I haven't posted to this blog for the last four years because I have focused my time and energy into writing and producing FOR Ayrstone Productivity (primarily through the Ayrstone Blog, Facebook page, and YouTube channel) instead of writing ABOUT the company, which is what this blog is for.
But my purpose in creating THIS blog was to talk to other entrepreneurs and managers of young companies, especially AgTech companies, And the truth is that I have, between AutoFarm and Ayrstone, been in the AgTech business for over 10 years now. So I think I have some things to share, if I can come up with the time to share them.
I have posted articles about our problems with the companies we depend on (material suppliers and service providers), tools (particularly smartphones), and technology issues (IPv6), which are issues that still concern me, so I want to give a quick update on those issues.
Our suppliers for the radios we use for AyrMesh products continue, all these years later, to be a source of concern. They still run out of stock from time to time (about 6 weeks ago, for instance) and I have to go buy radios on the open market, which is expensive both in terms of time and money. However, it keeps us from having to stop shipping and keep customers waiting.
Our websites are still hosted on a GoDaddy VPS and on the MediaTemple Grid service (MediaTemple is now part of GoDaddy, though). The Grid server has continued to be very solid - Ayrstone.com doesn't go down much, but we continue to have interesting occasional problems with the GoDaddy VPS. However, the disruption to our customers over the last five years has been minimal, so I haven't felt the need to make a big change. We re-architected the AyrMesh.com codebase in 2013; it's about time to re-architect it again (essentially into a set of public APIs so other web-based "Dashboards" can include AyrMesh equipment in their systems), and I may move it to a more reliable platform then. However, we did move the codebase to a new VPS from Turnkey Internet, which is a fraction of the price of the GoDaddy server - we made this move so the original Hubs could check into a site without a SHA-2 signed certificate. But... the only way I know to determine what's reliable is to move the code onto a server and see what happens. If it doesn't go well, of course, it's a disaster that needs to be managed. The Turnkey Internet server did fail over a holiday weekend recently, but it was easy to get it back up and running, and it reminded me to add some checks to let me know if things weren't working.
I'm still very interested in optimizing the tools I use to run Ayrstone. My primary tools are still my smartphone, which currently is a Lenovo Moto Z Force (Android), and my laptop, which is an Acer Chromebook running "Crouton" so it can run a full Ubuntu installation under ChromeOS. I really love this little laptop, because it is very "stealth" - it's a $149 laptop that hides a dual-core computer with 10 GB of memory, capable of doing almost anything I need. And I still use the refurbished 4-core, 8-GB PC I got soon after we started the company, although, after it became unstable under Windows 10 I installed a dual-boot copy of Mint Linux, which has been better (albeit not perfect - I may be facing some hardware age problems).
Of course, if you have dealt with Ayrstone, you have probably come into contact with Suzanne and/or Trish, our long-suffering support folks. They, of course, really keep the company going while I am trying to get new products out the door, promote the company, and work with partners and potential partners. I am incredibly lucky to have them.
We are entering a new era now - we last introduced a new Hub in 2013, and we're working very hard to bring out AT LEAST one new Hub (as well as some other improved products) in the near future.
So, hopefully, I'll have more to say ABOUT Ayrstone (as well as more to say AS Ayrstone) in the near future.
Monday, November 27, 2017
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
IPv6
As the topkick in this little business, it's my job to worry about things that affect our business.
I worry about rural internet access - our customers have to have some sort of "always-on" internet access to use our products. Cable and DSL lines don't reach out far enough from the cities and towns, Wireless ISPs (WISPS) can't reach everyone, and not everyone has an unobstructed southern view for Satellite.
I worry about the general agricultural market - grain prices are up (as I write this) but that's putting a squeeze on livestock producers, whose profits have been hurting. Fruits and veggies are doing well, but I cringe every time I read of a proposal for the federal government to "help" these farmers.
What I'm worrying about today, however, is the next version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6. I have been in the computer and networking business for a long time. If you google "Bill Moffitt IPv6" you can see that I have been telling anyone who would listen for the last 10 years that IPv6 vital to our business and we need to drive the transition as quickly as possible.
The fact that I have been saying that for 10 years and we're still puttering along with IPv4 tells a story in itself...
