Image via CrunchBase

Yesterday, I posted my experiences with Carbonite and Mozy and explained why they’re not a good option for someone who wants an inexpensive, truely unlimited and fast backup solution. Today, I’m going to explain the solution I found with CrashPlan.

CrashPlan is a direct competitor to Carbonite, Mozy and Backblaze. However, the wonder of Carbonite is that they separate their software from their service.

CrashPlan Plus is the service. For $3 per month, users can upload an unlimited amount of personal data. The low cost alone sets it ahead of Mozy and Carbonite.

The CrashPlan software, however, has the ability to backup not only locally but also to a friend. The CrashPlan software can be freely downloaded and used without a subscription.

Controls are very easy to understand and use. CrashPlan assumes you want to backup the data in your home directory. You can easily adjust that setting and specifically include or exclude individual folders or files. You can limit the upload and download speeds based on time of day or if you’re present or away from your computer.

Let’s look at an example use case. A large amount of data exists on a file server at the office. I want to automatically backup that data locally and off site. I purchase a Drobo and a large external USB drive. I configure the Drobo at the office and connect it to the file server. I take the large external drive home and connect it to my home PC. I install CrashPlan on the file server and on my home PC, telling the file server to backup friends’ data to the Drobo and the home PC to back up friends’ data to the external hard drive.

I configure CrashPlan on the file server to back up all the data stored on the server to the Drobo connected to it. This action creates a second copy of my data that is stored locally on a different type of media – I’m making the case that storing the data on a Drobo with its drive redundancy is different from storing it on a single drive. I tell it to also back up the data to a friend. It prompts for the friend’s authorization code and I give it the code from my computer at home. It instantly begins copying the data to both the Drobo and over the Internet to the USB drive at home.

On the home computer, I tell it to back up to a friend and provide the code from the computer at the office. It begins backing up any files from home to the Drobo. If I stored important information at home, I could easily tell it to also backup to the external drive in addition to the Drobo to satisfy the 3-2-1 practice for my data at home.

I could also configure Crashplan for my laptops and coworkers by simply giving them the code to bakup to the Drobo. It’s remarkably easy, and only the user can restore the data. The security theoretically makes it safe to back up to a stranger, since you’re only storing encrypted data on the other machine.

I recently had the opportunity to test this configuration. In my configuration, I have my parents’ computer set to back up to my media center. When their computer crashed and they purchased a replacement, I plugged the replacement directly into the Drobo, installed Crashplan and began the restoration process directly, saving the time of having to download the restore files. A huge advantage to CrashPlan is that it can recognize the data storage location both locally and remotely. The initial backup can be done locally and then the drive can be moved to a computer off site.

I’m much more fond of this backup solution than using a commercial service. While the initial cost of the Drobo and the hard drive seems high, factoring in the cost of paying for backup subsriptions to several PCs and laptops each month as well as the enormous expense in the event of a crash makes this solution much more economically desirable in my mind. Remaining in control of the physical backup destination may be more responsibility, but if something bad every happens the solution is to simply retrieve the backup sets from the off-site location, not spending months downloading or spending a ton of money. That piece of mind is priceless.

Have you found a better solution or a problem with CrashPlan? Let me know in the comments.

CrunchBase Information on CrashPlan

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Outside of simply carrying insurance, there really isn’t a solution to the cost of the physical hardware. Theft is theft. The second solution is solved by using TrueCrypt, a fantastic encryption solution about which I wrote in October of 2008. This post begins to address the third problem – a way to ensure that data is safe in the event of theft, crash or other loss – by defining the problem and detailing some bad experiences I’ve had with two, popular backup services.

Backing up your data is important, but creating a comprehensive strategy to prevent catastrophic loss can be challenging. The general rule for backing up is easy to remember as 3-2-1. The best solution is to have three copies of your data on two different media types and one needs to be off site. One of the best ways to solve the off-site problem is to use a service that runs automatically on your computer and copies the data securely to the cloud as you work.

Image via CrunchBase

Allured by the Carbonite advertisements in my podcasts and other media, I signed up for Carbonite a few years ago. It seemed to work well, didn’t slow down my machine too much, and it seemed to work as advertised.

When I built my media center and began to aggregate all of my personal media there, I began to notice a very severe limitation of Carbonite. After reaching a threshold, they limit the upload bandwidth. Unfortunately for me, that limit was about 200 GB. I needed to upload 1.5 TB including a large amount of video from the Aaron Traffas Band, so Carbonite was no longer an option.

Image via CrunchBase

I subscribed to Mozy, Carbonite’s closest competitor who also advertised unlimited uploads for about $5 per month. It took a couple of months, but it was finally able to copy all of my data. Shortly after it caught up, the unthinkable happened. The filesystem on the hard drive storing all of my documents and media became corrupted. I was faced with having only two copies of my data remaining. I had an old copy of everything from a few months before that I stored on my Drobo and I had the current copy on Mozy’s servers.

The 1.5 TB was too much to try to download, so I called Mozy to learn how I could get to my data. I learned that Mozy will send data sets over 200 GB to users on hard drives, but at a significant cost. They would send me all my data on three hard drives for $1,100.

I ended up comparing the old backup with the data on Mozy and downloading the changed files, but it took an enormous amount of time. I learned two very important lessons from my experience. First, the cost of an off-site backup solution isn’t just the monthly fee, the recovery costs need to be considered. Second, Mozy wasn’t for me. Mozy later discontinued their unlimited plan, meaning that they’re not an option for many others either.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the solution I found that I believe to be the right solution for all scenarios.

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1. Use Google Docs
2. If Google Docs doesn’t work or doesn’t make sense, try Dropbox

Image via CrunchBase

Google Docs
If you’re working on a document, spreadsheet or presentation, Google Docs is the answer. If you’re collaborating with others in real time, Docs is the obvious answer because it’s really the only answer. Docs wraps up a document editor like Word, a spreadsheet like Excel and a presentation system like PowerPoint in a single, browser-based service that uses secure cloud storage. This means that you don’t have to worry about your recipients having Microsoft Office or not – anyone with browser can access the documents.

