Acro.net - Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

As the fireworks fill the night sky on the 232nd Independence Day of America, now it’s the time for some introspecting.

I witnessed my first 4th of July extravaganza in 1998, my 1st year in the US as a transplanted immigrant. To be in the “land of the free” was a great accomplishment, that sustained me through the tough times, both financial and emotional. The sensation was that everything is possible; with hard labor any dream can become a reality - in the US of A.

Today, America has lost its luster, both to the world and internally. After almost eight years of the Bush administration presiding over the choices and freedoms of the American people, it is evident that a lot of damage has been done to the statue of Liberty - its patina depicts an aging of outdated ideas and acts.

On Independence Day, there are 4,113 fallen soldiers that lost their lives fighting an invasive war in Iraq, thousands of miles away from home. This second Vietnam has no lesser effect to the lives of the families that lost their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and relatives - to the pretext of freedom fighting. One man’s ego has led these men and women to an untimely death - all 4,113 of them so far.

With elections approaching fast in less than 120 days, now it’s the time to ponder about the words that politicians use with regards to what constitutes freedom, independence and patriotism. While the US liberated Europe in WWII and offered its strong arm assisting the distraught European nations, today’s America is not a liberator - it’s an enforcer of political will unrelated to the basics that this great nation was built on. Americans cannot sustain four more years of conservative, aggressive, insanely uncivilized politicians like Bush and Cheney through a McCain presidency.

On this Independence Day, let’s watch the movie “Born on the 4th of July” to realize that freedom is not gained by launching and perpetuating wars but by ending conflicts, ensuring international cooperation and symbiosis, educating the people and by reaching out in the middle of the fire to cease it.

The fireworks are definitely beautiful - but war isn’t.

As kids, we used to play that game called “broken telephone“. Other names for this game included, “operator“, “grapevine” or “pass it down“. It involved a chain of kids that would relay a short but quickly spoken phrase, rather silently. By the time the phrase reached the last kid, the phrase would be completely distorted and in many ways funnier than the original one.

The following is excerpted from the movie Johnny Dangerously:

Lil: Get this to Johnny on the grapevine: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s brother at the Savoy Theater tomorrow night. Got it?

Polly: Got it.

Polly: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s brother at the savoy theater pass it on.

Prisoner: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s brother at the Savoy Theater tonight. Pass it on.

Prisoner: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s mother at the Savoy Theater tonight. Pass it on.

Prisoner: Vermin’s mother is going to kill Johnny tonight at the Savoy Theater. Pass it on.

Prisoner: [gibberish]

Prisoner: There’s a message on the grapevine, Johnny.

Johnny: Yeah, what is it?

Prisoner: Johnny and the Mothers are playin’ “Stompin’ At The Savoy” in Vermont tonight.

Johnny: Vermin’s going to kill my brother at the Savoy Theater tonight?

Prisoner: I didn’t say that.

Johnny: No, but I know this grapevine.

This morning, the news in the domain grapevine had it that a domain name, Israel.com, had sold for $5.88 million via Moniker’s auction platform. Before noon was over, blog after blog and forum after forum had passed along the information, adding their own little twist to the story. Some said the buyer was an Israeli tycoon, others said it was a Jewish woman investor from a large corporation in New York City. Others, preferred to ponder how much Israel.mobi would sell for.

It turns out that the domain was not sold after all. So much for the rich Jewish lady from NYC; if you know her, I’d like to get her number.

The point is, today’s media possess powers that by far exceed those of the traditional media. In the old days of centralized points of information, the newspaper with the false piece of news would frantically retract all the issues and the poorly-paid paperboys would deliver a fresh edition of the news. On the radio or the tv, an announcement would be made, correcting the mistake - obvious or not - and everything would be put in place, more or less.

After news of the alleged sale broke out, the Moniker people scrambled to issue frantic statements that no such sale had taken place; but by that time, the cat was out of the bag: blogs relay news in a non-linear fashion, they beam out information to all directions, that is picked up from other info processing points on the web; some are rather influential in the way that such information is passed along. All of a sudden, a non-sale became a sale.

