Archive for the ‘Random Rants’ Category

Texas Education Agency? Bite Me.


31 Aug

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Posted in Random Rants, Virtual Public School | View Comments

Texas Yesterday was quite a frantic day with TCAH for all parents.

The Texas Education Agency, also known as TEA, declined to give TCAH a school rating. In declining to give TCAH a rating, about 1500 students that are enrolled in TCAH now cannot be there.

This is part of the letter of insanity yesterday that we had to parse.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has just notified TCAH that it will not approve TCAH’s expansion above its previously approved level of 1,000 students, due to TEA not issuing a school rating for the TCAH program. The Houston Independent School District (HISD) has calculated the school’s rating based on the same accountability standards used by other Texas public schools and the other online program in Texas that is comparable to TCAH; this calculation indicates that TCAH would have received a rating of "Academically Acceptable." Based on TEA’s actions concerning the comparable online school in the program, the "Academically Acceptable" rating should have led to a substantial increase in TCAH’s approved enrollment level. Instead, the number of students allowed to enroll was kept to the previously approved limit.

TEA has informed HISD that it does not have a school rating for TCAH, even though this is specifically required by TEA’s Electronic Course Program (eCP) guidelines (or Terms of Participation). Instead, TEA has used other criteria that were not in the program guidelines, nor previously disclosed to HISD or to TCAH, to support its refusal to allow TCAH to expand for the 2010–11 school year. HISD and TCAH immediately submitted an appeal to be issued a rating, and also appealed the denial of its request to increase enrollment. Both appeals were denied, and HISD continues to work directly with TEA in the hope of resolving the situation.

So – TEA “doesn’t have” a school rating for TCAH even though the TEA is the government body that issues school ratings for public schools. HISD, which oversees TCAH, was comfortable enough to go ahead and expand enrollment because (being a large ISD) they knew what they would be rated based on the known ratings requirements and TCAH met all the public and known ratings requirements. But apparently, the TEA came back with ratings requirements not previously made known, not public, and which it’s obvious no other HISD school had to meet other than TCAH because no one knew about them beforehand.

And they (the TEA) waited to mention all this stuff until the second week of school.

TCAH: Give us a rating?
TEA: But you don’t have a rating.
TCAH: So give us a rating, then!
TEA: But you don’t have a rating.

In short, the TEA’s decision, which came to the utter shock of TCAH and Houston ISD, has left TCAH scrambling with 1500 students too many, most of the bulk in grades 6-8. Based on presumed ratings, they should be able to serve 2500 students, and so that’s what they enrolled as Houston ISD was presumably clear that they met the criteria for the rating they applied for and they evidentially all considered it a technicality. TEA didn’t rate them below what they needed – they totally and completely refused to rate them at all.

Why, I have no idea, and no one can clearly tell me. It’s not like virtual schools are unknown to them – there’s information on the Texas Virtual Schools Network (created by the 80th Texas Legislature through the passage of Senate Bill 1788 and codified in Chapter 30A. of the Texas Education Code) right on their site.

In an effort to figure out the whys, I called the TEA to ask why they refused to issue a rating. I was told there was only one person who could answer my question, and they transferred me to her. Kate Lowry’s voice mail stated that she was on medical leave, and for any questions call the help desk.  I called the helpdesk, and was transferred back to Ms. Lowry’s voice mail for an answer to my question.

This is the point where I start to comprehend and understand my Libertarian friends attitudes that the government is just totally and completely inept and couldn’t find a clue with two hands and a flashlight if it was flashing neon two feet in front of them.

So, what the heck happens now specifically?

TCAH did something that stunned me, and for us and for this year, very little is changing despite this government induced imbroglio.

TCAH stepped up to the plate and offered a “free alternative plan” – that free alternative plan is actually nothing more than allowing students into National Connections Academy, a private school, free of charge.  They’re giving us 3 choices – leave, voluntarily move to the private school, or choose that we would prefer to stay but also realize we may be moved over if necessary. As a carrot inducement to voluntarily move, not only is tuition waved in the National Academy, but if you volunteer, you get a free summer school class at the National Academy next summer.

