Hashemian Blog Web Tools, Financial Markets, Technology Friday, September 30, 2005 Godaddy, a truce  Read the first part of this story here: Godaddy, the price of cheap. While the Godaddy people would not listen to my pleas, one guy did. Surprisingly, Bob Parsons, the chief himself had one of his people call me to sort out the matter. I was, and still am, stunned. We are pretty strange creatures. A courteous phone call completely turned me around. Nothing had changed. I am still disappointed with Godaddy, and there were no promises to refund my $10, only the promise of best attempt. The money wasn't the object anyways. But the call was all it took to pacify me to the point that by the time the call was over, my impression of Parsons went from negative to positive. The contact allowed me to calmly explain my side of the story and then I listened to their side. I was told that the whois fee was levied because Godaddy faces service cancellations from Verisign (the root guys) when their whois database is erroneous or incomplete. I mentioned that my whois information was correct, other than the missing phone number, which is how Network Solution had transferred the data. I also explained that it was unfair to be treated like a spammer, when I had no part in this sort of activity. In the end we kissed and made up, and I was left to wonder that perhaps I had jumped the gun in judging Bob Parsons. A simple gesture such as this phone call was enough to bring a small customer back from absolute frustration. I am going to reserve judgment on Godaddy for a while, but for what my opinion is worth, Parsons redeemed himself in my mind, and for that he has my respect and gratitude. godaddy,bob parsons,spam,verisign,whois,network solutions <Godaddy, a truce> // posted by rh 0 comments Thursday, September 29, 2005 Godaddy, the price of cheap  Note: There is a second part to this story. Read it here: Godaddy, a truce. What you are about to read here is not meant as a Godaddy bash. It's an account of a recent unpleasant experience I had with this company. Godaddy may be a fine company for some. It was also for me up until this incident, and they are still my domain registrar. Every story has two sides and I am offering mine. Infer from it what you wish. Sometimes in life we make decisions based on cost that later on prove to be unwise. Unfortunately my decision to switch my registrar from Network Solutions to Godaddy might end up being one of these. Why? Here's the story: I offer a free redirection service on my Web site that generates small URLs that can redirect to users' URLs of choice. This is nothing new, and my service is one of several out there. Sadly many spammers and phishers use these services to redirect their victims to their nefarious sites. But when the redirection link is mentioned inside the spam, some people think that the owner of the redirection service is in cahoots with the spammer and that's where the trouble begins. In this case a spammer was using one of my short links in a spam, a practice known as spamvertizing. When I got wind of it, I disabled the redirection and blocked out the offending IP addresses from that section of my site. But apparently the damage was done and a few angry recipients had fired off complaint letters to my registrar, Godaddy. I received several accusatory emails from Godaddy and it finally culminated in a $10 charge for an incomplete whois data of my domain. I responded to every inquiry pleading my innocence, but apparently it has fallen on deaf ears at this company. Apparently facts mean little to Godaddy. Instead of investigating the matter, they take the shortest path to generating extra cash, and in this case charging my credit card, which they have on file, was the easiest way to tap a little extra money using this incident as an excuse. Today I found this blog written by Godaddy's chief, Bob Parsons. The irony couldn't be any more poignant. He writes: "As long as I can remember I have always confronted bullies and stood up for myself." It prompted me to write a comment mentioning the bullying tactics employed at his company. I doubt he'll ever publish it on his blog, but I'd like to compliment him for his advice, and decided to fight back in my own small way. First by reporting this incident to the FTC, and then writing this blog explaining my side of the story. I'm just a small fish compared to this mega-company, but even if just one person reads this, that's more than enough for me. Moral of the story: don't make the same mistake I did by going for the cheap cost. Read the fine print and do your homework. And if you ever wanted to get a Godaddy customer in trouble (for example by having their domain erased, at least temporarily) just pay a couple of bucks to an overseas spammer to include a link to their site in an email and spam it. Sounds incredible, but it appears that this is all it takes for Godaddy to start intimidating the owners of that site. Here's a copy of the comment I submitted to Bob Parsons' blog: mr. parsons, ironic that you should blog such a subject, now that your company and by extension, you, have become a bully in your own right. a spammer spamvertizes a service page of my web site and your company, rather than working