So I started watching Oprah the day she gave away all those cars. I had never before watched Oprah in my life...can you believe it? This woman is a billionaire (and if you know me, you know I can obsessively repeat the 5 self-made billionaire women in the world, as it's my goal to one day be there...or at least close.) Fortune describes her as a "media mogul", and with the way so many women love her, I'd say that's a fairly accurate description.

So when I heard about Oprah giving away a car to everyone in the audience, I decided to Tivo the show and check it out. After all, what better opportunity to watch a "media mogul" and woman billionaire in action than to Tivo what would surely be a landmark show?

Well, I Tivo'ed it and I was not disappointed at all! In fact, it was such a fantastic show that I decided to grab a season pass on the ol' Tivo and keep it busy in the afternoon. Now I watch Oprah every night (for the most part) when I get home (typically while I'm eating dinner) and I haven't been disappointed yet. She has a fascinating show.

The show that was the most significant to me was the one where she had the author of a book on. The book (based on a Sex and the City episode; the book's author was one of the show's producers) is called He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth To Understanding Guys. The show featured several women from Oprah's audience, each with a different sob story (some sad, some hilarious) about guys who were (say it with me) JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU! I got a real kick out of the show (no, the super-celebrity you dated 8 months ago is not into you just because he booty-calls you occasionally!)

The most important thing Oprah said on the show (and something that I am now using as a magnifying glass to look into my own life) was "Doubt means NO! Don't do it!"

It's so important to trust your gut reaction in a lot of cases. I can see a trouble customer from a mile away. Sometimes I take them anyway (and often regret it later!) But one thing I have learned is to trust my instincts. If you have doubts about something, especially if it's a new experience for you, figure out why you're having the doubts. If you're fearing for your safety or sanity, it's time to say "no."

This has saved me a lot of grief in both my business and personal life. Don't forget about your "gut feeling." It's there to help you!

Why the heck doesn't Slashdot have useful topics, like "Alcohol"?

So, for the first time in my life, I've decided to get drunk when no one else is around (at least in person), just to see what it feels like. You, my faithful Slashdot journal readers, will get a chance to see me like this. I think I am just going to write whatever comes into my head and then pass out and go to bed. Sounds like a good night to me! :D

For me, being drunk means I want to dance. I really think it's as simple as that. I love dance music and I love dancing. I just don't know how to dance, so I end up looking pretty stupid. That's why it's important to have alcohol involved, because then I don't care if I look stupid...I just get out there and do my thang and everyone else can laugh all they want.

There's this really cool song by The Ark called "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane." I highly recommend it. I love the lyrics:

And if you think I'm corny
then it will not make me sorry
It's your right to laugh at me
and in turn that's my opportunity
to feel brave ...

So, take it to the stage in a multicoloured jacket
Take it jackpot, crackpot, strutting like a peacock
Nailvarnish Arkansas, shimmy-shammy featherboah
Crackpot, haircut, dye your hair in glowing red and blue

Do, do, do what you wanna do
Don't think twice, do what you have to do
Do, do, do, do, let your heart decide
what you have to do
That's all there is to find

Awesome song. Someone said Americans wouldn't like it because apparently we're all conservatives who love George W. Bush. Yeah, right! I'm an American and I love this song and how it speaks of individuality and going against the status quo. That is what I am all about.

Speaking of that, I would like to record for posterity the following things that I would like to do in the next year:

1) Take at least one exercise class. Karate, kickboxing, yoga...whatever... as long as it gets me out of the house and exercising on a regular basis.

2) Learn another language. I already know French pretty well, though my skills have gone down the tubes a bit since I haven't practiced in a while. I also know a bit of Mandarin, but it's not incredibly useful here as most Chinese here speak Cantonese. I think Spanish is next on my list.

3) Start another company. Yeah, another one. Just for the hell of it. Doesn't have to make a lot of money. I just want to enjoy it. ...