It allows very granular sharing control, allowing you to grant read or write privilege to specific users or to anyone with the link. Distributing documents with Google Docs is easy. Simply grant read-only privileges to anyone with the link and email the link to the people with whom you wish to share. If it’s a confidential document, simply use the built-in sharing controls to submit an email list of only the people you wish to obtain the documents and those recipients will have to log in to view them. It’s much more polite than sharing with Dropbox since it doesn’t create new folders on the hard drives of your friends or colleagues. Moreover, using Google Docs means anyone will have the ability to view it natively, rather than having to convert your Microsoft Office document to Google Docs or LibreOffice.

You can upload any kind of file to Google Docs, making it a great alternative to services like YouSendIt or WeTransfer. Simply upload the file and get the public link. Your recipient will appreciate the direct link rather than having to use a clunky, third-party service.

Image via CrunchBase

Dropbox
Dropbox is best thought of as a personal file repository that’s backed up. I see it used for document collaboration, and it is really inferior to Google Docs for the reasons listed above. In addition, two people can’t work on the same file at the same time in Dropbox and expect the changes to be properly merged. Dropbox is much better suited to be used to synchronize your own files among multiple computers.

Dropbox’s strength is in the software that runs automatically on your computers. When you make a change to one of those files, those changes are replicated among other Dropbox installations. If you’re working on an office document and make a change to a document you’ve shared with someone else who is also making changes, you’ll end up with two versions of the file and the need to merge those changes manually.

When you share a Dropbox folder with someone, that folder exists in her Dropbox account until she leaves it. If she’s anything like me, she likes a well organized and uncluttered Dropbox, so asking her to use Dropbox when Google Docs would have sufficed can be quite annoying.

While Dropbox isn’t very good for collaboration on office documents, it does work well for pictures and video. The latest versions of Dropbox allow instant upload for smartphone pictures directly from the phone app as well as automatic import of media from memory cards.

The right tool for the job
Dropbox is great for media like videos and pictures. It’s great for documents you need to keep offline and private. While it works to share office documents, it’s clunky, annoying and inferior to Google Docs. Google Docs is great for document distribution and collaboration, as well as sending large files, but doesn’t work well to share lots of media like movies, photos and music.

Dropbox and Google Docs are great, free tools. I use both each and every day and can’t see how I ever got along without them. Hopefully this article helps disambiguate the two and gives you a better idea of which tool is appropriate for which job.
CrunchBase Information on Google Docs

CrunchBase Information on Dropbox

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

Waze on a 7" tablet in Kansas City

These days, purchasing a dedicated GPS device is silly. There’s no reason to have a device with such a limited use that’s outdated the moment you buy it. While it’s true that most GPS units can be updated, it’s still a hassle and an expense for a device that – at it’s updated best – is inferior to something we already carry with us wherever we go. Today, our smartphones and tablets have mapping abilities far superior to anything a dedicated GPS can offer, we take them with us when we leave our vehicles and information we receive from the cloud is always more current than the maps saved and stored in our unconnected and outdated GPS boxes on the dash.

Image via Wikipedia

Google Maps
Preinstalled on Android and iOS phones and tablets, Google Maps is the most reliable and accurate mapping software I’ve seen. Rather than spending a ton of money on a GPS unit, I can now spend $3.57 on Monoprice for a windshield mount that keeps my phone conveniently in front of me. I recently purchased a tablet mount, which puts a beautiful 7″ map directly in front of me as I drive.

Waze
A relatively new alternative to Google Maps, Waze has recently become my preference for longer trips. Waze uses crowdsourcing to bring real-time road and traffic conditions to the maps of its users. Waze users are known as Wazers and their devices are continually updating ground speed to Waze. Portions of roads where current traffic speeds are significantly below the average road speed are highlighted and a speech balloon tells you the current average speed. Knowing when there are traffic jams ahead of you will let you find an alternate route. When a Wazer sees a police trap or a road hazard, a couple of easy button presses allows that report to be sent to everyone else using Waze in the area.

Waze brings game features to traveling. Each report of road conditions is rewarded by points which you can compare against a leaderboard of your friends or of all Wazers in your state. Roads that haven’t been visited by other Wazers are signified by dots on the road. When you drive down these untraveled roads, your car turns into  Pac-Man which chomps the dots, rewarding you with points.

Waze works everywhere, but it learns appropriate routes based on the way it’s used. The more people who have used Waze to get to your destination in the past, the more accurate the guidance will be. Accuracy is based on usage, so it’ll be more accurate in the cities than the country. The community reporting functions are obviously currently more valuable in urban settings than on rural roads and will likely continue to be until it’s more widely adopted. Until then, I’m going to keep munching the dots on the dirt roads and using Google Maps when I honestly don’t know how to get to my rural destination.

CrunchBase Information on Waze

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

I got pretty good. I had a fairly quick chant, with several variations of filler words and could do fairly good impressions of my bid calling colleagues. My favorable assessment of my own abilities was quickly reset, however, after an auction one night when my coworkers threw me up on the stand and I actually got to practice selling to real people.

People don’t bid like signs bid. Signs are predictable; arbitrarily resetting the bidding increments is unrealistic. To a new bid caller, taking bids from people is very unpredictable – perhaps chaotic or even frightening – compared to practicing alone. Until now, it’s been nearly impossible to simulate an in-person bidding environment that could be used to practice bid calling in private.

Enter: Virtual Auction
Virtual Auction is bid calling practice software that is the first and only in-person auction simulation system I’ve ever seen. I caught up with Virtual Auction’s creator David Whitaker at the Missouri Professional Auctioneers Association convention and got a first-hand look.

With better 3D graphics than some video games, Virtual Auctions allows the user to control the graphics quality, screen resolution, bidding environment, size of crowd, bid speed, difficulty of bid signals and number of bidders.

Virtual Auction simulates five types of bidding environments.

The crowd behaves according to the settings, bidding in unpredictable intervals until the auctioneer says sold and clicks the sold button. The view then zooms to the last bidder who shows a bid card. Each environment features a tutorial. The software even includes appropriate background sounds for each environment as well as audible ringmen “yeps” which, thankfully, can optionally be muted. Each environment has subtle differences in aspects like view angle, crowd positioning and crowd attire. For example, the crowd in the benefit auction environment are all dressed in black and the livestock crowd will request to cut the bidding increments.

