Thoughts on the 2011 New England Boat Show

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I shot plenty of video as I walked around the 2011 Boat Show with my two daughters, but I haven’t had time to post edit and honestly, I’m not sure it’s all that good to begin with.  My hand shake (essential tremor) has gotten bad enough that I don’t think I should be handling the lens work anymore.

My initial thought was that there were a whole lot more ski and sun boats this year.  The true coastal fishing machines were somewhat few and far between.  In general, I found the prices on most of the boats utterly shock worthy, enough that I question who has the money to spend on a 42′ boat that’s north of (touching pinky to chin in the best Dr. Evil I can manage) $1 MILLLION DOLLARS.  I guess that’s a good way to weed out the folks who would have trouble tossing a grand or two into the fuel tanks a weekend.

The good:

  • J-Way Diesel of Scituate offering Diesel Engine Courses for boaters - If you can’t do basic triage on your engine you shouldn’t be running one.
  • Allied Boat Works WB-20 – A no nonsense, no frills 20′ center console with a good casting platform, clear deck and sqat console, for under the price of the truck you’d tow it with.
  • Rampage 34 – now available with IPS Pod Drives – you absolutely have to check out their video of them dancing the boat around.  It doesn’t squat when you back down on a fish, and is the most nimble boat in that size I’ve ever seen (oh wait, this is the web, why don’t I just show you…)
    YouTube Preview Image

The Bad:

  • Edgewater Boats getting $65,000 for a 20′ center console –   Seems like the decimal point is in the wrong spot there. I love the boat, but the price point on this and so many others is wayyyyy out there.
  • Sealegs – the boat with wheels – an amphibious rigid inflatable center console.  So you can drive to the water in your boat.  Really?  Again, let’s go to the video…
    YouTube Preview Image
  • Starcraft, my beloved Starcraft…only showing a handful of mundane center consoles…with FIBERGLASS hulls.  Maybe its the economy, maybe NE just doesn’t hold my affinity for aluminum boats, but not seeing a decent aluminum boat makes me feel empty inside.
  • Me for pulling a rookie mistake and wearing work boats (we’d had 2 inches of snow the night before) instead of boat shoes.  Dumb, dumb, dumb…

The Ugly

  • Guy getting in a fist fight with a parking attendant when he asked to park for a second at the side of the hall, was turned away, then the attendant let the next car park.  Literally, the guy got out and chased down the attendant.  Wonder how he like the police station…
  • The Boston Convention Center -  who employs something like half of Southie: perhaps they could find someone with the technical prowess to plunge a toilet once in a while.

I’m sure there were a lot of other monsterously priced center consoles, but here’s my take: for $65k, I’d give up and start chartering exclusively.

Boat dealers, you know where the comment form is…many of you will remember it from last year…flame on.

Not enough?  Here are the reports from last year and the year before…

Random 2010 Boat Show Thoughts

The New England Boat Show 2009

Making Shopping Carts Suck Less

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I found this  brilliant graphic over at oatmeal (hat tip to Matt Brodeur for pointing the site out) and it hits on a subject that’s been on my mind the past couple days: shopping carts that suck.

The oatmeal crews has definitely hit the nail on the head, so much so that I forwarded the thing over to the other Senior Engineer I work with as well as our Front End Design Lead, intending it as a subject for Monday discussion.  Unfortunately, we fail on numerous of these items today, I’m sorry to report.

I don’t normally copy the full content of something like this, but I have to say, it’s too important not to in this case.

Adventures in Comment Moderation – How to be “That Guy” on Facebook

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Most of us never even realize it, but Facebook allows us to moderate the comments that show up against our posts.  In the base usage, it is very important as it allows you to remove the comments your college roommate posted containing links to the pics of you doing belly shots off an Asian hooker in Vegas last week when your boss thought you were home sick.