I never graduated college. I went to San Jose State for a year and a half and it just wasn't right for me. Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been different had I gone to Santa Clara Univ. instead... I was also accepted there. I definitely would have enjoyed school more, but I also enjoy having the head start on my business. A coin toss, really. I never really was one for school. I got whatever grade I needed to get to pass class, but for me it was always about the extracirricular activities (yeah, interpret that however you want...LOL!)

I smoked a lot of weed in college. (Hey, I'm in California. What, like 70% of the population has smoked weed? They can't throw you in jail for it here unless you're dealing, and I didn't deal.) I drank a lot and went to a lot of parties. I had boyfriends. I had a job. Really, it was a blast except for classes (most of which I was bored out of my skull in!) A more academically challenging college would have been better for me.

Right now I'm anxious to find activities to fill my free time. The exercise one is one goal. I'd love to go with friends to encourage me to stick with it, but I don't really know any friends close by. I suppose I could drive to it with a friend. Eh.

Another goal is to join at least one business-related club. Women business owners, young entrepreneurs, whatever... I think that's important. It's important to get your face recognized in the community. Believe it or not, the Bay Area is pretty small and most people know most other people. Getting into one of those clubs and sticking with it will be important for my future.

I can feel myself starting to yawn and lose track of time, so it's probably time to hit the bed. Thank God I only have one more project to do tonight. Hopefully I can finally get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep (haven't had that in 6 days or so.)

Goodnight! ~

First of all, thank you all for your comments. You've given me a lot of food for thought -- in particular, the idea to throw a dinner party (I think that one's a winner!) and the idea that maybe, possibly, I should be more considerate of other people's feelings. (I completely agree and will take that one to heart, as I should.)

I really think this past weekend was a turning point for me. For the first time in my life (with regards to Simpli), I realized that I could do this. I had 3 other people there helping me with the move and I led and directed them -- okay, not perfectly, but pretty darn well for someone who is still new at this whole leadership thing. These 3 people all listened and respected me, which, again, was new and vastly refreshing. I stayed up 30 straight hours without either falling asleep or becoming incredibly bitchy. I respected the members of my team and earned respect in return. It was an incredibly awesome feeling and really proved to me that an executive management role is where I want to be in my life.

Something I have learned from talking and listening to business leaders is how to deal with setbacks. Obviously, every setback is a new and exciting challenge. The key to overcoming obstacles is to see them as challenges, not roadblocks. They are mountains, but you can climb them! Running around them doesn't work because there are always more of them; you really have to be a person who can say "Alright, folks, here's what we have to do to climb this mountain," and then execute the plan well, to be a leader.

Another thing I'm quickly learning is that you don't have to be perfect to be a leader. Here's the infinitely cool thing: people intuitively understand that you are not perfect. When we had to move all of those servers, there were a few whiners in the bunch. "Oh, I can't be down then" or "This is going to hugely inconvenience me", etc. There were a couple things I said to the whiners that made them, by and large, happy customers:

1) This isn't our choice either. We're in this with you together. This isn't a cakewalk for anyone. But it has to get done, and we promise you we'll do whatever it takes to make sure the move is as smooth as possible for you.

2) What can we do for you to make this move go as smoothly as possible for you?

I ran backups for our customers. I moved some of them in the afternoon or on complete other days. I spent extra time and effort to make sure not only that we got everyone moved, but that we communicated with and accommodated our customers to the best degree possible. That really is the key.

If you spend your life making sure your customers are happy (while keeping in mind your own goals and making sure that their goals align with yours), you will always be successful.

And...

Keeping 100% of your customers happy 100% of the time is completely impossible. Just do the best you can, while bearing in mind the above.

And one more, that I just have to add because it made me much more sane...

Learn how to say NO!!!

---

I am incredibly proud of myself for this weekend. While it wasn't perfect, I did the absolute best I could under the circumstances, took the lessons learned to heart, and made it successful. We did not lose a SINGLE customer from this move. I grew (personally and professionally) this weekend. Sometime during my 30 hours with no sleep, I realized that my heart belonged right where it was now -- being a leader and being in control of my own destiny.