IPv4, the version of Internet Protocol we're using today, is obsolete, and has been for some time. We have "patched" the Internet together using "NAT" - Network Address Translation. However, every client on the Internet must have an IP address, and every server must have a consistent (or "static") IP address. IPv4 allows fewer than 4 billion addresses, and there are many, many more than 4 billion devices on the Internet today - and growing fast. Indeed, while laptops, phones, tablets, and other "clients" can work well in the "artificial" IP addresses created by NAT, there are two problems that threaten the Internet.
The first is obvious: there are more and more servers being deployed as more and more services are becoming available. The second is that the line between "server" and "client" is changing with the advent of devices that are both client and server. A good example is an IP camera - it acts as a client on the Local Area Network, but it also acts as a server, delivering a stream of video to the LAN and, potentially, to the Internet. If you want to put one of these devices on the Internet (so you, and perhaps others, can access it across the Internet), you have to figure out how to do "port forwarding" on your router. This is networking judo at the brown-belt level - not for everyone. IPv6, however, will remove those problems.
Last year, the last two blocks of IPv4 addresses were allocated to the African and Asia Pacific areas. What this means is that, at the top level, we are completely out of IPv4 addresses - there simply are no more possible.
For some period of time, the regional authorities and ISPs have a storehouse of IPv4 addresses that they can use to deploy new servers. However, that storehouse is finite, and the Internet continues to grow at an exponential pace. The net result is that these addresses, of course, will start running out pretty soon.
It takes some imagination to see how this will play out, but I believe it will go something like this.
Some small providers, probably in Asia, will start to run out of IPv4 addresses. Companies seeking addresses for new servers will go to other service providers, which will accelerate the exhaustion of supplies. At some point, someone will start a new, very successful web business that will require hundreds or even thousands of IP addresses, and there just won't be enough addresses to allow them to deploy the number of servers required. They will have no choice but to start deploying with IPv6 addresses, at least for some of their servers and capacity.
The upshot will be that it will be necessary or at least very desirable to have IPv6 to access this new, "must-have" service and all new services that follow (since there will be no more IPv4 addresses). Since everyone will "need" this service (think of it as the next Google or Facebook), people will need IPv6 access, and they'll need it RIGHT NOW! This will create an immediate and urgent groundswell for IPv6 connectivity, and ISPs that cannot deliver that connectivity will see their subscribers go elsewhere as quickly as they can.
ISPs who have not thought this through will be overwhelmed by demands from their customers, and web hosting and rackspace providers who haven't already will need to implement "dual-stack" networks immediately or risk losing all their customers.
I am truly scared, however, based on the conversations I have had with different service providers. My home ISP says nothing about providing IPv6 connectivity to residential customers, although they do provide IPv6 to business customers. At the same time, I have been talking to hosting providers for server space, and I am apalled that so few of them offer IPv6 connectivity to their servers. When the "big switch" happens, these providers and all their customers will be at risk.
For the time being, however, I'm just looking for a good hosting provider that offers a full dual-stack implementation so we are insured from the turmoil to come. I strongly advise all business owners who depend on the Internet for their business to take a good, hard look at your hosting provider and ask some hard questions about their plans for implementing IPv6. It's smart business to get out in front of this one - don't let it be a surprise.
I worry about rural internet access - our customers have to have some sort of "always-on" internet access to use our products. Cable and DSL lines don't reach out far enough from the cities and towns, Wireless ISPs (WISPS) can't reach everyone, and not everyone has an unobstructed southern view for Satellite.
I worry about the general agricultural market - grain prices are up (as I write this) but that's putting a squeeze on livestock producers, whose profits have been hurting. Fruits and veggies are doing well, but I cringe every time I read of a proposal for the federal government to "help" these farmers.
What I'm worrying about today, however, is the next version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6. I have been in the computer and networking business for a long time. If you google "Bill Moffitt IPv6" you can see that I have been telling anyone who would listen for the last 10 years that IPv6 vital to our business and we need to drive the transition as quickly as possible.
The fact that I have been saying that for 10 years and we're still puttering along with IPv4 tells a story in itself...
IPv4, the version of Internet Protocol we're using today, is obsolete, and has been for some time. We have "patched" the Internet together using "NAT" - Network Address Translation. However, every client on the Internet must have an IP address, and every server must have a consistent (or "static") IP address. IPv4 allows fewer than 4 billion addresses, and there are many, many more than 4 billion devices on the Internet today - and growing fast. Indeed, while laptops, phones, tablets, and other "clients" can work well in the "artificial" IP addresses created by NAT, there are two problems that threaten the Internet.
