My Mountain

Ad Wrapped Buses Make Public Transportation Uncomfortable on Fargo Moorhead's MAT Bus

2024-05-20T10:58:00.017-05:00

I love taking the MAT Bus in Fargo, ND. Route 11 zips me from the north side of Fargo to downtown in mere minutes. With one transfer, I am on a direct route to West Acres Shopping Center. I enjoy this affordable, egalitarian method of transportation. I enjoy the people I meet, being greeted by the driver, being able to sit, look out the window and watch the city roll by.

Until recently, that was my impression of MAT Bus. But now, more and more MAT buses are completely wrapped with advertising that ruins the view. On a growing number of MAT buses that I ride, I can no longer pass the time by watching my city roll by.

I don't begrudge MAT Bus a bit of advertising revenue. I think a reasonable amount of ads can be an acceptable trade off, especially if the revenue sustains the system, keeps fares low and driver's wages competitive. But it has to be done right and with the rider in mind. There is a problem when the advertising comes at the expense of rider comfort and route orientation. When bus windows are wrapped in plastic, it's hard for riders to see out of the bus, and to orient themselves.

Around 80% of the American population is prone to motion sickness. The CDC suggests that people who get motion sickness should sit in a seat with a window. But what can you do if your window seat on a MAT bus looks like this?

How bad can a wrapped bus window be, really?

And in the morning, when the sun is low and hits your window, your view is even more obstructed.

Night time can be even worse, as the light in the bus is reflected back off of the plastic wrap. I'll add a photo of night riding on a wrapped bus just as soon as I take one. But trust me, its bad.

The best view a MAT Bus rider can hope for on a wrapped bus is to look dead on at the window, because an angled view through is even more obstructed. This is a photo I took at an angle through an ad wrapped MAT Bus window. Yes, it really does look this bad.

What can be done?

The first thing that should be done is for the people (administrators, city leaders) who make decisions regarding MAT Bus to actually ride MAT Bus before unintentionally degrading the experience. When I reached out to several Fargo city officials, they told me that they don't personally ride the bus. But, they only hear good things about the revenue that wrap ads provide. Certainly, bus ad sales people will only say good things about bus wraps. And a recent Fargo school design contest set forward criteria to judge student designed bus wraps, but there was no design consideration included to allow riders to see out of the bus. These sorts of decisions that impact the quality of the ride should, it would seem, include some real world research and input by actual bus riders. But this seems not to be the case.

While Fargo's MAT Bus seems intent to expand ads on buses, some cities across the country are rethinking it and ending advertising contracts. Albuquerque, NM has phased out bus advertising to address rider concerns with safety, to make the buses more inviting and inclusive, and to create a better unified identity for the city.

Here is the festive ART bus in Albuquerque. Windows are only partially obscured.

Other Considerations for Bus Wrap Advertising

During my investigation for this article, I learned of other concerns about Bus Wrap Ads.

In Norway, any kind of vehicle wrap advertising, including public transportation advertising, is prohibited. Norwegian officials determined that passengers would have a hard time breaking a window that is covered with a thick plastic decal in the event of an accident.

In Illinois, advertising on school buses was rejected because it makes the buses less identifiable to riders and car drivers, and also because reading the ads were deemed a distraction to car drivers that would increase the chance of collisions with cars.

While I don't expect advertising on MAT Bus to go away completely, it could be made much less annoying, less sickening, and less unsafe by simply requiring advertising designs that do not cover the ENTIRE window.

I have faith in the creative people to who design these ads to be able to accommodate the right of fare paying MAT Bus riders to view their fine city through an unobstructed window. I have faith in MAT Bus to consider the quality of the ride, and I believe the city commissioners don't want to drive riders away from MAT Bus by a sickening, obstructed view.

A rider with sensory issues from Buffalo, NY summed his feelings succinctly when he wrote: "I don't want to sit on the bus for over 30 minutes in the morning feeling like I'm in an enclosed freaking box. You can barely see through the ads, if at all, and it's seriously f*ing annoying. What am i supposed to look at for the entire time? I seriously can't even look out the window on a bus ride? ffs."

Conclusion

Transportation ad sales people will not numerate the problems of bus advertising, which include:

A less comfortable and interesting ride for paying riders
An increase in rider motion sickness
Increase in rider feelings of claustrophobia
Concerns about whether riders can escape in an emergency
Increased distraction of car riders reading the ads
Less recognizable city bus fleet
Watering down the city's brand
Possibility of ads that don't reflect well on the city, such as Bailbonds
No or low visibility into activities on the bus by police
Obscuring windows is not a benefit. It will only drive some away.

There are bus advertising options that do not require obstructing every window on the bus. Pullman Transit in Washington found success with partial wraps that leaves at least half of the windows free for riders.

Clearly, thare better ways to approach bus advertising without completely ruining the ride for MAT Bus riders.

It's time for the city and Mat Bus to do the right thing. Stop wrapping bus windows! Start allowing paying riders enjoy the view of their city.

No Audio When Connecting Computer Video to TV, From USB-C to HDMI

2024-02-10T10:11:00.000-06:00

Perhaps you are trying to stream a video or pay per view sports game from your computer to the HDMI port on your TV. The video displays fine, but the audio doesn't play through the TV. Maybe the audio only plays on your computer or laptop.

I recently had this problem while streaming a soccer game from a pay per view site. The solution was fairly simple. The TV had not been recognized by the computer as an audio device. The solution in Windows 11 was to start the Device Manager app, and then click the icon for "Scan for hardware changes."

Use the Windows search button to find Device Manager.

Start Device Manager

Click icon for "Scan for hardware changes"

Device manager will find your TV and add the correct audio driver.

It worked for me, and I hope it works for you. Let me know in the comments.

How Telegram Group Admin's Can Unban a User.

2024-02-10T08:38:00.005-06:00

Getting banned from a Telegram group for bad behavior isn't very difficult. But sometimes group administrators want to reverse a ban. Telegram doesn't make it easy, and the tools to unban a user are well hidden in Telegram, and the path to find this tool is not intuitive. I wrote this for group admins who are having trouble finding out how to unban a user.

How to Unban a User Using the Windows Telegram Client:

If you are a group administrator, and you are using the Windows Telegram client, here are the steps.

Open Telegram and go to your group.

Click on the group name. This will take you to the Group Info page.

Click on the 3 stacked dots (vertical dots) in the upper right corner.

Select "Manage Group"

This will open a page called "Edit Group". Now click on "Permissions."

From the Permissions page, click "Removed Users" to see a list of users who have been banned from the channel.

Now you can search for the user that want to unban, and then click "Delete" next to their name to remove them from this.

You can also add users to this ban list. Click "Remove User" at the bottom of the page, find the user and click on them.

How to Unban a User Using the Android Telegram Client

The process is a little different in the Android Telegram client.

Go to the group, and then tap on the group's photo.

Now tap on the Pen or Pencil icon to get to the "Edit" page.

On the Edit page, tap "Permissions".

On the Permissions page, tap "Removed Users."

On the Removed Users page, search for the person you want to unban.

Tap the 3 vertical dots next to their name and then tap, "Delete from this list."

Let me know in the comments if this worked for you! Good luck!

How I Learned to Love to the Fediverse & Mastodon, and Why Some People Probably Never Will

2023-06-30T09:15:00.010-05:00

In October, 2022, I reached my limit with Twitter. After 11 years on their platform, I decided to close my account there and stake a claim to the Fediverse. The fediverse, for the uninitiated, is a world of interconnected platforms that can exchange messages with each other. The closest thing in your experience is probably email, except the messages can be read by everyone. There are many many different platforms that interconnect with with each other and form the fediverse, including Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, Kbin, Lemmy, FunkWhale, PeerTube, Pixelfed, GoToSocial, Friendica, Calkey, and on and on.

I chose the Mastodon platform for its microblogging capabilities. Mastodon as a platform consists of many mastodon servers. Some servers are small, and some have hundreds of thousands of users. As a new user getting started, I recommend choosing a large server to begin with. Later, you might decide to move your presence to a different server. The cool thing about Mastodon is that you can export your followers and the accounts you follow, and upload them to a different server. Your account is essentially portable.

