Ash K. Gilpin

Traineo is a health and fitness support site where users report their weight, diet, and exercise daily to a group of friends who help monitor and support one another. Traineo is not what I would consider a social networking site because, unlike MySpace, the goal is not to have as many friends as possible. The goal is to have a select group who you trust to help you through the drudgery of staying in shape.

The workout logs are also quite simple. You select from the types of workouts available, tell it how long you did it for, and how intense you felt it was. For example, I told Traineo that I wanted to lose five pounds and the weigh-in lets me give regular updates to track my progress.

Users that are a bit less shy about their progress can join larger support groups, either the sponsored ones, or ones that revolve around different demographics like mothers or tech enthusiasts.

Traineo was written by some pretty fit software developers. A number of athletes work for the company, including McLean-Foreman who has represented Great Britain in track and was the Harvard track captain in 2004.

The new AskCity product, which combines Ask.com’s existing maps product (overhauled last February) with deep local content (information, reviews, etc.) and very good search, might just be my new go to source for maps and local business information.

The reason that AskCity has such good content is that they’ve taken it from CitySearch, another service owned by parent company IAC. CitySearch has ten years of local content, and that is now deeply integrated with Ask’s maps product.

Key categories are Businesses and Services, Events, Movies, and Maps & Directions. The three pane interface allows users to conduct multiple searches, revise itineraries, create multi-point driving or walking directions (only Yahoo and Ask offer multi-point directions). Restaurant reservations are linked via OpenTable, event tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster (another IAC property) and soon they will integrate movie ticket purchases through Fandango. Searches can be refined by neighborhood, cuisine or movie genre.

Ask Users can also pin items (events, places) onto a map, draw their own notes on the map, and send a permalink to the customized map to friends for printing or for their comments.

 
Photo by Donna Barnett

A cargo container that apparently fell from a ship washed up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina today and spilled thousands of bags of Doritos brand tortilla chips on the beach. Scavengers collected the chips, which were apparently still fresh due to their airtight packaging. It was unknown which ship had lost the cargo or to what port it was bound.

 
Photo by Barbara Satterthwaite

The cargo container apparently fell off a ship at sea and broke open.

This is an update to my orginal AGLOCO post. 

No Spyware In The Viewbar

AGLOCO Viewbar will have absolutely no spyware. The Viewbar tracks your Internet surfing and serves advertising based on the web page you’re visiting. Everything the Viewbar tracks will be spelled out in the privacy statement. This is really nothing new. Many other toolbars, like Google’s, already track surfing habits. In addition, the Viewbar will offer privacy and phishing protection and an uninstaller should you wish to remove it for any reasons.

1 Hour Of Surf Time = 1 AGLOCO Share

In the beginning of this program, AGLOCO will be rewarding members with shares of the company. 1 hour of surfing time equals 1 share of the company. Members will be able to accumulate 5 shares per month based on the current limits. Members will get 0.25 shares per hour for people in their network. How much will those shares be worth? Maybe zero, maybe millions. It really depends on how fast the network grows and how well management handles this growth.

As AGLOCO starts to earn income from the Viewbar, members will be able to trade their hours for cash as well as shares. The amount per hour will be adjusted periodically to reflect income earned and company net worth. After a successful IPO, surf hours will mostly trade for cash, but shares will still be available. However, don’t expect to get 1 share per hour at that time.

Personally, I am hoping AGLOCO grows like crazy and attracts the attention of the big boys (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc). Instead of doing an IPO, the company will be like YouTube, and get bought out. However, unlike the YouTube deal, the AGLOCO members will make big money on it. YouTube got huge because of their user base, yet the users got nothing of the $1.65 billion that Google paid.

Give it a try, you can sign up here - it’s completely FREE.

Over the past 4+ years, Google Answers project has had over 800 participants - a passionate group of individuals committed to helping people find the information they need and sharing their incredible knowledge to others.

Google Answers taught us exactly how many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline, why flies survive a good microwaving, and why you really shouldn’t drink water emitted by your air conditioner.  Unfortunately, Google Answers won’t be accepting any new questions; however, the existing questions and answers are still available.

Although Google Answers will be closing its doors on new Q’s and A’s - the experiment did provide a lot of material for future product developments.

AllAdvantage is back! For those of you who don’t know, AllAdvantage was a site that paid you to surf the Internet. What’s more, it paid you when you refer other people to surf, and paid you again if those people referred other people - all the way down to four levels.

AllAdvantage 2.0 also has a new name, AGLOCO, which stands for A Global Community. This time, the founders are doing things a bit differently. They said that AllAdvantage failed the last time because the timing, not the concept, was bad. Perhaps they’re right, and there is certainly nothing wrong with trying again. If they can sign up as many people as they did last time, and the advertising market doesn’t implode, I say they will have a good chance of success.

The AGLOCO Viewbar

 

The Viewbar that is installed at the bottom of your web browser is back but instead of paying a flat fee per hour like the last time, it will give you a share of income the Viewbar earns. In addition, that income may be paid in stocks as well as cash. This avoids the mistake of paying out more than they make, which is the mistake that AllAdvantage made.

