Backup, Restore, Import/Export Firefox and Thunderbird Profiles with MozBackup (Review)

Mozbackup is a very simple freeware app to backup up your Firefox and Thunderbird profiles, and restoring them or exporting them to another computer.

(photo courtesy of official site)

It imports everything from your saved passwords, bookmarks, browsing history, and even extensions, AND, in the case of Thunderbird, also your emails and contacts.

To use, install Mozbackup and run. It will take you step by step towards backup up the profiles you want. Make sure that both Firefox and Thunderbird are closed when you do this, by the way (it'll warn you if it's open). In the end, it saves a .pcv file, which is really just a zip file with a different extension.

To restore a backup, just run Mozbackup again and select Restore a profile instead of Backup a profile. Again, step by step. To import a backup into another PC, install MozBackup into that computer and restore.

My only gripes about MozBackup are that it only works for PC; no linux or OSX support, which is one of the reasons Mozilla's apps are so useful and recently ubiquitous. Likewise, I'm not fond of the fact that MozBackup requires its own program to be installed. I guess it's too reflexive to have it create a backup of the very profile in which it's located, but if it were an extension for Firefox and Thunderbird it would be so much simpler to use. I'm not crazy about installing programs that I use less than once every few weeks.

Overall, though, there is no simpler way of moving and backup up profiles from one PC to another than MozBackup.

Circuit City Web Order Follow Up

Remember my glowing review of online buying through Circuit City, back when I bought my Nyko Frontman Wii guitar? Well, for some reason or another, I don't know if it's standard practice for them, but those good folks felt like sending me a follow-up gift - a card worth for 10% off on my next purchase of $50 dollars or more. Maybe they wanted to woo me further upon seeing my original blog entry.



That seemed nice of them, although when I looked at the fine (very fine) print in the back of the card, it had a hefty list of products exempt from the discount:

Not valid on previous purchases. Offer expludes Bose, select Polk, Element Kicker, Nikon DSLR, Sony DSLR cameras, Sony camera accessories. Olevia, Viszio Toshiba televisions, Apple, game hardware, movies, music, laptops, desktops, software, Otlet, Red Dot clearance, PreOrder/Backorder products, firedog survices and Circuit City Gift Card purchases. This coupon also excludes the following television models: SON KDL40S4100, SON KDL465410, etc.

Where does that leave at? I think the only stuff left I can buy are car stereos (no thanks), cell phones (got one, thanks), and their various accessories. I'd consider maybe just buying 50 dollars worth of blank DVD's, except I haven't gone through my months old spindle yet.



The card expires July 12th, and I'm not buying a huge ticket item just to get 10% off. What do you think I should use it on?

Learnit Lists Updated With Audio!

Learnit Lists, which I'd originally reviewed (and praised) as a good way to get a daily dose of foreign language vocabulary words. They even commented on my review. Well, Learnit has been updated with some extra features which increase its value, but it doesn't do it all seamlessly.



First of all, I had to remove the old gadget and install the new one, when it really should've just updated itself automatically. I was hounded by a notification that my original version was old, but never really explained how I was to get the new version. You can get the new version here.



Past that, the biggest new feature is the listen and speak mode. Working off of a credits system, you can listen to the proper pronunciation of a word for one credit, and you can earn credits by recording words in your own native language. This is a novel way to expand the system's vocabulary very quickly, and the extra interactivity is pretty awesome.



My main complaint is the gadget's screen size. I had complained before that the original version took up way too much space on my iGoogle page, and in their response to my review, Learnit said they would look into the matter. Well, in this new version, the gadget itself takes up less room indeed, but the actual frame that carries it seems EVEN BIGGER. It's still easily the biggest gadget on my already cramped page, and with a layout and design that doesn't really match any other, it sticks out like a sore thumb. I once again call for a more compact, elegant solution that incorporates the other features as well.



Overall, it's still a good gadget, and with this latest version in beta, more features are forthcoming. Far from perfect, it's still recommended (and recommended over the older version).

