kingsnake

Free the DUBUQUE 3!

Rough Scaled Sand Boa - Eryx conicus photo by Chris Harrison

Free the DUBUQUE 3!

In Dubuque Iowa the city has seized 3 sand boas as "dangerous" pets under their dangerous pet laws concerning boa constrictors. While I applaud the city for enforcing their laws when they are on the books I haved to ask myself, what are they smokin in Iowa and where can I get some.

Sand Boas, Eryx conicus and it's mates, usually grow no larger than 2 feet, weigh less than a pound, are not venomous, and the ONLY thing that actually considers them dangerous besides Dubuque are the small feeder mice they have for dinner. There has never ever been a fatality attributed to any of these small species of constrictor. These small, docile, even lethargic creatures could spend their entire lives in a shoebox, and the mere suggestion that they are dangerous to humans in any way is beyond laughable. These aren't 14 foot jungle beasts run rampant, they barely qualify to be in the Boidae family, and are probably there more as a convenience to the scientists that have to categorize everything than anything else.

I don't know who in the city of Dubuque they have running their animal control, I don't know how the city of Dubuque worded their law, I do know that this is absolutely silly and unfortunately a sign of the times.

This is a grasp at straws to justify the cities involvement in a poorly planned raid where the pre-raid intelligence was as bad as the post-raid intelligence behind the seizure. They got bad intel, raided this poor families house, then when they found there was no real violation, reached for the only straw that could even remotely be considered just so they wouldn't look stupid.

Well congrats Dubuque, you look pretty stupid from here.

I am asking that EVERY reptile person on kingsnake.com reach out to Dubuques Mayor Roy D. Buol at rdbuol@cityofdubuque.org and ask him to "pardon" the Dubuque 3, dismiss the dangerous animal charges and ask him to review the laws that would allow a seizure of these non-descript pets as "Dangerous".

Goodbye Steve - Thanks For All The Snakes Mate

I never got a chance to meet Steve, and we were never successful in bringing him to our site like we have been with many other celebrity herpers. Though we tried and he tried, our schedules never quite meshed. I did talk to him at length on the phone a number of times over the years, in fact the first time he called me I hung up on him thinking it was one of my friends playing games and using a bad Aussie accent. A quick glance at the caller ID after setting down the receiver provided me with one of the bigger "DOH!" moments in my life, and I called him back and we both laughed about it.

On our kingsnake.com site Steve was loved by most, dissed by a few, but regardless of personal opinion he probably did more in the 90's to raise the profile of reptiles in the general public than anyone since Marlon Perkins. His passing is a great blow to our culture and our community and we owe much to Steve for re-kindling the interest in reptiles in today's youth.

Although I never met him, I considered him a friend, he always took and returned my calls and he was certainly not indifferent like many celebs. He loved animals, his family, his friends and his fans. He will be greatly missed by everyone that was touched by his work, whether they were a herper or just a fan. He died doing what he loved and probably that is the way he would have wanted it.

Goodbye Steve, thanks for all the snakes mate. I hope there is a good place to herp when you get where you are going.

Wow - it's been a while hasn't it

It has been a few months hasn't it...

I started my personal blog primarily as a tool to help me understand the blogging culture. I don't really have a lot to say or that I can say personally (too many industry secrets I am afraid), and I blog about my music on kingsnake's music blog, I blog about site issues on the PetHobbyist site news blog, and my herp stuff will be blogged about on a new reptile blog site for kingsnake.

I feel somewhat like I should keep the rest of my life to myself. I am pretty far out there in the public eye and often that is an uncomfortable place to be, even when things are going well.

It looks like ACL Fest will be a hot and dry one again this year. I will probably bring my own dust masks.
Good news is that our reservations at the Downtown Hilton in Austin across from the convention center has been confirmed and so for 10 days we will be providing near round the clock coverage of SXSW 2007
as Christie Keith and I set up a base camp in what is essentially the "Show Hotel". We also have platinum badges so will be attending a variety of SXSW related events. We have already requested press credentials but haven't heard back as yet as to how to obtain them.

One major show we will not be getting press credentials for will be The Rolling Stones this fall. Much as I would like to shoot pics of Mick and the boys onstage I would be at the end of a very long list of much more deserving journalists. Unfortunately without those credentials I can't even review the show, much less photograph it, because of some  really strict  contract  language  by  Ticketmaster.  I an tempted to review the show from outside the park just by listening. At least I won't have to pay $8 for a coke and then Ticketmaster can't come after me.