I chose Mastodon.social, then later moved to a different Mastodon instance.

Each Mastodon instance gives you three feeds. The first is your home feed, which if you are a brand new user, will probably look empty. The second feed is the local feed, showing you real time posts local to the Mastodon server you joined. The third feed is the global fire hose of all the Fediverse content reaching your server. I began by following interesting accounts from the Mastodon global Feed. As I said, this feed is a fire hose. Some if the global content is great, but some of it can be a little sketchy and downright nasty. If you zero in on the great stuff and follow it, you will soon find lots of other great content. Do NOT zero in on the bad stuff, or you will get more bad stuff. However, you could also just as easily start your exploration of the Fediverse using the server's local feed, which now that I think of it, might be the better place for you to start.

The other way to find good people to follow is to enter hashtags into the search box. If you like cats or dogs, then search for #cats or #dogs. Recent posts about cats and dogs will be displayed. Scroll through and follow people whose posts (or pets) you like.

In the beginning, follow liberally. You can always unfollow later. But by following a lot of people you like early, you populate your feed with stuff you like. The people you follow will further populate your feed with content they appreciate and boost onto their own timelines. If you see content in your home feed that you don't like, you can block, mute or unfollow those accounts so you see less of it. Block, mute, and unfollow just as liberally as you follow. As curating your feed becomes easier and more automatic, you will come to love your home feed as it reflects your own interests and tastes.

There have been quite a few news articles recently about how Mastodon is dead, how people tried it and hated it and left. Nothing could be further from the entire truth. Mastodon is a more engaged and interesting place now than it has ever been. I'll be the first to admit that Mastodon isn't for everyone. It's not for people who like to view ads and to have their viewing activity culled, profiled and sold. It's certainly not for people who think there is no place in the world for open source distributed social media. It's not for people who are really good at projecting a loud, brash, noisy persona that the Twitter algo rewards, who think their offensive content will play on Mastodon as it does on Twitter. Its also not for people who really enjoy paying a right wing antagonist $8 a month.

That said, I also understand that people would leave who, having joined a server and spent no time discovering and curating a decent home feed, would think Mastodon was dead and over. Like in real life, you'll get out of Mastodon what you put into Mastodon. But you don't have to work very hard to find interesting people to follow and new friends to engage with. Like anything, some people never will like Mastodon. I happen to love it, and have no intentions of ever going back to Twitter.

In my 8 months on Mastodon so far, I enjoy four times the followers I ever gained on Twitter in 11 years. The engagement with real people through comments on my own posts, or my comments on theirs, is way beyond what I ever experienced on Twitter. And the engagements are more positive and friendly. Now is a great time to join Mastodon and the Fediverse, because with millions of active users you can still be heard and discovered. Instead of being one in a billion or one in a hundred million, you are joining a smaller, more engaged community where you are important, and once you find your tribe, you will be heartily welcomed.

With all of the above said, let me also remind you that Mastodon and the Fediverse are also part of the real world, and there are bad people everywhere. Do not engage with bad people. Block and mute them at the first poor interaction. These people tend to hang on servers that allow bad activities and harassment to fester. While some of these shithole servers and accounts are blocked by Mastodon.social, new ones spring up fast. The good news is that what you see is largely up to you. Be safe, stay engaged, follow interesting people, and spend time going down lots of rabbit holes, and I really believe that you will enjoy your time on the Fediverse as much as I do.

Always follow people you enjoy.

#Fediverse: The Appearance of a Post Propagated Across Different ActivityPub Applications

2023-01-03T16:33:00.015-06:00

I've been exploring the Fediverse, a collection of socially networked servers sharing content through a protocol called ActivityPub.. There are many applications that comprise the Fediverse. Mastodon is the largest and best known, but it is not the only one. ActivityPub has unleashed a a torrent of creative energy in many different directions. Some fediverse apps like Mastodon focus on micro-blogging. Some are into long form writing and creative writing. Others are focused on podcasting, and still others on video sharing. In theory all of these apps will talk with each other and share content. There is no centralized control or single point of failure or central censor. If one server doesn't like the content coming from another server, they have the option to block or defederate that server.

Because there are so many different apps in the fediverse, I want to understand how a post originating on one social network appears as it reaches other networks. Will the post look the same? Different?

My test is limited, but just thought I'd share the early results anyway. For all of my tests, I used a Windows browser to log into the different social sites.

I began by writing a post on venera.social, a Friendica server. It is one of the applications that allows longer form posts. Friendica allows for titling a post. Here is how it looked on Friendica after I posted it.

I then went to an account I have on a Pleroma server. Pleroma handled the title of the post just fine. Just for full disclosure, this Pleroma server was using Soapbox UI.

Next I went to look at the post on a major Mastodon server. Here's what it looked like. You can see that Mastodon didn't handle the post quite as well as Pleroma. It inserted the title and included a link to the original post.

This seems problematic for Friendica posters seeking exposure to Mastodon. It would seem be better for everyone if Mastodon would include the title and the text of the post. I thought Pleroma handled it better than Mastodon. With Tumblr planning to bring its users to the Fediverse, is this what Tumblr posts will look like on Mastodon, just a short title and a hyperlink.

Friendica is unique in that it supports not only ActivityPub protocol but also the Diaspora protocol. Diaspora and Mastodon can't talk to each other, but Friendica speaks to both. This is what the post looked like when it reached a Disapora pod.

I'll mention that I used the same user image icon on Diaspora and Friendica (I shouldn't have done that for testing), but it seems that Diaspora can't pull the post author's image from Friendica, instead inserting a kitten icon.

That is all I had time for today. If I do any more (and there are many more), I'll update this post. Let me know what you think

List of Active Gopher Servers

2021-12-02T12:32:00.006-06:00

On December 1, 2021, these gopher servers were known to be active. This is just a partial list of active gopher servers. After a gaining popularity in the early 1990's, internet gopher activity had almost become extinct as the world wide web grew. However, activity in "gopher space" has increased markedly in recent years as interest has revived.

To access content on these gopher servers, you will need to find a gopher browser. Gopher used to be included in web browsers, but was removed. If you look, you should be able to find dedicated gopher browsers for most operating systems. You can also use this web-to-gopher proxy service accessible from https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/

If you enter these url's directly into a regular web browser, there may or may not be some content that will appear. Most gopher holes use port 70, while websites use different ports. When using a gopher browser, you will use the prefix gopther://, such as gopher://floodgap.com

List:

phlogosphere.org

floodgap.com

magical.fish

mail2.automario.eu

git.codemadness.org

josuah.net

circumlunar.space

zwurlik.mooo.com

perihelion.ultradian.club

falaf.gprt.fr

attaque-cinq.com

gopher.oldfolio.org

hhvn.uk:73

gopher.almeida.uk.to

04d.co

oh.mg

runjimmyrunrunyoufuckerrun.com

vulpes.one

scheme.fail

weinholt.se

happylandbbs.com:7070

pleroma.envs.net:7070

ascii.mozz.us:7070

gopher.icu

texto-plano.xyz

codemadness.org

retroforth.org

gopher.sixy.name

gopher.ddns.net

breadpunk.club

stealthworld.ga

beepboop.systems

ozz.ddns.net

gopher.urbanhacker.net

bigchung.us

amox.online

gopher.linuxmario.net

akkuscm.org

dimension.sh

caffeine.drkhsh.at

gopher.richardfalken.com

soviet.circumlunar.space

gopher.fnord.one

thebackupbox.net

hhvn.uk

gopher.erb.pw

20forbeers.com

ratthing.com

ams1.z0.is

farragofiction.com

gopher.nkeck72.xyz

gopher.spacehippie.ca

shl.huld.re

isene.com

majenko.co.uk

port70.de

crn.hopto.org

gopher.casperscupboard.com

dio9sys.fun

xibalba.l33t.codes

gopher.operationalsecurity.es

fripster.ydns.eu

nz.xeroxirc.net

gopher.prismdragon.net

serf.jpmens.net

thunix.net

dome.circumlunar.space

gopher.veroneau.net

gopher.info-underground.net

d6.szif.hu

carcosa.net

declanhoare.id.au

rawtext.club

caracolito.mooo.com

gopher.nappey.org

bay.parazy.de:666

0x1bi.net

phlog.stargrave.org

64.227.84.9

gopher.32kb.net

toromino.de

gopher.pizza

gopher.magicmargin.net

yasendfile.org

g.nixers.net

nytpu.com

45.32.178.12

nuclear.utsuho.rocks

gopher.ratthing.com

z3bra.org

friller.works:7070

finalzone.ddns.net

mirrors.apple2.org.za

dataswamp.org

therandymon.com

ake.crabdance.com

ake.crabdance.com:77

gopher.waynewerner.com

blog.qartis.com

aussies.space

sectordisk.pw

sen.cx

gopher.unixlore.net

createaforum.com

pi2.zwurlik.com

quix.us

forthworks.com:7005

gopher.somnolescent.net

gopher.lottalinuxlinks.com

tekk.in

nickmaslon.com

gopher.voyez.ca

gopher.defaultroutes.de

katolaz.net

parazyd.org

pdp11.tk

gopher.gnarledthicket.net

gemeinde.zermatt.ch

andr01d.zapto.org:7070

adamsgaard.dk

gopher.linkerror.com

code.dgold.eu

deftly.net

colincogle.name

petermolnar.net

thinkmoult.com

tilde.pink

kagu-tsuchi.com

mozz.us:7003

verisimilitudes.net

ascraeus.org

gopher.oldfart.eu

jfm.carcosa.net

invisibleup.com

suika.erkin.party

tawara.de

gopher.nonlinear.zone

mozz.us:7006

srjskam.iki.fi

ftp.icm.edu.pl

zxnet.co.uk

ygrex.ru

salsa.net

xn--9bi.net

gopher.tamagothi.de

glog.fosconetwork.org

gopher.talkingcats.com

pongonova.org

gopher.semmel.ch

zzo38computer.org

firien.helluin.org

gopher.wensley.org.uk

gopher.rbfh.de

sandrolittke.de

vert.synchro.net

gopher.r-36.net

gopher.umbrellix.net

telefisk.org

bbs.kd3.us

moo.ca

devio.us

mozz.us:7005

tourism-bureau.seattle.wa.us

nemesis.cs.berkeley.edu

zlg.space

gopher.zcrayfish.soy

gopher.conman.org

mozz.us

gopherspace.de

gopher.docfile.org

forthworks.com:7004

sdfeu.org

hngopher.com

port70.net

khzae.net

redcon.dimensionless.space

tilde.team

tilde.town

gopher.rp.spb.su

forthworks.com

fuckup.solutions

cyber.dabamos.de

heavysquare.com

tellus.strangled.net

p3x981.com

gopher.petergarner.net

uninformativ.de

baud.baby

kamalatta.ddnss.de

tomas.dscloud.me

gopher.metafilter.com

medialab.freaknet.org

i-logout.cz

box.matto.nl

codevoid.de

gopher.black

bitreich.org

1436.ninja

alexschroeder.ch

gopher.superglobalmegacorp.com

gopher.quux.org

vernunftzentrum.de

zaibatsu.circumlunar.space

cosmic.voyage

gopherpedia.com

gopher.club

gopher.floodgap.com

sdf.org

gopher.viste.fr

kroovy.de

gopher.karel.tt.ee

colorfield.space

gopher.endangeredsoft.org

typed-hole.org

pollett.org

gopher.solobsd.org

gopher.grahamdowney.com

gopher.mtxdev.com

schinkel.bevuta.com

gopher.unixwire.com

gopher.smolderingwizard.com

lumidify.org

suckless.org

origin.rxivist.org

infinitelyremote.com

dusted.dk

gopher.mills.io

pogemon.pw

gopher.veronet.org

tccr.it

seedy.xyz

downlinkomega.net

tty1.uk

cvs.synchro.net

data.gopher.se

freeway.apana.org.au

demu.red

boghop.net

gopher.antirez.com

files.dyne.org

tilde.institute

boris.shminke.ml

gopher.visiblink.ca

worldofsolitaire.com

gopherddit.com

darioniedermann.it

silentmessengers.org

thelambdalab.xyz

2807591230

maistre.uni.cx

sl0w.org

boomlin.de

sawv.org

envs.net

tilde.club

jan.bio

yam655.com

gopher.leitzahl.de

zaledia.com

gopher.gophernicus.org

nihirash.net

gopher.fifth.space

brause.cc

eyeblea.ch

first-nemogw.ethz.ch

gopher.binary-kitchen.de

e1e0.net

bombadillo.colorfield.space

vger.cloud

spriteclad.com

mpcclub.info

How to Disable Annoying Website Notifications in Microsoft Edge.

2021-10-19T08:47:00.002-05:00

Traveling around the internet, its easy to encounter tricky websites that want to shove all manner of annoying notifications at you.. These little messages will constantly slide out of the side of your screen, interrupting your work as they try to sell you all kinds of nasty software and services.

I had this issue today, and I wasn't able to quickly discover how to turn off these notifications in Microsoft Edge browser. It turns out the solution is fairly simple.

You can right click on the annoying notification, and then remove the offending website from your list.

Or you can go directly to the necessary Edge setting page by pasting this link into your Edge web browser:

edge://settings/content/notifications

I hope this saves you a little time!

The list of Creative Commons News Sources You Have Been Searching For.

2021-08-10T13:03:00.008-05:00

Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash

I was doing research, trying to locate Creative Commons licensed news content for a project that I have been working on.

My goal was to find a CC licensed news source for every state in the U.S.A. This really took me down the rabbit hole, and to be honest, I haven't finished my research yet. I'm nowhere near finishing. But in the process of long hours of searching, I did uncover a lot of decent CC licensed news sources. Even in its unfinished form, I think I have assembled enough content here to be useful for others who want to discover and utilize Creative Commons news content.

My learning is that there is a ton of high quality news out there licensed under Creative Commons, but it is not well organized. The problem is that there is no complete centralized source to help you identify these sources. And many of the sources don't flagrantly advertise their CC license.

Creative Commons has a partial list of sources. Wikipedia, being itself the largest CC resources on search, also has a list. I think my list (below) is probably as good as either of theirs.

I'll keep updating this as my research progresses. If you know of other good CC news sites, please post them in the comments below. I especially still want to find one CC news source (newspaper, radio, blog, etc) for each state. I'd be greatful if you could help me with that.

Meanwhile, I have also decided to CC license this list, and this entire blog under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), because its not fair to take without giving something back.

Creative Commons licensed news sources

Alaska, none found
Alabama,
Arizona, Arizona Ctr Investigative Reporting, https://azcir.org/content/
Arizona, AZ Mirror, https://www.azmirror.com/
Arkansas,
California, none found
Florida,
Georgia, Georgia Recorder, georgiarecorder.com
Illionois, State Journal Register, sj-r.com
Indiana - none found
Iowa, iowacapitaldispatch, iowacapitaldispatch.com
Kentucky,
Minnesota, Minnesota Reformer, minnesotareformer.com
Mississippi,
Missouri Independent, missouriindependent.com
Montana Free Press, https://montanafreepress.org/publish-our-work/
Montana, MTCIR.org, https://mtcir.org/use-our-content/
NY, The New Inquiry, thenewinquiry.com
North Dakota, none found
Ohio Capital Journal, ohiocapitaljournal.com
Oregon, none found
South Dakota, none found
Texas Tribune, texastribune.org
Texas - El Paso Matters, elpasomatters.org/

Washington, none found
Wisconsin, https://wisconsinwatch.org/wcij-republishing-guidelines/

Ontario, Canada: https://www.thepublicrecord.ca/use-our-content-our-licensing/
Australia, https://www.newcastleonhunter.org/about/terms-of-use-our-content/

Other Topics:
Nature, https://news.mongabay.com/copyright/creative-commons/
Science, https://www.scidev.net/global/

