Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
Want to change the City of Austin Web site?
Saved from the e-mail trash bin: a message about the City of Austin Web site:
City seeks public input on Web site redesign effort — Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley, along with Council Members Lee Leffingwell and Mike Martinez, will announce a major overhaul of the City of Austin’s Web site (www.cityofaustin.org) at a news conference 9:30 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007, at Austin City Hall. As part of the redesign effort, council members will detail plans for public involvement throughout the process and unveil a Web usage survey designed to gather ideas and suggestions. Council members will utilize computers at the event to be among the first to take the survey. Launched in early 1995 as one of the few municipal government sites in the nation, Austin City Connection has grown from an initial 300 pages to more than 40,000. The site provides the public an Internet portal to all City departments, services and government functions. The redesign represents the first major upgrade to City’s Web site since 2002.
Now, it’s not for me to tell the city its business. In fact, I don’t even live in Austin. I live in New Braunfels.
But asking the public at large how they should design the Web site may be one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard. (And I’ve been pitched gadgets like an iPod dock for the fireplace.)
Designing a Web site by committee never works, and taking feedback seriously can lead to sites that prominently feature blinking text or really funny pictures of kitties.
I’ve glanced at their site and, you know… it’s not that bad. A bit wordy. Needs more iPhone ads. Could use a much bigger logo and a cool catchphrase like, “AUSTIN: WE’VE GOT YOU RIGHT WHERE WE WANT YOU.” Or maybe, “WHAT HAPPENS IN AUSTIN STAYS IN THE GENERAL CENTRAL TEXAS VICINITY.”
Many people like widgets. They should add widgets to the site, maybe 100, that can tell you what time it is and what is being voted on at the Capitol and, most importantly, where cross-dressing Austin icon Leslie Cochran is at any given moment in case you want to take out-of-towners to meet him. Come on, programmers. Where’s our “Where’s Leslie” widget?
The biggest problem I have with the site is that it looks boring. It could be the City of Des Moines Web site. And don’t blame the age of the design for that. 2002 was not that boring a year, if I recall correctly.
So take that survey, citizens, if you want to waste the council’s time. Offer your suggestions for those 40,000 Web pages. If the city is smart, they’ll just hire a really talented 16-year-old and ignore everybody else.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet
The opposite of a ‘smart’ phone
I don’t usually let my phone run out of battery power, but it’s down to its last moments right now from my neglecting to charge it recently.
One thing I never noticed before: In order to let me know that it’s running out of juice, my Razr makes a really loud beep, and the screen lights up to let me know that it’s suffering from “Low Battery.”
Then a few minutes later, it does it again.
Doesn’t beeping that loudly and lighting up the screen drain more battery?
Nice one, Motorola.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Phones
Austin MMO ‘Duels’ now on Facebook
I wasn’t super familiar with the online game “Duels” and I didn’t have a Facebook account, but I’ve rectified both of those situations today.
“Duels,” a sworderrific player-vs.-player battle game, is the first MMO to be directly integrated into Facebook.com. You can register for a free account and get to battling with your Facebook buds. (What do they call those? “Facies?”)
You can install the game application on Facebook at this link.
Here’s the word from Oxygen Games:
Oxygen Games, Inc. announced that its popular “Duels” online fantasy game is the first massively multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) to be integrated directly with Facebook. “Duels,” which currently has more than 50,000 users, combines the best of collectible card games (CCGs) and the advancement and character development of MMORPGs with the ease of access and community aspects of Web 2.0 applications. Facebook users can now play Duels directly within the Facebook “social graph” and challenge their friends to battles after they install Duels for Facebook, which is available at http://apps.facebook.com/duelsfb.Duels is unique in that the game’s short-form design allows it to be played in 10-30 minute increments rather than in long, marathon sessions. The format is ideal for casual and hardcore Facebook gamers, who may enjoy games such as “World of Warcraft” but are looking for new and challenging options for play in between longer gaming sessions and during free time.
