After reading about Go Daddy’s CEO Bob Parsons killing an elephant and Namecheap’s offer as a response to what Parson’s killing a Elephant and posting the video, I decided to consider changing domain registar.

Well, that was back in the end of march and because it seem like a hassle I just put it my backlog, until recently. However, I like to finish stuff that I start. Plus I have grown tired of Go Daddy’s interface, it reminded me bloatware. So, finally I decided to pull the trigger. Well the triggered that I pulled was for a marathon that I will had to run. I have more than 10 domains, but I decided to just start with non critical and that is around 8.

Oh boy, was I right that this was a hassle, and here is how it went.

First, you have to go to your GoDaddy account -> domain manager and unlock your domains. There is no bulk operation, in addition to being a “batch” operation, since it makes the request and you have to wait “some minutes” (1-2 minutes) for your account to update.

Second you have to obtain your EPP code (or Extensible Provisioning Protocol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Provisioning_Protocol), which is a code you have to provide to your new domain registrar. This is needed to protect you from Domain hijacking . To get that code you have to request it one by one and it will be sent by email.

Then you have to wait for it to come.

After you have your codes, you have to got to you new name register, in the case of Namecheap, I could write all the domains at once. This is the only part done by bulk.

Once registered and initiated the process you have to start one by one entering the EPP code.

Then your request is processed.

Is time to start your compiler

After a hour or so, you will receive a email confirming your order.  After that you will receive an email to confirm your request. To do this you need to click on a link, which will take you to a web page. In this page, you will have to click a button to confirm your transfer.

Yeap, there is a lot of clicking here.

So, I did it for eight domains, this is eight emails to open, eight links to click and eight buttons to confirm the transfer. Add to this going back to the email client, selecting another email and repeating the process. Ahh… and don’t forget the other clicks (around 5 per domain) I had to do in Go Daddy to unlock and request the EPP code, for every single domain.

Five days later I received eight emails from Namecheap confirming that transfer was completed. Well that is just the transfer, then you have to Tell Namecheap to transfer the DNS control to Namecheap nameserver (in case you had them with Go Daddy).

The only advantage of this, is that domain Hijacking might be prevented. However I still think that in this age, if somebody wanted to get something from you, they will. At the end is if just to prevent churn and doesn’t show confidence in the service where is easy to get in and easy to get out. Few companies do that, is a common practice to make it hard.

Then, again we can change this thanks to choice… the hard part is enforcing it.

After reading the Oatmeal’s comic on How to make your shopping cart suck less, I wondered: should we trust Facebook as an alternative for creating an account in our online shop?

Short answer No.

That is too much data, given Facebook’s new policy to push you too share everything, I don’t want all my friends to know what I’m buying. In addition, they have a bad record with stuff like this (that being Facebook beacon)

Consumers don’t need new accounts, just for one purchase, so the best practice is to give them an alternative. Some alternatives could be custom express checkout (without login), Amazon Payments or Paypal. Even if it adds work and costs, customers will thank us, and happy customers are good business.

Recently. I saw an article in Read Write Web, were they talked about the upcoming app store for Evernote, called Evernote Trunk. This got me thinking that in the past months, I’ve seen some companies launching app stores. For example, Foursquare has one, Samsung did it for it smart phones, even uTorrent the bitTorrent program has one. You may think this just a buzz word and people are just ridding it, however there is more than just following the success of Apple and facebook (which was the first to have the concept of third party apps, even before Apple.)

Pondering about this topic, I remembered a kind of lecture/conversation, I had not so long ago with an experienced entrepreneur. He told me that having a service is good for starts, but were you want to end up is having a platform, because it gives you a better chance to grow. Facebook is social platform that connects with Internet, Foursquare is a platform for connecting your Web life with the “Real” life and Evernote it becomes a extension of your memory.

Doesn’t matter if they call them plug-ins, widgets, extensions or apps, as we can see with companies like Apple, facebook and others: once you become the base of the pyramid and others depend on you for their business, “you struck gold”.

On the weekend, I went shopping for a pair of sneakers. I needed something comfortable for my summer travels, which provided a much needed arc support. This is due to being flat footed and been giving me problems when walking a lot. In addition, they should later be wearable to work and everyday commuting. My decision: the Nike Air Max Classic BW.

I got to the store and when I saw the high price, plus all the colors and similar models, I stalled and wasn’t totally convinced. Still after some browsing and a coffee, I decided to ask for two pairs to try them all. I was disappointed because they didn’t provide the support I was looking for, although they looked cooled than I thought.

Things changed when the salesman got some insoles with arc support, the sneakers felt  much, much better. When he asked me “what do you think”, I gave him the thumbs up. Then asked if the insoles were included, and he said I had to pay extra for them. At this point, I got turned off.