Indigenous News: commondreams.org
Healthcare:
Elsevier, elsevier.com
Kaiser Health News, khn.org

More stuff to categorize, eventually:
linuxfoundation.org
geogebra.org
https://unicornriot.ninja/faq/
rferl.org
extratime.media,

https://cpj.org
https://publicintegrity.org/about/republishing-our-stories/
https://wire.farmradio.fm/use-our-content/
https://www.mylesandkatharineweiss.org/welcome-use-content/
https://voteraccess.org/use-our-content/
https://www.cognitive-edge.com/user-agreement/
https://singularityhub.com/creative-commons/
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/about-us/our-funding
https://knightfoundation.org/reports/center-investigative-reporting-california-watch/
check these sources... https://www.newsforgood.org/info/newsroom-state

Find more CC Sources: https://medium.com/centerforcooperativemedia/heres-how-local-news-outlets-can-access-quality-national-content-at-no-cost-93eccf07ec41

Small Software Companies, Beware of Using Share-It/MyCommerce as your Order Processor

2021-06-14T09:18:00.007-05:00

Fifteen years ago, I began developing a software program and began selling it online. To process orders and distribute activation keys, I chose to use a service called SWreg. Eventually, SWReg was acquired by a company called Digital River and rolled into an even better service called RegNow. RegNow had a really good reseller program with websites and IT providers who would sign up to resell my app. The RegNow support people were based in the U.S., and were always very friendly and eager to help when you needed them.

A few years ago, Digital River decided to merge RegNow with Share-It, another one of their platforms based in Germany, under the MyCommerce marketing banner. As a result of this, I was required to re-enter all of the information from RegNow into the Share-It platform. The process was disruptive. It was a lot of work to make this change, since by now I had a portfolio of about a dozen products I was offering, and I had to copy and upload graphics, change my software activation scheme, and export/import text in several different languages. I also underwent a rigorous and unpleasant 'know your customer' process through Share-It. It took me a week to redo everything and jump through their hoops. But I made it.

After the changeover, I found that when I had a question, the Share-It team would take longer to get back to me, often the response was not helpful, or my question was misunderstood. Oh well. I persevered and finally got to the other side of that intensive process.

The more serious impact to me after the change from RegNow to Share-It is that I lost my RegNow resellers. I was assured I could tap into the Share-It reseller program. However, the Share-It program proved to be much less effective for my products. Most of these Share-It resellers are basically just 'discounter' website that rebate the commission I pay them back to buyers. Instead of seeing these 'resellers' as complimentary to my marketing efforts, it became clear that they were competitors intent on selling my product cheap.

But I hung in, thinking that I things would be better eventually. Indeed, slowly the sales began to increase on the Share-It platform, and I slowly began to re-build my book of business with recurring revenue. After a few years, the recurring revenue was growing steadily.

But during their platform evolution, MyCommerce/Share-It seemed to refocus from serving all software developers (including smaller entrepreneurial, independent developers), to just the really big software companies. I don't begrudge them their growth opportunities, but in the process, the decision was apparently made to prune smaller resellers like me from their system.

Last week, after 15 years of working with Digital River platforms, I was unceremoniously booted from the platform. I was told this would happen about 30 days prior. At that time, I emailed them and explained my situation and asked them to reconsider terminating our long relationship. But they kept asking me how much I could grow my business, and I asked them how much I had to grow it to stay on their platform. They didn't reply to my questions, only demanding that I answer theirs.

It became clear to me that these were not the same friendly, helpful U.S. based people at RegNow who helped me build my business initially. The relationship had suddenly become very one-sided. This was not the same platform that brought effective resellers who brought a complementary sales channel and earned their commissions. Share-It no longer saw this as a mutually beneficial relationship, but one that should benefit only them.

What really has hurt me is the disruption to my business. I've had to hastily find a new platform provider (2checkout). I've had to redo marketing all over again. The internet is now littered with dead-end 'share-it' links to buy my software.

But here is what hurt the most:

All of the recurring subscriptions that my business had earned on Share-It are now gone. With a single arbitrary, capricious decision that can't be appealed, they wiped the entire recurring subscription revenue book of business. Its clear that Share-It customers are THEIR customers, not YOURS. You have no way to move those subscriptions with you if they decide to boot you. All the work you've done will simply be destroyed, wiped away.

I've started looking at other ways of managing subscription sales. If I am going to take the time and expense to once again rebuild my business, I absolutely do not don't want to go through this again, or feel as powerless and insignificant as Share-It/MyCommerce made me feel.

My advice to you if you are considering Share-It/MyCommerce is to ask yourself:

Am I making enough revenue to ensure that I meet their capricious requirements (whatever they are)?

What would happen to my business if they wiped out my entire book of subscription revenue?

Is customer service and support important to me, because you're not going to get it from this service.

My intention here isn't to just bash Share-It/MyCommerce. I want to convey my experience, and to let you know how this company does business before you invest blood sweat and tears in making Share-It/MyCommerce a very critical part of your sales and marketing infrastructure. While they may be a critical part of your business, it's pretty clear that you will never be a critical part of theirs.

I think its sad that after so many years, after dodging bullets from Google to keep my business afloat, after navigating through an employee suicide, after surviving a pandemic and dealing with so many other close calls over the years, that this little business which is important to me and my family, could be done in by a 'partner' that I trusted for fifteen years to handle the most critical part of our business infrastructure. That I could be wiped out so quickly by someone we trusted so much, was a shock that I didn't expect, but probably should have.

Telegram Bot Won't Send URL Containing Hash Symbol #

2021-01-27T10:17:00.007-06:00

I maintain a Telegram bot. I found it was unable to send a URL while the URL contained a # symbol.

For example, if I want the bot to send a response to a Telegram user but the response contains a URL like, www.domain.com/test#123, Telegram will not send the response to the user. The problem is that Telegram doesn't like the hash # symbol in the URL, or that the Python 3 requests library doesn't encode it properly. If I remove the #, then the response is sent to the user.

The solution I eventually found required me to import quote_plus library from requests, and then use it to encode the hash symbol # to a variable.

import requests

from urllib.parse import quote_plus

Next I encoded the html symbol for #:

h = quote_plus("#")

Now I include it in the url f'string, like:

f'www.domain.com/test{h}123'

The result for me is that now Telegram will accept the string and return it to the user.

Hope this helps!

Twenty one years as the Father to an Autistic child.

2020-01-13T10:54:00.003-06:00

For nearly twenty one years, I have been the father of an autistic son. He has grown to adulthood, and I am very proud of him, and I love him very much.

I've been there every step of the way, from his five week early birth, through kindergarten struggles, kids picking on him in school, home schooling, graduation, getting jobs, losing jobs, looking for friends, mental health crisis, fears and joys.

I have had a ringside seat to the significant life struggles of a high functioning aspie, who possesses several challenging expressions on the spectrum.

After nearly twenty one years of helping him deal with our how our society reacts to him, advocating and fighting for his right to exist in America, I can promise you that I am exhausted, even while my life is full. Sharing his world and experiencing his joys and failures has been at times exciting, fulfilling, but far from easy.

I have fought educators, educated law enforcement, shaped and adapted his environment in more ways than I can count. Example: before we go to eat at someone's house, I send an advance list of triggers, such as crunching potato chips. I try to educate friends and family on what to expect. I often feel that I am seen as an over protective parent of an adult child who should just 'get over it' and 'learn to cope.'

Though at first he appears normal to most people -- and he is good at keeping it together for a little while -- it is eventually very jarring when they finally encounter some of his ASD expressions. Because every autistic kid and adult are unique in so many ways, it just hard. I have to start nearly at ground zero every time we have a new doctor, or a new pastor at church, or new neighbors, or just anyone new who wanders into our lives.

Last night my son had a breakdown. It was triggered by missing his medication the night before, combined with a bad day at work (he unexpectedly had to work extra hours). I knew I was in for a bad night when he kept calling me from work, and it was clear to me he was quickly sinking deeper and deeper into a perseverating depression. It lead to threats to kill himself, as it often does. I knew I would be up literally all night working to help him climb out of this hole he had fallen into.