In addition to the auction simulations, Virtual Auction includes a battery of number drills that many bid callers will remember from auction school, though the ability to control increment and speed by software makes the drills much more useful. ”I want to help students continue doing what they learned in Paul Behr’s class at auction school…a study guide to use at home,” said Whitaker. He says, “I don’t want to teach you how to auction, I want to let you practice.”

I asked David why he created Virtual Auction.

I wanted to create a practice platform to help auctioneers, both old and new, improve their bid calling. I’m trying to make connections with auction schools to raise awareness among new auctioneers and hopefully work with the National Auctioneers Association to get the word out to established auctioneers.

He says the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “The auction schools I’ve contacted so far tell me it fills a very important need within the industry.”

What’s been the biggest challenge so far? In addition to learning the ropes to becoming a vendor and getting the word out, Whitaker says the release itself has been an ordeal. “Finding the developer has been hard. Taking an idea and turning it into software isn’t easy. It took six months to find a developer who could understand the concept as well as handle the animation and build it for a reasonable cost.”

He already has some good ideas for version two. “I’m thinking about voice recognition and competition mode for the next version, perhaps even turning it into a playable game.”

Virtual Auction sells for $149.99. That seems like an easy sell for any professional bid caller who wants to improve or change his or her chant. However, it seems like an invaluable must-buy for any rookie auctioneer or recent auction school graduate.

Virtual Auction works with any Mac or PC with a DVD drive. Learn more and see demonstration videos at virtualauctioneering.com.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

Image via Wikipedia

Cars and trucks are very important to the modern auction business. The ability to travel to a seller’s location to meet with him or her is crucial to any auctioneer’s ability to book an auction.

The problem is that vehicles break down sometimes. Sometimes they don’t start quite right, run quite right or have one of any number of other problems. While there are many other places to have vehicles fixed, and it’s hard to find a town without at least one local mechanic, many auctioneers bring a vehicle to the convention and it would be great if we could figure out a way to help members with vehicles that don’t run quite right as a benefit.

Most associations have a few members who are currently or have been mechanics. These members not only use cars in their businesses, they also are good at fixing cars and helping others. I’ll bet these members would be happy to donate their time at the convention to work on cars. I think it’d be great if we could set up a tent for a few hours to let those auto-savvy auctioneers with a little wrench-turning experience and know-how help the other members who lack the ability to work on their own cars. Walk-ins would be accommodated, no appointment would be needed.

I’ve noticed a trend at conventions recently. The technology tent is just as appropriate as my proposed automotive tent. I’m not against offering presentations to groups on how to use technology to improve the business, just as I wouldn’t be opposed to presentations to groups on how to find more efficient transportation methods. However, I don’t believe it’s the role of any association to provide one-on-one help performing tune-ups or tire changes, just as I don’t believe it’s the role of any association to provide one-on-one help removing viruses or setting up email. It’s not appropriate because it’s completely outside the scope of any such organization.

Computer service should be left to a properly trained tech at a local computer shop, just as auto service should be left to a properly trained tech at an automotive shop. Asking those members who have the ability to service computers to volunteer to do so is just as appropriate as asking those members who are mechanics to perform oil changes for anyone who wants one.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

I recently came across this video in my Twitter stream. It’s a comical take by Scott Stratten on the frequency with which QR codes are misused. Watch it.

Thanks to JD Patton for the share.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

Image by Rob Boudon via Flickr

I love slot machines. Actually, it’s the gambling I love. I pretty much hate slot machines. You put in money and you might win. There’s no guarantee. In fact, it’s more likely that you’ll lose. There’s no guarantee of winning with card games either, but at least you have information available to change the odds of winning.

Frequently, I see ads on this site through Google’s Adsense that advertise penny auction websites. In a common penny auction format, each bid increments an item’s bid price by one cent. Each bid costs a quarter. Each bid extends the timer and the last person to bid wins.

It’s tough to judge the reputability of these penny auction sites, since the barrier to entry is very low. Unlike Internet auction sites run by auctioneers, it’s unlikely that there is an auctioneer of any kind behind any of the many sites that use this model. In fact, there have been recent news stories regarding automated shill bidding by some popular penny auction sites.

I’m not the first auctioneer to make the association between penny auction sites to gambling. For an alternative, more in-depth analysis of penny auction sites, read Mike Brandly’s take on the subject.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

Image via Wikipedia

As a frequent user of multiple browsers, and someone who despises Adobe Flash, I was thrilled the other day when I realized that I could completely uninstall Adobe Flash from my computers.

Google Chrome comes with Flash and keeps it updated. While I don’t use Chrome as my primary browser, it’s one of the browsers I use regularly. By leveraging the FlashBlock Chrome extension, Flash will only work in Chrome when specifically enabled by clicking.

Uninstalling Adobe Flash through the control panel in Windows will not affect the ability to utilize Flash when needed in Chrome; it will simply prevent other browsers from showing Flash content and remove the annoying Adobe Flash update that seems to pop up every couple of weeks.

Goodbye Flash cookies. Goodbye annoying websites and Flash ads. Goodbye Adobe updater. Now, when I find the rare instance that I want to use a site that employs Flash, I simply copy the URL, fire up Chrome, paste in my destination and click on the Flash element I wish to enable.

It’s safe and secure. It’s much better for privacy since Flash can no longer run in the background and track my movements. It’s one fewer program I have installed.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

While Google brings some heavy ammunition to bear on the social network problem, we’ve seen in the past that the best idea doesn’t always win. Look at FriendFeed or Cliqset. Both were products that offered interesting approaches, solutions superior to existing offerings. The problem that each suffered was the same. Neither was Facebook. Neither was Twitter.

I have a bunch of friends who are happy with feature phones. They’re lucky if they have a Facebook account so they can post about how much they hate technology. They don’t understand Twitter, much less have an account. They’d rather mock the silliness of the name than spend time trying to understand the value that it brings.

