The reason why I am saying that I underestimated the time it will take me to develop the site is because of all the things that pop up in my head that needs to be included in the web site as I work on it. Unlike other website project I have worked on, this is the first time I am developing a business and a websites with a variety of features and needs from the ground up. Granted I contemplated for a very long time if I should use a CMS or build my own interface, I decided to go with using one of the more popular CMS simply to get he project off the ground. Once the website and it is functional and servicing clients it can always be upgraded. It won’t be anything new. Over the years I have seen many websites which have switched from one CMS to another, or simply gone with developing a proprietary interface and vice versa. Every time I sit down to work on the site, as I am working on something at least half a dozen other things come to my mind that need to be included and once I place them on my to do list, half a dozen more pop up for each of them. For example tonight I am working on documenting  how customer’s will be referenced across multiple sites, especially ones that are not mine. As I figured out how I am going to do that and started to document it, the fact that I also need to collect and maintain customers’ personal billing information also came to my mind, and as I typed the previous I realized that that data needs to be encrypted.

It is definitely a learning experience. Even though my grand parents, my father and my Amanda’s father all owned or still operate their own businesses, being an entrepreneur was not something that interested me until 3 years ago. Thus I do not have much knowledge or experience with it. The who start up and get going process can be difficult especially when building everything solo with limited resources and the most valuable of them being time to work on business development.

So far the planing stage seems to be taking long time, but not as long as documenting how everything is going to work. The most important thing is to make progress. Some times it is a lot, other times it is as little as few words, or paragraphs.

One would thing that when offering discount to their customers GoDaddy would check to see if it is worth doing so, when the customers are members of the domain discount club, and the company is not willing to offer a greater discount! I suppose it makes no difference, because this is a courtesy service and a money raising act, but if it was me I would have taken a different approach.

My experience with GoDaddy, as a customer since 2003, has ALWAYS been positive. I have always had a good experience with their customer support, which I am glad is located in the States and I can call them at any time. To my knowledge GoDaddy does not outsource, so I must give the company and Bob Parsons props for doing this and keeping Americans employed. I know that part of the company’s customer relations strategy is to provide courtesy services, like company representatives personally calling me and emailing me to remind me of my expiring domains. In the past I have benefited from it, I enjoy it and appreciate it.

Courtesy of Screw-PayPal.com

PayPal, not only does your customer service blow you out of the water in being able to be at the top of the WORST customer service I have dealt with since I have been on the Internet (20 years now), but there are some really stupid rules in place. To shop I need to add a credit card, when I already have a bank account added. When I add a credit card and remove the bank account, because it is pointless to have the first linked when it canNOT be used to show with, my account becomes unverified, even though I have been a member for NINE years and have been “verified” numerous times before. Pathetic!

I used to wonder why so many people hold a poor opinion of PayPal, but recently I have been able to understand why, by developing my own negative opinion of the service.

Courtesy of PayPalSucks.com

yhoo stock rebound - image from TechCrunch

Last week I tweeted that Yahoo’s stock was at $10 per share and it was time to buy. Comments on my tweet (Micro post.) said that it is pointless to do so. As I was on my way to New York, I wasn’t able to provide a response to the comments.

With today’s reports about Yahoo’s CEO, Jerry Yang, stepping down I wish I had listened to my own advice. But there is still time to buy, buy, buy. People have been complaining about Yang and wanting him out of the decisions circle. Now he is out and I can only imagine that the stoke will continue going up as the company finds new leadership or is bought or merged with another one. I would like that company to be Microsoft.

CrunchBase Information on Yahoo

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You can request an invite via two methods;

1. You can leave me a comment on the blog post about the website you are interested in.
2. You can use the Invites request form on the Invites page, where you can request invites to multiple services at once.

Either method will get you an invite, IF they are still available. If I run out of invites I will look into getting more, but not all web sites will be willing to share more. If you have invites that you would liek to share, either let me know and I will let you know when someone wants one, or just comment on one of the invites offer posts for others to get a hold of you. In cases when you have invites to a web site that I have not posted about, contact me and I will make a post about it.

