Go Green with 2Geckos

2Geckos websites are 300% green!!

Our webhost pulls energy from the grid just like every web hosting company in order to make sure that they have a constant power flow for their servers and to make sure the servers would not be interrupted by a lack of power.

In order to compensate for the power we pull from the grid they purchase wind energy credits for wind power, 3 times the amount of energy used by their servers.

     

Our webhost has been inducted into the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership.  "The invitation to join the EPA's Green Power Partnership is truly an honor and reinforces our passion and commitment to be a leading green web hosting service provider. Our efforts over the past several years to being an eco-friendly company are gaining further recognition outside of the web hosting industry we serve and we are proud to be doing our part to help businesses, organizations and individuals go green with their web site hosting."

2Geckos Office is Solar Powered!!!

Solar Topps LLC  installs the highest quality USA and German manufactured, zero-loss power tolerance solar modules and Power-One inverters have the highest rated efficiency (97%) and the highest temperature rating (122 degrees F) in the industry. Power-One Inverters are made in the US.

Solar Topps Guaranteed Solar Power Production  The power production for every single solar power array that is installed is guaranteed.

Lowest Price Guarantee  If you can find a better price on a comparable solar electric system, Solar Topps will be more than happy to match it and beat it by at least $500 on either a solar lease or a solar panel system purchase.    Please tell then 2Geckos sent you!

Nokia Lumia 822 by Verizon

Today I upgraded to Windows Phone 8 with the Nokia Lumia 822 on Verizon

To completed the upgrade I had to lose my Unlimited data my service plan.

The new Share Everything plan is $80/mth, additional smartphone or device is $40mth.

Share Everything plan on Verizon Wireless
We give you more flexibility with Unlimited Talk and Text. Make all the calls you want at any time of the day and send texts, pictures or video messages without any overage charges. And that's not all. Pay one Monthly Account Access charge + a Monthly Line Access $40 per device to share data, talk and text across all the devices on your account.

I picked the smallest 300MB service plan because I’ve had my Android phone for a while, my 6 month data usage averaged 50MB/mth and I use my phone EVERY day but I’m using Wi-Fi data connection when home and use other Wi-Fi connections when visiting friends and clients.  Using a Wi-Fi logging tool to find hotspots then overlaid the Open Wi-Fi hotspots on Google Maps (click to see them)

I still need to use my Verizon data when on the road but by preloading maps the usage stays very low.   Verizon has several tiers of data plans and it can be easily change.  So when going on a trip I may want to increase my data usage until I get back.

These are some of the specs that caught my attention.

8MP Auto Focus Rear–Facing camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar® Lens and Dual–LED Flash

Wide angle lens f/2.2, 26mm – 16:9 28mm – 4:3, 1/3.2" camera sensor

Smart Shoot, Panorama, & Cinemagraph Lenses

16GB internal memory, Supports up to 64GB microSD card

Dual core 1.5GHz processor & 1GB of RAM

4.3", WVGA, Nokia ClearBlack OLED Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2 display,

800x480 resolution, 24 bit, 16M colors

Usage Time – up to 15.07 hrs /  Standby Time – up to 20.25 days

Casa Grande housing market

I've been getting contacted by realtors, similar homes in my neighborhood are now selling for up to 20% from last year. http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Casa_Grande-Arizona/market-trends/

 

"Sales prices have depreciated 33.9% over the last 5 years in Casa Grande.

The average listing price for Casa Grande homes for sale on Trulia was

$151,069 for the week ending Nov 07,"

 

And the good news is that there was a Arizona ballot measure, Proposition 117 - passed, that restricts property tax increases to 5% per year

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Arizona_Property_Tax_Assessed_Valuation_Amendment,_Proposition_117_%282012%29

 

New gadget: Camera WiFi adapter

I came across this on Amazon, its standard size SHHC memory card, like what you use in your camera, with Wi-Fi.  http://www.eye.fi/products#product_comparison

 

Eye-Fi Pro X2 8 GB Class 6 SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-8PC

Amazon has a 8GB Pro version for $70

 

Has auto-transfer mode that transfers your camera photos directly to your tablet/phone/computer, has 8GB storage but will auto-delete from camera after transferred to other device.    You plug it into your computer to configure it, then put them SDHC memory card in the camera.

 

Evaluating SEO services

At 2Geckos we manage 74 area websites and are always looking for better ways to promote our clients websites, shopping carts, blogs, RSS feeds, and other web-based media.

 

My latest test was with Attracta www.attracta.com

They have an attractive / easy to navigate website, they offer several free services and moderately priced paid SEO and Marketing Tools with support for multiple websites.  The next day I was contacted by Glenn Titolo, with a low pressure sales pitch and flowed up with more information and a 1yr free premium service.   I then listed 30 of my managed websites to evaluate the effectiveness of their services.