The problem is that it makes us all Online Community Moderators, and even worse, untrained, and potentially unprincipled Online Community Managers at that.  Luckily, most of Facebook users appear to get it;  they leave their comment stream alone, or only delete the occasional offending post “for cause.”

…when you attempt to control the discussion, it ceases to be a discussion, it becomes a lecture…

There are others, however, who treat their comment stream with a more Stalinist view.  It’s “agree with me, or you won’t be seen with me” for them.  You’ve probably run across them in the past, and not even noticed.  Have you ever posted a comment, only to find hours later that it disappeared?  Does it happen every once in a while, generally with the same Facebook “friend”?

You’ve run into “That Guy.”  You too can be “That Guy” by following a few simple tips (in Madlib format, select the one that applies):

  • Have an agenda.  We all want to hear all about being (conservative/progressive/a grateful dead head/transgender) all the time.
  • Flood our streams with your words of wisdom.
  • Take us to task for not being as (conservative/progressive/grateful dead head/transgender) as you are.
  • TYPE IN CAPS because we’re too stupid to read your missives in lower case.
  • Accept no comments other than “Right on”, “You rule” or “I wish I was you.”  Delete the rest.
  • If you are unfortunately called out on something simple, like the fact that bipeds walk on two feet, not three, delete the post and all the comments, rather than fessing up.
  • Routinely suggest that anyone that disagrees with you should be (flogged/shot/tarred and feathered) then blame everyone else for fostering a culture of violence.
  • By all means, block anyone that appears to disagree with you.

Here is the sum of my 16 years in Online Community Management: when you attempt to control the discussion, it ceases to be a discussion, it becomes a lecture, and that pisses people off and makes you look like a fool.

 

The Blog is Dead, Long Live the Blog!

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Over the weekend, The New York Times proclaimed that blogging is dead.  I guess with their vast experience working with dead and dying media, they’d probably be able to recognize a fellow dinosaur headed for an early grave…

All kidding aside, they’ve hit on something.  The days when everyone and their brother gets into blogging are probably over.  A year or two ago many “blogging gurus” would tell us that “we’re all media now”.  The truth of the thing is that most of us don’t have that stuff in us.  It’s one thing to configure wordpress and throw up a few posts, and quite another to update the thing on a regular basis.

I’d know, I’ve been doing this since 1995 or so.  I’ve been through a few cycles where I lost steam, and the post volume slowed to a crawl.  I’ve also setup hundreds of blogs for other people, and honestly, I will tell you right now, I cannot tell at the outset of any project who will be part of the magic 25% that are still updating their blog 6 months later.  And in that other 75% a good portion never update after the first week.

The important thing here is that blogging has gone from being ultra-kewl to being one more electronic communication means with it’s own pros and cons. Very useful for somethings and utterly useless for others.

The days of blogging to be cool are over.  Time for all the gurus and SMDBs to check out and head onto the next big thing, whatever that is.

Yes, comments have virtually dried up over the past year or so on many blogs.  Yes, most of the discussion about my posts now goes on in my Facebook account, away from the mainstream.

It makes blogging no less important.  Think of the blog as your personal long tail.  It is the bit of you that is indexed in Google, that unique bit that is both an opening of yourself to the world at large, as well as a living record of your life online.

Think of the blog as what it was when we invented the thing, a simple online journal. Forget what the gurus tell you, you don’t have to “be the expert.” Being yourself is good enough…and often that’s the part of your blog we like the most.

How to be a New Englander

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It’s that time of year. When New Englander’s come into their own, and the cursed southern interlopers are forced to suffer.  Indeed, it’s winter in New England.