My autistic child loves trains, too!

I know my son pretty well by now. Last night I pulled out a trick I had been saving for just such a dire situation. Like many autistics (and neuro-typicals), my son has a love of trains. The Empire Builder Amtrak passenger trains come through our county every night around 3:00 am.

Around 1:00 am, I was able to buy him an Amtrak ticket on the train, departing our county station to the next stop about 60 miles away. The cost was $15. Here it was, about 2:30 in the morning and we are pulling up to the small train depot. Right on time the train pulled in, and he excitedly boarded. I raced along the road for an hour in the car, meeting him at the next station just as the train was pulling in.

The unexpected experience pulled him out of this episode and helped reset him emotionally, at least for now. We had breakfast at an all night cafe, then returned home by about 5:30 am. As I write this, he is sleeping through the morning. Thank god he doesn't have to work today. Thank god for that.

I DO have to work today, though, and I have not slept a wink. For some reason, in my exhausted fog, I decided to get the story out of my system by writing this article. I also need to find ways to cope with his depression as well as my own.

I love being my son's father and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. But it is very, very difficult. And there is very, very little support around here for fathers (or mothers) of autistic adults.

His mother and I are each other's support system. While he was in school, we had a basic support system of therapists, teachers, county social workers, and a more generous healthcare plan. As he transitioned toward adulthood, that system dissolved. I'm sure they were glad to see him graduate.

Now we are left wondering.... what comes next for our autistic adult? We are left with questions like, will he ever be self sufficient? What happens when we are not around any more? Will he kill himself one day? Will he ever meet someone and fall in love? Will he be happy?

The point of this story (which is just one small story of many from the past 20 years), is... who else can do this, except me and my wife? I am just one of the two people on planet earth who love this young man enough to intervene in a manner that is effective, but highly stressful to ourselves. There's nobody I can call for help at 2 am. Nobody else who can know him enough to intervene in the manner I did, which was exactly what he needed to avoid a long disabling depression. I take some of that pain on myself, so that he can continue as best he can.

This is what I have to do, but it is not sustainable.

As for myself, I am also medicated with Wellbutrin, which helps me cope with the lowest lows. I believe that my son is not the cause of my own struggles with depression.

It comes from the struggle that he, his mother and I face every day fighting an autistic unfriendly world.

For parents of high functioning autistic children who are careening toward adulthood, my advice is prepare yourself, and strengthen your support system as much as you can. Our society is oriented much more toward tolerating and helping autistic children than autistic adults.

As for me, I have more questions, fears, and exhaustion than I have answers. Although I'm quick to offer advice, I'm also glad to receive it. Feel free to post below.

A Simple Persistent Page Counter for Python

2019-07-17T09:15:00.003-05:00

I have been playing with Gopherspace (yes, that is still a thing) and Flask-Gopher. I needed a simple visitor counter for Python 3.7 so I can see how many times a page loaded.

Here is the solution I came up with. It creates a text file called counter.dat and stores a number in it. Each time the code runs, the number in the file increments.

I used pathlib to solve file path differences between Unix and Windows.
I hope it helps you!

from pathlib import Path

#Change path to the Linux or Windows folder where your counter .dat file will live.
data_folder = Path('c:/Users/change_this/Documents/')
counter = data_folder / 'counter.dat'

try:
    with open(counter, mode='r') as f:
        count = int(f.read())+1

    with open(counter, mode='w') as f:
        f.write(str(count))
        f.close()

except:
    print('first run exception fired')
    #create the counter.dat file on first run
    count = 1
    with open(counter, mode='w') as f:
        f.write(str(count))
        f.close()

print('You are visitor number ' + str(count))

7Zip Command Line Random File Name

2019-03-26T10:21:00.002-05:00

I need to make backups of a database every hour. I spent a little too much time coming up with my simple solution, so passing it on here to save you the time.

My goal was to run a Windows batch file that will simply pack up certain files into a zip archive, give the archive a random name so it won't overwrite other archives, and apply password encryption to the archive.

Here's how I call 7zip from the Windows command line to do what I need.

7z.exe a -tzip -p"Password" %random%.zip *.db

What it means

7z.exe, call 7zip from command line
a, add files
-tzip, use zip compression
-p"Password", encrypt using Password as the password. Yes, you need to use the quotations.
%random%.zip, pulls a random number from the Windows shell, use it as a file name and append .zip to it.
*.db, pack up all .db files in the folder.

The rest of my project involved copying the encrypted zip file to Dropbox for offsite storage. There are most certainly other perhaps better ways to accomplish this, but maybe none more simple than this. The timestamp on the file makes it simple to spot the most recent file. In my experience, simple is usually better.

7zip is a fantastic tool capable of doing a lot. While Googling around, I found posts that focused on formatting date/time for use in a file name. But in the end, all I really need is a random number.

That's all there is to it! Now go get some coffee and enjoy the 30 minutes you just saved!

Addendum:

Ok, I wanted to add this here, if only for my own future use. Sathyajith Bhat had a great answer elsewhere that showed me how to put the current date into the archive file name with 7zip. Try this:

7z -tzip -aou -p"Password" "%DATE:~7,2%.%DATE:~4,2%.%DATE:~-4% Backup".zip *.db

This will create a file named something like: 26.03.2019 Backup.zip
Using Bhat's string extraction tip, you can do all kinds of other things.

Logging into the 80's and 90's Online with BBS Services

2019-02-18T09:15:00.001-06:00

Back in the 80's and 90's before the widespread adoption of the internet, tech enthusiasts built and used a wide network of computer bulletin board services. To log into a BBS, you first had to purchase a modem to connect your computer to a telephone line. You had to know the phone number of the BBS service you wanted to reach. Sometimes you could find a list of top BBS's printed in a computer magazine or club newsletter, or in an alternative newspaper of trendy 'zine.

When you attempted to connect to a BBS, your modem would screech and purr as the fastest connection speed was negotiated with the BBS's modem. If you were lucky, you might get a top speed of 9600 baud, but may have to settle for 2400, 1200, or (horrors!) a slow 300 baud connection. The slowest connections made downloading even small 5k files a tortuous ideal.

As a haven for hobbiests and enthusiasts, BBS users rarely worried about contracting a computer virus from a download. There were a wide range of operating systems from C64, MS-DOS, CP/M and others, and a lack of always-on connectivity that took the scale out of launching a computer virus.

My earliest experience with BBS systems began around 1981 with my Osborne 1 computer and 300 baud modem. It was a way to connect with other nerdy teens all over the city, country and world. Most BBS's used text, but some found clever ways to present blocky 8-bit ANSI graphics.

Worldwide communication was expensive back then. It would cost a lot of money to connect to a BBS in Europe, a thrill that was reserved only when there was a specific file that I absolutely had to have. Most global communication took place through the Fidonet.

Fidonet was an electronic mail system that BBS's could utilize. Users would get their very own personal Fidonet addresses and could receive private messages.

Fidonet also offered public message boards through their Echomail service. Anything you posted to a public echomail board would eventually weave its way to all of the other BBS systems that carried that board.

I tried to get a clear idea of the state of Fidonet. There are a lot of dead Fidonet websites. It appears with more effort and outreach I may have been able to find some working Fidonet nodes. Perhaps someone can update me clearly on the state of Fidonet. I would be cool if it was still operating.

Using echomail was a great way to promote a BBS system. Most of the time, when you posted in echomail, the BBS system where the post originated would include a signature tag line that told the name of the BBS and a phone number for connecting to it.

Recently, I engaged in a little techno-nostalgia and set out to revisit my old BBS world. It turns out that there is a small but enthusiastic world of BBS users still around! Many of them can now be accessed by Telenet over the internet.

I used a free app called Putty to Telenet to the BBS services. To use putty, just enter the Host Name and port for the BBS and click "Open."

Use Putty to Connect to a BBS Service.

Of course, you need to find a list of active BBSes before you can connect. A great place to find BBS's is through the Telnet BBS Guide, conveniently accessible over the internet.

Connected to a BBS via Telnet

Soon, you'll be browsing through an entirely new online world that you didn't even know existed.

