Inbox Zero

I think Merlin Mann has gotten it right - there IS a plan to get my email under control! He refers to it as Inbox Zero, and I think there are PLENTY of folks out there right now that can use it. He freely admits that much of his system comes from David Allen and his book "Getting Things DONE" - which all ties back to something I was a proponent of in the late 90's, BEFORE Allen's book! My term was "Get Stuff Done!", although I used another 'S' word when I was REALLY fired up!

So, if you've sent me an email recently, you might have hit my DMZ...but don't worry! I WILL get to it, because of all the massive gains in productivity I'll be experiencing! :)

Post-Move Review

As you may (or may not?) know, this past weekend we moved our primary application servers from one data center to another. We started about Midnight EDT on Friday and had MOST everything back up by 6:00 AM EDT on Saturday. We did have a few linger issues on some pictures for a few MLSs until just after Noon EDT on Saturday, but it was all cleared up after that - at least as far as the IDX plugins for web sites and stand-alone web sites themselves.

It took a little longer for a few things like email and DNS to propogate all of the changes, since we did have to change IP addresses for all of the servers, but that just the nature of that type of change - it takes time for all of that to disseminate throughout the rest of the Internet.

So far, the servers seem to like it in their new home: plenty of bandwidth and nice, cool, dry air to breathe! The ONLY odd thing I discovered so far is that the IP addresses we were given may have been used formerly by someone who delved into the world of SPAMMING, because I found that at least a couple of large ISPs and "blacklists" had the IP address of our primary mail server listed from late February/early March - BEFORE we moved over there! So, I've put things in place to help get around this.

Thank you all very much for bearing with us during the move!

The Internet Is Simple

Sometimes, the Internet can be SO simple.

So terribly, horribly, MADDENINGLY simple.

So simple as the little link that appears at the bottom of our customers' web sites or IDX search pages. The one that links back to the ListingWare home page.

This little link is much bigger than it seems. And it's not just that it's there, but HOW it's there.

For years, that simple little link has toiled away in anonimity, at least as far as search engines would know. Because for years, I've had it down there so that humans could read it, and using JavaScript techniques, control the link opening in a new window and sizing the window properly.

But because I used the JavaScript technique rather than a simple HREF link, search engine robots couldn't figure out what it was and IGNORED IT! So the THOUSANDS of web sites and IDX searches that we've been hosting all this time haven't benefitted us at all, at least as far as being found in search engines!

So, I've fixed that, and learned a valuable lesson, the benefit of which I can hopefully pass on to you, our customers, also.

So simple...(grumble...)