Well, yes. And I have to mention that this isn’t just about BlueHost, it concerns a lot of other currently popular hosting services, that offer huge web space for not such a big price. Well, let me tell you about my experience with BlueHost in the last 48 hours. To start with, let me give you a part of the official BlueHost terms of use, that you can find on their website. I have to mention that the TOS page is basically nowhere to be found, unless you search for it in the help center. Yeah, very informative. If you want to see the whole page, it’s here. But here’s the section of interest to me:

“No material that provides sells or offers to sell the following: controlled substances, illegal drugs and drug contraband, weapons, pirated materials, instructions on making, assembling or obtaining illegal goods or weapons to attack others. Information used to break, copyright, violate the trademark of or to destroy others property or information. Information used to illegally harm any people or animals. We do not allow pornography, nudity, sexual products, programs or services. Escort services are not allowed or other content deemed adult related.”

This is the only thing that they are saying about “copy righted material”. That you don’t have the right to sell them. I add to it myself: don’t share them either, basically don’t violate the bloody copyright laws. But hey, what part of any copyright law, OR the bloody terms of service, says that you are not allowed to back up your legally collected copyrighted material on your web space? What if you’re using the God forsaken 1500 Gigs that “supposedly” they should give you, to back up parts of your hard drive? And what if that backup is 1 – password protected, 2 – outside of your public web folder, or to say it in simple terms, what if nobody but you has access to that back up? Exactly what are you violating that way? Well, let me tell you what gets violated that way: BlueHost’s shameful marketing scam. They tell you that you have 1500 Gigs, but they know that most people use only something about 20 Megs [I’m also quoting parts of this from Genox, as I was speaking to him about it yesterday]. They advertise 1500 Gigs to get your attention, but they never have the kind of resources to allow people to use 1500 Gigs each. Which means that if you, as one of all these supposedly clueless customers, actually want to use some of the space, they will freak out and start pushing you with limitations that they never ever mentioned anything about, in their terms of service. You just wake up one morning, and figure out that your website has been suspended, without any sort of warning, and not even your email addresses work. I mean how un-considerate and un-professional is that? Then you call them, and they tell you that you are “violating” their terms of service, and you are “violating” copyright laws, while you were doing no such thing. They tell you that unless you remove everything you have in your personal folders, they will not give you access to anything. It doesn’t matter how many times you try to tell them that this is wrong, they simply won’t listen. They use the fact that you need your website back online, and push you to do exactly what they say: to never use what you have paid for. Yes, this is no kidding, this just happened to me. And then I emailed their “abuse” department, asking for an explanation about this, which so far they haven’t responded to, and something tells me that they won’t.

But hey wait, this is not all, it gets even better. You know what they primarily made me remove from the server? PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS, AND LEGALLY FREE MUSIC! Yes, no kidding, how stupid is that? I had, in my public folders, eBooks that are legally free and fine to share and distribute, and music that happens to be made by my boyfriend [Genox] who releases his music for free, and somehow I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t mind me sharing his music! Yes, the bloody BlueHost support didn’t listen to me when I tried to tell them that this is free material!! They kept telling me that until I remove it, they won’t re-activate my services. What does that tell me? That this is not at all about TOS or Copyright or law or anything like that, this is about the fact that they’re lying about the 1500 Gigs, and they’re just counting on it that with the kind of limitations they apply, you can never use the damn thing. I mean exactly how many full text websites can you have to fill up 1500 Gigs? Is everybody going to start their own eBay or something?

Now as I mentioned, this is not just about BlueHost. It goes for bunch of hosting services out there, but I would say BlueHost is the worst because:
1 – They don’t mention anything in their TOS about their backwards policies,
2 – Their live chat support STILL tells you that it’s ok to have copyrighted material as long as you don’t share them [I tried this with a fake name yesterday!],
3 – Other similar hosting services won’t get b****y with you if you’re using their space with legally free material, and they understand the concept of “public domain books”. Or at lest that’s what their phone support tells me,
4 – The BlueHost support “lady” got quite offensive with me yesterday and hung up the phone on me, when she basically couldn’t say anything in response to my logical argument.
So, ladies and gentlemen, this is _THE_ one most ugly behavior I have ever experienced from a company offering a service. In one act, BlueHost has managed to surpass even Rogers and Network Solutions. Good job, really!
So here’s what’s going to happen now. I already have full back up of my websites and databases and everything, and I’m fully prepared to move to another host if they bother me again. Actually given the current horrible downtimes of BlueHost, that would not be too bad anyway. AND, I have just put back my legally free material online, and I have absolutely no intention of removing them. And I have every intention of filling up the web space I’m paying for, with completely un-copyrighted material that can be very useful to my website viewers. Lets see what happens.

