Tag: announcements

Delicious scare

During the last few days I’ve been asked by several people what I think about the scary bit of news regarding the shutdown of Delicious.   I’ve replied individually several times, but I feel that a blog post is in order.  So here it goes.

First of all, Delicious is not being shutdown.  Here is a quote from their blog:

Is Delicious being shut down? And should I be worried about my data?
– No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.
Secondly, if you are worried about your data, just make a backup of it.  Delicious had an export option for years.  Login to your account and you’ll be able to export your bookmarks from the Settings page.
Thirdly, I can understand that news like that could throw some people into a search for alternative mode.  And here are alternatives of them out there.  I haven’t tried any of them in years, since I’m a happy Delicious user.  But if I were forced to choose one day, Xmarks would be my first choice.  My reasons are:
  • All features that are vital for me are a part of the free subscription.  More features are available for premium subscribers.
  • Cross-browser support that covers all browsers that I care about.
  • Support for sharing of bookmarks.  That’s the main reason for me to actually use a social bookmarking service instead of a much simpler bookmark synchronization service.
  • Support for private bookmarks.  I want to share as much as possible, but not everything.
  • Easy integration with third-party tools and services.  For example, using an RSS feed.
  • Support for direct import from Delicious.

But with all that said, I want to stress it once again – Delicious is not shutting down.  So if you use and enjoy the service, simply continue doing just that.  No need to worry.

Good news from PrimeTel

Yes, I know, I am biased when I talk about PrimeTel, since I used to work there and still have a lot of friends there.  But even with that, how can one not be happy about great news that came in via SMS today:

Your Internet speed will double as of 1/1/2011 with no additional charge. Happy New Year from PrimeTel!

I am getting 4.5 – 5.5 Mbps on my 4 Mbps PrimeTel subscription.  With this new upgrade it seems I’ll be getting somewhere around 10 Mbps. Excellent present – thank you PrimeTel!

Updated: You might also want to read this article in Cyprus Mail.

Automattic becomes domain registrar

Matt Mullenweg reports in his blog that Automattic became a domain registrar.

As some folks have noticed already, Automattic is now a “real” domain registrar (ID #1531). This has been a goal of mine for several years now, chiefly because I am a bit of a domain collector myself and I’ve never been completely satisfied with the domain buying or management experience on any of the usual players. Second, custom domains are a popular feature on WordPress.com and should become even more popular with some changes we’re introducing this month and it’ll be good to be able to provide a fully integrated experience for our users there. It’ll be a few months while we build all the tools necessary to begin taking advantage of our registrar status so in the meantime we’ll continue to use Godaddy, who has been an excellent partner.

These are excellent news!  I do agree with Mutt that current domain registration and maintenance experience is a pain in the back.  No matter which registrar you choose, there is always something awkward about it – prices, support, control panel, etc.  I am using GoGaddy for a few years now, and while they provide excellent discounts and DNS hosting uptime, their control panel is horrible.  Yet, it’s still better than most.

Automattic on the other hand, is a company known for it’s humanity in policies and user interfaces.  WordPress being just one of such examples.  Them becoming a domain registrar gives me great hope of having a better domain registration and maintenance experience one day.

Google TV is coming along

Google TV website is launched.  As is the official Google TV blog.  Not too much to see there yet, but it’s good to know things are moving along.

I am excited!  An open source television platform based on Android, with its own application store – these are just great news.  Not to mention partnerships with HBO, Universal, Amazon, and Netflix.  It sounds like there is going to be a lot of content and plenty of new interesting ideas on what to do with it and how to process it.

The only thing that worries me is access to this content for us, outsiders.  As in people who live outside of the United States of America.  Until now we’ve been quite limited with the exception of Apple TV.  I wonder what’s going to happen with Google.  But given company’s global strategy, I have my hopes.

Via Download Squad.