If you like to time travel and would like to step back and see the earliest days of online communication, give BBS'ing a try. The technical threshold is low, and the experience will give you a foundation of appreciation for has been accomplished since.

Have you logged into a BBS? Post in the comments what you experience was like. And as always, have fun with it!

How to Program a Motorola M1225 radio for COR Active Low

2017-08-11T11:51:00.002-05:00

I setup a GMRS repeater using a pair of Motorola M1225 Radius radios. I wanted to use the ID-O-Matic IV controller, but I ran into a problem. The Id-o-Matic would send the CW identification, but the receive radio would not key the transmitter.

I learned the solution was to program the M1225 for "COR Active Low."

This was easier said than done. Nowhere in the Motorola software did I see an obvious place to program COR Active Low.

A little trial and error revealed the solution.

In the Motorola software, go to External Accessories.

Program PIN 8 as "CSQ Detect," "Output" and "Low", as shown in the image below.

Program PIN 8 like this to achieve COR Active Low

Now your receive radio will signal your ID-O-Matic to key your transmitting radio.

Reference:
Manual for ID-O-Matic

The "Corn-Fed" Slur: Why it's insulting to be called Corn-Fed

2014-01-09T12:18:00.000-06:00

I was reading Karl Taro Greenfeld's article in Time about Jenny McCarthy, when I was struck by his description of her:

"In person, surprisingly, Jenny McCarthy comes across as corn-fed cute rather than overwhelmingly beautiful."

It made me wonder to myself what it means to be referred to as one that is "corn-fed." It didn't appear to be as a complement in the context it was presented. What does it mean to call Jenny McCarthy corn-fed cute?

As a Mid-western American who has lived in the East and South, I've fielded the occasional good natured "corn fed" comment after my Minnesota roots were revealed. Typically I took the comment to mean that I appeared healthy, strong, farm-boy vigorous.

Today, Corn-Fed seems to have taken on a less complementary dynamic.
Urban Dictionary defines Corn-Fed as:

"Your typical midwesterner. A white guy or girl who is large and stocky but in a healthy way. Corn fed women have child-bearing hips and corn fed men play football. Not attractive, but not ugly either, just plain. They're simple, friendly folks, sweet as apple pie, but lack complexity. Make good husbands and wives, but will bore you to death if you try to have an intelligent conversation with one."

If Karl Taro Greenfeld agrees with this definition, then Jenny McCarthy is just a simple, large, stocky, plain woman with big hips. But in a "healthy way."

Hardly flattering of such a beautiful woman who gave her time to Greenfeld to discuss Autism. Why an article about autism need begin by commenting on McCarthy's (presumably) big hips is beyond me.

I needed a second opinion, so I consulted The Free Dictionary. According to them, if you're corn fed, then you're "Healthy and strong, but provincial and unsophisticated."

Maybe Greenfeld thinks that McCarthy appears healthy and strong, but that she is also stupid.

Anyway I look at it, by today's definition of the term Corn Fed, it's difficult to tease out a complement that is anything other than backhanded and rude.

Sure, you're healthy, but you're dumb.
Sure, you're strong, but your hips are big.
Yes, you're not ugly, but really you're plain.
You're from the midwest, so you're unsophisticated

My conclusion: Pigs and cows are corn fed, as are 100% of the US population who only have to look to the corn-syrup ingredients in their cereal and Coke cans to know that this is true. The idea that somehow only midwesterners are fed corn is untrue.

The simpleton stereo type of the midwestern farm boy or girl is harmful, geographically bigoted, meant to demean the country simpleton and elevate the big-city resident to a more prominent position in a relationship.

If someone calls you corn-fed, you're correct to take it as an insult.

Problem Installing An Email Certificate In Outlook 2013? Try This Fix.

2013-07-29T11:36:00.000-05:00

To protect my email from snoops and spooks, I wanted to setup an email certificate for signing and encrypted my messages. I use Outlook 2013, and signed up for a free Comodo email signing certificate. Using Firefox browser, I installed the certificate. I then went into Outlook 2013, but was unable to sign my messages. Outlook kept showing me an Invalid Certificate message. It read, "Microsoft Outlook cannot sign or encrypt this message because there are no certificates which can be used to send from the e-mail address . like this:

Invalid Certificate Message

The way I solved this problem was first to revoke the certificate that had been assigned to me. Next, I started the process again, this time using Internet Explorer. So I started IE, and then went to Comodo and signed up for the certificate, and then I claimed and installed the certificate using Internet Explorer.

When I went into Outlook 2013 and signed a message, everything worked!

I don't know why this works, it just does. Perhaps Firefox uses a different location to store these certificates and it freaks Outlook. Give it a try and let me know if this works for you.

Q&A: Catching Crayfish in Minnesota for fun and sport

2013-05-31T14:48:00.003-05:00

Of all the posts that I've written over the years, those about catching crayfish in Minnesota and bullhead seem to be the most enduring. Every day people find those posts. There seems to be growing interest in Minnesota in utilizing this great resource we have in our beautiful state. With so many great places to catch crayfish and with so many people claiming Swedish heritage, I'm surprised that Minnesota is not famous for crayfish.

I'm from Minnesota, and spent three years in New Orleans, where I fell in love with crawfish. Now I'm back in my home state, and I'm trying to do my part to foster interest in crayfishing here. Today I wanted to clear up some questions that keep appearing in the blog comments.

Where do I catch crayfish?
Just about any river, lake, pond or stream can have crayfish, in urban or rural areas. I live on a fairly weedy lake with a rocky shore. I catch all of my crayfish in shallow water (1 to 3 feet) along the shore. They love to hide in the rocks that line the shore. Since crayfish are most active at night, I set up my traps in the evening, and check them in the morning. By putting them in the water in the evening, the bait will be at it's most potent at about the time the crayfish are most active.

Some locations will be loaded with crayfish, while other places may have lower populations. Part of the fun is finding a good crayfish hole.

I have not had very good luck with muddy rivers. Some lakes, like Leech Lake, are known to be excellent crayfisheries.

How do I catch crayfish?
There are a lot of ways to capture crayfish. You might be able to net them, or just pick them up in some places. I like the plastic traps that Trapper Arne imports from Sweden and sells on his website; specifically I use his "Trappy" trap. They perform very well, and are easy to store. Before the plastic traps, I had used metal traps. I grew to dislike the metal traps for their rusty sharp edges and their propensity to get hung up on the lake bottom. Metal traps really get gross and bent up.

You can also try to make your own trap out of a one liter plastic pop bottle. Just cut off the pouring end, put some bait inside the bottle, and then invert the top end back into the bottle. Staple it in, and you're good to go. If you want to need something larger than a bottle trap, here's a great blog post from a person in Minnesota who shows how to make large crayfish traps from wire.

Want to go crayfishing right now and you're not into DIY? Head to Walmart and pickup a minnow trap.

Be sure to thoroughly wash and dry your traps after each use, especially if you are moving between bodies of water. You do not want to transfer any invasive weeds or zebra mussel larvae.

Can I eat Crayfish?
Yes, of course you can eat any crayfish, you ninny! The invasive Rusty Crayfish is delicious, and you'll be doing the state a favor if you catch and eat them all. In Minnesota one licensed angler can be in possession of 25 pounds of crayfish, which (believe me) is plenty for you and five of your friends.

What's the difference between Minnesota crayfish and those I ate in New Orleans?
Size, mainly. The Red Swamp Crayfish love the brackish water around New Orleans. They're bigger than Minnesota's native crayfish, but all crayfish are edible.

Is there a difference between a Crayfish and a Crawfish?
No. In the Southern USA they call them crawfish, and in the Northern US they call them crayfish. Generally, crawfish are just slightly larger crayfish that live down south.

What do I use for bait to catch crayfish?
I've found that catching bullhead, and then slicing them in half will attract plenty of crayfish. You can freeze them and use them later. I haven't noticed any difference between fresh or frozen bullheads and their ability to attract crayfish.

