Over the past year, we’ve helped launch over 20 new or refurbished websites. We’ve used just two hosting companies to host the majority of those sites.

1and1
We use 1and1 to purchase and manage all of our domains. At just ~$7 per year, it’s hard to beat. We also use 1and1’s Linux Business package to host the Stranger Studios website and a number of smaller internal websites. For just $9.99 per month, you get 250GB of storage space, 2500GB of bandwidth, and the ability to host up to 100 domains. If you don’t understand those numbers, just know that it is much more than need.

1and1 has great uptime. They offer both MS and Linux packages, including everything up to dedicated servers. In our experience, the packages below “business” level suffer from some performance issues, as there are a large number of websites running on the same server. However, the business packages have been great for sites of our that receive fewer than 1000 visitors per day. For sites that require greater performance or more flexibility, we suggest…

Myriad Network
WineLog.net is hosting on a Myriad Network Virtual Dedicated Server. People moving from a regular shared server to a VDS will notice a huge difference in performance. Another reason to look into VDS options is if your application requires databases larger than 100MB (1and1 and other shared hosts limit on MySQL DBs). Our Mobilicio.us application with hundreds of thousands of rows of data zings on a new Myriad Network server. And Myriad makes it easy to scale to multiple servers or larger dedicated servers.

When moving to a VDS, you’re going to have to do a lot more of the nitty gritty at the server level. For our clients, we handle all the nonsense. But even we get confused sometime with some of the more subtle aspects of running a server. In these cases, the Myriad support has been nothing but great with us. They are always timely in their responses and very helpful.

And, yes, those are affiliate links above. For over a year now, we’ve been referring clients and friends to both of these hosting companies without using affiliate links. A little bit of math showed us that we were leaving some money on the table here. Not a lot of money, but maybe enough for a trip to Vegas. So we appreciate your support by using the links above to sign up for these great companies. We wouldn’t recommend them unless we thought they were the best. And they are.

I’ve been doing some illustration work for a client who is self-publishing a book. I am doing the drawings completely in Photoshop with my handy Intuit Wacom Tablet (I have an older series 2 tablet) (thanks, Dad! - that was a great Christmas).

I’ve probably watched this video below at least 5 times since I started this work. Mike Krahulik, from Penny-Arcade, has mad skills with the pen. It’s a great inspiration, something to aspire to. I learn something every time I watch it. And the music isn’t too bad either (kuh-kuh-kuh Q-Unit!).

The video was first posted at Penny-Arcade on October 11th, 2006. In the blog post, Mike shares some pointers about his brush sizes (all defaults) and techniques. It’s good stuff.

PhotoCrank’s Demo presentation is available for viewing at demo.com. Go, Jeff!

I am pleased to finally be able to write about PhotoCrank, a service that adds clever overlays to the photos you snap on your mobile phone. Since mid-August, Kim and I have been helping the PhotoCrank team with their website’s design and development. The secret is out now; their site went live sometime this morning.

If you’re still reading this, you should take a break and check the service out for yourself. (Here’s the link if you missed it the first time: PhotoCrank.com.) From their blog:

PhotoCrank is a fun and easy way for you to add entertaining graphics and customized captions directly on top of your mobile photos. There is no software required. All you need is the camera phone in your pocket, and it works at the speed of a picture message.

Cranking a photo is as easy as sending a “pix message” from your mobile phone to an email address (like try@photocrank.com). A team of leprechauns and fairies, working for minimum wage, will add the crank over top of your image and send it back to your phone. A version is also stored at PhotoCrank.com for archiving and to send mass emails later.

Your carrier will charge you their normal fee for sending a picture message. PhotoCrank will charge you an additional $0.20 to $0.30, which is billed to your cell phone, depending on the package you choose. Right now, PhotoCrank’s part of this charge is waved on the first 3 cranks you send.
Jeff and the crew at PhotoCrank are great to work with, and I’m proud of the application they are releasing this week. Kim and I thought the idea was awesome back when it was just a few sketches and a simple prototype. But now that I’m actually able to crank photos from my own Razr and browse through all the cranks on the website, I’m even more excited about things. I can’t wait for my next night out just so I can create more images like this one:

I’m also proud of the design work Kim did on this project. Take a look at how far things have come from the design for the early prototype we built back in July to the final design of the site launched this week.

Kim also did some print work for PhotoCrank, designing this awesome one-sheet they’ll be handing out at the Demo conference in California, where Jeff and the PhotoCrank team will be presenting later this week. (Be sure to check them out there if you are attending or keeping tabs on that event.)

I have a minute, so I’ll throw in a little praise for myself. The original plan was to handoff a static HTML wireframe, with just the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript components programmed. Jeff and Paul were busy jumping hoops for the phone companies and tweaking PhotoCrank’s porn filter however, so I brushed off my VB and ASP.net skills and helped out with some of the server-side programming. For a couple of weeks, I moved shop over to the PhotoCrank office where I got busy, did some .net development, ate as much as 1 1/2 cheese steaks each day, and brushed up on my devil-sticks skills.
Again, I can’t emphasize how great Jeff, Paul, Cristyn, Yoni, and the others behind PhotoCrank are. This is just the beginning for them. I know they have a lot of plans for their product, and I look forward to working with them in the future.