So bloggers, amateur or semi-pro, be careful out there: the grapevine game has consequences. Double-check your sources, or better still, differentiate from the rest of the media and provide content, criticism and analysis on your blogs, instead of plain xeroxing of random press releases.

Now, did you hear the one about the upcoming sale of a two-word, hyphenated IDN .mobi for over seven figures?

When I signed up for TRAFFIC / Orlando, my expectations from attending the conference were cut very dry and specific. I envisioned selling domains at the auction, meeting with other professionals dressed in suits and sharing ideas with the very core people of the domain industry. I’m able to say that I achieved my goals one-hundredfold in a much broader manner which I had not anticipated, because simply being part of the TRAFFIC event is an achievement of its own.

TRAFFIC is not your average type of conference. It’s a gateway to a multitude of opportunities, an entry point, an initiation to what’s behind the conference name and its mythology. The biggest challenge is shedding the attitude of a strict business person while acknowledging the contribution and success of hundreds of other professionals. As an entrepreneur and a person who believes in communication with other individuals, I entered TRAFFIC prepared to not only talk but to also listen carefully to what others had to say. It was an opportunity to sharpen my social skills, display my work, my assets and also repair damage done by my well-known online persona at various forums.

The people attending TRAFFIC are professionals that all maintain their own distinct personality. They are men and women of various ethnic and social backgrounds, races and ages. They are there to not only benefit their business but to also contribute to the very industry that generates their wealth. It’s an approach and attitude that differs from the cut-throat world of broader technology and it’s a method designed to know and appreciate the person behind the business and the brand.

At TRAFFIC, I was able to learn from the speakers and exhibitors about the directions our domain industry is currently heading to. Every single day, I learned from the subjects presented, the questions that were asked and I gained more confidence for myself and my future ventures. TRAFFIC was at times intense, other times fast-paced and at other times relaxed and entertaining.

Walking up to talk to people that I had never met before in my life was surprisingly easy. Some stood out because they are famous; talking to Rick Schwartz while he’s munching on a tasty canapés was definitely a far cry from simply reading his blog. Sharing a table at lunch or dinner with Donny, Mike, Monte and Christian from Parked.com was an opportunity to enjoy food and talk about things in a manner that no number of trouble tickets or emails can take care of. Brainstorming with Matt Bentley and the others from Sedo was easy, all while going back to greet the personnel at the TrafficZ booth and DomainSponsor or Skenzo.

Going around the exhibits when sessions were not active, one would meet people he or she interacted with at a previous time of the event and also meet others, who’d introduce even more to the circle of communication; just like a social chain reaction of ideas. In fact, the four hours I spent after my registration on the first day until the event officially started, were extremely beneficial; a relaxed prelude that built anticipation about the event itself.

The first thing one has to consider is whether they want to be an island, surrounded by waters and isolated from the rest of the world - or a cloud, free-flowing and able to meet other clouds that also roam in search of opportunities to interact. These clouds can sometimes clash with each other, thus producing thunder and lightning; but the resulting rain invigorates the land and feeds the lakes and the oceans, which in turn create more clouds and more free-flowing enterprises are born.

I think that I’d rather be a cloud and at TRAFFIC I discovered just that.

Till now, I had no name for this abominable practice of lowering the price one is willing to pay for a domain, right after a verbal agreement is reached. After watching a CNN video about the British real estate market, I realized it already had a name: gazundering.

According to everyone’s favorite resource of general information, Wikipedia, the term “gazundering” is defined as “the practice of demanding a reduction in price to secure the sale of a property. This is usually done during contract negotiation. The timing of this demand is usually intended to prevent the seller from rejecting the lower price, as the sale could collapse if they did, although it may also reflect a genuine downturn in property prices in an area.”

Apparently, the British law gives little value to hand-shaking, virtual or not, unless it’s finalized with a written contract bearing the signatures of both parties. Long gone are the days of committing to one’s offer that was negotiated through an exchange of communications between buyer and seller and which was accepted.