I’m not going to spend time typing the same recycled thoughts that you can read on a thousand different blogs. Google+ reviews abound, most coming to the conclusion that it’s cute and Google is big, but that there isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. Google+ is a repackaging, they’ll tell you, of the same now-standard feature sets that originated with Friendster and MySpace.

What I will say is that what was tough before is now becoming impossible. I was already having to carefully meter the attention and time I spent on Facebook and Twitter, never feeling caught up with either service. As Google+ enters the ring, it’s going to be even more difficult.

The answer to the social networking challenge  was syndication, according to myself and others. Since nobody has time to spend all day on social networks, the solution was to post to one and have it syndicate that update to the other networks. I currently have my tweets post to Facebook and my blog. My pictures I send to yFrog end up on my blog and on Twitter and on Facebook. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than having to post the same content manually to each service.

The problem with syndication is that it fractures the interactions. I’d tweet and get some replies on Twitter. That tweet would simultaneously be posted to my Facebook profile where it would get some comments. The twitter replies were ignorant of the Facebook comments and vice versa, causing a fractured conversation.

We’ve seen the problems of walled gardens. AOL and Compuserve and Prodigy each had proprietary content generated by their respective users. In the end, their models changed, and each began allowing users to access the community content that was the Internet, focusing on providing access and an interface to that community content.

The same decentralization must happen with social content. The posts and pictures and comments that we generate on each service must be accessible to users of other services. I should be able to tweet and have you see it on Facebook. Your comment that you leave on Facebook should be visible on Google+ where someone else should be able to comment.

We’re a long ways away from parity of function between services. It’s coming. It must. When we elect to use a service, it should be because that service provides the most compelling interface to the underlying social layer on the public Internet.

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QR codes must be scanned with devices

Hello and welcome to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast. Today is Tuesday, 24 May, 2011. My name is Aaron Traffas, and today we’re going to talk about QR codes and Microsoft Tags – the little squares of gobbledygook that, when scanned, take you to a website or display text on your device. We’ll talk about when to use them and, more likely, when not to use them.

There has been a lot of buzz over the last couple of years, mostly from the tech and marketing industries, around the QR code and its slightly less ugly cousin, the Microsoft Tag. Last month, Google ended it’s QR code initiative for Places, opting instead to focus on near field communications. It was an exciting announcement for me, as I feel that it’ll likely start to decrease the number of QR codes that clutter the world around me. Here’s why this fad is over-hyped and why you shouldn’t use QR codes and Microsoft Tags for marketing.

Convenience
How often do you find yourself using QR codes? Sure, I’ve done it once or twice, but just to see if it worked and how easy it was. The result of my test was that it indeed works, but it’s a headache. Indeed, just now, it took me over a minute to test the Microsoft Tag used later in this post. The argument in favor of the codes is that they make it easier for users with QR code-reading devices to get to your website. However, the logic falls over when you think about someone viewing the marketing who doesn’t have such a device or, more likely, isn’t going to have the time to stop, take out a device, spend the 15 seconds or more to find and load the app, get a focus on the image, and use it to spin the wheel to see where he will be taken. It’s rare that I see a QR code that specifies the destination. In this regard, it’s kind of like sending HTML email – the user sees a bunch of junk you’ve presented him but lacks the incentive to click “show as HTML” because he’s unsure of the content or simply doesn’t care enough to suit up and participate in your game.

Branding
I’ve written about branding before, and it was the subject of episode 21 of the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast. The most important branding your company has is your domain name. The call to action on modern auction marketing isn’t come to the auction like it was in the 1990s and before. The call to action today is come to our website.  QR codes don’t convey your brand. They don’t help drill an image of your website’s URL into the mind of the viewer. I’ve seen vehicles with company magnets with nothing but a QR code. Let’s just say I wasn’t encouraged to take out my phone.

Real estate
No, not real property – real estate is jargon for the amount of area an element consumes on a screen, a web page, or marketing materials. QR codes take up a fair amount of real estate that would be much better used as white space or filled with whatever you’re trying to market – like your website.

Image by hawaii via Flickr

Aesthetics
QR codes are ugly. While the Microsoft Tag is certainly prettier and there are ways to make QR codes more attractive, you’re still dealing with the skinniest kid at fat camp. After making them beautiful, you’ve still got a box, taking up space, with a bunch of gobbledygook in the middle of it that does nothing to convey your brand.

Why are QR codes so popular? The press has over-hyped the importance. Like the possibility of using social media for business, most small business owners are jumping aboard this bandwagon without regard for the appropriateness of the medium. They’re trusting that this new-fangled thing will transform their bottom lines. There is a similar parallel between the social media fad and the QR code fad. Businesses are spending a ton of money to build these tools at the expense of much more important aspects of their branding. Businesses are adding their Facebook vanity URLs – sometimes above their websites – to marketing. I’ve written before about how much more important your website is than social media. Likewise, conveying your website – hopefully an easy-to-remember and short .com address – is the most important thing you can do in your marketing materials, certainly much more important than taking up space with a QR code that few people will use anyway.

Another reason QR codes are sometimes used is for deep linking. Like a lazy web designer uses a sitemap to fix poor navigation, some QR codes take you deep within a site to a specific page instead of to the home page of the site. It’s possible that this is an appropriate use for QR codes, and I’ll address that possibility in a moment, but most of the time this use isn’t as valuable as other approaches to getting a viewer to a specific location. If you’re trying to take the viewer to a specific page on your website, the most appropriate way is to make the page short and memorable. If you’re doing a charity auction for the Boys and Girls Foundation and your website is abcauction.com, rather than using a QR code that doesn’t specify a destination and, as such, offers no incentive to remember a domain or specific page, use the space to advertise abcauction.com/boysandgirls – it’s easy to read, easy to remember, and I believe it will generate a much more valuable response.

Is there a time when QR codes are appropriately used? QR codes are utilitarian tools, not marketing methods, and I believe that we auctioneers can find an appropriate home for QR codes or Microsoft Tags on our item tags or stickers. When we have an item that’s listed within an auction on our site, it’s likely that we have some kind of tag or sticker that has the item’s number. An appropriate use of a QR code or Microsoft Tag would be to include one on that sticker that links directly to the item (not the auction) on our website. Make sure you specify what the code will do, like printing “View this item on abcauction.com” – it’s succinct and also conveys your brand along with the QR code.