with its customers, sends me ultimatum emails, and then charges my credit card $10 for incomplete whois info. other than a missing phone number (left over from when i transferred my domain to your company from netsol), all info was correct and current. i am not a spammer nor do i associate with any, but apparently finding facts is not as important as charging your customers any way you can. i suppose it's just natural. when you get so big, pushing the little guy around becomes pleasurable. obviously you won't publish my note here, but i'll take your advice to heart anyways. i'm stuck with you for 10 years (unless you decide to refund my money so i can return to netsol), but whatever i can do to stop doing any more business with your company, and persuade others to do so, can be considered my way of fighting back. Note: There is a second part to this story. Read it here: Godaddy, a truce. godaddy,spam,registrar,netsol,network solutions <Godaddy, the price of cheap> // posted by rh 0 comments Sunday, September 25, 2005 Gmail - The price of free  The debate on free versus paid products and services has been going on for years. one camp believes that free really translates to lower costs for the end users, while others point to hidden costs associated with freebies such as maintenance, litigation, and complexity of setup and operation. The dilemma is that both are right depending on the viewing angle. On this very Web site, I offer a number of free services. I take great care to make them as defect-free as I can, but they come with no guarantees or assurances. I place the risk of usage solely on the users. If the services don't perform as expected, or my site is hacked rendering them unusable, or worse, malicious, I take no responsibility. That's a risk users have to weight against their reliance on these services. In my case, the cost of free service was driven home recently when a Gmail account I was using suddenly got suspended. You see, I had two Gmail accounts. One had a relatively straight-forward and common name that I would use for business matters. The other, with a more uncommon name, I would use for personal communications. Free email services are nothing new. They've been around for a decade or more. Thanks to fierce competition among various providers, they've improved considerably from their original formats. More features, more storage, and better interfaces have all worked to the benefit of the end users. Many have abandoned their fee-based accounts and flocked to these services to take advantage of the cost savings and the features, but at what cost? When the Gmail account I was using for business went offline, I thought it was a temporary problem, but after a period of inaccessibility, it became evident that the account was deliberately suspended. Perhaps I had violated their Terms of Service (TOS) by having two accounts, but I had never used these accounts unconventionally, so I decided to contact Gmail to inquire about the suspension. Numerous polite requests for explanation to the company have gone unanswered, and to this date I don’t have a clear clue why the account was taken away. In the end, I have been left with a cynical hunch that someone else was awarded the account because it had a desirable name. It might have been politically or financially motivated, but whatever the case, I am no longer in control of this account. Thankfully I hadn't used this account for too long before it was wrested away from me, so I was able to quickly recover from this blow. I also learned a valuable lesson from this incident. Free, doesn't mean free. Gmail and other free services, have every right to disable accounts when it suits their moods. It's their software, their servers, their service, and there are no contracts. Here today, gone tomorrow, with no recourse. I don't blame them, but I do blame myself for relying on their free service and believing in its permanence. My other Gmail account still works, but I'm under no illusions that it would always be there. If you rely on free services for important matters, you'd be wise to reconsider your position. The price of free could at some point far exceed a fee-based and contracted one. Free services are like gambling, only play with what you can afford to lose. Gmail,free email,terms of services,TOS <Gmail - The price of free> // posted by rh 0 comments Wednesday, September 21, 2005 eBay phishing  With all the coverage phishing scams have received recently, you'd think that the practice has begun to wane. Not so. Take a look at a sample of an eBay phishing spam I received today. It sure looks like the genuine article. For a split second I thought it was the real thing too. But then common sense prevailed, and my natural suspicion kicked in prompting me to take a closer look. The spam email looks clean enough and the content seems legit. The images are served from legitimate sites, and the supposed link I am invited to click on (billing.eBay.com) does appear to be an eBay host. But this is indeed a fake, designed to lower my guard and click on the link. Who knows what lies on the landing page. Could be a well-crafted decoy site to collect my eBay information, or it could be a page containing malicious code designed to come to life