Crossing the border

I have transferred domain name registration from Network Solutions to Hover in Canada (a division of TUCOWS). The greatest complicating factor was that Network Solutions' database allows for middle name / initial and Hover didn't. Oddly, for one domain somehow my last name got changed to "A Lamb" which may have been someone's idea of a bad joke. Oh, there were some other minor details like my admin email address wasn't up to date, so I wasn't getting the transfer authorization. Hopefully all is well now.

Big Guns

Ruh-roh... Had a conversation with a programmer in Seattle, who broke the news to me... There was a rather lackluster site called thinklocal (just like mine but no hyphen). I didn't really see the site going anywhere, though it did have a few random listings (but why would anyone go there, with just a few random listings?)

Gulp! What was that? That was the sound of that site being purchased by Network Solutions (huge company). So now, Network Solutions offers not just domain names, but also they'll create an e-commerce site for you AND they'll list your site in thinklocal. That's why Network Solutions bought thinklocal.

That also means if I do anything similar with think-local, I might have a legal fight with Network Solutions, and I'm sure they have more attorneys than I do!

dot-biz in England

Yes!! The web developers I shared my goals with in England have at least done something that makes me happy to see. They are no longer using think-local.biz, and are now re-directing that URL to a new one.

Some Tenderloin streets updated

I have updated the business listings on the following Tenderloin streets:
Fell
Golden Gate
Grove
Hayes

I also fixed my scripts so businesses that don't exist any more won't leave blank spaces on the list. If you go to this page, and select one of the streets listed above, you'll see a complete listing of businesses in the Tenderloin neighborhood for those streets.These files have been removed.

Note: this script doesn't seem to work on iPads and many smart phones. I have made another script that does, but haven't connected it to the updated database yet.

Australian interlopers

Crap. I discover that the government of Queensland has registered think-local.com.au to use for posting jobs in Queensland. When you think of think-local.com.au do you think of Queensland? I don't. I think of the entire nation.

Back in the Tenderloin

Fay and I walked the streets of the Tenderloin to verify which businesses still existed. We only covered a few streets, in the worst parts of the Tenderloin. I had the silly notion she might come back and do some of the less urine-soaked, crack-infested streets on her own.

Ha. She has no interest in walking around the Tenderloin with a clipboard.

think-local.biz

Upon discovering that think-local.biz has been acquired by someone in England, I try to find out their plans. It turns out a borough is planning to use the site to promote local businesses - only for their borough. Good idea, but a waste of a good domain name.

I discuss the issue with the government officials (who make decisions at a snail's pace), and find out the name of their web developer.

I share my ideas with the web developers, and they respond with over-the-top enthusiasm. But the talk is of writing a business plan and venture capital - top down, instead of my more organic grass roots approach.

I am hoping that I just might hire the developers myself, but they seem to have their hands full re-vamping the government site.

Shop in Berkeley

I meet with Lee Trampleasure, who has been running ShopinBerkeley.com. I am surprised to find that Lee is not using a database-driven site. He is tired of updating all of his links. He also believes it is foolish to try to compete with Yelp! and Google is now jumping onto the local bandwagon, so as far as he's concerned, the game is over. Like me, he has a day job, and this is a part-time gig. Unlike me, he was actually making money at it for awhile, but now his income on the site comes from google ad links? What's wrong with that picture?

What is the internet?

As I go around to local small business owners in my neighborhood of Evergreen, I find that most of them don't know much about the internet, nor why they should be represented there. I talk to the publishers of a neighborhood business directory, telling them they should migrate their directory online. They seem angry, and say they have no interest in going online, nor of collaborating.

Undaunted, I launch my site, viewable here through the Internet Archive.

The original logo

In the beginning, I didn't have a graphics program, so the logo had to be simple. This is the first logo.

The name think-local

The name think-local came in consultation with a former employer, Judy Tretheway. She owned a local neighborhood newspaper. Originally I was going to collaborate with her. By the time I was up to speed with HTML, she had sold the newspaper and people were heavily into JAVA for writing pages. Since at that time, not all browsers supported JAVA, I decided to stick with HTML.

Think Local is started

Think local was started in 1997. I was "between jobs," and my old Kaypro computer was reaching the end of its usefulness. My brother, taking pity on me, sent me one of his old Windows computers. I can't remember if I paid him for this, but for some reason, $300 pops into my head.

I was never a programmer, but just for fun I played around with BASIC, and later took a FORTRAN class in school. Once I found out HTML was the language used for web pages, I bought books and started studying it. Back then, there were no graphic designers on the internet, so just a simple HTML page would not be laughed at.