Well that’s it for episode 22. Did I miss something? Am I wrong about something? I know there are some QR code fans out there who will object to at least something in this episode. My motto is that if you agree with everything I say, you haven’t paid attention. Please leave comments on the transcription for this episode on auctioneertech.com. It’s much better than replying on Facebook or Twitter – remember, it’s all about unification of the brand.

You’ve been listening to the Auction Podcast from AuctioneerTech. If you have suggestions, questions or comments, or are interested in being a guest, please let me know by going to www.auctioneertech.com/feedback and leaving a message. You can also post public comments about this or any other episode, as well as find show transcriptions, on the Auction Podcast page of auctioneertech.com.

Thank you for listening, now go sell something.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

Here’s my original sit-down workspace that was the starting point.

I began by building a frame from 2×4 studs.

Next, I put it on legs.

The top was built from two 4′ x 8′ sheets, one of plywood and the other of a thin, pressed, composite wood that would serve as a finished surface.

I wanted a shelf about 18″ high for the battery backup, computer, printer and additional storage.

Once the structure’s base was complete, I put the monitors in place to measure for the rear supports.

With the two side computer monitors mounted, and while I waited on the special adapter to mount the Apple display, I built shelves to support the quite-heavy near field Yamaha monitors on the right and left, and added a top shelf on the right to support my HP tablet dock.

The final touch was adding the top shelf on the left.

Here’s the view from the right.

Here’s the final project.

Someday I’d like to build some additional shelving on the left, but I get the feeling this project is something that’ll never be considered complete. I’ve been standing for the last week or two, and have found an improvement in posture and it sure feels good.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

Sounds interesting. I’m looking forward to trying it out. Here’s the presser.

First Social Auction Website Makes Popularity Profitable
LikeBids.com Announces “You Feeling Lucky, Punk?” St. Patrick’s Day Launch

New York. New York, February 26, 2011 - The first social media auction website, LikeBids.com, announces “You Feeling Lucky, Punk?” launch event to be held on March 17, 2011 to mark the release of the beta version of the site. It will be the first day users will be able to log on to compete for prizes by sharing custom auction links to earn bid collateral through “likes” and “tweets.”

LikeBids.com is the first social media auction website, that allows users to win the products they love by promoting them to their friends via social media networks. By providing users a unique gaming experience, the chance to win prizes just by telling their friends about them, LikeBids.com has replaced currency with social media collateral with “likes” and “tweets.”

For participating product companies, LikeBids.com creates the missing bridge between e-commerce and social media marketing: providing a powerful incentive to get social media users actively promoting brands.  LikeBids.com offers product companies exponential exposure, and the chance to remove the limitations in reach social media marketing currently contain. Likebids.com is not creating another social media marketing forum : it is the engine that will drive business through the social media channels.

LikeBids.com offers product companies exponential exposure, and the unique opportunity to make the “friends” of their brand their own social media marketing team,” said co-founder Jennifer Cannavo Calise. “Yet at the same time, we are constantly rewarding users for their active participation by offering free prizes and discounts.”

About LikeBids.com
Founded in 2010, LikeBids.com is the first social auction website that allows users to win prizes completely free just for promoting a product auction link. LikeBids.com was founded to give all social media network users the opportunity to win the prizes they may not be able to purchase. By actively involving the users in promoting brands, LikeBids.com removes the annoyance of advertising, and empowers users to be rewarded for actively participating in increasing brand awareness. Although only one winner will emerge to win the prize, LikeBids.com offers all participates a discount code (when a minimum share quota is reached) to help everyone afford what they want most!

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One of the best things about Twitter is that, with a little tweaking, it allows you to easily update Facebook without going through the hassle of logging into Facebook and dealing with all the distractions. A week or two ago, however, I realized that the connection between Twitter and Facebook no longer seemed to be working.

Here’s how I was able to fix it.

1. Go here: http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/
2. Uncheck the boxes.
3. Send a tweet without the boxes checked, it won’t go to Facebook.
4. Check the boxes to have Twitter update your Facebook status, the status of a page, or both.
5. Send another tweet and it should work – it did for me.

Note that if you’ve told Facebook to force https connections, you’ll have to turn them off in order to reconnect this application – it’ll prompt you to do so during the process. Don’t forget to turn https 0n once you’re done, else you’ll be Firesheep fodder. Here’s how.

1. In Facebook, click the Account menu at the top right.
2. Curse the idiots at Facebook who designed a drop-down menu into a website.
3. Click Account Settings
4. In the Account Security section, check the box labeled “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible”

Note while you’re there that Facebook lists the computers that are authenticated to your account and, like Google, allows you to disconnect any you don’t recognize.

If you haven’t connected your Twitter account to Facebook yet, the instructions here should be a good start. Hit the comments if you have questions or comments about the procedure.

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I’ve never been a note-taker. In my experience growing up, notes always were taken but never touched again. I quickly realized I was better off paying attention than taking notes, since I had a better chance of remembering than going back to reference notes. If only there were a way to have the convenience and speed of hand-written notes without the hassle of paper and piles.

I’ve tried taking notes on a handheld with stylus and on a laptop with a touch screen. It’s always so awkward, and there’s always the delay of a few seconds turning it on and launching a note-taking app. It’s not a replacement for pen and paper.

Enter: Evernote. It’s one of several players in the “everything bucket” category of web apps. You can put anything in it, including text notes, PDFs, pictures and sound recordings.

Evernote is cross-platform. Not only can you access it from any browser, but there’s an app for Windows and Mac and pretty much every kind of smart phone and device.

While the text editor isn’t as powerful as that found within Google Docs, Evernote shines in that the mobile app it’s the most convenient optical character recognition system ever. Here’s how I use it.

Take notes. Launch the Evernote app on Android or iOS. Use it to take a picture of the notes. Put notes in trash.

