The Adventures of Ranger and Russ

Upcoming election

Russell Fradin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:18:13 -0700

Wish the election was Bloomberg vs. Romney...

My interview about Adify post-acquisition, brand CPMs, video advertising and Behavioral targeting...

Russell Fradin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:06:05 -0700

Ranger in the Sunday Chicago Tribune

Russell Fradin — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:10:22 -0700

I thought the coverage of Ranger in the San Francisco Chronicle was cool, but this coverage takes the cake! My friend Gian Fulgoni, Chairman of comScore, called to introduce me to the reporter and the rest is history. You can read the article here, but the PDF is MUCH better becaues it includes a big picture of Ranger.

flip video camcorder

Russell Fradin — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:18:40 -0700

Well, I got my new flip video camcorder today. My buddy Tal works at the company and vouched for it. The actual experience wasn't quite as advertised - packaging is a nightmare and actually getting the videos off the camcorder and onto the PC is a huge pain in the ass, but the actual camera is great, the video quality is great and the USB connecter is really well designed...

If you want one, go to Amazon.

Dr. Katz quote - From Previous Post

Russell Fradin — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:57:41 -0700

Ok, you have to love the Internet, while I was writing my last post I mentioned a quote from Dr. Katz and tried to remember it from 1997. Why didn't I just search for it online? Everything's online. Well, after the post I tried it out and, voila, the quote I was referring to... "...flying in an airplane is a miracle, so people shouldn't complain; airlines' motto should just be, "We Can Fly!" and that should be enough..." Frankly, I am pretty proud of my memory...

By the way, in the last post I mentioned it was one of two memorable quotes from Dr. Katz, the other is "...Canadians ask him what Americans think of them, and he says, 'We don't'..."

Business Travel, Chapter 1

Russell Fradin — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:49:30 -0700

I travel quite often for work and have always been pretty lucky. First and foremost, my flights have always landed and, really, what else do you want? I remember years ago there was a funny show on Comedy Central called Dr. Katz. I don't remember much from the show but 2 quotes always stuck with me and one had to do with travel. In it, someone was talking about how airlines are always late and what a pain in the ass it is to travel. One of the other characters made a point that, frankly, we should all be happy if we take off and land safely. I guess we do take that for granted... The quote was something along the lines of, "The Airlines should just say, XYZ Airlines, We can Fly!". Anyway, notwithstanding the amazing fact that something like intercontinental business travel exists, I digress...

I made a trip to Europe with one of my co-founders, Larry. Larry and I were looking into the potential for our services outside the US. That's where the fun began...

Before the flight, I loaded up my laptop with tons of work. Few things are more peaceful than a nice long airplane flight. You can rest, relax, work, watch movies, whatever... On this flight, I had downloaded a few movies onto my computer and was planning to watch them and work. I made an embarrassing mistake of leaving my books at home. 1 hour into the flight, the woman sitting next to me spilled an entire glass of red wine onto my laptop. Right onto the keyboard. I immediately reacted by moving the laptop, unplugging my headset, shutting it down and trying to wipe off my clothing. It took me a few minutes to do what you're supposed to, flip it over! By taking a few minutes to actually flip it over, the entire thing was destroyed. So there I am, red wine on my pants and a broken laptop on my tray. Terrible. To make things worse, the woman sitting next to me didn't say a word. Crazy, right? I don't mean that she said sorry but wasn't adequately apologetic, she didn't say a thing. It was insane and, personally, I found it a little scary. I could understand someone who did that saying "oh my God" or "Holy Sh*t", but not saying anything was a little bit psychotic. A few days later people asked my why I didn't say anything to her, confront her for destroying my laptop and not apologizing... Frankly, I found her behavior psychotic. Something is wrong with you if you can do that to someone and not say a word about it. Better to just keep my mouth shut. So there I was, 10 hours in the plane and a week of travel ahead of me without my laptop. THANK GOD FOR BLACKBERRIES.

By the way, for those of you wondering, if you try hard, you can read 15 magazines in 10 hours before you want to claw your eyes out. I know. I didn't have anything else to read.

Laptop destroyed - Strike 1

Then we got to London and I decided to Fedex my laptop home to hopefully salvage the data. I filled out every form in the world so Fedex knew exactly what I was sending back to the office. This is important because there are a lot of import laws about electronics. I wrote everywhere that IT WAS MY BROKEN LAPTOP and I was SENDING IT BACK TO MYSELF. Of course, the package was delayed in Memphis for 2 days and I had to speak with 5 people before it was eventually sent back to my office.