In the domain market, this practice appears to work as follows: an offer is made, through a non-committing medium e.g. via a phone-call or an e-mail. The seller agrees to a selling price and proceeds with the drafting of a contract agreement, potentially involving a third party who’s an expert in the composing of such documents - for example, an IP attorney or a paralegal.

Then, as soon as the iron is hot off the deal anvil, the buyer changes their initial offer by means of counter-offering less money for the exchange. The process might involve the feedback of real or imaginary business partners who, during the course of negotiation, seem to have changed their appraisal of the domain or its business costs; all, at the financial and emotional expense of the seller who’s now left wondering if this is a bad joke.

Where I come from, a deal is a deal. No need for a handshake even, especially in today’s electronic, global market. And yet, even in the acclaimed domaining world, one will find individuals that resort to such a low tactical warfare approach. One’s word reflects their business and personal ethics; it’s a projection of anything done in the past and a prediction of anything that will be done in the future.

A game of chess obviously unfolds the parties’ strategy on the negotiation table. If an offer is not high enough to be accepted, the potential buyer then usually returns with a higher offer in order to close the deal and obtain the goods. But in chess, the rules are known in advance and the most important one is: if you pick up your chess piece, you have to move it.

Domain gazundering will apparently lead more people to offer their domains via centralized selling platforms that allow for a lock-down of the agreement as it is reached; once the price is viewed by the seller as acceptable, it’s as if both parties’ signatures were instantly recorded on the contract.

In an ideal business world, instant buying and selling is a smooth, painless operation that offers inventory and receives monetary funds in exchange. In the real world, a person with no scruples, no ethos and little regard towards the seller’s time and property will try to gazunder a deal, whenever possible.

To counter such gazundering activity, one has to disengage themselves emotionally from the deal, flat out refuse the post-agreement lower offer and, whenever possible, seek legal advice that would potentially entitle them to compensation, should such an act of pulling out of a deal occurs.

One of the best decisions I ever made, was to entrust my tax processing to a professional. No, I am not talking about those colorful individuals from H&R Block. Surely, if you’re in a hurry, as an individual with uncomplicated financial status and in no need of real savings, you can go with these guys - or even buy one of the several commercial software solutions and just do it yourself.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for real attention about tax & business-related issues throughout the year, it’s worth locating and establishing a long-lasting relationship with a CPA - a Certified Public Accountant. Preferably, one that is aware of all new laws regarding the handling of “virtual” or intangible property, such as domains.

The first few times I did my taxes by myself. Back then I was married filing jointly, with kids, a house and a full time job. Over the course of several years, I am quite certain that I lost several thousand dollars due to being unaware of minimum deductions that apply by default: without a need for any real receipts. Did you know, for example that your car - once used to conduct business - has a depreciating value applied each year, including gas mileage? I didn’t know and neither did the software I used to do my taxes, after I gave up on the standard 1040 form done by “hand”. At one point, I missed out on $1,000 of deductions which I only discovered by accident a few months later; I was smart enough to apply for an amendment and I can only thank Google for that.

A CPA literally takes the burden of tax processing off your shoulders. Preferably, they run an office within close proximity, they have an active web site that you can manage your documents at and they offer support and consultations with you on a per request basis. Most important, they don’t charge for their services other than the annual processing fee.

Just tonight, I read on CNN that “tax season became a little more taxing this year, with the average person spending more than a day and more than $200 collecting, calculating and compiling those numbers for the tax man, according to a report based on Internal Revenue Service figures.”

Two hundred bucks is a lot of money to bear the burden of responsibility and the task of doing everything right, all by myself!

The first time I used my current CPA was a little over 3 years ago. At that time, I was recently divorced, had sold my home and moved to another job; all while using Turbo Tax, which had taken me through all the loops and automated whistles it offers. At the final page I was looking at a grim $1,275 of tax payable to the IRS. Not too thrilled, if you asked me.

