Timawa.com

A few weeks ago, I auctioned off a domain name on Sedo.com. It fetched a little over a thousand bucks so I was happy to sell. One day after the auction ended, I promptly received an email message from Sedo, which informed me that they had already invoiced the buyer and were expecting the payment for the domain to arrive soon. Since the entire process was dependent on when the buyer sent payment, Sedo didn’t specify a date when the transaction would be completed.

A couple of weeks passed and I didn’t hear any update from Sedo. Then I started thinking, “What happens if the buyer doesn’t pay?”. I’ve had encounters with time wasters on some of the domaining forums, but there are no formal or legally binding contracts for domain transactions on those forums, so there’s really not much that you can do. You get to scratch your head and mutter curses to an unresponsive screen — that’s the closest thing to compensation that you could get. But this was Sedo, possibly the biggest domain auction house on the Internet!

I decided to contact Sedo — surely a thousand bucks is worth more than one email message. I didn’t get any reply though. They usually reply within a day or two, but not this time. I checked the Sedo contract again, but it didn’t say anything about what happens if the buyer does not pay — whether Sedo will twist his arm and make him cough up the money that he promised to pay when he placed his bid. Nothing. The only clause that was remotely related was this:

Payment must be remmited (sic) to Sedo with five (5) business days from the creation of the payment request.

It didn’t say what happens if the buyer doesn’t pay within five business days. Maybe Sedo doesn’t want to think about that part.

Anyway, I needed confirmation if I was still legally bound to sell considering that the buyer had obviously defaulted on his payment. Since I wasn’t getting any reply from Sedo, I decided to contact a Sedo employee who lurks on one of the domaining forums that I frequent. I got a reply within an hour. He wrote:

The buyer has five days to confirm payment has been sent and then the seller can choose to cancel.

That was my way out of the contract. I wasn’t happy that my domain didn’t sell as I thought it did, but I was glad to have found closure on this issue. A few hours after I got the answer from the Sedo guy on the forum, I finally received an official reply from Sedo:

Unfortunately we have had no choice but to cancel the transfer for this domain name. Despite repeated emails and contact attempts the buyer has failed to make payment for this domain.

The contract in place for this transaction is legally binding. Should you wish to pursue legal action, the buyer's applicable contact details have been made available for your viewing. You will now find them on the contract for this transaction within your Sedo account.

I’d wasted enough time on this buyer, so I didn’t even think about whether I should pursue legal action. It was a lesson learned: A domain isn’t sold until you actually receive the payment, regardless of where you sell it.

One week after this all happened, I received an email message from a guy who made an offer on the same domain a few months back. He was asked if I had decided on the selling price for the domain. I said yes and asked for 150% of the winning bid on Sedo, plus Escrow.com fee. He agreed. So I was able to sell the domain for more and all is well.

The other day, I received a Windows Update notification that Service Pack 3 (SP3) was available for download. It was mid-afternoon and the sweet, powerful aroma of coffee brewing in the pantry wafted to my cubicle — beckoning, tempting me like… Anyway, I decided to take a break and install SP3. After two-and-a-half cups of coffee (about 30 minutes in time unit), the installation process was completed and my computer allowed me to work again.

I went straight back to what I was doing before — updating a not-so-usable user guide using Adobe FrameMaker. When I tried to update the cross-references in the user guide, I got an error message that the book could not be updated because Arial Black was missing. (Yes, we’re using Arial Black in our template. At least it’s not Comic Sans.) Arial Black is part of the default font pack that is installed with Windows, so I was pretty sure I had it on my computer. Wanting to be sure, I checked C:\WINDOWS\Fonts and verified that the Arial Black font file (ariblk.ttf) was indeed there.

It could only be SP3 that caused this, I thought, so I did some digging. True enough, a few other people were encountering the same issue and were posting on the Microsoft forums. Apparently, SP3 installs new versions of some of the font files, including Arial Black, Impact, and Tahoma. The new version of the Arial Black font file has some problems, which is why I and some other people were getting error messages on the various applications that we were using. Some people reported that Arial Black looked “weird” in Microsoft Word, while others who were working with Web pages said that Arial Black bold appeared as italicized.

Regardless of the symptoms, there is only one quick fix — replace the problem font file. Get a copy of the old Arial Black font file and replace the one that is currently in C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. Here are the steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Go to C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$.
3. Look for ariblk.ttf (with the timestamp 8/4/2004 6:00 PM).
4. Copy it, and then paste it in C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. This will replace the new Arial Black font file (with timestamp 1/2/2007 8:00 PM).

That’s it. Problem solved. Arial Black should now appear as it should — ugly.

The old Arial Black font file has the timestamp 8/4/2004 6:00 PM.

Just because I buy and sell domains as a hobby, people ask me all sorts of questions about domains. One of the more frequent questions that I get is “How do I create a GoDaddy.com account?”.

It’s getting boring to explain the steps again and again. And telling them to go to www.justfuckinggoogleit.com for instructions doesn’t work (one guy actually came back to me and said, “I couldn’t find any information on www.justfuckinggoogleit.com). So I’ve decided to just post the instructions here.