Shipping problems - Strike 2

Two days into the trip, Larry and I were getting out of a taxi to head into a meeting with a big potential client. Sitting in the lobby, I noticed that I'd left my mobile phone in the taxi. I am pretty good, I really never lose anything, so this was a shock. I called the phone 50 times and finally the taxi driver picked it up. 1 hour and $100 later the phone was back in my hands and I was 30 minutes late to the meeting.

Phone lost, found, $$$ lost - Strike 3

Oh, did I mention the terrible heat wave hitting London during our trip? I really hate the heat, but a heat wave in a city without air conditioning is unbearable.

Really hot - Strike 4

The same customs problems that plagued my laptop on its way back to the US struck again with my replacement laptop. Instead of getting to me in time, the computer was stuck in customs and spent 3 days following me around Europe. Eventually it was returned to the office and got back the same day I did.

Fedex problem #2 - Strike 5

The hit in London caused a power outage in our hotel, for 6 hours. This was really great, no computer, no television, no air conditioning, cell phone battery dying, BlackBerry dying and no power. On top of that, it was the night before we were set to leave London. I had to pack, in the dark. When I was a little kid my grandfather told me to always travel with a flashlight and I still do. Its probably the only piece of advice he ever gave me and I never had a use for it, but this really worked out nicely. Thanks Grandpa.

Power out, cell dead, BlackBerry dead - Strike 6

I don't even want to detail the rest because it is making me angry. Larry was almost crushed by a heavy falling object on his Birthday, the taxi we took to the airport broke down and we had to get out, in the rain, and into a new taxi, the video system was broken for our 11 hour flight home so we couldn't watch movies and many many more...

Luckily the meetings were great and we made it home safely so can't be too angry...

Important business travel lessons you all need to learn...

Always backup your data. Use iBackup or something like that. What happened to me could easily happen to you.
If someone spills wine on your computer and doesn't say anything, be afraid. Don't confront them. Nothing can be gained from fighting anyway and something must really really be wrong with someone like that.
Always travel with a flashlight.
No matter how much you live on your computer with iTunes, YouTube, email, blogging, games, etc..., always, ALWAYS bring actual books for your flight.

Back to Blogging

Russell Fradin — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:15:56 -0700

Ok, so I setup my blog and didn't really know what to write about. I spent the last few months reading a ton of blogs and will really give this a crack again. Not sure what I will write about, maybe the best television shows of the year? Maybe raising money for a startup? Or the right time to sell your start-up? Or how to hire great people? Travel horror stories? That's probably going to be next.

I guess for a start, an easy one, the best tv shows of the season. Like most busy people, who really has time to watch television? We're all busy with lives and you want to make sure that, if you do take time to watch television, it is really enjoyable. More than any other reason, this is why all the CSIs have such great ratings. People don't have to watch week after week . Law & Order is the same, I've gone years without watching that show and you can pick it up anytime you want.

The only truly enjoyable shows on television are Nip/Tuck, The Shield and South Park. They are all great in different ways but all have very interesting characters and are pretty unique. Lots of people are offended by the subject matter of each of these shows and I can understand that, but they are all very well written and the characters don't really show up anywhere else. Arrested Development was one of the best shows on television but it was canceled, too few fans. I understand that, it was very intelligent and you really had to watch it every week. How can a television show that needs to attract very very smart viewers week after week really survive? House is also great but you get the feeling they are really trying too hard. I'd be surprised if it is still any good by next year - really what's left for them to do?

For this season, the only interesting now show is Justice but I hear that is going to be canceled. Oh well.

Ranger in the San Francisco Chronicle

Russell Fradin — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 06:34:57 -0700

Ranger is getting famous. A story about his dog walker was in the San Francisco Chronicle and it mentions a story about Ranger dragging his walker's pants into the water. See Leah Garchik's column here. If you need a great dog walker, you should absolutely try DogWalks.com.

Next stop - a full photo spread in Dog Fancy!

Off to Vegas

Russell Fradin — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:48:26 -0700

Carin and I are off to Vegas for the weekend. Wish us a lot of luck. News on our winnings coming on Monday.

Blogging while on a conference call

Russell Fradin — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:26:19 -0700

Blogging seems like a great thing to do while on a long boring conference call. Probably even better to do when in a meeting. This is really going to be great for me, I can never pay attention through an entire presentation. People take way too long to go through each slide on a PowerPoint. If you put it on the slide, don't say it, we can all read it. If you do not have something to say other than what's on the slides, send the presentation and we can all skip the meeting.