Yup, it’s that time of the year again. When you don’t exactly need a calendar to tell you that the year is getting renewed, you can just feel it in the air. Or at least you’re supposed to, unless like me you’re stuck in the cold of Toronto. On Thursday [March 20th], 01:48:19 AM, year 2567 (1387) of the Persian calendar begins. From what I already know, this year is going to be one of _THE_ most important years of my life. Full of ups and downs and adventures. There’s much that’s about to happen, and I’m very much looking forward to everything. I hope that this year is going to be a good year for all of us, and although I have my doubts as to whether the current “situation” in Iran is going to change in any positive way, but I’ll still keep my figures crossed. So happy new year everyone, and best wishes from me, Ahoo, Aasemoon.

Yes yes, I did receive an invitation from the Twine cast and crew. =) Honestly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and I’m happy to say that I haven’t been disappointed with what I have seen so far. The truth is, I also do have the same feeling as Genox about the number of current social networking websites, as well as their quality. [Which is: not a very good feeling!] But now after having used Twine for a day and half, I can say that it’s something new. Yes, finally something new! I still have to use it quite a bit more before I can talk more about what it does and how it’s like, but from what I’ve seen so far, to put it simple, it really is a way of sharing knowledge and interests! It’s like Wikipedia + del.icio.us + Digg + a public weblog, and it has social networking tools and abilities too. I’m currently very much curious about the “behind the scenes” of it, and I guess I have some digging to do. 😉 Oh yes, I also have to mention that although you get a warning when you try to log-in using Opera, saying that the browser is not supported, but actually everything works just fine on Opera, including the bookmarklet.

Also: The online version of Zine #13 is out! Yes, it is, finally! Click here to read.

Has any of you folk, reading is blog, heard about Twine yet? I guess I could start with giving you some background as to what this is about. You know how I have this habit of digging around the web for..well.. for everything? Including useful tools to add to my website for organizing this and that, and the latest big bangs of the web world? Well last night I was looking at my own blogger profile and the ton of interest links that don’t exactly do much.. and then I thought to myself, that maybe just like my little link organizer, I should fix a little something of my own that would give me the ability to organize my interests in a somehow more useful way, instead of just having a repeated bunch of words in every profile that I have on every website, including my own. But then… organize the interests to do exactly what with it? For example on my blogger profile, if you click on each listed interest, you get a list of other people with that interest. That’s kinda cool, but not so much since a good many people using blogger never really create a profile. And half of what you do get is actually pretty outdated anyways. Not much of a good way of figuring out exactly who may be able to help me out with my Pliant problems [the programming language that I like and somehow nobody else does]. And I have to add this, the “interest search” feature in most of the networking websites isn’t exactly much better either. So, I figured I needed some ideas, and the googling started. My first query was “organize your interests online”, and the first result that popped up was this article on techcrunch.com talking about something called “Twine”. Following the link to the Twine website and having a look around, I figured that this, is probably the 10000 times more advanced version of what I was looking for. The ultimate way of organizing what you’re into, and finding out that you’re not quite the only person with that certain weird interest that you think nobody else in the entire universe has. So, marvelous all of that, lets give it a try! But hey, not so fast apparently. Just when I wanted to sign up, I saw that tiny little banner saying that this a beta and invite only. Meh. Now my interest is boiling and I can’t get inside this thing. Ah well, I thought I should probably ask my friends! I got into every other invitation only beta by asking friends! But no luck, nobody has even heard of this. Ok then, lets ask google again. Maybe I can find something. And yes, I should probably post an article about it, maybe someone gets back to me. So I was halfway writing this post when I found this weblog: Minding the Planet. The latest post on that blog says that if I write an article about Twine, and send the author of that blog the link to it, and if it passes all tests, I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiight get an invitation. Of course it’s a pretty big “might” since from what I read, there’s a good 30,000 people waiting out there for an invitation. But well, I already wrote this, I may as well send it in and see what happens, right? =)

