Arthur Francis Tyde III

Back in November, some local friends of mine started a social networking site called Gizter. It seemed like a good idea, but is it actually possible to make any money from the act of social networking?

Seems that the answer is yes. While I won't be paying the rent with my Gizter proceeds, it's interesting to note that cross posting my usual blog stuff to Gizter generated enough activity in the first couple of months to make the payout non-trivial. The bonus payments generally relate to the amount of activity on the site generated by your page.

Here are my payout details...

Gizter Money Dashboard
Payout Period Earn Bonus Total
First Cycle 9/14/07-11/08/07 13.27 50.00 63.27
Second Cycle 11/09/07-12/10/07 2.55 10.00 12.55
Third Cycle 12/11/07-1/14/08 1.10 0.00 1.10
Fourth Cycle 1/15/08-2/15/08 1.24 0.00 1.24
Fifth Cycle 2/16/08-3/31/08 0.60 0.00 0.60

Amount paid to date (0.00)
Total earnings due: $78.76

As you can see, I was pretty enthusiastic at the beginning. I posted frequently and visited lots of other member pages. As the holidays ended I got busy and spent less and less time on the site. I also dropped the ball in term of inviting friends. At the time, it was tough to figure out. That has been simplified; so if you want to join me online; click on this link.

http://www.gizter.com/fox/file/splash/splash.php?id=1086&user=aftyde

In any event; the guys at Gizter are quite dedicated to covering the gadgets and gizmos space, as the membership has increased I am now occasionally discovering new toys on the site. At this moment, Gizter is more valuable to me as a site to discover new gadgets. While there is still a lot to be desired in terms of filtering the junk out of the site, Gizter has the potential to actually become a very interesting and useful place. For comparables, I think of places like Toms Hardware Guide with a more evolved social networking scene. Additionally, a section of Gizter tailored to mobile phone browsers would be an excellent addition to the site. Other interesting and world aware additions might include a section on UPS (uninterpretable power supply) technologies, solar and wind power solutions, voltage and line power filtering and other items of interest to those of us attempting to maintain infrastructures in fragile third world economies.

Lastly, and perhaps coincidentally; just two days after I started composing this blog posting a paypal transaction for exactly $78.76 hit my bank account. To me this is a big deal. Not so much getting paid, or the amount; but the fact that the Gizter team set about to accomplish a non-trivial task and has lived up to it's promise to both users, advertisers, and their investors. While most sites that promise revenue to contributors have all sorts of fine print ways to avoid paying, the people at Gizter have proven to be men of their word. Kudos to the Gizter team!

A recent article by Dow Jones caught my eye regarding the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

"Meanwhile, the Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio (C3SR) has presented the FCC with confidential data that it says must be explored in a hearing. "A thorough examination of these issues is likely to lead to the discovery of additional evidence of violations of the Commission's rules and antitrust laws," a June 4 letter to FCC said."

Is this news? Confidential data? Please - this is crap! C3SR certainly doesn't represent anyone I know with a satellite receiver.

"C3SR was formed by law student and lobbyist Chris Reale. According to Shepard, the group represents subscribers opposed to the merger, but it has no official membership. Its sole purpose is to stop the merger of the two satellite companies."

The chimpstering continues - "If you go to switch services between XM and Sirius, you have to replace your entire receiver," said Julian Shepard, a lawyer with Williams Mullen who represents C3SR." Sharp as a tack these lawyers are...

The same argument could be made that someone needs to be sued so you can use the same box as both a Cable Modem or DSL modem. Again - this is crap, radios are cheap, and the whole compatibility issue hasn't stopped the FCC from phasing out analog TV.

So a law student with a lot of time on his hands is generating trouble for this merger. While I may not have a fancy name for a bogus organization, I have a lot of friends who have both XM and Sirius radios. Everyone I know personally supports the merger. The reason we support it is we all had to make the hard choice between one service and the other. I would like to have both.

I choose Sirius because I wanted access to NPR, which is not offered on XM. However, there are other programs on XM that I would like access to. The common theme amongst all the people I know with satellite radio is that the competition between Sirius and XM has not been a good thing as it has created a situation whereby one has to give up one set of offerings for access to another. We all would rather have one strong satellite radio system with 500 channels then two weak systems with 200 channels each.

One last point - no one I have spoken with seems to care about the competition issue. Between the Internet, cable, portable media, on the air broadcasts, and satellite there are so many media options that no single delivery channel represents a monopoly. If the markets can only support one healthy player, then please - don't let uninformed PR seekers kill the deal.

