Transferring Digital Real Estate
March 12, 2007
I could talk forever about domain names, the digital real estate market of our society. I could question the legalities of squatting on a domain name, or I could vent my frustrations with kiting them. The latest thing to shake up the domain name marketplace is the new policy and procedures set forth by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
In years past, I found it very simple to transfer a domain name from one registrar to another. It was always a simple task: the new registrar would email some security codes to the administrator on file for the domain name, which would in turn be entered into the new registrar’s system to either authorize or reject the transfer. I miss those times.
As of last year, times have changed, requiring an additional step at the mercy of good business practices from the losing registrar. The original rules method still applies, and the new registrar still mails out the security codes to the administrator of the domain. The new step requires the administrator to get an authorization code from the losing registrar.
Over the last month, I have had to transfer 3 domain names for clients. Each transfer has been a long story of playing waiting games and jumping through hoops, all put in motion by the losing registrars, in hopes that they won’t lose the domain name. From a business standpoint, registrars do not want to lose domain names because they are losing business and they are losing it to their competition which is the new gaining registrar.
I have heard horror stories, but to experience them myself and having to explain to a client who does not understand the wheels of the Internet, just make the task all the more difficult. Some registrars give up the authorization number with ease, others require you to have an extra set of logins, others make you download tons of legal forms which have to be notarized and mailed in, and some require a direct email to a non-published email address in hopes that you can get that last authorization number.
I would suspect I am not the first person to make complaints of the current system of how things are. I don’t know how the bureaucratic wheels of the ICANN work enough to know if things will ever be changed. Yet while I have been frustrated at these processes, I still have somehow managed to keep the clients involved and have had complete success in eventually authorizing the domain names to transfer. I feel like a small war has just been won every time another one makes it through.
I am no Bob Parsons, but I would like to talk more about domain names and the digital real estate market that is going on right now. I suppose I will share those thoughts in the near future.
The Next Path
March 11, 2007
Unprecedented traffic on one of my servers is forcing me to rethink my finances, if I expect to maintain a future for a popular motorcycle community.
I have to admit that I have anxiety about the future because of something that I am emotionally attached to. In the late summer of 2004, I created an online community for motorcycle riders in the Pacific Northwest called PNW Riders. My friends from college helped me get things going in the early days, and we were all onboard for why it was started, and we all can honestly say we never had any clue that it would grow this fast.
Of course, there was expected growth, and it did happen continuously in a manner that surprised us. The problem of growth has continued, forcing the community to grow exponentially, and build upon something that has never happened this fast.
Without the obvious foreshadowing, I will talk more about the growth of this community at a later date. There is another problem that keeps rearing its head that I am soon going to have to deal with, and I am unsure of the best approach.
The community has been migrated over the last few years from one server to another, constantly being upgraded. I went to a dedicated server solution last summer, under the full impression that it would hold growth for a minimum of two years. Fast forward less than a year, and you are brought to present time, and it is already time for a new server.
Along with the growth of the community comes some astonishing traffic, which is just amazing by all accounts. Too many concurrent connections are overloading the servers create some interesting logs. As I peruse the log files, sessions are maxing out because of the number of users whom are on the site at one time. Within any given 24 hour time period, the server is averaging over 600 unique registered users (users who have logged on) and over 1500 unique lurkers (visitors who are not logged on). Combining those totals means over 2100 unique people are accessing PNW Riders within 24 hours, with unique counting each person as one time no matter how many visits they had.
Leveraging out those statistics to some overall total bandwidth, PNW Riders has been growing in total monthly traffic for the site every month. A quick look at the current statistics shows the following reported traffic for the last three months:
- December 2006 14.10 Million hits
- January 2007 14.94 Million hits
- February 2007 15.85 Million hits
This morning was spent optimizing the server to accommodate the traffic that is happening at all times during the day. This growth is pushing the boundaries of the server, forcing an upgrade of the server sooner than expected.
The cost of the new server will come out of my own pocket. While I figure out ways to lean on advertising and raise money to help alleviate my cost, I must bring this model to some full circle as it gets frustrating having to continue subsidizing the site.
This is the largest website, in terms of monthly traffic, that I have ever owned and operated. With it comes new involvement as I outpour my time and money into it as a project and a passion. With this growth, I can only look forward to the next server as having it come sooner than expected is both a good and a bad thing.
High Occupancy Espresso Lanes
March 10, 2007
There are some fears that I have in this world. I find lesser fears involving the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes that are part of the transit infrastructure of the greater Seattle region. For those that are not aware, the HOV lanes are designed to promote car pooling and are meant for vehicles with two or more people occupying the vehicle. There are some exceptions, for example, Highway 520 requires three or more people to occupy the vehicle in order to use the HOV lane. The blanket exception to use the HOV lane also pertains to motorcycle riders, which makes it very convenient to travel around during the busy times on the day as with a motorcycle, you can always get to where you need to be without having to deal with too much traffic.
For those that violate the HOV lane requirements, you can either be caught by a law enforcement officer or reported by anyone whom uses the HERO hotline. The HERO hotline is the 764-HERO that anyone can call to violate offenders of the lane. It is blatantly displayed all along the road to remind drivers of this phone reporting method.