Once the picture is uploaded, it not only is available on the Evernote website and all the apps on all your devices, it’s also scanned and indexed so that it’s searchable. After a few months of use, you have a database of your handwritten notes that you can search by keywords. Granted, your mileage may vary based on your handwriting, but this can be helped with a little categorization of notes into what Evernote calls notebooks and the use of tags for notes to ease future searches.

I realize OCR isn’t anything new, and that using a scanner would yield stored notes of much higher quality than using a phone’s camera. However, the action of snapping a picture of a note with an always-with-me phone is below the hassle threshold that makes it worth the time, where waiting until I’m buy a computer to use a scanner isn’t.

Another very useful application for this process is with receipts. I’ve developed the habit of snapping an Evernote picture of every receipt before I throw them away. Now, if I’m looking for a Best Buy receipt from three months ago, I simply enter “Best Buy” in the Evernote search box.

Evernote recently released an initiative to build a database of other software and hardware that supports Evernote. It’s called Trunk and comprises the Livescribe smartpens that automatically save what they write in Evernote, the Voice2Note third party app which uses speech recognition to turn your Evernote audio notes into searchable content, and PDF readers and scanners with buttons that allow one-click upload to your Evernote account.

Evernote has a freemium business model, offering a basic plan with a monthly upload cap of 60 MB for free, which has always been more than enough for me. Power users may want to pay the $5 per month for 1 GB monthly uploads, double the maximum single note size from 25 MB to 50 MB, and the ability to upload any kind of file.

CrunchBase Information on Evernote

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LikeBids is social auction site

LikeBids looks to be a site that allows users to win items by convincing the most people to like or share links. I’m guessing that if you’re the person who convinces the most people to like and share the newest CD released by your favorite band, you may win a copy of the CD or at least get a discount.

Is it a true auction site? I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, but I will say that the concept sounds very fascinating and I look forward to the beta launch to try it out.

LikeBids

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I was disappointed when it was acquired by Intuit and the innovation subsequently slowed to a crawl. I’ve been waiting for months to get their tech support to correctly categorize an auto loan as a loan instead of a credit card, and finally received a response that’s not much more than “we’re working on it.”

My love-hate relationship with Mint aside, they released a pretty impressive infographic about credit cards last month. If you’ve ever wondered what the numbers on a credit card mean, or if you foolishly thought it was a 16-digit random number made just for you, you should roll on over and check it out on the Mint blog.

Cracking the Credit Card Code

CrunchBase Information on Mint

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The survey itself contains 11 questions ranging from the types of assets sold and the way the auctions are conducted to the types of media used and how the marketing mix is configured.

Carter regularly publishes articles on his blog and in various auction-related publications connecting the auction industry with media and publications, both old and new. There’s no question that the information will be kept anonymous and put to good use. Take the two minutes it takes to head on over and take the survey now.

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Software patches are a continual pain in the ass. Windows Update takes care of Windows and some Microsoft programs, but does nothing about all the other software on your system. One of the first posts I wrote when AuctioneerTech launched in September of 2008 was about a company called Secunia that helps you check the software on your computer for vulnerabilities. I’ve been a regular Secunia user ever since, using their Personal Software Inspector (PSI) to keep my personal machines up to date.

Yesterday, Secunia released version 2 of their PSI, which boasts a new, even easier-to-use interface. If you haven’t used Secunia before, now is a great time to start.

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I’ve had a Eee PC 901 netbook for the last couple years. I’ve had various version of Ubuntu Linux installed on it, including the netbook remix, and recently tried Peppermint and Lubuntu. By far the most enjoyable netbook OS I’ve tried – and am currently reinstalling because it’s better than everything else  – is Jolicloud.

Jolicloud was designed from the ground up to be a netbook OS. The environment is closer to the functionality of a smart phone – iOS or Android – than it is to a desktop OS like Windows or Ubuntu.

Jolicloud is truly a cloud OS. Like Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, Jolicloud synchronizes all your settings to your account, so when you login to a Jolicloud installation on multiple computers, your history and settings are retrieved and accessible. Unlike Google’s Chrome OS, however, Jolicloud offers the power of a traditional OS, allowing you to install standard Linux applications and alternative browsers as well as access local file storage and devices.

The cloud installation is so well-done that you can actually use your Jolicloud environment from any computer that runs Chrome. Simply go to jolicloud.com and login to see your netbook’s desktop and applications show in your browser.

The best part about using Jolicloud isn’t the simplicity, but the speed. Recent versions of Ubuntu – even the netbook remix – are slow on my old Eee 901. Scrolling seems sluggish, and there’s always a second or two that I have to wait for applications to load. Jolicloud is so light and fast that it hides the weaknesses of the hardware on which I’m running it.

Jolicloud recently launched the Jolibook, the first netbook that comes with Jolicloud pre-installed.  It’s available in the UK only at the moment, but for anyone looking for a netbook with a netbook OS – especially if you weren’t lucky enough to capture Google’s attention and get a Chrome OS C4 – it’s a fantastic option. It’s also a great option to turn that old, sluggish netbook into a fast, hip cloud appliance.

Jolicloud is a free download, and has an easy step-by-step tutorial for making a bootable USB stick if you don’t have a USB CD drive for your netbook.

Do you prefer a different OS on your netbook? Let me know with the comments.

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LotSmarter

As auctioneers slowly come around to the concept that consumers want items, not auctions, they invariably struggle with the intricacies involved with listing their items in their auctions. There are many places where the same inventory needs to be listed, ranging from advertising venues like Internet auction calendars to software packages for clerking and cashiering to web apps for Internet bidding, each with its own specification for importing inventory.

The tried-and-true gold standard for inventory entry is the spreadsheet. It’s almost synonymous with inventory management, with many auctioneers using the word Excel generically to mean “that program that we use to generate our auction catalogs.”

Spreadsheets may work fine for one destination, but the different specifications for each listing destination mean that each different upload requires reformatting the column order – and sometimes the contents of the columns. For example, one listing may support HTML in the description field, while another may choke on markup.

