After getting really excited about CloudFlare, I was setting it up for a client’s WordPress site when the it disappeared during a DNS update. The CloudFlare-served error told me that the web host wasn’t serving data to web traffic, which seemed odd.

The web host was HostGator (shared reseller account), and a chat technician confirmed my suspicion: they do not (yet) support IPv6 mapping that CloudFlare provides. So if you’ve enabled the IPv6 feature from CloudFlare’s settings and your site suddenly disappears, make sure your host supports the IPv6 protocol. Disabling the feature (it’s just a feature you can disable!!) restored the blog to its happy former state. That is all.

MediaTemple started pimping CloudFlare months ago, and I passed on it until today when I got an email announcing that it became a free service. I figured I’d give it a shot, and less than an hour later I’m impressed enough to write a post and share my early review with both my readers.

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I just wasted about two hours of my life troubleshooting my development server when I mysteriously couldn’t SFTP files. Transmit and Flow both quit on me in weird, somewhat inconsistent ways. The problem: I had lazily allowed VirtualMin to set quotas, one in particular on the user account I was SFTPing with.

Careful with those quotas. And that’s the blog post you’ve been waiting ~3 months for.

It finally dawned on me that using one subversion repository for all my projects was silly. If each project has its own repository, there are some benefits:

1. My revision comments make lots of sense and follow a logical path.
2. My revision numbers are more meaningful, and pertain to each project directly.
3. I can easily share access to one project with someone else if I need to, without exposing all of my work or potentially sensitive information.
4. I can join the rest of the world that’s using subversion properly.

So why wasn’t I doing this sooner? I learned to use subversion this way, and it actually helped when I decided to use Beanstalk. Beanstalk is awesome, provides lots of hooks and cool features, and is just lovely. The obstacle in my repository-for-every-project quest was Beanstalk’s limit on repositories. With the $15/month account, I could only have 10 repositories. I could pay more for additional repositories, but I’m cheap and ambitious and there seemed like there had to be a better way. And there was. Here’s how I set up stylish subversion hosting with unlimited repositories for $19.95 a month.

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If you’ve got a Hostgator account and are interested in using Google’s excellent Postini mail filtering service, the following should get you up and running. Please note that I’m not an IT guy, I’m not speaking on Hostgator’s behalf, and I’m not responsible if mobs come after you with pitchforks or you encounter email issues.

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A week ago, I logged into the Slicehost admin panel, took a deep breath, and looked down at my index finger. I held my breath and clicked, and deleted my beloved Slice. Despite the fact that Slicehost will always have a special place in my nerdy little heart, I’m moving on.

The talented and wonderfully-bearded Scott Thiessen and I have started a new project called BlipBleepBloop. It’s our own tiny hosting company that we’re using for clients and to which we’re inviting a handful of folks.

I’m proud to be running all of my non-development sites off of a Blip account, which will inherently improve our service since both Scott and I are running our own sites there. Everything has been comfortably stable and speedy, and we’re working hard to pretty up cPanel. (Which we’re both thrilled about since we’ve each encountered so many shamelessly ugly themes in our past.)

Since we don’t have the ability to offer subversion hosting, I’ve moved my repositories to Beanstalk, which I couldn’t be happier with.

Want to know more about BlipBleepBloop packages? You won’t find any specs or ordering info on our website, so .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you’re interested. That’s the idea: small and personal.