Nowadays, it seems that there are more weblogs on the net than anything else. Weblogs of all sorts, for all topics and purposes, with all the various looks and designs that they have. Or.. do they? Well, not really! Honestly it seems most weblogs these days are somehow the same, design-wise, that is. Blog templates are pretty repetitious, and well maybe I’m a bit of a visual person, but I would like it better if the text and the looks have something to do with each other… if the blog is supposedly the reflection of the persons mind, isn’t it a good idea if the blog template is too? At least to some extent? Anyhow, I’ve had a lot of people telling me that my weblog looks somewhat “unusual” or “different than what’s out there”. Well, if you think my blog is different, wait till you see the new template of Genox.ch! Just check it out… now this is what I call difference. =)
Is any of you guys reading this blog into comic books? Well, I am! I can’t say that I’m reading them all the time, but every once in a while I just like to drown myself in some good comics. That being said, lately I came across a 3 volume comic set of a certain genre that I don’t read just thaaaat often. But hey, I found these ones pretty interesting! The comics are called “Lazarus”, and they’re about a guy who is on the run after a horrible experience… it’s a bit of a painful and horror-like story, created by Diego Cortes and Juan E. Ferreyra. So if you’re into comic books, check this one out.
On yet another completely different note, I just put together an FLV demo video collection in my gallery [viewable on the web]. The collection, which is not that large yet, is mainly for “demonstration” purposes. The idea was basically handed to me by some of the folk attending the demoshows, saying that it would be nice to have an easy/quick way of showing what you mean by “demos” when you’re talking to somebody about them. Specially if it’s such that you don’t have to search YouTube for some good demos, when you don’t know many names! So there ye go! =) And yes, I am planning on expanding the collection, and do drop me a line if you have some videos to add to this.

Yes yes yes, ooooook, about 50 emails so far. =) I know, I know, I swear! So yes, Zine #13 was released this morning, Europe time, which explains why I was asleep at the time it was released, so please let me wake up first and then [now] I will certainly write about it. 😉
The much anticipated 13th issue of the Zine digital magazine, as it was apparent from the headlines that were released earlier, has a great deal to offer. At the first glance, the interface is definitely one of the cutest ones I have seen, and at the same time it’s very smooth and simple to use. The music selection is also a nice complement to the good looks. Of course the most important part of any magazine would be the article, and the Zine team has definitely done an excellent job with that as well. There’s a wide range of articles about all things Demoscene related, and I would say that for all of your guys and gals out there who are curious about different aspects of the Demoscene, this is certainly a must read. So, go ahead and check it out!
If by any slight chance you have problem viewing the magazine, as far as I could find out from bitfellas.org, there is going to be an online edition sooner or later. So don’t worry too much.
And well, yes, that is my picture on the thumbnail. Read the magazine and you shall know why. 😉

Last night I was notified that the Zine #13 headlines has been released! This intro which has been created by ASD, Brainstorm and Bitfellas gives you a general idea as to what you can expect to read in the upcoming Zine issue, but that sure is not all that it offers! The modeling of this intro has been done by Navis, and the music has been created by aMUSiC, which mean that YES, there is an ASD mini demo here that you really don’t want to miss. =) The intro looks quite similar to the “Beyond The Walls Of Eryx” that was created for last year’s Intel demo competition. And well you see, it has mini robots. And I guess I’ve already made it clear how I feel about mini robots. =D Wee! I have to mention that aMUSiC has definitely done it again with the superb music. As for the headlines, honestly I couldn’t read every single word of it. But from what I was able to get out of it, seems like Zine #13 is going to be quite a ride, as was the case with #12. Hey, I know that you know what I’m talking about because almost everyone reading this blog had checked out the “Life Force Development Journal”. 😉 So, I’m very much looking forward to reading the upcoming issue. Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out the intro!

Update:
I know some of you guys have problems running the intro or reading the text. I’m still looking for a video version or the pure text for the headlines, but so far no luck. I tried capturing it myself, didn’t work out too well. I will definitely let you know as soon as I find something.
On the other hand, some guys seem to have problems seeing the pouet.net page for the intro. Well, not surprisingly I also have the same problem. I have not been able to see any pages on pouet.net for half a year now! I think it’s a problem with our beloved provider the bloody Rogers with their perfect DNS system. [Did I mention I bloody hate Rogers?] Instead I use pouet.scene.org and that works just fine. So the working link would be this one. Or you can download it directly from the ASD website with this link.
And yes, something weird had happened to some of the comments while re-publishing this article and they were showing up in the wrong place. I’ve fixed that and moved the comments back here.