Control Volume with Mouse Scrollwheel with Volumouse! (review)

Two of my favorite geek blogs, Likehacker and Freewaregenius, both featured Volumouse recently, and I finally decided to try it out.

I have a media keyboard that allows me to change the volume up and down, but being able to control with the scrollwheel allows me to do so without having to move my hand away from the mouse.

Volumouse has tons of customizable features as well, as you can see from the options screenshot:

As you can see I set volume to be controlled by holding down either mouse button, or holding down a key, or even more specific resolutions that you set yourself. You can also set it to display an indicator that lets you see your volume go up and down under your mouse cursor (visual indicators are great). It even allows you to adjust window transparency (!) via scroll, which just seems like overkill (and didn't work properly for me).

In fact, this last issue is one of my only gripes about the otherwise excellent program. Currently Volumouse is taking up about 4 megabytes of RAM, which seems high for a utility that I only use occasionally for less than a few seconds at a time. I think this is because of the sheer depth of the program, which isn't necessary since I don't think anyone's downloading Volumouse for reasons other than controlling their volume with their mouse. For a lesson in minimal RAM usage with maximum features, check out Taskswitch XP.

Overall though, I'm keeping Volumouse installed and running in my system tray, and I think you should too.

Check Server Uptime and IP Change with Host-Tracker

Since I opted to move a client's web hosting from eHost.net to Hostmonster over the weekend, I needed to be able to check whether or not the move was successful. After all, since the site would be an exact copy from one to the other, it would look exactly the same whether or not it successfully moved or not.

And since DNS records don't change immediately over the rest of the world (it can take up to 3 days), I needed to know when most of them had changed over to the new server enough that I can tell the client that all's clear.

Enter Host-Tracker. Host-Tracker not only tells you if your site is up or down, it tells you what ip address the URL resolves to. The best part is that Host-Tracker does this using up to forty different servers around the world, so you get a really good idea of whether or not the DNS changes have come across everywhere, not just the one location.

I've been using Host-Tracker since fall of last year, when I was having all of that hosting trouble. It hasn't failed me yet.

Checking this, I knew that hostmonster totally came through in the pinch and the site was ready to go only about five hours after the move. Awesome!

XNeat Windows Manager Not Worth It (review)

I've run into XNeat Windows Manager here and there the past few months of scouring the internet for ways to improve my desktop experience, but could never get into it. Its featureset wasn't enough to make me excited to have it installed, it didn't do anything that completely blew me away, and its website lacked screenshots that showed me how its more abstract features worked.

For some reason I can't recall, I tried it yesterday night, and found it, simply, a nightmare to use. What the website never really describes is that what it essentially does as a program is add a couple of right and middle click menu choices to your Taskbar and Active Titlebar, such as Make on Top, Transparency, and a bunch of others. It also adds options to drag and drop rearrage taskbar buttons, and add extra options to the Save As Dialogue. Not bad, for now.

When you launch the XNeat program itself, you get options menus for each of those things it changes. Except the interface of the option is completely unintuitive. With no introductory lesson on the program's functions, I had no idea what the options represented. Turns out it just lets you pick which of the menu options to pop up when you right or middle click on the Taskbar/Title bar.

Anyway, this wouldn't be terrible except for when I accidentally made my taskbar completely disappear by middle clicking on the taskbar and hitting "send to tray." I don't know why such an option would even exist, since it makes no sense. That's like saying "put garage inside car." And that's basically what happened; the taskbar disappeared with no way for me to access it at all. I had to mess around in the Taskbar and Start Menu option in the Control Panel before it reappeared.

It was such an overall unpleasant experience that I couldn't even enjoy the Save-as function, which lets you append dates and clone a document instead of overwriting it. It's such a novel and good option that it's a shame that it's packaged with other features that treat even an advanced user with such contempt. For something that's supposed to make my Windows experience more intuitive, it certainly has a long way to go to make itself user-friendly. Definitely uninstalled and not recommended.

