**apologies that this is showing up in your RSS feed again. I deleted the original post, thinking it might have somehow been causing the blog’s lagging problems. Now that I know it was a plugin, I’m reposting the post for those who hadn’t yet seen it the first time.

Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of the videos. I was having problems with uploading to Vimeo. Turns out it was AdAware blocking the upload. In case you ever have that problem.

Video one is a quick video of readers/authors talking digital devices. Video two talking digital books, and video three is just a quick glimpse of some of the activities at the Lori Foster event. (and someday I’ll figure out why all videos of me start with my eyes closed. Gah)

Read the rest of this entry »

File this under conversations from Twitter, since I’m writing this post after a convo started there about hosting, and several people asked why I don’t recommend 1&1 for hosting. Let me be clear: I emphatically do not recommend them for hosting and I can’t emphatically not recommend them enough. I do continue to register my domain names through them and will continue to do so. They’re cheap, they provide the privacy of your personal information for free, when most domain places charge extra for that, and I have no problems with them continuing to renew my domain name.

But when it comes to hosting, 1&1 should be at the bottom of your list. I came to learn this in an almost painful way after 3 years of hosting with them this past January.

Some of you who’ve read my blog might recall a few months ago, around the beginning of January, I was starting to have a lot of problems with my WordPress install. I made several posts wondering if anyone had any ideas about what might be causing the errors that were being thrown. I was unable to use a number of plugins, any type of auto-upgrading was out of the question and things were just becoming increasingly…wonky (yes, that’s a technical term). I posted help questions on WP but didn’t get any reply that helped my situation.

A few weeks after my issues started, I was in my 1&1 control panel doing…something. And I happened to notice that the database for this blog was nearing capacity. Not understanding these things at the time, I didn’t realize that 1&1′s 100mb database capacity is not only alarmingly low, it’s appallingly low. I emailed 1&1 customer support to find out what would happen once I reached my 100mb capacity and received an email in return that was not reassuring.

Thank you for contacting us.

If your WordPress blog reaches 100mb the tendency is your blog site will be lock or typically will be down and you can no longer access it.
So the best thing is to put it as much as possible below 100mb.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Jenealle Plaza
Technical Support
1&1 Internet

I panicked. Wouldn’t anyone? So I wrote back. I’d been a customer for 3 years, don’t use excessive bandwidth, and pay my bills on time. Surely they’d work with me and do…something?

That means I can never add content to my blog again unless I delete old content. Is there any way to get a database with more than 100mb of storage space? I’m not using my package for anything except blogging, so my usage stats aren’t extreme, and I’ve been with 1&1 long enough that I’d hate to have to move hosts because you can’t accommodate a blog on a database.

The answer, as it turns out, is no they wouldn’t.

Thank you for contacting us.

If you will delete some files on the data base and replace with new on, will it is possible.
But to exceed it more than 100mb then it will no longer be use.
The data base is not expandable nor can be added a memory since it is the only given capacity.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Jenealle Plaza
Technical Support
1&1 Internet

Did I mention I panicked? I was getting dangerously close to that 100mb limit. Like…I only had maybe 1.2 mb or something ridiculous left. I didn’t know what I could delete and really, how could I continue to blog for any period of time and not keep adding content? Obviously, I couldn’t.

So the first thing I did was research some ways to try and bring my database size down to give myself some time and did a few of those things. Second thing I did was put out a call: who do you use for hosting? I got several great responses and though I eventually went with jaguarpc because it suited my needs better and had some options that were attractive to me, for a more reasonable price, I highly recommend Esosoft as well for their exceptional customer service and would not have regretted going with them either. One thing that’s important to note that I discovered is that you have to research what the database size is for each hosting site. 100mb is obscenly low when compared to the several gigabyte or even unlimited databases many hosts offer. When you’re researching a host, please be sure this is one of the questions you get an answer to: what is the database size maximum?

Here’s where I say: Thank God for the Bree half of the Moira Rogers writing duo. She’s a bit of a tech whiz and when I ran to her for help, she attempted to walk me through getting my site transferred to the new host. But unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. See, with the database almost maxed out, the host wouldn’t download my site. In fact, when I looked back at the past several months’ of my backups, I discovered the same thing. The host had been downloading an empty file and I hadn’t realized it. It never occurred to me that could happen. My backups weren’t backups at all. (which is even scarier in retrospect, when you think that my site could have been “locked” by a maxed database, and I wouldn’t have had even a backup available to recreate it with elsewhere).