The Viewbar features privacy protection, spyware protection, phishing protection, member IM and voice communications, RSS feeds, broadcast communication, community tips and other functions.

Sharing income with users is nothing new. Tons of sites and many revenue sharing forums do that already. What is unique about AGLOCO is their multi-leveling marketing model.

Multi-Level Network Marketing

When you run the AGLOCO Viewbar, AGLOCO will pay to you to surf the web (currently up to 5 hours per month). Once the five hours are up, you can turn the Viewbar off until next month. However, you also make money on every hour the people that you referred surf the web, and income is made for every hour for people they referred down to 4 levels. There is no cap on how much you can make because of this.

According to the AGLOCO member calculator, if you sign up 20 people and those referrals sign up 5 people, and those sign up five all the way down the 4 four levels, you would earn 19,530.00 per month! However, that figure is not a dollar amount - it reflects earnings in both cash and stock of the company. The stock price has yet to be determined.

AGLOCO plans to be a 100% member owned company. The amount of shares you own will relate to the amount of people you refer. The company will share advertising and affiliate revenues with its members. Assuming it gives 50% of all revenue to members in cash, the other 50% is held by the company. Of the 50% held, company management gets 10% as their fee for running the place. The remaining amount will then be distributed to company shareholders (the members) as dividends.

Once you sign up you will be given a user ID. Use this ID to sign up other people. The easier way to do that is the put the ID into the URL. For example. http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBB3103 is my URL. Just replace the BBBB3103 with your ID and you’ll get credit for all signs from your link.

You can sign up for AGLOCO here.

I’m sure all business owners can relate - moving into an office can be a nightmare.  However, there are companies out there that swear to you the process is quick and easy…probably just to get the sale.  This is exactly what happened to me.  If you didn’t know, I own and operate a web development company, Eyepinch, Inc.  I have had the luxury of working out of my home office for years; however, my business has grown to service more than 120 clients.  With success and growth comes expansion.  In helping to expand my business I have just moved into a new office and hired on my first employee to help with my every day tasks and lighten some of my workload.

Anyhow, having an office is one thing.  Moving into the office is this whole other beast.  One day I was out at Office Max shopping for office supplies.  One of the sales representatives noticed my full cart and asked if I was moving into an office in which I replied, “yes.”  He went on to tell me that Office Max is a full service organization and could help me with whatever office supplies I need, furniture and other related items.  Knowing that I needed furniture and having been told by the representative that they could come out to measure, help make decisions on the best furniture that would utilize the space I to work with and install everything, I reluctantly agreed.  Here’s where the fun began.

The first time they had scheduled to come out - I was stood up.  Apparently, the gentleman that was supposed to come out to my office to take the measurements decided to quit his job that day.  Unfortunately for me, no one there deemed it necessary to call me and let me know. I made myself available only to waste 45 minutes of my time that day.  Note: my office was completely empty at this time.  I couldn’t function out of the office with no furniture.  Therefore, going to the office and waiting on anyone was quite the inconvenience.

Anways, back to the story, I was able to get a hold of the store manager at the nearest Office Max.  He put me in touch with another Office Max that was more equipped to handle my furniture needs.  Note: there was plenty of phone tag between all of the people I was dealing with in this matter - only to add to my frustration.  After a couple of days I was finally able to get in touch with a gentleman that was able to come out and take all the measurements needed.  He came on out (showed up on time which was a plus) and took his measurements and helped me choose the furniture I wanted.  It took roughly 24 hours to get the quote.  So, the day after I received the quote I went to the store to make my purchase.  Because it was such a large order, the sales associate said they had to open a register just for my order.  After 20 minutes, they were finally ready to ring me up.  I provided all of my information and various coupons.  Apparently, the large order caused a malfunction in the computer system each and every time the entire order was filled and was ready to be placed.  After 30 minutes of this, it was discovered that the computer would not take the order because of restrictions on how many discounts could be made on a single purchase.  So, the attendent had to go to the back office and place the order there.  All together, this wasted about 1 and a half hours of my day.

About a week and half later I got a call from a delivery driver that some furniture was being delivered and he was waiting there at my office.  Funny, because I distinctly remember telling Office Max that I was not moved into the office and to call first before delivering so that I could make myself available.  Instead, I had to rush over to the office to let the delivery driver unload some of my ordered goods.  He delivered my chairs and two keyboard trays for my two desks (main office and receptionist desk).

About 2 weeks after this, the same thing happened.  I received a phone call from the delivery drivers saying that they were waiting infront of my office.  So of course, I had to immediately drop what I was working on to go to the office and let them in to unload and install my furniture.  During the install, the hutch on the receptionist desk was installed incorrectly.  One of the cabinets was misaligned and not flush with the others.  The installer tried to make the adjustment but it didn’t take and he made it pretty apparent that he didn’t have the time to spend working on it.  Then in my office, I had ordered two desks.  One was a regular and then other was to be a bow-front desk.  Well, they ended up delivering two regular desks.  They had to take one back so that it could be replaced with the bow-front I ordered.  Lastly, they told me that they wouldn’t install the two keyboard trays on the two desks because they keyboard trays were delivered on a different date.  Apparently, the installers are only allowed to install whatever is on the truck for that day.  This of course coming as a huge surprise to me because I paid for everything to be installed.  I called Office Max to let them know of the mix up with my desk, the problem with the cabinet on the hutch, the problem with the keyboard trays not being installed and also pointed out that my metal file storage cabinet was not delivered.