and install a malware on my PC when I get there. The telltale signs, however camouflaged, were still there. The message itself seemed fine on the first pass, but a closer inspection revealed an amateurish attempt to scare me enough to take immediate action. Then I proceeded to look at the email headers. Just about all email readers, including those from online and free services, like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, allow users to inspect the emails' raw data. The header revealed that the message was sent from Poland. Obviously that was a red flag. Then inspecting the email's HTML source uncovered that the link was just a decoy. Underneath the link, the miscreant had coded a completely different link to take my browser for a ride; another red flag. Okay, that was about all of that. It was time to dump the email and get on with the day's work. We all receive numerous emails similar to this everyday. Always trust your first instinct not to trust any of them. Read your emails in text format first to see if anything looks out of place, turn on image masking that many email readers offer these days, never click on any links, no matter how genuine the email looks and how tempted you might feel, and never reply to these emails. Always contact the vendors directly via their Web sites or telephone numbers. Even if the email is authentic, you can never go wrong by bypassing it and going to the source directly yourself. ebay phishing,phishing,spam,trojan,email headers <eBay phishing> // posted by rh 0 comments Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Convenience fee  In one of my previous blogs I had mentioned about getting a traffic ticket in Jersey Turnpike. Yesterday I finally found out the damage via a phone call to the court, and as the officer had claimed, it was $54. Okay, that's not too bad as tickets go these days, even though I still think it was a lame charge. Being the curious guy that I am, I surfed to the court's web site to see if I can find a record of my ticket. Sure enough, the ticket and all relevant data were there for me and the dollar amount was the same as I was told over the phone. What next? Pay the ticket, of course. A nice large button invited me to pay the ticket online. at least they are making it a more convenient to pay the fine, I thought to myself. That's when the near bait and switch happened. On the next page the amount suddenly gained an extra $2. I felt like a contestant in let's make a deal. On closer inspection I noticed a "convenience fee" line item for the amount of, yes, $2. Convenience fee? Whose convenience? Isn't this more to their advantage by collecting the fines in a more timely manner, have accurate records of payments, and save on clerks. Then it occurred to me that this isn't a new scam. A couple of years ago, trying to pay a parking ticket online, I had noticed the same fee being tacked on. Whoever came up with this brilliant scam must be pretty proud of themselves. Soon online retailers will catch on and begin charging convenience fees on shopping carts. Express checkouts at grocery stores, gas pumps that accept credit cards, and Chinese take-outs would soon follow. You'll get an extra bill from your phone company if you use a speaker phone, and remote controls would come with hefty convenience fees. Thanks, but no thanks. I inconveniently wrote a check, licked the envelope, and sent the payment via the inconvenient US postal service. convenience fee,speeding ticket,traffic court,online payment <Convenience fee> // posted by rh 3 comments Friday, September 16, 2005 DSL trouble  I've had DSL for the past couple of months and when it works, it's great. Trouble is that in my case, I've been buffeted with one problem after another. At the time I had SBC install my DSL it was summer time and the kids were mostly away from home visiting relatives. I was at work all day and when I returned home at night, I was able to get online and do my work relatively problem-free. Once the house was full again, I would lose connection every time someone picked up or hung up the phone. In other words when the phone went off-hook or on-hook, the DSL light on the modem began flashing red, indicating an interrupted connection. I also noticed that during humid days (we have a lot of those in the northeast) the connection was spotty. From time to time it would just drop out and then come back only to cease functioning again after a while. The voice quality has been another problem. On humid and rainy days there is a deafening static on the line, making phone conversations unbearable. I've made several trouble calls to SBC and we've been visited by their technicians a number of times. In one occasion they swapped out some module in a box that they had installed outside the house. I don't know what this box is. I have asked a few people at work who have DSL at home and they are unaware of such boxes installed for them. Perhaps it's a repeater for my wooded location to compensate for the distance to central office. But that's just my speculation. Another time they came inside and disconnected our phone and fax downstairs, blaming the adverse conditions on them. Finally they have resorted to blaming the inside wiring for the trouble. Whatever