Bree was able to extract my site by tearing it out in pieces and then reconstructing it. We did discover that my stats plugin was using a good bit of that database but in the end, that shouldn’t have mattered because the host shouldn’t have such an artificially low database size. It’s my fault for not realizing sooner but that’s why I’m telling my story here. Because if you host with 1&1, or another host that has a low database size, and you continue to add content to your blog or website, the potential for this happening to you is very real.

The end result of all this is that once I got my WordPress moved to a new hosting site, all (and I mean every single one) of the problems I had with my WP install and plugins disappeared. My issues weren’t WP related at all, the database was causing all of them.

I’ve had these two comments flagged to answer in their own post, so I thought I’d better get to them!

Wyzwmn asked

a question if you please

why would you buy an e-reader over a laptop or notebook?
wouldn’t it just be one more tool to haul around?

I actually have a laptop. And an Asus EeePC (mini laptop) that only weighs 2lbs. And an iPhone. And an iPaq (which doesn’t get used at all anymore, but I’m just using it to illustrate my point). When I want to read, I immediately reach for the Sony Reader (I also own a Kindle and an Ebookwise, but the Sony is what I use right now). No other device has been able to replace, for me, using a dedicated reader, no matter how small, portable or otherwise useful it is.

I tried to think of a good analogy, but the only one I could think of was pretty weak. Let’s say you have some sort of ongoing problem with your skin. You could go to your general practicioner but if you have the option, wouldn’t you rather go to a dermatologist? Because they specialize, you know it will be better.

That’s how having a dedicated ereader is for me. Yes, it’s a specialty item but it’s a specialty item that can’t be replaced. Yes, I can read on other devices, but the experience isn’t the same, it’s not as convenient and I don’t care to do it if I don’t have to. One of the things about the newer eink devices (not the Ebookwise) is how easy on the eyes it is to read on. As much as I love ebooks, I’m like many people who say they don’t want to read on the computer. I spend probably an average of 12 hours a day looking at a computer screen. I already notice the effects of that. So when I’m ready to read for pleasure at night, it’s a huge relief to be able to reach for an eink device and be able to read on that.

Now, that said, I’m still a fan of the Ebookwise, which isn’t eink technology but is grayscale and a little less harsh than reading on the computer. Dedicated reading devices still have other advantages, such as the size (close to reading a book), the ease of holding them (easier than holding a book or a laptop) and ease of portability (which no computer or laptop can compete with, not even an Asus Eee PC).

I really love my dedicated device. If something happened to the iPhone, the Eee PC and my readers all at the same time, and I had to choose which to replace, I’d replace the dedicated reader first!

Kerry asked:

Since you mentioned the Kindle and other e-devices, I’d love to ask a question about Samhain books. Is there a schedule or specific timeline for Samhain books to be released for the Kindle? Are *all* books at some point available for Kindle, or only ones that are “proven sellers” on, say, My Bookstore and More first?

I’m also curious about the availability of Samhain books at fictionwise. I prefer to buy some books for my iphone at fictionwise because of their rewards program, but apparently Samhain books on fictionwise are only availabe in secure mobi/lit format. I’m kind of on a book-buying diet until my credit at fictionwise is gone, so it’s a bummer.

We do have a deal with Amazon/Mobipocket to release all books in mobi and Kindle formats, but it’s really up to Amazon when they appear. There are people at Samhain who have put a lot of time and effort into making sure all the books are available, but we’re dependent on Amazon to actually get them there. All we can do is keep emailing and keep asking. That was the long answer. The short answer is that all of our books should be available at all online retailers, if the retailer chooses to carry them.

Fictionwise is a little different. We have not had a contract with Fictionwise until very recently, because we were unable to reach an agreement of terms with them (I have commented on this in the past on other blogs). So Fictionwise was getting our books from Lightning Source, where the majority of online retailers get the books from. Lightning source puts the DRM on them (not Samhain) and makes them available in only a few formats. This was Fictionwise’s only option for carrying our books at that point.

Now that we’ve just reached an agreement with Fictionwise and recently signed the contract, our office staff has been working with Fictionwise to get it up and running. Going forward, very soon, Fictionwise will be offering Samhain books starting with new releases in a variety of formats (I believe unsecured formats). Backlist will hopefully be gradually converted, but that won’t happen right away.

Hope that answered both of your questions and I’m sorry it took me so long to respond. Does anyone else have any pressing questions they’ve been wanting to ask?