“Whether they’re an avid or casual gamer, you can now play a challenging online game without leaving Facebook,” said Andrew Busey, founder and CEO of Oxygen Games. “With the tremendous growth we’ve seen in the past few months, we expect many of the Facebook users to discover just how fun multi-player short-form games like ‘Duels’ can be.”
Who wants to engage in some swordplay? You can find me on Facebook.
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The future of Time Warner Cable: today at the mall
Time Warner Cable has a demo area set up today at Barton Creek Square mall (if you’re looking to go, it’s in the Dillard’s parking lot).
The presentation, called, “Home to the Future,” features lots of flat-screen TVs, demonstrations of high end remote controls like the Philips Pronto, Time Warner’s digital phone service and of course its Video-on-Demand and DVR services.
The Future Room, as it was called, looked a lot like the present, but that’s only because a lot of what they’re demonstrating is software-based. Time Warner customers will soon be able to rewind live shows that aren’t recorded or aren’t video-on-demand with a new feature called “Start Over.” It’ll be available in early spring on select channels (including, I was told, some locals). It’ll be useful if you forget to record something or catch a program you want to watch midway through and want to see it from the beginning.
“Quick Clips” of shows on Comedy Central, CNN, Showtime, MTV and a few other channels will also be available soon — you’ll be able to see short clips of shows like “The Daily Show” and “South Park” as well as news, forecasts and financial updates.
As has been reported, Time Warner is also adding more than 40 new HD channels. It expects to launch Food Network HD and HGTV HD by the end of this month.
Hardware-wise, the most intriguing object was a refrigerator with a detachable wireless screen that can keep track of what’s in the fridge, broadcast cable TV and keep notes on-screen. We’ve always been skeptical of fridges with screens on them, but having one that detaches and can be set on a kitchen counter or elsewhere might make us believers.
We let Time Warner know that we’re craving a device that will play nice with iTunes, offer TiVo-like flexibility to take our programs on the go and to network, and that will stream content from a PC, home network or online. We were told to keep our eyes peeled because you never know what might be coming out of the lab soon.
Here’s some photos of the event. There’ll be a big kick-off featuring State Representative Mark Strama at 7 p.m.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, Movies & DVDs, Phones, TV
Early OS X Leopard reviews: extremely positive
The two titans of consumer technology reviewing, David Pogue and Walt Mossberg, have weighed in on Apple’s new version of its OS X operating system, Leopard, which comes out on Friday.
Both reviewers say that Leopard is easy to use and install, and that it’s a bargain compared with Windows Vista based on its backward compatibility with older Apple hardware and its one-size-fits-all pricing.
Mossberg’s comparisons with Vista are particularly devastating, including the time it takes to boot up and restart.
I don’t plan on picking up Leopard myself for my aging iBook G4 anytime soon, but I’m waiting for the next version of the Macbook to come out to replace it; it wont’ hurt my buying decision that Leopard will already come installed on the new Mac.
David Pogue’s OS Leopard review in The New York Times.
Walt Mossberg’s OS Leopard review in the Wall Street Journal.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Computers, Internet, Shopping
‘Guitar Hero III’ versus ‘Rock Band.’ What do you think?
The PR war has begun!
Today, I got an e-mail from the PR folks behind the upcoming “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,” including a side-by-side comparison of their game with the competing “Rock Band,” which was created by some former “Guitar Hero” alums with MTV.
The chart compares page views on IGN.com as well as price. You can see the chart they sent below:
Personally, the only reason I’m super excited about “Rock Band” is that I’m pretty terrible at the “Guitar Hero” games and “Rock Band” comes with drums. Now, I may not be able to shred on a Fender, but you get me in front of even a plastic-looking drum kit and you’ll see some real gameplay going on.
In fact, the $160 “Rock Band“‘s inclusion of a microphone and two guitars seems superfluous to me. You could have stripped all that down and called the game “Drummer” and I’d have been first in line to play.
What do you all think? Are you more excited about checking out “Guitar Hero III” or “Rock Band?” “Guitar Hero III” is out Sunday. “Rock Band” starts hitting stores Nov. 20.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Shopping, Videogames
Richard Garriott is the new Jack Bauer
You guys, you have to see this. I’ll wait while you go check it out.
