John Beagle

Turkey Traffic in Monroe

2009-10-25T18:37:00.001-07:00

Turkey Traffic in Monroe
Originally uploaded by John Beagle

These wild turkeys were meeting in the middle of Nickel Road in Monroe, Ohio and they didn't want to move.

I got my camera out and eased my car through the turkey traffic jam. If I were a turkey hunter, I could have fed my entire neighborhood.

Maybe I'll wait a few weeks to harvest one of these wild Monroe turkeys, closer to Turkey Day.

Oregonia to Roxanna Bike Path

2009-08-18T14:32:00.001-07:00

Oregonia to Roxanna Bike Path, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

I started a bike path blog a little over a year ago.

Since then I have ridden on bike paths in South Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, and my favorites in Ohio. Actually, Ohio has some very good bike paths. My favorite is the 76 Mile Little Miami Bike Path.
Along the Little Miami River Bike path is the Xenia Bike Station where 5 bike paths converge.

Last week I took this video of my bike trip from Morrow to Oregonia.

Full Flickr Photo Set - Oregonia to Roxanna Bike Path

SMX Seattle Me and Dave Dugdale

2009-06-06T10:23:00.001-07:00

SMX Seattle John and Dave Dugdale, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

Dave Dugdale helps people find homes for rent at his very popular website, RentVine. So naturally, I would want to hear about his rental SEO efforts and he would want to hear about my efforts to rent technology to businesses with my website, Rentacomputer.com.

Dave also goes by the name, "Solar Dave" making him one of my 'greenest' friends.

Three years ago, Danny Sullivan started SMX and this was the third year we both attended SMX Advanced in Seattle. Who want's to miss anything Danny has to say about Advanced SEO? Not me.

Steve Markle Runs the 2009 Boston Marathon

2009-05-01T11:20:00.001-07:00

Boston Marathon 645, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

The Boston Marathons bill's itself as 'The World's Oldest Marathon.' The 1896 Olympic marathon distance of 24.8 miles was based on the distance run, according to famous Greek legend.

The marathon distance was later changed as a result of the 1908 Olympic Games in London. That year, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria wanted the marathon race to begin at Windsor Castle outside the city so that the Royal family could view the start. The distance between the castle and the Olympic Stadium in London proved to be 26 miles. Organizers added extra yards to the finish around a track, 385 to be exact, so the runners would finish in front of the king and queen's royal box.

Every Olympic marathon run since the 1908 Games has been a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards.

I don't know how he managed to do it, but my brother-in-law, Steve finished the race with a time of 3:42:50 finishing 11081 in his division. That is an average speed of 8:30 per mile. This includes heartbreak hill where many a marathoner has dropped out because it is about 2/3 into the run.

Congratulations Steve on finishing in the upper half of your division!

Here are my 659 Photos from the Boston Marathon.

Dayton Tea Party Protester

2009-04-16T10:48:00.001-07:00

Dayton Tea Party Protester, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

This grandpa is the last person one would expect to protest. But here he is out protesting at the Dayton Tea Party on West 3rd and Main Streets. He was one of several thousand republicans and democrats who came together to protest against higher taxes.

Thousands of people left work early to participate on the planned national Tea Partly event taking place in nearly 1000 cities in the United States.

Conservatives, who are usually working and have little time for political nonsense, decided that they have had enough taxes and spending by this administration and this congress.

People were fired up as they stood up for themselves against the ignorance of those who want higher taxes and bigger government.

Here is a video of the event: Dayton Teaparty Video

This is the first protest I had ever attended. Everyone I spoke to also said that they have never protested before. The time has come in the first time in history, for conservatives to protest.

This ain't no Vietnam war protest, but it is a war protest nonetheless. Perhaps this protest will be heard by those who do not know and do not care. Perhaps for once, with facts not fists, we can convince the uninformed that high taxes hurt everyone.

Here are more photos from the event.

