Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

It seems that Sedo.com has run into a potential issue when it comes down to managing domain pushes at Fabulous.com

Several domainers complained that once instructed to push a domain to the Sedo account as part of a sale, they are faced with a message at Fabulous, stating that the Sedo account is invalid or locked.

The problem appears to be that Fabulous locks accounts out for multiple login failures – as part of a security measure. While the measure is valid – and yet another reason to choose Fabulous.com as your preferred domain registrar – it creates some practical issues with regards to completing sales at Sedo.com

Yesterday, while in the middle of a web server crisis I had to deal with this very issue at Sedo/Fabulous.

After calling Sedo and realizing that the business-to-business bureaucracy would add several days to my ongoing mid $x,xxx sale, I decided to take matters in my own hands.

And that’s the Acro way.

Despite the 1/2 day time difference between the East US coast and Australia, my message to Mike “Fabulous” Robertson about the issue was treated with kangaroo speed. They unlocked Sedo’s account and I was able to push the domain and update the transaction, which was then completed within hours.

It’s interesting seeing how complex matters can be resolved within a reasonable amount of time and minimal effort, once you realize that it’s all a matter of good business relationships. Kudos to Mike and Fabulous.com

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Domain Name News wrote yesterday about the current sale of a trademark for “Sex.Sex” on eBay by its owner, as the best contender to an adult gTLD, with potentially a higher chance of approval than the much-despised .xxx

Although the sale is based on pure speculation – there is no guarantee that ICANN would ever approve of a .sex gTLD – the auction of the Sex.Sex trademark entails some particular details that are related to the goods and services one plans to provide in relation to the mark.

Trademarks are considered to be special kinds of property and one must use care when crafting the sale so that it is  effective and enforceable by both parties to the transaction.

In the current newsletter by Lipton, Weinberger & Husick, this particular issue is covered, and I quote a small part thereof:

To ensure that your sale or assignment of a trademark is proper, you must understand that trademarks are merely symbols of good will.  “Good will” is the reputation and advantage that your business has acquired over time. One commentator has described the relationship between a trademark symbol and good will as “inseparable as Siamese Twins who cannot be separated without death to both.”  Without a business or without good will, a trademark is worthless.  That brings us to the first requirement: the trademark you wish to assign must be in use. If you’re not using the trademark then there is no associated goodwill and the trademark is worthless. [...]

A trademark assignment that is made without its associated goodwill is said to be an “assignment in gross” or a “naked assignment.” Such assignments, are forbidden by law and will be deemed invalid if challenged in court.

It makes good sense to use the services of an IP attorney or law firm who can help you avoid the pitfalls of a mark purchase that does not observe the guidelines of the law, especially in a field such as intellectual property as related to the business of domaining.

You can find more information at Lipton, Weinberger & Husick (you can also sign up for their newsletter) whose services I have used and which I recommend.

I’ve used Windows since the 3.x days and back then my trustworthy 386 SX with 8Mb of RAM never complained when I simply pulled the ON/OFF switch.

Then again, the Internet screamed at 9600 bps on a dial-up modem, all while browsing the “world wide web” meant I’d have to wait several minutes for CNN.com to come up.

Those were the days.

Fifteen years later it seems that Microsoft still hasn’t gotten their shit together.

Updating Windows Vista with the latest releases is usually a cinch; just let the operating system take control of itself.

Today, a typical update screamed and complained. I hit Retry and it screamed and complained some more about my printer driver installation – all in pure hex.

WTF is “WindowsUpdate_800F0246″ error, Bill Gates? I respect your life’s plan of bringing relief to the malnourished and the sick but why do I have to suffer with the glitches of the OS I paid for?

So I Googled “WindowsUpdate_800F0246″ and up came this page – one of only two results in Google – soon to be three, after this post makes it past the Google bots’ carnivorous teeth.

The thread-starting fella was complaining about how Windows update in Windows 7 would not update his printer driver and it’d fail with a “WindowsUpdate_800F0246″ error. Unlike some dickheads that complain about everything and shut up when their problem is solved, this “Brill” guy actually mentioned what happened once he downloaded the printer driver manually:

As for my printer problem, the manual install didn’t directly fix the issue.  However, it did help me fix the problem.  After I downloaded the driver and tried to manually install it, Windows actually gave me a useful error…it said my print spooler wasn’t running.  I go to services, start the print spooler, go back to Windows update and the driver installs without a problem.

God bless you, Brill, my man. I turned my printer spooler service to ON and the update installed without any further bitching.

So Microsoft – fifteen years into the making, your everlasting Windows OS has not gotten any better for us humans. We are not machines to read your damn hex code and understand what is going on. Give us meaningful messages; maybe, by hiring more American engineers.

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How sad is it that I am making this statement, typing from my home office, with a multitude of technology gadgets surrounding me? And yet, if I step outside this room, reality should tell me that the invisible wires to the outside world should still be there.

Wrong.

An hour of Internet downtime earlier, caused me plenty of stress already.

I wasn’t able to complete the webinar I was attending, my usual stream of online tasks got interrupted and I was left without a landline phone. Not to mention that due to the weather being overcast, my cellphone was not working too well either.

Think about all the invisible chains of the modern world that bound us – turning us into slaves of technology; we become clearly disoriented and blind once these very chains disappear.

“Do you guys have an ETA for the return of cable access?”

The technician’s answer to my question – 2 hours – almost made me lose my interest for the rest of the day. I almost hated myself for being so dependent work-wise to a bunch of electric signals I was not born with.

Then, I realized that sometimes it’s better to acknowledge that you’re tied, bound and chained to modern technology than to attempt to be a part of some sort of hybrid world, that offers both a regular and a technological side.

But can you live without Internet access?

I sure can’t.

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A little over a year ago I started consolidating my domain names at a single registrar. At that time, I decided to use Fabulous.com for a number of obvious reasons: low pricing, extensive backend to manage the domains, great tech support.

As time passed by, I still have domains in a handful of other registrars, but the big exodus from eNom is in its final stages. Despite the equally great backend manager, eNom lacks in a couple of fields that I’ve found Fabulous.com to win hands down.

Mass-acquisition of EPP codes is not available via eNom’s interface, thus making the mass transfer of domains a pain in the butt. Fabulous offers that and in general such mass-handling features are where you expect them to be, including renewals via the Expiry Control section.

Secondly, when it comes down to billing notifications, Fabulous.com is second to none. You get emails for every activity, including very well-thought invoices with detailed break down of the charges involved. The mere fact that PDF files are attached, makes my life so much easier around this time of the year.

Tax time is around the corner and if you can’t manage the volume of your transactions anymore, consider hiring a CPA for the job. Stay away from the H&R Block guys.

Fabulous.com retains detailed records of all your charges and expenses – and revenue, if you park domains with them. It’s just a matter of printing out the monthly PDF files for the entire year. Meanwhile, at eNom you have to run a report, which is generated in the background. Although eNom has improved in the past year and can now generate reports older than 6 months, there are errors that frustrate the heck out of me, e.g. no renewal dates are included in the CVS files.

For the remaining domains of my eNom portfolio, I have to do a lot of manual labor in order to produce the documents I need for tax purposes. Not so with Fabulous.com which I thoroughly recommend as a registrar for domainers.

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