Spreadsheets have other problems. Traditional software applications like Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice Calc allow only one user to edit a spreadsheet at a time. While some newer web apps like Google Spreadsheets allow multiple users to make changes simultaneously to the same file, it’s still a hassle to configure a spreadsheet for data validation – only allowing a small selection of valid seller numbers in the seller column, for example.

Many auction software packages have an included inventory management system, but these systems are usually very specifically tailored to the features of the software package. Excellent data quality in the auction software doesn’t translate to feature-complete exports for the many different Internet bidding providers or auction calendars.

Lotting Solutions is the company that recently released version 1 of LotSmarter, software that aims to be an inventory management system that lets auctioneers list inventory faster than ever before and port that inventory to every possible destination.

LotSmarter is stand-alone software that installs on Windows XP or Windows 7. On installation, the user selects from a list of exports those that will be used. These selected exports actually dictate the fields that will be available on each item. For example, an auctioneer can select Maxanet for Internet bidding, Auction Flex for clerking and cashiering. LotSmarter adjusts the data capture fields to include those used by Maxanet and Auction Flex and leaves out those required by the other options that aren’t selected.

Image by marypcb via Flickr

Data portability is paramount to LotSmarter, but it does more than make your data easy to backup, import and export. Integration with Dragon Naturally Speaking – optionally included in the pricing plan – provides the capability to forgo the keyboard in favor of voice dictation. While reports abound of lackluster attempts at dictating listings, Lotting Solutions boasts stories from auctioneers who have trained successfully trained Dragon and LotSmarter to realize substantial time savings.

For auctioneers with galleries, LotSmarter eases the process of associating the pictures from the camera – as they’re taken – to the items in inventory. Eye-Fi is a type of memory card that has a built-in wireless device which transfers the pictures from the camera to LotSmarter without the need to wait to connect the camera to a computer with a cable. The software imports the pictures directly to the lot in progress.

Image by Remko van Dokkum via Flickr

Eye-Fi is an option, as is traditionally dragging pictures from the file system to the active lot. Once the picture is in the system, LotSmarter provides an integrated mechanism to rotate, crop and balance the pictures without using third-party software. The pictures are optionally watermarked and exported with the inventory for easy upload to any of the various outputs.

For auctioneers unsatisfied with the listing capabilities of spreadsheets or cramped by the limited exporting abilities of auction software packages, LotSmarter fills a significant niche by taking the pain out of data entry and solving the compatibility issues related to using multiple providers for advertising, bidding and clerking.

LotSmarter is available from www.lottingsolutions.com and offers a time-limited free trial.

Have you used LotSmarter? Why or why not? Tell your story in the comments.

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If you have more information about this performance, help us out in the comments.

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I covered the difference between free and free in episode 11 of the Auction Podcast. In a nutshell, not all open source software is free and not all free software is open source. There is a difference between content that is free like beer and free like speech. In an effort to provide some disambiguation between the different kinds of free, many times the neologism libre is used to describe free like speech.

OpenOffice.org was a derivative of StarOffice, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999. Sun was a strong supporter of open source software development until it was acquired by Oracle in April of 2009. At that time, many in the open source community were quite scared of the way Oracle would deal with Sun’s assets that were community-based like MySQL and OpenOffice.org. Since that time, the community has been uneasy and discontent that Oracle wasn’t free enough.

In late September, the OpenOffice.org volunteer development community forked the project and created the Document Foundation. They publicly invited Oracle to be a member of the foundation and donate the OpenOffice.org name to the foundation for continued development. Until Oracle decides to donate the OpenOffice.org brand, the Document Foundation will push forward under the name Libre. Oracle has announced that it is committed to OpenOffice.org development, so it doesn’t seem like they’ll be playing ball any time soon.

Until they do, I’m switching to LibreOffice. The logic goes like this. If you don’t care about openness and you have a lot of money and like software that’s bloated and harder to use, go buy Microsoft Office. If you care about getting solid software at no cost but don’t care that it’s completely open, download OpenOffice.org. If you care about software that’s both free like beer and free like speech, download LibreOffice.

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My friend Forres Meadows from TexasBid alerted me to the fact that my favorite utility, Dropbox, is now in beta for BlackBerry. While I’m not a huge BlackBerry user, I couldn’t imagine a day without Dropbox.

Dropbox for BlackBerry beta is available to the first 5000 applicants, so get yours before they’re full.

If you’re not familiar with Dropbox, you’re in for a life-changing epiphany.

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Ryan Downs

Proxibid, the world’s largest provider of live auction webcasting services, today announced that Ryan Downs has been appointed as the Company’s president. Bruce Hoberman will maintain his role as CEO of the Omaha-based firm that brings auction companies and bidders together via its sophisticated online bidding solution.

Mr. Downs brings to Proxibid a rich understanding of ecommerce, auctions and payments. He joins Proxibid from eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), where he served in a number of roles, most recently as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations for PayPal, eBay’s payments division. In that role, Mr. Downs was responsible for customer service, risk operations, merchant operations and various other functions. As one of the top executives at PayPal, Mr. Downs was instrumental in PayPal’s integration with eBay, expansion to Europe and Asia, and the launch of the merchant business. Mr. Downs also spearheaded efforts to improve the end to end user experience for PayPal and eBay customers.

“We are thrilled to have an executive with Ryan’s knowledge of the auction industry join the Proxibid family,” said Bruce Hoberman, CEO of Proxibid. “Ryan’s experience enables us to continue to strategically grow our business while continuing to provide auction companies with access to the world’s largest online auction marketplace. He brings to Proxibid a mix of Silicon Valley experience with Midwestern values that is sure to drive our Company into its next growth phase.”

“Proxibid is an amazing company that combines disruptive web technology, a relentless focus on customer experience, and the desire to build a great culture for its employees,” said Downs. “I am extremely excited to join a fast-growing and dynamic company located right here in my home town of Omaha.”

Mr. Downs holds a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness and Agricultural Honors from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.

CrunchBase Information on Proxibid

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Omaha, NE – July 5, 2010 – Auction Payment Network (APN), a Proxibid company, today announced the industry’s first payment processing solution developed specifically for auction companies. APN will provide auction companies with a PCI-compliant solution that ensures secure, one-click processing for on-site and online purchases at the lowest rates in the industry.