Goodbye Julian Sandler, Business Associate and Friend

2009-03-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

The computer rental industry lost a good friend last week, Julian Sandler. Julian was founder, president and CEO of SmartSource Computer and Audio Visual Rentals, formerly Rent-A-PC.

Julian was a pioneer in the computer rental industry, starting Rent-A-PC in 1984, the same year IBM introduced the IBM AT. He started one of the computer rental industry's first companies. I started my company, Rentacomputer.com (Formerly Rent-A-Computer) 3 years later in 1987.

He grew his Rent-A-PC organization by hard work, organic growth and acquisitions. Under his leadership, the company made 16 acquisitions and currently has 22 full-service locations nationwide with more than 250 employees.

I met Julian two times at International Technology Rental Association (ITRA) meetings. Due to his illness, he was unable to attend this year's meeting.

The last time I met Julian was in San Diego at the Coronado Island Marriot Resort. There I really got to know the wit, wisdom and charm of Julian Sandler.

Dinner Tour of San Diego Harbor

About 50 ITRA conference attendees took a Dinner cruise of the San Diego Harbor. I had the pleasure of sitting down across from Julian for dinner and speaking with him at length. You could tell he was South African, or British by his accent. He had a charming way with words. At evenings end, I was thoroughly impressed by his wit, wisdom and knowledge of the industry.

He was a gentleman who was firm in his ideas, yet diplomatic in his conversations about business, politics, economics and life. He never bragged about his education or success, yet he had much to brag about. Unbelievably, Julian had a Ph.D. degree in experimental nuclear physics! SmartSource is estimated to have done over $55 Million USD in 2008, which would put his company near or at the top of the computer rental industry.

Julian Sandler was a man of charm, optimism and grace.

Goodbye my friend. Your knowledge and wisdom will live with me, the members of the ITRA and the computer rental industry always.

Peace and goodwill be with you, your friends and your family.

MainStreetMonroe.com Night at the Red Onion

2009-03-18T06:50:00.001-07:00

John Beagle Guest Bartender, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

In 1998 I got this crazy idea to make a website about my little town, Monroe, Ohio. I came up with the name MainStreetMonroe.com because there indeed was a Main Street in Monroe.

Now 11 years later, Main Street Monroe and The Voice have 1000s of unique visitors every day. It is the best place to pickup the latest news and opinions about Monroe life.

The Red Onion Restaurant is owned and operated by Mark Bursley and Gary Henz. I would rate the food 5 stars. Chef Henz was formerly the chef at the Maisonette so now this place is called by some, "The Maisonette of Monroe."

It was great to see so many Voice posters. Supper was JD Steak or Meatloaf. That's what the Voice posters voted on . The meatloaf could feed a family of 4.

I donated my tips to Light up the Sky for the Fourth of July I made $300.00, not bad.

Thanks Mark, Gary, Jill for letting me be the guest bartender!

International Technology Rental Association Conference

2009-02-09T14:49:00.001-08:00

ITRA 016, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

More than 50 people from the United States, Canada and the UK attended this years ITRA conference in Orlando, Florida this year.

The event's keynote speaker was Corbin Ball, an international technology advisor with 20 years experience running meetings. Corbin asks, "What's happening with technology and how will it directly affect me? "

Photo: Corbin Ball, Keynote Speaker

The answer took us down a high tech path of wikis, web 2.0, microblogging, radio frequency ID tags, virtural meetings, conference and trade shows.

Corbin's talk left most attendees overwhelmed with new ideas and information.

The board put together an excellent conference.

ITRA Board Members are in the photo (Left to Right): Wayne Springer, John Carnahan, Dan Kallen, Steve Shatsoff, Dave Veeder, Tom Hornyak, and Dennis Pugh.

Also vendors from HP, Samsung and others were at the trade show displaying the latest Tablet PCs, high tech printers and Video Walls.

