UPDATE: Read this update about my perspective and challenges with future video-making.
Some of my loyal followers have found me through my videos that I have posted on YouTube since 2006. Unfortunately, so-called “upgrades” of technology have conspired against me, so I have decided that I will not create any new videos. It is sad to have to arrive at this decision, but here’s why:
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From time to time, I take a moment to review questions that people enter into a search engine about boots. Here are some of the latest funnies:
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This photo was taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. It features the core of downtown Washington, DC, with the Potomac River on the lower left, and the U.S. Capitol in the middle, facing “the mall” and north up Pennsylvania Avenue where festivities of today will be celebrated.
Am I there for today’s ceremonial Presidential inaugural festivities?
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Darn it! My power supply to my main computer that I use for work and maintaining my website crapped out the other day. I bought a new one, and installed it. When I powered it on, I heard a crackle then smelled something burning. I quickly turned it off.
I tried various combinations of the connections, to no avail. “No Boot Disk Available.”
Who me? Booted Harleydude? What’s it saying — that I don’t have any boots on my disk? Ya gotta be kidding!
I brought the computer to a technician who calmly advised me, “sorry, you ‘toasted’ your hard drive. It’s gone and cannot be recovered.”
Shit.
And coming from me, that’s strong language!
I had to order a new computer. Fortunately, I kept a pretty current backup of my “old” computer so I certainly hope I’m back up and running soon. Meanwhile, I’m computing from my laptop, as I continue to be one of those guys with an “i-nothing for a no-berry.”
I see that about 30% of the visitors to this blog and my website are coming from smartphones, ipads, and other mobile devices. I think my fiance and I will be among the last to embrace mobile technology. I still prefer a traditional keyboard, wired mouse, and the full features of a “real” computer. I have no need to be mobile with it, and pay extra for data plans and the like (keeping rich companies richer. Not me.)
Life is short: don’t try to be your own technician.
I’m sure many of you have been unable to avoid noticing ads on websites, blogs, or even web-based software programs that you use routinely. In my opinion, some of the worst of this advertising push is foisted on YouTube. Some of the videos require viewing at least 10 seconds of an advertisement before you can skip it. Also, Facebook presents a huge number of ads (to those who do not block them with browser extensions like Adblocker). There are hundreds of additional examples.
The purpose of ads, of course, is to generate sales that come from visits to the sponsor’s website. Website and blog owners who host ads receive a share of revenue for allowing the ads on their websites. The more sophisticated the web becomes, the more “directed” the ads will be. Ever notice, for example, that if you visit a website for a boot retailer, that the boot store’s boots show up in ads that stream on other sites you visit, such as blogs? Or suddenly boot ads show up on Facebook? That, to me, is kinda spooky, but not unexpected.
So what is my position on ads on my boots and leather website or this blog or videos on my my YouTube channel?
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I do not receive messages like this often, because most people who disagree or do not understand my website do not take the time to send me a message. They usually surf on, which is normal behavior among educated and civil adults. But it happens sometimes. Thus is the risk of having a public website.
“Steve” from Kent, Washington, writes:
Name: steve
EmailAddr: stevebesc@xyz…
Location: here
Message: Just finished a quick peruse of your site, and haven’t stopped laughing. I hope you’re joking with all that decades-too-late Village People crap.==================================
REMOTE_ADDR=67.168.50.8
My response?
He may be coy in trying to hide where he’s from, but I have enough protections on my website and email that I know where the writers originate — purely for my protection. This guy wrote “here” when his IP address reveals that he used a computer whose IP was based in Kent, Washington, USA. Kent is a small suburb of Seattle, located south and east of the SeaTac airport.
He found my website looking for information about Lucchese boots, and whether the 1883 line of boots by Lucchese has pegged soles, as their higher-end Lucchese Classics do. But instead of finding the answer to that question on this blog or my website, instead he chose to write a message that demonstrates that he is seriously troubled.
I regret this guy feels that way, but if he doesn’t understand or like leather, that’s his business. However, his message is reflective of today’s lack of civility. More people these days seem to enjoy thinking that they are hiding behind a veil of anonymity when they post or send messages like that one. It is a shame there are so many. (Have you read blogs or comments on YouTube videos where the account owner does not moderate the comments? For gay guys, most of the comments are really, really rude and nasty.) All this behavior does is generate feelings of pity for such people, and prayers for relief of their anger and sorrow.
Life is short: remember and apply what your Momma taught you — if you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.
It is rather sad, but not uncommon these days, that various forums on the ‘net allow anyone to register and use a pseudonym to say things that they would never say in public or if they had to reveal their true identity.
Sometimes these thoughtless dolts link to my website, and say…
… the most insulting, silly, stupid things. You think I don’t see that? Well, I have to keep on top of behavior like that, so I can operate my website and this blog responsibly, as well as know when someone may be engaging in bandwidth theft (that is, linking directly to an image from my website, making it appear as if the image is on another website when it actually is coming from mine. I block that kind of stuff.)
There are some rather nifty software tools available these days that give me reports on such activities, so I can act as necessary. The actions may be to change certain things on my website to obfuscate, confuse, and redirect this behavior.