I am a risk-taker. No question about it. I run my bank account down to zero. I invest in risky stocks and I read, read, read (obsessively) about market trends, business trends, and customer trends. I firmly believe that things are more simple than most people want to admit.

I will tell you right now in this journal: I will make mistakes. No one is infallible. I will have climbed hundreds and thousands of mountains by the time I am finished with this life. Sometimes I'll fall down. My company will occasionally falter. But if I believe in the simple principles above -- namely, keep my customers happy, but not at the expense of myself -- I will succeed and my company will be successful. Believe it or not, it really is that simple, and it doesn't matter what kind of business you run -- from a gas station to a law firm to a web hosting company -- in the end, it boils down to your customers and how they feel. Are they happy? Then you're successful. If they're not, assess the situation and correct the problems, and you'll convert them. I believe that, in the end, that's all you really need to run a successful business.

Writes About It! (Thanks, Slashdot title limit.) :P

Well, we've moved 125 servers from one AboveNet datacenter in San Jose to another. This move was not our choice -- AboveNet leased out SJC3 (the datacenter we were in) to another company, and so we were forced to "move 'em out" (as they say) and head on down to SJC2 in downtown San Jose.

So I'd like to take this journal entry to (first) admonish myself for not writing recently, as I feel writing is therapeutic, especially for me, and secondly, to record in history not just the logistical, business aspects of the move, but my actual feelings about it.

My personal feelings don't come out often in my Slashdot journal. I'm often hesitant to write about myself since this is such a wide audience, but to hell with that convention. I've talked about my business the whole time. Time for all of you to know the real me. And after 30 hours with no sleep, experiencing the strange effects of food and sleep deprivation, and work-work-work constantly, I'm going to carve out a little space for myself here. The real me -- not Simpli, and not web developer Erica, but me.

Although I run a successful business and, by all means, should be grinning 100% of the time, the reality is that I often find myself sitting at home alone mindlessly surfing the Internet. I tend to go through friends like some people change brands of cereal. My "friend lifespan" is approximately 6 months, and I've had very few friends (three, I think?) whom I'm still in touch with whom I've known longer than 1 year. I used to think that it was because I'm changing and growing so rapidly, and I believe part of that is true. The other part is deeper and much more subtle.

My problem is my personality has two very opposite sides. The one you meet at first (and the one you know if you've only met me a few times) is a very dynamic, engaging, fun personality. People have a hard time believing that I don't have many friends or that I'm anti-social. But there is a very different side to my personality -- a shy, quiet, bookworm-geeky side that only comes out when I'm really alone or with people I'm incredibly comfortable with.

Somehow these two personalities combine in strange (and often opposing) ways. One night I'll want to go to a concert or an event and the next night I'm absorbed in some bizarro Linux problem or programming dilemma and get irritated when someone asks me to take a break. I love good discussion, but often get intimidated by those who want to argue every point of mine: "Hey, I've made my decision. Leave me alone." For me, there is a very fine line between discussing different opinions and viewpoints (which I love) and arguing about them (which I quickly grow sick of.)

Which brings me back to the whole friends thing. My personality's two sides make it difficult to retain friends since half the time I'm "too busy" to go out and the other half of the time I'm not busy, but people have given up asking me since I'm "always busy." I don't really think I have an abrasive personality or anything that scares people off; they just sort of give up after a while since I'm so often not interested in doing anything.

I met a cool friend a few months ago who introduced me to a couple other people here in the Bay Area. A few weeks ago I was talking to him on AIM (yeah, I'm an AIM junkie) and he said that I should call up one of the other guys and see what he was doing since I was free and bored that night. "What do you mean?!" I said. A good talking-to (er, conversation ;) ensued when he realized I hadn't called up someone I didn't know that well just to see if that person was free and wanted to do something in approximately 2 years. Well, I finally gave in and called him, and go figure -- he was busy. (He must have "Erica syndrome." ;) I haven't called him since, even though I think we'd be good friends. Why? I guess I'm too busy. :)

I know a lot of people, but I can't say there are a lot of people out there who know me very well. Some nights (like tonight) I end up sitting at home alone, hoping something will happen. Most nights I just work my butt off until I go to bed. I have a good friend who is a quite obsessive PHP programmer, and I teased him one night about him living in New York City and never going outside to explore and have some fun. I commented that we were some of the only people in the world who look at life through a window in the room where the computer is.