Rotten Tomatoes iGoogle Gadget Review

If you're a movie buff at all, you know that Rotten Tomatoes consolidates as many reviews for a particular movie as possible, and gives it a grade based on what percentage of the reviews were positive versus what percentage were negative. For the obsessive out there, it's a good site to give you a glimpse of what movie this weekend to go and see.



The Rotten Tomatoes gadget for iGoogle makes it easy to see the weekend's upcoming movies and what their "Tomato-meter" is, by having it displayed in your gadget. Like most of the best gadgets out there, it gives you the information you need without having to navigate to a different site or clicking on different links.



It installs just like all other gadgets, and requires no sign-in or login at all. You get only one setting to tweak the gadget, and that's to show a synopsis of the movie alongside the link to its page and its Tomatometer. Since there's no setting to choose how many movies are displayed, I choose to keep the descriptions hidden because the gadget can only fit three movies versus five without descriptions.



You can also choose between a list of the past weekend's top movies (it doesn't show how much money they made, it's just ranked by such), or of upcoming movies. I'd assume one would be more interested in viewing the upcoming movies. However, the screenshot I've got shows the past weekend tab.



That's because I've personally tried to not drown myself in movie reviews for movies I haven't seen yet but are very eager to go see. In this upcoming weekend's case, I don't want to spoil myself on Indiana Jones IV reviews. But if you DO want to know what the nation's critics feel about Indy IV or any other movies about to come up, this gadget lets you get your fix at a glance.



If you want to check out other great gadgets that I personally use in my iGoogle page, check out the google label for this site.

VidtoMP3 rips Youtube Audio to MP3

There've been a handful of Youtube-to-MP3 services that've popped up recently, and I'd always thought they were a cute novelty, but seriously, who wants mp3's of inferior quality? That is, until I began searching for music to use in my new animation reel, and the piece of music I'd decided on only existed on Youtube.

I tried several sites for this service, but VidtoMP3 was by far the best. You simply enter the full URL of the Youtube video you want, and the entire conversion process is done on VidtoMP3's end. Once it finishes converting, you just click on the Download link, where you are taken to a second page that lets you download the file.

While the process isn't as elegant as being one-click, for the service it provides it's a lot less of a hassle than many sites out there that are jam-packed with ads and pop-ups. VidtoMp3 isn't completely innocent of this, but it was perfectly tolerable. In fact, if you were to use their service regularly, I'd certainly recommend you send them a donation for their trouble.

(note: as of this specific moment the VidtoMP3 site seems to be down, potentially because of server overload. I'll keep you updated on whether the site comes back up, or if it's just a fly-by-night idealistic novelty.)

Obsessively Track Radiohead's Tour With 58Hours (review)

Radiohead is not only one of my favorite bands, it's also the band I will have seen the most concerts of come August 24th, when they play the first of their two shows at the Hollywood Bowl. Promoting their innovative (in more ways than one) album In Rainbows, I recently alluded to how I got the tickets with the help of Tab Mix Plus' auto-reload feature.



Naturally, whenever there's a new album to promote, that means a lot more of those songs are played than the band's previous album. This is good if you're a fan of the new album (I would've really loved to have seen Green Day when American Idiot was released), but as a longtime fan you also want to hear the classics.



Want to know the odds your favorite RH song is gonna be played at the show you're going to? 58hours helps obsessive Radiohead fans track Radiohead's entire touring history by not only having written up setlists for what seems to be every live show they've ever played, but cross-references the individual songs to show how many times each has been performed. They even go so far as show you what the most likely songs to precede and follow it are.



58hours is still a work in progress, but I love how it has social networking features built in that let you sign up and check off the shows you've been to, or which of their future shows you've got tickets to. It just feels more inclusive feeling like there's someone you kinda know in that stadium or ampitheater with you.