There is a saying that goes: Curiosity killed the cat; satisfaction brought him back.
Without any expectations of what to expect, and how much trouble I may be getting myself into, I picked up the phone and dialed the 764-HERO hotline to do my civic duty and report the offender. I called, and when they asked for the license plate number and description of the vehicle, I gave them the information to my own car.
Time passes.
I check my mail to find out that I had been reported as a violator of the HOV lane laws. I was expecting to see a traffic infraction, but all that I received was a plethora of pamphlets and paperwork explaining to me the intention and purpose of the HOV lane, and that I had been reported as violating the laws of the land. I was curious what the consequences would have been, had I received a ticket, and had gone to court to refute my own account of reporting my vehicle as an HOV violator. I guess my day in court will never happen under these circumstances.
I can safely say that you can be reported all day long in an HOV lane without fear of ever receiving a traffic infraction in the mail, no matter who reports you to the HERO telephone hotline.
Researching further into the matter, I discovered some clarity in the disposition of getting caught driving alone in the HOV diamond/express/car pool lanes.
If you are spotted driving solo in the diamond lane, you will be setting in motion a blitz of paperwork that will arrive in the mail filled with nothing but governmental information pertinent to your actions. However, it will take a law enforcement officer to witness this same act in order for a ticket to be written.
The first time you are reported as a violator, the registered owner of the vehicle will receive an educational brochure filled with fun information and mindless facts. The second HERO report will result in an official letter being sent to the violator noting the time, date, and location of the incident. In line with the three strike system, a third violation produces another letter coming directly from the State Patrol which also includes a State Patrol officer making contact about the time(s) violated.
For those pregnant mothers out there who feel your civil rights mean everything to you, the HOV lane can only qualify the little one from the first day of birth and not before then. For everyone else, you do not qualify if you have animals, statues, mannequins, or blow-up dolls in the vehicle.
I hear different names for these high occupancy vehicles. Some use the acronym HOV, while others call them the express, diamond, or car pool lanes. I prefer to make a play on the choice of express, and I call them espresso lanes. Some may think that is because I reside in Seattle, which is known worldwide for its coffee, but that is just a little part of it. The other part of it will be revealed in a future blog.
Mobile Connectivity
March 9, 2007
I have been looking into viable alternatives to established Internet connections, looking into mobile broadband solutions for my computing lifestyle. Of course, there is the Qwest DSL versus Comcast cable debate when it comes to residential and business high-speed Internet, but what I want is something to cater to a lifestyle of mobility. My profession keeps me moving from one location to another, and my hobbies take me to different places on a daily basis. Of the various cell phone carriers, if I was to move forward with one particular choice, the Sprint PCS mobile broadband setup and service plan seem to be the best decision.
I wish I could say it stopped there, but it doesn’t. New website ventures are requiring my business to have alternative contact phone numbers that go above and beyond just the standard cell phone contact. I have never needed a business landline, even with a lease on a retail business space in downtown Spokane. Since my wired lifestyle is of the mobile kind, looking into a VoIP (voice over IP) network solution seems to fit the bill, which would just require a broadband Internet connection. Using the products and services provided by Vonage would allow the phone number to travel to wherever I am at, from my Spokane office space to anywhere I may travel. The WiFi VoIP Vonage phone would let me connect up as long as there is a wireless signal, allowing the phone number to follow me anywhere.
I remember back in the early days of the Internet when eFax used to be free. I made up business cards with my fax number listed. A year later, eFax went to a subscription based service, which made me lose my eFax number thus rendering all of my business cards frivolous. Fast forward to the present, there have been times where I have needed to send or receive a fax. Looking into the online fax solutions provided today, the first place I look at was eFax again but I cannot justify their high monthly subscription prices for what limited times I need a fax. A quick Google search helped me find a better alternative, MyFax, which was a cheaper solution that provided better features with the same functionality. From a consumer standpoint, the best choice is getting better functionality for a better price. The downfall with MyFax is a toll free fax number is issued, but contacting customer support reveals you can setup a local fax number. To send and receive fax documents in digital format is something that would bring my business convenience, and it can be done entirely on the world wide web.
Every two years, my cell phone gets an upgrade thanks to hardware promotions by my cell phone carrier and the two year product cycle that mobile hardware goes through, specifically PDA phone software. I grew up from the first generation PDA’s to today’s feature-packed PDA’s which I now realized have more features than I really need. In the early days, my life was organized with the Palm OS and Qualcomm’s Eudora Mail, but times have changed and I’ve gladly converted to Windows Mobile and Office Outlook. My life’s voice and data is taken with me everywhere I go, from my email to my calendar. The best features of today’s PDA are the mobile connections allowing me Internet access anywhere there is a cell phone signal.
Today’s cell phones bring back full circle with the mobile broadband solution I have been researching for my laptop. Both are now capable of the higher speed EVDO network, with the best access in the best markets. Using that internet access to piggyback a VoIP and digital fax solution helps evolve an ecosystem of mobile productivity that I can only be thankful for. My business and my life both thrive off of this “wired” interconnectivity. The true value of these various devices is how the data across the multiple information systems interpolate with one another making my life easier and busier all at the same time. Thank goodness for technology, as the best is yet to come!