Is it possible to be too busy looking down at your work to get up once in a while and really enjoy just getting to know other people? Sometimes I'm tempted to just go somewhere else for a while and completely forget work. I hope I remember what fun is by the time Simpli is a multi-million dollar company and I actually start having free time again. Or is it possible that I will schedule my life so that I will hold myself at a distance from people forever just so I can get more work done? These are the things that go on in my head...when I'm not too busy to think about them, that is. ;)

My apologies for not updating this journal more often; I've been extremely busy with work (Simpli). Simpli is doing well, by the way, and we're set to introduce a new website soon, so stay tuned! ;)

I have a strange question. Upon pondering this question and realizing I knew nothing about it, I immediately wondered where I could find the answer. So I've decided to mine you guys -- the geekiest people I know -- for an answer.

I have a client who wants to rip 300 CDs to a hard drive. He'd like me to come up with a solution, so I've been studying various methods of ripping CDs. Obviously no one wants to sit there all day and feed CDs into a computer, so there needs to be a better solution.

I've Googled and it appears that the best solution is a robotic arm that attaches to a computer. My basic idea is to have two spindles of CDs: one spindle which hasn't been ripped and one which has. The arm can pick up a CD from the spindle of "not yet ripped", drop the CD into the open drive, and, when the CD is done, it can pick it back up and place it on the "ripped" spindle.

Obviously this requires some communication between the computer and the robotic arm. The best solution would probably be to use Linux, a serial or parallel port for communication, and a script ("Arm, pick up CD from 'non-ripped' spindle. CD drive, close. Ripper program, rip. CD drive, open. Arm, pick up CD and put it into 'ripped' spindle. Repeat.") Okay, so that's kind of what this guy did. But I don't care about getting CDs out of cases or anything.

I'm willing to spend up to $300 for a complete solution (not including computer, which I'll buy separately.) So that's $300 for a robot and a script to guide it. What do you think? Is this doable or reasonable? Do some research and I might give you part or all of that money to build it. ;)

EDIT: To all you people who said "Just hire a teenager," well, that's just not nearly geeky enough for me. Plus, I may want to do this again in the future.

Well, I just had a rather interesting and funny conversation over AIM with a hapless job-seeker. I thought I'd post it here for your benefit (names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

[14:12] Hapless Job-Seeker: hello
[14:13] simplisales: Hello :) This is Erica from Simpli sales. How may I help you?
[14:14] Hapless Job-Seeker: i was wondering if u could check out my resume :p
[14:14] Hapless Job-Seeker: (Link: [to posted resume])
[14:14] Hapless Job-Seeker: thanx a lot
[14:15] simplisales: You know you messaged me about this before, right? :)
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: :p
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: did i?
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: its possible :p
[14:15] simplisales: And I said:
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: what was ur answer
[14:15] simplisales: [12:47] simplisales: Then why the heck are you using "u" in your resume? Do you expect companies to take you seriously?
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: ahha!
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: thanx
[14:15] simplisales: And I see that advice went straight to the pooper.
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: *looks for exscuse*
[14:15] Hapless Job-Seeker: *cant find one*
[14:16] simplisales: ;)
[14:16] Hapless Job-Seeker: so
[14:16] simplisales: You need to brush up on your professionalism.
[14:16] Hapless Job-Seeker: no mind changing revalations then :p
[14:17] simplisales: I would also recommend reading a couple books on how to write a professional resume.
[14:18] Hapless Job-Seeker: in fact, i have decided that this is not going to get anywhere :p
[14:18] Hapless Job-Seeker: and have made a concious desicion to go and smoke lots of dope :p
[14:18] Hapless Job-Seeker: goodbye
[14:19] simplisales: Talk to you later.