Some of the people in attendance included:

Abcom Computer Rentals - Sonny Goyal
ABS Computer Rentals - Erik and Erika Wainiopaa
AC Technology, Inc. - Kathy Schultz
Atiwa Computing, Inc. - Wayne and DeDe Springer
Atlantix Global Systems - Tanya Adams and Sean Hutcheson
BMS Computer Rentals - Jerry and Chris Thompson
Computer Rentals, Etc. - Cuyler Tremayne, Rhonda Simien, Milko Figueroa
Computer Rental Systems - John Carnahan
Desktop Visual Products, Inc. - Rick Frandsen
DE Systems Ltd. - Dave Dugas
Hartford Computer Rental Co. - Dan Kallen
Hire Intelligence International Ltd. - Chris Hutber
Mac Rentals - Larry Langbort
MCR Integrated Technologies - Steve and Dena Mangum
MCR Rental Solutions - Dennis Pugh and Jack Brown
Meeting Tomorrow Audio Visual - Bill Powers
Computer Rent - Dave Wood
Micro Rental Service - Tom and Carol Hornyak
MicroStar - Doug Turner
PC Consultants of SW Michigan - Dick and Juanita Kohfeldt
RentAComputer.com - John and Susan Beagle, Darcy and John Mann
Rentfusion - Amit Parekh, Rhonwyn Godwin, Radha Singh
SmartSource - Steve Shatsoff, Julian Sandler, Niraj Jain, Robert and Jennifer Kastner
Rentsys - Laura Polasek and Chad Frank
Rush Computer Rentals - Electrorent - Dennis Clark, Craig Burgi, Rojer Bishop
Smart Computer Services - Robert Lowry and Will Lowry
Technology Rentals of America - Dave Veeder
Vernon Computer Source - Anthony C. Randazzo

We had 2 digital cameras provided by Meetings Tomorrow. A video is being put together that includes a brief introduction from many of the people mentioned above.

Many ITRA members are also members of the Tech Army Organization. All ITRA members have worked with Rentacomputer.com.

I have to say it is wonderful to have friends all over the world. Also thanks to Chad Frank from Rentsys, who played golf with me at Falcons Fire golf course near the convention.

John Boehner is Following Me on Twitter

2009-01-26T12:07:00.001-08:00

John Boehner visits Monroe, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

Last Summer I had the privilege of meeting John Boehner, one of his aids snapped this photo. Today, John Boehner started following me on Twitter. You to can follow us @JohnBoehner and @JohnBeagle on Twitter.

Twitter is a free social networking tool, its the most popular micro-blogging service on the Internet. Twitter.com

Today @JohnBoehner has 2431 followers with only 269 updates.
Congressman Boehner started tweeting on April 21, 2007.

Here is his first tweet:
Have an op-ed on TownHall.com: http://tinyurl.com/ytndvb
11:55 AM Apr 21st, 2007 from web

Being a local businessman and homeowner in Mr. Boehner's 8th Ohio District, I feel my voice is being heard in congress. That's because Mr. Boehner is pro-business. He knows that businesses like mine are the backbone of the economy and that taxes and regulation are literally squeezing the life out of small business.

Barack Obama surely has a lead on Twitter with 144,000 followers.

With efforts from people like John Boehner, and Top Conservatives on Twitter #tCOT, TopConservativesOnTwitter.org aka #TCOC, the conservative voice will be heard. We have a lot of work to do. Currently, Brooks Bayne @BrooksBayne is the #TCOC having 20,488 followers at last count.

All told, there are very few republican congressmen on this list or on Twitter to say the least. I am calling all republican congressman to post comments on twitter. Keep your constituency informed.

(John Boehner is rated 77th on #TCOT)

Jamica Mon

2009-01-05T11:39:00.001-08:00

Jamica Mon, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

Last year we invited Mongolian Exchange students into our home.
More: Mongolian Music Friends

This year, our family met people from Jamica. The photo is of my son, Bobby demonstrating his knowledge of the culture, Rastafarianism*. Don't worry, be happy.

*Some Rastafari wear their hair in an untended, uncut condition called dreadlocks. They generally believe in the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. He is said to be the true descendant of Solomon, and precepts are shared amongst followers as folklore.

