georges' blog

This is an update to post Newsflash: Phanfare Sucks Again. On Monday, June 13, Andrew Erlichson posted a FAQ article regarding the acquisition. Check it out for the official low down.

Today I received an update from Andrew Erlichson, Phanfare founder and CEO. I get the impression that we had the same conversation by phone that he had with several other lifetime subscribers. In short, Phanfare needed to sell. They needed to partner with a larger company with the finance, marketing, and strategy resources to take an excellent product and make it profitable. If Phanfare had not arranged the buy out by Carbonite it is likely that they would have shuttered. That would have left all their customers without service, their data, or a refund. So selling to Carbonite was not an easy decision, and it was not a good solution, but it was the best Mr. Erlichson could do for all of Phanfare’s customers. Standard annual subscribers should see no change in service or pricing . And although lifetime subscribers are not getting a good deal, they can get three more years at no additional charge and most importantly this is a plan that will keep their data secure for the foreseeable future. For those not satisfied with this arrangement, Mr. Erlichson is now being totally clear that customers who so desire can get a full refund of their $299.95, original purchase price per the 2006 Terms of Service:

Phanfare may terminate a lifetime subscription at any time by returning the photos and videos to you and returning your original purchase price, currently $299.95.

Some people will quibble that the 2006 TOS also include a provision “to receive your photos and video back on DVD once at no cost”. Mr. Erlichson has been clear that they will not be burning and mailing DVDs. Users will be able to receive their data “via electronic download with a new program we are writing”. I would argue that it is better to download your files yourself, to a PC or attached harddrive anyhow. You will get your files sooner–it would take weeks to burn and mail all the requested DVDs. Also downloading to a PC or attached HD will allow you to have all your files in one place. The average Phanfare user would require at least two or three DVDs. Then you get in the business of searching through multiple DVDs looking for a particular photo. Better to download them yourself and have them all in one place. Personally, I would not wait for this downloader program to arrive and you don’t have to. If you are Windows user you can download your files today using Mirgatr.

One final thought: Mr. Erlichson requests that we not be too hard on Carbonite. And I don’t really intend to be hard on them here, more than to say that it really would not have been that difficult for Carbonite to have maintained the lifetime subscriber program and associate the program to “annual revenue” which is their practice. All they would have had to do as part of the buy out is place a certain sum of money in an annuity that would pay out according to their revenue requirement. The annuity would not have to be perpetual, as lifetime subscribers will ultimately die and the membership is not transferable. Would this quantity equal the $250,000 dollars we all paid to Phanfare five or more years ago? I don’t know. Because I don’t know what their revenue requirement is nor can I assume how long this annuity should last. But clearly there is a sum of money that could be annuitized and reasonably be expected to meet their revenue requirement. They opted to not do this. Why? Because it was an additional expense and it was slightly more complicated. Now is the convenient time to make a clean break from the lifetime program. I am wondering if it was worth it. Carbonite is in the process of issuing an initial public offering aimed at raising $100 million. Negative press could impact their final valuation. Making good by lifetime subscribers would surely have cost less than $500,000. Could this ill will affect their final IPO take by half a percentage point? I doubt it. Because, under the terms of the buy out, this presents absolutely no legal or financial liability for Carbonite. However, could negative press raise questions about the character of Carbonite’s leadership which would affect the final valuation of the IPO? Perhaps. So, why take the risk? Certainly they don’t want this story to go far. And I get the impression that Andrew Erlichson’s first official duty at Carbonite is to quiet the chatter about this lifetime program snafu and fast. And I hope he does, otherwise they could be in for a rough transition with Carbonite asking why they bought this thing in the first place.

At this point Mr. Erlichson is clearly left holding the bag as the only one responsible for satisfying the legitimate expectations of lifetime subscribers. I think that is exactly what he is now doing. As in 2008, it would have been better if they could have more accurately predicted lifetime subscriber reaction to the change. But also as in 2008, they are now listening to their customers and making their best effort to right the situation.

