Friday, January 30, 2009

XHTML 2 Media Types is updated!

Okay - this took way too long. But finally the XHTML Media Types document has been updated! This document, first released in 2002, was meant to illustrate the various media types that XHTML could be served as, and how to decide when to use which. Unfortunately, the document was not really maintained and quickly became irrelevant. This new version is much more focused than the previous one. It also gathers together in one place this guidance and the information about what to do and NOT do when writing XHTML that can be delivered to HTML user agents (like Internet Explorer) and also to XHTML user agents (like Firefox). This is a MAJOR step forward.

Still more to do, of course. The world of standards never sleeps. It does, however, rest its eyes from time to time.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Experimenting with DreamHost

I decided to go a little crazy and get a Dreamhost account. I have been using dedicated server hosting companies for years now, but they are so expensive and their hosting agreements are so draconian that I am just sick of it. So, as of today... I am trying out a shared hosting service.

I know, I know... Everyone uses shared hosting. I have been helping out with some projects that use it, and other than performance issues every now and then, it has seemed fine. Add to that the benefit of making someone else deal with the networking infrastructure, backups, and other nonsense and I suppose it was a no-brainer. I guess I am just slow.

So, for now, I am setting up "halindrome.com" in Dreamhost. I will point a subdomain from that new server here for blogging, since I really like the "Blogger" service. More about this as I learn more about the service and its hiccups.