Aw, forget it. I can’t wait that long. Here’s a small version of the image on that page:
There’s a second image, too, even creepier:
Whoah! Man! Did you see that? Richard Garriott is practically Jack Bauer up in here! He is one tough general! Last time I saw him, he was friendly and mild-mannered, but I didn’t know that when push comes to shove, the man can throw down.
What I gather from this limited bit of visual data is that General British does not truck with alien invaders. In fact, he will plow through them like a truck, with the use of a snazzy handgun.
I do not believe, for instance, that the alien creature on that rock is merely napping.
If you are part of the invading horde, I suggest that you not mess with computer-animated Richard Garriott. He looks like he means serious business.
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Tuesday morning link drop
A lot going on this week. Here are the highlights:
- In case you missed it late yesterday afternoon, here’s the low-down on Apple’s earnings. Record Mac sales, more than a million iPhone sales, sizable stock price jump. Microsoft is far from vulnerable, but it’s clear that a lot of people aren’t happy with Windows Vista. Could this be a sign of growing defection to Mac OS? The Magic 8-Ball says, “Signs points to yes …”
- The new horror videogame “Clive Barker’s Jericho” is out at retail today and available for GameTap.com subscribers as part of the service. I know a guy — it’s totally not me, I assure you — who was a total Clive Barker geek as a teenager. He even stood in line to get his autograph in Dallas once. I will treasure it … er, I mean this guy will treasure it always.
- Dell’s high-end gaming division Alienware has introduced a service called AlienExchange where you can trade in your consumer electronics toward the purchase of one of their blazing PCs. Sure, trade-ins are nice, but wouldn’t eBay be just as efficient? I don’t know if it’s wise for Alienware. Does a division known for excess and style really wants to be in the pawn shop business?
- The Dell Lounge has a video interview with Richard Garriott about “Tabula Rasa.” Joe Stafford and I are still playing the beta version of the game, which will have an end-of-beta celebration on Friday.
- Twitter’s abuzz about a site called Seesmic that allows users to easily post videos directly from a Web cam. The site’s in its very early stages, but early invitees are already posting videos on it like this one.
Happy Tuesday!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Computers, Internet, Videogames
Getting the best video quality on YouTube
Our pal on Twitter.com, Paul Walhus linked us to this incredibly useful primer on how to upload videos to YouTube without sacrificing too much video quality in the compression process.
Though the tutorial comes from a Final Cut Pro user group, the tips can be applied to programs like iMovie and PC editing programs like Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle Studio, and Ulead VideoStudio. The trick is to encode your videos at a resolution close to YouTube’s final 320 x 240 specs using the luscious “.mp4 with H.264 video format.”
Can’t wait to upload some baby videos.
Of course, if your source material is bad, don’t expect YouTube to magically spruce it up. This is most useful for going from, say, high definition video to the more modest dimensions of online video.
Still, a low-quality video can still be absolutely awesome, as this clearly demonstrates:
On a whole other subject: Apple’s computer market share is now up to about 8.1 percent of the U.S. market and growing. Watch out, Windows Vista!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Baby-daddy, Internet
Too many games is good news for gamers
We’re working on a gift guide for technology buffs as well as a separate guide for gamers in the Statesman, and already, with still a few weeks to go before these pieces are completed, it’s obvious that this is a ridiculously good season for gamers.
Even a partial list of the must-own stuff we’ve played (the stack of what we haven’t gotten to is much bigger) must include “Bioshock,” “The Orange Box,” “Puzzle Quest” (new on Xbox Live), “Tabula Rasa” and “Halo 3.”
We’re hearing great things about “The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass” on the Nintendo DS. There’s a new “Brain Age” (Dale Roe is taking a look at that) for that console as well.
On the PS3 side, we didn’t even bother with “Lair,” which earned awful reviews, but people seem to really like “Heavenly Sword” and there’s a new “Ratchet & Clank” game due out as well as the highly anticipated “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.”