Cheap canned cat food also works great (thanks for that tip, Trapper Arne!). Whenever I see seafood canned cat food on sale at the grocery store, I stock up. Just poke some holes into the cat food can with a screw driver, place it into your trap, and put the trap into the water.

How do I prepare and eat Crayfish?
Check on YouTube. There's probably 100 videos about how to eat and prepare crayfish.

What I do is put my crayfish catch into a cooler with fresh water. I add some salt to the water to force the crayfish to purge (barf), and leave them a few hours. This makes the water really dirty and you'll have to change the water after awhile. Purging crayfish make them taste a little better by getting the mud and detrious they consume out of their digestive tract.

When they're clean, boil a large pot of water and add a crab mix. I like Zatarain's crab boil. Add the live crayfish, and put in some small potatoes. Boil them until you think they're done.

Can I use Crayfish as bait?
In Minnesota you can use crayfish as bait, but only in the water that they were taken from. If you want to fish with crayfish in Lake Minnetonka, then you have to catch them in Lake Minnetonka. It's illegal to move them from one lake to another. Don't do that.

Do crayfish bite?
No, they don't bite. But they will pinch you if given the chance. I've been pinched many times, and it doesn't hurt very much. Being pinched is not pleasant, but it probably won't even draw blood.

What if I have more questions about Minnesota Crayfishing?
Read the regulations, and then post any questions you have in the comments below.

5 Reasons Why The Internet Sales Tax Must Die

2013-05-07T08:25:00.002-05:00

I'm appalled at the Senate's approach to an internet sales tax. Making millions of small businesses accountable to thousands of local sales tax district is a ridiculous way to implement an internet sales tax. Although an ardent Democrat, I find myself totally connected to the Republican's on this issue.

This bill sharply tips the balance toward local stores and away from internet businesses. Here are five reasons why an online Sales Tax is a bad idea.

First, internet businesses requires the use of the U.S. mail, so there is immediately that additional expense for customers of an online business. This is an expense local retailers do not have.

Second, there is always the delay of 3 days for my products to arrive through the mail when shopping with an internet business. Local businesses can provide the product immediately.

Third, internet businesses will be subject to audits and thousands of local tax jurisdictions. Local merchants are only ever subject to their local tax authorities.

Fourth, the job of reporting to thousands of local tax jurisdictions will be onerous, to say the least. Cutting hundreds of checks to these agencies will be a huge burden.

Fifth, proponents say that this will only affect businesses who have $1 million or more in revenue. Revenue is a stupid way to trigger a tax. A software company with $1 million in revenue will have a much greater margin than an internet retailer who does $1 million in revenue but has a 10% margin. Number of employees is a much better way to trigger any kind of a tax, not simple revenue. Clearly, this measure was not well thought out.

The playing field is already "level," so do not buy into the non-sense that the proponents of this bill are spreading. It's not true.

Lastly, because of the huge expense necessary to comply with this bill, many internet retailers will probably be forced to sell their products through a large 3rd party, such as Amazon.com. They will take 20-30% of their business right off the top. Is there any question in your mind about why Amazon is pushing this bill. Clearly, Amazon is moving to squash their small business competition by making the playing field so onerous that only they and their partners can participate.

Reject the online sales tax.

2Checkout - The Worst Experience Your Customers will Have?

2013-01-08T08:32:00.001-06:00

I've just the better part of an hour trying to give away my money. Unfortunately, the web hosting company I use has hired 2Checkout (or 2CO) to process their recurring billing. My credit card has expired, and so I got a friendly message from 2Checkout reminding me to update my credit card info.

"To have these charges post to a different card (or update your expiration date, etc.), please enter your new billing information using the link below. You will be prompted to enter the first 6 and last 2 digits of the previous credit card."

I arrive at the page, and I read, "

"If you would like to review an order, print an invoice, stop your recurring billing or update your billing information for a specific order, use the order look up form below..."

So I do use the order look up form below, and I find my order! BUT, there is NO WAY to enter my new billing information. All I can do is "print" the order.

I tried 3 different browsers just to be sure that I was not missing some Adobe Flash component or something. Big fail.

No problem, I thought. I'll just call these friendly people on the phone number they included in the email: Toll-free in U.S. & Canada: 1.877.294.0273

They must want to talk to me or they wouldn't include a toll free phone number, right?
After navigating their menu system, I finally dead ended at a message that said to accomplish any number of things (including updating my information) I should use their terrific online help system.

So to recap:

Vendor works hard to sign up a customer who is willing to pay them money each month indefinitely
2CO detects customer's credit card is about to expire
2CO involves customer in a frustrating cycle of fakeout, where they are unable to update their credit card
Customer says fuck it, and goes somewhere else.
Vendor loses customer
Both 2CO and Vendor eventually go out of business.

If I were considering using 2CO as a payment vendor, I would be very concerned about customer loss from such a crap process. If customers can't even update their recurring billing information, then there is NO place for 2CO in internet order processing. The bigger question is why does 2CO allow this crap process to continue? It's so clearly obvious. Isn't there a product manager somewhere who actually tests this stuff out and measures for customer's ability to perform some very basic functions on 2CO, like updating their credit card?

If 2CO doesn't want to talk to buyers to help them out, then why even include their phone number?

If you're looking for a payments processor, I would move on. 2CO does not appear to be long for this world if they can't get this right.

About my friend Todd Withnell

2012-08-11T20:49:00.002-05:00

Todd Withnell was a friend of mine who lived in Moorhead, MN and died 30 years ago in 1982 at the age of 29. I was thinking about him the other day and Googled his name. I was surprised to find a record of his birth and death, yet there was nothing else about him on the internet. That seems a shame, and so I wanted to just share my recollection of Todd.

Todd had health problems all the years I knew him, and I'm quite sure he eventually passed away of complications relating to cancer. He didn't like to talk much about his illness, I didn't pry about it, and so I didn't learn much about it. There were days when I would go to visit Todd at his home that he just wasn't feeling up to company, and other days when his mom would tell me that he was in the hospital. The vast majority of my visits found Todd talkative, alert, and we both enjoyed our meetings a great deal.

During the 1970's CB craze, Todd was active on the CB radio, which is where I first met him. His handle was the "Bushwacker" and his call letters were KVB-5036, which he always pronounced "KVB-five-ought-three six." Later, Todd became a ham radio operator and enjoyed talking to people all over the world.

He had a hearing aide which caused him some problems with copying Morse Code on the ham radio. It was only by his presistance and strong character that was able to earn his ham radio license, which at the time required being able to send and receive morse code, because his hearing made it very difficult.

Todd was also small in stature and wore glasses. He spent a fair amount of time indoors, but through his radios he made a lot of friends and enjoyed many, many hours of lively conversations. The CB and ham radios were the internet of his day.

Todd would sometimes build some of his ham equipment. I remember that he built an "automatic keyer" for sending morse code. During one of our last meetings, Todd was kind of down. He wanted to sell me a bunch of his radio equipment. I didn't need it because I had my own, but I did buy a morse code key and electronic keyer from him, which I still have today. He was very proud of this key, because it was a high end Browning paddle key, which among those in the know was a status key.

I always regret not going to his funeral, or sending a card to his parents. I found out about his death after the funeral, when I returned home from college. Information didn't travel at net speed back then. I've always wondered where he is buried.

Todd was a good guy. He was always full of opinions and enjoyed talking to people whether on the radio or in person. He died too young. I hope anyone else who might be searching for a piece of Todd on the internet will come across this post, and know that his life mattered. When I'm sick, I often think of Todd and what he had to endure. It has made cancer my main charity, and I once had the honor to donate bone marrow to someone I knew. I thought of Todd that day.

Some people you know a long time and never really know. Others, you know for just a little while and they touch you deeply. It's 30 years after his death, and the older I get the more I realize how important it was for me to know Todd during my teenage years. Todd's life was short, but it made a difference and it's still making a difference to me. Thanks, Todd! See you again one of these days.

Google Penguin Update: After the Slaughter

2012-06-05T14:22:00.001-05:00

Let me preface this by stating up front that I am not an SEO expert. I'm just a small businessman trying to get by.

