On content delivery
Yet again it was time for some minor changes to the website. I updated the Network and the News sections.
Network
This is a very old section. It contains some websites I like to link to. Unfortunately there were some dead links, and it needed an overhaul. Besides that, I added another column, containing an aggregated list of things I post on different websites. To make this easy, I used SimplyPie to collect all the RSS feeds, and output the chronological list. Now before you call me a traitor to my own principles; yes, some of the web2.0 sites actually have their uses, and I post content to them which I feel doesn't really belong on this website.
News
This is a minor update. I was having a problem with movies in my blogposts. My brother noticed that on some computers, my movie content didn't load; resulting in a blank white player. After lots and lots of research, I discovered it was mainly a security issue. The movies were loaded from another server, and windows didn't allow content from another server to be loaded into the video container I was using. This problem has now been solved by not using the FLV player anymore, and grabbing the content from Vimeo.com.
Indeed, I'm not a fan of putting my content on third party services. This website is way older then most web2.0 outfits. I've seen new services come to life and die. The question I usually ask is "where will this website be in five years time?" Most web2.0 websites don't have a solid business model, and chances of long term survival for them are limited. Which is why I like to host my own content in my own website. You never know when some American company is going to get bought, goes bankrupt, or decides to inject ads or some other nasty business in your content (their service is free, after all). They simply can't be trusted.
However, sometimes there's exceptions to this rule. Wishlistr provides a service I don't expect to be using for the long term, so it doesn't matter. Same goes for Anobii and Delicious. Vimeo is a bit different. It is the only website that allows you to upload movies in very high resolution, and its easy of use and quality weigh more than long term projections. Vimeo allows me to store unlimited data where I don't have the room on my own servers.