Today, Steve Jobs published his thoughts on flash. You can view it on the Apple site here:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Two paragraphs in particular caught my eye:

“Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

“Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.”

Steve’s got a great point with this. It’s very similar to my thoughts on iPhone and iPad apps:

The iPhone and iPad are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Apple, and Apple has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Apple’s products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Apple and available only from Apple. By almost any definition, the iPad and iPhone are closed systems.

Rather than develop iPad/iPhone apps, I choose to use HTML5, CSS and javaScript – all open standards.

Over the past couple months I actually wrote a couple blog posts! I really did! And Wordpress did something with them that I’ve never experienced. They missed their schedule. I’m not sure how this is possible. I just logged in and looked at my posts and three posts were highlighted as ‘Missed Schedule’.

Guess I’ll have to keep a closer eye on this….

I am no financial expert. So I will refrain from giving up too much advice. However, there was one item I should of included in my best of 2009 list. And that was paying off my car. And not just paying it off, but paying it off 2 years early.

It started about a year into my loan. I started putting 50 bucks extra with each payment. I’d start realizing that the 50 extra each month didn’t hurt too much. So before I knew it I was paying off two or three payments at once. Now, I know that two or three extra payments at once isn’t possible for everyone. But even just mailing in 20 or 30 bucks extra with each payment can help.

Paying it off, and paying it off early is a very, very good feeling.

It’s the first day of 2010! What a better time than now to make a post about my favorite music of 2009? Just a quick note, I am not making a claim that this is the ‘best’ of 2009. Just my personal favorites.

Top 15 Albums:

1. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle. Bill Callahan (aka Smog) has been around for a while. I’ve always enjoyed his music. However, this one just put me in a trance. I found myself listening to it more than any other album that came out in 2009. It’s relaxing with a good hint of darkness to keep it interesting. Sadly he doesn’t have a video out, but you can listen to some tracks on the Drag City link above.

2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion / Fall Be Kind EP. This was going to be number 3 on the list until Fall Be Kind came out. While technically it’s another album, I see it as a companion piece. Both the album and the EP are amazing and should be checked out.

3. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orcca. Another Domino release! I’m a programmer, not a writer. So, I’m going to end my descriptions here and just post the video :-)

4. Cass McCombs – Catacombs. Domino Again!

5. The XX – XX

6. Micachu – Jewellry

7. The Monks – Black Monk Time. Yes, this is a re-release.. but it needs to be appreciated. The founders of punk.

8. The Mantles – The Mantles. Sadly no video for these guys. But you can download their single off of their site here.

9. The Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa. No clue if this is an ‘official’ video.

10. The Sandwitches – How to Make Ambient Sad Cake. No video for these gals either. But you can listen to the track ‘Back to the Sea’ here.

11. Girls – Album.

12. White Denim – Fits

13. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

14. NODZZZ – NODZZZ

15. Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon

Apologies for going MIA. I had a bout of the swine flu and then came Thanksgiving, getting slammed at work and then Christmas. So least to say, it’s been quite busy.

And now, we are at that time of the year. The ‘year in review’ post. I’m a music junkie and I am an internet geek. That means I love making lists, and especially love making year end lists.

However, I don’t necessarily love writing a blog, so I’ll keep this short and quick. 3 lists. That’s all.

Top 6 things of the year:

1. Getting married. Yes, as cheesy as that sounds, it’s number one. It was a great time, and I couldn’t be happier.

2. I finally made it to Europe! For the honeymoon we went to Italy. We hit Venice, Rome and Cinque Terre. I can’t recommend Cinque Terre enough. If you want to go somewhere amazing, that isn’t packed with tourists, and isn’t outreagously expensive, I recommend Cinque Terre. You can read more of my thoughts on it on a past blog post.

3. I’m not going to put anything here. The first two deserve some separation from the rest of the pack.

4. Seattle. I have wanted to go to Seattle for more than 10 years. The climate always appealed to me (I have trouble breathing in humid/warm air, so cool climate gives me more energy). The beautiful scenery and all the national parks in close proximity sure doesn’t hurt either. It was all that I hoped it would be.

5. Pentax 6×7. While I’m a tech geek, I like to dabble with the old as well. I like collecting old photos, and I like taking photos with old cameras. For christmas my wife bought me a Pentax 6×7. I was borrowing one from a friend, Mark Katzman, and to my surprise, it is the one she bought me. So I was lucky enough to try the camera out before deciding that it was what I wanted. I have been looking for a medium format camera with a built in light meter for a while. And this one is perfect. The quality of the photos it takes are amazing. Now I have no excuses when I take bad photos! Also, the shutter sounds like a pump action shotgun, which makes me feel pretty bad ass.

6. Dropbox. Dropbox is by far one of the best tech finds of the year. It makes backing up files, quickly sharing photos, or moving files between home and work easy as can be.

Top 3 things I’m looking forward to next year:

1. MYOS. It’s a CMS I built at my work. It is still pretty young and immature. But it’s coming together better than I hoped. So far, it is making building CMS based sites infinitely easier, quicker and more solid.

2. Boxee. My wife and I just bought a tv for the bedroom. I had an old micro form computer sitting at my parents. I built it a couple years ago. It’s all passive heating and is super quiet. I plan on dusting it off and putting Boxee on it!

3. iMac. I think this may be the year I upgrade my iMac. The 27″ iMac’s look stunning. Hear’s to hoping the solve the flickering and the shipping problems that end up with a busted corner.