I am really enjoying this being a music journalist gig. If I had started doing this on the web in 94 instead of the snake thing imagine how different things would have been. It could have happened that way too, when I bought the kingsnake.com domain name in 97 I bought several Austin music oriented domains as well. I could have been famous for running ArmadilloWorldHeadquarters.com instead of kingsnake.

Ah the critics....

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Message to President/CEO from REDACTED
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 09:31:00 -0500 (CDT)
From: REDACTED FOR USER SAFETY
To: jeffb@

     I'm a regular user of your website and I'm very disappointed to see a big SLAYER concert link on your homepage. What the heck does some acid rock band have to do with reptiles??? All this does is continue to draw a direct parallel between reptiles and acid rock,drug using,tattoed head to toe scumbags.
     Are you going to start having a separate category for crack pipes,drug scales and porn links next?
     This is a reptiles website,please help keep it that way.
     Thanks,
          

-----------------------------------------------------------------

You know I expected people to ding me on my web site for my musical tastes and I have no problem with that. I am a music critic after all. I also don't have a problem with people that think our music site is the wrong direction for our business to go. I think they are wrong, they think I am wrong, but we have far more users and advertisers that think I am right so we're gonna keep on going. Its a difference of opinion. I don't have a problem with that. If they are right my experiment will fail and the web site will implode in a public fireball. If I am right thenthe web site will see an increase in traffic, the hobby will increase it's  presence in the mainstream and all the businesses and hobbyists in the industry will benefit. It's a risk, but it's my risk to take.

When you start calling my friends "drug using, tattoed head to toe scumbags" that's where I am going to have to draw the line.

I know Kerry King, spent several hours with him yesterday, and he allowed me the privilege of photographing his show, going so far as to give me special photo pass, something coveted by music journalists and wannabe journalists worldwide. He may have tattoos, but he is no scumbag and I have never heard any mention of him using drugs, the hardest thing I have ever seen him ingest was a bag of almonds. Of all the musicians we have covered so far he is by far the most directly connected to the reptile industry. Being a commercial reptile breeder and having purchased animals from a good number of reptile dealers that advertise on our site, he has stated to me he is about to join those ranks himself as soon as his reptile site is ready. Kerry was one of the first people of note that I met when I started this site 9 years ago when we bumped into each other at an IRBA show in San Diego. Mr. King is probably one of the more upstanding members of the reptile community and one of the nicest guys you could ask to meet and I was appalled that this ill informed person would send me such a disparaging email.

This persons narrow minded attitude is unfortunate. Not all people that play rock & roll, listen to rock & roll, and have tattoos use drugs or are scumbags. And LOTS and LOTS of them own reptiles.

Rock & roll & reptiles were linked long before I got here and will be so long after I am gone and the reptile industry has never excluded people based on their color, religion, sexual orientation, proclivity for body art or musical taste. If you don't like the music references on our site, fine just don't click on them. If you don't want tattooed rock & roll lovers in the hobby, perhaps you should choose something a little more whitebread to do with your time like collecting tea cozies and going to Captain & Tenille concerts.

Me, I am going to kick back, put on a little Slayer, and get my first tattoo. At 43 this will be a little easier to break to the parents. I am thinking a shirtsleeve design with a couple of kingsnakes intertwined around the bicep. Anyone know  a good artist?

I hate wielding the axe...

I find it ironic that in the end I would be someone that sets and enforces rules. I hate wielding the axe. I do it because I have to, not because I want to, but wield it I do when the occasion warrants. It is not often now that it's me myself that does the wielding, but I hear about many of them eventually. Rarely does it elicit any sense of pleasure. If any time it does evoke a smile it would have to be when we toss a thief off of the site.

I do find pleasure in outing and booting thieves. One serious theft problem we deal with every day is theft of service, most commonly seen in our classified account system. I don't know what is so hard to figure out about our terms on this. When a person or business purchases a classified account it is for their use alone to sell their products alone. Period. If you post ads for your friend, your brother, your cousin, or another business, you are stealing from our business and worse, risking your own access.

If your willing to steal from us there is no way we are going to let you steal from our users.

If we think that it might have been un-intentional they might luck out and only get a 30 day suspension. If we determine that someone has intentionally violated this rule they are gone forever from our site. No comebacks.

We have heard all the excuses, we have seen all the games. Common excuses include.
"I didn't know"
"I thought it was alright cause he was my friend/brother"
"I just needed to do it once"
"He is my business partner"
"My buddy stole my account information"

None of these excuses is valid and won't cut much soap with our staff. And once your gone, your gone. Don't share your account, don't post ads for others, and don't give anyone your access information. I can't emphasize this more. If your willing to steal from us there is no way we are going to let you steal from our users. If you steal service from us you are gone from our site forever. No comebacks.

