2/28/2006 06:22:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Fleck kind of got in the way of a few other projects we were involved with. Rasasa.com was one of them. Fortunately the project did get finished in time, even without our daily care and attention. So I'm proud to be able to tell you that Maarten Wolzak yesterday launched Rasasa.com. Here is a description of what it does: Rasasa will keep you in touch with your favorite news sources, you probably know by now that RSS feeds are really handy and keep you up to date on all kind of things. Rasasa helps you to keep track of all this news. It will deliver the news to your messenger if you're online and to your mobile phone if you're offline... Or to your email box if you're in a 'quiet time'. It is still in Beta and I'm sure it will stay that way for at least a month or so. Go over there and sign-up for an account! http://www.Rasasa.com|W|P|114113694861063002|W|P|Rasasa.com launched|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/28/2006 05:09:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|
You can admire my CSS efforts on Fleck.com right now. As detailed in an earlier post I had a hell of a time getting things working cross browser. As usual it's the simple things that are the hardest to get right. Hope you like it and; comments welcome!
New design in action: http://www.fleck.com/ |W|P|114113252917749434|W|P|New Design in action|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/28/2006 02:51:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Oooh very nice. Glad to see you've sorted the CSS issues you were having. Looking forward to the beta preview!2/28/2006 04:33:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|We are still accepting sign-ups for our beta test and I'm happy to tell you that the number of people who want to join our beta far exceeded our initial expectations. To get a better idea of who all of those people are we build a short survey at JotForm.com. JotForm is a great web2.0 application that let's you drag and drop everything you need. We build this survey in 15 minutes and that included a small meeting to decide which questions we we're going to ask. If you would like to join the beta program feel free to leave your emailaddress here on on the Fleck.com front page. In the welcome message you will find the link to the survey. If you already signed up you will receive a seperate message with the link.|W|P|114113014523359556|W|P|Fleck Beta Test Survey|W|P|bomega@gmail.com3/01/2006 04:52:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Good survey. I liked it. But in list "where are are you from" there was not Bangladesh. I dont know why have you forgot to put name of a country with 150 million people.3/01/2006 05:06:00 AM|W|P|Blogger Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Hello everybody and Tanaeem in particular! I didn't build JotForm and the country list is a standard list they offer. I presumed every country was listen but will try to add countries that are missing. Thanks for letting me know...3/01/2006 01:16:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Tanaeem, sorry about it. I have no idea what happened to Bangladesh on the countries list, but I added it now.2/28/2006 04:26:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Last week I visited my parents in Rotterdam. My father owns a huge inkjet printer which he uses to print his drawings. He is an architect. I asked him to print the biggest Fleck logo possible on his printer to hang on our office window. It's a huge print measuring 1.2 by 1.2 meters. You CAN see it from the Amsterdam central Station, if you look REALLY HARD! The funny thing is it looks huge in our office but more like a Favicon on the streat. Click the photo for a larger view. I think we need a larger printer...|W|P|114112982697339191|W|P|Size does matter|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/28/2006 06:24:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Cool. Our office is on the fourth flour of the same building :) It's a small world after all...2/28/2006 03:57:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|We are still working on our technology as hard as we can. Some people have mailed us to ask if we couldn't at least post some screenshots or product specifications. We decided not to do this and stick to the original plan of finishing the beta and releasing it in March. Right now we are buying our servers, installing systems and putting the finishing touches on the client software. So we are still on schedule!|W|P|114112793310929453|W|P|Fleck Technology Update|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/27/2006 12:17:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Yeah, it was a slow week for most of us but a huge downhill slide for me personally. Don't worry about it; I have been skiing in Meribel, France. :-) So now I'm back and I have a ton of work to catch up with! Patrick, Arjen. Ivo and Erik have been working very hard during my small vacation and the mail didn't stop pouring in either. I now have 160 unread messages in my inbox. I did use my Blackberry to answer some of the more important messages while on vacation but you just can't keep up with the avalanche of mail coming in every day. I wil spend today cleaning my inbox, getting up top date with Fleck development and talking to the guys. It's good to be back!|W|P|114102870389244339|W|P|Downhill from here...