Matt Fong’s Blog

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.

The HiTi photo printer I wanted to use in my internet kiosk came in the mail on Monday but I hadn?t had a chance to test it out until yesterday. I was impressed with the output quality of my $80 printer?an untrained eye would consider the glossy photo?s impressive and even comparable to normal prints. However when compared side by side to a digital photo from shutterfly.com it is obvious the output has some shortfalls. I?m not a photo printer expert but the colors, particularly the blue from the sky were not as full on the HiTi printer.

Overall the quality of the prints was only a small reason to justify not using the printer in my kiosks. What was influential in my choice was 1) lack of linux drivers (requiring two computers to be used in the kiosk) 2) an unexpectedly long 2.5 minute per photo print time (could be decreased to 1 minute per photo with the industrial model, but would double the cost of a kiosk) 3) inability for the photo to drop down in a slot for delivery to the end user and 4) a small paper tray (requiring maintenance more often) that had problems correctly loading paper when fully loaded.

A better solution that could provide higher quality print outs, would be to contract with a local photo shop. Digital photos could be transferred in real time over the internet to be delivered to the hostel the same day. At first, I thought this would not be feasible because most broadband connections do not allow fast upload speeds. However, with the increased use of cable modems (fast upload speeds) this is becoming less of a limitation. Furthermore, most professional photo shops can produce pictures at a substantially lower price than the 40 cents per print, HiTi printers.

I also did some research on CD-RW drivers that could be bundled with the kiosk. Panasonic apparently makes the only slot loaded CD-RW drives readily available on the market. A slot loaded CD drive will prevent damage from a broken CD tray. The CD-RW drive runs for around $135.00 and the DVD-RW drives run for about $230.00. An added benefit is that these drives are slim and require less space and power.

Leave it to me to randomly come up with new business ideas while dealing with life?s problems. Apparently there is a little known industry helping consumers gain the fair value of their salvaged vehicles from insurance companies after an accident. I think with some marketing and business sense there is real potential in this industry. Essentially anyone who?s involved in a third party property damage liability claim is entitled to something called diminished value. From what I?ve read, insurance companies don?t offer the money, but if you ask/demand it they will often seed to your demands for additional payment. Depending on the circumstances, this payment can be upwards of $5k.

What else is happening?I received the HiTi photo printer I ordered on ebay for my Internet Kiosk in the mail today. Now I just need to wait for the right touch screen monitor to be offered on ebay and I can start the actual construction of the kiosk.

I?m considering a significant offer by an investor who wants to purchase the bulk of my remaining internet domains. I think I?ll sit on it for a day, and give him an answer early tomorrow. If I do sell, I will only have about 70 domains left out of the 350 I once owned. I still believe domains are an excellent investment but the immediate cash is tempting.

Continued to research my kiosk device and have chose the back mountable Elo ‘15 industrial CRT touchscreen ($150 used w/shipping included on ebay) and the HiTi 630PL photo printer ($80 w/shipping on ebay). Unfortunately, HiTi does not create Linux drivers for their photo printers, so it looks like the program will have to be developed in VB.net. I was considering the HiTi 640DL “mini-lab” 20lb heavy duty photo printer with double the paper capacity (the less human maintenance, the better) but they cost $700 (would be the most expensive item in the kiosk). It also has a temperature monitoring device which would be useful because I think air circulation might be a problem in an enclosed kiosk. If I were sure that the kiosk would be profitable, the HiTi 640DL would be my choice but since this is only a demo I’ll stick with the cheaper solution. Steve’s Digicam: Photo Printer review gives an excellent review of the various printers. HiTi printers apparently have a per print cost of only 40 cents compared to upwards of 80 cents for competing brands (profit margin!!!).

I also decided on a mutual fund family to use for investment in small cap companies (a gap in my current investment portfolio). The Laudus Rosenberg U.S. Small Cap (BRSCX) funds have relatively low expense ratios, small market capitalizations, and have consistently produced returns in the lower deciles. Currently I’ve been using the Dodge & Cox Balanced and Stock (DODBX/DODIX; I also use their Bond/Income fund DODIX) fund for Large-Cap investment and the Muhlenkamp Fund (MUHLX) for Mid-Cap domestic equity investments and excellent tax efficiency. I also used the Matthew’s Asian Family Funds and the American Century Real Estate Investment Fund and Capital Value Investment Fund (REACX/ACTIX).

I’ve been looking into creating my own internet connected kiosk. Don’t really want to explain in detail because someone else might try to steel my idea. A basic search (using google of course) for kiosk’s that simply connect to the internet and charged the user a fee costs anywhere between $3000 – $12000. Kiosk Magazine Online claims that on average, kiosks bring in upwards of $500/month. I think I can make an internet connected kiosk for under $3000 (easily). Home Depot here I come. Linux based touch screen will probably be the way to go.