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Adapt or Die

Apparently, if an animal becomes too specialized they are more likely than a less specialized species to go extinct.  Adaptability, according to nature, is the key to survival.  A house made from materials that are too rigid will collapse when a storm hits, or when there is an earthquake.  Flexibility is key to maintaining the unity of complex systems.

A good communicator is able to adapt what he or she is trying to say to the audience that he or she is speaking.  Obviously, if the audience speaks Chinese, then the speaker must either speak in Chinese or hire a translator.  If the audience has a strong scientific background, it may be helpful to relate the topic to some particular branch of science that the audience is familiar with.  Every person has certain expectations and limitations when they are communicating and being communicated to.       

If the human race becomes too dependent on one technology, and suddenly that technology is taken away from us, then we will suffer.  We often forget how dependent we are on electricity until the power goes out.  At one time, we existed well without any power at all.  But now, if suddenly there were no power for months, it would be a major disaster and many would die. 

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”  ~Bruce Lee
 

No Fear

Bruce Lee said, “If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

Going into the new 2007 calendar year brings with it a new understanding in my mind. The past year’s good decisions and mistakes have helped me to shape a new mindset.

I want no fear going into the next year.

Two Icebergs

Websites cost money. There is no simple way around it. Right now, in my life, I have much more time than money. I don’t think it is a waste of my time to build these forum communities on the Internet. If the communities fail, then perhaps my time was wasted, but the risk of that is fine at my age. I am willing to take more risk right now, only because I have more time than money.

I run a website design and development business. My professional experience in website design gives me an advantage of not having to outsource the work that I do. When I build a website and a forum, I am using my time to build it, to improve it, and to administer it. I am thankful for the volunteers who help me moderate it. I am gracious of the support that we receive from the members of the community.

Even with all this support, some people have called website forums “sinkholes” because of the constant drain of funds. Let’s not mention the amount of wages that are lost when my time is spent working on the forum versus working for a paying client. Let’s not mention the decline in my social life because I have to deal with forum issues, from site drama to site maintenance. You want to make a great site, and you become emotionally attached to it as you invest your time and life into it. We are not even talking about the actual dollars spent out of the pocket. The actual dollars spent out of the pocket are considerable, dependent on your perspective.

The obvious is the purchase of the domain names from the registrar, but don’t forget you have to get other associated domain names to prevent future competition, so a collection of domain names can add up as they are paid on an annual basis.

Obviously you need a computer to store the site, so a huge financial hit comes with the purchase of a server. Expect the server to only be good for two to three years, dependent on how the hardware can handle the increasing capacity and growth of the forum. As the forum grows in these time spans, another server must be purchased or the forum is likely to suffer.

Once you have a server, the operating system is usually free but the backend software is not. Licensing fees are associated with that. You can either lease the backend license on a monthly basis or pay a much bigger lifetime licensing fee. The backend is very important as it allows you to manage a server without having to login as the root user and performing everything via command line syntax.

Then you need to pick a datacenter, one that you can trust and is reliable. The datacenter is where your server sits and is connected to the Internet, bringing with it three cost factors that are paid for on a monthly basis. Your server takes space within the server room, so you are paying for the amount of rack space your server is using, essentially you’re renting the storage space. In that storage space, your server is connected to the backbone of the Internet, so you’re paying for your bandwidth to allow the incoming and outgoing connections to and from the server. For protection of the server, the cost of a server appliance to handle the server’s security also comes with a dedicated server. Security appliances are extremely expensive and is one thing I recommend be leased over time. So once the hardware is setup, there is an initial setup fee to get everything going, and then monthly fees from there on out.

Throwing in a forum community brings with it more costs. Forum software is leased on an annual basis. The high cost comes with the first year, and a moderately low cost continues on at an annual basis. The forum software is used to run the forum. The way they give it to you is primitive looking at best. I will not even get into the cost of giving a forum a unique look and feel, from having graphics work done to coding to programming to specific site wide features and doing everything that needs to be done to make a forum user friendly and high quality.

In addition to all that money spent, you have hidden costs. I had one issue where I was held liable and I had to pay exuberant legal fees to handle the situation. It comes down to paying a lawyer to take care of it or the forum is left closed. You don’t have too much of a decision at that point.

You have the time spent doing everything I just mentioned up above. Time setting up the server, software, updates, administering, handling constant security issues, resolving bugs, customizing, and oooooh the programming. If you are doing the administering, you will feel you have a doctorate degree in PHP and MySQL.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the time and costs involved in a forum. If there were two icebergs, the second iceberg would be the actual running of the site from the front end, from handling forum politics, site issues, disgruntled forum members, catering to the community. You start these things with a focus and you ensure that focus remains, but don’t forget administering can take away from your involvement in a community where you would rather just be a member and not spending so much time in the backend side of things.

I am not complaining. I love what I do. I enjoy it. The reminder of that is when I see others contributing to the forum because a value has been created. The value is within the community. If the focus is kept, a community can be a good thing, but what you give to it and take away from it can be even better.

I think it is safe to say, that I am emotionally attached.