the case, the problems have persisted. Today we had another visit and my wife who happened to be home for lunch let him run more tests inside and outside the house. But then she had to return to work and the technician left his work unfinished and we ended up with no phone or DSL signal in the house. Thankfully I know a thing or two about phone wiring and I was able to tap the disconnected wires outside and run a wire through the house to get a make-shift connection going, which is how I can post this blog now. I am beginning to think that perhaps DSL is not worth all this hassle and cable might be a better option. I couldn’t possibly be the only person around with DSL trouble. Coincidentally I ran into another person tonight who was lamenting the same issues with his DSL service and was considering switching to cable. DSL might be a great broadband choice, but apparently the technology is finicky and requires impeccable conditions, making it unsuitable for some locations, namely my house. Caveat emptor. DSL,broadband,SBC,cable modem,DSL trouble,DSL problems <DSL trouble> // posted by rh 0 comments Wednesday, September 14, 2005 Speeding ticket  At least once a year I travel south via the I-95 corridor to Virginia to visit my grandmother in a nursing home in Alexandria. I call her weekly, but for her, seeing me has another flavor and I'm always happy to see her. It's a long and boring trek and it could get aggravating with the traffic tie-ups. That's why I normally choose the times outside of travel season. In this case I chose to go the weekend after labor day. Thankfully I have a small car. With the current gas prices, I'd go broke after one trip. Jersey turnpike is one area to look for speed traps. The only detector I use are my pair of eyes occasionally scanning the road for potential cops at every corner. In my youth I would classify myself as a fast driver. Speeding and weaving through traffic, albeit cautiously, was a natural part of driving for me. Time has however tamed me considerably. I generally stick to the speed limits with an occasional marginal speeding when conditions appear safe to do so. No tailgating, no weaving, no stunts. It is however my absolute belief that when towns and states are hurting for funds, the cops suddenly spring into action and crack down harder on violators. The fines bring more money into their coffers and there is always an abundance of drivers to be pulled over. Apparently this time it was my turn to get snared. I was cruising the turnpike at around 75 (65 mph zone) when I saw the cruiser right on my tail. It was one of those moments that you realize the cross-hairs are right on your car and you begin to mentally prepare for the "license and registration" bit. The officer was pleasant enough. I got the usual comments. "I've been behind you for a while", "where are you headed?", "do you know how fast you were driving?", "stay in your car until I return". Yes sir. Going to Virginia to visit my grandmother. No sir, I don't know how fast - I was going at the speed of traffic. Yes sir. There is no point arguing. I'd been caught and might as well enjoy a little rest while the guy in his car with flashing lights does his thing. After he handed me the ticket, he said, "I could have given you a $500 ticket, but instead this is a ticket for a minor infraction, probably around $50." At this point, feeling somewhat relieved, I wanted to offer an apology, but was that really necessary? Does he care that I'm sorry for speeding on his highway. He's probably happy to have caught me and then to have given me break. I would have probably been a much more satisfying case had I been driving way over the speed limit, or had been reckless, or I had a flashy car. Nonetheless, it probably gave him some feeling of pride to have pulled over someone and have written a ticket. In the end I told him that I'd take it easy and we parted ways. While pulling away I contemplated what had just happened. I was convinced that I wasn't driving unsafely, nor was I so much above the speed limit to warrant a fine. In the final analysis it wasn't about punishing a speeder. It was rather a business transaction, with him being the collection agent and me being a source of money in this particular case. But it was worth it seeing my grandmother's face lit-up when I walked into her room. speeding ticket,jersey turnpike,speed limit,traffic, <Speeding ticket> // posted by rh 0 comments Thursday, September 08, 2005 Housing bubble – my top 5 reasons for a crash wish  What is it about the American dream to own a house even when prices are in the stratosphere? Whatever is the drive, I only wish for that crash to arrive soon. I know a lot of people shudder at the thought of such an event, but the inevitable fact is, what goes up must come down. And here's my top 5 reasons why I wish for it to happen soon. 1- Most of us are already awaiting the crash anyways. It's stressful to keep waiting for an event, only to pick up the newspaper everyday and realize that that prices have continued to march upward. The higher they go, the harder they'd fall. Let's get the pain over with. The sooner it happens, the sooner we can get off the obsession and get on with something else. 2- The home ownership aspirations is supposed to instill a certain kind of pride and closeness in the neighborhoods. That feeling is now gone. With so many flippers working the market, it's a miracle if you get chance to get to know your neighbors before they move on to higher pastures. People seem to no longer view their homes as places of dwelling. Homes have become another investment vehicle, like stocks and bonds, to be bought and sold for quick profits. 