To help you get in touch with your inner New Englander, a list:

  1. Don’t complain about the snow.  You’re not a New Yorker, for God’s sake.
  2. If the storm drops less than 6″ of snow, make sure everyone knows “it’s not worth  shoveling, let alone plowing.”
  3. Whenever someone complains about the snow, grunt, and say something cryptic like “That ain’t snow, now ’78, that was snow…7 feet deep, heavy as concrete and harder than steel.”
  4. If the temperature is anything above -20 and someone complains about the cold, loudly profess that “it’s a fine New England day.”
  5. Dress in layers and only wear what you need.  Use suitably New England fabrics, like wool, or better yet, burlap.
  6. Find a hat that’s functional, yet completely devoid of style.  Extra points are given for real fur (that you trapped yourself) and plaid.
  7. Disparage anyone who uses anything other than “Bear Grease” to waterproof their boots.
  8. Insist that “Bear Grease” is only made with the finest of bears…
  9. If clam chowder is any thicker than milk, complain that “it’s not chowder, it’s wallpaper paste.”
  10. If clam chowder has any herbs at all in it, call it “vegetable soup”.
  11. If clam chowder is red in color, proclaim the cook “a heathen who ought not to be seen north of the Tavern on the Green.”
  12. If the clam chowder meets the above criteria, and is generally good, declare it “edible, but not as good as my mothers.”
  13. If presented with a “boiled dinner” be sure to complain if it’s got a ham in it, instead of smoked shoulder.  Refuse to admit that there is no substantive difference between the two.
  14. If someone stops for directions in a car with a Yankees sticker, or wearing a Yankees hat, feel free to give them turn by turn directions to the town dump…three towns away.

How to Buy a Domain Name for Your Business

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<Disclosure: I work for Namemedia, as Senior Engineer for Afternic.com, the premier marketplace for the secondary domain name market in the world.  As such, I tend to recommend Afternic and other Namemedia services.>

The Business Owners Lament: “All the good domain names are already registered.”

Yes, indeed, the initial land grab in the domain name market has been over for some time.  Most of the really good names are, indeed, already registered.  That doesn’t mean that they aren’t available, though.  You need to look on the secondary market.

Before we go any further, I should define a couple terms:

  • Primary Market - names that currently are not registered.  These are available via the traditional registrars like GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, eNom, etc.  Search these guys first, in case the name you need for your business is available.
  • Secondary Market – names that are already registered but available for sale are often listed through the secondary market at sites like Buydomains.com. These “premium domains” are held by either domain investors, or currently owned by one of the registrars may have re-registered the name when the initial registration expired.
  • Domainer, or Domain Investor -  a person or company who buys and sells domain names, treating them as investment properties.  Domain names are analogous to real estate investments…but the real estate is on the Internet.
  • SEO - Search engine optimization – specific coding, content and onsite tactics designed to ensure that your site is visible in Google’s “natural search” rankings (in contrast to Google Adwords, which are paid placements).
  • Organic Traffic – traffic that comes because someone typed a specific search term into a search engine such as Google or Bing.  Type in “candy” as a search term…the results that you see in the middle of the page are “organic results”
  • Direct Traffic—traffic that comes from someone typing your domain name directly into the search bar—that is typing “candy.com” versus doing a search for candy
  • TLD – top level domain, for example .com, .edu or .org are all TLDs, in fact they are three of the originals.
  • ccTLD – a country code TLD – such as .co.uk or .it *(Italy).

As I note above, search the primary market first, and if the name you need is available, buy it.  Domain names do not get any cheaper than this…if it’s there, pat yourself on the back, because you just got a bargain.

What’s a good Domain Name for my business?

Ah, the age old question.  It really depends what you expect your site to do for your business.  We may want a site name that fits with our companies brand or name, such as “SmithSeptic.com” or perhaps we want something that is more descriptive of the service we provide, such as “SepticPumping.com”.  For local businesses, I often recommend they go with something that is both descriptive of their service as well as their location, like “WalthamSepticPumping.com” which will give them a lot of help in terms of SEO.

Increasingly it is the case that savvy businesses are pursuing a “multi-domain strategy” to ensure that they are found by prospective customers. So, in the example above, a smart business owner might opt to purchase “SmithSeptic.com”, “SepticPumping.com”, “WalthamSepticPumping.com” and other, related, terms such as “AffordableSepticPumping.com”  It is also a good idea to purchase multiple TLDs: e.g. buy the “.net” along with the “.com” and other variations of your desired names.