Note: Looking at this from a third view, when you have a price sensitive customer and then you make him pay more for what he/she has already committed too (in this case more than 10%), then the deal breaks up and there will be no sale.

At that point, I said I wasn’t going to buy them because, it was already an expensive product and I had to add more to actually serve its purpose. While he was trying to convince he can’t give it to me for free and they are good insoles and that they have a warranty and “bla bla bla”, I realized something: what I really need was the insoles with arc support, not a new pair of sneakers.

I bought the insoles and left the store with them in my old sneakers. After three days, I assure you: that was the best possible decision I could have made. It will have been a waste of money, to buy new sneakers when most of the non running shoes come with neutral arc support.

Most of the time, customers want to solve a problem and they think that the product/service you offer is the solution. And most of the time we are wrong, that is why is important to find out: WHY they think that is the best solution.

In that process of finding out WHY, you might not sell them anything and the customers just needs to tweak something in their current solution (that being sneakers, network, website, etc). However, a happy customers has a bigger possibility of returning and even better bring it’s friends. But, if he/she is not satisfied with the overall experience, forget about it. you lost them, because is about building relationships and thinking long term, not just selling.

[Image source]

There are only two ways to catch up a “market leader”:

1. the leader makes very bad decisions that eventually comes back to haunt him and leaves him vulnerable.

or

2. you buy a startup or small company that has the innovation, but lacks the resources, giving you a better possibility of catching up.

Either is very hard, just look at Microsoft. Vista really sucked, but still they are the “market leader” operating systems. Or see at Google, they bought Android and see where they are today, still on the hunt for iPhone and trying to be the dominant mobile platform.

So, what to do? Stop playing the game of others and play your own. The catch game is like gambling in a Vegas casino, you will win enough to continue betting, but will never win against the house or break even. Do something different, which makes you the leader since you are the first to come up with it.

For example, Asus and the netbooks (eventually everybody was able to catch up). More interesting, instead of trying to play catch-up, Apple did something different, the iPad, which is a device that is between the tablet, eBook reader and netbook.

Another example is the Puma Phone, just freaking cool stuff.

At the end of the day is like convincing people to not follow the conventional patch and follow, therefore making you the leader.

Drop the clichés, forget about what a engineer and a artist are suppose to do and don’t judge based on the university title or gender.

This is the information revolution, where anybody with the will power to learn, can be anything they want. Sure the revolution hasn’t reach everybody on the planet, but is on it way. In the meantime, just remember that you can wear any hat you wish and more importantly, anybody can wear the hat the want, even yours.

So, my proposal is that in those workplaces, companies and startups where project managements: “are managing the resources of a software project”, ditch them (or if you are nice give them a chance to get a new hat).

Management of people kills creativity, instead provide mentorship: guide instead of dictating. Get people that can lead by nurturing the skills of the people around them and help them focus, instead of “try to put off that fire or cure the itch”.

Let the artist write software and the engineer design, it might not be appealing but, it is a start of something different and sometimes different is good.

It was reported on the 7th of December that Apple bought Lala. With this move, Apple enters the streaming business and is getting their feet wet with cloud services. I think this has to do more with the trend toward streaming of music and Spotify coming early 2010 to USA, than any other thing. But what is Lala?

Lala is a music streaming service that lets you play music over your web browser. The only thing you need is an account. Also, you can upload and share your music collection, while having it available from anywhere. How does Lala make money? Well, you can buy unlimited web plays of a song for 10 cents, or just buy a download starting at 79 cents.

Lala is interesting to Apple for technical competence of the team, for the platform, which could be integrated with the iTunes Store (not just for music) and the Google deal. All this helps them prepare is case Spotify is successful, when they come to the USA early 2010.

What is the big deal with Spotify, you may ask, or even what is Spotify?

Spotify is a Swedish company that provide a service of streaming of music for free. You download the client and you have access to millions of songs without paying a cent. In exchange you have to listen to a occasional advertisement. but that is not a problem because, is much much less the an radio and TV. The killer feature of Spotify is the playlists: can create as many as you like and share them. If you don’t to listen to ads you can pay around 10 euros a month and you get to listen to your playlist online. Plus you can listen and download the playlist to a iPhone, Android or selected Nokia phone.

The usability design of the client is very similar to iTunes, so if you switch to Spotify the transition is seamless. Add to this that it looks like the iPhone app rocks.

As you can see Spotify is a threat to Apple music business, because you can have a huge catalog of music at your hands, with the same experience as you have it in your computer. Meaning that Spotify can become the window from which you access music, not iTunes and that is not good for Apple’s business.

Spotify is Awsome, iTunes a commodity and Lala just became the wildcard.

