Joe D’Ambrose

One of the things thats so interesting about my line of work is that I get to work with such diverse clientèle, from sports teams to software companies; academic associations to furniture makers. Last year was a really fun year for my web development company as our website portfolio grew from 5 websites to more than 20.

2007, though, is off to a very exciting start. Since January 1st, we have already launched 4 new websites! First, Flip Auto, a new company that helps people sell their used cars. Next, we became the official web developer for the Mens and Womens National basketball teams of Cape Verde and launched CVhoops.com, which is sponsored by Citizens Bank. We also created new websites for the New England Sociological Association as well as a real-estate website at Middletown Revival.

Things are not slowing down. Within the next few months we will be announcing the launch of these new website projects that are currently in the works:

• Worldwide Medical Technologies: With headquarters in Oxford, Connecticut, Worldwide Medical Technologies is a leader in providing high performance medical instruments to cancer centers and hospitals around the world.
• Strive for Five Football Camp: The Lorenzo Perry summer football camp, founded and organized by Dan Klotz. Also known as Strive 4 5/SF 2, a free program organized by volunteers from Bryant University and LaSalle Academy. It is offered to young men and women, ages 10-12, from Providence, RI.
• Encore Décor: Our first client from Canada, this Encore Decor is Ottawa’s Best Consignment Store, specializing in marketing high end home décor, collectibles, and object d’art on a consignment basis.
• ADP Investments: Owned by David Pritchard and his wife, ADP investments is a new real estate startup based in Middletown, CT. David also does some consulting and financial services for Normal Kings.
• Javalids: The developing non-profit start-up by myself and a student team of 4 other students. Javalids will introduce new ways to support charitable foundations and spread awareness through stickers on coffee cups at supporting coffee shops.
• Sosabe Wine Cellars: Based in Napa Valley, California, Sosabe Wines are sold in the California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and many other reciprocal States through direct shipments.

I’ve only been back at school for a week and things are already in full swing. Ongoing projects for Normal Kings, a new semester for Expedient Laundry, and the busy beginning stages of Javalids, my first non-profit startup. (Conveniently, we are working the Javalids project into a directed study so I’ll receive course credit for that.) And four new classes, all of which seem cool. Non-profit Law, Mechanisms of the Mind, America and the Free Market, and Statistics II. Tonight I presented Expedient Laundry to the business 101 students in Janikies auditorium, and while I’m not a professional speaker by any means, I think it went well!

With these things in mind, I’ve decided to take a semester off from the ROOTS Radio show. I know this will disappoint some, but it’s necessary. I’m also no longer a student ambassador. Either way, I’m happy to be back at school and look forward to a fulfilling semester.

My parents and my sister both are happy Netflix customers. They tell me that if you break it down they’re paying between $1.00 and $2.00 per rental, and it’s been steadily on time with the deliveries. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington prefers Blockbuster’s Total Access online rental service because “movies received by mail can be returned directly at any Blockbuster store.” I don’t use either, and I’m also hesitant to rent movies at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video because of the high price of $4 or $5 per rental. I recently started using the Redbox vending machines which can be found at most Stop & Shop’s. They let you rent movies for $1.00 per day and charge it right to your credit card, providing receipts by e-mail. Not bad at all, and I’ve been happy with their price and convenience. However, on a few occasions the DVDs I rented were slightly damaged and playback would stop halfway through the flick on some DVD players. They probably aren’t checking up on their machines very often, replacing the damaged discs. An understandable challenge.

If I see a movie I like at Hollywood Video or Blockbuster being sold as a pre-viewed DVD, I consider buying it. The other day I bought 4 DVDs for less than $18 at Hollywood Video, which has a lifetime guarantee against damaged discs. To me, that was a good value, because if I end up wanting to get rid of the DVD, I could just sell it on Half.com.

There are a number of ways to keep track of the traffic a website receives. I’ve tried many of them over the years, from Webtrends to Webalizer. Several of these companies charge a monthly fee to use their statistics.

A couple of months ago a friend introduced me to Google Analytics, a free service by Google which generates very detailed stats about a website’s visitors. Allowing a webmaster to review key words, referrers, and optimize their search engine and marketing campaigns by using Google Analytics’ analysis of where visitors came from, how long they stayed on the website, and their geographical position. Another useful feature is the ability to add guest users to view your stats. I installed the Analytics for more than 15 websites and our clients are very happy with all of the new data! I highly recommend.

I could be wrong here, but I have a feeling that using Google Analytics somehow helps your search rankings on Google. This isn’t just a gut feeling, I’ve noticed that since I installed it some of my clients have been coming up higher on the search engines. Maybe I’m trippin’.

A lot of people have laptops now, and the world is moving toward wireless internet. At least from what I see, college students and business people especially are laptop users. I would wager that eventually people will be able to access the internet wirelessly at any location in the country. I was thinking of getting the Air Card that Verizon sells, which costs upwards of $40 per month, but gives you internet service nearly anywhere. College campuses are wireless, though often with a WEP key. In my hometown of Middletown, CT, nearly the entire downtown broadcasts free wireless signal. Many residents of highly populated urban areas increasingly decide not to subscribe to any internet service provider, because they are getting free signal from their neighbors!

A couple of years ago we nabbed the domain name, www.findwirelesshotspots.com. Recently I added a feature that allows visitors to find free wireless hot spots in their area. Click here to check it out - the URL is easy enough to remember!

I saw this guy’s name somewhere in an issue of Entrepreneur magazine, later in a news release about Napster, and a while back on the Facebook’s ‘about us’ page. So I did a search for him in the Blogosphere and it turns out that he’s a Web 2.0 entrepreneur who founded or co-founded the original Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook. Now he works as a partner for what seems to be a very cool venture capital firm with Peter Theil, The Founders Fund. If you’re interested in internet entrepreneurship or the origins of companies like Facebook, I encourage you to read this blog post by Parker’s friend Numair Faraz entitled “Sean Parker as Jim Clark 2.0“. It’s an interesting read, taking us back 6 years or so into the beginning of this new dotcom boom.

Do you like music? Probably. I haven’t used one of those downloading programs like LimeWire for years though… at college the firewall prevents it and those always seemed to slowdown my computer. I haven’t had a problem acquiring music though, whether I am buying a CD, copying one from a friend, or finding it on SingingFish.com. Recently I discovered Pandora. No downloads, but regardless, you should go to Pandora.com and try it out. Type in an artist or song you like, and Pandora will play selections it thinks are musically similar. Give the song a thumbs down or a thumbs up, and over time you will find that it becomes your own personalized radio station, constantly helping you discover more songs that you like.

Speaking of internet music, I was surprised to read read on TechCrunch that Napster has acquired AOL Music. That’s crazy. Five years ago, I remember it seemed like everyone had AOL, which was the leading dial-up provider, and many hip web-surfers were using Napster to illegally download music. Now 350,000 AOL music listners will become Napster users.