Can MySpace Keep the Snowball Rolling?

What is all this hubbub about "Social Networking"  like its some new "Internet 2.0" concept of earthshaking proportions?  Back in the "day", back even before the internet, Compuserve (remember them?) pioneered the concept of "social networking"  online in their forums, albeit within their own closed systems, and other services like BBS's  such as "the Well" built their own social networks based on some common user experience or interest . Once the public internet was born, social networking was one of the first things to appear through early tools and protocols such as USENET. With the introduction of the web as part of the internet, this allowed social networking to expand, grow, and implement new technologies. kingsnake.com was one of the early web sites(1997) based around these ideas of social networking although back then, and frankly now, we referred to it as "community".

Note the use of the phrase "common user experience or interest". This is important.

For a social networking web site to succeed and experience longevity in the marketplace it has to be based on some type of common interest among its members, and the interest in that subject has to be something that is long term. You can add features and technology but if your site does not have a strong focus on that common interest and can't continue to hold that focus then eventually it will lose it's audience. Our kingsnake.com site has that focus and has been successful in building and holding a substantial audience over it's 9+ years

MySpace, now considered to be the 800lb Gorilla in the social networking space has an interesting problem. Its original common interest or focus, music, while still playing an important role, has been subjugated by its users and has shifted. Whether this was MySpace's intention or not, that is what has happened and that is what has fueled its explosive growth. The problem is that the communities common interest has shifted from something that was a long term interest, music and bands, to an interest of limited longevity, the connections you make with your friends through the high school and college experiences. The problem MySpace faces is that eventually the school experience, and thus the common interest, end and of course eventually kids grow up.

Additionally MySpace is subject to the fickle finger of fate of having a large young audience of young adults that tends to chase the "next big thing" and could/would/will leave them when the next MySpace arrives on the scene (Before MySpace it was Freindster and Facebook). MySpace didn't even launch until 2003. Certainly  MySpace's purchase by News Corp can provide them the resources it needs to continue to grow, but that can't put them on a positive revenue footing nor can it guarantee that it will hold it's audience.

For a web site to acheive a long life it has to do 2 things. First it needs to find a way to pay the bills. Second it needs to find a way to become an indispensible tool in a persons life. If you have a big backer like News Corp., paying the bills isn't such a big issue for a while, but finding a way to become indispensible, that is something that money really can't buy. Ebay and Paypal have both found  it. So has Google, though they may be trying to go in too many directions at once now. Though none of those sites is what could be termed as a "social networking" site, our reptile web site has it, as well, and is.

MySpace has another problem as well. Their cavalier attitudes about what is and isn't acceptable behavior on their web site, combined with an outrageous growth curve, and a very young audience, has caused it no end of trouble. Every day there seems to be another article about a youngster being exploited in some way using their service, whether by a sexual predator, a teacher, or some other criminal activity.

Bad press of this nature is not good news, and despite their best efforts to "clean up" the site, their seems to be even more incidents and bad press. Part of this is MySpace's fault, part of it is not, but at this point it appears that the site itself has become sentient, with a life of it's own and has taken over and may now  in fact be too big for MySpace to effectively reign in, at least not without alienating a good portion of their audience. MySpace is basically the wild west and to really crack down the way they need too they will end up driving a good portion of their audience on to that next "big thing". Without cracking down the incidents and bad press will continue and I can tell you from first hand experience you can't attract good advertisers with bad press. They have a tough conundrum to resolve.

Can MySpace continue to roll the snowball downhill? For a while longer yes, but if they don't address these issues they will find themselves at the bottom of the hill soon and momentum will only push the snowball so far up the next one before gravity takes over. At the very least it will be interesting to watch whether they can keep it going or will be crushed by their own snowball.

This net neutrality thing just keeps growing...

Democrat Charles Gonzales(Texas), once again proving he is in the back pocket of his second largest contributors, SBC/ AT&T, has proposed what is in essence a "poison pill" defense to the current crop of Net Neutrality proposals. His proposal is to extend the rules of net neutrality to the content publishers themselves with the idea that the publishers pushing so hard for the bill won't like to be regulated themselves.

Charlie do you understand what the internet is and how it works or are you just parroting the wishes of your large contributors? Is it odd that San Antonio, your electorate, is also SBC's headquarters?

San Antonio you are being ill-served by this shill for the communications industry. He is acting in SBC's best interest, not yours. As SBC's hand puppet, there is only room for 1 hand up there.