We took the “go ahead and move us” option for this year because based on when we enrolled, we’d be likely to be force-moved anyway and we may as well grab that summer school class, but also because if kids are moved to National, some kids will lose things they need, especially if they’re IEP or GT or financially challenged.

IEP (what they now call special education) is not offered in private school, but it’s required to be offered by public schools. So parents of kids with challenges who’s needs were being met by TCAH may get screwed if their number comes up, and will be forced to come up with other options. Options they may not have or may not want.

Gifted and Talented programs? Not offered nationally.

Financially challenged? TCAH as a public school offers subsidies to pay for broadband Internet access (as well as a computer) for kids to be in the program. You can waive it (we did) if you don’t need it, but I imagine if you need it you may really need it, especially in this economy. Obviously, a private school has no subsidies.

So, we figured volunteering might help those that really need any of the above get to stay.

What might happen now in general?

I have my suspicions, but one thing I have to say -  the numbers rolling around and the money involved is truly staggering.

The National Private Academy costs $5K a year for grades 6-8. The numbers I heard were 2500 cap vs allowed 1000 cap, and if there are just 1K out of the 1.5K over moved into their "free" alternative, that’s $5,000,000 in free educations Connections will be giving away if this goes on all year, and 1,000 kids education monies that the government will keep while Connections eats the education costs (which is likely half that, maybe 2.5 million – but I’m guessing).

Though school funding is paid based on attendance per day, so Connections Academy and HISD have every motivation to get this worked out quickly and soon. The day it’s worked out, Connections will stop losing money and HISD will get more money, and they’ll likely just move the kids back in under TCAH so they can collect the state funding and stop absorbing the cost themselves.

While Connections Academy stated a willingness to absorb the entire year’s tuition if they have to, which I appreciate, I have no doubt the people at the top will be working very hard to cut that absorption time short.

So we’ll see what happens. Apparently we’ll know whether we’re being shifted (shafted?) by Friday.

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I don’t support Craigslist – here’s why.


10 Aug

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Posted in Random Rants | View Comments

The latest controversy about the nasty, evil Internet is a nasty, evil story about Craigslist and their adult services section. Here’s a CNN Report which features a silent and staring Craig Newmark as he is confronted with some questions:

I’ve seen a lot of petitions floating around Twitter to support Craigslist in this controversy, and a lot of the arguments supporting Craigslist’s position seem to come down to a defense of prurient morality, and the defense of the adult population’s right to have it.

One look at some of the girls in the video, one interviewee not even legally old enough to drink yet, and you start to seriously wonder about the whole petition to support Craigslist thing.

After perusing the site and checking into the claims made, this (to me) is not even remotely about adult sexual freedom, and its not even about safe harbor.

It’s about (to me) taking advantage of and exploiting safe harbor to blow off your ethical responsibility and make bundles of money, it’s about blame shifting, and it’s about greed. It’s about the exploitation of their own community to keep themselves from being on the hook – on purpose.

And that just galls the hell out of me.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an “interactive computer service” who publish information provided by others:

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

In Dart vs. Craigslist (PDF of Judgment Here), a federal Judge further made sure that Craigslist was immune from responsibility for the prostitution ads that can be found in any quick search of Craigslist.

The “Safe Harbor” rules in the DMCA and the “Safe Haven” rules in the Communications Decency Act make it possible for online publishers and platform providers (and web hosts) to operate their businesses in which others publish on their platforms without fear of constant lawsuits from every direction. Without those provisions, those of us that operate platforms from which others speak would very likely be ground to a halt under the weight of lawsuits.

Having been recipients of DMCA complaints from the RIAA, Diebold, and the Church of Scientology, I have to admit I’m rather fond of the safe harbor provision. In the CoS’s case, I wish it could have protected me from the cost of the ink it took to print out the huge fax they sent. But, anyway…

Jim Buckmaster responded to the controversy on the Craiglist blog, and he said something at the end of that post that primarily shifted the blame for the controversy to his community of users and, to a larger extent, society itself.