Clearly these really are for the Radiowhores out there. They take live tips as the songs get played, even what songs were soundchecked before the actual concert, giving you an even clearer glimpse of the immediate future (in case you're that impatient). They also offer member reviews of the shows themselves. So far nothing in the way of photos or videos, but I'm pretty sure those are on the way.



As for me, I'm hoping that by the time the band reaches the west coast on the latter end of their U.S. tour, they'll have found a way to really balance the old stuff and the new. I'm not asking for Creep, but I'll never turn down a No Surprises or, heaven help me, a Let Down.

Review: DExpose2 OSX Expose-Like Feature for Windows

DExpose2 is an application for Windows that brings forth Expose-like features to Windows. For those that don't know, Expose is a feature on Macs that let you view all the open windows at once, resized to fit the entire screen. Here's the feature running on a Macbook, as well as DExpose2 running on an EEE PC



This was always a cool feature in Macs that was a different approach to switching from window to window from Windows' alt-tab (see here for the best Alt-Tab replacement for Windows), and it's cool to see someone try it for Windows. But how well does it get the job done?

First thing's first: DExpose2 works pretty much out of the box. Hitting F11 engages the tool, and it even offers other options that add to its interactivity. From the looks of it, DExpose works by essentially taking a screenshot of all the open windows and renders those individual screenshots whenever you hit F11.

It's an extremely novel solution and one I wouldn't have imagined as a way to do this for Windows. Unfortunately, as a result, it's not as seamless as the way this works for Macs. As you know, I haven't had the most luck with taking screenshots in Windows since I began running three monitors at once, so DExpose2 would routinely chug whenever I hit F11. Worse, to save rendering time, you can also set DExpose2 to take window screenshots periodically, or whenever the window view changes. If you're on any window that changes constantly, like a browser, this will prove quite the hassle. I routinely had Windows explorer chug on me every time I went into a new window.

It also doesn't help that it takes up way too much memory, around 20-35 megabytes of RAM. When Taskswitch XP takes up less than 1 megabyte and also offers window previews, DExpose2 is just unacceptable.

I tried DExpose2 before it was recently featured on Lifehacker, but I was surprised they would endorse a product as resource intensive as this. Sure, my computer isn't the fastest out there, but such a small addition to your operating system should never come at such great a price. When it comes to switching windows, I'm gonna pass on DExpose2 and stick with Taskswitch XP.

Windows Boot Timer Doesn't Work for Me Right Now

One of the specific impetuses (impeti? impetii? impetiii?) for me starting this blog was back when I decided to reel in the annoying long time it took for my computer to boot up. Writing about the experience of cutting down my startup time from 4 and a half minutes to 1 minute and 10 seconds was too good to pass up.

Back then I simply used the stopwatch on my cellphone to time the startup, from the moment the motherboard's loading screen showed up, until Thunderbird had completely loaded and I was able to open any program I wanted.

Recently I was made aware of a program called Windows Boot Timer, which claims to track the time when the BIOS starts loading Windows. It wouldn't be comparable to the time I used to track, since I went from hard boot to Windows load, but it would be a good, accurate benchmark to use from now on.

Using the program is (or should've been, see below) super easy. Just run the small executable, and the next time you restart your computer, it'll start recording, and give you a pop-up once Windows finishes loading, with the time it took to restart.

Unfortunately, it never worked for me. I restarted several times, and it just wouldn't work. I have a feeling it had something to do with my registry edits that killed applications faster at shutdown (which cut down the Windows unloading time significantly also), but I haven't had the time to properly test that hypothesis.

Let me know your experiences (whether Windows Boot Timer did/did not work, what your time was, what your total restart time was, etc) in the comments!

Split and Merge PDF's With Gios PDF!

A while ago I covered a way to split and merge TIFF files, and a week or so ago I covered how to create multi-page PDFs in Photoshop. Now I'll feature a program that accomplishes probably even more basic than both of those, which is splitting and merging PDF's (without Adobe Acrobat, of course).