APN was created with the assistance of auctioneers and places the business needs of auction companies at the forefront of its solution. With remote deposit capture, single and recurring ACH transactions, card payments and ID validation services on a single platform, APN can meet the needs of auction companies of all sizes. Additionally, APN is compatible with most merchant processors, making it easier than ever for auctioneers from across the globe to take advantage of this powerful payment processing solution.

“APN will transform the way I reconcile and invoice auctions moving forward,” said auctioneer Darron Meares of Meares Auction Group. “With one-click processing, closing auctions will be easier than ever, and because the solution is PCI compliant, my bidders can feel even more secure with their online transactions.”

All of APN’s products and services meet the payment card industry’s stringent security requirements. APN was built on a secure network which protects cardholder data and encrypts this data when being transmitted across the network. The Company maintains a vulnerability management program, implements strong access control measures, regularly monitors and tests networks and maintains an information security policy to ensure a secure environment for all cardholder data.

“We are delighted to provide APN as a payment processing solution for our auction company clients,” said Bruce Hoberman, CEO of Proxibid. “Proxibid consistently offers our clients the best products and services in the industry, and we believe that adding APN will greatly enhance productivity and decrease costs for our auction company clients, while providing the most secure transactions possible for our bidders. It’s truly a win-win for everyone.”

“APN was designed with the auctioneer in mind,” said Joe Petsick, Executive Vice President of Operations for Auction Payment Network. “Understanding how auction companies process transactions was paramount for our development team, and we’ve been able to pinpoint the areas we believe auction companies find most useful when reconciling and invoicing their events, such as ensuring a secure transfer of funds directly from the bidder’s account to that of the auction company.”

Auction Payment Network is currently boarding clients to take advantage of its suite of payment processing solutions. Product downloads will be available in mid-August.

About Auction Payment Network

Founded in 2010, Auction Payment Network (APN) is the first online payment processing solution designed specifically for auction companies. Created with auctioneers in mind, APN’s sophisticated and user-friendly solution is designed to make payment processing easier and more efficient than ever before.

Never again will an auctioneer have to spend countless hours following an event inputting credit card numbers because our PCI-compliant solution offers secure, one-click processing for on-site and online purchases. Additionally, APN is compatible with most merchant processors, making it easier than ever for auctioneers from across the globe to take advantage of this powerful payment processing solution.

Auction Payment Network is a wholly owned subsidiary of Proxibid, Inc., the world’s largest provider of live auction webcasting services. Visit Auction Payment Network online at www.auctionpaymentnetwork.com.

Do you plan to use the Auction Payment Network for your auction transactions? Why or why not? Hit the comments.

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I woke up this morning to find a ton of randomly-named files in the root directory of several of my WordPress installations. The files are named similarly to 0303c831c9c6203ba966dbf523d119ab.dat. The data of these files looks like a serialized PHP value.

I’m not sure if these files are due to the upgrade I performed to WordPress 3.0.1 last night, though they seemed to begin appearing shortly after I applied that upgrade. I’m speculating that they’re due to the way one of my plugins – perhaps Hyper Cache – is interacting with 3.0.1. It’s either that or some malicious infection. Either way, I’ll update here when I find out what’s causing it.

Have you noticed extra, random files in your WordPress installation after upgrading to 3.0.1? If so, hit the comments.

UPDATE: It looks like I can confirm that the problem was due to the Hyper Cache plugin. Upon automatically upgrading to the latest version of the plugin, 2.7.3, WordPress complained that it couldn’t find a cache directory and instructed me to create that directory. Even though I did, it seems it was still storing the cache files – these mysterious .dat files – in the WordPres root directory. After deactivating and reactivating the plugin, it seems to be storing the cache files in the correct location now.

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Opening night beach music

I had a fantastic time in Greensboro this last week. I flew out on Sunday and met up with my good friend Robert Mayo, CAI, AARE, ATS, GPPA-D, to instruct the Auction Technology Specialist class prior to conference and show.

Opening night on Tuesday featured Carolina beach music, a fascinating and welcome change from last year’s Auction Idol project. I’d never heard this style of music before, and the relaxed atmosphere provided a relaxing and enjoyable opening night.

Koury Convention Center

While I was disappointed that the we were provided a keynote motivational speaker after last year’s lovely break,  I can say that Devin Henderson wasn’t toxic like most motivational speakers and his magic tricks in his “Schmooze ‘em or Lose ‘em” presentation were actually entertaining.

Thursday morning’s business meeting went quite smoothly. The newly elected directors are Bryan Knox, CAI, and John Nicholls. The National Auctioneers Foundation presented Distinguished Leadership Award to Rob Doyle, CAI, CES; the Distinguished Service Award to Kip Toner, BAS; and the Outstanding Service Award to Don Shearer, CAI, CES, GPPA. The newly elected NAF trustees are Jack Hines, CAI, AARE, GPPA; Mike Jones, CAI, GPPA; and Randy Ruhter.

President's Gala

This was the first year that the President’s Gala was moved to Thursday evening. It didn’t feel right. When I think of Conference and Show, it’s the gala that stands out in my mind as the highlight. Holding the gala early, and moving much of the content from it to other events, makes it seem less important. The lesser quality gala notwithstanding, the NAA Hall of Fame finds itself with three fantastic new additions. Inducted into the NAA Hall of Fame are Barry Gordon, CAI, AARE, CES; R. Bracky Rogers, CAI, CES; and William Yonce, CAI.

Friday night’s International Auctioneer Championship (IAC) was spectacular as always. Winning the International Junior Auctioneer Championship, or IJAC, was Nolan Bell. Kristine Fladeboe-Duininck, BAS, won the women’s IAC and Eli Detweiler Jr., CAI, won the men’s division.

It was a fantastic week. Mechanical troubles with United gave us an extra day in North Carolina, so it’s wonderful to be home, but I already find myself looking forward to the 62nd International Auctioneers Conference and Show to be held in Orlando in July, 2011.

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The audio recording from Thursday’s meeting has been posted on maxanetusers.com as a free download.

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

AuctioneerTech - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry