Happy Thanksgiving: Rex Dixon Thank You’s!

Well it’s Thanksgiving 2006 and turkey day is my favorite holiday. I have been busy posting what news that is out today. Now it’s time to take that turkey day break. Get away from the computer, the internet, blogging, and podcasting for a bit. Go enjoy time with a real social network, and that would be Thanksgiving Day dinner with the family.

First though, I want to say thank you to all the readers and listeners for making the past few months the most enjoyable time I have had out here on the internet since I was put out in the cold by the IT industry back in 2002. After serving as a paid contractor / slave for years as the go to guy of every IT contract I worked on, it was like they kicked me out of the industry and slammed the door on my ass so to speak.

Rex Dixon pushed on, continued to interview with every fly by night company that wanted me, as well as some not so fly by night ones (Google, you have heard of them right?) and of course for one reason or another, I never made that final cut. Either someone had more experience, or someone had an inside connection. Whatever the case may be, Rex Dixon then spent the winter of 2003 and part of the summer of 2004 playing security guard at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

2004 rolled on, and Rex Dixon in true Rex Dixon style after being told that by the idiot security guard boss that “it was totally fine to sit in 100 degree weather on a runway that was being constructed, and to NOT go inside an air conditioned shelter that was there for the security guys” — Rex Dixon — said “Screw this, I’m done, take your stupid job and stick it up your a**!” Around September of 2004, I moved on and started to work back in a more comfortable environment once again, and still do the day gig there to this day.

Now with 2007 right around the corner, I can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel. With yesterday’s notice or quote to be totally accurate by the CBS news blogger – Melissa – over on Blogophile, it won’t be but a matter of time before Rex Dixon is in the mix once again.

Now on to the list of thank you’s. It has been a short few months that I have given up totally on the IT industry (for a day gig) and have been blogging and podcasting beyond what other people can only imagine.

The first thank you must of course go out to Mr. Business Golf. I met him on Tribe earlier this past year, and little did I know that by the end of 2006 we both would have some great things cooking for 2007. Everyone always for some reason says “Golf, I don’t play that game.” Neither does Rex Dixon, but they are already dismissing the true story of Mr. Business Golf, and really need to buy and read his book – How To Play Business Golf – to understand that Golf is only part of what he is doing. Once he gets on the seminar trail in 2007, I’m sure there will be many jumping on his bandwagon. I want to thank him for pushing me into the blogging game again, and also for inquiring about the podcasting. He is a true inspirational person and great business coach when it comes to the operational side of things. Here is to a great 2007 for Mr. Business Golf.

Next up, I want to thank our first official sponsor of this blog – yourminis - for having the faith in what this blog is doing. A little over a week ago, they signed up to be the sponsor, and their faith in Rex Dixon has not been for naught. I could post some cool graphics of traffic stats, numbers, etc. – but I won’t. Let’s just say even though we are not anywhere near the numbers that TechCrunch and other sites are at – which are in the million pageview neighborhood, this blog is growing in page views. We have shattered past records, and daily the readership is growing. Not to mention the podcast listeners, are steady in numbers. So to yourminis, Alex and his team — I thank you for taking what I had back when we agreed to do this sponsorship thing, and I’m glad that I’m able to help promote your company. Are you ready guys? You are now on the Rex Dixon express train, and I’m glad you are a part of it! In fact so much, I have a partnership idea – so Alex, get a hold of me after you are done eating and shopping (Black Friday). We need to talk about 2007!

My next thank you goes out to our second sponsor of the podcast. This person of course is one of the founders of a great site that will be taking off I’m sure when 2007 hits. It’s just a little slow time of course due to their target market being the college crowd, but soon the holidays will be over and January will hit. Where will the college kids go? MySpace? Give me a break! Yes, they all have the MySpace accounts as well as Facebook ones – but I am thinking I really like the Web 2.0 – The College Voice web site. Lara I want to extend my thanks to you and your team for letting me help you out in the week leading up to your launch. I foresee a very busy 2007 on the horizon for The College Voice!