Gios PDF Splitter and Merger is a free and open source application created by Paolo Gios, and it handles just splitting and merging, and it does it perfectly. In fact, it's so simple and intuitive the program doesn't even come with (or need) a readme or help file. Peep the screenshot below and I'm sure you can figure out how the whole thing works:







The entire program is just 76 kilobytes and runs straight off the executable. That's right, another awesome program that doesn't need installation. As such, it would be a great addition to your Thumb Drive apps to take wherever you go.



One thing that IS a bit of a pain with these non-install apps is that to keep them organized, you'd have to put them in the Program Files directory yourself and make a shortcut to put in your Start menu if you want it within easy reach. Oh, how I can never be satisfied.

Lightning Review: Windows XP Service Pack 3

Windows XP SP3 arrives tomorrow to XP users via Automatic Update, but several sites online have begun putting up links to download the 300 megabyte install file, and after reading several other users' thumbs-up on security, I decided to take the plunge, partly so I can go ahead and tell you whether the latest service pack was worth it.



First of all, before I went and installed the file, I first defragged my hard drive, then made a full backup of my C: drive using Windows Backup. The SP3 install offers easy uninstallation if you regret the decision, but I figure if something goes wrong I might not be able to access the uninstallation at all, so I decided to play it safe.



Before I installed, I also ran 3dmark03 to benchmark my computer, in case there was some reason why XP SP3 would speed up my computer from a gaming standpoint. I got a score of between 3679 and 3712 (I tested a few times). It's not a great mark at all, but I wasn't surprised given how old my system is.



Well, no worries, because the entire installation went off without a hitch. It required one or two restarts just to get the computer back to its old self, and the only mess that came up was the "Show Desktop" and "Internet Explorer" icons reappearing in my Quick Launch after I'd gone and deleted them. It was no problem to redelete those files.







I ran 3dmark again, and it showed a score of 3709. So, no change at all in gaming performance. I couldn't confirm other reports of a 10% performance gain in Office because I don't use Office.



Overall, XP SP3 wasn't the XP fountain of life I might've hyped myself up for, but it does offer a bunch of security fixes that I'm sure many people concerned about Windows' security would be happy about (I didn't really know how to test those either). It didn't offer any real performance gain at all, and the interface looks exactly the same. It does, however, work as well as it did before, and just for the security fixes, this Service Pack is well worth it and further reason to hold onto XP and not go with Vista.

Magic Pen Review: Full Featured Crayon Physics Game in Flash!!!

I don't normally review or feature games on this blog (my philosophy is, I feature hacks, tweaks, and tricks to boost your productivity on the computer so you have more time and resources to play your games when you've got the free time. What games you play are up to you), but back when I discovered Crayon Physics, I could hardly contain my excitement.

Two months later, seems the original Crayon Physics still hasn't been fully released, but not to worry, as Newgrounds user AleGui has released Magic Pen, which seems to do all the stuff Crayon Physics Deluxe has promised to do, but it's not only available right now, it's all in Flash! No downloading a separate program at all!

If you remember how to play Crayon Physics, Magic Pen will feel very familiar, but there are new features there that will turn your brain knobs anew. I wish there was more of a tutorial on how to use links and hinges, but I guess that's part of the fun!

Search Sound Effects Online with FindSounds

As an animator, I'm always looking out for good sources of sound effects online. If I'm smart enough, I try to remember to save the files I like, and one of these days I hope to be able to create some sort of searcheable database of the files I've got now. You'd be surprised how many different whooshes you can own.

One of my preferred ways of searching for tried-and-true sound files online have been to search for the filename with .wav or .mp3 added afterwards (i.e. "doorclose.wav" "catmeow.mp3"), but even that only really works for straightforward sounds.

Luckily, FindSounds works a search engine searching for wav, mp3, au, and aiff files. I tried it out, and so far worked pretty well. You can even specify bit rate, resolution, frequency, and channel.

