What A Week...End...

So what started as a small idea for a side project between z|Casey and myself has turned into one heck of a plethora of changes.  I'll go straight into the breakdown.

The Zibings Network
This was meant to be the side project.  We were going to create a new site for the Zibings Network, one that allowed us to provide a good centralized location for registering with the network, logging into the network as well as getting general information about the network.

What happened instead, was the birth of a whole slew of upgrades to the network infrastructure.  While doing the upgrades (which include things such as friends lists and private messaging), I was faced with the necessity of having to change the way ZSF worked.  And that is why, the second part of this is...

The Zibings Site Framework
Yep!  And as with the ZibNet updates, this one started out small as well.  I just needed to add one capability to one section of the framework.  In adding that functionality though, I realized that just throwing the feature in its place wouldn't do much good in the end to help the framework grow.

After a few hours, I'd completely rewritten the framework, and we now have a few bug fixes thrown in as well as a new event system (that was the feature I needed).

 

Either way, its been a lot of programming, and this forces us to do some major updates to ZTC soon as well, so keep an eye out for that.  We're flying around like little bees as usual, this time just a few more fun things are on the way for you the user.

 

- Andy

Quite A Few Updates

Alright, so its been -quite- a long time since we've last spoken.  I won't apologize for it as the reason I've been so flaky with this blog is due to my excessive amounts of work towards adding features for little old you.

ZibTech Computers
A ton of work has gone into the ZTC web site, there's more details on that if you go to my news post.  What it comes down to, is that we've finally finished the inventory system and its in testing phases.  Once it leaves that, we'll be putting together things like our product listing and configuration.  Very exciting stuff!

Zibings Network
The Zibings Network updates really come in the form of two things.  First and foremost, we've sorted out a ton of bugs in the connection code and are now testing it on the ZTC site.  So far, its been running almost flawlessly, so we're happy.  Secondly, we've begun recoding ZibNetBot, which you all know and love.  He'll be redone in PHP and run as a Windows Service on our dedicated server, and from what we've done so far I can honestly say I'm looking forward to getting it done and seeing him in action.

Zibings Technologies
With the addition of someone to the Zibings Incorporated team, some new life has been breathed into Zibings Technologies, or as it was once named...Zibings.com Web Services.  I won't go into too much detail, as that would be giving away juicy secrets, but I will say that we're working on something useful for ourselves and for the company.  All of it is aimed at bringing something to life that should've been alive for years.

Epoch Gaming
Ahh, Epoch Gaming, my favorite little thing to forget about, how I do love thee!  For once, Epoch has taken a large step forward on a few fronts.  The web site has been resurrected and is being tweaked to work with the current version of ZSF.  Also, we're preparing to plug in the ZibNet connection code so that it works properly with the network.  Add onto that the fact that we've begun having development meetings for Forgotten War...for once I can gladly say that we haven't forgotten about good old Epoch.

Zibings Incorporated
We've recently added a new Director of Marketing.  Though his name is also Andrew, it is not the same person as me, which means the world to me.  He's already proving to be a very effective and motivated addition, so I think I speak for everyone when I say that his joining us is a welcome event.

 

That's about it for now.  I'm still out campaigning of sorts for Ron Paul, but its been hard to get much done with all the work being done on Zibings.  I'll make another entry when I can, and maybe someday I'll be caught up enough that I can fulfill my dream of blogging on a daily basis.  Until then...take it easy!

 

Andy

Stick To Your Guns

From good news to bad news, life seems to pack one next to the other, no matter how the world seems to be treating you. The multi-million dollar contract that we were working on has fallen through, but thank goodness it fell through in the manner that it did. I'll explain...

When we first started dealing with the bid we were a bit cautious as I stated in my earlier post regarding the bid (the post titled 'A Day Of Great Expectations'). I had asked a few friends to do some research on the company that we were dealing with in England to make sure that the offer was legitimate. The initial findings that we received weren't very promising, but we concluded that the best course of action would be to continue with the bidding process and see if our suspicions were disproven.

Up until the end of the process, we were happily disproven most times by the buyer. When we'd ask about something we were suspicious about, they'd answer in a way that gave us enough doubt in our suspicion to be comfortable with proceeding. As we got closer to the end however, they started making demands for product without payment, and finally for payment of a bogus registration fee to a government agency in Britain that didn't exist.

We finished up our research with our friends, and retracted our bid offer when they refused to take the £1,350 registration fee out of the several million Pound Sterling payment we were to receive on Monday (May 14th, 2007). We have contacted British and American Authorities and are working with both to try and track down the people we were dealing with so that they can't scam someone else.