There are game demos out of “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” “Hellgate: London” (from the team behind “Diablo”) and “Unreal Tournament 4.”
The local folks over at Gamecock have got two games on tap, “Fury” for the PC and “Dementium: The Ward” for the DS.
Things seem slim on the Nintendo Wii side (which is expected to be the only game console in short supply for the holidays), but soon you’ve got “Super Mario Galaxy,” the Wii version of Rockstar Games’ excellent “Table Tennis” (we’re curious how the controls fare on this one) and the locally produced “Metroid Prime: Corruption.”
And two games that may blow all of the above away: “Guitar Hero III” will be out soon just in time to compete with “Rock Band,” (from the original “Guitar Hero” team) a $170 package that includes two guitar controllers, a microphone and a drum set. Drool.
It’s a crowded holiday season (which is why we worry about any new and unproven non-franchise game making a dent; there’s a lot of competition out there). The winner is clear, however: Videogame players, who have lots and lots to choose from in the next few months.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Videogames
ITunes to Amazon: We can do DRM-free for 99 cents, too
ITunes is lowering the price of its DRM-free 256 kbps “iTunes Plus” songs to 99 cents (they were previously $1.29) and says it is expanding its Plus catalog to include more indie labels.
You can’t help but think this move might be influenced by some pricing pressure from Amazon.com’s new MP3 store. Amazon has a much smaller online music library than Apple has, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a major player moving forward.
So far, Apple Inc. has persuaded only one of the major labels, EMI, to agree to offer non-copy-protected music on its service.
The battle for online music sales continues.
Permalink | | Categories: Internet, Shopping
Babble Soft tools in the nanny world
Two Austin nanny agencies are incorporating the software that Austin-based Babble Soft makes into their services, the company announced.
“Baby Insights” (formerly called “Baby Manager”) and “Baby Say Cheese,” which I wrote about last month, are going to be used by Mom’s Best Friend and Nannies from the Heart for infant care.
In a press release, Nannies from the Heart owner Rebecca D’Amico said, “It’s great to be supporting a mom-owned business like Babble Soft, and they’ve come up with another great way to communicate with nannies.”
Kathy Dupuy, owner and founder of Mom’s Best Friend said nannies will have access to both pieces of software in all five of her company’s Texas markets.
“Baby Insights” allows parents and nannies to input information about baby feedings, medications and other information into a Web-based program. It can be accessed via PC or smartphone. “Baby Say Cheese” works alone or with “Baby Insights” to provide a photo scrapbook to help parents document their kids’ milestones.
Babble Soft was founded by software entrepreneur Aruni Gunasegaram.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Austin, Baby-daddy, Internet
Forget candy bars; your kids may start selling MP3s
One of the horrors of being a parent (or so I’m told) is the inevitable time when the kids are asked to sell cookies or candy bars or various holiday items, sold via glossy handouts and order forms. They’re always for a good cause, or so we’re told. I can’t remember a single good cause from the items I was forced to sell as a kid; I just remember that if you sold enough items, you might get a new bike.
Nobody ever got a new bike.
The joke, of course, is that most kids couldn’t sell rice cakes to supermodels. It’s the parents who end up peddling overpriced chocolate bars and cheese-laden gift baskets to co-workers, neighbors and relatives. They don’t want their kid to be The One Who Couldn’t Sell Anything. It’s a whole industry run on guilt and panic.
Frankly, I’m fearful my daughter will grow up thinking her ABCs stand for “Always Be Closing.”
There is much to fear, then, from this site. The future, we can now clearly see, includes not only peddling physical items to be delivered at some indeterminate future date, but also instantly downloadable songs, music videos and ringtones.
DownloadFundraiser.com allows organizations to sell items from the download site SharkGroove.com. After you deduct those pesky costs associated with the go-go world of music downloads, you might eke out a few pennies. Here, the site offers its formula for making money:
Download Profit = (Download Sales Price - Record Label Licensing Fee - Bank Transaction Fee) x 50%
Advertising Profit = (Advertising Revenue - Advertising Agency Sales Commission) x 50%
Eek! There are some reassuring things about the site. It only sells radio-friendly content; your kid won’t have to hustle to sell any extremely dirty Li’l Kim albums.
