Henry's Web Log

Remember my favorite Dilbert, at the beginning of this journey? The Pointy-Haired Boss asks,“So what happened while I was in Iraq for 13 months?” The bitter secretary answers that profits soared, morale skyrocketed, and for the first time, life had meaning.

Well, 11 months after mobilizing, Laureen Fleming and her commercial team have rolled out a great new application, NextThreeDays.com. The concept is simple, showing local bands, sporting events, bar and food specials ; but executed brilliantly. It is similar to MatWeb.com in both the concept and revenue model: very easy to use, free, and valuable information not elsewhere consolidated, with revenue mostly from advertising. But there’s also the franchising opportunity to take this to other towns. The VT Gobblerfest was its premiere, in downtown Blacksburg, and if it’s as well received in other towns, then ACI has built a repeatable product. Almost a CraigsList , but with more pizzazz, ease of use, and mobile-web friendly.

So with great news like MatWeb getting published in a marketing book, and NextThreeDays conceived, built and launched in my absence, maybe I should put in for an extension over here? Well, no, I suppose the Pointy-Haired-Boss does look forward to getting back to tending his cubicle farm.

Stop me if this story sounds familiar: Hank Fish created a database of material properties and made it easy to use, for engineers to find the material specifications they needed. Hank had an audacious thought: why couldn’t the database become the Yahoo of the materials industry? Let engineers such the database for free, and base revenue on advertising as well as spinoff projects.

So goes Chapter 9 of Midas Marketing by Rob Slee, published in March of 2009. In the analysis of this case study, Rob Slee reveals that the database is MatWeb.com and Hank Fish is really Henry Bass. I was honored to be highlighted in one of 20 chapters in Rob’s latest book, focusing on Marketing at the small-business-but-big-thinker level, at what he calls the dawn of the Aggregation Age. This is a follow up to his Midas Managers book, discussing new companies in the Conceptual Age (post 9/11/2001).
Rob will be presenting a Midas seminar at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center on September 22nd, and he has recently opened a Midas Institute at Virginia Tech , addressing the fact that private business generates the majority of the US economy, yet most schools teach management, finance and operations for public companies. Both of his recent books are great case-study books, the rare breed of book that does a small business owner good, while at the same time can be read cover-to-cover in a weekend (and you can still cut the grass, play ball with your kids, and catch a movie). Digesting it and applying it might take a little longer. But it was inspirational, even if I admit to reading the centerfold chapter first!

Fantasy football season crept up on me this year! It may have something to do with being deployed, having almost no Internet, and no TV to keep up with sports. For many, that’s no excuse! Like Major Jim Reis- he has been keeping up with his fantasy sports newsletters and was bugging me to get a good enough Internet connection so that he could do his fantasy draft! “OPI: Other People’s Internet.” Of course, not all fantasy leagues and software require the Internet to draft. [here comes the pitch!] PC Drafter is an application we developed with 4for4.com and Brandie Searle to give fantasy players a tremendous advantage on draft day. PCDrafter not only ranks players based your league’s particular scoring rules, but it also receives updated fantasy projections at the click of a button from the best forecasters in the league: 4for4.com . At this time of year, projections are being updated and released several times a week. What’s more, PC Drafter takes into account the makeup of each of your competitors’ teams, and overall league-wide need for certain positions. It makes each pick count because the software projects if you need to take the standout tight end now, or if he should be there your next go-around so that you can continue grabbing the star running backs and wide receivers.
There’s much more to it, explained at the pcDrafter website. Getting into the statistics and predictive behaviors of fantasy football is exactly what interests me: I couldn’t name 10 standout players right now, but I can draft a fantasy team that will grade out in the top 1 or 2 of even the most experienced league, just by using PCDrafter. Give it a shot if you’ve got the same warrior spirit as our military: it’s all about out-maneuvering your enemies!

