I think everyone?s predictions that I would quickly become bored in Tacoma are coming true. Luckily tho, internet access, swimming, and walking back and fourth between my house, Safeway, and post office box have been keeping me busy.
Reason # 387 NOT to attempt to build your own computer?chances are high the motherboard will be fried on arrival. In attempting to implement my kiosk idea I decided to try one of these ultra-small cubed shaped computers. For those who don?t know, I know what I?m doing when it comes to computers. I?ve screwed around with them since 7th grade and have gone through my fair share of hair pulling trying to make them work. Anyway going against my better judgment, I decided to build my own mostly because I needed some items that were specific to my kiosk that were not common in typical computer setups. Long story short, I spent way too many labor hours figuring out the motherboard was fried and being forced to return it. Apparently (not sure if it?s still true but once upon a time) up to 40% of NEW motherboards purchased at Fry?s Electronics are returned because they don?t function. Lesson of the day: buy pre-built from Dell or another reputable computer shop, it will cost slightly more but well worth the money.
Oh?if you haven?t figured out from my last paragraph, the parts for my kiosk came in the mail this week. Turns out the Panasonic slot loading CD-RW needed a special adapter to work with a standard IDE slot. The shuttle setup was actually more difficult than I had imagined. Yah?the ?no screwdriver needed, screws? were nice but you still need a screwdriver to undo the inside! Overall I?m not too impressed with this ?award winning? system?many buildability improvements are still needed for this product to be mainstream.
A sale of 22 three character .com domains went into escrow today. This is the largest bulk sale I have made in a while. Lately there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people inquiring about three character .com domains. Many of these inquires have come from people who are buying them as an investment in this ?virtual real estate?. I think it?s a promising investment considering profit potential. Domain renewal rates are close to $6/year and considering 1000 clicks our visits could easily return $10+/year it seems like an easy way to make free income. People tend to be only interested in the ?conservative? domains (the equivalent of the oil/gas sector in stocks) like 3 character .com rather than longer names. We?ll see what happens a year from now?I still have a few names left.