One other thing seems amiss, though — on DownloadFundraiser’s frequently asked questions page, you’ll find this information:
How does the sound / video quality compare to an actual music CD or movie DVD?
Download Fundraiser offers mp3 and WMA formats at 128kbps. These audio formats are compressed from the CD formats, and are comparable in quality.
Er, no. Although quibbling among audiophiles has gotten pretty annoying on the issue of bitrates, most will agree that a 128kbps MP3 file doesn’t compare with CD-quality, even to untrained ears. Sorry. it just doesn’t.
Anyway, parents, I’ve sounded the warning bell. Don’t be surprised if your kid comes home with a bunch of flyers, ready to sell downloadable goods to everybody. Start figuring out how you’ll answer the question from potential buyers, “And how is this better than buying stuff on iTunes?”
Permalink | | Categories: Baby-daddy, Internet
Full review: ‘The Orange Box’
A shorter version of this runs in tomorrow’s Life & Arts section:
It would be hard for Valve Software to top the success of its legendary 2004 “Half-Life 2,” one of the finest PC games ever made. So instead, Valve has expanded that universe to create a superb bundle called “The Orange Box,” which includes the original game, two expansion “Episodes,” a brand-new online game called “Team Fortress 2” and an inspired puzzler called “Portal.”
Taken together, the five games of “Orange Box” make for an extraordinary package for PC gamers, and an even better deal for Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 owners who never have had the opportunity to play “Half-Life 2” on a console before.
The new “Half-Life 2” adventure, “Episode 2,” continues the story of Gordon Freeman and contains typically stellar design of each level, creepy aliens and more expansive outdoor environments. It doesn’t disappoint. It picks up right where “Episode 1” left off and, while the first expansion felt a little like a retread (you had to go back to the Citadel, ground already covered in the original game), “Episode 2” offers new environments, new challenges and a breakneck pace. Though the episodes only last about six to eight hours for experienced gamers, the care in detail and the stunning environments continue to make the scary near-future world of “Half-Life 2” one we’ll want to keep visiting.
“Portal” is a mind-bending puzzle game in which the player is given a tool for creating portals from one place to another. This leads to some crazy physics moments as you navigate a testing lab in one piece. It’s funny, unique and brilliant. Though the game starts off with simple, rudimentary challenges, it gets progressively harder, its humor darker and more surprising. It’s nearly impossible to describe the game without visuals; check out the original “Orientation video”:
We can only hope that Valve will take this concept and run with it; playing a game like “Team Fortress 2” or “Half-Life 2 Deathmatch” with portals would be incredible.
And then there’s “Team Fortress 2,” a huge departure for Valve: It takes typical online shooter warfare and paints it in an animation style similar to Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” The mix of expert action and stylized cartoon graphics makes “TF2” incredibly fun. On the Xbox 360, it’s a nice alternative to “Halo 3.” On a well-equipped PC, it’s simply magnificent, an addictive and new online experience that’s as hilarious as it is thrilling.
Most of my gaming time the last two weeks has been spent on “TF2” and the variety of gameplay makes it infinitely replayable. You’ve got nine different characters to choose from, each with its own special skills and personality. On a practical level, differentiating the characters so much in the game (and limiting it to red versus blue teams) makes it easy to see who your enemies are on the battlefield and to instantly get a lay of the land, even with 24 characters running around. Valve also incorporates voice chat into the game, which makes formulating strategy much easier.
There are only a handful of maps available right now, but they’re so well-crafted and fun to play that it’s a minor quibble. We can expect Valve (and their devoted mod community) to add more content to the world of “TF2.”
Even if you don’t buy “The Orange Box,” you can still download Valve’s Steam software, sort of an online storefront that has gone from mostly carrying Valve’s own games to making available for download lots of independent games as well as titles like “Prey” and “BioShock.”