But its merely an attempt to accommodate the fact that people in America are lazy, and continue to degrade in their ability to take responsibility for the freedoms they have. Craigslist is, in that regard, a lot like Democracy. If we don’t participate in our own governance, it is taken over by those who profit from the responsibility; just as Craigslist is being overrun by scam artists; simply because users let it happen.

Dear lord, are you kidding me?

Q: How does craigslist support its operations?
A: Ad fees for jobs in 18 cities, brokered NYC apartments, adult and therapeutic services.

According to a report from Advanced Interactive Media (AIM) Group posted on Mashable, Craigslist Adult Services Section will generate $36 Million Dollars in 2010. $36 Million Dollars in revenue, with only 30 some-odd total employees, and yet:

In May 2009 we went beyond those measures and implemented manual screening of each adult services ad. – Jim Buckmaster

I went to the Austin Craigslist, went to adult services, and searched for the word “hour”.

craigslistSo, what – none of those 30-odd employees who’s responsibility it is to manually screen these postings had any idea what an outcall was, or can’t put 2+2 together on what someone would get for $140-$200 an hour? Really?

You know what there isn’t on the posting? A button or link to report it.

When you go into the adult services section, you agree to report suspected human trafficking. There’s even a link to help you out when you first walk in:

craigslist2

You know where you go when you follow the link? To this page. You know what’s not on that page? A way to report the posting to Craigslist to be taken down.

So, you know, Buckmaster, you really need to cut the crap – and Craig Newman, your crap is a little ridiculous, too. Asking a CNN reporter if she reported the posting to you when you don’t actually give a clear way to report the posting to you, or to flag it, or anything else is absolutely ridiculous.

Here’s a posting from the general section:

craigslist3

See the square to flag the post and do your duty as a Craigslist citizen to self-police?

Now, here’s a post from the adult services section:

craigslist4

Notice what’s missing? Yep, you guessed it – the ability to flag the post and report it to Craigslist.

In other words, it appears that they have deliberately removed the flagging system from the adult services section.

It truly takes a special kind of balls to write a post blaming your users for human trafficking and child exploitation posts, put the responsibility on them for not telling you, only open your mouth to a reporter in an interview to lambaste her for not reporting the post after deliberately removing everyone’s ability to flag and report posts.

People could argue that prostitution should be legal and regulated, like it is in certain places in Nevada, and this could turn into a wider discussion – but that isn’t the argument going on here.  The argument is that Craigslist should be doing more, and the official Craigslist response is that nope, it’s doing all it can – it’s their community that’s failing in the responsibility it was entrusted with by Craigslist.

That’s an utter bunch of crap, and I can think of 36 Million reasons Craigslist would prefer not to be bothered. You don’t want to be bothered, don’t be bothered.

But be honest about it.

Don’t set up a system that makes it impossible for your users to police themselves to get yourself off the hook from having to take any action, hide behind the safe harbor provisions in the law, and then blame everyone else including society and the community that made you rich for not doing more after you remove the only tool you give them for self-policing on the one section most likely to potentially cause true harm.

That’s just about as greedy and sleazy and blame-shifting as they come.

So, no – I don’t support Craigslist.

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And then I was blindsided.


21 Jul

Posted in Random Rants, Web Hosting | View Comments

I’m not one of those folks who created a company with the intention of selling it, and so when I was courted on 6th Street in the midst of HostingCon to sell, I unexpectedly became defensive, like I was being attacked. I didn’t take it well.

It was a decent, and I have no doubt, sincere offer. I wasn’t expecting it. I think I laughed at the beginning because it started out, to me, as a joke. As the conversation went on, I realized that it wasn’t a joke, and I got defensive.

Yes, it’s a little company but damn it, it’s mine.

The party is still going on downtown, and I’m watching the tweets roll in, but I left soon after the offer. It rattled me more than I care to admit, more for what it represented – I’m so little that a hostile takeover would involve the company demanding I sell while pulling my cat’s tail in a threatening manner. Nothing I built was in any danger, not really. The only way it goes is if I sell it. Yet, it still rattled me.

