Frys is offering the Maxtor 7H500F0 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive for $100, plus shipping. Link.
I might get two for my Drobo, but the drives may run hot which concerns me. It also is apparently from an enterprise hard drive line that isn’t meant to run 24/7 (so says FatWallet). Still a great deal, and a 5 year warranty.
I interviewed Randy Charles Morin about Rmail and his recent sale of Rmail. I also asked him for tips to give someone thinking of starting their own business.
How did you get the idea for Rmail?
I didn’t. I was using existing RSS to email solutions for my own blogs, but these solutions were unreliable and usually didn’t work at all. So, I wrote a webpage on kbcafe.com called Rmail that would service my blogs. I didn’t preclude other people using it for their own blogs. And other bloggers started using it.
How have things changed from that initial idea?
Rmail eventually turned from a webpage to a website as more and more users needed it. I’ve added tons of features, but the core purpose remains the same; turn RSS into emails.
You wrote on February 8th 2007 that Rmail reached 50,000 users. How has that growth been driven?
The growth has been mostly word-of-mouth. I’ve never spent much time marketing the idea.
What is your big announcement today?
I sold the website to NBC.
Why sell the company now?
NBC is much more capable of turning Rmail into a success via its marketing engine.
What were the challenges of running it all by yourself?
There were big challenges. Scaling an application and dealing with all the legalities was very difficult.
What will your role be under the new ownership?
I will continue to run the Rmail website for now and transfer it to NBCs servers in time.
How will things change at Rmail?
With some money behind it, the sky is the limit.
How do you plan to continue Rmail’s growth?
This is now NBC’s game plan, not mine.
And lastly, do you have any tips for someone starting their own business?
Let’s start by saying that 95% of Americans and Canadians don’t know what an honest days work is. Most people reading this will likely say they are part of the 5% that do. Those people should ask themselves a simple question. Do you honestly work 40 or more hours per week? Remove lunch. Remove water-cooler downtime. Remove all breaks. Remove personal phone calls. Remove solitaire. If you are part of that 5%, then do it. But don’t quit your day job. Do it part-time until you can pay the bills.
I placed second with Nexus Trade in the Business Plan Competition sponsored by the School of Business and Small Business Development Center at The College of New Jersey. First prize was $1,000 and second prize was $600, so I came out okay. :)
I have posted a new episode of Radio Firefox. This is the first episode from the second season. This season the production quality was a lot better and I planned out each show. This episode also introduces the Wheel of Misfortune where I talk about businesses that have had bad press (Radioshack, AOL). You can expect a lot more shows to be coming soon now that I started using GarageBand to edit.
This episode is a recording of the Thursday, August 31st show from 9pm to 12am. In this episode I discuss topics that include: Making the most out of Google Calendar, Calgoo, Starcraft 2, Marketing tips, useful Firefox extensions, and introducing the Wheel of Misfortune. I also talk about my summer trip to San Diego that included a visit to Comic Con.
Download it here directly or listen to it online here or above.
Well it looks like I have another conference to go to. I won a pass from Andy Beal to the Future of Online Advertising Conference. It takes place on June 7-8 in New York City. Hopefully by then I will have a job, or maybe I can make some connections. At the very least I will have some great articles to post and I might even come away with some insight on advertising. Here are just a few of the speakers that jump out at me: Jay Adelson of Revision3, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and b5media, and Steve Rubel.
Anyone looking for a web developer, system administrator, or someone looking to learn a business trade? I’m going to be a recent college graduate and I’m full of great ideas too.
Should I get a Drobo? It’s a storage device that handles up to 4 SATA drives and ensures that data is always protected. It uses a combination of RAID methods and constantly optimizes stored data.
My question is whether or not I should buy one. I have an external drive already and really have no immediate need for a Drobo. But I just can’t get this thing out of my head. It’s such a cool device, but is that worth spending the $700 (minus $100 coupon) on it? And then having to buy a few SATA drives.
What should I then do with my current external drive that is Ultra ATA? Sell it? Put it in my windows box as a replacement for the current drive and then make the current drive a slave?
11pm Update: I ordered one, but still let me know what you think.
Update 2: The Drobo now costs $499. You can get a $25 discount using the coupon code EVJASONS
The R0DE Podcaster USB Microphone
Features:
Via Popgadget
Federal tax returns for 2006 are due on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. So get working on them if you haven’t already. TurboTax online was very easy to use, though it costs the same as the PC software version. I liked how it walked me through each step with explanations. I was able to finish my return in two days.
In an unrelated turn of events a USA Today article details the lax security at the IRS that led to the loss of 490 computers that have been stolen or lost since 2003 in security breaches. “The computers were lost in 387 incidents, most of which were not reported to the IRS computer security office as required, according to the report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.” They also found that laptops lacked password protection and encryption software that would protect taxpayer information and other data. Over 2,000 people have been affected. Does this scare anyone else? The agency required to have all our information loses it and doesn’t report the incidents. I’m moving to Canada.
Source: USA Today
Google’s AdSense blog just posted news of a change in the look of AdSense ads. Gone is the “Ads by Google” bar at the top, replaced with a smaller mention in the bottom right of an ad unit. They write that “the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers.” This doesn’t mean they are better for ad viewers.
Is it any question whether an ad will perform better if it blends in with the page so well and only says it is an ad at the bottom in a small area? This smells like Google is being evil and sacrificing transparency in search of the almighty dollar. Of course the old format did look bad.
I often receive great comments on older posts, so I will be starting a new series called “From the Comments.” I will only publish them when I have enough great comments to mention.
BestBuy Screws Consumer with Second Website, Denies Deals Exist – Longtime customers with a detailed story on how Best Buy misled the Wisconsin couple about Vista compatibilities, delivery dates, and more.
Should I Try World of Warcraft? – Back in July 2006 I asked if I should try World of Warcraft. I received many great comments about both sides, with most leading me towards not trying WOW. Great advice on the perils of MMORPG.