Renewing an eNom domain via Google

This is the message I sent to Google in response to their automatic email requesting customer response to the Google Wallet experience. I'm a Google fan and run my business and personal life off Google Apps and Gmail, so please don't take this as blanket criticism of Google (or of eNom). 

Here's what happened:

I got a message that it was time to renew a domain registration for cedargroveinvestments.com. This is a start-up that isn't make any money, so I I have not upgraded it to a paid account with Google Apps. It's just a $10 enom domain with autorenew to my business credit card.

I tried to renew, but the credit card I had on file had expired. The card was good but had a new expiration date.

I updated the credit card info in Google Wallet with the new expiration date.

Google still reported that I could not renew. I spent a few hours trying to sort this out before calling Google. I don't want to be a nuisance customer, and to me $10 is coffee not lunch. If I billed my time at $10 per hour, I would have to sell my home and replace my worn-out steel-toed boots or maybe go barefoot and emigrate to South Africa and become a scab in a mine. Not my idea of a smart or a right thing to do. After I had a thousand of my time into renewing a ten dollar domain, and I had reminded myself to go Vegan next month so I didn't get a coronary, I picked up the phone.

I called Google using my credentials for a paid domain that I own. The nice people were wonderful to work with and a credit to Google. They quickly resolved the issue and sent me email confirmations. Wonderful, bright and a joy to work with, they were the best of Googlers.

This was great for me, but it only worked because I could call in as someone who owned a paid Google Apps account. If I'd been someone with nothing but a free Google Apps account and an eNom account, I would have lost the registration to my domain. If I had pinned my future hopes on that domain, then this would have been a tragedy. 

This worked out for me, though it cost me a lot of my time.

My recommendation to eNom and to Google is to set up a hot line for eNom registrants who have similar problems. True, ten dollars per year is not much revenue, but on the other hand, some of these people may have brilliant ideas that will turn into hugely profitable websites in the future, though some of their websites may represent nothing but empty dreams. In any case, this is the right thing to do. Whether it pays off or not, helping people who are trying to help themselves is right. As Stan Lee used to say, "'Nuff said."

All the best,

Peyton Stafford

The Expensive Folly of Tax Incentives

The Expensive Folly of Tax Incentives

An concise, research-based article on the ineffectiveness of tax incentives, such as giving away decades of tax collection in return for the promise of the a new industrial development, parking garage, etc.

Good to see the research supporting what anyone with a brain a rational observer would have thought to begin with.

Bad to see how this strategy has played out and continues to play out.

Wrong to blame elected officials and public servants, when they are really the victims of businesses that demand these breaks and threaten to locate elsewhere if they are not satisfied.

Good, again, to see that if all officials had this perspective, then the tax break arguments would lose their clout, and we could get on with creating real jobs with real employers that pay family wages and don't shirk their community responsibilities.

The Inconsistent Google User Interface

I was going to say a few words about how the color options for Gmail labels don't match the ones for Gcal. (I'm like using colors to identify and distinguish projects, so I want them to be consistent across email, calendar, contacts and task). Gtasks doesn't have color options, and neither does Gcontacts. Wish they did, but even more wish they matched a common standard with Gmail and Gcal. Before I shot off my mouth, I searched for (Googled) "inconsistent colors across google apps" and found that the issue wasn't just with colors. I hadn't been alone in noticing that Google hasn't established conventions across its UIs. I don't know why Google hasn't done this, since I don't see how establishing a specific color palette or deciding whether exiting was done by pressing eXit or by pressing Close could cramp the creativity of coders.

Maybe I'm missing a key idea, here, but it seems to me that providing a consistent coloring scheme across Google Apps would greatly increase the efficiency of those of us who live in G Apps.

As Uninsured Go Without, California Health Districts Hold Reserves - NYTimes.com

As Uninsured Go Without, California Health Districts Hold Reserves - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

I cannot imagine how I would feel if I were in control of millions of tax dollars that were supposed to provide health care for needy citizens, but rather than use them as they were intended, I chose to divert them into "administrative costs" and benefits for my board members.

This situation is not the future I envisioned. It is a dystopian nightmare for the millions of citizens who are living and dying in pain while these California bureaucrats enrich themselves and their (I'm sure very carefully selected) board members prosper at public expense.

Shame on them all. Shame. Shame. Shame.

Penguin Withdraws From Overdrive; Looks For New Library Partners | Publishers Lunch

Penguin Withdraws From Overdrive; Looks For New Library Partners | Publishers Lunch

A good explanation of some of the issue involved in the Overdrive/Amazon/Library/Publisher arrangement. Note that clearly publishers want to work with libraries; they just don't want to have Amazon in the middle.

Math and Science Partnership (MSP) (nsf12518)

Math and Science Partnership (MSP) (nsf12518)

This is your chance to get support for your post-doc project. Jump on it.

GOVERNING Data

GOVERNING Data

Governing now has a graphic display of key data covering economics, energy, public health, politics and other subjects. Raw data is pulled from various sources, such as US Census and NAEP, but then presented in graphs that make it easier to understand.