Direct Response Sells to Digital River
January 31, 2006 | 5 Comments
In a $15 million dollar deal, Direct Response Technologies sold off a majority of it’s company to Digital River. According to the press release, the main reason for the purchase was to acquire Direct Track. Digital River had been using DT for some time now for managing their affiliate network. They clearly saw this as a logical progression. MyCoupons and GiftCards will not be sold in this deal, I assume they will be spun off into their own company, but the details on this are unconfirmed.
I often think of Direct Track as one of my greatest professional achievements so far in my life. In 2002 I started working as a PHP developer with version 1 of the product when many thought it was merely one of CEO Jason Wolfe’s “crazy” ideas. For those who’ve worked for DRT, one of Jason’s greatest skills is his ability to see opportunities in the digital world and jump at them. Often these leaps are failed or partially succesful, but if you don’t try new things you’ll never succeed.
At that time there were only a handful of companies using Direct Track. As the product stabalized and was continually enhanced over the six months that I feverishly responded to client feature requests and bug reports, it started to become obvious that this was going to be a serious contender in the space. More concentration was put towards the product including the expansion of the support and sales teams in Beulah, North Dakota. At the end of January 2003 we launched Direct Track version 3. This was a complete rewrite of the underlying infrastructure. After a few bumps in the road it, the product became very appealing to nearly everyone the sales team showed it to. If you look on the site there is no major press release about this, in fact I’m not sure any of us really believed we had succeeded until months later.
I remember this time in my life fondly in retrospect. Direct Track was getting better every day as the sales team kept heaping on more clients and we kept making the product do more. This was when some of the most proud unique features that are touted by marketing even today were born (Ad Pools, Cross Publication, Direct Coreg, etc.).
After 13 months of satisfying employment at DRT, in the middle of the Summer of 2003, I left Direct Response to return to Plymouth, NH when I was offered a job at Plymouth State University. I do not regret having taken the opportunity to move back close to friends and family, but I’ll always miss Direct Track. I feel a personal attachment to that product which still runs deeply today. I hope I can someday find another project that captures me so completely.
On the other hand, I don’t miss the 60+ hour weeks and sleepless nights…
With this in mind I was absolutely thrilled to hear about this large deal they made. Congratulations Jason and all of the current team that makes his demanding visions a reality.
Tags: adpools, affiliate, affiliate marketing, company, coreg, cross publication, digital, digital river, direct response, direct track, directstuff, directtrack, giftcards, internet, jason wolfe, marketing, mycoupons, php, technology, tracking, wolfe
RFID Will Be Unavoidable
January 29, 2006 | 8 Comments
In response to my RFID Fears, Jon commented about being able to “zap” RFID as a solution:
Look at the bright side. Electronic devices fail. Sometimes on their own, and sometimes with the help of a little device like this.
This is cool, but short sighted.
Currently a lot of work is going into getting RFID into US Passports. Most proposals so far have failed and we keep getting a delay on the inevitable here, but that’s one you won’t be able to zap. How long before state drivers licenses follow in those footsteps?
American Express has an RFID chip in it, probably zapping that would be bad if you care about the card, me I just switched away from the damn thing. But, if other CC providers get in on the game there may be nowhere to switch.
Or how about Speedpass for the gas station?
Or how about EasyPass to get through toll booths faster?
It’s very important that we realize these things are going to enter our lives on the basis of adding convenience. You’ll be promised a discount, or the ability to do something faster/easier. One potential big market is in replacing the stupid customer appreciation discount tags we all have on our keychain for grocery stores.
The reality is RFID is coming, we’ll all have a few tags, and the potential misuse of this is tremendous.
Tags: american express, credit card, easypass, freedom, passport, passports, RFID, speedpass, toll, toll booth
RFID Fears
January 26, 2006 | 6 Comments
This video is a visual representation of a subset of my worst fears around RFID and digital identity. It takes a second to start, but it’s worth it.
