Life and Internets

I’ll admit to following Clint’s lead on this one, and in keeping a naturally dorky blog entertaining, I’m starting up my own monthly blog on what’s in my Winamp.

Shpongle- Tales of the Inexpressible

I love Shpongle.. but I’ve yet to hear any combination of really dense electronic music mixed with classical/acoustic instruments that I don’t love. I’ve never heard anything like these guys though- it’s completely goofy and ultra-happy in ways I’ve not heard attempted by anything other than Celtic Cross.. which is basically the same group. Simon Posford and Raja Ram’s electronic work fits fantastically with classical guitar, flute, and a totally random mix of cello and English/Hindi-speaking vocalists. As eccentric an album as it may be, it will grow on you. I can’t listen to anything Shpongle has done and be in a bad mood.

You’ve been rick rolled!

January 1st, 2007 - the first day of business operating as the Nobis Technology Group. DarkStar’s office in Dayton, Ohio had already long been packed up and brought to Bloomington, Illinois to join Ubiquity before anyone knew anything of what had happened. With a series of adjoined classrooms in what was once where my grandma went to high school, we found the ultimate plot for expanding all of Nobis’ fantastic ideas as our new corporate office. Right near our friends from Cybernautic Design (hey Chad- there’s your link ( : ), our expansion could now be met by simply opening the door to the next room (not to mention the price was right). Now unless you work for us.. here’s something you probably haven’t seen…

Everyone needs to start somehwhere. ( :

Not much huh? Fresh paint, re-sanded floors.. we put up drywall to create our own rooms within the various classrooms. With just the effort of most of our off-site staff (people not working at the data centers), we took the former school library / office, turned ballet / tai kwon do school, into a real 24/7-staffed network operations center.

By Late Spring

Customer service center, from behind the Ubiquity side of the office.

From the Conference Lounge / behind Jake’s desk

Mike Miller working in our old deployment lab, where hundreds of our servers were prepared for stocking at various facilities

Things kept on exponentially, and with DarkStar and a wide assortment of other old Ubiquity customers long online at the 3 new data centers in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York, the announcement was finally made that all Ubiquity service offerings were available. It didn’t take long at all for some major clients to see the tactical advantages of consolidating with Ubiquity Server Solutions for all of their company infrastructure. With available classrooms running short and our 1st and 2nd shift staff starting to get a bit overcrowded, it was time to move up once more.

Graduating to a Big Company’s Office

Most hosting companies would never show you their tangible existence, be they 1-2 man shows (as 99% of them are) or corporate monstrosities. I can remember years ago when our support line rang to Clint’s cell, my cell, and to a few volunteers cells at all hours of the night. That in mind, we definitely weren’t ashamed of the old 24/7 NOC, but by August it had simply been outgrown. Everything was moved to our new offices a few blocks away at double the size (excuse the boring empty white walls- we’re working on that).

Gazzerro looking intimidating in the new 24/7 customer service center.

Stanley and Wendy in a brawl.

Clint and Stan posing for a yellow pages law firm ad.

And there it is- if you want more, we’ve got a copy of Gallery2 running now on photos.ubiquityhosting.com I have to thank to all of our awesome staff that have together made all of the great things we’ve done in 2007 happen. 2008 looks to be even better by far, and I’ll hope to have a much nicer behind the scenes to add to this timeline next year. ( :

That title may sound smart, but I promise I can’t spell entrepreneurial without spell check.

Funny things happen when your business ideas all start working out. Oddly enough, a lot of people will warn you about them, but like most things in life, it’s tough to appreciate until you live it. And unfortunately achieving self-awareness over your own quirks doesn’t just prevent them from happening (boo).

As anyone whose found this blog probably knows, it’s linked to on ubiquityhosting.com - which is a little world busting with entrepreneurial ideas, and probably the largest reason for a more personal blog about my professional life to be here in the first place. As I see a lot of these cool websites take off, I’d like to pass on what words of wisdom that I constantly try to live down myself.

1. Time Management

It’s easy to get sucked into something you love doing when it really goes well. There’s nothing wrong with that in moderation - it’s a beautiful thing really - and I was lucky to be warned by more than a few wise people early on that it can quickly take over your life.

It’s not enough to manage a company - what’s important is managing a life. Telling yourself to stop working at a certain point isn’t all that difficult; and if where you’re at allows for it, hiring staff over getting greedy and trying to do everything yourself is a must. Being able to control your thoughts and stop pondering business ideas over that time you’re not working - that can be a little harder.

2. Other People in the Real World

I’ve been told by close friends that at the core of it all, I really haven’t changed since everything took off, and I hope that’s true. A lot of people I can still talk to exactly the same way as I could beforehand as well, but in many other cases it can get a little weird.

People’s actions tend to define their character. What I’ve lived first-hand is that you’re most likely to be characterized by what’s most unique about you… and I have to say, when I start up a conversation with any loose acquaintance, not a single person ever asks me about the last time I went Wakeboarding, or saw a good movie, or to watch a band play as people used to - at least not right away. People know other people that are doing that stuff, it’s old conversation; you can’t blame them, but it sure doesn’t make #1 any easier. Maybe that’s why Richard Branson has such absurdly interesting hobbies.

3. Dude- Take it Easy

To say that business is competitive is one of the most obvious statements I can think of. Most genuinely successful people I’ve observed possess certain qualities. Above all else- they go on unaffected. Most people that come to work for us I think are shocked at how close friends we are with so many of our competitors, and really, it comes down to this: there’s a big Internet out there. If you want to make money from it, there’s more than enough for everyone, and if you let one person put you up into a rage - you accomplish nothing but breaking focus on anything truly productive, and probably looking like a pretty big dxck to anybody that happens to stand witness in the process.

Cape Coral

Captiva / Sanibel Island

Miami

Haiti

Jamaica

Grand Cayman

Cozumel

Bloomington-Normal

Back.

What I’ve learned…

Illinois is cold. Wendy shouldn’t be given post-it notes. And Nobis is moving to the Cayman Islands:

Since the formation of Nobis now almost a year ago, we set forth a plan to reinvent each of our brands, one at a time. With new Ubiquity servers and hosting brand websites long up, the past few months of Nobis marketing were largely devoted to re-creating the world’s largest Ventrilo and Teamspeak hosting provider (which I have to say, the new DarkStar is more than a little bit better - nice work to Gary, Brett, and Gazzerro for putting up with my complaints through the development).

Now, even as one of the owners of Nobis- my role with DarkStar has still been extremely limited - I’ve never logged into a Ventrilo server, I’ve never played World of Warcraft, or understand half of the things that go on with our DarkStar staff - but what I do know, is that when a website with 10’s of thousands of already active customers finally decides to start reselling all Ubiquity services, it does effect my main job (Ubiquity) and my immediate staff just a little.

My Solution?

I’m going to Florida and the Carribbean for a few weeks. ( :

My Advice to the Ubiquity Team

I’ve sent you all some long emails, so have fun. I may blog once or twice while I’m down there since this might qualify as ‘not work’ by technicality, but no promises.

-Corey

Nobody knows this blog exists yet, but I’ve decided to empty some thoughts into 1’s and 0’s.  Our own “zomg register yourname.com” ads finally worked on me.  Much more will follow soon.