As I made my way through “my industry”, for two days, the sheer throng of humanity crushing me on every side and playing havoc with my introverted need for quiet, solace, and space, I examined what my feelings were about my own company and what I do in contrast to other people’s feelings about what they do. I realized I bonded with very few people because very few people could get past talking about revenue, ROI, and numbers to principles, passions, and drives. In some, there didn’t even seem to be room for it.

When the offer came in, I was well familiar with those making it. The offer came in, the serious interest, before anyone looked at my books, or hard numbers. I knew the number of accounts offhand, they wanted to sweep those numbers into their behemoth, and I was big enough to be eaten. All the nights I sat up, the reputation I built, those meant nothing in the end. It was all about plumping someone’s numbers.

I realized, as they ticked off the others that they bought, that I was a quaint, old fashioned relic from an earlier time, before we became a commodity. Each name that I had heard of for years, knew vaguely, most equated myself with, disappearing into a homogenized sameness.

How many accounts?

2300 or so

How many servers?

6

Wow. That’s pretty good – I think we pack ‘em in a bit more than you do.

Yes, I know. That’s why we’re better than you.

The funny thing is we don’t have 2300 – that’s the DNS numbers with the add on domains and was the one I had in my head. They meant cPanel accounts. In that we’re at about 1800. So we’re even better than them than I initially thought. And I was proud of that.

And it still not something we can really explain or market or sell. In shared, unlimited sells, and they pack ‘em in to make the money. It’s kind of something I’ve come to accept. Maybe we can. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just 1 a.m. in the morning, and I’m being pessimistic. Good doesn’t really cut it. It’s a cut throat world out there, and I just don’t care to cut throats.

Tonight I came face to face with a few things I didn’t know about myself as a business owner in the course of the conversation (much of it, incidentally, has been left out here).

I went in feeling almost inadequate – I couldn’t figure out why the hell I got VIP to the cPanel party (which was a sweet gesture, though I didn’t drink at all so I was an awfully cheap date for everyone), or why this person wanted to meet me, or that person blah blah blah. By the end when the offer came I think it just slammed me down to the point I was defensive about my little corner of the world.

After the offer came, and Acquisitions was explaining their acquisitions and how they were maintaining so and so’s bought and paid for brand, they said the thing that suddenly made my head snap up.

They won’t even really notice they were bought.

My customers would notice.

The day that I could sell my little bitty micro company to a corporate behemoth, have them eat my brand and servers and clients, and no one would notice the difference is the day I’ll sell to you. The day it’s more about the money than the sense of achievement and satisfaction I get, the day I stop caring whether people’s sites could crash from a dig because it would eat into my bottom line and start “packing ‘em in” so I can drive a sports car instead of a minivan, I’ll sell out. The day I care more about numbers than clients, more about ROI then integrity and doing it right, the day I care more about monetary success than technological achievement, I’ll give you that call.

But I can tell you one thing, boys – that day isn’t today.

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Don’t Sell a Domain Name Through GoDaddy


16 Jul

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Posted in Random Rants | View Comments

When clients cancel and abandon their names, we put them up for sale on Sedo – I like Sedo. They’re quick, they answer questions, and I had a few domain names that I tried to broker myself and it was just too much hassle. So, we put them on Sedo.

One of our Sedo domains apparently was shown to a GoDaddy client, and GoDaddy sent us an email offering to broker the same between us and their client because that’s how the client wanted to buy. I have a rule to deal with GoDaddy as little as humanly possible after a really horrible experience with the company (cough see this post cough), but it wasn’t that much money so I figured what the heck.

I answered the emails, opened an account just to sell the domain, and did everything I was supposed to do. I added my PayPal account to get paid. All was well. Took about two weeks. Got a transaction completed notification and a fare thee well thanks three days ago.

But no money.

