White and Nerdy
Interesting… Weird Al Yankovic is at it again.
Click “Read the rest of this post” to view the Flash Movie.
2008 Primaries
This year, the 2008 primaries for both the Democratic and Republican parties have been startlingly polarized. There is still no clear frontrunner on either side, and the Primaries have thus far been divided. Here is my take on the candidates.
Democratic Party:
- Hillary Clinton - a long time Washington insider and husband to former president Bill Clinton, she supposedly has the long resume to bring change to Washington. 46% of Americans say that they would never vote for her, and many people I know that do support her do so mainly because she is a woman/they want Bill back.
- Barack Obama - Senator from Illinois with a track record of social reform. He is Harvard Law educated, and he has the highest popularity rating of all the Democratic candidates among registered Republicans. He was the first to come up with the theme of “Change.” The main critique is that he does not have enough experience, but in sooth he has spent more time in elected office than the other two Democratic frontrunners.
- John Edwards -From North Carolina, he is probably the most liberal of the three candidates, and he comes out wholeheartedly on the platform that he supports labor unions and the working class.
Republican Party:
- Mitt Romney - He is the former governer of Massachusetts. He has experience in the field of business and appeals to mainstream Republicans because of his moderate views.
- John McCain - A Washington Insider, he is a Vietnam veteran and has run unsuccessfully for the presidency a few times already. Many Republicans view him as a stable and consistent candidate.
- Mike Huckabee - A pastor from Arkansas, Mike attracts the hardcore Republicans with strong Christian values. He has a very devoted supporter base, and he has a very effective tax program he plans on initiating.
Note: I have only listed the three frontrunners for each party. There are many other candidates also competing.
Personally, I am a Democrat, and I fully support Barack Obama. Hillary is the Democratic candidate most likely to start a war with Iran (based on voting record), and John Edwards frankly doesn’t have a chance. We need a president who can unite both Democrats and Republicans to bring about change. Of the Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee would be my top choice, for he seems like a stable and smart guy.
We’ll see whom America picks…especially on February 5th.
Alec
Science as Art
When nanowires explode:
Cool, huh?
Alec
New Years Resolutions
I decided to celebrate the advent of 2008 here at AlecP.com by putting up a snazzy new WordPress theme. I have decided to make a few New Years Resolutions in order to celebrate the advent of 2008:
- I must make sure that my domain portfolio does not get larger than 60 domains.
- I will learn how to optimize parked pages.
- I will develop at least 5 major sites.
- I will get 50 RSS subscribers to this blog.
- I will own one ccc.com.
We’ll see how far I get! I thought that it would be festive to celebrate the new year with a snazzy new template and an upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
2008 - here I come! This should be a great year full of politics, web development, and domaining galore.
Alec
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the festivities, the holiday season, and the many hours of rest and relaxation that come with it. This is a time for families to be together in order to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ.
But the domaining industry certainly isn’t taking a break. The Buy & Sell Marketplace forums at NamePros are just as active as ever, and people were rushing to sell domains in the days before Christmas in order to cover some holiday revenue. I’ve been picking up a few extremely cheap domains with hopes that I’ll be able to boost my parking portfolio.
The domaining industry aside, I’ve been working on developing many of my sites because of the free time the holiday season is offering me. My main network site, SkullSmack.com, heretofore a landing page, will soon be a fully developed site.
Online, there have been numerous happenings for the holidays. Triple.com, the fledgling domain registrar that was thrown in the spotlight for its Thanksgiving Promo, is at it again. They have a Flash game in which you have to guide Santa to dropping presents. The top 25 users get free hosting and a free domain registration, while the top 333 scorers get a free domain registration. I tried it out and failed miserably - the game is very poorly coded; I don’t know if that is to make it more difficult or simply poor methods on the part of the ActionScript. Also, I’ve been having my doubts about Triple.com, since I heard from a fellow domainer that they charge money for domain pushes…outrageous.
Also, OfficeMax put out a holiday website ElfYourSelf.com, in which you can place pictures of your friends and family, and they will be put into a Flash animation of dancing elves. Via viral marketing, it has skyrocketed to an Alexa rank of 3xx. OfficeMax plans on taking it down shortly - I wonder if they will park it to collect the spare traffic revenue?
Leaving you on a comic note; enjoy your holiday,
Alec 
BoostActivity CPC & CPM
There’s a new player on the contextual advertising block, and it’s BoostActivity.net. Don’t be dismayed by the very simple site and layout; it actually has a lot to offer in terms of advertising CPC and CPM.
It’s a small online start-up, and I spent some time checking it out.
Advantages:
- Payout via PayPal.
- Numerous different ad formats and sizes.
- Current promo for advertisers: depositers receive twice their value deposited.
- CPC similar to that of Exoclick/Bidvertiser.
- Advertisers can design their own banners.
- Fairly reliable CPM program - actually get paid for impressions alone.
- Traffic is not filtered based on what country it comes from.
Disadvantages:
- Ads are not content-relevant.
- There aren’t many various advertisers; the ads tend to repeat themselves in many of the ad formats. Also, many of the ads are directed to sites that the ad network owns - could not be reliable & does not guarantee revenue for the ad provider.
- Operated by a small company - CPC ad rates could fluctuate immensely.
- You can’t choose the design and color of ads on your site.
- Traffic details for CPM and CPC ads aren’t extremely precise.
Weigh the benefits and disadvantages. I think I’ll wait a while before trying them out; more advertisers will mean better targeted ads.
Regards,
Alec
Hillary Clinton Smear Domains
According to ABC News, in preparation for the impending mudslinging before the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, Senator Hillary Clinton has registered the names of two web sites with the express goal of attacking her chief rival, Senator Barack Obama.
VotingPresent.com and VotingPresent.org are domains hosted by the same IP address of official Clinton websites, such as TheHillaryIKnow.com, which was launched with much fanfare this week.
A whois lookup returns this result:
Administrative Contact:
Hillary Clinton for President info@hillaryclinton.com
4420 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203
US
703-469-2008 fax: 703-962-8600Technical Contact:
Hostmaster hostmaster@cpoint.net
Counterpoint Networking
3023 N. Clark St. #328
Chicago, IL 60657-5200
US
888-627-6468
Record expires on 30-Oct-2008.
Record created on 30-Oct-2007.
Database last updated on 20-Dec-2007 11:54:41 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.CPOINT.NET 207.97.212.140
NS2.CPOINT.NET 204.10.48.76
NS3.CPOINT.NET 204.10.51.44Hillary is up to her tricks again; we’ll see what content she places on these sites…
Cheers,
Alec
Of Course!
Here’s an interesting joke:
A man stumbles up to the only other patron in a bar and asks if he could buy him a drink.
“Why of course,” comes the reply.
The first man then asks, “Where are you from?”
“I’m from Ireland,” replies the second man.
The first man responds, “You don’t say, I’m from Ireland too! Let’s have another round to Ireland.”
“Of course,” replies the second man.
Curious, the first man then asks, “Where in Ireland are you from?”
“Dublin,” comes the reply.
“I can’t believe it,” says the first man. “I’m from Dublin too! Let’s have another drink to Dublin.”
“Of course,” replies the second man.
Curiosity again strikes and the first man asks, “What school did you go to?”
“Saint Mary’s,” replies the second man. “I graduated in ‘62.”
“This is unbelievable,” the first man says. “I went to Saint Mary’s and I graduated in ‘62, too!”
About that time in comes one of the regulars and sits down at the bar.
“What’s been going on?,” he asks the bartender.
“Nothing much,” replies the bartender. “The O’Malley twins are drunk again.”
Enjoy this very snowy day,
Alec
Bodis.com Cuts 3000
One week ago, shortly before Thanksgiving, the popular web domain parking program Bodis.com cut 3000 users from its service. Bodis is a unique domain parking service in that it offers 100% revenue sharing from its backend advertising provider Ask.com, no payout limit via PayPal and check, and, unlike its elitist domain parking competitors such as Parked.com and Fabulous, very few users are rejected when applying for their parking program.
The announcement was posted last week on the Bodis’s forum as owner “Matt” gave an official statement that the cut came as a result of Ask.com asking Bodis to cut the low quality traffic that they had been receiving (Low click-through rate, revenue per mille, et cetera). 3000 domainers using the Bodis.com parking service were cut, and only 200 users were kept on the Bodis system.
Anger from the cuts has resonated throughout popular domaining communities such as DNForum, NamePros, and DigitalPoint.
You can view the official NamePros Bodis thread here: http://www.namepros.com/318378-new-revolution-domain-parking-here-bodis-156.html, and towards the end of the thread, the outrage at the cuts is highly apparent. The owner of Bodis is supposedly replying to all support messages, but so far none of the bodis users cut has been readmitted. This cut is revolutionizing the domain industry, with more users turning to Sedo, NameDrive, Parked.com, and Fabulous to park and monetize their domains.
There is also talk and a strong possibility that Matt and the Bodis staff will be taken to court under accusations of reaping the undue profits from these cuts, and this could also bring the mega advertising firm Ask.com into the court-trial foray, as they and the Bodis staff would be forced to release all payment information regarding Bodis users, and they would have to justify the cuts financially. This is bad news for Ask.com, which recently announced its impending release of its own contextual advertising service to rival Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network.
As for me, I’m glad that I use Parked.com for my domain parking, although I almost turned to Bodis when I first started out in the domaining industry. Their support and service are great, and I look forward to writing a positive review soon.
What does this mean for the future of Bodis? Whether the lawsuit does indeed go through or otherwise, I believe that Bodis will become an elitist domain parking service that will most likely only accept users with portfolios of 1000+ domains. The domain parking industry is becoming more saturated as more and more companies are entering the business, such as the new iModo.com web 2.0 parking business, and a saturated market could produce unexpected results for Bodis.
The next few months will indicate whether Bodis will founder as a small parking company or become a Brahma of parking services.
Signing out,
Alec
In the spirit of the holiday…
In the spirit of the holiday… here is a rather funny interpretation of the 12 days of Christmas.
Dearest John:
I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge in a pear tree. What a delightful gift. I couldn’t have been more surprised.
With dearest love and affection, Agnes
***
December 15th
Dearest John:
Today the postman brought your very sweet gift. Just imagine, two turtle doves…. I’m just delighted at your very thoughtful gift. They are just adorable.
All my love, Agnes
***
December 16th
Dear John:
Oh, aren’t you the extravagant one! Now I must protest. I don’t deserve such generosity. Three french hens. They are just darling but I must insist…. you’re just too kind.
Love Agnes
***
December 17th
Today the postman delivered four calling birds. Now really! They are beautiful, but don’t you think enough is enough? You’re being too romantic.
Affectionately, Agnes
***
December 18th
Dearest John:
What a surprise! Today the postman delivered five golden rings. One for each finger. You’re just impossible, but I love it. Frankly, John, all those squawking birds were beginning to get on my nerves.
All my love, Agnes
***
December 19th
Dear John:
When I opened the door there were actually six geese-a-laying on my front steps. So you’re back to the birds again, huh? Those geese are huge. Where will I ever keep them? The neighbors are complaining and I can’t sleep through the racket. PLEASE STOP!
Cordially, Agnes
***
December 20th
John:
What’s with you and those birds???? Seven swans-a-swimming. What kind of joke is this? There’s bird do-do all over the house and they never stop the racket. I’m a nervous wreck and I can’t sleep all night. IT’S NOT FUNNY…….So stop with those birds.
Sincerely, Agnes
***
December 21st
OK Buster:
I think I prefer the birds. What am I going to do with eight maids-a-milking? It’s not enough with all those birds and eight maids-a-milking, but they had to bring their own cows. There is poop all over the lawn and I can’t move into my own house. Just lay off me. .
Ag
***
December 22nd
Hey:
What are you? Some kind of sadist? Now there’s nine pipers playing. And do they play! They never stopped chasing those maids since they got here yesterday morning. The cows are upset and are stepping all over those screeching birds. No wonder they screech. What am I going to do? The neighbors have started a petition to evict me. You’ll get yours.
From Ag
***
December 23rd
You Creep!
Now there’s ten ladies dancing - I don’t know why I call them ladies. Now the cows can’t sleep and they’ve got diarrhea. My living room is a river of poop. The commissioner of buildings has subpoenaed me to give cause why the building shouldn’t be condemned. I’m sicking the police on you.
One who means it, Ag
***
December 24th
Listen Idiot:
What’s with the eleven lords a-leaping? All 234 of the birds are dead. I hope you’re satisfied, you rotten swine.
Your sworn enemy, Miss Agnes McCallister
***
December 25th (From the law offices Taeker, Spedar, and Baegar)
Dear Sir:
This is to acknowledge your latest gift of twelve fiddlers fiddling, which you have seen fit to inflict on our client, Miss Agnes McCallister. The destruction, of course, was total. All correspondence should come to our attention. If you should attempt to reach Miss McCallister at Happy Dale Sanitarium, the attendants have instructions to shoot you on sight. With this letter, please find attached a warrant for your arrest.
-Merry Christmas
Interesting interpretation. I’m sure you’d feel the same way.
Alec
