Kevin Ohashi

I just finished reading The Domain Game by David Kesmodel and it was a very fun read (A huge thanks goes to Tim Davids who sent me a copy of this book!). I am in awe of how Kesmodel found enough material to write so much. It was published in ~2007 which made it especially interesting because not much has changed since he has written it. The biggest thing that came to mind was the domain tasting loophole was closed and the new gTLDs. Other than that, it's still relevant.

The same issues plague us, mainly surrounding trademark infringement / cybersquatting. I kept reading statement's from these big portfolio holders over and over about how it's hard to actually filter an entire portfolio and keep it clean.

I was trying to sign up for an Google AdWords accounts today and wanted to get some free money (seriously, always look for a coupon code for when you buy/signup for things!)

I could only find expired offers that had come in the mail (they never are valid when I want it seems) so I was off to the searches. Google apparently does not like people sharing codes and ties them to an account.

So, where might I be able to find a free coupon code? A little google fu led me to this: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.google.com/ads/offers. A list of all their offers through partners/programs.

I realized I use some of those services (Google Analytics, thanks!). So I checked my Analytics email account and voila! Coupon code still valid (you can see when coupons expired if you click on the offers at the bottom).

I failed with Taxonomy Menu and Menu Block. I couldn't get them to work, the menu appeared in the admin but never showed up in the menu block. I am not sure where the problem was but I wasn't alone with this issue.

I thought perhaps Views could create a view based on taxonomy terms. Failure.

What I did find was some nice code that allowed you to create a PHP code block that did exactly what I wanted.

Simply create a new block, paste in this code, make sure $vid is set to your proper taxonomy, change input type to PHP (enable php filter in modules if it's not showing), save. Add the block wherever you like!

<?php
 
$vid = 1;  // Set the vid to the vocabulary id of the vocabulary you wish to list the terms from
$items = array();
$terms = taxonomy_get_tree($vid);

I realized it's been probably a decade since I last spent money on music (buying one of the <10 CDs I've bought in my life). Today, I found myself troubled, my Spotify travel use ran out. After 14 days I could no longer use it without paying. I lasted 24 hours before I paid for an account (49SEK/month ~ $7/month).

Spotify has truly changed the way I behave and consume music. After over two years on a free account, I don't have a music collection, I have spent countless hours crafting my playlists, sharing with friends and finding them on the web. Access to all that was taken from me and I didn't know what to do.

If any music startup could really kill it, I am betting on Spotify, I am in love and as of today, a paying customer. The iPod changed the way we listen to music on the go, Spotify changed the way I consume music at home, parties and with friends. Any song on demand, what could be better?

I was talking with a friend last night and some of the Twitter Bots I wrote in the past came up (i.e. @StupidBot) and I noticed some odd behavior. First, they seemed broken.

I started to try and fix them today and found out basic authentication has been deprecated and can no longer be used since August 16, 2010.

But wait?

I noticed some of my bots posted after that.

It worked
August 16-31
September 1,14,28
October 21-22
November 5-8

August and September 1 they probably didn't turn it off at the deadline. Now the rest of the updates... the September 14,28 are 2 weeks apart exactly. Maybe some type of update/test? After that, I cannot explain. There is no obvious pattern, it seems to turn on for different lengths of time.

For now though, I need to go back and figure out OAuth and re-write a bunch of my applications so they start working again. :(

Anyone know any more about this? Any theories?

I am finally migrating over to a new address for my blog. The old one can be still be seen at Ohashi.info. The even older one can be seen at Ohashi.us.

Why the change? A lot of things have changed in my life, I have moved and I have finished grad school. It's time to change the blog and write more seriously. I have a consulting job writing at MO.com, I am still freelancing, I still dabble with domain names but I want to start my own 'real' company as well.

The idea I am working on new is a B2B service to help with lead generation and the quality of those leads. More details will come as they get ironed out.