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I’m having some hosting issues. Basically, my SQL database has a limit of 100mb and I’ve almost reached that. I’ll tell you my whole sorry tale after I get my blog transferred to a new host. In the meantime, if the blog disappears or goes down for a short time, it’s because I’ve hit my database limit and the blog has froze. Since I’m locating a new host (I have two I’m choosing between) it shouldn’t be that long before I transfer and hopefully you’ll never even know! But just in case…

If this works, then it looks like cleaning my wp_options up in my database fixed my problems. *crossing fingers*

Okay, I’m not really, but as some of you know, I’m lucky enough to have the ability to explore the different ereader options, thanks to my job. Samhain got me a Sony 505 and a Kindle this summer to take to conferences. I had been using an Ebookwise, so I have previous experience with that (and actually, continued to use the Ebookwise for a good two months after I got both the other ereaders). I’ve also got an iPhone so I can try out the reader programs on that.

I have been using the Kindle almost exclusively, because the wireless makes it incredibly convenient for me to just send my submissions and ARCs right to it. But I’ve been increasingly unhappy with the file management options on the Kindle, which only allows you to sort by title, author and date of most recent accessed/added. This is fine if your metadata has good information in it so the Kindle actually has a usable title/author. But forwarding submissions and ARCs, I find myself with all sorts of file names, wondering what it is, and if it’s a pleasure book or a work book, who the author is, and other general details.

Jane and Keishon have both been talking about Calibre (on blogs and on Twitter) so I decided to bring out the Sony Reader and see how it all went.

So far, I’ve been using it for two days and I have to say I’m very happy with both Calibre (easy to use) and with the Sony’s file management. Granted, it is definitely not as convenient getting my books onto the Sony as it is with wireless, but it’s not difficult and I love that I’m now able to sort my books into categories–most especially sort the submissions into a submissions collection as well as the ARCs into a collection. Depending on how I tag the book, I can sort by genre, publisher, ARC, submission and I suppose, if I wanted, length.

Reading on the two is not hugely different as far as I can tell. I’m using the older Sony (the second model), not the touch screen, so now I would dearly love to get my hands on one of those to try out the touchscreen and built in reading light, but the 505 works very well for anyone considering one of those. It is a little different for me, getting used to the smaller page turn buttons than the Kindle, but on the plus side, I don’t have to worry about bumping those page turn buttons which I was ALWAYS doing with the Kindle. I do notice that the Sony’s screen is a little more yellowish than the Kindle, the refresh is marginally slower, and it takes a little longer to start up a book, but none of those is so different that I find myself irritated by it and I mostly noticed it for the sake of providing a comparison here.

But certainly the Sony is smaller and more sexy than the Kindle in design! I like that.

For now, I’m going to keep using the Sony and see how much I really miss the wireless option, or if giving that up is a good trade for me for the better file management (which Sony wins hands down over Kindle). I think the true test may be when I’m traveling and don’t have as easy access to a computer to upload the books. And maybe eventually I’ll get to try a newer Sony and see if it rocks my world in comparison!

Big hat tip to lys, I’m stealing this link from her blog.

You must check out these tooled leather Kindle covers. Tell me they’re not gorgeous and that you don’t covet one. I know I do. Specifically this one, the Sky Dragon.

I do have to admit, my one concern about these is that because they’re leather, they wouldn’t be as comfortable for use. Right now, I don’t use the standard Kindle cover, I use an M-Edge. Which is also leather, but a pliable leather that I can fold all the way back, creating a kind of ridge to the side that I can hold on to, rather than having to keep it open like a book.

On the other hand, how beautiful are these covers and how great would it look to slip your Kindle into one of these? I would totally have asked for one for Christmas if I’d seen them last month!

I saw this on a friend’s Facebook account and since I have a Zune 30, I checked it out. Seems that sometime around midnight last night, all Zune 30 players froze and stopped working. Anyone currently in possession of a Zune 30 is in possession of a non-operable mp3 player at the moment. I turned mine on and, sure enough, like every other Zune 30 owner, it’s frozen on the loading screen. Good work, Microsoft.

On the Zune support page is this message:

Status:

Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!

Oops. Kind of an expensive piece of equipment to have a problem like this, no?

There’s an article here

And here

I know some of you have asked for subscribe to comments back, and trust me, I want it there. But for whatever reason I can’t use it with this new WordPress upgrade. It breaks my Dashboard. The bizarre thing is that I did the exact same install on Jaci’s blog and it all works fine. I don’t know what’s wrong with my blog that this plugin, the Twitter plugin, and a few others cause the blog to freak out, break the Dashboard and return and Internal error when I do things (like post). I’m sorry!

Add a page to my website? Since my blog is at /blog, I know there must be a way to do this, but I don’t know how. All I want to be able to do is add a list, so a really basic page, no bells and whistles. Just a page. Help?

ETA: Thanks to Bree, part of the writing team of Moira Rogers, I got this figured out. And roped her into helping me do something else I’ve wanted to do for a long time–add a page of all the books I’ve edited. See what happens when you offer me simple assistance?