Luckily, because of our suspicions and the title of this post, we didn't lose a penny on the scam. The phrase 'stick to your guns' is one of my favorite when it comes to business transcations. I know my company, I know what we're capable of and more importantly what we're comfortable with. I do not leave our 'guns' at any point during a negotiation, regardless of how large or small the transaction is.

In this case, our 'guns' were the facts that we would not begin working on building anything until we had received payment, and that we weren't going to pay for anything that we didn't know was necessary to pay for up front. We paid for things we needed, such as licenses with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, our distributors, etc.

We're all pretty upset about the loss of this 'contract', but we've already begun advertising all over the internet with our new website. If you search for the right terms, you might even see one of our links on the side of MSN Live Search or Google. ;)

- Andy

ZibTech Computers - Open For Business!

In the midst of everything else going on with the company, we've managed to finish the first version of our website and release it to the world. The site is by no means a good representation of what the site will eventually become, but its a great start and wonderful way to introduce the company to the general public.

I'd like to give a special thanks to Jon Coleman, Chris Butcher and Matt Hykes. Each of these three gentleman did a wonderful job working with me (often times late into the night) to get the different portions of the site setup and running smoothly. Without these guys, the site wouldn't exist yet, so thanks!

Along with releasing the site in its infantile form, we've started advertising online through things such as Yahoo! Classified, Windows Live Expo, and Google Base. Of the three, I so far like Expo the best, though its statistics could be a little better. The statistics category is taken by Google Base, and Yahoo...well Yahoo is there and used by a lot of people, so why the heck not use it?

Make sure you tell your friends/family/other and check out our website whenever you've got a few minutes!

http://www.zibtech.com/

- Andy

Focus: Your Only Weapon

The "Day of Great Expectations" came, and it flew by. We are now finalizing paperwork on our warehouse and office, sending out employment flyers wherever we can, and doing all of the other things we've been planning endlessly since the bidding process began.

As easy as it is to hoop, holler, and jump for joy, one thing that everyone on the team has been amazing about doing is focusing. Within minutes of hearing the news, we were already into full speed ramp-up. The order is huge, and is no small undertaking to fulfill, so it isn't hard to think of the urgency a small company like ours has to use when working towards this type of goal.

It would have been easy to sit and think about the money, to think about the change in lifestyle, to think about any of the changes really. We could have all taken a day or two, and simply celebrated. Instead, we all got to work, and as a result I have every confidence that we will not only fulfill the order in the time span we were given, but we will more than likely beat our schedule by almost a week.

This brings me to the title of the post, "Focus: Your Only Weapon". As I've made clear, its easy to celebrate your victories, but you should never forget that a victory isn't complete until the entire war has been fought. When you hit a milestone with a project or with your business that is a huge victory, but only part of the puzzle in the long run, do everything in your power to focus your 'troops' on the tasks yet at hand. If you can do this, you will always come out of the war with a victory on all fronts.

Forget it, and you'll have fun for a while, but end up regretting it in the end. Reminds me of what my dad always used to say to me, "Work hard now, so you can play your ass off later." So true dad...

A Day Of Great Expectations

The title for this post actually comes from Bill, one of my wonderful production managers with ZibTech Computers. Given the subject matter, I think you'll all agree that the title is about as perfect as perfect can be..

A few of my loyal readers have noticed that my updates recently have been few and far between. Though I do feel bad for neglecting my blog, the nature of this lapse in blogging is more than worth the bad feeling. ZibTech Computers was recently asked to bid on a contract with a company in London who is/was asking for 15,000 computers.

The multi-million dollar contract, is a huge deal for me and my little 8 year old company. When we were first asked about the bid, we were a bit timid about putting a quote out. After a few days of discussion and planning though, we came to the realization that with the right ingredients, this bid was not only possible for us, it was perfect for us.

The entirety of ZTC has been flying around since then planning this and that should we get the bid. Our bid price has been finalized, and a sample unit is on its way to the buyer. The day the sample unit arrives is the so called "Day of Great Expectations". We are all aware that we have not yet won the bid, and could still very easily lose it, but it is quite clear that we are the #1 bidder and that we have a better chance than anyone at the moment.

Should this bid go through, it will certainly change my life, not to mention the lives of those people who I employ. Either way, it's shown us some things about our company structure and personnel that are very emboldening. Should we lose the bid, we'll begin an aggressive marketing campaign (within our budget of course) to start pumping the company into a production mode. Should we win the bid...

If we win the bid, I expect you all to come see us in our new office/warehouse sometime in the near future. ;)

- Andy

Hiccup!

