Random Bytes...by Ross Rader

Tuesday, July 1

[12:20PM EDT] No espresso beats absolutely horrid espresso. Ugh. Why did I drink that.

Slack day today - treat burgeoning cold, mow lawn, go for bike ride, find power cable for Macbook.

Tomorrow should be fun - I'm doing a spot on Fox Business News and have a Coast to Coast planning session to talk about next years ride. C | T (8) | #

Sunday, June 29

[08:51PM EDT] Two quips from a dinner party I attended in Paris last night...

From an Austrian...

"If you have wine with dinner, it is a party. If you add a toast, then you have culture."

From an African...

"In Africa, when many people want to speak and time is limited, we make each speaker stand on one leg while he is talking. If his other leg touches the ground, his time is up. This makes are meetings run very quickly!"

I'm back in Toronto finally. Got home a day early - thankfully. Spent the afternoon grocery shopping, cleaning my singlespeed and putting my road bike back together after the National Ride.

I also booked my flight etc. for Tour For Kids Alberta. I'm really looking forward to this event as the Rocky Mountains were a bit of a blur during the National Ride. This trip will be a bit more leisurely. Of course, if you would care to make a contribution, it would be sincerely appreciated. C | T (30) | #

Saturday, June 28

[05:40PM EDT] Hey! Look who was on Domain Masters! Me!

Like two months ago! :)

We talk about a whole bunch of juicy domain stuff. And my ride. Enjoy.
C | T (97) | % (1) | #

[09:31AM EDT]

On highway 3, on the way to Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, sits the Bike and Bean Cafe. We ran across this little gem as we were zipping along the highway. Before we knew it, we had shot past. Knowing that I needed coffee in a bad way, I wheeled around and I'm really glad that I did. Not only does this place pour a mean shot of espresso, but they have a great bike shop on the premises.

Originally a train station, the Bike and Bean has been in operation since the spring of 2008. It currently sits alongside a bike trail that follows the path of a now defunct rail line. In addition to the great coffee and treats, the Bike and Bean is also a well stocked bike store. I'm also pretty certain that they can hook you up with a bike rental as well. I am definitely going to go back and check out the cycling in this area and the Bike and Bean is at the top of my list of places to visit. C | T (46) | #

Friday, June 27

[10:35AM EDT] Got off the plane @ 6am, at the hotel by 7am, in meetings by 8am. No real breakfast, no real sleep and no end in sight for this meeting. I'm zonked.

The domain name for Photobucket.com was hijacked while I was out of town. This is a great reason why people should use their own domain name instead of relying on centralized services like this one. Not only does it eliminate a key point of failure, but its a great way to promote your brand instead of someone elses. C | T (16) | #

Thursday, June 26

[04:56PM EDT] ICANN nominating committee meetings this weekend. I'm going to blog more often going forward. It is important. Catch you on the flipside. C | T (46) | #

Saturday, March 22

[11:23AM EDT]

lolcat, lolcat...where have I been?

The past few months have been totally crazy. Last fall, I applied and got accepted to take part in a charity cycle ride across Canada - the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride, backed by the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation. Most rides of this magnitude take between 8 and 12 weeks - some as long as 16. We're doing ours in 19 days.

Suffice to say, I've been training my ass off and focusing on work. Not too much time left for anything else. I'm writing a separate ride blog over here - be sure to check it out. We're raising funds for childhood cancer wellness and research programs. 100% of the funds we raise will go directly to sending kids with cancer to summer camps, cancer research and a ton of other worthwhile initiatives.

If you would like to make a financial contribution, please visit my fundraising link: http://2008.snkcr.com/ross/donate.html

While I would totally appreciate your financial support, that's not the purpose of this post. The real reason I'm dusting off the blog is because we are looking for a chief blogger/podcaster/vidcaster type of person to come with us on the trip. This is a volunteer position, but Depending on the commitment you can make, this could be a paid position and all expenses are paid and I'd have to say that if I wasn't going to be fastened to my bike, I'd definitely consider doing this myself.

Essentially, we need someone that can own all aspects of the online activity while we are riding - this means daily blog posts, interviews with riders, celebs, politicians and other luminaries along the way, spearheading our relationship with the blogosphere, helping us get some better traction with our facebook initiatives and that sort of thing. Basically, we need you to do what Scoble is doing for FastCompany, what Doc does for Open Source and Marketing, what Dave does for RSS, and what Arrington does for web 2.0 startups - be our champion and help us shine. Because the ride is happening in a huge country with lots of empty spaces in it, most of the more interesting stuff will be happening without the benefit of spectators. To overcome this, we want to bring the ride to the web and you will be a huge part of making that happen.

If are interested, or know of someone that might be interested, please drop me a note at ross -at- tucows daht com. Even if you don't know someone directly, it would also help us greatly if you could put the word out to your network.

While I'm at it, we're also looking for experienced bike mechanics and a few other types of volunteers. If you think you'd like to pitch in to make a difference, be sure to let me know and I'll put you in touch with the right people.

C | #

Monday, November 26

[08:26AM EST]

Antony Van Couvering has posted a brilliant photoset of his recent trip to Antarctica over on Flickr. See "victorcharlie's slideshow" on Flickr

C | #