Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

If I could share my appreciation over a single business for 2010, that would be Sedo.

My relationship with the PPC provider started in 2004 and I must admit it started a couple of years late. Until then, parking my domains was something that I wasn’t considering. I lost several thousand dollars in revenue this way.

Lesson learned:  Despite the ups and downs of the industry, Sedo is for me the perfect combination of a PPC provider and domain sales platform. At some point, I asked Donny Simonton of Parked if they’d consider doing the same; he responded that adding a domain sales platform wasn’t in their immediate plans.

As time passes, Sedo becomes a mainstream, household name outside of the domain industry – something that is necessary in order to facilitate sales to end users. While PPC revenue fluctuates, the number of sales have increased for me and nowadays I use Sedo for roughly 90% of my domain sales.

This year, I had a record number of sales on the Sedo platform, without sweating much.

Sedo handles the sales process very efficiently nowadays; while I’ve slowed down my buying I’ve enjoyed the increased revenue from selling on Sedo, often involving targeted emails about ongoing auctions to maximize sales revenue.

After meeting with the Sedo staff in Boston, I was thoroughly convinced about the seriousness with which Sedo treats its  PPC business and sales platform. Recent improvements in the Sedo system have generated increased revenue, despite the financial straits the economy is still going through.

So thanks, Sedo – here’s to a splendid and equally successful 2011.

Right before Christmas – the time of the year when the people in need require our special attention – thieves have broken into an Orlando community food bank and stole thousands of dollars in cash.

According to today’s Orlando Sentinel:

Christmas will be a little less bright for some poor people in Orlando now that someone broke into a food bank and stole $7,000. The thieves pried the safe from a wall at Community Food and Outreach Center where it was bolted and stole the money. They cut off the power to the building so the alarm system would be disabled, the director said. This is the second time since early November that the center on Michigan Avenue has been burglarized. Last time, thieves took $3,800 in cash and checks from the safe.

When heartless thieves steal from those that provide to the people in need, particularly before a major holiday there can only be one response from all of us:

DONATE

Non-perishable food items are always welcome but cash solves many problems. The Community Food and Outreach Center provides food, crisis care, educational opportunities and job readiness programs to thousands of people who are in need in Central Florida.

Visit CommunityFoodOutreach.org

This is not a religious post, so bear with me.

According to the Christian lore, three wise men that studied the charts of stars set on camelbacks to find and pay their respects to the King that the star denoted; they followed the star’s path in the skies until it pointed to a barn in Bethlehem. There, they found Jesus as a newborn and presented him with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Nearby peasants rejoiced and king Herod sent out an order to kill all newborns so that his kingdom would be preserved.

As there was no Facebook and no Twitter in these days – people were actually lucky if there was stone paving in some streets – the news of the birth of the King spread rather slowly.

But when was the point in time that the news was created? Was it:

When the wise men found out what the charts meant

When the star shone its light above Bethlehem

When the wise men gave Jesus their gifts

When the peasants found out a King was born

When king Herod slaughtered all newborns, missing Jesus

The truth is, each instance above is a separate piece of news. It denotes an event that was recorded. That’s what news is: a recorded action, with or without an absolute timestamp.

When you announce something on Twitter, describing it – that’s news. When you gloat about it on your Facebook page – that’s news. When your wife talks about how her hubby did this or that in her profile on any social medium, sharing it with her circle of friends, that becomes news.

Nowadays, news is tidbits of information that once defined they can’t be put back in the bag. Or can they?

The best way to preserve the privacy of an event or an achievement, a purchase, sale or other transaction is never make it public. By sharing the information with at least one more party other than yourself, you are risking its transformation into news.

When Jesus created news there was no Facebook, no Twitter – and people were more direct in their conversations.

Happy holidays.

Just before noon eastern time today, the US Census Bureau announced the results of the 2010 US census.

Among various numbers that were released, the figure “308,745,538” represents the official resident population of the United States for the next ten years.

I’m excited to announce that I was able to register that exact number as a .com – thus securing the single most important number representing USA until 2020.

Why is this number important?

Because regardless of political affiliations, financial status, gender, race, creed, religion or sexual orientation, the ability to declare oneself a formally counted resident of the United States of America is the ultimate honor – being an American out of a country that is 308,745,538 strong.

Currently, 308745538.com is parked at Sedo; in the coming weeks there will be another announcement about the particular use planned for the domain.

For updates, follow me on Twitter.

When Adobe posted record revenue in Q3 of this year, I explained how the application powerhouse drives development forward.

The news is out, that Adobe ends the year with record revenue for Q4 that surpasses the $1 billion mark for the first time ever.

In particular, Adobe announced:

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, Adobe achieved record revenue of $1.008 billion, compared to $757.3 million reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and $990.3 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2010. This represents 33 percent year-over-year revenue growth. Adobe’s fourth quarter revenue target range was $950 million to $1 billion.

This is truly remarkable, and a clear indication that the application market for the tools that essentially build everything that we see and experience on the Internet is territory that possesses exponential growth potential.

In today’s Internet, development encompasses both 2D and 3D creation and full motion video. With the proliferation of higher Internet speeds and technological advancements in raw processing power, software such as the applications developed by Adobe obtain an important role in shaping both the contemporary multimedia experience and the future itself.

For updates, follow me on Twitter.