As for me, I am taking Mr. Erlichson up on his offer to refund my $299. In this way, my “credit” won’t be married to Phanfare, I won’t get locked into three years of service, and I can take my photos elsewhere when and if I please. In that vein, I am seriously checking out SmugMug right now, as it appears to offer near feature-for-feature parity with Phanfare at a $40 per year discount. SmugMug offers competitive upgrades for Flickr users and the rumor is they do the same for Phanfare users with discount code “PHANFARE”. I’m not sure if this is 20 or 50%, but either way not bad since the service is already 40% cheaper. UPDATE: The “PHANFARE” code does not work, but I contacted SmugMug support and they gave me a current coupon code for 50% off my first year. I cannot share the code here, but I imagine if you contact SmugMug directly they would offer you the same discount. For a bit more detail about moving to SmugMug, expect another post to that effect soon. In the mean time, this comment at the “Phanfare Suck Again” post does have a bit more information.

Ultimately, I have to say that I’ve loved being a Phanfare customer. I love the product, particularly the web, desktop, and iphone clients. I also think Carbonite is a fantastic company with a solid product. I think that this partnership will be good for Phanfare. These guys are just people and I suspect they’ve learned something from this mess. I wish Phanfare and Carbonite the best going forward.

Here is the complete “Additional Explanation” message from Phanfare founder and CEO Andrew Erlichson:

Dear Customers,

I have received a tremendous amount of feedback about our ending the Lifetime Program in the past few days and I want to share some additional thoughts of explanation with you all.

There are about 850 Lifetime customers. Phanfare was a small company and never grew to very large size. This transaction was modest in size, although the details remain confidential.

It became clear that we needed a larger partner to survive long term and that is why we began the process of selling the business.

Although we did try to negotiate to have Carbonite take on the Lifetime Program intact, the final agreement was that Lifetime customers would be offered a credit of their original purchase price of $299.95 by Carbonite and offered annual memberships.

Had we not needed to sell the company, we would have certainly continued the Lifetime Program indefinitely.

I wrote the Lifetime Program terms myself and I specifically created a way for us to end the Lifetime Program if we needed to in a scenario such as this. My goal was to protect Lifetime customers in a transaction from arbitrary action by a successor while bounding the liability of ending the program so as not to create a poison pill.

The agreement was that if we wanted to end the Lifetime Program at the time of an acquisition, we would return photos and videos and purchase price, which we proposed doing in terms of a credit. This agreement can be found in the Internet Archives.

The result will be that Lifetime customers will have received about seven years of service for their original fee and get continuity of service.

I am very sorry that we could not do better than this for the Lifetime customers. Many of you are personal friends and and I have come to know many more.

The Phanfare service is continuing unchanged under Carbonite and I will be running the Phanfare division as VP, Phanfare, reporting to Carbonite’s CEO, David Friend.

If you are certain that you do not want to continue at all with us, please write me and we will refund your original purchase price. This refund will come not from Carbonite, but from what remains of Phanfare, Inc. It will essentially be paid for by me, my employees and my shareholders. In that case, we will also return your photos and videos to you via electronic download with a new program we are writing.

Again my sincere apologies that we did not manage to create a better outcome for Lifetime subscribers.

A final thought. Don’t be too hard on Carbonite in this. The Lifetime Program is not profitable and while we feel a strong commitment to doing right by all of you, Carbonite is fairly looking after their own customers and shareholders and not taking on something that they don’t feel makes any business sense. I respect that decision and hold no ill will about it.

Sincerely,

–
Andrew Erlichson
aje@phanfare.com
Founder & CEO
Phanfare, Inc.

This post, Phanfare Update: Sucking Less, Again, contains new developments related to this story.

Phanfare is doing it again, sucking that is.  Three years ago, Phanfare abandoned their lifetime members by moving to a free model like Flickr, Shutterfly, Picassa, and others. They also put the whole thing behind a login, meaning no public galleries.  After several weeks of hearing from outraged users, Phanfare reversed its decision and welcomed back their subscription members including their lifetime members.  When we started using Phanfare, you could purchase an annual subscription for $59 or a lifetime subscription for $299.  $299 was a pretty good chunk of money to throw down on an Internet service, but it was supposed to be for a lifetime.  And it was a pretty good investment, because their annual subscription price has been going up steadily and is now $99 for the premium account.