Things to consider:

  • Don’t limit yourself, you can (and in some businesses, should) have more than one domain name.
  • Short domain names are easier to remember than longer domain names.
  • Some names are just too long to be worth discussing.  Last week we had a request for “AdamsRoofingandConstructionRepairinMelbourne.com”.  The guy gets points for trying to hit all the relevant keywords, but the chance of anyone, ever, typing that into the address bar of a browser correctly is minimal. Not to mention the extra paint he’d need to get it put on his truck.
  • Some domain names are too broad.  If you are a lawyer and your work is almost exclusively done in Waltham, buying Lawyer.com would be a waste.  Think more along the lines of “WalthamLawyer.com”.

The Secondary Domain Name Market

So you didn’t find a decent domain name in the primary market.  Not to fear, there are still plenty of great domains available; you just need to look on the secondary market.

The first reaction I usually here from business owners about the secondary domain market is that “the prices are so much higher!”  Indeed, versus a primary registration,  “aftermarket” names will be priced higher.  The reason is simple: good domain names have value.  Great domain names have even greater value.

Consider how you acquire customers, and what you currently pay to acquire the customers. If you typically spend $50-100 per new customer acquired in direct mail, advertising, or radio, for example, an investment of $5,000 that yields you just 20 customers per month, just 5 per week, will cost you about $20 for the first year and likely much less in subsequent years.  Quite a bargain—and since research indicates that nearly half of all smaller businesses are not online—your presence may also help you to win customers away from your competitors who are not online.

In business, we’re always after great value.  If the right domain name is important to your business, then paying for the best is going to be worth it.

To get started, you’ll want to go to Afternic.com (the site I work with) and start searching.  Don’t buy the first name you see, really do your homework and see what’s available for sale and try to find the perfect domain.  We’re currently listing 3,596,444 domain names and it’s a pretty good bet there’s a one (and likely a whole lot) that will meet your needs in there.  You’ll see that there are filters on the left hand side of the site; you likely want to add some filters to your search to cut down on the list of names displayed.

Once you distill your list of names down and you’re ready to buy, you’ve got a couple of options.  Most of our domains have a “Buy Now” price – that’s a price that the buyer has agreed to sell the domain for immediately.  No haggling, no problems.  You just click the button and the domain purchase process begins.

We also support auctions and often you won’t see a “Buy Now” button so you’ll be able to make an offer.  You can also participate in closing soon auctions of domain names, etc.

Personally, if I want a domain name, I buy it then and there if I can.

You may also want to pick up the phone and call the account managers for assistance; they’ve helped thousands of business owners find suitable online monikers over the years and they can also offer you advice about “next steps” once you’ve secured the perfect domain name.

What’s This Domain Really Worth

Before you make on offer on an Auction you might want an assessment of what the domain name is really worth.  We offer a team of domain appraisal experts who will give you a nuts and bolts assessment of the domain’s real market value.

As with many of our other services, this is also available as a separate service, even if you are looking at a domain we don’t have listed.

I Want a Specific Domain and It’s Not Listed

I think this is one of the coolest features of Afternic.  We offer “Afternic Agent Service” which means that we will locate the owner of any domain and make an offer on your behalf.  This is tremendous for a couple reasons:

  • The service can be anonymous, which we sometime need in business
  • Our experienced agents know how to find the owners
  • They are highly experienced in negotiating domain sales
  • They make deals happen

Purchasing Your Domain

When you’ve clicked that “buy now” button or you have won your domain auction, the domain name escrow process begins.  Afternic’s secure process protects both buyer and seller—ensuring that no money, nor any domains change hands until the transaction is verified. The secure transfer is included with any purchases made through Afternic.com or BuyDomains.com, but you can also utilize Afternic’s secure escrow service for any domain transaction.