Last time I saw my dad was at the Sofia airport in Bulgaria in August of 1998. Since that time I have talk to him on the phone, but I have seen only 1 picture of him and that was probably 4 or so years ago. I was very excited to see him and I really wanted for him to see me! Thankfully I had Amanda’s web cam.

Skype is just a technology. There are many other methods making video conferencing possible. Skype is simply one of the more popular ones.

No matter the methods, the moment we were able to see each other was overwhelming with joy. I can’t wait to do it again.

CrunchBase Information on Skype

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Personally I don’t care that there is a lack of ashtrays, but I do not think that it is fair to those who have chosen the slow suicide. Yes it is an option to order one, but what if you are reselling the car. Some people won’t buy the car for the lack of one. I suppose it is a marketing and economic decision. If the manufacturer does not have to make the space for it, they won’t. Same goes for spending money on the materials to make it.

I just find this trend strange. What do you think? What new trends have you picked up on that have surprised you?

If I reject a trade then the system should record which items were involved, what type they were and their condition. Don’t offer me similar trade and at times involving the exact same items days later.

Have any of you experienced this same issues? What do you like or dislike about the service? Let me know with a comment or two below. Looking at Swaptree’s forums, I see plenty of unhappy people.

Veterans Day - November 11

Today November 11 is Veterans Day. You can find more information on the VA web site, and if you would like to read the history of Veterans Day. There are variety of veterans’ charities and organizations you can support and become a member of.

Luckily I’m not easily bothered by my environment, because I realize and understand cause and effect. I am a human, I evolve and adapt. Kind of contradictory to the leading sentence, but every once in awhile there are moments that help keep oneself in check.

The way out is through progress and opportunity. Sometimes they just happen at slower pace than one might want them to progress at. Therefore patience is a virtue, remaining calm “and collect” is a nice bonus.

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WTF HP? But I am determined to find a way to get the recovery performed.

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I contacted their support staff and my conversation follow:

[11:39] yvebts: Hello
[11:40] ad4game: hi
[11:41] yvebts: I am trying to register on ad4game.com as a publisher, but your system will not accept my city, because the name has a space in it
[11:41] yvebts: I can’t use - or _ because they are not accepted characters
[11:42] ad4game: just use no space
[11:42] ad4game: or write
[11:42] ad4game: space
[11:42] ad4game: we will adjust it
[11:42] ad4game: what is your website please?
[11:42] yvebts: OK. thank you
[11:43] yvebts: hivemindsgaming.com and clanmp.us
[11:51] ad4game: allright
[11:51] ad4game: i see you havent finished registering yet
[11:53] yvebts: I will attempt to complete the registration at a latter time. Thank you for you assistance.

Even though I know that I can send a letter to any one address in the US just by writing down the ZIP code and 4 digit extension, I wouldn’t write “space” in the name, because it will irritate me when I see it printed on the envelop. I have observed and have experienced the results of doing something silly like that and from people making assumptions. To top that, I have seen some really odd town names, so if they actually have someone who manually enters the address, why would they think of changing the town name?

Lastly, I tried registering last night and right before I typed this post. They still have not fixed this. As a company that claims to have been in the game advertising business for over 5 years you would think that they are quick to respond and fix issues in their system. Ad4Games.com, if you ever read this, if you have really been in the business for over 5 years just think about the number of publishers you have lost on. Even worse, the amount of revenue from advertisers you have lost on, because your advertiser sign up form has the same issue. I am not going to register until this is fixed. Probably eventually I will forget about your site and will not register at all.

BTW, what does “… been in the gaming industry for more than 5 years.” mean? You have been designing, developing, selling, promoting …. games?!

UPDATE (2008-10-27): It appears that the type of character limitations in the sign up form has been fixed. When I was signing up I noticed that Ad4Game had made a positive step in password security by mandating that passwords be alphanumeric. Good job.

What do you think? Take the following poll, please:

I recently had oysters produced and canned in China, and they weren’t very good. There were bits and peaces of shells. I had to go to a more expensive store to buy ones that were made and canned in Germany. I can tell you now that the quality was significantly different . From the size of the oysters to the quality of the oil there were in - just an unparalleled improvement.

What king of sea food do you like? Have you had similar experience with can foods?