Now there's a winner! ;)

---

By the way, we have filled the position advertised in my previous journal entry with someone from Slashdot. More about this later!

I think the time has finally come to admit that I need help.

Not in the "I'm insane" way (though some of my friends would argue that ;) but in the "This business has grown too big for my britches" sort of way. The fact is that I need one of you sysadmin/programmer gurus to take me, a marketing/sales person, under your wing and grind out all these nifty little things to help me run my business better.

Here's what I'm looking for:
Absolute Requirements

First of all, you must be located in or near San Jose, CA. Yes, I know that there are many qualified techies in other places than San Jose. However, the fact of the matter is that our servers are in San Jose, and these servers will be your babies to take care of, both hardware-wise and software-wise. That means you need to be able to run into the datacenter and fix them.

Secondly, you must be willing to carry a pager and get pages from people who need reboots, kernel recompiles, etc. The vast majority of our customers do not page, but when they do, we need to be there and jump on it within 10-15 minutes. Technically, you will be on-call 24/7, but you won't be awakened much in the middle of the night -- perhaps only once or twice a month. As you deploy more APC remote reboot ports and a console server for us, you'll empower our customers to fix their own problems and drop that number down to 0.

You need to be a UNIX guru, but you need not stick up your nose at Windows, either. Again, the vast majority of our customers are running Linux or FreeBSD, but we do have the odd Windows server here and there. You don't have to love Windows; you just have to not whine about having to administer it every once in a while. ;)

You must know PHP and be willing to spend a good part of your time programming systems in it. This is an absolute requirement.

So, in summary:
* You must be located in San Jose, be able to drive to the datacenter, and meet the following criteria:
* Be an excellent UNIX systems administrator. Be prepared to administer mostly Red Hat systems, with a few FreeBSD and Windows systems thrown in for good measure.
* We'll buy you a pager or pay your cell phone bill. In return, you agree that you will be on call. Yes, you may get awakened in the middle of the night a couple times a month. But it won't be that often, and with your help, we're going to drop that down to an absolute minimum.
* Know PHP, shell scripting, and Perl. PHP and BASH scripting are a must.
* Be interested in web hosting. We'll give you a free dedicated server or two for you to play with, or we'll colo your boxes for free. (Yay for job benefits!)
* Be prepared to take a leadership role within the company. As the owner of the company, I will be taking your suggestions on how to improve processes. You must be able to step up and say "Hey, this needs to be fixed," get my approval, and run with it. You will "be your own boss" as much as you can; with only one person to report to, it will be your decision that goes.

Salary is still to be determined. Please state what you're looking for; since we're a startup on a budget, please be reasonable. Your job benefits will include a free cell phone and free dedicated boxes or colo space. It will not include traditional benefits such as health care.

This is a part-time, contract opportunity. I expect 10-20 hours a week to start and I fully expect this to be a full-time position within 6-12 months. This position is ideal for someone looking to break into the industry who may not have tons of experience but who is willing to learn and enjoy the benefits of having only one person to report to.

Right now, you will be working from home. Again, in the next 12 months, I will be looking for office space. We have big plans to expand -- this is your chance to be the technical leader of this expansion.

Please send your resume and salary requirements (for a contract of 40-80 hours per month) to erica@simpli.biz. I will be interviewing in person over the next 2-3 weeks.

Thank you!

Good grief, it's been a month since I've written here? Wow. I've been really busy. :)

Snopes.com has an interesting article up about LA County banning the use of the terms "Master/Slave" by its vendors (most commonly denoting hard drive arrangements.) A pretty fascinating read on how far political correctness has gone.

I've submitted it to Slashdot. We'll see what happens. ;)

Update: My third accepted story! Yay. :)

The subject of electronic voting machines and ways to stop political parties from buying votes brings up several interesting questions.

What would you do in the following hypothetical situation?

-- As you're walking in to the polling place, a stranger pulls you aside. The stranger says, "I'll pay you $20 to vote for the Democrat candidate in this election."

What would you do if you had already planned on voting for the Democrat? Would you take the money anyway?

