Could get a photo "published"

I got an email through flickr saying one of my Creative Commons-licensed photos has been shortlisted for inclusion in a Boston travel guide. It's only a downloadable guide, but still, that would be cool. Huzzah! Or maybe this is just a ploy to get lots of people to link to them. Still, huzzah.

Odd show

Tonight I did something weird. I went to a Dream Theater concert. It was weird.

Lunarpages killing subres?

So the web host that's been running subres.net for the last couple of years emailed me today saying that they've shut off JSP support for my site because the site runs on Pebble, and Pebble "uses the J2EE framework." I don't know what they mean by that, but one thing's for sure: it's a terrible customer service move.

The site's been up for nearly two years. How difficult would it have been to contact me to say "hey, your site's causing problems, so we need you to either convert it to something less resource-hoggy or upgrade to a plan that gives you the ability to stick more stuff in memory"? Even if they'd given me a hard cut-off date, that would have been a hell of a lot better than just shutting it off and sending me an email on Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, if you're looking for a Java web host, Lunarpages is probably not the best choice, and that was probably obivous to you when you saw how riduculously cheap they were. But if you wondered whether it was really just as good as more costly options, now you know: not too good.

The details of what goes on will all be blogged here (or someplace else if I end up having to move to someplace else quick like a bunny.

Here's the message I received, as well as my reply.

----Original Message Follows---- From: "Lunarpages Helpdesk" Subject: JSP Disabled [XXXX-XXXX-XXXX] [XXXXXXXX] Question Created Date: 26 Mar 2006 00:04:32 -0800 ==== Enter your reply ABOVE this line ==== Dear duelin_markers@notlikeidontalreadygettonsofspambutanyway.com, The following ticket has been created by a member of our staff for you Your question's details: ============== Title: ============== JSP Disabled ============== Message: ============== Hello, We have disabled your JSP because you are running Pebble, which uses the J2EE framework. The J2EE framework is disallowed on our servers and you cannot run that application. Please remove it and notify us when you have done so. -- Best Regards, Kevin Sxxxxxxxxxxxxx support@lunarpages.com Phone: 1-877-LUNARPAGES/1-877-586-2772 (U.S. & Canada - Toll-free) Phone: 0800-072-9150 (U.K - Toll-free) Phone: 1-714-521-8150 (International) You can view your question's progress online at: https://desk.lunarpages.com/view.php?ticketref=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX&pass=XXXXXXXX You can also reply to this email to add to your question.

So I'm all ...

Kevin, I just received this email telling me that you've shut down JSP support for my web site, because it "uses the J2EE framework." You're going to need to say quite a bit more -- or at least something more sensible -- to explain the problem. J2EE is a suite of technology standards to be implemented in application servers. One component of the J2EE stack is Servlet/JSP technology. Any application that uses JSPs is using the Servlet/JSP slice of the J2EE stack. Lunarpages explicitly supports the use of this technology by offering JSP/Servlet support for an additional monthly fee, which I've been paying for almost 2 years. Pebble, the web application that runs Subres.net is not using any aspect of J2EE beyond Servlet/JSP technology (e.g., EJB, JMS, JTA, JCA, JNDI, or even JDBC), so you can understand why I find it mystifying that you would say my site's been shut down because it "uses the J2EE framework." If the site is consuming excessive amounts of some system resource, please let me know what it's doing that it shouldn't be doing. Perhaps we can modify the application code to consume less, or upgrade our plan to give us the headroom we need. I ask that you please reactivate JSP support for my site while we resolve this. The site has been running on Pebble since May of 2004 without an apparent problem, so surely keeping it running for a week or so while we find a way to fit within our plan's constraints will not be a hardship. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. -john.

Update: They responsed that they were mistaken in this matter, that Pebble would be allowed after all, and asked me to turn on logging in Pebble so they could see what was happening. They sent some logs that I suspect were the cause of my getting onto their radar in the first place, and nothing there actually looked like a problem. I'm guessing I won't hear anything more about it, but we shall see. Anyway, subRes is back up and running. If only it had some frickin' content. Update 8/4/2006: Kevin, who no longer works for Lunarpages, asked me to remove his very unique last name and the support ticket number. Word.