Its been far too long since my last update, but we've just been -that- busy with everything at Zibings Incorporated! I've been flying around updating things with the release of our first beta for the Zibings Network, not to mention the server work we've been doing.

Server Migration
That of course calls into question the server migration that never happened. We ended up waiting for far too long to get the server from the new provider, so we cut our losses and put the money into upgrading our current server. As a result there wasn't any downtime, though we are planning on adding another server again in the near future, I'll of course keep you posted.

ZTC Site Beta
Then there was ZTC, which has been another source of my busy-ness as of late. The inventory system is going much faster than I thought it would and will be into the testing phase soon with staff members. After we work out some kinks, we'll be piecing together some of the configurators using the 'live' inventory, so we'll need you all to go build fake computers using the site. Again I'll keep you posted when there's more information regarding the site.

Zibings.com
Along with the release of the first beta for ZibNet, we are trying to fly through and do minor skin and security updates on all of our sites. The first one in line for this was www.zibings.com and it is well into its makeover, hoping to be finished with it completely before the new week begins on Monday.

Zibings Network
As I said earlier, we're all buzzing about our 'Beta 1' release of the Zibings Network. What is the Zibings Network? The basic idea is to create a network of services/sites that will work together with unified logins and profiles so that you can organize yourself, collaborate with others, socialize, etc without having to keep track of 30 different websites and their respective logins. We're excited about it obviously, and we already have both ZTC and Epoch working off of the unified login system. We're working on creating a few more ways to integrate with the system so that we can continue adding new sites without needing months of modification/development, but its a work in progress (and is a beta after all).

ZibNet IRC
I felt this update deserved its own section, though it really belongs underneath the above 'Zibings Network' section since that's what it is part of. We have put the finishing touches on our IRC network for now, and you are invited to come join, bring your friends and chat to your heart's content. The easiest way of connecting is to use our IRC Connection Form and join up using the web-applet. However, should you be one of those IRC experts, you can connect using your favorite client to:

Normal: irc.zibings.net:6667
SSL Enabled: irc.zibings.net:+6670

Epoch Gaming
Haven't gotten to do an update on this bugger for a while, but we are happy to announce the return of Chris Butcher to the development team for Epoch Gaming. He will be in charge of system development for the site. Chris is very dedicated to the completion and ultimate success of Epoch, so I'm very excited to see his contributions.

That's all I have for now, I had thought of another post I'd wanted to put up a while ago and just haven't had time to type up, so maybe tomorrow I'll throw that up. Thanks for reading!

- Andy

Server Migration

Over the next few days, Keith and I will be working hard on migrating the systems over to a new server. The move should be relatively quick and painless, but as always there is the chance for hiccups along the way.

This move will affect all hosted services for up to 48 hours depending on the frequency with which your DNS resolvers update their cache (we use OpenDNS for our computers). There will be no data loss for any services, including webmail, ftp, databases and file structure.

We will also be taking this opportunity to widdle away some more at our inactive hosting accounts. We will still have backups of all inactive accounts for the next 4 months, but after that point we will erase all memory of them from the server.

The new server is running a Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66Ghz with 4MB L2 Cache), 2GB of RAM, a 400GB hard drive, and is sitting on premier Savvis pipes in Atlanta. The new server will be faster, more secure, and just generally easier for everyone to use.

I'll post again after the migration is completed, wish us luck!

- Andy

A New Team Member

This morning I finally got to announce the addition of a new team member to the ZibTech Computers group. Matthew Hykes will now be developing with me on the site.

The nice thing about this for me, is that now not only do I have someone else trying to finish the site with me, I also have someone who I can physically chat to about issues with the site's architecture, etc. Its an important milestone for me, and I assure you I am celebrating in my own way (which involves following the directions of a very close friend and actually going to sleep close to when I should).

As I say on the site, I'm very much looking forward to his company and help, its something we've needed for some time now. Here's to things always moving forward despite my best efforts. ;)

- Andy

The First Computer

Months ahead of schedule, ZibTech Computers has actually sold its first computer. A partial-build missing only the optical drive, a monitor, and a sound card, the build was made for Sean G. (whom you will see in our chat channel as DmD).

The rig (which I hope to post pictures of soon after he receives it) is an Intel-based computer, built around the E6300 Core 2 Duo processor, which was overclocked to run just over 2.0Ghz (from the stock clock speed of 1.83Ghz). We weren't expecting to make the sale, so admittedly we've had to learn a few lessons with our handling of our distributors, but Sean was a good sport through all of it and we're happy to have been able to build his computer for him.

- Andy