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Sandvox partially fixed
I discovered that Sandvox uses a framework called Connection Kit for uploading files. I downloaded the framework (it's open source) and found that it had the same problem as Sandvox which lead me to believe that the framework is broken. After spending a large part of today looking at the framework, I managed to fix part of the problem in that I no longer get SSH errors when trying to upload via SFTP. I'm not ready to reveal my fix to the problem and I still don't have things working (some pictures just don't upload).
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Unimpressive software
Last week, Sandvox was a runner up in Apple's Design Awards, so I decided to take a look at it to re-create my website. I really like the look of the websites; they look more professional than the basic one's created by RapidWeaver (which I've used for about 1.5 years). I spent about half a day yesterday reworking my ReceiptWallet website in Sandvox and am pretty pleased what I've done. I went to publish it to a test site and the demo limited me to publishing the main page, so I went ahead and purchased it (I had to purchase the Pro version for $79 as I have a few places that I have raw HTML) and proceeded to publish the full site. I use SFTP (secure FTP or FTP over SSH) to publish and kept getting errors about the encryption key. Not looking too hot for $79. After a few tries and changing some settings, I was able to publish the "full" site. I was about to switch my entire site over and make it live when I discovered that Sandvox only uploaded one of my graphics.
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Dumped Sirius!
Today we finally dumped Sirius radio! We got it as a gift from my in-laws a few years back and they've been paying the fee since then which was fine, however, we got real annoyed at the DJs. In January, we got my wife a new car with a built-in XM receiver and she enjoyed the 3 months free. However, I held out subscribing until they sent me an offer I couldn't refuse (the dealer said to wait until they sent a good offer and they sent several offers). When I subscribed, it also came with free online access which was pretty neat. I found an XM Radio plugin for my Squeezebox and was pleased. I discovered that I could stream 2 XM stations at once, so I picked up another Squeezebox today (used) and hacked the XM plugin code to let me connect twice. Now we can stream 2 XM stations at once or have XM on one Squeezebox and MP3s on the other; this also works out well so that we can play children's music on one box and whatever we want on the other. Very cool. Goodbye, Sirius and the crappy DJs! (I hope things don't go downhill when/if the Sirius/XM merger is finalized.)
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Sales tax on downloads
Today I went to purchase the professional pictures that were taken of me at the marathon last week and one of the options was electronic download as opposed to CD. This wasn't offered last year and would save me $16 (the $84 for the electronic download is already extortion). I got to the checkout page and saw that they wanted to charge me sales tax. Whoa...that doesn't fly in California. According to the California Board of Equalization's publication about downloads