UPDATE:
Well well, ladies and gentlemen who couldn’t run the demo or read the text, worry no more! =D We’ve been saved by Genox^Vantage^Calodox a.k.a my Other Half, as he has just captured a video of the intro. You can download it from here: http://genox.ch/pub/asd_-_zine_13_headlines.m4v

Oh God… Oh God…. OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH GGGGGGGOOOODDDD…. only 4 days left. As previously mentioned on the Purple Blog, on Sunday the 16th I shall fly to Zürich, and have what will probably be one of the most unusual and exciting holidays of life. So much is coming… so much is about to happen… soooooooo much to look forward to. Of course right now every second feels like an hour, every hour feels like a day and every day feels like a month. I guess the reason for the major excitement overdose is obvious: there’s a little city not so far from Zürich, called Solothurn, and there’s a certain Genox in Solothurn… well… yeah! =)
And there’s more…. a lot more. It’s very complicated right now, I can’t foretell what’s going to happen in the coming months, but lets just say that in the not very far future I may not need a plain ticket anymore when I want to see Genox. I have some serious homework to do while I’m in Switzerland. I have to figure out the final details of what I may be getting myself into. So much excitement, so much to do….. 😉

Having used my beloved eReader for close to 5 months now, I think it’s time I wrote a bit about it to share with you how I find it so far. And yes, those are indeed little hearts you see in the article title. That mean I LUVVVV IIITTTTT! =D
A while ago out of pure accident I came across one of Sony’s most ingenious little ideas, the Sony eBook Reader. I suppose you could see sparkles in my eyes when I found out what it was and what it did. I could finally be delivered from the pain of having to read all my eBooks on my monitor. I have to add here, I read a lot and I have a truly large number of eBooks. [You can see a part of my library here.] I’m not really a big fan of paper books because of obvious reasons. If I were to store the paper version of all the books that I currently have, I would need to rent the white house. In addition, I once had to leave behind my library of paper books when I was migrating from one country to the other. That was certainly not an enjoyable event. So now, for me it’s all about eBooks. I guess you can imagine what it would mean to me and what kind of freedom I would achieve by being able to load a handful of my eBooks into a tiny gadget and carry it around wherever I want, just like a simple paperback. It would also mean that I won’t have to worry about staring at the monitor for 12 hours strait and tiring the heck out of my eyes.
Obviously the first thing that I did was going through the specifications of the eReader. I noticed that there’s a main book format for the reader [BBeB aka .lrf], and it also supports most of the major formats including PDF and TXT. It also has the ability to display JPG images in gray-scale, and play mp3 files among other sound formats. That was all I needed; I was sold. But then I also started looking into the online user reviews for the gadget and that turned out to be somewhat disconcerting. I read a whole lot about how people were unhappy with the fact that the display is in gray-scale. There was also tons of rant about the loading speed for each page, and I even read comments saying that the screen would break by a touch! And that’s to mention just a few…
To my good fortune, I was too taken by it not to take the risk. Despite all the sad reviews, I decided to buy one. [Now given that the reader is only available in the USA, how I managed to get my hands on one is another story altogether..] Well, obviously I’m now more than happy I took the risk. The eReader is probably the most useful piece of electronics I paid for in the past heaven knows how many years. As it turns out, it’s indeed a splendid little gadget. The time it takes to load each page is pretty much equal the amount of time it would take the human hand to turn the page of a paper book. You can change the size of the font to your liking, and the display is just fantastic. You can read the font clearly from any given angle. It’s light, easy to carry about and the battery charge lasts for a mighty long while. The sound quality is also very nice and it can easily rid you of your mp3 player. As for the physical strength of the screen… well I have a feeling some people might have tried playing squash with it, in which case it would definitely not last. But if you know how to use an electronic gadget, you won’t have any problems. And not to forget… to my deep delight, the eReader supports both Pro Duo memory sticks and the old fashioned SD cards. The only thing that doesn’t make me very happy right now, is that since the eReader has been released for the USA, at the moment the users outside of the USA are not able to directly connect to the Sony Connect Store to buy the BeBB books for the reader. That however was not a problem for me since I already have tons of eBooks to read with the eReader, and regardless of where you get your eBook, you can read it with the eReader. Even if you want to have BBeB books, there are tons of free applications out there that would take your PDF or RTF or whatever else you have and convert it into an LRF.
At the end, it is the fact that this gadget is not for everyone, and I can see clearly where all the negative reviews are coming from. Buying the eReader, would mean that you’re paying almost twice the price of a PSP for something that does not display you colours and you can’t play games with it. This gadget is for true readers, it’s meant to make easy the lives of people like me who spend hours and hours reading books. Don’t expect from it what’s it’s not meant for, and then pour your frustration into a negative review. And yet, don’t miss it if you’re a bookworm as I am. =)