NOTE: The easiest way to create a Go Daddy account is to purchase a domain name from them. Before you can check out and pay, the domain registration process will prompt you for your personal information and create an account for you.

To create a Go Daddy account

1. Open your Web browser, and then go to GoDaddy.com.
2. On the right side of the page, click the Create a New Account link (right below the logon box). The Create A New Customer Account page appears. Too lazy? Just click here then.
3. Under Enter Your Contact Information, fill in the text boxes that are marked with an asterisk (*). The asterisk indicates required information.
4. Under Stay Informed, indicate whether you want to receive promo and announcement email messages from Go Daddy. If you do not want to receive these types of email messages, click No for all the options in this box.
5. Click Create a New Account.

The form refreshes and automatically logs you on to the GoDaddy.com Web site. You may now start purchasing Go Daddy products.

You should also receive an email confirmation from Go Daddy (at the email address you specified when you created your account), with your Go Daddy customer number. Record this number and keep it in a safe place. You can use your customer number (as an alternative to your logon name) to log on to the Go Daddy Web site.

If you’ve used PayPal to receive money online, you’ll know that PayPal charges the transaction fee to the recipient — you. For each transaction that you process through PayPal, it charges you 1.9% to 2.9% of the transaction amount.

Before, I didn’t really think much about how much PayPal charges for every transaction that I process through them. However, after a year or so of doing business online, I realized that I’ve already paid PayPal a few thousand bucks. It’s not that PayPal doesn’t deserve the transaction fee that I am paying them to receive money — it’s just that I’d be happier if I am paying less. If you feel the same, then today is a happy day for both of us because I just found a way to receive money via PayPal for free. It’s called PayPal Mass Payment.

What is Mass Payment?
Mass Payment allows a PayPal account holder to send payments to multiple recipients payments instantly. It’s primarily designed for ‘non-sales’ related payments, such as affiliate commissions, rebates, prizes, and incentives.

What’s so good about Mass Payment?
If you’re the recipient, you pay no fees. That’s right, it’s free. Compare that with the regular PayPal payment method where you — the recipient — has to shoulder the transaction fee.

If the recipient doesn’t pay the transaction fee, who does?
The sender does. The transaction fee is very low for Mass Payment. It’s 2.0% of the payment amount, with a cap (maximum fee) of $1.00.

I bought a domain name for $335 and used Mass Payment to send my payment. Yes, I had to pay $1.00 for transaction fee, but it saved my seller around $13.00, which made him quite happy.

What do I need to use Mass Payment?
If you’re the sender, you need a Premier or Business PayPal account to be able to use Mass Payment. You also need an ounce of patience as sending payment using this method requires some work.

Is there anything else that I need to know?
There’s just one downside to using Mass Payment — no buyer (sender) protection. Unlike the regular payment method in which the buyer can reverse the payment or do a chargeback (after, for example, receiving a faulty product), Mass Payment offers no protection for the sending party. No worries though if you are sending the payment to a trustworthy recipient.

To learn more about the steps for sending Mass Payment, visit the PayPal Web site.

If you have transferred domain names (also known as ‘account change’) from your Go Daddy account to another person’s Go Daddy account, you would probably recognize the email below. This is the email message that Go Daddy sends to the old domain registrant after the new registrant completes the domain transfer process.

This email is to confirm the recent change of registrant of the following domain name(s):

SOME-DOMAIN-NAME.COM

The change has been completed and the available information has been recorded in our system. If for any reason this information is incorrect or you feel this change of registrant request was made in error, please contact us within 15 days at undo@godaddy.com.

Sincerely,

GoDaddy.com, Inc.

Take note of the sentence that I underlined in the email message, especially the “If for any reason…” part. This particular clause, and the sentence in its entirety, sort of gave me an assurance that if something goes wrong with my domain transaction, I can easily reverse the domain transfer and get my domain back. By “wrong”, I am referring to, for example, the domain buyer reversing the PayPal payment. Because of this “assurance”, I transferred domain names to buyers even before they sent payment, confident that I would get my domain back if they don’t pay.

One day, a guy bought a few domains from me for a couple of hundred bucks. I transferred the domain names to his account as soon as I received confirmation that he had sent his payment via PayPal. Ten minutes after he completed the domain transfer, I received an email message from PayPal informing me that the buyer had reversed the payment. Bah, I said to myself. No problem; I’ll explain the situation to good old Go Daddy and I was sure I’d get my domains back.

So I emailed undo@godaddy.com and explained the situation. Six hours later, I received the following reply:

Hello,

Your emails have been received and forwarded to us for review. After investigating the domain name(s) SOME-DOMAIN-NAME.COM we have determined that the changes were made by an authorized party (a party that had access to the customer account). As such, we cannot assist you with the changes made to the domains.

Any disputes over the ownership or wording of the domain name(s) itself will need to be sent either to the registrant, through an arbitration forum such as World Intellectual Property Organization (http://www.wipo.int), or the local court system. Per ICANN regulations, domain registrars are prohibited from becoming involved in domain ownership disputes. Should you decide to proceed and initiate a legal dispute against the registrant of the domain(s), please send a copy of the filed and stamped complaint to domaindisputes@godaddy.com.