. and that is sometimes enough.

This is my first time working in a startup and I can tell you: is fun stuff. I don’t mean that I’m playing around all day or there is no stress. The contrary, in a startup environment, sometimes the pressure is higher than in a establish company. However is fun to be able to contribute to “a cause” or common goal. Even if what you produce is small, as a grain of sand, still is not trivial and will always be welcome, specially when resources are scarce. 

Is fun because nobody sticks to their job title, everybody has other tasks (even if it means washing the dishes or buying food for everybody). Is fun because of the uncertainty: not know what the next day will bring us. Is fun because people have a chance to connect, share ideas and go into endless discussions that don’t go know where.

I guess a startup is fun when is built to be fun, where the right person and attitude is more important than the right CV, which leads to a environment where can connect with the others in the company. like pieces of a puzzle coming together by chance.

Sure it might sound romantic or or just me experiencing the honeymoon syndrome (when early on, everything is great), then again this fun: the whole experience.

This mismatch in science and business is the idea that is worth spreading, so enjoy this TED talk by Dan Pink. Also, at the end of the post, you will find the written wrap-up of the presentation.

(Video via wi-fi-de-do)

Here is the Wrap-up of the presentation:

The new OS to run our business revolves around three elements:

• Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives.
• Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters.
• Purpose: Purpose, the yearning to what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.

• One: Those 20th century rewards, those motivators we think are a natural part of business, do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances.
• Two: Those if-then rewards often destroy creativity.
• Three: the secret to high performance, isn’t rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive. The drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things cause they matter.

Resources from the presentation:

Here is a link to the Duncker’s Candle Problem.

Article by Business Week on the ROWE (or Results-Only Work Environment)

I get a call around 6:00 pm on Friday. I’m at work and is a friend, he wanted to know if I’m interested in going with him to a Romanian Rock Concert. He had a extra ticket (so for me is for free), even if I felt tiered and had just 2 hours to get there, I thought: “why not”.

My friend, called me twice to see where I was, he wanted me to be there on time. I found it odd, since its a rock concert, who cares if I’m late, there is always a opening band. When I got there quarter past 8 pm, I see him dressed nicely, making a big fuss of not making any noise and that they had started. At this point I’m lost, thinking “what is the deal here?”. Then we enter the balcony, and while taking a glimpse at the stage and the people in their seats (of the Sodra Teatern in Stockholm) : I see four persons on stage, three with Violins and one with a Cello. I had misunderstood, it was a Romanian Quartet Concert, not Romanian Rock Concert.

Let me tell you, that the experience was mind blowing. First my favorite instrument to listen too, is the violin. In addition, I recently got the album of Yo Yo Ma’s playing Bach Suites (1 to 6) on the Cello. Finally, it was interpretation of folk music, occasionally adding some visual elements on the screen. It was great stuff, I couldn’t ask for more.

All this got me to thinking, that be best experiences come when you don’t have any expectations. In my case, I didn’t expect nothing, I didn’t have any time to even get the wrong expectations ( me thinking it was a Rock Concert). And there I was delighted, thankful and with a experience to remember.

We will always have expectations of things to come or people that we will meet. We have expectations when you take a trip, go abroad to study, go to watch a movie movies, buy a new laptop or when we go for a date. We know something is coming, we can’t resist the uncertainty of not knowing nothing, so we start to research and form ideas on the head of what the experience will be (comparing to previous ones). In some cases we might live experience before the event has happened.

Expectations are like a ball with holes. When we start to have them, the ball starts to form, however it can NOT be completed because to be filled, we have to live the event or use the product we bought. So, there we are with a ball with holes, waiting for them to be filled when we reach that moment. Sometimes we get what we expected, sometimes they exceeded or all wholes are not filled, so we need more time. In other occasion we are disappointed . Our disappointments come when we are presented with something different, that doesn’t meet or fit the ball we created. It actually could be because it sucked, however (especially with people and places) we forget to see the big picture or form a new ball, which permits us to have a different experience.

(Source)

Expectations are part of our life and are difficult not to have them. However managing expectations is key aspect, not just in how we experience life but in business and management. Everybody has expectations of the products we launch, the service we provide or how our employees perform. Sometimes those expectations are linked to money, meaning that for X amount of money we EXPECT a return equivalent to X. And then is when things get more complicated, because how do you measure a return, when expectations may blur the way you see things.

As a consumer or a producer, as a manager or a employee, most of the time we don’t have the option of having no expectations, instead we have to manage them and align them in a way that everybody understand what is coming and what is not. However in life that is another story as The Ink Spots say in one of their songs: “The best things in life are free”. Should I expect everything that is free to be the best?