Document Foundation offers free alternative to OpenOffice.org with LibreOffice

Posted on 13 October 2010 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | Leave a comment

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of OpenOffice.org. I covered it in one of the first posts on this blog, and have mentioned it on and off ever since.

I covered the difference between free and free in episode 11 of the Auction Podcast. In a nutshell, not all open source software is free and not all free software is open source. There is a difference between content that is free like beer and free like speech. In an effort to provide some disambiguation between the different kinds of free, many times the neologism libre is used to describe free like speech.

OpenOffice.org was a derivative of StarOffice, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999. Sun was a strong supporter of open source software development until it was acquired by Oracle in April of 2009. At that time, many in the open source community were quite scared of the way Oracle would deal with Sun’s assets that were community-based like MySQL and OpenOffice.org. Since that time, the community has been uneasy and discontent that Oracle wasn’t free enough.

In late September, the OpenOffice.org volunteer development community forked the project and created the Document Foundation. They publicly invited Oracle to be a member of the foundation and donate the OpenOffice.org name to the foundation for continued development. Until Oracle decides to donate the OpenOffice.org brand, the Document Foundation will push forward under the name Libre. Oracle has announced that it is committed to OpenOffice.org development, so it doesn’t seem like they’ll be playing ball any time soon.

Until they do, I’m switching to LibreOffice. The logic goes like this. If you don’t care about openness and you have a lot of money and like software that’s bloated and harder to use, go buy Microsoft Office. If you care about getting solid software at no cost but don’t care that it’s completely open, download OpenOffice.org. If you care about software that’s both free like beer and free like speech, download LibreOffice.

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Dropbox now in beta for BlackBerry

Posted on 10 September 2010 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | Leave a comment
Dropbox App
Image by Funkbreaks via Flickr

My friend Forres Meadows from TexasBid alerted me to the fact that my favorite utility, Dropbox, is now in beta for BlackBerry. While I’m not a huge BlackBerry user, I couldn’t imagine a day without Dropbox.

Dropbox for BlackBerry beta is available to the first 5000 applicants, so get yours before they’re full.

If you’re not familiar with Dropbox, you’re in for a life-changing epiphany.
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Proxibid appoints former eBay SVP Ryan Downs as president

Posted on 18 August 2010 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | 1 comment

Ryan Downs

Yesterday, the news was released that Proxibid has appointed former eBay and PayPal executive Ryan Downs a new President of the company. An interview with Downs has already been posted by Ina Steiner from auctionbytes.com. The press release is below.

Proxibid, the world’s largest provider of live auction webcasting services, today announced that Ryan Downs has been appointed as the Company’s president. Bruce Hoberman will maintain his role as CEO of the Omaha-based firm that brings auction companies and bidders together via its sophisticated online bidding solution.

Mr. Downs brings to Proxibid a rich understanding of ecommerce, auctions and payments. He joins Proxibid from eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), where he served in a number of roles, most recently as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations for PayPal, eBay’s payments division. In that role, Mr. Downs was responsible for customer service, risk operations, merchant operations and various other functions. As one of the top executives at PayPal, Mr. Downs was instrumental in PayPal’s integration with eBay, expansion to Europe and Asia, and the launch of the merchant business. Mr. Downs also spearheaded efforts to improve the end to end user experience for PayPal and eBay customers.

“We are thrilled to have an executive with Ryan’s knowledge of the auction industry join the Proxibid family,” said Bruce Hoberman, CEO of Proxibid. “Ryan’s experience enables us to continue to strategically grow our business while continuing to provide auction companies with access to the world’s largest online auction marketplace. He brings to Proxibid a mix of Silicon Valley experience with Midwestern values that is sure to drive our Company into its next growth phase.”

“Proxibid is an amazing company that combines disruptive web technology, a relentless focus on customer experience, and the desire to build a great culture for its employees,” said Downs. “I am extremely excited to join a fast-growing and dynamic company located right here in my home town of Omaha.”

Mr. Downs holds a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness and Agricultural Honors from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.

CrunchBase Information on Proxibid
Proxibid
Information provided by CrunchBase

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Auction Payment Network announces specialized payment processing solutions for auction companies

Posted on 2 August 2010 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | Leave a comment

Last month was so busy that I missed getting this release posted. It sounds like a pretty simple and much-needed payment solution for auctioneers weary of attempting PCI compliance themselves.

