Simple Webhosting

I have no desire to be a Linux system administrator. So, the Slicehost VPS that I've been running my Pocket Sevens and related sites on is overkill. But on the plus side, it does allow me to spin up a new site pretty easily, throw HTML in a directory and have it Just Work. But on the minus side, I'm constantly fiddling with the server.

It was recommended that I try a reseller account through HostGator or Namecheap (my domain registrar of choice). I signed up for one, and now I'm fiddling with WHM and cPanel instead. I guess it's better, but not by much, and I have no intention of hosting sites for anyone else, ever; so once again, overkill.

So here's what I want. A service that I pay money for, that allows me to host websites. An arbitrary number of websites. It should be as simple as can be to create a new one, and then I should just be able to enter the nameserver information on the domain I've chosen for it, upload the HTML files to the given directory, and then go on with my life. I don't need reseller anything, I don't need Rails or Django, or MySQL, or Wordpress or any other blog engine. Just simple, easy HTML5 hosting.

I can't believe something like this doesn't already exist. I can't be the only one who would use this!

How Apple's EasyPay Prevents Loss

Apple's new EasyPay system is a part of the new Apple Store 2.0 iPhone app. When you walk into an Apple retail store, you're given the option to buy something with EasyPay. Select it, scan the item's barcode with your camera, buy the item with your iTunes account, and walk out of the store, without interacting with any other person. I tried it this weekend when I bought a Jawbone UP, and it worked perfectly.

The question has been, how do they prevent people from just grabbing products off the shelf, pretending to scan the barcode, and walking out the door with stolen goods? After asking a few of the retail employees at my local store, and thinking about it for a while, I think I have an answer.

They don't.

The difference between the old way (grab something off the shelf, find a blue-shirt who doesn't have 10 people waiting to talk to them, and pay) and the new way (grab something off the shelf, do some iPhone shenanigans, and pay) isn't much. What was stopping people from grabbing things off the shelf and walking out before EasyPay? If your Apple store is anything like mine, it's like this pretty much all the time:

iPad crowd at Apple Store by niallkennedy, on Flickr.

Someone could easily walk in, grab an iPhone case and walk out without being harassed or questioned. As best I can tell, EasyPay changes nothing about that. It simply makes it easier to pay for a product, rather than put it down and walk out because you can't find someone who will take your money.

One last point I want to make: This only works for items on shelves. You can't grab an iPad or a MacBook Air and walk out; those are pretty well protected by Apple staff. These items tend to be on the less expensive side, but not entirely; at my local store, the $500 Time Capsule sits right on the shelf, and presumably works with EasyPay.

Steve Jobs

I don't know what I can say that hasn't already been said a hundred times, but it seems callous to let the day go by without marking it somehow. So here goes, short and sweet.

The entire Apple-centric community has lost a leader and a visionary. Every one of us builds products that we hope Steve would approve of. His aesthetic sense is woven into everything we do, every day.

I'm sad for his family. I know all too well what this feels like.

I'm sad that I never got to meet him, or show him what I've been working on, or just shake his hand and thank him for what he's done.

I'm sad that he won't get to see where we go from here.

Thank you for everything, Steve. You gave us more than one would think is possible in 56 years. So much of what I have in my life right now is because of something you created. Rest in peace.

Windows 8 on ARM

There's lots of talk about Windows 8 running on ARM. Here's the facts so far:

• Windows 8 will run on both ARM and Intel
• Both Metro and the "classic" Windows desktop will run on both architectures
• There will not be a "compatibility" layer for ARM, akin to the Mac's Rosetta. Apps compiled for Intel will need to be rebuilt for ARM.

To me, this looks like a move to prop up Intel against a smaller, lighter, more power efficient competitor in a new market.

Here's why. A consumer walks into a store, wanting to buy the latest Windows 8 tablet. There's two models available, the ARM model and the Intel model. They look the same, they run the same OS with the same features, and if you plug a mouse and keyboard in you'll get the same old familiar Windows desktop. But, the ARM model has, let's say 10 hours of battery life, and the Intel has maybe 7. (These are fake numbers based on the idea of ARM power management being way better than Intel, by the way. Please don't write letters.)

However, if you've been using Windows for a long time, which is likely if you're buying a Windows tablet, you probably have a bunch of Windows software kicking around. Old software, most likely. The ARM tablet might run it, if you upgrade to the latest version and they've bothered to build an ARM version (which as John Gruber points out, is not a trivial thing to do). The Intel tablet will run it. Likely, all of it, back to your ancient copy of Photoshop 3 or whatever. If it runs on Windows 7, it will probably run on Windows 8 Intel tablets.

If there was an ARM compatibility layer, Intel tablets would be way behind. It seems to me like Microsoft is making moves to keep Intel on a level playing field in the tablet space.

Heroes

It seems I've reached the age where my heroes are fading away.

Today, Steve Jobs announced his resignation as CEO of Apple. It's not a surprise, he hasn't really been running things day to day for almost a year now. Tim Cook is completely qualified to run the company and continue its incredible, unprecedented streak of success. And Steve will still be there, as the Chairman of the Board, and will still be involved, most likely at a similar level as he has been over the last 8 months. (For example, I would not be all that shocked to see him walk out on the stage to announce the iPhone 5.)

But that's not what this post is about. This post, rather selfishly, is about me. If you're looking for posts about Steve Jobs and his legacy and so on, oh there are so many good ones that have been written in the last 7 hours. This is my reaction.

My dad is my first (and probably greatest) hero. He's been gone for ten years now, lost to brain cancer in late 2001. With the baby on the way, he's been in my mind a lot lately. I had a long conversation with my mom about him recently, about what makes a good father of course, but also about how he would have felt about my life and my business. He's the one who gave me my entrepreneurial streak, which he had himself but never managed to make it work. So far, I have, and the thought that I'm carrying on that torch gets me through the tougher times.

My uncle is my next hero. He's the one who got me started in programming, gave me my first shot, working for him when I was just a young teenager, fixing bugs in Access 2.0 databases for his consulting company. He's currently very sick, fighting a rare and dangerous disease called Wegener's granulomatosis. I think about him every day.

My third hero is Jimmy Buffett. Go ahead and laugh, I've gotten that reaction before. His music means a lot to me though. It drove me out of Connecticut and into Florida. It makes me happy, inspires me to create, follow my heart, and design and live the life I want to live. He is, fortunately for me, still going strong and making new music, and one of my biggest hopes in life is that one day I'll get to meet him and thank him for the inspiration, even though I'm sure he gets it all the time.

And finally, of course, there's Steve Jobs. I've built my business, my career and a vast portion of my life around the products he's created. He's called a visionary quite often, and he is, but he's also the guy who drives the vision and makes it actually happen. What can you say about a person like that?

You'll see a lot of inspirational quotes from Steve. Here's my favorite from his 2005 Stanford speech: "[H]ave the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

One of my heroes stepped back today. But there he is, telling me and anyone else who cares to listen: have courage, follow your heart, follow your intuition. He took a lot of risks in his career; smart, well thought out risks, but risks just the same, and he had the courage to do it because he knew, in his heart and in his gut, that it was the right thing to do. It's time for me to follow that advice. It's time for me to build on what I've already done, and have the courage to follow my heart and become what I truly want to become.

My heroes are fading away. That just means it's time for me to step up, take their place, and try to be a hero for someone else.