We got a heads up from our friends at Invoke Media about Make Web Not War hitting Vancouver (now totally sold out!) and we thought it would be a great opportunity to check out what they have to offer and network with fellow web devs. The event is on May 7 at Masik Studios and will showcase a ton of new web tech. We’re most interested in the cloud computing aspect, as our new SaaS product Socket is hosted in the cloud (Rackspace). With the impressive advances cloud hosting and cloud computing in general has experiences in just the last few years, it will be exciting to take a peek into the future and see what we can look forward to.

You can check out more info on their website: http://www.webnotwar.ca – hope to see you there!

Rogers recently released an iPhone app that lets users easily check their account balance, usage statistics, and even make payments via credit card. I thought this would be of interest to some of you, so here it is. From iPhoneInCanada.ca:

A few months ago, Rogers/Fido updated their websites to provide customers with the ability to view their wireless usage in almost real-time. The information was updated every four hours and gave users a great tool to track wireless usage.

To expand on that functionality and to set themselves apart from the other two Canadian iPhone carriers, Rogers and Fido have released new apps called “My Account”. The apps require no inputting of account credentials and simply pull everything from your iPhone network connection and SIM card.

Both Rogers and Fido each have their own version of the app and both apps provide customers with their wireless usage. Like the website, users can see minutes, messages and data usage right from their iPhone, which updates every 20 minutes instead of four hours as on the Rogers/Fido websites. The apps also allow customers to view their current balance and make a payment via credit card.

Read the full article here.

We recently upgraded our web server to a dedicated package with 1&1. After being moved to the wrong type of server, we called 1&1′s customer service department to try and have the issue resolved. Our experience with them was so bad, I’ve decided to write a short article about the importance of customer service and the consequences that even one bad customer experience can bring.

Our Attempt to Upgrade Our Hosting Package with 1and1

The issue, in a nutshell, was that we were misinformed about what server package we were being upgraded to. Being a customer with 1&1 Internet for about 6 years (transferring the account from my old web development business to Deversus in between), we’ve grown to the point where we require a dedicated web server to meet our needs. I used 1and1′s Switch Package feature via their control panel to process the upgrade. The Switch Package experience was awful, at best. It gave a terse listing of the available servers and their associated costs, with no description or links to indicate what the server package contained. After Googleing the package of interest (the 1&1 Dedicated Server Dual-Core M Website), we decided to go with that (as a caveat, the Dual-Core M package description we read was from the 1and1 UK website and is no longer on the US website).

Three days later, the upgrade was complete — sort of. It was at this point that we realized we had been upgraded to 1and1′s “dedicated managed server” and not a “dedicated root server” like we were expecting. We hadn’t a clue that there was even such an option. While one could blame us for not doing our due diligence to make sure of what we were getting, the general lack of information throughout the process was simply unacceptable.

Our Attempt to Resolve the Issue with 1and1′s Customer Support

I first e-mailed 1and1′s support@1and1.com address to inquire about the issue and attempt to have the managed server changed to a root server. After being told that there is no way to stop the upgrade process or change to a root server, and that I would need to purchase a separate server and migrate the files myself, I decided to call their customer support team.

It was downhill from there. I was transferred a total of 7 times, back and forth between departments, and placed on hold for 45 minutes. After trying to escalate the issue, I was told I would have to call their Germany office (which conveniently, was closed for business). The primary conflict was surrounding the fact that their Dual-Core M Website package was apparently no longer available. I was told that I would need to switch to a lesser package, in which case the server paled in comparison to the Dual-Core M, albeit for $10 less per month. Or, switch to the Dual-Core M package — a similarly spec’ed server — for nearly twice the price. Long story short, the best they could do was offer one month free for the Dual-Core L package, which I decided was petty. After an awkwardly long silence, I let them know that we would be pursuing a different hosting provider.

The Moral of the Story

As I so politely asked the 1and1 CSR, “what would you do in this scenario if you were the CEO of 1and1?”, there exists a big picture mentality that most customer service teams are simply not trained in. While perhaps insignificant to the overall profitability to their company, our $59/month over the next five years translates into $3540. This assumes, of course, that we don’t upgrade or add more servers to our account. Not to mention, being a custom software development company who deals with numerous other large companies with extensive server requirements, we are able to bring a lot of potential new business to a company like 1and1. Or what about the fact that I had such a bad experience that I felt compelled to write a blog article about the importance of customer service and the consequences a bad experience can have?

While I don’t hold any one of the individual CSRs I spoke with at 1and1 accountable for the inability to resolve our issue, I am in disbelief that it is possible for a behemoth of a company like 1and1 to instill such shortsightedness into their employee training.

I know that at Deversus, we value our client relationships because they are our lifeblood. We go out of our way to make sure our clients are happy with the work we do for them and if there is an issue, we do anything within reasonable means to resolve it.

Colorzilla

• Great for determining colors on a website (RGB and Hex values) with the eyedropper feature, placed nicely in the status bar.

FireShot

• Awesome for web developers/UI developers who often take screenshots of web pages. This Add-On eliminates the need to photoshop out the toolbar and Browser window. It also allows you to take a screenshot of the viewable area or the entire page.

Craigslist image preview extension

• Awesome extension for previewing the images attached to a craigslist ad, without having to view the ad itself.

Download Statusbar

• Absolute gem for managing downloads. No need to have the download window pop-up – you can see download progress, current download speed and even launch downloaded programs or files right from the status bar.

Firebug (with Firecookie)

• Firebug allows you to view any pages’ source code, and highlights sections on the page as you mouse over them in the code browser. It will also notify you of any errors on the page, display GET/POST calls that happen with AJAX, view/debug javascript source code as well as imported CSS files. With the Firecookie add on, you can also view the contents of cookies for debugging/privacy purposes.

Foxmarks

• Ah, what would we do without Foxmarks? Painlessly syncs bookmarks between multiple computers, and keeps them synced. Beautifully simple.

IE Tab

• Page rendering funny in Firefox? Not getting the full comedic effect of xkcd? Simply click the IE tab button in status bar and the current page will be rendered with IE.

Tiny Menu

• Enjoy removing clutter? Reduce the standard Firefox menu bar with a single button. Looks and works great.

Tree Style Tab

• Replaces the tab bar with a vertical tree style tab list. Makes it way easier to have tons of tabs open at once (which I usually do). He’s included a drag and drop feature for moving tabs around which is handy.

FireFTP

• If you’re looking for a quick, lightweight FTP client, this is the add-on for you. Does everything you need, is integrated right into your browser, and it’s free.

StumbleUpon

• Great add-on that lets you choose your interests, and then start stumbling. Just click the stumble icon and you are directed to a random internet page based on your interests. Careful with this one, it’s addictive!

Tell us what you think of our list by leaving a comment below.