Well, in 2008, when they moved to the free model they refunded our lifetime subscription in full.  And when they took me back as a lifetime member, they took me back for $299 less the $59 I had paid to SmugMug for an annual subscription.  See, I had cancelled my account and moved my galleries to SmugMug. You can read about that whole thing at this other post. So, now they are up to it again.  Phanfare has been bought by Carbonite.  And Carbonite is not honoring lifetime subscriptions.  They also are not refunding our annual subscription.  They have converted it to Phanfare credit.  So, they have effectively turned my lifetime subscription into a six year subscription that I’ve paid in advance, and I have but three years remaining on it.  No offer to refund my subscription so I can take my business elsewhere.

I’m pretty agitated, but I tried to remain civil in my letter to Phanfare’s founder and CEO, Andrew Erlichson.  I also avoided making lame threats about unliking them on Facebook, blasting them on Twitter, and emailing and phoning the major tech podcasts and blogs. Here is the letter I just sent to Mr. Erlichson:

Dear Mr. Erlichson,

I have been a Phanfare member for a longtime. I find the service elegant, the desktop client and the iPhone client too. I simply love it. There are few Internet services I like as much as Phanfare. That being the case it was very difficult when in 2008 you changed your business model and dispensed with public galleries, lifetime subscriptions, and as I recall custom domain names. It was painful, frustrating, and fundamentally a breech of trust. Reluctantly, I cancelled my account and went through the less than painless steps to migrate to smugmug. However, you ultimately listened to your users, reinstated public galleries and lifetime memberships, and I gladly came back. Now it seems you are doing it again, only worse.

I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Will you back-peddle on this decision like in 2008? Because I certainly would prefer you did, and before I go through the work of moving my galleries to another service.
2. Will you refund my lifetime membership? Three more years does not in any way equate to a lifetime. Also how is it fair that I should pay three years in advance? Let the money sit in my bank account rather than yours. That is, should I even decide to stay with Phanfare for three more years. Phanfare is a considerably different value proposition than it was when I started with it back when an annual subscription was $59.

I have been an evangelist for Phanfare and Carbonite, both at my work as a systems engineer at a major research university, but also among my social network. I really like both brands. However, I find this kind of behavior, this mistreatment of your most loyal customers, intolerable. And its not merely abandoning the lifetime program, but also the ungenerous terms by which you are doing it. I hope you are willing to listen and use your position to fight for your most loyal members with your new Carbonite management. Please, honor what I see as a reciprocal agreement, the lifetime membership program, that is, and you will keep this happy Phanfare and Carbonite customer and advocate and likely many others.

Sincerely,

Kendall George

http://gallery.georges.nu/

What follows is Mr. Erlichsons letter, just for the record. This is not his response to my letter, but the letter he sent to notify lifetime members of the purchase by Carbonite and what is going to happen to our memberships. I’ll post any response I get from him in another post.

Dear Customers,

I am writing to inform you that the Phanfare business has been acquired by Carbonite, the online backup company. When we started Phanfare in 2004, our goal was to create a beautiful, permanent online archive for our photos and videos. Carbonite shares our values, our commitment to data integrity and our attention to customer support. They are also a significantly larger and better-capitalized company. The entire Phanfare team is joining Carbonite including myself.

But there is a wrinkle. Carbonite is not acquiring our lifetime subscriber program, as it does not fit with Carbonite’s disciplined approach to ensuring that all customer storage accounts are associated with annual revenue. We are therefore discontinuing the lifetime program.

Your account has been converted to an annual Premium account and Carbonite has deposited $299.95, your original purchase price, in Phanfare credit into your account.  This credit is good for Phanfare merchandise and annual subscription renewals and will expire if not fully used after three years. You will need to accept Carbonite’s terms of service when you next login to your account.

I am sorry that we have to discontinue the lifetime program, and I am sure you are disappointed, but I am certain that in nearly every way, the sale of the Phanfare business to Carbonite will help us deliver on our commitment to store your photos and videos for life. We sincerely hope that you stay with the Phanfare service as an annual customer so we can continue to serve you.