Watching this makes my skin crawl. Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is some sort of extreme paranoid science fiction either. We’re just a few steps away from realizing this as reality. This is the scary 1984 kind of science fiction that is terribly grounded in today’s emerging technologies. I’ve been saying it for months, combining digital identity through federations with RFID and efficient indexing builds just the distopia exhibited here.
I’m glad someone has made a film that so clearly shares my fears.
Tags: 1984, chris oakley, digital identity, federated identity, federation, Fun Whatnot, identity, indexing, oakley, RFID, scary, science, science fiction, technology, tracking, video
Firefly Season 2
January 26, 2006 | 8 Comments
An independent group is pushing for a subscription based season 2 of Firefly. Delivered through streaming media or on demand pay per view, whatever. You have to be in support of this.
Go sign the petition right now.
In their own words:
The Firefly Season 2 Project:
Captain Mal and the crew of Serenity need your help to stay flying.We are looking to push the envelope of episodic television by offering Season Two of Firefly in a groundbreaking new format. Each episode (or the entire season) would be made available for purchase in Standard or Hi-Definition.
Do it. Do it nine times.
Tags: firefly, fox, joss, joss whedon, season, serenity, television, whedon
Ninjas Are So Sweet…
January 25, 2006 | 9 Comments
A bunch of years ago Justin, Greg, and I discovered Real Ultimate Power. This is the official ninja homepage. From the site:
Facts:
1. Ninjas are mammals.
2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.
Some various great quotes:
Ninjas cut off heads ALL the time and don’t even think twice about it. […]
Ninjas are sooooooooooo sweet that I want to crap my pants. […] I love ninjas with all of my body (including my pee pee). […]
Then the ninja woman has to battle the boss dog. The boss dog is huge. Before the boss dog can attack, she uppercuts the boss dog’s nuts so hard that the boss explodes. Then the guitar squeals REALLY hard and explodes. […]
I thought of this script right before bedtime. I got so pumped I almost kicked my mom right in the face! […]
There is more sweetness there, but you’ll have to experience it for yourself. If there is a site that is more sweet than this, let me know, but beware, a ninja might flip out and kick your mom in the head!
Tags: boss dog, fight, flip out, ninja, ninjas, real ultimate power, sweet
Connecting Google Talk to AIM, MSN, and/or Yahoo
January 23, 2006 | 8 Comments
I’ve been using Google Talk lately as my IM client, but a lot of my annoying friends and family still use the advertisement heavy and intrusive AIM client. I’d still like to be able to talk with them, but I want to only use one IM client.
Someone figured out a sweet way to accomplish this using the Jabber protocol as an intermediary. Check out the instruction here. Basically you make the bridge using PSI initially, then you can go back to Google Talk. It is slightly cumbersome, but the results rule.
Tags: aim, aol, aol instant messenger, google, google talk, im, instant message, instant messaging, jabber, msn, psi, talk, yahoo
Cyclops Kitten
January 22, 2006 | 55 Comments
I’ve been shown this poor little kitten a couple times now, so after feeling confident about it’s validity, I figured I should blog it…
According to some sources, the shortly lived kitten suffered from Cyclopia, a medical disorder characterized by the fusion of the orbits into a single cavity containing one eye.
Other places report that the cause was Holoprosencephaly, which causes facial deformities, according to the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. In the worst cases, a single eye is located where the nose should be, according to the institute’s Web site.
Anyway, the common report from the AP provided by Yahoo news:
Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy.
Traci Allen is keeping the kitten’s corpse in case science wants to research it. I wish they would so I could feel even more confident this poor thing is real… If so, maybe it would qualify as world’s ugliest cat!
Tags: animal, bizarre, cat, cy, cyclopes, cyclopia, Cyclops, cyclops kitten, eye, holoprosencephaly, kitten, kittens, oddity, one eye, pet, photo, ugly, ugly cat, weird