Another, similar one:

-- Let's say you had no interest in the election whatsoever, but you were registered to vote. A stranger knocks on your door and says "I'll pay you $20 to vote for the Democrat candidate in the next election."

Would this convince you to vote?
Would it convince you to vote for the Democratic candidate?

These are just hypothetical questions. Answers, comments, flames, and wandering diatribes are welcomed, as always. :)

In the course of running a business, I've learned that one or two small mistakes can often ensure that your business doesn't do as well as it should (or could). It's amazing how much people talk on the Internet, and moreso than that, it's amazing how easy it is to be negative about things.

Slashdot has many great examples of this... just look at any TiVo article and you'll see three classic "disses" that are mentioned every time someone says "TiVo":

1) Who cares. I have a VCR. I don't see a need to pay a monthly subscription for a VCR, either.

2) Monthly subscriptions are the tool of the DEVIL!!! (Of course, I don't think paying monthly for Internet access is evil... just paying for TiVo monthly. And I've neglected to do my research and find out that you can pay for a lifetime subscription to negate all those oh-so-horrific monthly fees.)

3) Dude, I have like this 1337 setup that runs MythTV on Linux and it is so infinitely better than a TiVo. (Never mind that I have to have a keyboard and mouse by my TV and therefore I look like a complete geek... because see, this $500 PC here also runs MAME and therefore ALSO replaces a $99 Playstation!! OMG 1337!!!!11)

Riiiight.

99% of these types of respondents have never even used a TiVo, but they can't help being negative about it regardless. (Grr.)

Anyway, I'm getting offtopic. What this journal entry is about is a couple of mistakes Simpli has made and how they've helped to shape us as a company.

The first (and most major one) was a guy who leased a dedicated server from us, promptly moved all of his domains over without testing them, and broke everything. He emailed us from his Yahoo account stating that his server was broken and what-an-awful-server-we-had-given-him. Little did I realize that he had a reply-to set up on his emails that forwarded back to his main mail account... the one that was on his dedicated server, and, thus, was broken!

Well, after several hours of our non-responses (since they had gotten lost because of his reply-to settings), the guy writes a nasty message about Simpli on a message board. A customer of ours sees the message and points me to it, at which point my mouth promptly drops open because I realize that this guy hasn't gotten a single reply we had sent to him the entire day.

His mistake? Setting up the server without testing it. Sending us email from an account that had a reply-to that went back to the broken server (he didn't mention what domain names he tried to move over, so I didn't have any idea that that was broken, or that his reply-to was going back to the broken server.)

Our mistake? Not calling him.

What we learned: Now we promptly call all customers who are having problems with our services (which is surprisingly few people; we've never had someone who had the major issues this guy had). Since this guy left, we've beefed up support so nothing slips through the cracks. We're implementing a helpdesk system to better track requests, and we will be hiring again soon (more details on that later) because we need people to cover a few more hours so we have a true 24x7 support staff.

And we gave that guy a full refund.

Fast-forward to today. I was reading FortKnox's latest journal entry (by the way, the 2nd Slashdot Photo Contest is up again), and what do I see but a post from a guy who is unhappy that we haven't replied to his sales inquiry.

"Oh, sh*t", I think. "Here we go again." Sure enough, his hasn't been replied to. Sure, it was a bit offbeat and required some research on our end, but the fact was that I'd answered some doozies this month, and I'm not sure why that one slipped through the cracks.

What I learned (since I'm the one who responds to sales requests): I decided to get those sales inquiries out of my inbox and in to their own special little email folder, called (unsurprisingly) !sales inquiries. (I use the ! at the beginning to denote important email folders so they are placed first in the folder list.) I glance through them. We've received 17 sales inquiries through our contact form this month, and his is the only one I haven't replied to. Damn.

The good news is that with these filed safely away in their own folder, I can now easily glance at them and figure out who hasn't been replied to. Although we've probably lost him as a customer, the good news is that this probably won't happen again.

This has been an incredibly long journal entry, even by my standards! I guess I just needed to get that out there. Go forth and post comments... (oh, and vote in the Slashdot photo contest!)

