Archives for December 2005

The past month or so, I’ve been working on revaming our Free Blog Hosting service. When the new version of the script came out, I decided to re-launch the service under a new name and brand. The new service is called Blovi.com. I’m really happy with how the site is turning out so far. It has many features, such as free blogging with over 50 customizable templates, the ability to podcast and moblog, as well as forums and photo galleries.

Now I’m working on marketing the site. I’ve had Jack write up a blurb about it on ISpyJack.com, as well as exchanging links with a few other sites. But I’m going to try a new marketing tactic. One that is tried and true in many industries, and that is submitting a Press Release. Right now, I’m researching what all should go into a press release, and will be submitting it to PRweb soon.

It’s kind of exciting, doing a press release, yet it’s daunting at the same time. Since so many news agencies will be looking at it, and possibly publishing it, it seems like a big task. Well, I hope all goes well.

Today I stopped by a local computer shop, Rockbochs Inc. My friend Chad runs the place, and he gets the best prices on stuff anywhere in town, and even online at times. Well I stopped by to pick up a couple older computers from him. P3 450mhz and the like for about $20 each to use as development boxes for testing various setups/software before implementing it on our regular servers.

While I was there, I asked Chad if he had any older, cheap laptops. I wanted a laptop to run linux on to use as a test machine. Run network diagnostics etc on it to scan our client’s networks for vulnerabilities. He didn’t have any old laptops, but he had a cheap one. So I ended up getting a brand new Dell Inspiron 1200 from him. It’s a 1.3ghz CeleronM, 256 ram, 30gb HD, 14″ screen etc. It’s not the fastest car on the block, but it will do the job. And at the price of $550, I couldn’t complain.

One of the problems of shopping at Rockbochs, is that you can buy stuff from them for so cheap, that you end up spending more money because you buy more. In the past 6 months, I’ve spent thousands at Rockbochs. Buying things like my Digital Camera (Cannon S500, 5.0 Megapixel), a 19″ Dell LCD monitor, and 2 17″ Viewsonic LCD Monitors, the Rack we now use in the office to house some local servers, oh and the Xbox we use to host www.xbochs.com. I also go to Rockbochs to buy equipment for clients. I’ve gotten at least 4 UPS’s from them for use with various consulting clients, as well as other various hardware/comptuer purchases.

Now I get to configure my new laptop, I’m installing Open SUSE 10 on it. It will be a nice new tool and toy.