The final list, my favorite albums of the year will be coming shortly (i mean it).

In December of last year I left MediaTemple for WebFaction. And in less than a year I am back at MediaTemple. This is now my third time with MT. What is with this love that I have for them?

Well, this time I’m on their Dedicated Virtual (DV) plan. Their grid server plans may be great for some, but I will no longer use them or recommend them. MediaTemple has always had great support. I love their panel, and they have a great knowledge base and are very pro active in the community. Their Grid Server, however, can just be downright slow at times.

However, I’ve come around to finally realizing and admitting that that is just what you get when you are paying under 20$/month for hosting. I can’t afford dedicated hosting. So Dedicated Virtual is the next best thing. And in my opinion, MT offers a great package. And since I now host my email with Gmail, I don’t even need but half of the space on the plan.

So I made a pact. A friend of mine, Nate Sprehe of the newly founded Almanac went in with me to split a DV account. We each only get 10gig and 15 domains. However, it’s plenty for me. I’m paying $20/month and getting dedicated service.

Don’t get me wrong, WebFaction was better than most shared hosting providers, despite their unique way of managing sites and domains. Towards the end they did have some email problems which prompted me to move all my email to Gmail – a move which I highly recommend. SpamAssasin can not compete with Gmail. In addition to email, I had some issues with a couple aspects of the WebFaction setup:

• Email user names. You can have name@domain.com as your email. However, that isn’t what you log in as. You log in as a user name created in the panel. This name could be anything. It doesn’t have to be related at all to your email. This can be nice when you have a number of emails coming into one inbox. However, for some reason this user name doesn’t just have to be unique to your account, but to the server you are on! So if there is another ‘tyler’ on the server, well, that can’t be my email user name.
• When you FTP into the server, you can navigate up one level and see every users folder on the server. While I do not have permission to enter these folders… it just bothered me that I could even see them. I am no security expert, so I can’t say if that is a security issue or not. My gut just felt uncomfortable by it.

So.. good bye WebFaction. It was a fun 10 months.

Hello MediaTemple.. I guess you knew i’d be back right? Third time’s the charm? I hope so.

I’ve gone and done it. I joined the land of Twitter. I’m a web developer.. i feel like I should be on the cutting edge. However, I’ve always been behind in regards to social networks. I’ve never been one who liked to talk (or type) a lot. So while Twitter doesn’t let you talk a lot, it feels like you should talk often.

I can’t guarentee who much I’ll actually ‘tweet’, but you can follow me at http://twitter.com/tylerc083

Disclaimer: I should admit the real reason I finally joined twitter was to sign my name to the Fix Outlook protest.

On Saturday, May 30th 2009 at 6:30 pm (to get technical, I think it was 6:43 pm) I married Rachel Gagnon. It was an outdoor wedding at the Band Stand in Tower Grove Park. I woke up to thunderstorms at 6:00 am, but luckily by noon the sun was out and the rest of the day was absolutely beautiful.

It was easily the best day of my life and the best party I’ve ever attended. The night was beautiful at the Piper Palm House. So many great friends and family members were in attendance. Looking back there isn’t a single thing that I wish was different. It was that great of a day.

Photo by Geoff Story

Photobooth courtesy of Photobooth STL

For those interested, tonight the Travel Channels Man v. Food will be in Saint Louis. Instead of trying to craft my own entry about it, I’ll just reference the blog at the Post Dispatch:

“The Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food” highlights St. Louis in Wednesday night’s episode, with host Adam Richman visiting Iron Barley for a Monte Cristo dog, Pappy’s for barbecue and Crown Candy for the show’s centerpiece, in which he takes the Malt Milkshake Challenge, five 24-ounce malts in 30 minutes.

Richman also talks at length about Pappy’s (and about our cold weather) in his weekly Vlog.

The St. Louis episode repeats at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., as well as 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.”

I have the pleasure of working two blocks from Pappy’s and can vouch for it’s amazingness. Iron Barley and Crown Candy are also two Saint Louis standards. I’m happy to see all three restaurants getting the attention and credit that they deserve.

For the past two years my site has been hosted on MediaTemple’s Grid-Servers (GS). MT has always been the trendy choice for hosting. It seems everyone always wants to put the (MT) logo on their site. I was happy to be in that club (although I never actually put their logo on my site..). However, over the past 6 months I’ve had a lot of trouble with my service. And since Thanksgiving, my site has been down often and when it wasn’t down it was incredibly slow.

I have nothing but good things to say about MT support, their Dedicated Virtual plans or their very pretty panel. However, I just couldn’t take their Grid-Service any longer.

So last weekend I finally made the switch. I’m now hosted with WebFaction. I had a bit of experience with them beforehand, so I knew what I was getting into. Their plans are very affordable, and very developer friendly. It took a bit to get used to their app/website/domain setup on the backend, however, their support was only too happy to help. I think I emailed back and forth with them about 10 times over the weekend!

And call me crazy, but I’m also happy to be hosted in the middle of the country. I always worried that MT/Dreamhost and other LA based hosting companies had a chance to go down due to power outages, fires or part of California falling into the ocean…

So, anyhow, I’m a happy client of WebFaction now. If you’ve noticed a speed boost in my site, or if you have any problems, please let me know! And if you decide to signup for WebFaction’s hosting, please put me down as a referral! Or use this link: http://www.webfaction.com?affiliate=tylercraft