Two days later I get a phone call; yes, once again a delivery driver was there and I had to stop what I was doing to let him into the office.  This time it was my metal file storage cabinet.  This thing was huge and quite heavy.  There was only one delivery driver and myself to get this thing in the doorway and up the stairs.  After doing so (25 minutes later - sheesh!), we get it up the stairs and I took it out of the box only to find a humungous dent on the side of the thing.  I did my best to bang it out, but no luck.  I had to call Office Max back to let them know that storage cabinet was damaged and needed to be replaced.  At this point, there had been so many problems that they got corporate involved and then I began getting phone calls from all sorts of people.  Each person telling me different things and asking me questions - just confusing a guy!  I was informed that all would be taken care of and to wait patiently while they get things settled.

About a week later, they sent the same guy who originally did the measurements for my office furniture to install the keyboard trays.  At least at this point, I was able to function out of the office since I had a desk to work on. 

Two weeks later, I finally received my desk; however, the delivery guy was not ordered to install the desk.  Apparently, the desk was to be installed by another company.  He was able to make the required adjustment on the hutch cabinet.  It’s still not completely flush, but close enough.

Two weeks later, today - yes, a Saturday, I finally get a call saying that my bow front desk could be installed.  I met up with the installer at my office at 1pm.  20 minutes later, he was all done.  So basically, it took them two weeks from the desks’ delivery to do a 20 minute installation job.  I’ve still yet to have my metal file storage cabinet replaced nor have I heard anything back from Office Max in regards to it.  Hence, I will need to call them AGAIN and find out what the hold up has been and when I can expect them to remedy the situation.

This has by far been the worst service I have ever received from any company.  And to think, a company like Office Max…you think of them as this large and reputable company that “takes it to the Max.”  They’ve done anything but.  I haven’t even been offered any refund or compensation in any way for all of these mishaps and inconveniences.  I can tell you this, I don’t plan on using Office Max for any of my future business needs.  Office Depot is looking pretty good to me now.

For those of you who don’t really know me, I’m a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit fiend. Having had bacon, egg and cheese biscuits at every fast food chain around Virginia Beach I’ve found that Hardees has the best tasting biscuits by far. Their made from scratch biscuits are a little taste of heaven.

I’d have to say that nearly all of my experiences at Hardees have been pleasurable ones except for today. Me and Dexter (my dog) pulled up to the drive through this morning at around 9:50am to place my order of a #3 combo upsized to a large with an additional bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. I only had two cars in front of me.  The first one was in and out of there.  The car infront of me had to pull up to the marked line ahead to wait for their meal.  I had to pull up beside them.  After 18 minutes the car beside me finally got their food with my food not arriving until 3 minutes after that.  That’s 21 minutes, folks.  By far the longest wait I’ve ever had to endure at a fast food restaurant.

However, there is a bright side to my experience.  Upon receipt of my morning tasties, I brought up the fact to the person that delivered the goods that I had been waiting for over 21 minutes.  She went inside and came back out with a refund.  At least they are all about making their customers happy.  Now that I’ve got a full stomach and wallet - all is right with the world.

This is an interesting site. It’s relatively new due to the current lack of license plate’s submitted. Anyhow, it seems like a pretty cool idea. Here’s how it goes, typically when you are on the road you will see other vehicles around you that have vanity plates. Well, have you ever wondered what that vanity plate meant? For vanity plate owners, Explain Your Plate is where you go to submit the meaning or story behind your plate. For curious minds, Explain Your Plate is where you go to read the meaning or story behind a plate. I think this could probably be quite the popular site if it catches on and word spreads to the masses.

Actor Jack Palance, who often played a craggy-face menace in films and won an Oscar for “City Slickers,” died Friday of natural causes in his home in Montecito, California, surrounded by his family. Known for hard, grizzled roles in numerous Westerns during his six-decade career, Palance gained a second wind of fame when he won the best supporting actor Oscar for playing Curly in “City Slickers.”

His acting break came after the war as Marlon Brando’s understudy in “Streetcar Named Desire.” He replaced Brando on stage as Stanley Kowalski, a working class construction worker with a fierce temper in Tennessee Williams’ classic play. 

Palance was nominated for an Academy Award in 1952 after portraying the ardent lover who stalks a terrified Joan Crawford in “Sudden Fear.” In 1953, the Academy nominated him again for his role as Jack Wilson, the swaggering gunslinger who bullies peace-loving Alan Ladd into a barroom duel in the Western classic “Shane.”

Palance also won an Emmy Award, for a role on “Playhouse 90,” in 1957.

He is survived by his wife, Elaine Rogers; two children by his first wife, Holly Palance and Brook Palance Wilding; his brother, John; sister, Anne Despiva; and three grandchildren.