|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/21/2006 01:40:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous|W|P|A lot can be read about Venture capital. Nowadays the role of the traditional Venture Capitalists is being questioned and this discussion is rather interesting. Some nice posts and articles about the role of the VC (VC2.0) can be read on the following pages: - A VC rant with an opportunity and part 2 by Rick Segal on Jan 26 and Jan 29 respectively. - How to reform the VC industry by Dave Winer on jan 28. - The ventures we need by Robert Scoble on jan 28. - On Venture Capital by Michael Arrington on jan 29. - A New VC Model? by Mark Evans on Jan 29. Probably there are a lot more out there, but these are the ones I've selected. It gives you a smell of what's going on in the VC world (in the internet start-up sector). I think this discussion is quite interesting but there is one problem: It's all about VC in the US! As you might have noticed Fleck is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. When funding an internet start-up in Europe other rules apply. The money is not the problem; there is plenty of it available in the Netherlands. A lot of Dutch investors are waiting to put their money at work again, but internet start-ups left them with a sour taste after the bubble burst in 2001. Although in the US the 'groove' is back again, with VC's investing in new hot web2.0 start-ups, European investors are still hesitating to invest. To raise initial capital for Fleck we have been talking to different VC's and Angel investors, from the US and (mostly) from Europe and we've sensed a huge difference between European (Dutch) and American investors. (1) In the States investors talk about initial investments with 'an extra digit', (2) they understand the market and (3) see opportunities (and always ask if we're willing to move Fleck to Sand Hill Road). Americans think BIGGER, FASTER and are willing to take more risk (the chance of success will increase as well). Our goal was to raise just enough first-round capital in the Netherlands to build the company and its 'juice' and to be able to keep on developing (see also these interesting post of Joe Kraus and How to ride the fifth wave in Business2.0 by Michael V. Copeland). As mentioned before, Dutch investors are still hesitating to invest in internet start-ups, knowing this, we decided not to raise 'the whole nine yards' at once at a very high pre-valuation, but to reduce the risk of the investors by raising less money (for a shorter period, for less %, at a lower pre-valuation). This way we can build the company (achieve our goals) and the investors are exposed to less risk (ok, their upside potential is reduced as well). The ideal situation for an investor would be to decrease the downside risk and fully exploit upside potential. The problem seems that this would contradict the interests of the entrepreneur. So what is the solution? I've been thinking about a solution that takes the interests of the investors (especially the Dutch investors) and of the entrepreneurs into account. Hear me out: 1. The start-up sells a small amount of its stock to the investor at a realistic valuation (through a convertible bond). 2. In addition the start-up sells an option to the investor to buy more stock in the future, so the investor can expand its stake in the start-up when successful. The option to buy additional stock gives the investors the right to buy additional stock at a pre-defined valuation (higher than the initial valuation) within a specified time (expiration date). So the investor invests not only a certain amount in the convertible bond, but it pays a premium for the option as well. This way the start-up can raise some extra money, just enough to achieve its goals. To decrease the downside of the option one can make it a convertible option. So before it expires it gives you the right to buy stock at a set price and if it is not exercised the initial fee paid to obtain the option converts into a loan. If the start-up is flourishing, there is no need to do a second round of financing (the initial investor will exersize its option) so everyone can focus on the important stuff. Entrepreneurs happy, investors happy. When things aren't working out that well, the investor will not exersize its option (or even convert his bond) and the company has a liability to the investors, which it needs to pay off during business (and hopefully can). I don't know if this financial structure, which I call a Convertible-Bond Convertible-Call-Option combination (or in short: a Financial Fleck), is used to fund internet start-ups somewhere else in the world (the convertible call option seems quite unknown), but I think that it resolves the possible conflict of interest between the entrepreneur and investors and is very suitable to fund high potential internet start-ups (especially in countries where investors are not investing with US dollars). I believe that this financial structure results in a win-win situation for both parties. Isn't that what everybody wants?|W|P|114052049851824432|W|P|Funding a (European) start-up|W|P|2/24/2006 12:21:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|A splendid idea that would help create a more realistic and healthy valuations, and ultimately lead, yes, to a more responsive and rational market for capital. I've linked to it just now...2/13/2006 05:04:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous|W|P| When I was crawling the web, I came by this site. In the list of web2.0 companies I found Fleck, surprisingly on the first place! And the great thing is.... number two is Flickr, then gmail, del.icio.us, and Digg (I wonder how long we can handle this number one position :) With a little help of our Fleck friends.... Fleck for President! VOTE HERE ) There is somebody out there who likes us, thanks!|W|P|113983821037768588|W|P|We need you|W|P|2/13/2006 06:31:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Time to spill the beans?2/13/2006 02:51:00 PM|W|P|Blogger BillyWarhol|W|P|nice site* i notice they use a Seal similar to Fleck* ;))2/22/2006 02:55:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|it's pretty obvious that this is a hoax... what is the idea?2/22/2006 08:44:00 AM|W|P|Blogger BillyWarhol|W|P|i hope & pray it's NOT a hoax*

