Good News
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
A friend and colleague just got a most enviable job. In terms of companies, it's like she's won the UI Designer lottery, but it was her experience and tenacity — not luck — that got her there.
In fact, that whole lottery metaphor is way off. Anyway...
Congrats, V, and good luck in Cali.
48 Hours
Friday, March 24, 2006
Well, I got this warm and fuzzy response today:"Thank you for your email. We have reinstated your account for 48 hours to allow you to update your contact information. If you fail to update it with valid information in 48 hours, your domain will returned to a cancelled status."
In other words:
"Please, please, please forget to check your Hotmail account for 48 hours so we can keep and sell your totally sweet domain for one-hundred billion dollars!"
But I ask, why? Why is this even a policy of the domain host? As I said earlier, they're the ones with all my contact information. Why isn't, say, ICANN policing domain contact information? Aren't they the ones concerned about tracking down those unsavory types?
And let's assume that domain hosts everywhere have a deal with ICANN to perform this function in order to distribute the workload. Shouldn't the hosts only be responsible for identifying the offending domains (and not just the valuable ones) and forwarding the offending domains to ICANN or some intermediary to handle?
And finally, why 48 hours? What company gives anyone only 48 hours to do anything? Those are more like loan-shark turnaround times. I certainly felt like my domain host was threatening break my virtual legs if I didn't follow through.
What an awesome business relationship this experience has built. I'm considering going back to my old domain hosting company. They were smaller and more expensive, but I'd only had pleasant interactions with them.
Always After Me Coveted Domain
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment, but my domain hosting company may very well have lost a customer or worse. I have eight domains with them, all of them "automatically renewing." We were veritable lifetime business partners. At least, you'd think they'd try to keep my business. The issue right now is that one of those eight domains was cancelled. By them. It's no longer in my account. I have no control over it.The hosting company asserts that I didn't follow the fine print in the service agreement about my contact information. It generally states that if my contact info isn't up-to-date, then they have the option of canceling my domain (i.e., taking ownership of the offending domain, I'm certain).
Let me tell you about that contact info: It had a valid e-mail address (unfortunately, one that I hadn't checked in about a month due to us tending to a newborn child, but it is valid and active), a mostly valid snail mail address that says "Norway" instead of "USA" for some ungodly reason, my real name, and a phony phone number (1111111111) because I'd like at least some privacy. So it's not perfect, but it still gives you some options for contacting me. (Anyone with two braincells to rub together can tell that my address is in the U.S., not Norway.)
So one might assume the hosting company is just strict about their service agreement, but there is a shady part to all this. The above contact information was applied to all eight of my domains, which includes the one they cancelled. Why would my hosting company pick on one particular domain and leave the rest alone? Perhaps because I had seven average domain names and one highly coveted domain. I'll let you guess which one they chose to take from me.
Sigh...
So, I've called them and subsequently sent an e-mail and am now waiting to hear their end of it. Already I've used two channels to communicate with them versus their single inconspicuous e-mail sent to a single e-mail account despite the fact that the hosting company itself has my home telephone number, home address, billing information, alternate e-mail address and God-knows-what other information. Best case scenario, they say, "Oh, we were just being strict and that domain was luck of the draw. Please take it back with our apologies and update all of your contact info." Then I say, "Thank you," and cautiously take my domain back into custody... The worst case scenario probably involves lawyers and a lot of blog posts.
Postwash Prefix
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
So, this is my second attempt at making my second post. The first ended in disaster when I tried to spellcheck it. Internet Explorer's security subsystem sprang to life, alerting me that some damn popup was trying to open without my permission. I patted the subsystem on the head, gave it a treat, and told it to allow all popups from this site. The subsystem looked at me quizzically, as if to ask, "Are you sure you want to allow all popups from this site?" I nodded. The browser complied and subsequently refreshed the page sans freshly written content.Don't fret though, my first attempt wasn't that great anyway. It was about how I'd just done dishes, cleaned the kitchen, etc. and was about to go fix my own computer the rest of the way. (It's partially fixed, but for some reason is booting from my F: drive... everything works fine, but it just feels wrong booting from anything but C:.)
Now I just need to fight the urge to play GTA: San Andreas. I beat the game, but I've only discovered around 76% of the total game content according to the status screen. 76%! And that's after logging around 86 hours of gameplay. So now I'm improving my cycling skill and endurance so I can win the triathlon, plus taking over 'hoods and generally causing mayhem across the virtual world that is San Andreas. In summary, I beat the game, but cannot put it down. GTA is crack.
and lo, a blog is born
Greetings. Salutations. Etcetera.Goodnight.