 

We use Google Analytics to track visitor statistics, this allows us to do a traffic comparisons with previous months & years and referrers (incoming links from other websites).

 

We began Oct 6th as of today there have been only 4 hits from their web crawler and no change in traffic. Attracta’s Link Building service states that there should be 3 backlinks to my website.

 

They have a submission tool that submits sitemaps to the major search engines.

·         Yahoo has not accepted sitemaps or website submissions for more than a year. Their webmaster tool tells you that they use the Bing search engine.

·         Ask.com no longer accepts sitemaps, http://submissions.ask.com is no longer available.  your website will only be scanned if you include a link on your website.

 

I’ve contacted Attracta about my concerns but they have not responded.

 

I’m disappointed but would like to believe that they are improving their services and will keep a few websites listed on their service to monitor their SEO tools for a few months.

 

I will continue to look for cost effective services that can deliver on their promises and keep learning about SEO.  Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science, businesses are always trying to game the system so Google and other search engines have to become more and more sophisticated to detect them.

 

 

Review of 1and1.com services

I admit that I’ve never personally used 1&1 but have only spoken to ex-clients and 1and1.com tech support but 1and1.com pisses me off.

My client had registered domains with them but won't release the domains for transfer. We tried for a year to get them released.  We decided to wait for them to expire and waited 3 months for them to expire when we found out that 1&1 sold them to www.biglizarddomains.com

These are the bottom feeders of the internet. They buy up domains to sell them back to you.

1&1 transferred the domains to BigLizardDomains because they thought we wanted them.

1&1 offer extremely low introductory pricing, as low $1 to register domains to draw in the bargain hunters so they can rape them later. 

Using Dropbox to control a FileMaker Kiosk

I was recently asked to develop a Kiosk for the lobby of Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce.We developed a standalone FileMaker 11 Pro Adv Kiosk application that is relatively simple.

It displays a rotating menu of items in the FM webviewer including webpages,  photos or and videos. In addition all activity is logged.

The Chamber Kiosk is a standalone device with a wireless connection and may not always be on-line. Our Chamber Kiosk application was designed as a  Kiosk with local administration and for Remote management using Dropbox to exchange menu content and visitor log files. 

By installing a Dropbox folder on the Kiosk and another Dropbox folder on the workstation that will be managing the Kiosk they can transfer menu and visitor log files, in FileMaker format.

When you run the Chamber Kiosk application for the first time. it asks is this is a Kiosk or Management console. 

Kiosk Mode In Kiosk mode it will load, export visitor activity logs and begin cycling through its menu content.

At intervals of about 10min it checks to see if a new menu content file has been deposited in its Dropbox. If update are detected then they are imported, error checked, then replace existing menu content. At the same time the current Activity logs are exported to the Kiosk Dropbox.

The 360Works ScriptMaster function, CallScriptAtScheduledTime, is used to schedule the Windows Shutdown.exe command to power off Kiosk in 120 sec, it allows the Kiosk application time to close down cleanly. The Kiosk’s computer is programmed to automatically boot up at 8am M-F and auto start the FileMaker Kiosk. 

Management console In Management console mode you can edit menu content, view visitor statistics, and other Kiosk controls. Supports internet connected PC, laptop, MAC, and any iOS device.

• Control the End of Day shutdown time
• Speed that content is displayed
• Time to wait when Visitor is using Kiosk

Credits and resources

• Dropbox.com
• 360works.com/ScriptMaster/ free, general-purpose plug-in for file utilities.
• FileMaker.com, developers of FileMaker Pro Advanced
• Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce

If anyone is interested in a locked or unlocked copy, please let me know.

2Geckos Consulting www.2Geckos.com
(520) 709-2079 or (602) 325-4862
2Geckos has been serving the technology needs of Arizona businesses since 1987
We offer a wide range of services for all of your business needs.

Poachers

Maybe I’m old fashioned but businesses should strive for win-win relationships with their clients.

I’m a small business person, enjoy working with other small businesses and have been fairly successful. My business has grown about 15% per year since 2004 and many of my clients have been with me for over 5 years.

 

My beef is with Poachers, business that prey upon their competitor’s clients.  This has been happening more often to me and is annoying. 

I expected this when I was in business in Phoenix but in Casa Grande I’ve tried to get to know my clients and provide them the services they need and a reasonable cost.

 

I believe in Win-Win business relationships, if one of the parties believes it’s not a Win-Win for them, then with them well and try to learn from it.   It’s just business.

 

I believe in the Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce tag line.

“Dollars spent locally re-circulate locally and help to support and sustain our community.”