I wish I did not have to do those types of things. I do not have to do it often, thankfully. However, during last week and early this week, there were a bunch of really negative noodles who felt that behaving as a child was the thing to do. So sad, really; I pity them.
These behaviors — posting negative comments and linking to my website or this blog — are a form of “cyber-bashing.” Again, it is a way for cowards to get by with saying things that they wouldn’t say if we knew who they were. But being cowards, they resort to this behavior as a way to vent their frustrations and express their twisted beliefs. All I can say is that I pray for their souls (if they have one.) Otherwise, I make changes as necessary on my website and move on.
Life is short: remember what your Momma told you, “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Over the last several evenings, I have been experimenting with using a new-to-me software tool that allows for easier management of photo galleries on my website.
I think it is working — Check it out to see the galleries from the recent Police Motorcycle Competition that I attended last weekend.
I have had a recently retired cop friend check it out for me. He has nothing to do but ride his Harley and give me grief (using his witty charm) by sending ransom demands. He and another local cop who I have known since grade school both said that the new gallery seems to work for them. Yea! It will take time to integrate it throughout my website, but I’ve done a quick-n-dirty redirect to make it “go live” already.
Life is short: use new products that can help make life easier (especially if they’re free! Thanks, Coppermine!)
In an uncharacteristic departure from my usual happy, peppy self, this is a “rant warning.” Here goes….
My “bootedman” website went down when there was a server issue at Hurricane Electric on September 4. They were unable to resolve it quickly enough for my preferences — eventually, it took them 60 hours to fix it.
Because I had encountered numerous times of service outages (but none as long as the last one), I decided to migrate my website to a different web host, “DWHS Hosting”. It took about eight hours to migrate my site on September 4 – 5, and it got up and running nicely and seems to run quickly. So far, so good.
However, I learned on September 5 (which was a U.S. national holiday) when I had a technical problem that their customer service is unacceptably slow. You cannot call them on the phone — you only get a recording saying how important your call is, and promises that someone will call back. They never did.
Then on September 11, I encountered another serious problem, and submitted several “support tickets” to explain what was going on — only to get a reply via email many hours later with no solution and blameshifting the problem to my ISP.
On September 12, I submitted more updates about the problem, and I finally got a response asking if I had Skype. Sheesh… I don’t want to Skype with anyone — I just want the problem fixed. Arrrggghhh! Okay, don’t use DWHS web hosting. Their service works fine when it works, and as long as you do not need technical assistance. If you do, forget about it. They have poor customer service. While DWHS is U.S.-based, I think their “customer service” is only one person. I have had to migrate my site again to another web host…. uggghhh. I hate this. What a mess.
I would go back to Hurricane Electric in a heartbeat if they could give me a better promise of up-time. But they are honest, and cannot make such promises.
Before finding another web host, I called the potential new company’s support line to test it, as well sent them an email. In both instances, I received a prompt and courteous reply by a U.S.-based, English-speaking human being. How refreshing!
By the way, if you sent me an email or tried to use my “write to me” page on my website yesterday, the email may not have been received or the mail form may not have worked. Please try again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Life is short: keep going until you get it right and get some form of response in a timely manner.
With regret, I had to abandon Hurricane Electric to serve as the host for my bootedman.com website and migrate it to another web host. I say that I regret having to take this action because I have been very loyal to Hurricane Electric and they’ve been very good — until now.
Originally, I started to create this website using so-called “free” hosting by my ISP. But I learned quickly that the ISP was very slow and cumbersome to use. After about four months of struggling with the ISP’s hosting, I talked about it with Larry and his husband Bill of hotboots.com. Bill is a real whiz when it comes to this stuff, and gave me some good advice. Both Larry and Bill recommended Hurricane Electric to host a site. Hotboots.com is hosted there and Larry has had nothing but praise for their reliability of service. So I purchased web hosting from them in April, 1996, and “bootedman.com” was born.
Man, a lot has changed with that site over five and a half years. I also have learned a lot more in my self-taught manner on how to write web pages including HTML, PHP, and javascripts. What took me an hour to do in 2006 takes just a few minutes today — and that’s good because I do not nearly have as much time to tinker with it as I once did.
As of the time I am writing this post, the server at Hurricane Electric that hosted bootedman.com just came back on-line after a 60-hour-plus outage. Such a shame. By their own admission, they have never had such an extended period of having a server be off-line.
H.E. has about the best Customer Support in the business — always available by phone and responsive to email. Even throughout our Labor Day weekend, they still had someone who would take a call, even if he could not help me much and did not have any answers as to the nature of the problem with their server.
Fortunately, I kept a complete off-line backup of the website, so I was able to upload it to another host. That took eight hours–it’s a huge site with 500 individual pages that all are internally linked, over 360 pages on the “Boots Wiki” knowledgebase, and over 8,300 images.
Now I am doing a lot of background checks, correction of missing links and pics, and other details. The site is working again, as is my email on that domain. I regret having to make this migration and make it permanent, but I was left with no choice.
Life is short: don’t let loyalty get in the way when it comes to making business decisions.