They’ve also recently added lots of community and friend features to Steam, which makes it much easier to set up online matches with friends and to create a public gaming group. And they’ve cleaned up what used to be an inspiring interface. You have to wonder how Valve found the time to spruce it up in the middle of all this game development, but Steam finally lives up to its promise as a great premium game-delivery and matchmaking service.
“The Orange Box,” which even includes a “Half-Life”-themed version of the game “Peggle” in the PC version, is a great value — five stellar games for the price of one. Just “Team Fortress 2” and “Episode 2” would be worth full price, but as we’ve come to expect from Valve, it’s over-delivered in a big way.
Permalink | | Categories: Videogames
AMD launches gaming portal… for why, I don’t know
I hate to bag on a local site. It’s not really my thing, you know. I like to accentuate the positive. Fill the world with joy and rainbows. I am known to eat delicious ice cream and smile while I do it.
But I’ve been poking around AMD’s new gaming portal Web site, which, in an inspired bit of branding is called “AMD GAME!”
It was developed locally by a company called Design Reactor and when you first visit to the site, you see a nice graphic for “Team Fortress 2.” This is a great game and a very recent one, so you hope that the site will have up-to-the-minute news and other content to keep you coming back.
Unfortunately, the content is wrapped in a bubble of marketing and branding so thick that a young John Travolta could live in there, free of disease.
Here’s the third “Latest News” headline from the front page: “AMD and SAPPHIRE to Showcase HD Gaming Innovation.” Wow! Newsy!
There are some feeble attempts at building community. You could join an online chat and create a profile for yourself by logging in. But I’m not sure why you’d stick around. At the top of the Community Page is an interesting looking link to a developer’s diary for the game “Call of Juarez.” When you click on it to read the article, it spits back, “Sorry, could not find the requested article.”
On a page of featured games, there’s a box that goes with the highly anticipated PC game “Crysis,” that says, “Image not available.”
The “Image not available” also appears, more disturbingly under the area of “Images” for multimedia related to the game “Blazing Angels 2.” Why even put the game there if there are no images for it?
The reviews on the site also seem incomplete. No review of “Quake Wars; Enemy Territory” or “Team Fortress 2?” The reviews that do appear (the most recent one is of “Stranglehold”) are not attributed to any particular writer or Web site. Should we trust these reviewers? It’s hard when we don’t even know who they are.
The site’s mascot is a computer-generated action lady (guess how much clothes she’s wearing) named Ruby. I’m guessing she’s supposed to be responsible for the site’s content. If this is so, Ruby should spend more time updating and writing and less time jumping away from fireballs.
If this were a test Web site or something somebody had put together and I just happened upon it, I’d be a lot less critical. But the site was pitched to me by a PR person for a possible story. In the PR pitch, we find this information: “This is certainly one of the toughest markets to impress. Gamers are demanding and expect solid interactive design with a massive amount of relevant features and content, which AMDGAME! delivers…” said Leon Papkoff, CEO of Design Reactor.
Unfortunately, I have to report that in comparison with even the lowliest of gaming Web sites, the site has much less than a “Massive amount” of content and right now is more broken and incomplete than a marketing site for a major gaming company should be.
I’m not sure who this Web site is for, but there’s nothing there that makes me want to visit again. I couldn’t recommend it to any serious PC gamer. Or really any casual gamer, either.
Who wants ice cream?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Austin, Internet, Videogames
The ethics of domain name selling
A few months ago, when my wife was still pregnant, I registered the domain name “Babycation.com.”
I had been making jokes with a friend about how my time off from work for paternity leave was going to be one big vacation where I’d get to catch up on lots of book reading and TV. (Not surprisingly, I was wrong on that.) I took to calling my paternity leave my “Babycation” and while we were discussing this, I checked and saw the domain name was available.
I bought it for about $10. And forgot all about it.