Where's that "Winders" topic icon... ah, yes, there it is...

Does it f'in annoy anyone else that you can't rearrange the icons on the taskbar in Windows?

Speaking of compulsive behaviors, I must have Outlook first in my taskbar. I always open it first when I start my computer.

Invariably, Outlook crashes (IMAP has issues with Outlook) and I have to close it and open it again. But now it's at the end of my taskbar... after 15 other programs, all with unsaved work or multiple things open or... whatever. I don't want to close 15 programs just to get Outlook first again. Guh!

Hey Microsoft! *thwack* Give me a little drag-and-drop thing so I can put my precious Outlook first again! Yes, I am compulsive... but I know there are many of you out there whom this affects. Speak out now and unleash your wrath! :)

Oh, and I got shot down in the election today. I voted NO on the recall. But hey, that's okay. I am okay with Arnold. I believe he'll come around to his true Democratic traits soon... and then I'll be able to laugh at all those damned conservatives who voted for him over the true right-winger, Mr. Tom "I Have Extremely Creepy Eyes" McClintock.

Not that I'm vindictive. Not at all. :D

Alright... here's an interesting one. I want to hear what you think, especially in light of Cringely's latest article.

One of my high-school friends runs a very informal mailing list that reaches out to graduates of that high school. He uses it to send out notices about the school, party invitations, and more. There are about 120 people currently on the list.

Here's where it starts to get interesting. He sent out an email today regarding a website he really liked and asked for us to go check it out. I replied, agreeing that it was a great website, and I mentioned that Simpli would be advertising there next month. I figured it was a great tie-in -- after all, not only do I like the website, but I like it so much that we've signed an ad deal there for next month. I also said, "...if any of you are on the lookout for web hosting, you can jump in on our exclusive [website] deals starting next week."

I get two replies back asking me to stop making "product offers" on the list. These people consider my one-sentence plug to my high school classmates spam!

Now let me ask you this: Has our society become so inundated by advertising that we can't even stand a semblance of advertising from someone we know?

I run a mailing list for a website. We have about 10,000 people that we send out a monthly newsletter to. These people have all opted-in or double-opted in (double-opt-in means we send them a confirmation email and they have to click on a link to subscribe.) Every single month, we get complaints from people (often using profanity) that scream "TAKE ME OFF YOUR #@^*ing MAILING LIST!!" Now, this newsletter isn't exactly in the realm of penis enlargements or breast enhancers; it's a home improvement newsletter that you have to explicitly sign up for and that contains an obvious "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom. (Yes, I know all of the recipients are opt-in or double-opt-in, because I wrote the mailing list software that runs on their website. Thus, I know that the people getting this email have explicitly asked for it.)

Has the world become such that we are unable to distinguish between targeted and untargeted email? Have we become so engrossed in anti-spam campaigns that we ask to be "taken off the mailing list" when a fellow high school alumnus who runs a business sends us a single email about a website advertising deal?

Most importantly, where do you draw the line between "spam" and "not spam"?

In one of my previous journal entries, Liora made a comment that I've been meaning to reply to for a while. She said, "The interest rates pretty much mandate it such that renting is just dumb. Rent is throwing money away."

This is absolutely true for most of the country. It's absolutely NOT true for the Bay Area (hence the alternate title.)

Before we go on, I should mention a few things:
1) I rent;
2) I believe that housing prices in the Bay Area will drop about 10% (or perhaps more) in the next 3-5 years.

Why? Read on.

I just signed a 1-year lease for a 2BR/1.5BA condo for $1475 a month. This is the reason why I leased.

That is a link to a similar condo in Pacifica... a 2BR/1.5 bath, just like I have, and of the same vintage (built in 1972). They are asking $342,500 for it. This means that with a $68,500 down payment, I'd have to pay $1675 a month to own it.