Every now and then a situation presents itself where I can again prove myself to be a poor, but effective coder. This months electric bill was a whopping $675.00 USD for a large two bedroom condo here in the tropics. It's winter, and I run the air conditioner for my home office 24 hours a day. Why? It keeps two servers, a workstation, three notebooks, four displays, lights and a raid array from turning the room into an oven.

All of my lights have been converted to compact flourescent, hot water heaters have been turned down, lots of steps have already been taken in terms of lifestyle to reduce my energy footprint but yet that $675.00 bill has me wondering if there isn't more I can do in the office. So I start rummaging around in the junk box and pull out a Radio Shack X-10 Heavy Duty Appliance Module (220V), a X-10 Firecracker interface, and a Radio Shack Plug & Power wireless receiver.

The Firecracker is a small dongle that plugs into the serial port of a computer, it broadcasts a signal that will command a X-10 receiver (such as the radio base of the Plug and Power remote) to switch things on and off. I connect the firecracker to the RS-232 port on the back of my Cobalt Qube (running Debian Etch), plug the receiver into the 110V side of my rack, and the air conditioner into the 220V Module. I enter the command "BR A1 OFF" and the air conditioner switches off. Excellent!

The next problem was a little more complicated. How do I tell what the temperature is when the server is a MIPS based Cobalt Qube. The motherboard and CPU don't report temperature, there are no sensors, there is no local hardware monitoring at all in this little box. However, it does have a 200 GB Maxtor hard disk in it. After looking around, I found a utility called HDDTEMP that will return the drive temperature via. the S.M.A.R.T. interface. The command "hddtemp /dev/hda" returned "/dev/hda: Maxtor 6Y200P0: 45 C". If I turn off the air conditioner that number goes up, and when it turn it back on the number goes down. Excellent!

To make this all work, I wrote the following software. It polls the drive temperature every 20 minutes and determines if it should turn the air conditioner on or off based on the temperature reported by the servers hard disk. The sweet spot appears to be 47C (on the hard disk) which means the room stays at about 74F (interestingly) give or take 3F. The script outputs this to the terminal every 20 minutes.

--> Target temp: 47.
Temp: 50, powering on aircon.
Total time on: 20, time off: 40.
Sleeping 20 minutes...

Anyone with knowledge of thermodynamics, fuzzy logic and the like is already making a face and cringing. Even so, next month it'll be interesting to see if this makes a dent in my power bill. I'd love any suggestions on the software as I am sure that could be better as well, so here it is...

#!/usr/bin/rexx
/*
Simple server temp based aircon control program
*/

parse value "0 hda 0 48 /tmp/hddtemp.tmp" with ontime source current target workfile
parse value "0 20 a5" with offtime interval aircon

call evaluate
exit 0

evaluate:
do forever
say "--> Target temp:" target"."
parse value check_temp(source) with stemp
if stemp>=target then do
ontime=ontime+interval
say " Temp:" stemp", powering on aircon."
say " Total time on:" ontime", time off:" offtime"."
"/usr/bin/br" aircon "on"
end
else do
offtime=offtime+interval
say " Temp:" stemp", turning aircon off."
say " Total time on:" ontime", time off:" offtime"."
"/usr/bin/br" aircon "off"
end
say " Sleeping" interval "minutes..."
say
"/bin/sleep" interval"m"
end
return

check_temp:
parse arg device
"/usr/sbin/hddtemp /dev/"device ">"workfile
call stream workfile,"C","CLOSE"
parse value linein(workfile) with . . . current .
call stream workfile,"C","CLOSE"
return current

I like Yahoo, and have been a member forever. I like it's character, it's brand, it's a friendly place on the web and it's home for me whereas Google is just a tool and Microsoft seems like a bad match.

aftyde@yahoo.com has been dependable for years, and I am a subscriber to the pay for play mail, I use Yahoo finance, I have found love and frustration on Yahoo Personals, it's my home page and instant messenger of choice. Yahoo has allowed me to enrich my life and I have been happy to pay along the way seeing myself as one member of a large satisfied customer community. Google is a great search engine, and I do prefer it to Yahoo - but it's not my home page. Yahoo is where I look to see what's new in the world at the beginning of every day.