Next up I would like to thank the first legit sponsor of the podcast, which was that book – Inside Facebook – which actually kept me up reading when I should have been sleeping! I mean you do know that Rex Dixon wakes up at the crack of dawn around 5am, and his book that he posted had me awake past 1am which is my latest “go to bed fool” time! I want to thank Karel and Ted both for agreeing to be my first sponsor of the podcast. I enjoyed the challenge of reading the script that was provided for their commercial spot, and I hope the book sells well for you in 2007. Yes, even though I have hammered your former Facebook CEO in the past few days, it was all in good fun! Hey, I’m still trying to new things to see what “sells” to my readers. I’m kind of glad that the post was barely read, as I really am not into bashing posts. What I mean is, “Do I look like the ValleyWag or something?” I look forward to the book coming out, and foresee even bigger things for Karel and Ted both in 2007.

Next up? Well I want to thank Marshall of TechCrunch for taking the time out of his busy day to drop me a quick note stating he sees the progress I have made here. That note reached me at a time, which I’m sure all internet companies and other bloggers, and podcasters have at one time or another thought to themselves – “WTF am I up doing this again for?” – It was one of those early 5am mornings where I was staring at my blank screen and checking my e-mail. It was timely, and I want to thank you for noticing!

Save the best for last right? I want to extend a great BIG THANK YOU now to my better half for putting up with my obsession to be at the top of my game. Yes, Rex Dixon doesn’t have any VC money so I do still work a day job. Take into account the 8 hours at the day gig, then getting our kid from the babysitters, making dinner and cutting a podcast and keeping up on the blog – yes – a BIG THANK YOU is in order! Rebelchelle – babe, thanks for seeing the vision of what I have now become and will be because you know me, anything I do full on “Rex Dixon” style is done 110%, balls to the wall – and as I have always said “Lead, Follow or get the F*** out of MY way!”. As I have told you many times and when I first decided this is “it” – I have no one to worry about at this point in time — NO idiots that will fire me because I’m not the best “bassist” in the world, NO people that will question my abilities to “learn” active directory, or the new “hot” stupid program that is the program of the minute — no, this is me – Rex Dixon unleashed.

Thank you all, and eat allot of Turkey today and of course come back daily for the latest Rex Dixon spin on the world of the internet, Web 2.0 style and much more! Technically Speaking, it’s time to roll out of the studio door and head to the Thankgiving gathering!

Terrible Acquistions and Funny Videos

It’s almost time. That time is Thanksgiving time. That means I have to leave you readers with something funny to view right? Well I don’t have too, but is there a better way then humor to help lighten up the day when you read this blog?

First there is this Top Ten worst Internet Acquistions of all time list.

Next up – funny videos – yup – these some of these videos are classic embarrassing or funny moments in news. News can be funny you know, and YouTube saves them for all to view over and over again!

Technically Speaking, you may want to bookmark that funny video blog post, you know – for days when the world isn’t too funny!

Jay-Z isn’t happy with MySpace

At a time when most music artists are embracing MySpace as an extension of their marketing plan, Jay-Z wasn’t too delighted that MySpace served its site members a sneak preview of his entire new album last week. Kingdom Come, the artist’s first album, since retiring three years ago, went on sale yesterday. On Friday, Jay-Z’s record label, Universal Music Group, filed its lawsuit against MySpace.

Technically Speaking, I’m hoping The Allman Brothers aren’t planning to release any material anytime soon, ain’t that right Ross?

Microsoft complied in time

Microsoft has finally complied and submitted new antitrust documents to the EU today. Not that they haven’t already been fined, and have been seriously dragging their feet on this, they could have been fined 3 Million Euros ($3.9 million) a day if they didn’t meet this deadline. I don’t think they really cared though, as if you read the article, they already have paid out pretty hefty fines since they missed the July 2006 deadline which was extended to December. Looks to be in the neighborhood total of 780 million Euros.

Technically Speaking, that isn’t a smart way for Microsoft to spend it’s money. I guess Vista better be flying off the shelves come next week for the businesses and in January for the consumer market!

Google World – it’s coming .. maybe!

Now that Google is far and away a juggernaut that isn’t going to be stopped any time soon, why not make up a shopping list of things that Google could actually buy. This list that you can view fully has some interesting items on it.

One of those items is Walt Disney’s aging Epcot Center for about $2 Billion and re-launch it as Google Center! Too pricey? How about something to help the environment then. A mere $1 Billion could snag Pacific Ethanol Inc.

The crown jewel of acquistions could be the New York Times. Yes, that NY Times. Right now seems to be the time for Google to step in, pick them up at 1998 value of roughly $3.5 Billion and rename it – the Google Times!