I'm Stuck in the Middle

2008-12-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

I'm stuck in the middle of Monroe and Middletown. That's me with the US flag tie and disgusted look on my face, watching our town fight itself, neighboring Middletown and the areas largest employer, AK Steel. I'm stuck because I own a business in Middletown and live in Monroe. I'm damned if I take either side of this argument.

It all started when AK Steel decided it wanted to partner with SunCoke for coke and electricity.
Discussion: SunCoke Plant - Commission Vote March 26, 2008

Since then, things have gone steadily downward. Monroe Council has obtained legal council to fight the building of what AK Steel says is necessary for its survival. Union members who live in Monroe ask why their jobs are being blocked by Council. Residents ask why SunCoke has to build their plant on the boarder with Monroe.

Either Middletown will win and many residents of my hometown will see their quality of life go down or Monroe will win and AK may close down, jobs will be lost.

Today, residents attack the local paper on this Voice Post: Middletown Journal, or is it the AK Journal?

I hope this ends soon. Either way, many people will be unhappy.

Permalink: http://www.johnbeagle.com/2008/12/im-stuck-in-middle-of-monroe-and.html

Still Renting Computers after 21 years

2008-12-04T07:10:00.001-08:00

room camera shot, originally uploaded by Xponex.

People always ask me what I do for a living. When I tell them I rent computers, they usually scratch their head and ask why.

"Why would anyone ever want to rent a computer?," they ask.

One good example is classroom computer training. Renting is far easier and cheaper than owning for off-site training. This is a wonderful environment to train staff from all over the world.

My company installs computers, networks, projectors and even the IP surveillance cameras in rooms like the one in the photo all over the world, but primarily in the US.

The computers are preloaded with the client company's software for training. All computers are networked and have the same specification.

This is just one example, there are many other examples of the cost effective and convenience advantages of renting computer and audio visual technology.

Call me crazy, but since 1987, I have non-stop, been renting computers to businesses in the United States, Canada and now Europe.

Visit Rentacomputer.com for more information.

Let us proclaim Thursday a Day of Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

Photo: Visitors we are thankful for this year.

This year a Thanksgiving Feast will be celebrated in our home.
As the head of the household, it is tradition for me to say a prayer of thanksgiving.

So here is my prayer :

Dear God,
It's Thanksgiving Day, so let us give thanks together.

Thank you for the turkey, mash potatoes and gravy we are about to receive.
...(Amen)

Thank you for our family and friends
Thank you for our visitors
Thank you for our pets, our homes and the fun we all have together
Thank you for the sun on the beach and greens on the golf courses
Thank you for our health and wealth and our optimism for both
Thank you for our time together

In Jesus' name we meet.
Amen

About Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving was not always celebrated in our country. For nearly one hundred years, the tradition dwindled. Thanks to Lincoln's urgings, Thanksgiving got a fixed date to be celebrated in the US.

Both Washington and Lincoln Proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and acknowledged the Almighty God and helped keep the spirit of Thanksgiving alive. Source: ConservativeTruth.org

Washington proclaimed "a DAY OF PUBLIC THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Lincoln called for Americans "to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

50 Twitter Twips from Webmaster World's Pubcon Vegas 2008

2008-11-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Warren Whitlock was the first person I met at Pubcon.

Below are all the twips I tweeted (notes I took) while at Pubcon last week. The actual tweet stream contains spelling errors plus additional commentary from me. All Pubcon tweeting was done via my cell phone so posts are short due to technological limitations.

There were multiple Pubcon conference tracks available. Tracks included SEO: Organic Search, SEM, Social Brand Networking, Web Hosting, Content, Advertising and others. I mostly attended social networking in Salon C.

It’s interesting what Zappos and Comcast are doing in the Twitter space. I might follow their example with my company too. Certainly I will be watching the efforts to fully benefit from micro-blogging.