There are lots of reasons why Microsoft is unable to be these things for me. First, MSN seems like CNN - a generic source of feel good (or feel bad) somewhat bland press. I have negative personal associations with the brand. Mostly due to experience over the years that in lots of cases (from software upgrades, to pricing, to market attitude and arrogance, to even higher levels of arrogance) just rubbed me the wrong way. I suppose I just get enough Microsoft stuff served to me on my desktop and through the office applications and I don't find myself wanting third or fourth helpings. Don't get me wrong - there are lots of great things about the company and it's products despite the love / no-love feelings I harbor. I just don't want them to take something I like away.

Google on the other hand just seems like trouble - it's future seems Orwellian to me and while I really like the idea of a major competitor to them in the search space Microsoft should not be that entity.

So Jerry, I say this - please double the fees I pay for mail and the other services I have come to value. I would happily pay twice as much for what you are delivering to me every day and I suspect many others would too. Besides, you're already a rich guy with a great job and so are your board members - how much more money do they really need?

When I am lying on my death bed, I won't ask for another day at the office, the only time I'll regret wasting are the many hours and days I've spent loading Windows XP, downloading Service Pack (whatever) and installing hundreds of updates hoping to get a decent build that doesn't slow down, mysteriously start crashing, or wind up host to a variety of uninvited software parasites. Luckily I don't reload as much as I used to in the six years or so since I gave up on hardware. VMWARE is my machine of choice; I create builds that I call baseloads. A baseload of Windows XP will have the OS, all the most recent updates, and the applications I consider standard. This usually means the most recent version of MS office, some flight planning software, and some mapping / road trip tools. I make two copies of this image and once every year or so I update the virgin copy by spending a few days in Windows Update hell. Typically, I could put on a couple of DVD's (movies) and get XP done, start to finish, in a long weekend.

On a new computer, the only application I load is VMWARE and whatever drivers are required to talk to the printer. If the machine gets trashed, hard disk crashes, or something bad happens that requires a reload - no big deal. I reload the OS from the recovery disks (usually XP Home or some similar crappy mal-ware infested demo infused or otherwise crippled version of the OS that came with the machine), add VMWARE, point it at my production disk image on the server and I'm off to the races again. For my notebooks, I keep a local copy of the VMWARE image on the hard disk and back it up to the server weekly. So while this all seems like a lot of work, when I need to recover or upgrade my computers - the restore process is possible, and can be accomplished in minutes vs. days.

Sadly, I was hoping the Windows Vista experience would be somewhat different. Turns out that it is just as time consuming, and even more dependent on the whims of Windows Update to generate a working (and activated) build. I am happy to report that Vista runs well in VMWARE. VMWARE also insulates it from many of the environmental changes that force you to re-activate the OS or the applications from Microsoft. Vista is hyper sensitive to changes in a machine, simply updating a video or network card driver (which can happen without your knowing about it) trigger the re-authentication process. I stopped using Vista on my notebook (as a host OS) when a memory upgrade on a business trip locked me out of my machine for about a week. Try re-activating from rural China without any of your Windows CD's, documentation; high speed internet or an accessible (or affordable) method of placing a long distance international call.

Unfortunately, Windows Update for Vista fails frequently requiring many trips to the updated help info, downloading new executables manually, and in general is a much greater pain in the ass than Update for XP. My main complaint against Windows Update for XP is the amount and number of updates required, however - for the most part you could start the process, crawl back into your stasis pod and do other things (like sleep) while it does it's thing. Not only does Vista keep you awake searching, downloading and pressing buttons - but it forces you through the Genuine Windows Validation Process to apply every manually downloaded fix. I did not pay $400.00+ on an operating system to be nagged to death by bugs and then have my ethics called into question when I am trying to fix my operating system. While I have been more or less of a Microsoft fan for many years, the plumbing is so complicated these days it seems that nearly anything can stop up the drain.

It took me a week to make a decent baseload of Windows Vista Ultimate. I am generally happy with the new OS, Windows Media Player seems to make me less and less happy as Microsoft cripples it with more DRM and continues to create the most undecipherable user interface I have ever experienced. However, luckily - there are other programs I can use which offer a better and more open multimedia experience. The net of this is, in terms of overall improvement it's a wash. My overall experience is no better (in most ways), and no worse. You might as well get used to the new boss, same as the old.

Epilogue - the most recent patch I applied to this Vista system completely trashed it and forced a reload from scratch (OS, all apps, all fixes). Apparently, applying the MS recommended fix for Chinese language support is a one way trip to a blank, black screen and solid drive status LED.