i'm planning on riding Fleck's coattails to FAME & FORTUNE!!*

;))

U folks are being suspiciously quiet this week??

did U win the $365M POWERBALL!!2/24/2006 06:06:00 AM|W|P|Blogger Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|I was away for a week of skiing in France. More news after the weekend...2/13/2006 03:22:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|CSS seems to be cool and we can't afford to not use it for everything. But I must confess: CSS sucks. Sure, it is great and light and easy to use and everything and I understand why I can never go back to tables. But man, what a nightmare to build something simple, and make it look good cross browser and cross platform. When I started with the Fleck.com design in Photoshop I decided to do something very simple. Just a few blocks and then 3 cells and maybe a floating logo or 2. Nothing too complicated. It is now a week later and we have tried over 20 different variations of CSS code tricks and hacks. I googled and googled and tested and tested and NOTHING works! Once I get the boxes aligned the logo disappears. Once the Logo is back the boxes stop aligning. I was just staring at my test PC and just felt overwhelmed with anger and frustration. Every solution seems to introduce a new set of problems. And I thought I was starting with something simple! If I would have done it the old fashioned way I would have finished the design within a few hours. Now I have been staring at the damn code for days and had several people looking over my shoulders to try stuff. It just isn't working. So now I have to decide: use tables for some stuff, forget the whole CSS or persevere and try to do it all in CSS after all but spend another week on getting everything aligned. I haven't made up my mind yet so first I'm gonna cry for a little while...|W|P|113983054485667284|W|P|CSS tears and frustration|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/13/2006 05:39:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Or set your pride aside and ask for help. We're here and I'd be happy to help you a hand. I've been there a long time ago as well and even though I never experienced as badly as you described, I try to save others from the same frustration.2/13/2006 06:31:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|So whatever the hell Fleck is, it's not relying on CSS? ;)2/13/2006 11:06:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I'm with Jeroen here, lots of people are willing to help including myself. And CSS does not suck, it just takes some learning. Once you've got the hang of it you'll realise how beautifully powerful it is. Why not post some code for the site and see if we can help? Maybe it's time to let the cat out the bag..2/13/2006 02:03:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I feel your pain, but please, keep trying! Remember: the harder it is to accomplish something, the bigger the satisfaction when you succeed :-)2/13/2006 02:06:00 PM|W|P|Blogger Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Sometimes just complaining out loud simply helps! After this post I threw all my code away and started out fresh. Within an hour I had everything working as it should and we are making great progress now. Thanks for all the moral support!2/18/2006 02:52:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|You need to learn CSS if you want to use it... but do learn it! Layout tables will really kill the performance of your sites.

Send all your CSS questions to http://www.css-discuss.org/ (that's the CSS-Discuss list) and you'll get answers, and more importantly, help!

If you are still stumped, hire an expert (like me)... but I'm sure you can learn.2/20/2006 10:19:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Ignore the previous comments - CSS is essential for cool formatting, but it sucks for multi-column layouts (unless you use horrid fixed-width columns like this blog).

1) If your Web page looks like a multi-column table, especially if there are more than three columns, use tables for the layout and CSS for everything else.

2) Override the default browser caching on your CSS and Javascript files, so that they'll reload whenever a user logs on.

3) To make CSS less of a "write only language", you need to be very careful when chosing style names. For example, when a style applies to a specific XHTML tag, e.g. TD or TR, include this in the style name.

- giafly2/21/2006 03:47:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|giafly: O rly?

Fleck: ignore the previous comment.2/22/2006 03:14:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|my god. i agree. css sucks when it's 100% the full meal deal.

i've been using all this web marlarkey for quite some time now. I know css very well and have created many large sites with it - but have created even more with tables, css, divs, etc - basically whatever works. I'm now in a job that must be completely css/divs and it is so frustrating and constraining. What a waste. More time goes into hacks and accessibility than creating a site that people will use. So what if css saves you 2 seconds on download time - if it's shit, no one will come. In the fast moving world of the web, I say do first, ask second. Reasons for doing 100% pure css are, "google likes it better" - crap. "do it for accessiblity, for blind people!" - who gives a shit!, and "speed and semantic code" - big deal.