The first is obvious: there are more and more servers being deployed as more and more services are becoming available. The second is that the line between "server" and "client" is changing with the advent of devices that are both client and server. A good example is an IP camera - it acts as a client on the Local Area Network, but it also acts as a server, delivering a stream of video to the LAN and, potentially, to the Internet. If you want to put one of these devices on the Internet (so you, and perhaps others, can access it across the Internet), you have to figure out how to do "port forwarding" on your router. This is networking judo at the brown-belt level - not for everyone. IPv6, however, will remove those problems.
Last year, the last two blocks of IPv4 addresses were allocated to the African and Asia Pacific areas. What this means is that, at the top level, we are completely out of IPv4 addresses - there simply are no more possible.
For some period of time, the regional authorities and ISPs have a storehouse of IPv4 addresses that they can use to deploy new servers. However, that storehouse is finite, and the Internet continues to grow at an exponential pace. The net result is that these addresses, of course, will start running out pretty soon.
It takes some imagination to see how this will play out, but I believe it will go something like this.
Some small providers, probably in Asia, will start to run out of IPv4 addresses. Companies seeking addresses for new servers will go to other service providers, which will accelerate the exhaustion of supplies. At some point, someone will start a new, very successful web business that will require hundreds or even thousands of IP addresses, and there just won't be enough addresses to allow them to deploy the number of servers required. They will have no choice but to start deploying with IPv6 addresses, at least for some of their servers and capacity.
The upshot will be that it will be necessary or at least very desirable to have IPv6 to access this new, "must-have" service and all new services that follow (since there will be no more IPv4 addresses). Since everyone will "need" this service (think of it as the next Google or Facebook), people will need IPv6 access, and they'll need it RIGHT NOW! This will create an immediate and urgent groundswell for IPv6 connectivity, and ISPs that cannot deliver that connectivity will see their subscribers go elsewhere as quickly as they can.
ISPs who have not thought this through will be overwhelmed by demands from their customers, and web hosting and rackspace providers who haven't already will need to implement "dual-stack" networks immediately or risk losing all their customers.
I am truly scared, however, based on the conversations I have had with different service providers. My home ISP says nothing about providing IPv6 connectivity to residential customers, although they do provide IPv6 to business customers. At the same time, I have been talking to hosting providers for server space, and I am apalled that so few of them offer IPv6 connectivity to their servers. When the "big switch" happens, these providers and all their customers will be at risk.
For the time being, however, I'm just looking for a good hosting provider that offers a full dual-stack implementation so we are insured from the turmoil to come. I strongly advise all business owners who depend on the Internet for their business to take a good, hard look at your hosting provider and ask some hard questions about their plans for implementing IPv6. It's smart business to get out in front of this one - don't let it be a surprise.
Friday, April 1, 2011
An outstanding article...
Just a great article on TechCrunch on being a CEO. Horowitz hits the nail on the head.
Bottom line: there are a million ways to lose, but the only way to win is to keep showing up.
Maybe I need to paste this up on the wall for the darker days.
Bottom line: there are a million ways to lose, but the only way to win is to keep showing up.
Maybe I need to paste this up on the wall for the darker days.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Firing a customer
When you're a small company, you're always on the lookout for revenue. Every customer is critical, and you want to do everything you can to keep every single one.
Up to a point.
One thing I have learned in many years of business is the importance of knowing when to fire a customer.
Ayrstone's customers, by and large, are some of the nicest people I have ever dealt with. It is truly a pleasure to work with them, and I truly feel bad when something doesn't go as it should. We all try to go out of our way to make things right
But, that said, there are always a few people who, for a variety of reasons, you really don't want to do business with, and it's a palpable relief to give them their money back and see them walk away. There have been a few of those over the last year, and I was reminded of them today when we got rid of another one.
This afternoon, just before 1, our support folks got a call from someone who wanted to return the product. The support person explained that we will provide an RMA within a day. This customer called them back half an hour later to ask where the RMA was. In the meantime she had sent us an email asking for the RMA, then another 20 minutes later, and a third thirty minutes after that emphasizing that she had been waiting for 3 DAYS for this.
I have a part-time helper goes through the support notes twice a day and sends RMA numbers as needed, and she responded just before 2 p.m., or about an hour after the first call.
I have seldom been happier to get rid of a customer; I'll be relieved when we refund her money.
Another customer, several months back, called and emailed several times a day over several days to ask questions about the product that were clearly covered in the installation instructions or the FAQ on the website. He decided there must be something wrong with the product, so we did an exchange. When the new product worked exactly the same as the "old" product, he asked what could be done. I told him (ever so sadly) that the only option was a refund, and that we were terribly sorry we couldn't help him.
There are customers who aren't worth having - some are too expensive, and some are just too needy or unpleasant to deal with.
Do you have customers you'd like to fire? Have you fired a customer?
It's a little scary, but a liberating experience.
Are you the kind of customer your vendors want to fire? As Dr. Phil likes to say, "How's that workin' out for you?"
Up to a point.
One thing I have learned in many years of business is the importance of knowing when to fire a customer.
Ayrstone's customers, by and large, are some of the nicest people I have ever dealt with. It is truly a pleasure to work with them, and I truly feel bad when something doesn't go as it should. We all try to go out of our way to make things right
But, that said, there are always a few people who, for a variety of reasons, you really don't want to do business with, and it's a palpable relief to give them their money back and see them walk away. There have been a few of those over the last year, and I was reminded of them today when we got rid of another one.
This afternoon, just before 1, our support folks got a call from someone who wanted to return the product. The support person explained that we will provide an RMA within a day. This customer called them back half an hour later to ask where the RMA was. In the meantime she had sent us an email asking for the RMA, then another 20 minutes later, and a third thirty minutes after that emphasizing that she had been waiting for 3 DAYS for this.
I have a part-time helper goes through the support notes twice a day and sends RMA numbers as needed, and she responded just before 2 p.m., or about an hour after the first call.
I have seldom been happier to get rid of a customer; I'll be relieved when we refund her money.
Another customer, several months back, called and emailed several times a day over several days to ask questions about the product that were clearly covered in the installation instructions or the FAQ on the website. He decided there must be something wrong with the product, so we did an exchange. When the new product worked exactly the same as the "old" product, he asked what could be done. I told him (ever so sadly) that the only option was a refund, and that we were terribly sorry we couldn't help him.
There are customers who aren't worth having - some are too expensive, and some are just too needy or unpleasant to deal with.
Do you have customers you'd like to fire? Have you fired a customer?
It's a little scary, but a liberating experience.
Are you the kind of customer your vendors want to fire? As Dr. Phil likes to say, "How's that workin' out for you?"
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Smarphones and business...
The Treo had a VGA camera that could shoot video, an easy-to-swap battery, and it could be mated to a Bluetooth keyboard. It also had a good collection of apps available for it, adding terrific enhancements to the included PIM applications (datebk5, goosync), Microsoft Office capability (QuickOffice, Documents To Go), and some nice games. It even had a browser, which, combined with the super-slow dataspeed, was almost worthless.
What I didn't know when I got the iPhone was that it didn't:
1.) Shoot video. Better resolution for still shots than the Treo or Blackjack, but no video. Huh??? Of course, the 3GS didn't either until they released an iOS upgrade, which provided video on the 3GS but not the 3G.
2.) Have enough memory. The 3G only has 128 MB of memory, while the 3GS has 256 MB and the 4 has 512 MB. These specs are not widely broadcast by Apple; you have to dig for them, but they have had a HUGE effect on my use of the phone.
3.) Work with a Bluetooth keyboard. This floored me - I never checked; I couldn't conceive that a smartphone wouldn't work with a Bluetooth keyboard. This still strikes me as the most stupid thing Apple has ever done. Worse than Finder 8.x.
4.) Have a good PIM. And they don't allow apps that usefully extend the address book and calendar. I have felt like I had an arm cut off ever since I gave up the Treo... simple, stupid things like being able to have every new calendar entry have a reminder by default just aren't there. I'll set appointments in a hurry and forget to set a reminder. Half an hour after the appointment, I'll look it up and find it there, perfectly happy, never having said a word to me. What's the use?
5.) Be "tetherable." Having a fast internet connection on your phone is fine, but it's even better if you can share it with your laptop when you need to.