I want to tell you a bit about Carbonite. Carbonite is a leading provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small and medium sized business.  Our vision and their vision are very much aligned. Carbonite was founded by David Friend, who serves as their CEO. Like me, David loves to communicate and interact directly with customers.  I think we have found a great home for Phanfare and I believe that your personal investment in organizing and uploading your photos and videos is even better protected under Carbonite.

You have been with us a long time and we appreciate your ongoing support. We have exciting plans as a combined company as we embark on this new adventure.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact me personally if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

–

Andrew Erlichson

aje@phanfare.com

Founder & CEO

Phanfare, Inc.

When I’m at work, I plug in my Ethernet cable and turn off my AirPort wireless network adapter.  This is partly because the wifi in my office is a bit unreliable but also because the wired network is a lot faster.  It’s not a major hassle to do this manually–it’s only two clicks to turn it off or on.  Sure, over time that has added up to over a thousand clicks, still no biggie.  But also, sometimes I forget to turn my wireless back on and those few seconds it takes to realize that my wireless is off and turn it on is a mild irritation.  It also seems to cause Google Chrome to crash, often. So, cumulatively it adds up to a minor headache. So, I thought I’d automate this.  I am indebted to this post: Auto-disable AirPort when ethernet is active. Most of what you need to make this work you can find in this post, though you might need to drill down into some of the comments. Here I’ve tried to document what I did to get it to work.

First you will need to copy this script into a text document and save it as /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh.

#!/bin/bash

function set_airport {

    new_status=$1

    if [ $new_status = "On" ]; then
    /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower en1 on
    touch /var/tmp/prev_air_on
    else
    /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower en1 off
    if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_air_on" ]; then
        rm /var/tmp/prev_air_on
    fi
    fi

}

function growl {

    # Checks whether Growl is installed
    if [ -f "/usr/local/bin/growlnotify" ]; then
    /usr/local/bin/growlnotify -m "$1" -a "AirPort Utility.app"
    fi

}

# Set default values
prev_eth_status="Off"
prev_air_status="Off"

eth_status="Off"

# Determine previous ethernet status
# If file prev_eth_on exists, ethernet was active last time we checked
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_eth_on" ]; then
    prev_eth_status="On"
fi

# Determine same for AirPort status
# File is prev_air_on
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_air_on" ]; then
    prev_air_status="On"
fi

# Check actual current ethernet status
if [ "`ifconfig en0 | grep \"status: active\"`" != "" ]; then
    eth_status="On"
fi

# And actual current AirPort status
air_status=`/usr/sbin/networksetup -getairportpower en1 | awk '{ print $4 }'`

# If any change has occured. Run external script (if it exists)
if [ "$prev_air_status" != "$air_status" ] || [ "$prev_eth_status" != "$eth_status" ]; then
    if [ -f "./statusChanged.sh" ]; then
    "./statusChanged.sh" "$eth_status" "$air_status" &
    fi
fi

# Determine whether ethernet status changed
if [ "$prev_eth_status" != "$eth_status" ]; then

    if [ "$eth_status" = "On" ]; then
    set_airport "Off"
    growl "Wired network detected. Turning AirPort off."
    else
    set_airport "On"
    growl "No wired network detected. Turning AirPort on."
    fi

# If ethernet did not change
else

    # Check whether AirPort status changed
    # If so it was done manually by user
    if [ "$prev_air_status" != "$air_status" ]; then
    set_airport $air_status

    if [ "$air_status" = "On" ]; then
        growl "AirPort manually turned on."
    else
        growl "AirPort manually turned off."
    fi

    fi

fi

# Update ethernet status
if [ "$eth_status" == "On" ]; then
    touch /var/tmp/prev_eth_on
else
    if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_eth_on" ]; then
    rm /var/tmp/prev_eth_on
    fi
fi

exit 0

you will need to make the script executable.  Open Terminal and change the permissions on the script by executing the following command:

chmod 755 /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh

Copy the following xml code into a text document and save as /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.asb.toggleairport</string>
  <key>OnDemand</key>
  <true/>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh</string>
  </array>
  <key>WatchPaths</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>
  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

You will need to load the plist into your launchctl daemon.  You can do this by opening Terminal and executing the following command:

sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist

When I first tried this, I would get the error “Dubious ownership on file (skipping)”.  I changed the ownership on the plist  to match other launch agents with the following command  and the plist loaded properly into launchctl:

sudo chown root:wheel  /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist

Now when I unplug my Ethernet cable my AirPort turns on and connects to known networks automatically, and when I plug in an Ethernet cable my AirPort turns off.  Magic.