Now, color me crazy, but if the transaction is completed one would think that everyone got what they were supposed to get. Buyer got domain name. GoDaddy got brokers fees. My company gets paid. You know, all the little things that make up a completed sale.

Apparently not.

I waited three days after the completed notification, and waited for the money. I mean, I’m in this industry – sometimes crap gets screwed up, things take time. I got that. But three days? I called to see what was going on.

  1. I called the number given for domain sales.
  2. I pushed the automated button that was supposed to get me to the “Domain Buy Service team”.

I got a regular tech support person, who had to put me on hold for five minutes to talk to the “Domain Buy Service team” to find out why I hadn’t gotten paid because the actual people that do the domain brokerage can’t be spoken to by mere peons.

They don’t have phone extensions, though GoDaddy gives you a number and automated system and directs you to call the “Domain Buy Service team” who you get is actually get is a regular technical support person that doesn’t even have access to the information and who talk back and forth by phone to the people you aren’t allowed to talk to by phone that you were directed to call the number and push the button to speak to.

And general tech support guy will repeatedly sidestep any specific questions you have by repeatedly reminding you he is not, in fact, one of the Domain Buy Service team members.

While telling you they are just technical support, don’t have the information, and no, you can’t talk to the Domain Buy Service team and yes, they realize that the number you called and the buttons you pushed got you to someone who appeared to be in the Domain Buy Service team department even though there is no real actual number to get to the Domain Buy Service team he just keeps saying “I don’t know” as well as that no, he can’t transfer you to the Domain Buy Service team because no one is allowed to speak to them.

Are you serious?

In short, he told me it takes 20 days to be paid from the date they paid GoDaddy and that they hold the domain in escrow until I’m paid. I asked what date they paid, and he didn’t know and couldn’t ask. I asked what they mean by holding the domain in Escrow and he said the buyer wouldn’t have access to the domain until I was paid. When I pointed out they had a site up already, he didn’t answer.

We argued a bit more but, in short, they gave the domain name to their client, they won’t tell you when they were paid, and you’ve already given up your domain to someone else’s use before you ever see a dime. And if you have a problem with the sale well, that’s just tough – you can’t talk to the Domain Buy Service team doing domain brokerage and you can’t have any information on anything because he isn’t the Domain Buy Service team and only they have information.

Yes, ok, I finally Googled the TOS.

Proceeds from a sale will be made to your selected Deposit Account approximately thirty-one (31) days after Buyer’s deposit of funds in connection with such purchase.

My bad. Stupid as hell, and hope they enjoy the interest, but fine. I’m one of the idiots that didn’t read the TOS. Har Har. Joke’s on me.

You know what’s also in the TOS?

5. DISPUTE POLICY

Occasionally, a dispute might arise regarding a transaction begun or completed through the Services. In such instance, you agree to be bound by Go Daddy ‘s Dispute Policy. Go Daddy reserves the right to modify the Dispute Policy at any time, without notice.

Filing a Dispute

To file a dispute, you must submit an email to AuctionDisputes@godaddy.com. The email must include:

  • Your account number;
  • Your name and contact information;
  • The order number associated with the transaction;
  • The domain name over which the dispute arises; and
  • A detailed account of the dispute.

Such email must be received within fifteen (15) days from the sale date.

Date of sale was 7/07, 9 days ago, the date I clicked the little button to agree to sell, so I have until Thursday, July 22, 2010 to file a dispute.

Tech told me to “assume” the completed email is the date they were paid, which was July 13th – so if the 20 days the tech told me is correct, that’s Monday, August 2, 2010, or the 31 days the TOS says puts it at Friday, August 13, 2010.

If they were paid the very same day I agreed (the date of sale), that puts the 20 days at Tuesday, July 27, 2010, and the 31 days by their TOS at Saturday, August 7, 2010.

So, if you don’t get paid 31 days from the sale date, you have 15 days from the date of sale to file a dispute, with every possible payment date being after the dispute deadline? You’re kidding me, right?

That’s cute.

Never again.

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Did you read the TOS?

Life when the Terms aren't clear

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