympus Stylus SW (770SW) series uses durability as a selling point, and they're more expensive than feature-comparable Canon cameras. That's encouraging, but the word "warranty" doesn't appear anywhere on the Olympus web site. That's not encouraging.

Update 9/11/08: I eventually called Canon service. It was a very short conversation, mostly them telling me to omit the strap, battery, memory card, etc. After we finally mailed the camera it turned around very quickly. They replaced the optical assembly and main "pcb" (circuit board). It works. Canon service did well, though I'd have preferred to avoid them. We're out the cost of the package but the camera is effectively new again.

Update 10/17/08: Just noticed when downloading images that Aperture sees this as the "Canon IXY Digital 10". This was the Japanese market name for the SD1000. Curious! I wondered if there weren't a few more menu options post-repair. No complaints, but worth noting.

iPhone application update error not resolved: don't buy your iPhone until it's fixed

Update 9/14/08: Fixed.

I'm really tired of this bug.

Gordon's Tech: Unknown Error during iPhone app install or update

I'm getting this error with the iPhone I was given when my original white 3G phone cracked.Unkown Error On The iPhone | DamienKomala.com

... Ok so every time I try and update or upgrade an application on my iPhone I get this “Unknown Error: 0xE800002E. After some adjustments I was able to find a method to resolve, or at least update my apps. Here’s the key ...

I can use the uncheck/check app method to get the updates on, but I need to restore all data and configuration.

The 2.0.2 update didn't help. It's scant comfort to know thousands of other people have the same problem.

Don't buy an iPhone until I write that the bug is fixed. This is a deal breaker bug, you don't want to run into it.