Stop and think about this for a minute. Supposedly, the whole point of owning is that you aren't "throwing your money away" (i.e. a mortgage payment should be cheaper than renting the equivalent property), but I could put $70,000 down on this condo and have nothing to show for it except a larger mortgage payment than I would pay in rent. A housing price devaluation of 10% or more could completely wipe out any equity that I would have in the house after only a year or so of owning it. As many people learned with the stock market, it's extremely dangerous to always count on your investments to go up (like many people assumed both now with housing and in 1998-1999 with the stock market.) A lot of wealth was completely wiped out in 2000-2001 with the stock market devaluation. Imagine what any housing price devaluation will do to people who have saved up $50,000 or more to make a down payment, only to watch their equity disappear as housing prices face the same adjustment the stock market did.

Why will housing prices drop? To put it bluntly, they have to. Renting cannot forever be cheaper than owning, or people who buy investment properties will be out of work. People cannot afford to keep bleeding cash on investment properties like they are now. Plus, once interest rates go back up, those first-time home buyers who have been saturating the home-buying market right now will no longer be interested in buying. Thus, housing demand will drop, supply will keep going up (as builders keep building new houses and condos), and prices on houses will start to fall. And they will fall more than most people will expect. I'm forecasting an overall drop of 10%. It could be more, or it could take 5 years to hit 10%. But it will happen. This will wipe out a lot of equity for a LOT of people.

Renting vs. owning is a huge sticking point for me. I would love to own property. I could probably afford to own property in the Midwest. And I probably would own at this point if I lived in the Midwest. But in the Bay Area, it's not justifiable to own when you look at the numbers.

I'd rather take $68,500 and invest it into my company... that way, whatever return I get on it is directly influenced by me and how well I do sales. I know I can take that $68,500, put it into Simpli, and turn it into a revenue generator of $10,000 a month or more. There is no way I could do the same thing with a house. And that is why I rent.

Well, I've had this rant about MySQL and the GPL bottled up for a long time. I hoped to have it modded up so more people could understand and hopefully enlighten me further about this issue, but it's been modded down as Flamebait (it stands at 1 currently.)

Basically, the crux of the matter is that any application that uses MySQL client libraries (past version 4.1 of MySQL) either has to be GPL, or you have to pay $220 PER SERVER to MySQL to license their software. It's absurd, and as a developer of a semi-open-source, non-GPL application that uses MySQL, I'm pretty pissed about it.

I suppose I shouldn't have expected much sympathy on Slashdot (where open source is 31337!!!!!1) However, this affects a lot of people in the open-source community. What are programs like vBulletin, which is probably one of the most well-known MySQL-based applications, going to do? Raise their prices, of course, because MySQL has decided it wants a piece of their pie. Or only support old versions of MySQL. Or move to Postgres.

This might be the best thing that's ever happened to PostgreSQL, but it's certainly one of the worst in the MySQL development community. It's classic bait-and-switch, and I, for one, am pissed.

So I was in the car the other day, sitting in traffic, and I pondered what I was going to write about next. Should I wax philosophical about going to college vs. not, since it's back to school time? Should I ponder the deeper issues of using open-source software in a business? Should I talk about the GPL license vs. the BSD license and the merits of each, plus some ideas I've had about putting both to good use?

And then FortKnox got online on AIM and messaged me with "You still haven't written that journal entry about meeting me at the mall!" Because, you see, I had promised him that I would. And while I've put it off for 10 days, I can no longer resist...

So I met FortKnox.
At the mall.
In Cincinnati.
And, um, his kid was cute. Ran around the store like a mad terror, that kid did!

Tonight I went to the movies and I saw this woman holding a baby... and she couldn't have been any older than I was. In fact, I think she was younger than I was. The kid was probably a couple months old at most. Still, it scared the bejeezus out of me. Am I going to be one of those married-with-tons-of-kids people?!

And some voice inside my head says, "But FortKnox seems really happy to be married with a kid. He gets a total kick out of having that kid run wild around the mall. And it's totally cute the way he obviously adores his son."

It scares me to death. You! People! Stop getting married! We're still YOUNG, for chrissakes! We're too young to have kids! We're still having fun! Partying! Going to movies! Being single! Dating!

Right? Right?!