A few days ago, I got an e-mail from someone who wanted to buy the domain. The man said he and his wife were starting a baby-related business and wanted to use babycation.com.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. In the e-mail, the guy didn’t say he wanted to purchase the domain itself, just that he wanted to use it for his business. Did he want to rent it? Was I going to become some sort of virtual slumlord? What if I sold the domain name and he went off and created the next google.com? What if babycation.com became a billion-dollar business? Should I ask for a cut of the business instead of selling the domain outright?
I wrote back asking for more details. The guy replied that he and his wife had just had a baby and wanted to start a small business. He was interested in buying the domain name, which would be a pretty easy process on my domain registrar, godaddy.com.
I asked a friend of mine who works in the Internet business what he’d do. He’s sold several domains over the years, some of them for established sites that had lots of traffic. He suggested I offer it for sale for $1,000, a pretty crazy profit margin, but not unusual for a domain that somebody wants to buy.
I wrote the guy back and told him I would sell him babycation.com for $1,000. I told him in the e-mail that I was open to negotiation and would very likely accept a lower offer. (Check out my hardball tactics.)
He wrote back and he and his wife just had an idea for a small business and that there was no way they could pay that kind of money. He didn’t make a counter-offer. He gave up.
And now I feel terrible. I feel greedy. I feel like I should write the guy back and offer to give him the domain on the cheap and help him and his wife out.
Then again, all I’m going by is a few very short e-mails from a guy I don’t even know. How do I know that this newborn even exists and that I wasn’t being approached by a domain hoarder?
A few years ago, I lost a domain name for my personal site when I forgot to pay for its renewal. It was snapped up quickly by a domain hoarder based in Colorado. I wrote him a letter and made phone calls asking for the opportunity to buy it back. The guy tried to sell it back to me at a price I couldn’t afford. I told him that the only reason that domain name got traffic was because of all the work I’d put into establishing the site. He told me to write him a letter via certified mail listing the reasons that the site belonged to me. He made me jump through a bunch of hoops to get my domain back. Then he told me I couldn’t have it. I really hated that guy.
I ended up purchasing a similar domain and putting my site back up at that address. In the end, it was the content of the Web site, not the domain name itself that was important. My readers followed and within a year, traffic to the old domain dried up.
If this guy were to register a similar domain name, would anyone care if it’s called babycation.com or babycation.net? Or even baby-cation.com?
I’m not sure exactly what to do now, but it’s made me think about the value of a name and how hard it is to know what a simple idea is worth.
What do you think? What should I do?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Internet
Google buys Jaiku; ‘The Orange Box’
Internet behemoth Google has purchased the social networking site Jaiku, a site that can favorably be compared with Twitter.
While Twitter.com has grown, expanded and tweaked its offerings, Jaiku has been growing, too; many people who post to sites like Twitter and Pownce.com for short-form blogging and SMS updates post the same messages to Jaiku.
Robert Scoble thinks Google is getting in the ring against Facebook with a juiced-up version of Orkut.com that would include Jaiku. Orkut, which doesn’t get the press that MySpace and Facebook do, is very popular in some countries and apparently has been a pretty smart purchase for Google.
My prediction is that someone will acquire Twitter very soon (Microsoft, maybe?) and try to incorporate it into another social networking service. I thought MySpace should have done it six months ago; the MySpace equivalent of what Twitter does is pretty weak-sauce, as my friends in the barbecue industry might say.
Tonight at midnight pacific time (2 a.m. Central), Valve’s “The Orange Box” goes on sale. I can’t write a full review until the game is released, but from what I’ve played of the public “Team Fortress 2 Beta” and “Portal,” this game is a definite must-purchase for any PC gamer and probably a good game for any Xbox 360 player already bored with “Halo 3.”
“TF2” and “Portal” alone are worth the price of admission. But bundling full versions of “Half-Life 2,” “Half-Life 2: Episode 1” and the brand-new chapter “Half-Life 2: Episode” makes this a ludicrously good deal. I’ve seen the game advertised for $37 at Fry’s for the PC version and you can buy it on Steam for about $45 and start playing the “Team Fortress 2” beta immediately.