UPDATE: I just upgraded my MacBook Pro and monitor.  I now have one of the new thunderbolt displays.  These displays have an internal PCI Express network interface, so this script will not work properly when using the display’s network interface.  This interface is ‘en3′ so an additional check for this interface is required.  Simply add the following lines of code:

# Check actual current ethernet status for the Display Adapter
if [ "`ifconfig en3 | grep \"status: active\"`" != "" ]; then
    eth_status="On"
fi

I added these lines after the identical lines of code for ‘en0′.

I installed Feed2JS on this webserver in about 2 minutes. I actually spent more time writing this little article and inserting the feed below. You can see Feed2JS in action at http://www.georges.nu/feed2js/build.php. It took virtually no configuration. Obviously if you wanted to customized the look, fonts, colors, footer, etc., that can be easily done.  What Feed2JS does in short is build some javascript that you can embed in a web page that allows you to insert custom javascript.

Here is a sample feed for my Persons of Interest podcast website:

One thing I could hardly wait to get my hands on while living abroad was the Apple iPhone. I saw quite a few people using unlocked phones in the Middle East, but I was willing to wait until it was available in the Middle East or until I moved back to the US. It turns out that the latter happened first. In any case. The 3G iPhone hit the market just a couple of months before I moved back the US. I picked one up the second day I got back and have been using it since. I pride myself a bit on being non-partisan when it comes to technology–I am utilitarian. Nowadays, there are generally may tools available to get a job done and there are compelling reasons to use one over another in various situations. In my work I need to use Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Apple’s OSX. I am not an Apple fan-boy. But…

I have been using Windows Mobile-based smart phones for a few years now. These provided what I needed in a smart phone. I used both HP’s iPac and iMate’s Jammin. Besides a mobile phone–duh–and sync-able contacts, I needed Arabic language support, an Arabic-English dictionary, a Bible program, a web browser and some tech tools, like ssh, telnet, and remote desktop. Some of these features were great, like Olive Tree’s Bible program. Others were merely adequate. And some were present but painful to use like web browsing and remote desktop.

The iPhone is not without its own problems. But generally speaking, and I am not exaggerating, the iPhone is simply the coolest thing ever. Ok, I am exaggerating, but it is pretty cool. Thanks to AT&T’s 3G network and adequate memory and processing power on the phone web browsing is not something I do as a last resort. Sure it would be better on a full-sized monitor, but when I am out and about I do not hesitate to check something out on the web with my iPhone. Resizing and moving around pages with the touch screen and gesturing quickly becomes second nature. Also, many sites have developed iPhone formated version of their sites. But there are also iPhone apps developed for many activities that would otherwise be browser-based. I’ve got the WordPress, Facebook, MySpace, and Amazon apps installed so there is no need to navigate to these sites to do these things. I could use some better games, with longer playability… But generally speaking gaming is fun and certainly no worse than with a Windows Mobile handheld. Many games make good use of the accelerometer. The camera takes surprisingly good pictures. Phanfare’s Photon app makes uploading pictures from your iPhone to your Phanfare gallery trivial.