After 9 months in Basra, I finally have my own Internet connection! The COB has awarded an Iraqi-based company, Al Dalham, with a contract for wireless and wired Internet service. They have several bandwidth options, but the common plan seems to be 128K for $70/month.
Several visits to their office, and lots of trying to connect, revealed there was just too much spectrum interference for me to use wifi. So the manager dispatched these two young men, who quickly set up a receiver, spliced the Cat V cable, and configured my IP addresses to have a wired connection.
I was impressed. But for my readers that are headed to Basra, be patient! It took about 2 weeks of me working with the Al Dalham team, showing them my problems, and patiently returning time after time.
They're on a learning curve, but I'll say this: they're learning fast. I expect it's already twice as good as when I bought in two weeks ago.
There was some give and take, too. I helped proof-read some of their marketing material, and I escorted one of their technicians out to the antenna that was giving me trouble.
So in the big picture, how does this mirror the growth and progress in Iraq? Very well, I think.
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In the wake of last week's sad news, and on the heals of a recent "Basra Idol" contest here, I thought I'd try my hand at scripting a short comedy routine, poking a little fun at our desert situation. I'll open it up for comments and see if the spammers attack, but I'd appreciate your feedback.

Background: The 34th Infantry division is about 1/3 of the audience, and the newest arrival. They're mostly from the Minnesota National Guard. Also big in the audience is the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. Regular Army, hard charging warfighters. So here goes...

Red Bull, where are you? Yeah! Enjoying Basra? Like those CHUs? Well, I’ll tell you, as one of the lucky residents of a CHU, I can say it’s not all that 4 walls have been cracked up to be. One of the new rules, I mean besides everybody below Full Colonels having a roommate, some having three soldiers to a 10x10 room, is that we need to shut off the air conditioners when we’re gone more than 4 hours. For most of us, that means during the heat of the day.

So you take your bed, wrap it in a metal container, seal it up, put it in the 120 to 130 degree sun, and let it simmer for 12 to 16 hours while you and your roommate work the day shift. Sounds like a great recipe for my grandmother’s pot roast! Put the meat on a bed of rice in an aluminum pot, wrap it in foil, let it simmer. At least a pot roast gets basted!

I came back to our CHU last night, and the bed was HOT. I mean, like getting into a car with leather seats on a sunny day HOT. That’d be great for the middle of winter if we could just trade places there by 6 months, but a hot bed is a new experience in the summer. I cranked up the A/C and went for a shower... Guess what? My shower gel was HOT, and it just poured out of the bottle like water. And my toothpaste. If you’ve never brushed your teeth with hot toothpaste, you’re missing a real treat. There’s probably some exclusive Country Clubs in Minnesota where they preheat your toothpaste for you, and it’s considered a luxury, so you don’t know just how good you’ve got it here in Basra!

Of course, the faucets are labeled wrong, too. Cold water is usually pretty warm, and by the way, I know that truck that fills up the water says “potable water” on it, but the signs say DON’T DRINK THE WATER. Don’t brush your teeth with it. So where is the potable water going? To the toilets? To me, that’s not water. It’s not cold, it’s not drinkable. So why does the truck say “potable water?” That’s like the fuel trucks out at the fuel point. Have you seen those? There’s a big warning on each truck that says, “Danger! Inflammable!”

Now in almost every word in the English language, when you put the prefix “in” on the front of a word, it means “NOT.” Like, INDESCRIBABLY HOT! It’s SO hot, you can’t describe it. So the fuel is INFLAMMABLE, and if you see the MoGas trucks what do they say? “Danger! Highly Inflammable.” Check it out some time.

Seriously, though, Iraq has made some outstanding progress since 2003. And you’re a big part of that! It is absolutely awesome that the elections were a great success, the Iraqi citizens overwhelming voted for leaders who embrace building the infrastructure and economy of this nation, and people are getting out and making a difference. So we’re transitioning now, on our way out, and most of what we contribute now is advice and assistance.

In fact, our new Brigade Combat Teams on the way in next year are now called “Advisory and Assistance Brigades.” Did you know that? This is the new politically correct term. Where’s the 2/4 tonight? You’ve heard of these “AAB’s” - Am I right?

It’s still a Brigade of 3,000 trained warfighters, but they’re here to advise and assist. We’ll help the Iraqi Army become independent. For example, we’ll stand next to a squad of the Iraqi army and say, “Hey! See those Terrorists over there?” Well, wait, terrorists isn’t the right word. “Hey, see those peace-challenged fellows over there with an armload of TNT, a motorcycle battery and a detonation switch?” I advise you to light them up with this Mark 19 I happen to have with me. Do you need assistance loading it?