(From Lifehacker)

Rentometer Lets You Compare Your Rent W/ Your Neighbors!

My roommate and I are about to renew our lease on our apartment, which ends this month. It would be our third year in our place, and despite our rent going up an extra 40 dollars a month each starting in May, we knew that we had a good deal.



Just to confirm, I just checked out Rentometer, a website that lets you input your current rent and address, and then compare it to other apartments of similar value (based on number of rooms and number of units in the building).



It displays a map that shows places around your region, and whether they are cheaper or more expensive:







It also compares your rent with the median price of the area. According to the graph, we're basically on the low end on the scale! Awesome!



Rentometer seems to be running slowly at the moment, as its popularity rises. However, as it does, you get more info to compare with yours, which is all the better. The only thing I've got to gripe about is currently there is no method for selecting only units that are currently renting. While there may be apartments out there that are a better deal than yours, there's no guarantee that they would have units available.



(from MakeUseOf.com)

Tiny USB Office - All Your Office Needs in Less Than 2.5 Megs!

TIny USB Office: They really don't make apps like this anymore. An entire collection of office and productivity apps, including a text editor, spreadsheet editor, FTP client, file compressor, email client, and more, all for less than 2.5 megabytes! Even better, none of them require an install, so just put them in your trusty Thumb Drive and execute when you need them!

I just put it in my 2 gig drive and worked like a charm. There's a built in launcher for the programs called QSel but I actually found it more annoying to use, so I didn't bother running it. Meanwhile, when it comes to apps you don't need, you can just go and delete that app's folder. I did so with the MSN Messenger client.

Many of these apps are so good and streamlined I'm tempted to just use them instead of the ones I've already got installed... maybe.

(From LifeHacker)

Google Analytics Adds Week, Month, Year View

Well duh, I use Google Analytics to track web visitors. Using the Google-owned Blogger made that a right easy choice (and also because I use them for basically everything else, like I'm sure many of you do).



One of the things that bugged me in the past was how I couldn't view hits by week, month, or year. This blog has reached a point where it's been running long enough that you can start really making out trends, and being able to see the bigger picture starts becoming important.



Luckily, GA just finally added these long-awaited features to their site, which they document comprehensively on their blog. I noticed it when checking my stats this past weekend; checking their blog confirmed that it was a new addition, instead of a feature that appears after they've tracked a site for a certain length of time.



Here's a screenshot of my views in week mode:





Much better to look at than the really jagged, all over the place graph that daily view had.

Nyko Frontman Guitar for Nintendo Wii Review (& Circuit City online)

Two reviews today, first of the product, then of the place from which I bought it.

Since getting Guitar Hero III for the Wii late last year, my roommate and I have been itching to be able to play head to head and cooperatively, especially since a handful of songs can only be unlocked during multiplayer. Unfortunately, it wasn't until last month that standalone guitars hit the stores.

The official Activision Gibson guitars that are identical to the guitars sold with the game were unfortunately being sold for an exorbitant 70 dollars, which was ridiculous since the guitars still needed a Wiimote, sold separately.

The only third-party guitar out right now is the Nyko Frontman guitar, which was selling online and at Circuit City for 50 dollars, much more doable. I wasn't crazy about getting a third party controller since I'd found myself really not liking the official Rock Band guitar, and I knew I'd be very sensitive to using a different guitar. However, the price was right.


The guitar is great, and definitely a better value than the official guitar. The strum bar snaps better than the official guitar, in my opinion (which is the opposite of the Rock band guitar, which is way softer). The whammy bar is a little stiffer, but I think it'll loosen up with continuous use.

The fret buttons ARE on the softer side, and this was perhaps the part that felt the most different from the official guitar. They're spaced basically the same, though recessed a little bit more. I'd say it's somewhere between the official guitar and the Rock Band version.

One odd thing is that the + and - buttons were switched, which is annoying because the + button is in a far less accessible place than before, which makes it hard when you need to pause the game quickly.