The complaints I have heard about the phone are first related to the phone itself and the operating system–that it drops calls or the quality of calls is poor. I can’t comment on that–I’ve not had any problems in this regard. Secondly, battery life. I have found that the battery life leaves a bit to be desired. But only in comparison to ordinary cell phones. Sure you can get days of battery life with a cell phone, but i pretty much got used to having to charge my phone everyday. That is pretty much what you need to do with the iPhone, plug it in every night. If you do a lot of gaming on your phone, it might not make it all day. The third main complaint is that there is no way to tether your phone such that you can use the modem with your laptop. This is simply untrue. But in the interest of full disclosure, it is not trivial. For what ever reason (meaning AT&T wouldn’t allow it) this application is not available at the App Store. You will need to jailbreak your phone. If you use the QuickPwn app this is a snap. Then you will need to use the Cydia app store to install IPhoneModem. There are confusingly two applications named iPhoneModem–one is free and one cost $10. I had no success with the free version, but the one by Addition seems to work pretty fine, particularly version 2. I am online now, while driving down I-40 on our family road trip from Oklahoma to California. We’re about an hour from Albuquerque.

Anyhow, I’m still lacking full Arabic support. There is a product by Islam4iPhone or some such company. I tried installing it, but so far without success. Also, their site is only in Arabic, which slows me down. But I’m confident this will be coming soon. Arabic support is essentially no different than Hebrew support and there appears to be a pretty strong Israeli community lobbying for Hebrew support. On the Arabic-English dictionary side, Google’s online translator is pretty good. It is free. And it does a lot of other languages too. But without native Arabic support, the words don’t look right, because the letters are not connected.

Anyhow, I don’t intend to be comprehensive here, just want to say, love my iPhone. I highly recommend it. It is getting better everyday. It is about time someone made a smart phone that was fun to use. I will probably try to do some individual app reviews in the days ahead.

I need to set the record straight. After taking pains to migrate my photo gallery to SmugMug, I contacted customer service at Phanfare to cancel my account. They did so quickly and painlessly but included this bit of information in the message:

I know you have likely moved your site, but I did want to tell you that as of June 1st, there will be an additional option in 2.0 to allow you to share your albums publicly (with everyone at your URL) without requiring a login or registration. Based on all the feedback, we decided to allow this change to make the system more useful for people who really did want an open URL. There is still a Phanfare header on the pages, but other than that, the pages are unchanged.

Just wanted to pass that along…

A few comments:

1. I had moved my galleries–to smugmug. And it was not a painless process. I tried out both Migratr and Smugglr. And neither worked effortlessly. In the end I had two copies of every photo, so I had to manually delete the duplicates. Also, all the galleries were private. So I had to manually set each one to public. At least all the captions and album descriptions were imported.
2. “Thank you, for finally listening and catching a clue!” I was pretty upset with the changes that came with 2.0, specifically that users could not share their galleries without registration. Based on the reactions on their forum and the few comments I received to my post, there were a lot of unhappy (and some down right angry) users out there. I knew I wasn’t alone. I was glad that they had come to their senses and responded favorably to the public outcry.
3. “Could you have figured this out sooner and let me know sooner?” Apparently, I acted just days ahead of this going out to all Phanfare users.

So… what does that all mean?

I’ve already swallowed the pill of moving my galleries to SmugMug. I am still feeling burned by the whole thing.

Why would I even consider going back to Phanfare?

Here’s the deal…

On the positive side: Yes, I’ve moved my galleries to SmugMug. That’s a realatively done deal. Also, in the meantime, SmugMug upgraded the feature set for “power user.” This is the package that has the same annual price as Phanfare. They now offer custom URLs for their power user. Awesome. So, feature-wise, did I lose anything by moving to SmugMug?

On the negative side: SmugMug does not support sub-galleries. This made the migration and organization of my galleries clunky. Also, SmugMug’s uploader is simply primitive. Phanfare simply has the coolest upload and organization utility out there. Also, Phanfare offers a lifetime membership–pay for five years up front and you are good for life. That is a pretty good deal. With SmugMug you’ll be paying that annual membership until you die.

On balance, as I see it, Phanfare is simply better.

So, the question is, was I able to put my hurt behind me and trust Phanfare again?