i say everyone get over yourself and your semantic code and start creating better, more usable, and beautiful sites.

as the web converges with traditional media (i work for a huge TV production company) we need richer user experiences. and why the concern over making your site quicker (using css over tables) when we live in a world of faster bandwidth? 2 seconds was a lot 4 years ago, but come on.

css allows you to repurpose content, use blocks and divs throughout different pages layouts and essentially manage everything smoothly through code. but let me ask you - how big is your css file you load onto every page? are you managing your css properly or is it just a big mess? how often to you utilize css in a way that you're changing display, content types, and layout throughout your site? or are you just coding in divs and aligning them just like tables & cells?

oh yes, and how does your site look? what kind of traffic do you have? do people actually use your site? and why do you think all the web 2.0 sites have the clean, text-based, gradient look that they have? hmm.

sorry for the rant. i code in css all day and design, but i'm telling you i think accessibility is a joke and the reliance on semantic css is completely worthless.

i say we all create beautiful - *highly used* sites that concentrate more on user experience than elegant code.

long live old school html and tables!

hmm.2/09/2006 04:47:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Another week another hype. This week: Maps. And in particular Web2.0 maps! I don't see the businessmodel yet but I'm sure someone does. I just received a message with 3 more maps that include (or should include) links to Fleck. This is one is new and has a focus on europe: http://www.frappr.com/europeanweb2startups I wonder what all these maps are going to lead to and how we will benefit from knowing that there are more Web2.0 start-ups in some places than others.|W|P|113948941514182594|W|P|web2.0 Maps, the new new thing?|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/09/2006 08:25:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Myself, I think the use of these maps are a bit pointless to a certain degree. I mean it's nice to see a graphical representation of where users are etc but in terms of it becoming something ground breaking, I don't see anything that could cause that. Things like Google maps are exceptionally useful, especially for my A-level geography and route planning but I don't think that maps are going to give us much else to rave about.2/20/2006 04:32:00 PM|W|P|Blogger alan|W|P|I think you and all the other real Web 2.0 startups out there ought to be using the Web 2.0 maps to locate and go meet the other Web 2.0 startups nearby, hang out, and share ideas.

After all, you're blogging about having trouble with CSS, right? You're not the only ones with web design issues out there. Sadly, we're in Australia and you're in Europe, or I'd be looking you up on the Web 2.0 map, calling you to arrange a time, and taking you out for several beers and a productive chat.

The other use for Web 2.0 maps is to help VCs find you ;-)7/23/2006 02:16:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.2/08/2006 01:31:00 PM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|From Dreamweaver to BBEdit to CSSEdit to ImageReady to Photoshop and back to Illustrator then F5 in Explorer, Firefox and Safaria and don't forget to double check everything on the PC! Ooops! back to BBEdit and where is my back-up! Shouldn't that span be in front of that div and why is the logo suddenly on the right and should this div be relative or absolute? In other words: I'm working on the design of the new Fleck.com website. And because we so desperately want to be Web2.0 we can only use CSS. No Tables allowed! So, take a look at the (stripped) design here and let me know what I should change. I know, there isn't much to see but I had to strip the thing to remove everything that could ruin the surprise! Anyway, bring on the flames (be gentle?), comments and please, maybe even a compliment...|W|P|113943469436296162|W|P|Design issues for a web2.0 website|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/09/2006 01:24:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I think it looks very web 2.0: bright colours, rounded corners etc. I'd prefer the layout to be centered in the browser window - that big white space to the right looks a bit awkward to me.
And good for you for not using tables! Not because they're soooo 1.0, but because of all the disadvantages of table layouts, of course :-)2/09/2006 08:23:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I agree with maaike on that it needs to be centered, definately.Also, you can't really see the boxes you've created on my monitor. Everything is just too light to properly see the boxes. Consider darkening the borders and background colours where you have content to make it more obvious.
If made a little darker it will look great in my eyes.2/09/2006 08:26:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Also I do have some experience with CSS/XHTML so if you want any help I will try and assist in anyway I can.2/09/2006 09:18:00 AM|W|P|Blogger BillyWarhol|W|P|i like it**********

i luvv the nice bright Pink colour*

;))

that colour is soothing & pleasant & sunny & upbeat to look at!!

the blue seal is very reminiscent of a good housekeeping seal of approval* evoking the same Excitement when U got a Gold Star from the teacher back in grade school!!

;))

are the boxes going to hold Photos or other visual info?? cuz pretty pictures always capture people's attention!*2/09/2006 03:28:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|For all i can see, you don't have to worry about some "web20ish" look..