Build quality was solid. It's lighter than the official guitar, though it's about an inch or two longer. This creates a different weight distribution, where the Nyko's heavier towards the neck. Speaking of neck, the neck cannot be removed like the official axe, which makes it harder to take on trips.

The seam that runs along the top edge of the guitar also seems to be narrower, which helps because the seam in the official guitar hit my thumb's joint and caused me to develop a callous.

The guitars, by the way, come in two colors: white and yellow. The box indicates what color is inside, but there was no way for me to select it when ordering online (I got yellow). The package also comes with two pick guard colors, white and black. I stuck with the black.

Overall, I'm happy so far with the guitar. It takes some getting used to, of course, but it's surprisingly easy to pick up after having played with the original guitar for 6 months. Highly recommended, at least until the official guitar lowers its price.
Circuit City

As previously mentioned, I ended up ordering the product online at Circuit City. They offered free shipping on items over 25 dollars, so at 50 dollars, this was a large item being shipped free. Awesome, since none of the Circuit City stores in the area seem to carry the item at all.

They luckily offer ordering without setting up an account, and it worked smoothly and quickly even without doing so. I received a confirmation email after ordering, and you can check the status of your order online by entering your order number (all of this would be easier if you'd signed up for an account online, but I didn't feel like it).

The main surprise came when my guitar arrived two days after I ordered. Why surprise? The site had indicated to me that it would take two WEEKS! Honestly, I figure that's just Circuit City covering their butts, but I also admit there's something about beating expectations, even if they're low.

Overall, a very satisfied customer!

Finally, MY HOST: Hostmonster!

After regaling you all with the various horror, horror-er, and not-so-horrific web hosts I bounced around to and from for my official portfolio site, finally I reveal who I decided to go with, to much satisfaction: Hostmonster.

6.95 a month is, in my opinion, on the high end of "budget hosting" solutions (those including sites that offer 9.95 A YEAR), especially since you pay for a full year up front. However, it's become more than worth it.

First of all, for every account, you get one free domain, registered in your name for as long as you keep your account with them. With domains costing about 7.95 a year, that's like getting 66 cents off per month. Of course, I already had my own domain, so I just went and used the extra free domain name to finally register my name.

Secondly, Hostmonster offers the latest version of CPanel, which, if you may remember, was a dealbreaker for me. Cpanel lets me administer the backend of my site in a user-friendly manner, and I've come to be dependent on it for years now.

Thirdly, Hostmonster offers all of the PHP and CGI script capabilities that I needed to run my site, another thing that ixwebhosting did not have at the time I used their service.

Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, Hostmonster also offers 24/7 phone tech support. I'd had to call them once and emailed them once with questions about setting my site up, and they responded promptly and courteously. I still think ixwebhosting's support is better, but I really doubt now that I'd be hit with a serious emergency that would need me to call at 3 in the morning on a holiday.

And finally, Hostmonster offers a whopping 1.5 TERABYTES of hosting space, and 15 TERABYTES of bandwidth per month! Yes, I know other sites had offered unlimited space, but for some reason having specific limits on space and bandwidth seem more comforting than having none at all. I've heard of hosts shutting down sites for excessive space and bandwidth even if they were told they would be unlimited, mainly because the hosts never really intended to give them limitless bandwidth, more like "as much as we can handle until we think you're using too much."

1.5 terabytes of space?? I calculated it, at my upload rate of 60 KB/sec, I can upload 216 megabytes an hour, and 5 gigabytes in 24 hours. At that rate, it would take me 289 DAYS of straight uploading to fill up the site! Hell, I can back up my entire computer more than twice over (and is something I'm seriously considering).

*Update: using the server as backup is against their Terms of Service. DO NOT DO THIS, I learned the hard way.

Anyway, I picked Hostmonster after reading its stellar reviews, and carefully checking its features list. I've been hosting with them for two and a half months now and I haven't had an issue with them yet. I highly recommend them.