Any of the linode/heroku/aws services that would be hosted in Canada and follow Canadian data laws/protections.

Some services do exist; They just do not have the quality, ease of use and price points to be competitive.

I love markdown. I even created my own version which I have become addicted to -> http://blackstag.com/markdown. I'm fairly confident I will be the only one to appreciate my personal version, but hey - It's the ugly child I have come to love.

I'd certainly be interested in switching over to their version, provided some of the noted kinks get worked out.

  > Unfortunately the learning material online is very  
  scanty.

  > All Advanced Hackery is OK, but teach me the basic stuff
  first.... If the barrier to entry is too high, you will  
  scare away new comers. 

I attempted to address that very need in one of my blog posts http://blackstag.com/blog.posting?id=5 and there are many other community contributions listed here: http://blackstag.com/blog.posting?id=23. Personally I think there has been an overwhelming amount of community contribution - to a point I would find it difficult to agree with your comments.

Thanks for posting this! I found it some time ago and found it useful and enjoyable.

Agreed. ;)

I am no expert by any means, so feedback is always welcome and I am always looking to improve.

Do I get an hexidecimal dollar? ;)

I hadn't noticed this. Thank you - I'll need to take a look.

The culprit seems to be “-webkit-text-size-adjust:none” set for all elements at the top of blog.css.

Fixed & Thanks. I put that in for viewing on the iPad, but forgot to target the iPad only. ^_^

I noticed a good percentage of the spam I received originated from SearchYC links (via links placed on HN under a different account name).

I would be interested to know if HN also receives less spam with the removal of SearchYC.

Does HN track stats on this?

I have a problem going to a service provider who's website doesn't even load....

http://www.prgmr.com/

It loads for me!

odd. I've tried three browsers and nothing and I am having no problems with other websites... strange.

weird. can you ping it?

ping works, but my browsers just say connecting or loading.... forever.

[edit] lol. forever must = 3 minutes in my world... loads afterwards.

Sounds like a problem with your internet connection :-)

I think too often we lay blame on websites when usually it's a user error.