Well that’s a bunch of fascinating numbers. I think we can take away from that a simple fact: Internet Explorer is shit.

Test your browser with HTML5Test

dZone Snippets

Part of the massive dZone network who also run jobs boards, social news, etc.

• URL: http://snippets.dzone.com
• Pros: huge membership, massive selection, solid brand.
• Cons: interface needs improvement.

Snipplr

• URL: http://www.snipplr.com
• Pros: Huge selection of snippets.
• Cons: suffers from spam and neglect.

ByteMyCode

Only a small selection compared to the others mentioned earlier. Nice looking site though.

• URL: http://www.bytemycode.com
• Pros: interface
• Cons: small numbers

Snipt

• Pros: clean interface and easy sharing features.
• Cons: not a huge database.
• URL: http://snipt.org

PasteBin

One of the oldest services on the net and you can tell with a mature set of features and large database.

• Pros: plugins for various browsers.
• Cons: Not much.
• URL: http://pastebin.com

Pastie

A Rails app and I suppose the opposite to dpaste below.

• Pros: Clean, basic.
• Cons: Basic.
• URL: http://pastie.org/

GitHub Gist

For a relative newcomer this service has grown massively. It helps to be a part of one of the largest developer communities on the web – Github. Not only do you get to put your code snippet up but its also version checked too – using Git obviously.

• Pros: Each snippet is also a Git repo.
• Cons: Not as feature-packed as other services like Pastebin. Ticks all the boxes.
• URL: http://gist.github.org

DPaste

Purely for sharing code and originally developed by and for Django developers.

• Pros: Simple.
• Cons: VERY simple. Snippets deleted after 7 days.
• URL: http://dpaste.com

Chrome Extension Screenshot - Shiny MPs

Writing extensions for Chrome is so refreshingly simple it’s exciting. So as a result I produced another one and this time for a slightly more specialised use. If you’re UK-based and interested in politics then this plugin will enable you to keep tabs on your MP with their latest parliamentary updates and links to further info.

If anyone had suggestions I’d love to hear them.

The extension: Shiny MPs

The Source: Bitbucket Hg Repo

The API used is developed by the great TheyWorkForYou.com

Its been heavily inspired by BetterSearch which is available on Firefox. I wanted this mainly for myself nut thought it’d be worth releasing to. Will hopefully be the first of many.

Get It

Download from Google

What It Does

• Adds links to other search results pages for: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Reddit, Digg, Technorati.
• Adds extra info links to each result: Alexa, Robotex DNS info, Web archive

Problems

If you have any problems with the extension leave a comment.

To Come

Much more goodies including an options page to customise what is shown.

This is the second time this month – not good.

Well although I did a post reviewing the top developer webhosts a while back I thought I’d jump into answering this very question as I’m slap bang in the middle of both.

I’ve been using Slicehost now for a little over a year and Linode I first signed upto about 6 months ago. When I first started using Slicehost it was a great breath of fresh air. VERY developer friendly with a great community and nice features.

However, I’d begun to get a bit itchy since the connection between me and my Slice has often been a bit slow. Whether this was down to the Atlantic gap or something on my end I wanted to test a few other hosts out. So on I hunted and eventually found Linode. They seemed to have a lot of the same philosophy to Slicehost with a strong developer focus and some nifty features. One of which was the web console access to your node (a feature of Slicehost that’s been indispensible).

I signed up for a low-end account to try it out and was immediately hit by the choices on offer. Not only do you get a huge range of kernel options (64 and 32 bit) but you can also set up multiple disk images on the storage you get.

Then after sign up and image creation I was into the dashboard. WOAH – is pretty much all I said at that point. You’re suddenly hit by a selection of stats and gtraphs that tell you everything you could want to know about your nodes. Bandwidth usage over time, CPU, memory, etc. Not only that you can setup custom alerts for when you’re node is using too many resources.

So have I completed my move yet? Not quite but I will do soon. I have 1 or 2 sites left on Slicehost and I downgraded my plan to the lowest I can. Once I’ve finished my move over I’ll be shutting down my Slice and upgrading my Node.

Slicehost are a great host – I really have no problems with their hosting, the people or the service. Its all been 100% but Linode offer more for the money and so its time to move away fully. If Slicehost happen to up the anté with new features to match I may considr moving back but for now Linode are mikles ahead. I’ve done a summary of their strengths below.