My Pubcon Notes
If I heard a tip or good idea, I tweeted it. You can follow me,
JohnBeagle on Twitter.

Here are my PubCon Twitter Twips, in order as they appear:

1. warren wrote Twitter Revolution
2. rand ...yahoo buzz helped huffington post get traffic
3. rand... follow new president on twitter
4. rand...user profiles build good page rank you can leverage
5. gray...build trusted profile
6. pubcon social mktg seminar... try everything. see what works
7. gray..nohard selling on social sites but logos are ok
8. reach out to bloggers in the space
9. email neil patel for his slides on the dark side of social media
10. find people in the social media space and hire them
11. also hire interns and telecommuters’ to cut social media costs
12. see what google put in its database with key words and advanced search ...select 24 hrs
13. only 100 people can connect laptop at pubcon
14. easytweets is worth taking a look at for commercial social
15. pubcon lunch sucks but cloud computing with amazon dude was cool
16. amazon dude Mike Culver speaks tomorrow at pubcon
17. twitterers use the term ...tweet ...when posting they don’t twit
18. twitter has passed the one billion tweet milestone
19. zapos has 400 employees on twitter ...its in their culture
20. brian carter now up on pubcon stage blog + bookmarketing + twitter = optimization
21. propeller is pretty much useless ..buchard at pubcon
22. add digg vote button on posts so people can vote right away
23. only 6 to 8 stories from un-trusted domains get on hom page of digg ..Buchard
24. facebooks kent schoen speaking at pubcon 120m users
25. ugc user generated content is gold
26. bloggers hate technorati...Jenkins at pubcon
27. stumbleupon is a better social space
28. facebook connect digg ...good pubcon tip from Breslin
29. openid is a distributed login tool ...on list to try
30. "Twitter" #1 most talked about in Social Thread at #pubcon today
31. dont build a Frakensite -Ulle
32. know thy competitor with Bruce Clay
33. andy beal as james bond 'spy' with domintools.com
34. Bill Atchison 'noarchive' entire site
35. optimizing pdf for se by george aspland
36. comments count on video search - greg jarboe
37. spencer suggests multiple rss feeds on blogs such as comment rss
38. andy beal isnt afraid to post his true opinions on his blog
39. no one thinks blogging is going downhill at #pubcon
40. 9 to 10 am est is best time to post a blog -beal
41. lee odden keeps several drafts of posts going at all time
42. blog as often as u can - barry schwartz
43. have at lesat 3 bloggers on a blog - schwartz
44. LIVE search looks better than Yahoo
45. interview with bruce clay on live seach excel integration . its cool but no one will use it .
46. clay: word integration would be better
47. paid links need to be in relevant text. need to be the only paid link on the page
48. buy links directly from website owners - Lessnau
49. sometimes I buy links -fishkin
50. Chris Tolles fom topix advised to do as little moderating as possible

Mongolian Music Friends

2008-10-07T11:54:00.001-07:00

Mongolians Music AD Friends, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

Ankhaa and Dembee were visitors in our home last week. Ankhaa celebrated his 16th birthday on Sunday. Dembee already is 16. Neither boy spoke any english. Thumbs up was the first sign language we learned. Do you like this? Thumbs up or down?

While Ankhaa lives in a traditional house in town, Dembee lives in a ger in the countryside. Life is quite different in Monglolia. There is limited electricity and running water. But there are lots of cell phones.

Everything was an adventure. From taking showers to eating hamburgers like a sandwich, the boys received an education in our American ways. We played golf, basketball, and soccer with my 16 year old son, Bobby.

One night the boys made us a traditional Mongolian supper. They went shopping for the food. Prepared the food and then performed music on their Morin Khurr (horse head fiddle) for us. The attached video is the performance from last Thursday night in our Monroe, Ohio home.

Here is a video of their performance in our kitchen:
Mongolian Performance in Monroe, Ohio

John Ryan Beagle HS Graduation Speech

2008-09-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

My son, Valedictorian of Monroe Local Schools Class of 2008, gives a graduation speech.