I decided that I could give them another chance. But I wouldn’t make it easy for them. Let’s not forget, so far I’ve paid the price for Phanfare’s mistakes. I moved my stuff to SmugMug and I was beyond the two week money back guaranty window. I was out time and money. Phanfare would have to meet me half-way at least. I extended the olive branch. I wrote Phanfare customer support and said they could have me back as a customer if they’d reinstate my lifetime membership less the $59.99 I paid to SmugMug. They accepted. So, Phanfare got me back. They admitted they were wrong. They paid a small penalty for their mistakes. I was out some time, but not any money. And I got back on with a service that is nearly everything I am looking for in a photo host. I’ll give them a chance. I will trust again.

I’m not going to say yet that I’m addicted to renting movies at iTunes, but we’ve done it three times in about a week and I just have to say, “I like it.” I’m sure we’ll slow down, like immediately, but it really is a convenient way to rent quality films just as soon as they are out and you don’t even have to leave the house. As I said in an earlier post, being able to watch while it is downloading is choice. My experience is that after about a hour of lead time, the remainder downloads concurrently with watching. But, also, I was able to just grab a flick that I knew I wanted to watch though I didn’t know how soon. You have a month to watch, so you can load up a couple of flicks no problem.

So, I’m not a junkie, but am converted and a satisfied customer.

I guess it was at MacWord 2008 that Steve Jobs announced that Apple would start renting movies through iTunes. Well, a few nights ago, Claudia and I rented our first film through the iTunes store. We rented Michael Clayton. It was a decent film, but not one we would necessarily want in our personal library. So, it was a perfect occasion for renting. However, our local video stores are a bit slow to acquire new releases. So, iTunes came to our rescue and overall, it was a good renting and viewing experience. We live halfway around the world, but the download was still only about two and a half hours–1.5 GB. iTunes let’s you start watching while it’s still downloading. So, after about two-thirds was downloaded, we started watching and the download finished before the movie did, so our viewing was not interrupted. We’ve done the same with LOST which we purchase through the iTunes store as well so we’re used to this routine. We aren’t used to broadband performance in the States, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some people stateside are able to purchase and start viewing immediately or nearly immediately. But I would expect that just about anyone could purchase a movie rental before dinner and by the time the kid’s are tucked in, enough or all of the movie would be downloaded and mom and dad could settle in for a little home theater. Anyhow, Apple gets my thumbs up for putting together an on-demand video paradigm that just works.

Another service to keep your eye on is hulu.com. These guys are offering commercial TV for free on-demand. There are commercials, but you’ll get fewer commercial-minutes than broadcast television. Unfortunately, these guys aren’t allowing viewing from overseas, but we’ll see if I can’t figure out a way around that!

I said on-demand video was the way of the future and I’m sure there is more to come.

I like the freedom to edit my blog, basically any where I am by jumping on any computer with an Internet connection and logging into the admin interface at georges.nu/blog. This is particularly nice on any Mac machine which spell checks for you in any browser by default. However, on my own machines, I’ve gotten into the habit of using desktop blogging software. I like the convenience. It’s faster. You’ve got spell check. You’ve got other admin features. You can save local copies to work offline. Anyhow, I just like it. It feels right. On my Windows machines, for this purpose, I use (this may come as a surprise) Microsoft Word 2007. The blogging features work nicely. And since we all have spent a lot of time in Word, it is comfortable. You’ve got all the language tools you need: spell check, grammar check, and thesaurus. I need all the help I can get. At one point (before Office 2007 came out) it seemed like I often found myself editing in Word and then copying over to the browser interface anyhow. Now to be able to simply post when I’m finished is a great little time saver. The thing is, I just got a new MacBook Air, which has become my main portable. I’ve got both Office 2008 and iWork. But Word 2008 for Mac doesn’t have the blogging facilities of Word 2007 for Windows. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would see here a deliberate effort by Microsoft to cripple their Mac offering to undermine their competitor, Apple. It is rather inexplicable. I generally find that the Mac products from Microsoft are classier and “funner” than their Windows counterparts. Anyhow, since Word 2008 doesn’t have the blogging facility, where does that leave me for a desktop blogging app for Mac? Well, there are a lot of voices out there. It is hard to tell who is out front, but I’m placing my bets on ecto. It has a feature rich editor. All the admin functions you need. And it is priced better than its main competition. I’ve drafted this post using ecto. We’ll se how it goes.