As I wrote earlier, I own a website that was hit extremely hard by the Panda update. Below are two charts that show just how sudden the drop was. My site went from about 3,000 daily impressions to about 300.

The image below is a closeup of the graph following the devastating drop after April 25.

My efforts so far have had very little improvement on the overall traffic.
Even though the site has slowly inched forward in the rankings, its not enough to make any significant difference. The difference between clicks from page 1 to page 2 is gigantic. Even on page 1, the difference in clicks between top listing and 2nd or 3rd is also gigantic.

The net result for me has been that my Google Adwords has increased by nearly $1000 per month. Sales have declined, although its still sustainable, yet much less profitable that it was previously.

My Google Webmaster account does not give any hints. There were no emails warning me that I had bad links. Just a sudden drop.

The most frustrating part of this is the lack of transparency by Google. There are fair questions that I and many other small business owners need to have answered so that we can either fix whatever damage that Google has perceived, or that we know to just move on and do something new.

Is Google penalizing me, or does Google just think it found better content to replace mine? I have no idea.

If I'm being penalized, how do I know? Can I fix it? If so, how?

Do I have bad links? If so, which ones, and will I be forgiven if I remove them?

By having access to all of my webmaster data and my Adwords account, how do I know that Google didn't run some special algorithm that revealed that by knocking down my organic ranking it could make an extra $1,000 a month off me in Adwords fees?

Basically, I'm leaning toward the idea that the cause is lost. I've began creating new websites with new content. One of my new sites, a simple Blogger blog is already in 4th place on page 1, and all over page 2. My shill content is (imho) a poorer experience than the other professionally written and highly targeted content that Google hates, but what can you do. Google seems to love content that is new, just for the sake of new.

I still think that the Penguin update must be rolled back or a major adjustment made to it, simply because I can't see this continuing... eventually Google will have enough data to see that it has made a mistake. It will also be interesting to see how their share of the search market fares post Panda. I'll be looking for a gain in Bing at the expense of Google.

Why Google's Penguin Update Will Fail

2012-05-15T08:57:00.000-05:00

"Quality of inbound Links and the quality of content are not firmly correlated."

Last month Google rolled out its Penguin update, the alleged purpose of which is to improve the experience of searchers by penalizing websites with "spammy links."

There is flawed logic with this approach that is destined to result in the failure of Penguin, or at least will require a major adjustment.

Yes, its true that many websites have bought links to promote their sites and also to manipulate Google's results. Why? Because for years Google rewarded link buying behavior with a good position in organic searches. Google created this problem, but now suddenly it wants to put the genie back in the bottle. Google has decided that any websites that have what it considers an "unnatural" link profile will be slapped with a penalty. I actually own a website that was rightly "A #1" for its search term, and for years sat on that throne. Yes, I bought links. Big deal (I won't identify the site because, well, I'm scared of Google).

The reason that Penguin will eventually fail is that in many cases, such as mine, the content of the site is excellent. In my case the content is well planned, original, updated, and the best source for its niche subject.

Although my site was knocked way back to the bottom of page 5 presumably for links Google considers spammy, that content remains excellent. In fact, its much better content than the other 200 or so pages that are ahead of it.

As with many my things in my life, I don't think my experience is unique. If this happened to me, then it probably happened to you and half a million other websites.

It's difficult for me to believe that a company like Google, which purports to place a premium on serving up excellent content for its users, will be satisfied very long with delivering second rate content. Just to make a point with people it's angry with.

Links and the quality of content are not mutually exclusive. And with many articles now being posted on blogs by scared SEO Pro's who are scrambling (unsuccessfully it appears) to try to remove the thousands of links that were placed on these website, it just ain't gonna happen. Although I sense an excellent business opportunity for the owners of link and directory website to charge for the removal of links, the fact is those links are here to stay.

The only thing that Penguin will accomplish is to encourage a different kind of behavior that Google will eventually deem undesirable. Google, do you really think I'm going to contact 5,000 link website owners with an individual request to remove my link? Really?

I've already began aging the .NET version of my site. Website owners will simply abandon their "spammy" sites with great content and start over. We go to the top once, we'll get there again because its our livelihood.

Thanks to Penguin, the web will simply become that much more cluttered.... Great content with crappy inbound links, buried by hastily built sites with lesser content that outrank the good stuff. Crap at the top of Google's search results, which is exactly the result they are trying to avoid.

Once Google realizes this error, one approach they could take is to consider whether any 'new' spammy links are added. If no more are added over a period of time, then give more tilt to the quality of the content and allow the sites to rise again. But if Google takes too long to do this, then their actions will continue to encourage the pollution of the internet.

Or Google could provide us with a method to "disavow" a link through its webmasters tools. Or how about a "badlinks.txt" file on our website that tells Googlebot that we agree with them that the following links are bad. Mea culpa!

Inbound links are not spam. Bad search results at the top of Google are spam. Google only has itself to blame for the problem. If it hadn't been so easy to game Google in this manner for so many years, I wouldn't have had to play this game. I wouldn't have had to fight fire with fire.

This is why Penguin has failed.

UPDATE:

[Note: since I wrote this 2 days ago, my site has crept up from bottom of page 5 to be the last listing on page 3. Meanwhile, a shill blog site I built to provide links suddenly now is on page 1. That's astounding, since the content is just crap. I will begin to add good content to this site and see if I can leverage it to the top of the page 1.

Ultimately, great content will trump inbound links. I just have to believe it. No way is Google going to continue to embarrass itself like this. I wish I was brave enough to provide examples for you. It is a lot of fun watching Google squirm, but I don't think its in my best interest at this time.]

US Supreme Court's Outrageous Activist Decisions

2012-04-02T19:47:00.002-05:00

As if the Citizen's United decision was not bad enough, this activist Roberts Supreme Court is one again mad, out of control, and dangerous. Unbelievably, today the court ruled that invasive strip searches are acceptable for ANY offense in America. Thinking of participating in a peaceful non-violent demonstration or protest? Better chill out, because that can now get you bent over naked in front of guards.

If you're a police chief or sheriff who wants to stifle any kind of legal public dissent in your community, simply drop hints that anyone arrest during a peaceful protest will have their nether regions examined.

We'll soon see if this crazy court will go so far as to deny millions of Americans healthcare coverage, even after their duly elected public officials debated and properly passed this immensely important legislation. My bet is that this activist court will indeed overturn America's healthcare chance.

America, don't stand idly by while this nutter conservative court allows for the dismantling of your God-given rights as Americans to free expression.

Why you should NOT use Verizon's vzwpix.com service

2012-03-29T08:25:00.001-05:00

If you're posting pictures to Verizon's Vzwpix.com, beware!
Verizon may, for any reason whatsoever, completely destroy your precious pictures without ANY accountability to you.

For those who want to store their pictures in "le cloud" this is what you're up against. Basically, you do not own your pictures. Companies like Verizon own them, and they may do whatever they please with them.

Just read Verizon's TOS:

"Termination. Verizon Wireless reserves the right in its sole discretion to restrict your access to the Website and/or terminate your wireless service without notice for any violation or threatened violation of this Agreement. Upon voluntary or involuntary termination of your wireless service, your access to the Website immediately will be blocked and your content stored on the Website deleted. Verizon Wireless has no obligation to return or restore deleted content. This Agreement shall survive termination or expiration of your Customer Agreement.
Changes. Verizon Wireless reserves the right to revise this Agreement or impose new conditions at any time. Such revisions will be effective immediately upon notice by any means, including, but not limited to, posting on the Website"

Shit, even if you just THREATEN to violate their TOS, they can boot your ass off. So just shut up --- if you don't like Verizon, or they may choose to destroy all of your pictures without warning.

Other parts of Verizon's contract suggest that you can't even sue to get your pictures back. Verizon doesn't give a shit about your precious content. In fact, if you don't log in every so often (a time period they can change at will without any direct notification to you) they have the right to just make your content vanish forever.

So beware... if you are using a cloud storage service to keep your content "safe," in reality you do not have any safety at all. There is no substitute for a local backup copy, as Verizon so clearly demonstrates.