Throw away that blue label on the bottom..you can see it everywhere..it's starting to be boring, all those "web 2.0 startups" that look like they have the same designer, with soft colours, gradients and so on.

At the end do what you feel..remember that your layout must be, before all, readable, with all the important features on the spotlight.

Good work!2/06/2006 11:27:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Naaah, not the tattoo yet. But that got your attention didn't it? But the Web2.0 Innovationmap is cool and the LogoPoster is also cool. Check it out: LogoPoster I'm realy busy on the webdesign for Fleck.com and should be able to show you a picture of that tommorow. If you like...|W|P|113925464525887586|W|P|InnovationMap, LogoPoster and FleckTattoo!|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/06/2006 02:49:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|So what is the significance of the logo poster?
And I look forward to the screenshot of the new site!2/06/2006 02:54:00 PM|W|P|Blogger Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Hi Edd! The 'significance'? Yes, well, good question. The map generates a shitload of traffic to Fleck! So, that is the main significance for me at this moment. I also spent about a minute or 2 (which is reaully long for Web2.0 standards) with my mouth open staring at all the logo's. But significance? Tough question man...2/07/2006 08:03:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Would I be right in saying Fleck will intergrate with, at the least, some of these sites depicted in the poster?2/08/2006 12:30:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Nice idea for friends who can connect into a communtiy with icons.2/03/2006 04:00:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|We are looking at a good hosting solution at the moment. That seems to be a harder decision than I thought it would be. The choice seems to be fairly limited to 3 kinds of hosting: really cheap, slightly cheap and not cheap at all! I think what every entrepreneur looks for is a cheap but scalable solution. In other words: almost free until you get visitors, cheap when you get a bit more visitors and then still cheap when you turn into the next google (yeah, everything scalable expect the price!). So where do you go for that? It seems that when you start at a shared hosting company (really cheap) you are in trouble when your business is successful and you need your own server? Changing IP addresses etc while you growing isn't what you want. We could go for RackSpace but that starts at several hundred $ a month. Not the solution you are looking for as a start-up. Go for a cheap hosting company and crash and burn when you finally get good traffic? Hmm... I still don't know where to host. Tips or suggestions are welcome...|W|P|113896853860469444|W|P|Chosing the right hosting partner for your start-up|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/03/2006 05:10:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I think the key is in a hosting provider with a presence on all of your mentioned area's. Somebody who has multiple tradenames with which they offer there service: from the small shared hosting to virtual private servers. A transfer would stay on the same network, wich is much easier.

That, and having a solid direct line to your support guy. It's also really all about the personal touch with hosting IMO. I've had my share of hosting partners, and I sticked with the one I most clicked with on a personal level. Really important.2/03/2006 09:40:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Rackspace may be more expensive, but it's well worth it. If you business matters, don't risk it on budget hosting.2/03/2006 10:26:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|We chose the planet, http://www.theplanet.com. It was reasonably priced and had a clear upgrade path available.2/03/2006 11:47:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|If you expect to go beyond 10,000 visits a day in your first 3 months, I'd go right to a dedicated server. You can get one for $160 a month at Serverbeach or Servstra.

Changing IP is not an issue other than a 24-72 hour period where the IP change propagates thru internet, but keep the old host live and users will go to one or the other during the interim2/03/2006 12:45:00 PM|W|P|Blogger Ewout Wolff|W|P|Boris, you're most welcome with this and other questions at www.higherlevel.nl. We are a dutch forum for innovative (starting) entrepreneurs.

Hosting questions are regulars at our place, so go ahead and try...;^D2/06/2006 09:19:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|You could look at: http://www.servage.net/

Pretty good value considering and you can always move to a dedicated server if you need the extra..2/06/2006 01:17:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Hi there Boris,

Been watching this corner of the webspace even since our confersation in dec. last year!

But on hosting, try CIhost.com, is the one we're are going to use with souki.com2/07/2006 08:00:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Hey Boris,

We've used a variety of hosts over the last few years, some mentioned above including theplanet, ev1servers and powervps.com for VPS's.

We only use VPS for cost effective warm-site disaster recovery, as primary servers VPS's are just way too inconsistent in their performance. PowerVPS crew are really responsive though.

While I guess its cool if all your visitors are in the US, Network performance serving customers outside the US on theplanet and ev1 was pretty average for us with evolutionone customers in China, UK, and Asia Pacific.