Why Linode Is Better

• Fine grained control over node – just about everything can be configured to your hearts content.
• Huge choice of kernels AND the choice to use custom kernels too!!
• Swap IPs between nodes.
• IP failover.
• Private IPs between nodes for local communications.
• Usage and stats galore in numbers and pictures.
• Custom alerts for resource usage.
• Really friendly team of people who listen to their customers. For example shortly after my previous review one of the guys at Linode commented on it!!
• Easy and fine grained upgrades of nodes. Add extra RAM, disk, IPs, bandwidth, etc.
• Faster network access. This is very subjective but my SSH connection has been noticeably faster and more responsive on Linode. The same can be said for a friend who made the shift to Linode too.

Why Slicehost Is Better

• Bigger and stronger community with forums, Facebook profiles, comprehensive wiki, etc.
• More comprehensive API.
• Great technical documentation in the form of articles and wiki.
• Company colour is blue – my favourite.
• Very simple (i.e. user-friendly) backup system – though it does cost.

If you’ve not seen before then I strongly recommend a visit.

It REALLY pisses me off having to misspell COLOUR and CENTRE all the fu&^%ng time when using CSS!!

I don’t want to get into the linguistic history, the right and wrongs, etc.  Its about personal upbringing and life.  If I eat pasta I eat it like an Englishman.  Not an Italian.  If I eat Chinese I eat it with a knife and fork* not with chopsticks.

So why the fucking hell do I need to type American English to use an international standard?

And I’m sick of Firefox telling me these words are spelt wrong**:

• Programme
• Learnt
• Lorry
• Colour
• Centre
• Metre

Like “Firefox” is even a bloody word!!

* I do often use chopsticks – but its personal choice as opposed to being forced by Neo-Nazi bastards in the W3C.

** I know this can be fixed by switching to the British English dictionary but then I wouldn’t be able to rant about it would I?

Slicehost

They recently announced their takeover by Rackspace and although that worries me they have been an absolutely fantastic host.  They’re very developer-centric with a fantastic community and the owners really listen to the users.  When I first signed up I had to wait in a queue for my opportunity.  That’s about the only downside – and its not all that much of one especially considering its no longer an issue.

Having said all this though I have to say another favourite and possibly better host (only 3 months though so far) is…

Go to Slicehost

Linode

What really sets this host apart is their hugely feature rich control area.  Which is entirely built in-house.  I’ve never seen something so shiny and packed with information.  Slicehost has a relatively minimalist approach to their control panel area but Linode has gone all out with graphs, operating system choices, even partitioning of your allocated disk space!!  So you can effectively have two operating system images.

I’ve never had to use their support so I can’t really comment on that aspect of the service.  Linode’s storage offering is better than that of Slicehost for the price.  I don’t know whether this is a new development but I could have sworn SH beat them on this.  Well – it seems Linode wins hands down.

Go to Linode

RimuHosting

When I first got into VPS hositng these were the first ones I tried.  They were a relatively small and quite new company when I signed up but their service was second-to-none.  They’re also the fastest service I’ve ever used.  A lots been happening at RimuHosting over the past year or so I’ve been away and it seems to be catching up with Slicehost and Linode in the features stakes.  So I may give it another try in the future.  It will always share a special place in my heart though for their great support and friendly community.

Go to RimuHosting

This is a UK company and I’d heard great things about their service at the WHT forums.  Unfortunately it didn’t go well and I’m no longer with them.  Here’s my key gripes:

Poorly designed ‘out of the box’ management systems. These were just confusing.  It took 15 minutes for me to figure out how to bloody find my VPS information.  Eventually I was told it hadn’t been setup (I only had an account control panel) and it would be done that evening.  Cheers for telling me.  What an amazing method of signing customers up.  Give them acocunt access then hold them back form getting the VPS for a few hours.

Nasty hidden terms – this is a classic contract lock in.  I chose to pay 3 months upfront but decided I’d end my contract at the end of 3 months.  Now with hosts I’ve used in the past if you cancel your account its done with.  Thats it – over.  However, CheapVPS require 10 days notice and so my cancelling of the account on the day of renewal was disallowed and I was told to pay the next full 3 months invoice.  Where is this 10 day notice period mentioned?  On their Terms, linked to at the bottom of the site in the centre of a 2000 word document.  The kind of thing no fucker reads!!!

Futurehosting.biz

I used these people for about a month before hopping ship.  Their support is aggressive, confrontational and idiotic.  Their service was no better with shoddy CentOS plans that some of my sites (Rails-based) wouldn’t work on because of the faffing about withgetting various plugins working.  A problem I’ve not had with any other host.