Welcome

Did you see the video of the Discovery Shuttle taking off and landing? Awesome huh? I wanted to see it so bad that I set my alarm to 1:30 AM two mornings in a row, and then spontaneously awoke a 5:00 AM to see Discovery land safely at Edwards Air Force Base. It was so heartwarming and although I had little to do with it, I was proud (and relieved).

Days later, our newspaper, The Oregonian, reported that in addition to the Perseid meteor showers, the International Space Station would be flying by our area. Again I set my alarm, this time for 4:30 AM. I saw a few falling stars, which is exciting, but I had seen them before. Then, just as predicted, at 49 degrees in the southwest sky, a light appeared. There was no sound, and this was not a plane: it was the International Space Station! Just think: the shuttle was attached to it just days before, and it thrilled me. My eyes followed it across the southern predawn skyline. I felt so privileged to see the sight and wondered why wasn't everyone awake to see this.

The Funny Thing About Time

Haven't we all experienced the phenomenon that things take much longer than they should? You think something is going to take 5 minutes and you get frustrated that it takes an hour. Perhaps you've heard as I have many times that when you delegate something to someone else that it will take 10 times longer for the new person than it will for you, at least in the beginning, right?

Fortunately, I have great clients who don't nitpick their invoices from me and who know they can trust the time it takes me to do things. However, I thought that it would be interesting to tell a story about a project that I thought would take a few minutes, but ended up taking, well, days!

A client of mine has several domain names for her business. Three were approaching expiration and needed to be renewed. The client wanted them removed from her web host to a different registrar to save money. Then she wanted them forwarded to one and then to another to enhance her web ranking. It sounded easy because I had access to her web host and control panel.

Here was the process:

1. I accessed the control panel, but couldn't find a way to her domains.
2. I researched the web host's site and there was no information.
3. I called the web host and got access to a separate location for domain management.
4. I contacted the client for personal information to create an account at the new domain registrar.
5. I discovered that the client already had such an account and I got the access information.
6. I accessed the new registrar and found out the domains were locked.
7. I had to call the web host to get the domains unlocked.
8. I waited 2 days for the lock to resolve.
9. I accessed the new registrar and transferred the domains.
10. I waited for two days for the transfer to occur.
11. I called the registrar after the transfer did not take place and inquired about the hold up.
12. I learned that my client had received email from the registrar that required action before the transfer could take place.
13. I waited 2 more days for the transfer.
14. I accessed the registrar to confirm the transfer and then implemented the forwarding.

What lessons do we have here?

* Plan better (getting account information ahead of time as well as credit card information); it would have made this process smoother.
* Start weeks before a deadline.
* Assume that there will be hoops to jump through:
---Existing domain registrars requiring phone calls to transfer and unlock domains (because they don't want to lose business)
---Registrars needing email confirmations as a precaution to prevent fraudulent transfers

Oh and...remember that things always take longer than you think!

Quick Tip: I need to update my firmware?

My phone line would do this funny thing in which my fax would connect while I was talking on the phone. Where do you begin to fix that?

I started with the phone company. By the time the problem was resolved, I needed an update to my firmware. Huh? Firmware is a combination of software and hardware and who knew that it was available as a product update on the support page of my fax?

This is just one more reminder to periodically check for updates for your software and hardware. It just might be your firmware.

Contact Info: Kristy Schnabel Virtual Assistant It's Virtually Done! P.O. Box 2194 Lake Oswego, OR 97035 (503) 638-0853 Kristy@itsvirtuallydone.com

Copyright 2005 Kristy K. Schnabel. All rights reserved.