John encouraged his classmates to "apply what you have learned, don't let the years you spent in high school go to waste." He references 70's philosophical lyrics from Pink Floyd's, "Time" here:

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

In conclusion, John said, "Always make the rest of your life, the best of your life."

Day 8 Held Hostage by Duke Energy

2008-09-19T10:36:00.001-07:00

breaker poll 007-crop, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

A 5 minute repair from Duke Energy could put mine and 10 other SMBs back in business. Many have called to report this.

This outage hurts tenants in the building which include Health Service Review, Christian Credit One, Adult Care, Amerprise, New Steel, Verizon, T-Moble, International Quality Health Care, Xponex Media, and others. All without power.

Small business is the backbone of Middletown. Right now 10 businesses are out of business. And will continue to be out of business until this is fixed.

Trucks drive right by our pole. I tried to flag one down as they drove by, but they just went on by.

Since last Sunday evening we have been feeding the generators to keep our server farm alive. I took a 2 to 5 am shift Monday refilling our gasoline powered generators.

As I type this, I'm still in the dark.

I hope we soon find power.
Is this the way things will be or might be?

My Seat at OSU Stadium

2008-09-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

Ohio State 012, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a stadium in college football that is as well-recognized simply by its shape. The OSU stadium is laid out in the shape of a horseshoe and has a capacity to seat 89,841 screaming fans. Source: OhioStateTix.com

I sit in row 9 (not bad) near the bottom of the "U" is a good place to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes. This game, against Ohio University, was an "All Ohio College Football Game" one that hadn't been played since 1999.

A new cheer that involves fan interaction was started this year with Youngstown State. Every time Ohio State gets a first, the scoreboard announcer says, “Gain of (blank) on the play and that’s another Buckeeeeeeeeeye … (crowd response) first down.”

Now its the second game, and I agree with Buckeye Commentary blog poster who says, … for the love of all things Ohio State, stop the call and response first down announcement from the scoreboard. Stop it. Right. Now.

Still, Buckeye games are fun. Tailgating is even funner.

Wrigley Field in Chicago

2008-08-22T13:22:00.001-07:00

Wrigley Field , originally uploaded by John Beagle.

We had seats 5 rows off the first base side and could see our Cincinnati Reds up close coming and going off the field.

Going to a Cubs game is an event. Much like a college football game, because there is a mass of people everywhere in and around the stadium. The streets were closed for foot traffic to all the great bars in town.

I want to do this again! Chicago rocks. Cubs won 5 to 0.

Grass Roots Economic Development in Middletown

2008-07-24T11:54:00.001-07:00

Bill Murphy Meeting 059, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

I was surprised the other day when Bill Murphy, the City of Middletown's Economic Director, called me and asked for an appointment.

Bill said he was on a mission to meet businesses in the city and find out what the city can do for them.

So, when he showed up today, he brought the president of Sawyer Realtors a 70 year old Middletown Company) , John Sawyer.

Also with Bill was Fred Debiasi. Fred sits on the board for the Chamber of Commerce and is the President of America Savings and Loan.

"We have to listen to our existing businesses first. We want to find out if the city can do anything to help. What can the city do for your company?" were the questions being asked.

We had a good brainstorming session. One thing we all agreed to do was to help get the good word out about Middletown, Ohio. To help people find Middletown through positive news. Businesses in Middletown need to share their good economic news, tell the real story of Middletown instead of the one the newspaper tells about car wrecks and social ills. That's not the real news of Middletown.

Real news is news such as job promotions, new products, locations and visions for the future. Middletown is located in a prime area for growth, midway between Cincinnati and Dayton. Locating your business in Middletown puts your business in the heart of the entire SW Ohio MSA (Cincinnati and Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area) .

We intend to distribute Middletown, Ohio news through the city's website and MiddletownUSA.com.