Omaha, NE – July 5, 2010 – Auction Payment Network (APN), a Proxibid company, today announced the industry’s first payment processing solution developed specifically for auction companies. APN will provide auction companies with a PCI-compliant solution that ensures secure, one-click processing for on-site and online purchases at the lowest rates in the industry.

APN was created with the assistance of auctioneers and places the business needs of auction companies at the forefront of its solution. With remote deposit capture, single and recurring ACH transactions, card payments and ID validation services on a single platform, APN can meet the needs of auction companies of all sizes. Additionally, APN is compatible with most merchant processors, making it easier than ever for auctioneers from across the globe to take advantage of this powerful payment processing solution.

“APN will transform the way I reconcile and invoice auctions moving forward,” said auctioneer Darron Meares of Meares Auction Group. “With one-click processing, closing auctions will be easier than ever, and because the solution is PCI compliant, my bidders can feel even more secure with their online transactions.”

All of APN’s products and services meet the payment card industry’s stringent security requirements. APN was built on a secure network which protects cardholder data and encrypts this data when being transmitted across the network. The Company maintains a vulnerability management program, implements strong access control measures, regularly monitors and tests networks and maintains an information security policy to ensure a secure environment for all cardholder data.

“We are delighted to provide APN as a payment processing solution for our auction company clients,” said Bruce Hoberman, CEO of Proxibid. “Proxibid consistently offers our clients the best products and services in the industry, and we believe that adding APN will greatly enhance productivity and decrease costs for our auction company clients, while providing the most secure transactions possible for our bidders. It’s truly a win-win for everyone.”

“APN was designed with the auctioneer in mind,” said Joe Petsick, Executive Vice President of Operations for Auction Payment Network. “Understanding how auction companies process transactions was paramount for our development team, and we’ve been able to pinpoint the areas we believe auction companies find most useful when reconciling and invoicing their events, such as ensuring a secure transfer of funds directly from the bidder’s account to that of the auction company.”

Auction Payment Network is currently boarding clients to take advantage of its suite of payment processing solutions. Product downloads will be available in mid-August.

About Auction Payment Network

Founded in 2010, Auction Payment Network (APN) is the first online payment processing solution designed specifically for auction companies. Created with auctioneers in mind, APN’s sophisticated and user-friendly solution is designed to make payment processing easier and more efficient than ever before.

Never again will an auctioneer have to spend countless hours following an event inputting credit card numbers because our PCI-compliant solution offers secure, one-click processing for on-site and online purchases. Additionally, APN is compatible with most merchant processors, making it easier than ever for auctioneers from across the globe to take advantage of this powerful payment processing solution.

Auction Payment Network is a wholly owned subsidiary of Proxibid, Inc., the world’s largest provider of live auction webcasting services. Visit Auction Payment Network online at www.auctionpaymentnetwork.com.

Do you plan to use the Auction Payment Network for your auction transactions? Why or why not? Hit the comments.

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New dat files in WordPress root

Posted on 31 July 2010 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES | 8 comments
WordPress
Image via Wikipedia

I woke up this morning to find a ton of randomly-named files in the root directory of several of my WordPress installations. The files are named similarly to 0303c831c9c6203ba966dbf523d119ab.dat. The data of these files looks like a serialized PHP value.

I’m not sure if these files are due to the upgrade I performed to WordPress 3.0.1 last night, though they seemed to begin appearing shortly after I applied that upgrade. I’m speculating that they’re due to the way one of my plugins – perhaps Hyper Cache – is interacting with 3.0.1. It’s either that or some malicious infection. Either way, I’ll update here when I find out what’s causing it.

Have you noticed extra, random files in your WordPress installation after upgrading to 3.0.1? If so, hit the comments.

UPDATE: It looks like I can confirm that the problem was due to the Hyper Cache plugin. Upon automatically upgrading to the latest version of the plugin, 2.7.3, WordPress complained that it couldn’t find a cache directory and instructed me to create that directory. Even though I did, it seems it was still storing the cache files – these mysterious .dat files – in the WordPres root directory. After deactivating and reactivating the plugin, it seems to be storing the cache files in the correct location now.

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