Thoughts on Joining the World of Android

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Over the weekend I made the switch to the HTC Evo 4g on the Sprint network.  I still have the iPhone, but will be using it as a glorified iPod Touch after a serious run in with AT&T’s much Byzantine labyrinth of customer support.

The good:

  • Both front and back facing cameras
  • It seems like a more serious piece of technology
  • The screen is better than the iPhone
  • The camera is 8 megapixels, with built in flash
  • Turn by turn navigation
  • Tremendous integration with Google apps
  • Speech recognition that works – I can actually do things by voice now
  • Wireless hotspot – now my old iPhone and iPad can work in wireless mode
  • This seems like a much more serious piece of gear than the iPhone

The bad:

  • Lots of apps, but missing some of the ones I liked best on the iPhone, like Concert Vault
  • The battery life is incredibly short – seriously, an add on battery pack is needed here
  • I see a lot of error messages from the background
  • On error messages the buttons say “force close” which is a term that will be foreign to most users

For the record, the AT&T Customer Disservice guy I was talking to went the extra mile to make sure I’d have an extra hard time transferring my line.  Luckily, after my Twitter tirade,  the ATT social media crew helped to get me fixed.   This all on the same day that the WSJ reported Verizon was days away from having the iPhone.

For the record, AT&T should learn a few newspaper terms: “Churn”, “Retention” and “Honkin’ Big Loss of Revenue”.

A New Year

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I’m back to the grindstone after a week off for the holidays.

Things to expect here in the coming year:

  • More tech/development blogging
  • More frequent updates
  • A netcast or two when the situation warrants
  • More cute and cuddly weasels

Enjoy…

    • Twitter Just Became Relevant

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    I’ve got a long and storied history with Twitter.  At first, hated it.  Then loved it…and recently have been somewhat ambivalent.

    Personally I think the short form blog, which is what Twitter is, appeals to some of the very things that are wrong with modern society.  It’s designed for the ADHD generation, feeds the growing cults of personality, and in general, is a prime expediter of the dumbing down process.  The whole thing was designed to be scanned, not read, a very fact against which the writer in me is compelled to rebel.  Beyond that, I attribute it to the ongoing decline of blogs and blog commenting.

    That was until I saw a new app for the iPad called Flipboards (free).  This app takes your twitter and facebook feeds, as well as just about anything else RSS and on the fly retrieves the summary data from the links which are embedded and constructs an online newspaper format for you to read it in.

    So now, instead of reading a limited 140 character post, with an unintelligible shortened url, the app pulls down all the content, pictures and all and creates a very user friendly representation of the data.

    That’s the point at which the world changed…

    Now instead of this:

    I get this:

    (Sorry for the blurry photo – it’s actually visually stunning, but I had to take the pic with my iPhone in my dark cubicle and with my hand tremor in full force today, that’s as good as it gets)

    Overnight, that makes Twitter (and Facebook) a crowd-sourced news clipping service which brings me all the news that’s fit to link.

    Oh, and by the way, RSS is dead as a reading format.  It’s now a cross-site content transfer language.

    Try it, I think you’ll be as blown away as I am.

    The Reinfather Trilogy

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    <This post has become our annual xmas season special.  Enjoy…and may yoose keep ya’s noses clean, be good earners and stay in the good graces of the Reinfather for another year.>

    Last night was the annual broadcast of the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer animation, which no doubt many of the parents in the audience had to sit through.  So today, I share the classic MadTV “The Reinfather Trilogy” with you…

    Warning: Extreme violence, incredibly vulgar langauge, blasphemy, poor table manners and in general none of these three videos should be played if you are prone to being offended, have small children near you, or will get in trouble for laughing out loud.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-qM78XinyE (embedding is disabled on this one…)

    Raging Rudolph – Goodfellas Parody

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    The Reinfather – Godfather Parody

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    A Pack of Gifts Now – Apocalypse Now Parody