Thank you,
Undo Department

So what the frack happened to “If for any reason this information is incorrect or you feel this change of registrant request was made in error…”? I strongly felt that this was made in error because the buyer reversed the payment!

I emailed them back and suggested that they remove that particular clause or the entire sentence from their transfer confirmation email — because it gives the false impression that we still can get out domains back if something goes wrong with the transaction. Guess what they said… NOTHING. The same sentence is still in the transfer confirmation email, still giving domainers the same false assurance.

So is it possible to undo a Go Daddy transfer after the transfer process is completed? Yes, of course — in your dreams.

It looks like Go Daddy recently redesigned the user interaction flow for pushing domain names (or transferring domain names from one Go Daddy account). Instead requiring you to enter the new registrant’s details such as (name, address, phone, and email address), the new process now simply asks for either the Go Daddy customer number or Go Daddy login name, and the email address that is associated with the Go Daddy account.

So what does this mean to users? As with almost everything else, there are two things - benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits: The new process makes the entire transfer process faster and eliminates the need for the new registrant to provide personal details to the current registrant so that the latter could initiate the domain transfer. Now all the current registrant needs to provide are the Go Daddy customer number or login name and the email address that is associated with account.

Drawback: The new registrant needs to create a GoDaddy.com account first before the current registrant can initiate the transfer. Previously, if you do not have a Go Daddy account when a domain is transferred to you, the transfer process will automatically create an account for you.

So is it better than the previous process? You be the judge. Here are the steps for initiating a domain transfer using the new Go Daddy process:

1. Visit GoDaddy.com, and then log on to your account.
2. On the menu, click Domains > My Domains. The Domain Manager screen appears and displays the domain names in your Go Daddy account.
3. Find the domain name that you want to transfer, and then select the check box next to it. If you have more than 100 domain names in your account, you may need to use the Search function to find the domain that you want to transfer.
4. After you select the check box for the domain, click Account Change. The Initiate Account Change screen appears.
5. In New registrant’s Customer # or login name, type the Go Daddy customer number or login name of the person to whom you want to transfer the domain (new registrant).
6. In New registrant’s email, type the new registrant’s email address. This email address must be currently associated with the new registrant’s Go Daddy account.
7. In Confirm email, type the same email address that you typed in the previous step.
8. Click Next.
   
9. On the page that appears, select the two check boxes. One check box is for the Domain Name Change of Registrant Agreement and the other is for the (nonsensical and controversial) 60-day non-transfer agreement.
10. Click Next, and then click Finish.

You have completed initiating a domain name transfer. You will receive an email from Go Daddy shortly with the subject “Change of Registrant Initiated”. The new registrant will also receive an email from Go Daddy with instructions on how to complete the transfer.

by Horacio V. De la Costa, S.J.

There is a thought that comes to me sometimes as I sit by my window in the evening, listening to the young men’s guitars, and watching the shadows deepen on the long hills, the hills of my native land.

You know, we are a remarkably poor people; poor not only in material goods, but even in the riches of the spirit. I doubt we can claim to possess a truly national literature. No Shakespeare, no Cervantes has yet been born among us to touch with immortality that which is in our landscape, in our customs, in our story, that which is most original, most ourselves. If we must give currency to our thoughts, we are forced to mint them in the coinage of a foreign tongue, for we do not even have a common language.

But poor as we are, we yet have something. This pauper among the nations of the earth hides two jewels in her rags. One of them is our music. We are sundered one from another by eighty-seven dialects; we are one people when we sing. The kundimans of Bulacan awaken an answering chord in the lutes of Leyte. Somewhere in the rugged north, a peasant woman croons her child to sleep; and the Visayan listening remembers the cane fields of his childhood, and his mother singing the self-same song.

We are again one people when we pray. This is our other treasure; our Faith. It gives somehow, to our little uneventful days, a kind of splendor; as though they had been touched by a king. And did you ever notice how they are always mingling, our religion and our music? All the basic rites of human life – the harvest and the seed time, the wedding, birth and death – are among us, drenched with the fragrance and the coolness of music.

These are the bonds that bind us together; these are the souls that make us one. And as long as there remains in these islands one mother to sing Nena’s lullaby, one boat to put out to sea with the immemorial rowing song, one priest to stand at the altar and offer God to God, the nation may be conquered, trampled upon, enslaved, but it cannot perish. Like the sun that dies every evening it will rise again from the dead.

———-

While I’m still in the process of setting up shop, I thought I’d post something for the few who stumble upon this site while it’s still a mess. The following is an essay written by a Jesuit priest named Horacio V. De la Costa. “Of the Society of Jesus,” that we had to say whenever we delivered this as an oratorical piece. Yes, we had to memorize this back in high school, courtesy of Fr. Rene Repole, S.J.

Despite the fact that I hated doing things for academic rewards, I actually enjoyed memorizing this one. This is one of several pieces of prose and poetry that survived my prodigal university days and that I still remember after more than twenty years.

To Father Pops, thank you for being my John Keating in high school. I’ll see you when I’m back home. It’s been too long. And this piece only makes the memory of Inang Bayan more poignant.