3- In my wooded neighborhood we have numerous sections of land that have fallen in the hands of builders. Quality of life means nothing to these greedy bunch. They swoop in, raze the land, build houses, sell quickly and move on to destroy another parcel. When the incentive to make easy money is so high, the environment suffers. Remove the incentive, and most of these builders would scatter, giving a chance for the few remaining trees to survive the onslaught. 4- Someday I'd like to sell my small house and move into a bigger one, but that wish appears to be a pipe dream. I don't know who these people are that are snapping up the multi-million dollar mansions that are sprouting like mushrooms, but I don't see myself capable to affording one. Sure, the interest rates are low and lenders now have creative ways to stretch budgets with their buy-now-pay-later schemes, but at these prices who can enjoy a new home when even making minimum payment is a fight for survival. 5- It's a known fact that many homeowners are up to their eyeballs in debt. With every appreciation, they get more brazen and upgrade to bigger homes with dreams of higher returns. What happens when home prices finally retreat and leave them upside down in their obligations. I can almost see throngs of people writhing in pain when they realize they owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth. The double-whammy is the tougher bankruptcy laws that make it all but impossible to get out of the heavy debt without getting wiped out in the process. I hope it doesn't happen, but I can't help having sad images of many families awash in tears as they are forced out of their luxury homes. They said it wouldn't happen to the stock market, and it did. They said it wouldn't happen to gold, and it did. One thing all bubbles have in common is that they eventually burst. I can only hope that when it happens to the housing market, we didn't have to wait too long. Surely another bubble is already being formed quietly to follow on the ruins of this one. One always succeeds another. houses,housing bubble,mortgages,debt,homes,builders,interest rates <Housing bubble – my top 5 reasons for a crash wish> // posted by rh 0 comments Sunday, September 04, 2005 Gas prices  Unless you work for an oil company or have substantial investments in an oil-related business, you are beginning to feel the pinch of the high fuel prices. The problem with fossil fuel is that economies are so dependent on it that even small spikes cause big ripples throughout the society. For most of us high oil price manifests itself at the pump but the repercussions are far more reaching. With winter not too far off, high heating oil prices will follow. Cost of transportation is another whammy which in turn translates to higher prices for the goods and services we all use. From air travel to food, transportation outfits would have no choice but to pass on the extra costs to the consumer. Suddenly everything becomes more expensive. Sounds like a dire prelude to inflation? You bet. Like a chain reaction, the prices of everyday items would need to rise to keep up with expenses. In a gloomy scenario an ominous feedback loop would form causing spiraling price hikes for just about everything we depend on. Things were already bad before the hurricane catastrophe. With the supply of oil tight enough already, the natural disaster in the key southern states might have been the proverbial final nail in the coffin. I can just imagine the auto industry quivering at the thought of Americans abandoning the aspirations of owning large cars for the more economical versions. The wealthy would be fine, but for the many middle-income car buyers who might have been flirting with the idea of owning an SUV, a compact car might start to seem a more rational path. So where is the silver lining in all this. First of all the government might finally wake up to the fact that it needs to start thinking about alternative methods of generating energy. People would also become more conservation-minded. Maybe that daily commute to work can be more economical using a smaller vehicle, or public transportation, or even self-powered means as in walking or biking. Technology can also play an important role. With many households already on broadband, telecommuting might get an extra boost during these tough times. We all know that oil is not a bottomless pit. At some point it will run dry. Situations such as the one we are faced with today might be temporary, but it should serve as a wakeup call for the time when we have to carry on with little or no oil. Times like these should be a strong incentive to prepare for the inevitable. gas prices,oil,alternative energy,fuel,inflation <Gas prices> // posted by rh 1 comments

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