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Domain name resellers - They're still partying like it's 1999

Remember the heady dot-com 90's ? Consultants commanding $200 an hour to code HTML, Java application server licenses starting at $5,000 per box, domain registrations in the $60 range a year with Network Solutions.

We've come a long 12-15 years since then. Now you can likely get an HTML spec lead at even less than those rates -- never mind a regular consultant -- Java application servers are now 'free' -- with more than one to choose from -- and domain registration has dropped to around $10 a year with companies like GoDaddy.

It seems the world has pretty much adjusted from the craziness of those days. At least I thought so, until I ventured into trying to buy a domain through a re-seller, then it seemed like 1999 all over again, when I received a counter-offer for the paltry sum of $8,000 U.S dollars. Doing the math, that's an 80,000% return on investment at today's current registrarion fees, for a 9 letter .com domain, that currently gets close to 30 hits a month being parked (yes, THREE-ZERO plain, not thousands mind you ).Here's the story and a tech business that still appears to be stuck in 1999!

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February 15, 2011 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Software consulting pitfalls : Red flags and signs you should run the other way

Software consulting, some people do it to pay their bills while their start-up gets off the ground. Software consulting, some people get into to quit their days jobs and have more freedom. Software consulting, its what clients rely on when they can't solve their problems in-house. Software consulting, its what clients abhor paying because it's too expensive.

So many definitions and meanings depending on who you ask. But speaking of software consulting and clients. After over a decade of doing consulting work, here's a set of common characteristics or red flags you should be on the look out for when engaging with a potential client. They may or may not apply to your past experiences, but in my case, with over 100 clients and counting these are red flags you should be weary of.

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December 14, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

If you're not paying for a product/app online, then you are the product

How does that song go ? Money for nothing and your chicks for free ? Now why haven't they made "your apps for free" version, given the enormous amount of free online products/apps out there.

I can't help but roll my eyes when I hear statements like "Wow, this is a fantastic app and it's FREE". Newsflash: If you're not paying for a product/app online, then you are the product for the product/app stakeholders.

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November 18, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Why is scaling a web application hard ?

In the grand scheme of things, there will be one of three roads you'll take to address performance and scalability problems in web applications: performance tuning, vertical scaling or horizontal scaling.

• Performance tuning.- This step would consist of refactoring a web application's source code, analyzing a web application's configuration settings, attempting to further parallelize a web application's logic, implementing caching strategies, detecting hot spots and another series of often invasive -- code wise that is -- procedures throughout a web application's tiers.
• Vertical scaling.- This step would consist of migrating a web application or individual tiers to nodes with greater resources.
• Horizontal scaling.- This step would consist of decoupling a tier from a web application or decoupling a tier in itself to run on multiple nodes. In this scenario, instead of adding more resources which is the case of vertical scaling, a web application or its tiers are decoupled so that demand is spread out among multiple nodes.

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November 3, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Technical interviews - Different kinds and approaches

Technical interview topics always attract a great deal of attention. They attract employers and would-be employees like bees to honey. Employers are constantly looking for talent to bring products to market and people are always looking for interesting work or simply a paycheck.

You can read the headlines enticing both sides. 'How to hire and retain the top 1% of developers', 'Be a ninja or rock-start with our team', 'How to crack the interview questions at X','Interview the right way', 'Avoid saying the wrong....'

There are blog posts, articles, even entire books dedicated to the right and wrong way to both conduct interviews and being interviewed.

After more than 10 years doing software, as a contractor, employee, interviewer and interviewee, trust me there is no right or wrong way to do an interview. There are just types of interviews that you can ace or bomb depending on your skills and attitudes.

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October 26, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

Risky Business: Ad hominem attacks, errors and punishments

One of my first encounters with an on the job error and punishment scenario, involved a more senior engineer and myself, I remember his words vividly -- if you'll excuse my French: "are you kidding me, if they find out they will chew our asses off". I really thought working for a Fortune 500 company, civility would have ensued and a simple 'It broke because of...' would have sufficed. But the horror and panic of being punished for telling 'them' an error had occurred was beyond belief.

There is something utterly wrong with this Machiavellian it's better to be feared than loved mentality that often ensues in many organizations. But unfortunately, last time I looked in many IT departments this was the modus operandi. Yet you would think with many issues in IT not even being a life or death situation, the approach in handling and reprimanding errors would be different.

This came to mind as I was reading this article on someone who deals with life or death situations and how to correct them. His name is James Bagian, a NASA astronaut now working in the health industry as a patient safety expert.

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September 22, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

"We need some delusions to keep us going" - Woody Allen

I was reading a Woody Allen interview ( Woody Allen on Faith, Fortune Tellers and New York ), in it he quips the following words: "We need some delusions to keep us going".Allen in this case was referring to religion and faith, but I realized this reaches beyond religion, many times to those starting a business.

Starting a businesses is no easy task, its littered with market uncertainties, whether in the tech sector or not. Reflecting back on the things I've started, I would be the first to admit that what kept me going at the moment was the 'illusion' of making a business a success, only to be cataloged as a 'delusion' of mine when it spectacularly flopped.

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September 17, 2010 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

'Content is king' the continuing saga, now with tight money

Its been almost two years since I posted the Content is the peasant, if you only live in the Internet kingdom entry, in which I mentioned how syndication, RSS feeds and the likes were going to put Internet content on its head. Fast forward to tougher times, tighter budgets and more diligence to make a sale, no wonder some people are going ballistic.But I still think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg on this evolving saga.

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July 28, 2009 | Permalink | Track Back (0)

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