[via reddit] Here’s a nifty little trick: do a Google search for the keyword set confidential “do not distribute”. You should get tens of thousands of results for web pages and other documents.
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Yesterday, I recorded a podcast that covered the Kiko acquisition in more detail. Right now, I’m editing it and cleaning up the audio; I hope to post it by week’s end.
Just because I can, I’m going to be different and post an outtake from the podcast before posting the podcast itself.
Here’s an outtake of an interview session [486K MP3 file] with me and Tucows’ CEO, Elliot Noss, and my old boss, Ross Rader, General Manager of Retail Services. The question I meant to ask was about “how they managed to purchase an asset like Kiko in a spectacular auction,” and I completely flubbed the line, turning it into a question about how they got that spectacular ass.
It’s the very first thing we recorded in yesterday afternoon’s session. I like getting the bad takes out of the way as early as possible. Enjoy!
For those of you who follow the news about web companies, you’re probably aware that the web calendaring application Kiko was recently put up for sale on eBay and sold for US$258,100. The only clue to the identity of the buyer was the eBay username “powerjoe1998”.
Well, now that all the i’s have been dotted and the t’s have been crossed, it can now be revealed: it’s us, and by us, I mean the company for whom I hold the title of Technical Evangelist: Tucows.
Want to know more? Check out the article on our new blog: Why We Bought Kiko.com.
I’ve just finished recording a podcast with our CEO, Elliot Noss and our General Manager of Retail Products, Ross Rader. It’ll get posted later this week and will go into more detail about the Kiko acquisition and have a tiny bit about my small but not insignificant role in it.
More about this in upcoming posts.
Want to Find Out More About Kiko?
You try it yourself — go to Kiko.com and get yourself a calendar — or if you’d rather read about it, check out all these links on Reddit.com.
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"The Exorcism of Toby"
It’s an insanely busy day today at work, so in the meantime, please enjoy the photo below, which is titled The Exorcism of Toby. If you’ve got any ideas for captions, feel free to share them in the comments.
Phone Call
Yesterday, I got a phone call at the office that started like this:
Voice on phone: Hello! Is this Accordion Guy?
Me: Yes, this is. How can I help you?
Voice on phone: My name is [X] and I own [moving company X]. I was wondering how I can get a comment removed from your blog.
It turned out to be another case of my blog entry titled Anyone Know any Good Toronto Movers? having a Google-based ripple effect. Regular readers of this blog will recall that this is the entry that led to my receiving a phone call from Quick Boys Moving. As a Google search will show, their vague threats backfired on them; the first page of results is largely about their thuggery.
In the entry, he said that [moving company X] got a couple of bad reviews. These reviews, being in a highly-linked article, were the number one results for Google searches on his moving company’s name. He was asking what he could do to get those comments removed, and if he could buy ad space on this blog. I explained to him that the ads were Google Ads; the content of the ads were determined by Google’s analysis of the contents of the web page currently being shown.
At least this guy was considerably more pleasant that the thug who called from Quick Boys. I was in a rush to get a lot of things done, so I took down his name and number and said I’d look into it and get back to him.
What I Plan to Do
I doubt that those comments were economic tort. I’m going to try and contact the people who left the comments about [moving company X] and see if they still stand behind what they posted. Based on this, I’ll make the decision as to whether those comments will stay or be deleted.
It’s incredibly unlikely that I will delete them. I asked specifically for opinions on movers in Toronto because I was moving and because it seemed that the general opinion is that there are many unscrupulous movers out there. These people came forward with their opinions and their experiences, and if you’re getting bad reviews, perhaps it’s because you’re providing terrible service. The way to fix this is not through threats or offers to buy ad space from me; it’s to provide good service and to respond in kind: with a rebuttal online.
Which Movers Did I End Up Using?
Based on the recommendations in the comments to my article, I went with Tippet-Richardson. Yes, they were pricier — about CDN$1000 for four hours — but they sent three guys in a truck equipped with all sorts of packing gear, wardrobe boxes and padding, and they were professionals who treated my nearly three bedrooms’ worth of stuff very well.
I should use this photo as my avatar on Accordionist.org.
Accordionist.org is a site set up by Jordan Wagner as a place where accordion players can meet their peers, announce upcoming gigs, exchange playing and maintenance tips, talk about their repertoires and generally discuss all matters accordion. I’ve just signed up for an account, and if you play accordion and would like to chat with other accordion players, you might want to as well.
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Going Golfing
I think the last time I played golf was in the early 1990s with George. I have no idea what possessed us to go golfing — we were spending the summer in our university town, Kingston — but a group of us decided to hit the greens. One particular moment I remember was when George was hidden behind a clump of trees. I heard a scream of frustration from his direction, followed by a couple of flying golf clubs.
Come to think of it, it’s been ages since I’ve even played video golf. The last time must’ve been around 1999, when Adam and I were partners in an indie software development company and working out of his living room. We played Hot Shots Golf on his PlayStation 1 when taking a break from developing these applications.
All this changes today at 2:30 p.m.. That’s the tee-off time for the Tucows Sales and Marketing company-bonding golf-a-rama at Remington Parkview Golf and Country Club. As Technical Evangelist, I’m part of the Marketing team and therefore have been invited to this event; while I’m not a golfing type of guy, I’m not going to pass up a company-sanctioned afternoon in the great outdoors and a free dinner, especially on a cloudless and cool day like today.
If I can keep my score below 500, I’ll be happy.
(Yes, I’ll take photos.)