The New-Co team and I made a quick trip to Dalian China this month to launch the company in stealth mode. Think killer app for mobile devices / social networks. It's totally new; don't ask because we aren't ready to tell... It's a great new adventure on the frontier of business... Not coincidentally, I picked up Jim Rogers (speculator, author, adventure capitalist) book "A Bull in China" at Relay Books in Hong Kong to keep me company on the long flight.

Paul Kullich (speculator, polo player, entrepreneur), Robin Greenlees (banker, Buddhist, capitalist) and I (space ghost) decided to chase after the biggest potential market and take the intellectual property to China under state and local government assurances it would be protected. The promise of a faster rate of growth, large user population, business incentives, and our seed capital going much further was hard to resist. Back in July Paul and I were the only two technology entrepreneurs (from outside China) present at the China International Software and Services Fair. (which was surprising, and made us the center of much curiosity and attention.) In the spirit of Richard Branson, we said, "Screw it, let's do it!" and started planning for New-Co in China. We brought on an exceptionally talented MBA from Beijing University (Vivin, who parks her flying saucer on a hill above the city) to be our eyes and ears on the ground in China while we prepped and to help guide us through the process. It's an honor to be working with such an awesome team.

The process of actually creating WFOE (Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise) was fairly straightforward. After validating that Dalian was "the place" (versus other potential locations in China) we wrote up the articles of association, filled out all the required forms, booked our tickets and ventured forth. On arrival it took about a week to get all the WFOE details sorted out, starting from downtown Dalian we moved out to the economic development zone where all the high tech stuff is happening to meet with officials and sign final documents. It's about the same amount of work required to set up a LLC in the USA, although the experience was far less bureaucratic than similar structures I have formed in the US, EU or Japan. The Dalian Municipal Peoples Government clearly understands the value of technology sovereignty and importing Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. They proved their commitment to developing a culture of innovation by offering significant corporate tax advantages and exceptionally attractive lease terms for our first year in one of their technology parks. Of course the real work on this project is just beginning…

Killing off the US currency to jump start the economy is bad economic policy. The US Dollar hasn't been this low against the Loonie (Canadian dollar) since 1824 - but now the government is trying to (illegally) shut down any potential competitors to the US currency. Now, I love the dollar - and so do you. It's that magic faith based thing we trade for McFood, toilet paper, and USA Today. However, at it's current rate of decline the dollar may hit 60 yen within three years and by that time Americans will be crossing the boarder into Mexico looking for McJobs.

So while I am dealing with the fact that my faith based currency (from clients and projects) is worth 20% less this year then it was last year - I get the following email from NORFED (the founders of the Liberty Dollar private currency).

Subject: FBI Raids Liberty Dollar, Confiscates All Ron Paul Dollars

Dear Liberty Dollar Supporters:

I sincerely regret to inform you that about 8:00 this morning a dozen FBI and Secret Service agents raided the Liberty Dollar office in Evansville.

For approximately six hours they took all the gold, all the silver, all the platinum and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that where just delivered last Friday. They also took all the files, all the computers and froze our bank accounts.

We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know what was ordered or what you are owed. We have nothing but the will to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty and our right to have real money as defined by the US Constitution.

But to make matters worse, all the gold and silver that backs up the paper certificates and digital currency held in the vault at Sunshine Mint has also been confiscated. Even the dies for mint the Gold and Silver Liberty dollars have been taken. This in spite of the fact that Edmond C. Moy, the Director of the Mint, acknowledged in a letter to a US Senator that the paper certificates did not violate Section 486 and were not illegal. But the FBI and Services took all the paper currency too.

The possibility of such action was the reason the Liberty Dollar was designed so that the vast majority of the money was in specie form and in the peoples hands. Of the $20 million Liberty Dollars, only about a million is in paper or digital form. I regret that if you are due an order. It may be some time until it will be filled... if ever... it now all depends on our actions.

Everyone who has an unfulfilled order or has digital or paper currency should band together for a class action suit and demand redemption. We cannot allow the government to steal our money! Please don't let this happen!!! Many of you read the articles quoting the government and Federal Reserve officials that the Liberty Dollar was legal. You did nothing wrong. You are legally entitled to your property. Let us use this terrible act to band together and further our goal to return America to a value based currency.

Thanks again for your support at this darkest time as the damn government and their dollar sinks to a new low.