My girlfriend of that time suggested that I should use the very same CPA her parents used for years for their taxes. Now, I take advice from women very seriously, especially the ones with pretty blue eyes. So - reluctantly - I contacted their office and provided all the information needed, hoping that they’d do a better job than Turbo Tax. That year, I had a return of $850 after my fees to the CPA were paid. How’s that compared to a potential loss of $1,275 to the Man?

Of course, one still needs to be on top of things and save receipts, document transactions and register purchases and sales - along with “bugging” the usual suspects, the parking companies for the 1099 forms each year and all other sources of income. I must say that both Parked.com and Sedo.com are religious in their sending of the forms and that gives me plenty of time to gather all the information and submit it to my CPA. Thanks guys, at least all the money you make off my traffic goes to good use.

A Certified Public Accountant can be located in your local Yellow Pages, or - preferably - can be referred to by other friends and relatives in your area. It’s an investment well worth the cost (in the $200 to $350 region per year). Did I mention the CPA’s tax processing charge is a business deduction as well?

This year’s April 15th tax deadline is already here; get a CPA for your taxes and file for a 6 month extension with the IRS. You won’t regret it.

Every year, at Christmas, I take a large plastic water-bottle full of pennies to the Salvation Army.

It contains every penny that passed through my hands that year, which I have little use for at that time. Perhaps you’d be surprised to hear that $40 to $60 can fit in a one-gallon bottle. Little by little, every penny saved adds up to this gift - and that’s the method behind saving money for a later day.

On a given day, thousands of domains are registered around the world. The Registry keeps a large part of it for its functions, the rest is charged by the Registrar and perhaps the reseller that might be handling each domain. Imagine, if one penny went towards a specific cause - every single time a domain was registered - that’d be a really painless method of assuring everyone is contributing to that cause.

Global warming prevention? Cancer research? Waterworks in Africa? One penny per registration would amount to millions of dollars in donations, day after day after day.

Let’s make it happen. We can afford to donate that penny, the same way that we toss it down the plastic bottle thinking it will never amount to anything.

A few years ago, I bought a “KKK” domain that was being sold at DNForum.com and gave it to an anti-hatred organization. The cost didn’t matter; at stake was a URL with the potential of being misappropriated.

A decade ago, the NAACP managed to get hold of the domain name Nigger.com to prevent it from falling into the hands of hate groups that promote racism and harassment against African-Americans. This was a preemptive move that is to be applauded.

Although two-letter domains are an extreme rarity, one would feel that the double-consonant “SS.com” would be a carefully-guarded commodity, never to be placed in the hands of a buyer with Nazi or supremacist affiliations. And yet, it appears that the unfortunate happened. As seen at this press release by Australia-based J.C. Geaney, the domain SS.com has been apparently bought for the price of $1.25 million dollars.

Now, the greenback has been weak for the past year, but the price still is exorbitant. The press release by Mr. Geaney, a self-described “energetic, vibrant and charismatic Internet entrepreneur“, bears the colors and the insignia of the most fearsome special elite force of the nazi Germany before and during World War II: the SS or Schutzstaffel.

Thousands of people died in the hands of the oppressor forces, as did millions of others by the German invaders, in the course of war and at concentration camps. Today, Germany is extremely sensitive towards its past and has in place a number of measures that protect the legacy and the loss of the millions of people affected by Nazi Germany. In particular, it is a crime in Germany to promote nazism, nazi insignia are not allowed to be traded and denial of the Holocaust is a crime punishable by jail time.

We are witnessing a crime against humanity and the domain industry, as it’s evident by the imagery displayed at Geaney.com that the buyer condones Nazi symbols and apparently its ideology. It’s truly a disgraceful moment for the domain industry; the seller should have been aware of the special meaning of the two letters and should have done due diligence about the domain’s buyer.

Having lost my two grandfathers in World War II in Greece - one in combat and the other as an executed civilian - I believe that my anger is more than justified. The crimes against humanity that were committed by the SS and nazi Germany should be remembered as such and should never be allowed the chance of glorification by well-off individuals who buy the present, wanting to distort the past and attempting to destroy the future.