Internet sites, like the ones we operate, operate in a world of complete consumer choice, and the marketplace decides which web sites are successful and which are not. If someone doesn't like the website they are using they have a plethora of options to choose from. Not so with your broadband provider. In many instances a consumer is limited to 2-3 options, if not only 1 or in some cases none.

I myself only have broadband access because there is now wireless available in my area. Verizon my only local phone provider, my only copper option, does not offer DSL in my area and has no plans to do so. The same can be said about Cox, the local cable provider. I have almost no choice for my communications.

This is largely the result of legacy taxpayer mandated monopolies  where cable and telephone companies were granted exclusive rights to specific service areas. Now these same monopolies, companies that were once split up and are now reforming like the T2 terminator, want to charge a surcharge on packets based on what those packets carry. They already charge based on how many you use. I am sure that, just like Walmart with all its huge buying power, companies such as Yahoo and Google will get substantially lower rates than the smaller companies such as us, raising the bar to entry for ANYONE that wants to have even a web page, much less provide a product or service over the internet. There would be many less new web businesses, and many existing web businesses would close, much like when a Supercenter opens in a small town. Imagine getting a bill for your internet use every month based on packet content usage in addition to the number of packets used, instead of based on the just the number you used.

Here is another example. Google and YouTube run sucessful streaming video services. SBC has just announce that they too are entering the streaming video marketplace. SBC owns the wires, Google and YouTube don't. Under the currently approved telecommunicatrions plan, SBC could charge Google and YouTube an extra charge to deliver their video content over SBC's wires, a charge that SBC itself of course wouldn't be subject to. What if SBC decided to launch its own search engine and wanted to charge any other search engine when one of SBC's broadband users made a search request on their system? Under the currently approved plan, that's allowed. They could set different rates for auctions, images, video, audio, then they could charge more for SECURE connections.

Thats not fair to anyone.

My compatriot in the online classifieds world, Craig Newmark of Craig's list, does a great job of summing it up here. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/09/newmark.internet/index.html

Welcome to the Net Neutrality Bandwagon Meg!

EBay's CEO Meg Whitman sent out an email this week to more than 1 million EBay members asking them to lobby congress to support net neutrality. We are glad to have you aboard, publicly, on this important issue!
eBay pushes `net neutrality 

aha - the thieves show themselves!

I have been struggling with the garden all year and finally it's starting to bear fruit, er, eh, vegetables.

This week I pulled about a dozen pieces of squash and 4 tomatos.  I ate one of the tomatos and boy was it good. I left 2 in the fresh vegetable bowl and had 1 left on the vine. I left the house to run some errands.

When I got home and went to fix dinner I looked for the tomatos and they were GONE. I said to myself "that is strange, I wonder if the housekeeper grabbed them when she left when I was gone". ( I have a very liberal "open garden" policy around my house)  I thought surely if there were 2 she would have left me 1. I scratched my head and thought nothing of it.

Yesterday I pulled the 4th tomato and set it into the vegtable bowl along with a monster cucumber and some lesser ones, then once again left to run some errands. Sure enough when I got home the tomato was once again gone. This time there was no housekeeper, no contractors, no one obvious to point the finger at. Further investigation found several cucumbers missing as well. Hunting around the house revealed the mostly intact remains of the missing cucs. Aha!

Shasha, my Rhodesian Ridgeback spent the rest of the evening burping. Mystery solved. Who would have thought dogs liked fresh tomatos? Now - will my dogs start raiding the garden? I will let you know.

But JUST IN CASE this pair of red headed miscreant tomato theives decide to visit your tomato patch, here is their crimestoppers mug shot. Gus even looks guilty doesn't he?

Wow - 10 whole days without a post

It must be spring, er,or summer. People wanting me to go snake hunting, trade shows and symposiums getting closer, and concerts to review are rapidly eating up all my free time, and whatever is left over is going into my garden.

If your not aware, on May 1st we launched our music web site at http://club.kingsnake.com  and boy howdy I sure am having a lot of fun with it. I got to interview Alice Cooper this week for a podcast, I saw James Brown on May 10th, Violent Femmes on May 18th, Hank Williams III on Tuesday and will go see Snow Patrol tonight. I still have at least 10 concerts on my schedule before the National Reptile Breeders Expo in Daytona in August.

My garden has recovered and it looks like if nothing else I will have a lot of cucumbers and squash, barring further weather incidents. My roof has finally been fixed since the last one, and my new sunroom/office is just about finished. What a busy May!