Five games in one box. Not a bad deal. The PC version also includes a “Half-Life”-themed version of the game “Peggle.” Just one more reason to pick this one up.
Trust me, these are great games
Permalink | | Categories: Internet, Shopping, Videogames
Bungie: I’m taking off the ‘Halo’ and doing this for me
In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft and the developer behind the mind-bogglingly successful “Halo” videogames are parting ways, the way a couple will stay together just long enough to get their kid through high school or, for that matter, finish off a big movie project.
Way back in 2000, Microsoft acquired the well-regarded Chicago studio, which led many to believe that Bungie’s vision for “Halo,” then just a nascent glimmer in some guy named Master Chief’s helmet, would be crippled by the nerds over in Redmond.
As it turned out, “Halo,” the “C.S.I.” of games (ridiculously popular, primed for spinoffs), was good for Microsoft and Bungie. Microsoft got to establish itself as a serious player in the home console market with a crown jewel of exclusivity. Bungie cranked out three incredibly popular games that have have made its talent much sought-after in the industry. It was good for both parties, to the tune of $300 million in first-week sales for “Halo 3” alone.
Given that “Halo” was meant to be a trilogy, it’s a good time for Microsoft to let Bungie go, rather than keep them under lock and chain, cranking out games fo diminishing returns for years to come. Still, you have to wonder if Bungie will stick to that creative-freedom thing and if they’ll be able to keep its development teams together without the deep pockets and marketing muscle of Microsoft.
Good news/bad news for parents: Wii supplies will be more plentiful in stores than they were last year, but they’ll still be sparse this holiday season, according to Nintendo. Shop early.
I installed an Apple Airport Extreme router yesterday at home to replace an aging D-Link Wireless G router that was going out sporadically.
Physically setting up the beautiful little piece of hardware was super-easy, but getting everything in the house to work with it was more of a chore. A wireless-b bridge’s connectivity took a call to Apple (admittedly, they were quick and knowledgeable with the tech support). I had to rename the network and change the wireless password to get my laptop to talk to the new router. And I still can’t get media streaming to work off my Windows PC to the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 anymore, something that worked just fine with my old router.
I’m buying a new MacBook soon, so the wireless-N compatibility is nice, but though the router seems a tiny bit speedier and much more consistent, the tiny manual it came with doesn’t explain any of the advanced options in the setup software and getting some port-forwarding and firewall settings to work isn’t as easy as you’d hope.
I know it’s too much to expect that Apple solve all the headaches that go along with home networking. I guess in my fantasy of the Airport Extreme, everything was up and running in minutes, like an iPod.
At least the wireless printing works perfectly.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Videogames
More on the ‘Tabula Rasa’ delay
Lilly Rockwell fills us in on more details about the “Tabula Rasa” launch date slipping back to Nov. 2 (with a three-day head start for people who pre-order the game).
I peeked in on the beta today and things seem to be chugging along fine. Some of the things I remembered about the preview I got at NCsoft seem a little bit more refined and detailed now than a few months ago. Although the account servers were down for a little while, things seem OK on the game side.
Let’s hope all the bugs are worked out between now and then. We’ll be playing “Halo 3” and maybe some “NBA Live ‘08” in the meantime.
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, Videogames
Dress your Wiimote in luxurious free plastic
If you own a Nintendo Wii, you can get up to four free “Wiimote Jackets” from Nintendo. The plastic wrap-arounds will be included with all new Wii systems and controllers. They look like a clear life raft and that may be apt — you don’t want to kill someone while wildly swinging your potentially deadly controller.
You can request the jackets on Nintendo’s site or by calling (866) 431-8367.
Austin’s Pixel Mine game studio has opened up beta testing for its upcoming game “Fireteam Reloaded.” If you’re interested, you can apply here.
Big news: NCSoft’s “Tabula Rasa” has been delayed a few weeks. The new launch date is Nov. 2 and reason is to fine-tune the servers to handle the anticipated load of users at launch. We’ll post more about this later today.
Permalink | | Categories: Austin, Videogames