The Seattle Storm of 2006

Is that how it’s going to go down in the history books? As I walked up to my apartment at three in the morning, the Sunday Seattle Times newspaper was already out and the front page was the power outage from the storm. The main headlines on every national news media channel, CNN, and radio broadcasts is the impact after the huge storm that Seattle just experienced. Word has it the last time we saw a storm this big was back in 1993.

The reports are claiming there are still over one million homes still without power right now! Some businesses are running off generators. Seattle and the University District are doing ok, Redmond got its power back 24 hours after the storm, but it’s not so good in other places. Renton is pitch black, with no street lights, no retail center lights, nothing at all! It doesn’t help when sunset happens before 5:00pm every day.

Unfortunately, with the street lights out in most areas, there are too many accidents happening because the indigenous people of Seattle don’t understand what a four-way stop is and how to handle them.

First, there was the previously huge snow storm. Second, we have this huge wind storm. Wind gusts reached 100mph in some areas. There was enough wind to warrant closure of Highway 520. The next morning on 520 was spent doing ultrasounds to make sure the bridge integrity was good and it was safe to drive on. Highway 520 is in a very fragile state right now, and this natural disaster is showing how fragile the state of Seattle and the surrounding region is. Crews from California and Nevada have come north to help us out here. Trees litter the roads, power lines are down everywhere, roads are closed, and gas is hard to come by.

People are fighting at the gas station, the ones that you can find open. Long lines mean a 45 minute wait at the pump. I went to one gas station and all they had in stock was the premium 92 octane, meaning pay for the best or get nothing at all.

It’s not just the gas issue. Restaurants are packed, that is if they are even open. Most businesses are shut down. The Microsoft campus is dormant, grocery stores are non-existent, and a hot meal is hard to find. You begin to appreciate just how much a hot shower feels and a warm meal in your system.

It probably hit me the worst in regards to the lack of Internet. With my business, my livelihood, my primary channel of communication, and the lack of free wireless since businesses are shut down, it can be hard to live in a world without Internet.

In a prior blog, I complained about the rocks and debris. It has just gotten worse. I don’t even want to imagine the additional problems that this region will face if power and order is not restored for another week.

I hear the fire truck sirens once again going off in the background. It is sad to think the only light in this pitch black area is the red and blue glow from the police and fire crews.

Too much Seattle rain…

Rain, rain, go away! Do I need to say please? I spent the additional money to add some more motorcycle riding gear to my collection, but of the rain kind. It’s not just about staying dry, but staying warm also!

Seattle got shut down by the snow not too long ago, and the roadways are still covered with too much gravel and rocks. This can make it unpleasant during commutes. When I’m driving in the car, other vehicles love to send my windshield some rock messages that dont go over too well. When I’m on the motorcycle, the rocks act as pellets to the body armor. I suppose if it wasnt for these little rock missles that happen, I’d find myself riding the motorcycle more.

Motorcycles are built for the rain, not for the rocks on the roadways!

More coffee shops should be open 24 hours.

Tacoma, Washington: In a desperate need to find some free wireless, I stumbled upon this coffee house in Tacoma. The atmosphere is lame, the coffee leaves a lot to be desired, and the wireless is shoddy to say the least. Not to be too much of a pessimist, the one thing it has going for it is that it’s open 24 hours every day.

With all the good and bad coffee shops in Seattle and the surrounding region, why aren’t more coffee shops open 24 hours? I dont think justifying the business costs would be a problem. Just like running a coffee shop, if the demand warrants it and business is good, then I think it would be good for both the business and the consumer. With any place for coffee, the quality of the coffee and a good atmosphere is always needed to make a coffee shop seperate and above from the rest.

24 hours, open 7 days a week, a good atmosphere, quality coffee, free wireless Internet, ample room, good acoustics - is that too much to ask for?

Internet communities

Over the last couple years, I’ve started a few online communities aka forums of people who congregate online to communicate and vegetate. They are brought to these places with common threads of interests. A lot of people ask me why do I continue to build more forums, more communities, more places to go on the web.

Brian calls me a “savage” when he hears such stories. I think the term “savage” can only be used to characterize a trait in the third person perspective. From a first person quality point of view, I dont think I am anywhere close to being a “savage.”

However, like a lot of things done in this world, I create these communities somewhat by accident. The bottom line is every thing I have started is simply because I dont like what is being done on the Internet. I identify things that I dont like, and I tell myself why complain when the opportunity falls upon me to do it my way, to do it better than the next guy. I take what I dont like about other places, and I try to make things better. I try to offer up and provide a better quality product, which in this case is a forum. I want a better community centered around that interest. I just want it done better. Who am I to complain, but I am willing to take that next step and start up something of my own.

Fewer the instances are the fact that sometimes I cannot find any said community about a common interest. Niche markets, specific interests, subject focus all lead to starting up a community. If I cant find it, then there must be others out there wanting to know more about what I am searching for.

So between doing things better or just doing them in the first place, is why I start these communities up. Next time, I’ll talk about what one can interpret success from an online community.

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