I'll acknowledge that NORFED are a bunch of libertarian fringe types (as if there were any other kind). However, I always considered them to be pioneers comparable to the people who started UPS. Back in the day it was completely unthinkable (and declared illegal) that a private company should take on duties assumed sovereign to the US Postal Service (delivery of mail and packages). However, today there are hundreds of companies that do just that. Even the US Postal Service now subs out routes and such to private contractors who do the same work more efficiently at a lower cost.

NORFED mints exceptionally high quality .999 silver and gold 1 oz coins. These coins have a current face value of $20.00 (I bought them back when the face value was $10.00). The idea was a metal backed currency is a good hedge (in terms of value) from devaluation and inflation. It's a sound idea. I can trade a liberty dollar for more today then I could buy with standard issue US dollars. In essence they are going up against the US Treasury in much the same way UPS challenged the US Postal Service. They are offering a higher value product that is immune to bad policy and founded on the most simple of market dynamics – supply and demand.

Back when the Liberty Dollar (pictured) had a minted face value of only $10.00 people would regularly offer me $20.00 for a single coin. (now a single coin fetches $40.00 from admirers) It was a great conversation piece and I often traded Liberty Dollars for all sorts of products and services. They were good transactions where real value was exchanged. I am reminded of my good friend and noted entrepreneur Christian Eyerman who couldn't get over the fact that the 20 pound sterling banknote in the United Kingdom has the phrase “I (the Bank of England) promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of Twenty Pounds.” “Twenty pounds of what?” I asked? Which is exactly why we need to get back to a metal based standard in terms of underpinning our economies with something of real value.

If you are a Liberty Dollar holder the be part of the Class Action Suit.

Now that VA has finally ditched the enterprise software business we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Yeah, I know - old news. It's not that Sourceforge sucked, or that Gforge is better - it's just that the enterprise software business is tough. Sure, there will always be a need for large software systems; but the enterprise segment is so locked up by major players that being in it is just too expensive. It's expensive to sell; expensive to support and for small players the margins just aren't there to make it worthwhile. From my perspective, the most significant changes to the enterprise software space have come from improvements to the accessibility of systems - software as a service, hosted apps, etc. In all cases the functions are pretty much the same but the delivery methods have been innovated.

Back in the day (2000), VA bought a little company called Andover.net for $1 billion in shares and some token cash. Even at the peak of the .com bubble that wasn't a bad return on an outfit with a total investment of about $15m. It seemed like a good way to corner the market on Open Source media - valuable to VA as they sold hardware, some software and some services. If you adjust for .com era exuberance and look at how the business has developed it seems as though what once was essentially a marketing ploy turned out to be the smartest accident the company ever made. While the folks at VA HQ bumbled around in the hardware business (which failed), the services business (which failed), and the enterprise software business (which failed) they somehow managed to keep the core media properties healthy. Then one day, someone woke up and realized "Hey, we're a media company!"

I have derived value from various VA owned media properties for years. I know the editors, much of the management, and even the former chairman. I'm glad to see the new focus, the change in attitude, the reallocation of resources; it will improve websites and services that already have a high value to the IT professional. I was surprised at first to see Merrimans recommendation - on the other hand, given the events, the management epiphany, and the excellent content of their media properties I would agree that LNUX (somewhat misnamed) is an excellent buy.

I'm a LinkedIn user - it serves a useful purpose. I am also on Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Orkut and plenty of others. I like the idea of a social networking tool but I'm not really into the idea of working my ass off for the perfect Friendster profile and not getting something out of the deal.

My friends at Gizter have, on the other hand, made it profitable to blog and play in the social networking game. Gizter is a social network site built on early tech adopters who evaluate the latest in tech gear, and get paid for it in Google AdSense Dollars. While I won't be quitting the day job, as an objectivist I like the idea of value being exchanged for value.

Gizter offers all the basics such as messaging, chat, galleries, profiles, blogs, and so on - by registering with Gizter you become a publisher of Google AdSense ads. What that means is that you have obtained for yourself your own webspace earning you money 24/7 from Google ads even when you are not online and fast asleep. Whenever any of your pages are visited, you get paid. When someone clicks on a Google ad on any of your pages, you get paid. Gizter has developed credit tracking software that splits the revenue pie with the user base. A very nice touch...

While Gizter is just getting started, over time it should be as slick as Friendster. If I am going to invest value into a social networking site, I'd rather feel like a valued business partner than a statistic.

Rest in Peace...