As much as I love low priced commodity hosting, dedicated is the only way to be sure of your performance, it just means you need to have someone who knows what to do when things go wrong, regular back-ups to a redundant VPS which you can add capacity to on demand provide good peace of mind for us, combined with low latency DNS for switch DR site over.

If you want to pool resources a little then let us know, as long as we're not sharing with random people, we'd rather get good 24x7 utilisation of high prformance hosting resource.

chers,

tim.2/08/2006 12:14:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Hi,

As a reminder of our small talk yesterday www.cyso.nl ;)2/09/2006 01:15:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I understand what you mean when you talk about starting out. I find that when most vendors talk about serving small business they still anticpate you're taking in thousands or at least hundreds a month. That's why they think your willing to pay $50 here for credit card services, or $25 there for a business checking account or $100 for dedicated hosting. Perhaps there should be a new term, micro business. If that's what you are, I recommend you find another micro business to start with. They'll understand your needs. And if things go well, and they can't grow to meet your needs, they'll at least understand and make the transistion to another vendor easy. Having an upgrade path within the same company sounds good, but I wonder how often it gets utilized.

I'm in the hosting business. I started as a reseller and was tired with the constant surprises of not controlling my own server. It sucks to tell your customer "I'm sorry your sites broken, the people I rent space from must have done something, let me check with them and get back to you". And the upgrade path within the hosting firm I used, which looked good at the outset, was not ideal when I dug deeper when I actually was wanted to use it. So I switched to another data center and have my own server there. This data center is small enough that I can call and talk to a real person (usually Steve), not just for tech support, but any special request. They're willing to do whatever they can to meet my needs. I'm not just one server on a rack in thousands of square feet of data center.

Just because your looking for a Web service, doesn't mean you can't deal person to person, get a great price and still get an excellent product. If you haven't found this yet, keep looking. There's tens of thousands of vendors out there in this business.

Mike, Owner
www.grandriverhosting.com2/14/2006 11:36:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|We're happy with
http://www.flexservers.nl/

A complete server + 1000GB traffic for less than 100 EUR per month.

But then you would have to have a little bit of admin knowledge on board of your team.2/02/2006 01:34:00 PM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Which one do you like the most? How can we improve the Fleck badge? Oh and before you ask: no we are not building a new browser. Doesn't mean we don't like the way they market their stuff and want to do that too?!|W|P|113891624190164415|W|P|How about that?|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/06/2006 10:19:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I have used the second one on my site to promote Fleck.
You can see it at:
http://www.blogfrog.co.uk/2/06/2006 09:06:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|I really like the second one.2/09/2006 04:26:00 PM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Well, to tell you the truth, the third one is the best. It has a superiority in design. The text in the second one is just plain garbage. Same thing with the second one's auora, its just not done correctly. Mabye before you try these things you should consult a real designer?2/02/2006 01:36:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|Shouldn't there be an entry for the word Fleck in WikiPedia? Not an empty entry linking here but a complete one with an explanation of the word and a few words on Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Margaret Fleck and her research on finding naked people (No, I didn't make that up) and yes, also a few sentences about the hypersecret web2.0 company on Fleck.com? I know, I could do it myself but that wouldn't be correct as I'm with Fleck.com and wouldn't want to be accused of just advertising my own company. Sooo, could someone else do this? Just let me know how much you want for it and remember to add my name in capitals, bold, underlined and linking here. Please...|W|P|113887395018002069|W|P|WikiPedia: Fleck?|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/02/2006 04:06:00 AM|W|P|Blogger christianhauck|W|P|http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleck2/01/2006 01:26:00 AM|W|P|Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten|W|P|My PhotoHeidi Miller publishes an excelent podcast with great tips for professional (and amateur) presenters. In her latest podcats she talks about y post 'Top 10 tips for a perfect pitch'. Made me blush with pride when I heard her read my tips out loud... :-) http://talkitup.typepad.com/weblog/2006/01/dssp_38_show_no.html |W|P|113878628870923195|W|P|Another Podcast|W|P|bomega@gmail.com2/01/2006 09:46:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Boris--

Well, thanks! An associate brought your blog to my attention, and your tips were not only spot-on but fun to read as well. :-)2/03/2006 08:58:00 AM|W|P|Anonymous Anonymous|W|P|Boris,
Have a look over here:
http://www.podzinger.com/results.jsp?q=fleck

Search within podcasts!
Lost of Fleck results but only some are about Fleck.com.


Have fun