Lebanon Bike Path Under I-75 to Little Miami

2008-06-23T13:30:00.001-07:00

Lebanon Bike Path to Little Miami 218, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

I just realized that bike paths are generally publicly funded. Since I have been paying taxes for 35 years, I in effect have help fund all the bike paths in the US. Therefore all bike paths are mine!

Well that's what I am telling myself and anyone who will listen.

This is a photo taken on the Lebanon bike path under Interstate 75. A very challanging bike path, due to changes in elevation. But also very fun to ride.

There are some photos on My Bike Path Blog Entry: Lebanon to Little Miami Bike Path.

I will be checking out different bike paths in the US as often as possible.

The Yin and Yang at 2008 ADVANCED SMX

2008-06-09T08:02:00.001-07:00

SMX Seattle 144, originally uploaded by John Beagle.

The redeye seems appropriate for this photo of Stephen Spencer and Danny Sullivan. It was taken at the end of the SMX Advanced 2008 in Seattle the place where in the know SEO's go. It appears that Stephen is shooting laser beams at Danny for the final assault at the conference.

SMX in Seattle did have a bit of Yin and Yang to it. Yin was the anti-Moralist SEO, Jay Young of Link Fish Media, Inc. Yang was Google's SPAM Buster, Matt Cutts.

Moderator of the Yins and Yangs was mild mannered, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land.

Danny's job is to keep everyone playing nice. A boundary that was breached at 2 of the SEO sessions, "Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques" and "Give it UP!"

Around 11 o'clock on Tuesday, June 3, 2008, the assault on white hat SEO's was opened up by Jay Young with this salvo -'were not in this for the morals, were in it for the Marketing!' Mr. Young offered several tips that Matt Cutts would consider over the line, some even 'way over the line' such as certain types of SPAM.

Matt Cuts explains his position on immediately removing SPAM from the News in this SMX Advanced 2008 Matt Cutts video by Dave Dugdale of rentVine.

"No one can blog about this for 29 days... keep under wraps... let’s not go too far... and remember, Matt Cutts is sitting out in the audience," reminded Moderator Danny Sullivan just before the packed seo session, "Give it UP!" the last SMX session on the last day.

In keeping with Danny’s request, I can't say for another 3 weeks what was said in the 'Give it up!' Session. (Hint: The Stephan Spencer presentation).

But, I can share you this photo just after the SMX session ended. Danny was frazzled to say the least. And Stephen was pleased, Danny was not.

Danny… remember Ricky Nelson’s Garden Party, "You see, ya can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself"

Plasma Screen Lifter

2008-05-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Companies wanting to transport 103" plasma screens can do so with an automated transport and crate removal system. The screen lifter can also spin your screen 360 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.

The new system can be used for digital signage and multimedia high res video at your next trade show, conference, convention or corporate event and has multiple uses at the same event because of its portability.

The packaging is what really makes this thing great. When I am in my trade show booth, I do not want a damaged 103" Plasma Flat Screen staring everyone in the face. Thats why it’s a good idea even at $15k, not including the flat screen.

The Next John Beagle

2008-05-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

John Beagle is my son and I am proud of him.

He scored a near perfect in math on the ACT test. He is a cook at the Red Onion Restaurant, working under Chef Gary Heinz, who was the Chef at the Maisonette, a five star restaurant.

Johnny, as we all call him, played Monroe HS soccer for four years and was top scorer in his division. He has recently taken up golf and expects to beat me this summer. I said no way.

Johnny will go to the Ohio State University this fall. He has been accepted into the Honors program where he will figure out what kind of engineering student he wants to be.

The video is from a speech he gave at the Middletown Community Foundation Awards Banquet in May of 2008. Johnny has been a active member of the MCF for 3 years.

Dumpster Cam (Security Camera)

2008-05-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

Why watch your dumpster? Just watch this video to see that employees throw out more than just trash. A dumpster cam reduce inventory 'shrinkage,' saving thousands of dollars.

Dumpsteer surveillance is a good thing to keep everyone 'honest.'

Featuring the original music of Ben Burton and his band, Perspective.