Yes, Google has a ton of money and now is the time they use it wisely. Before long, we will be driving our Google SUV to the Google gas station, picking up our copy of the Google Times and getting aboard the Google light rail system to work at a branch of Google center. At lunch we will go to Google King to get our fast food, with the new Google chicken sandwich, while drinking our Google soda.

Technically Speaking, that’s allot of Google, but hey – it’s Turkey day, so why not dream big?

Berggi launches on Thanksgiving

Berggi, is aiming to bring mobile e-mail to the masses. They are also launching for everyone today, Thanksgiving. Kind of a strange day to launch a new service, but figuring since everyone is Turkey day’ing it, I may well as get the news out there for everyone!

The company has already been in start mode for quite sometime now. They have slowly rolled out their services, and now today they are bringing e-mail, sms, data to the masses. You can use your current carrier, and for those that don’t want go with a data plan with their current carrier can go with Berggi.

Technically Speaking, this sounds like a great idea and even though it’s a Thanksgiving day launch, they have already established themselves over a few years time now. I see a company that has actually planned their start up from beginning to Turkey Day 2006 worldwide launch.

Browser OS – The Next BIG thing – 2 reviewed – Goowy and YouOS

I’m checking all this out. In the past couple of days the “hot” word on the street is GoogleOS. Well there is no such thing yet, but I think there will be. Currently I’m on two browser OS sites now.

Goowy, disclaimer – they are the parent company of our current main sponsor – yourminis - is a browser OS that is very much like yourminis. In fact yourminis is basically a spin off of Goowy. I do like Goowy. I can actually upload my mp3’s to box.net and have them for access anywhere. Yes, I like music. If you want to impress Rex Dixon, lure me in with something musical.

The mail feature is nice, everyone receives their own mail account @goowy.com and the chat feature works well. The only part of the chat, is the goowy chat. Couldn’t quite get that to work, but AIM, Yahoo, etc.. all work nice. Like Meebo does it. Now I had Mr. Business Golf also signing up for Goowy, and we were checking it all out, chatting via Skype and he disappears for a bit. The calendar feature looks very robust also. Much like what Google Calendar looks like. I didn’t see any other office apps right off, but I started to play around for a bit in Goowy.

So I’m checking things out, and also chatting with the owner Matt of the new startup company I told everyone about the other day called Vplyr - which if GoogleTube or some video site doesn’t start courting soon, I’ll be really surprised!

Speaking of Vplyr for a second – Matt told me an interesting item that confirmed my hunch as to his company going over big in 2007. I can’t release that information at this point and time, but do welcome all those that see Rex Dixon on chat to chat with me! If I’m logged into chat, and not in busy mode – I totally welcome people to chat with me — otherwise – why would I be in chat?

I digress though, it’s late, and I’ve had a few Heineken tonight. All of sudden Mr. Business Golf comes back and says, “Well tell Alex, the Goowy chat stuff sucks, but the GAMES ROCK!” Well, now I have to say, I never saw Mr. Business Golf as a gamer, but he was getting into this chopper game which I have yet to check out.

All in all, Goowy has something to offer everyone (obviously) and allot to like. Give it a spin, there is a demo mode, where you don’t have to sign up right off and then hate it. I think you won’t though, as even Mr. Business Golf could find something cool, which I know will keep him tooling around in Goowy for awhile.

YouOS, it’s the first one I gave a spin to this morning. I think that it is more Linux feeling, and I’m not talking Bill Gates Ubuntu either, more like old school slackware Linux. That painful install Linux with a X interface, that never looked great at all. Yeah, if you have been there – you know what I refer too!

The nice thing about YouOS is that I will classify it as a true developer OS platform. That is how I am seeing it right now. I believe that it will be a big hit with the purist types that want something to be like old school Linux, but a platform with a compiler and dev tools built in. Plus the benefits of not having to have multiple development boxes sitting around your house at all times, makes room for cooler toys, right?

Oh, don’t get me wrong, you have cool stuff there also. Games, BittyBrowser, mp3 player — which I either didn’t figure out yet, or it doesn’t work just right and much more. I think if you are old, or rather old school Linux hardcore type and like to fiddle with Java a bit. Develop your own apps for this browserOS, then I think you will like YouOS.

Either way – Goowy or YouOS - they both mark the future. Whenever there is site of or wind of GoogleOS they will have to step it up a notch. I think if you have that much money to spend, you can hire the best of the best and actually maybe even go beyond broswer OS and go full fledged, “We are going to bury everyone!” OS.