Don't get me wrong - the iPhone is an amazing device. Google maps and the "REAL" Safari browser have saved my bacon a few times. Having a GPS is nice, and the multi-touch user interface is terrific. But these things seem like stuff you should have dealt with before putting all the bells and whistles on.
Then there was the problem that the iPhone being inextricably linked (until recently) to AT&T. The radios in the iPhone (all 4? 5? of them - GSM, HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS - am I missing any?) are very weak to preserve battery power, so I found I dropped a lot more calls on the iPhone than on the old Treo.
My last interaction with AT&T came just a few months ago, however. I had the unlimited data plan (as all iPhone users did), and AT&T brought out limited data plans. Since I had never used more than 130 MB of data in a month (I mostly use it on WiFi because the 3G data rate is so slow), I signed up for the 200 MB per month plan to save $15.
Several weeks later, I got a text from customer service letting me know I was over my allocation. By about 4 GB.
I called them as soon as I could to explain there was a mistake; I had not changed my usage, I had never used more than 130 MB of data in a month, so this was clearly a mistake. They "opened a case" to investigate, and their "investigation" showed that I had used that much data. I asked them to re-open the case, which they did, and then re-closed it. I went in to the local AT&T store to talk to them in person. They were able to bring up the logs and show me the data usage; apparently, one night my phone downloaded over 4 GB of data in about a 6-hour stint. While I was asleep. And I downloaded even more over the next couple of days.
Now, one of the features of the iPhone is that it keeps track of how much data it "sees" passing through the data connection, and that counter (which I have never reset) shows that I have send just under 500 MB and received 2.4 GB in the life of the phone. I also measured the download speed (several times, over a period of several days) from speedtest.net, and found that, at the speeds I get, it would take the better part of a day to download 4 GB of data, assuming the link was running "full speed" the entire time.
I presented all this evidence to the folks at AT&T, who said, in effect, "We don't care." They generously allowed me to retroactively upgrade to a 2 GB data plan, so I had only a $40 overage. I paid the $40 and vowed that would be the last time I did business with AT&T for cellular service. In May my contract is up, and I'll look at what Verizon can offer.
Now, I had mentioned that the memory capacity of the iPhone has become important. I had "jailbroken" my iPhone to try to overcome some of the limitations - it allowed me to shoot video and tether the phone, both of which were very good. I decided at one point to upgrade to iOS 4.1 to get some new features (including support for the Bluetooth Keyboard), figuring I could easily downgrade and re-jailbreak if needed. When I upgraded to iOS 4.1, the phone was usable, but the apps were almost all unusable. It took up so much memory, it took minutes for apps to load. One day I was looking up something on Google Maps, and, after 10 minutes, I finally just gave up - it didn't crash, it just sat there, not responding. This is something I do a lot of the iPhone, so I needed to get it back. I downgraded back to 3.1.3, and the phone is now usable, but still a lot slower than it used to be. It turns out that upgrading to 4.1 installed new data modem software (the "baseband" software) that, apparently, takes up much more memory than the old software. It also makes it impossible to "jailbreak."
Interestingly, several of my applications had updated to iOS 4.1 versions, and they disappeared when I downgraded. The iOS 3.1 versions apparently are no longer available, so I have just lost them.
So, now my iPhone is obsolete. It still works, but it's not nearly as useful as it was. In May I'll evaluate my options on Verizon. They have the iPhone 4, of course, but now that I have been so thoroughly obsoleted in 2 years with an iPhone, I'm very leery of taking that "closed platform" trip again. An open platform like Android has the advantage that a savvy user can maneuver more to reduce the effects of obsolescence; with Apple, you get what you get.
The point of all this, of course, is that I consider a smartphone a necessity of modern business. Although I have considered it, I'm very reluctant to go back to a 3 or 4-gadget existence - I'd like to keep going down the path of having to have my laptop with me less of the time rather than more. I really appreciate being able to pull out the phone and work productively on email and web-based work (as long as it doesn't involve Adobe Flash - another "closed platform" problem).
Whither next on this journey? I'll let you know...
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Ah, the joys of business...
The joys are few, but the responsibilities and hassles are many!
One of the most interesting things has been dealing with suppliers. The AyrMesh Hub is a radio we buy from Ubiquiti, via one or more of their distributors. Ubiquiti is a pretty good company: they design really good stuff that's inexpensive and fairly bulletproof. However, they have a very difficult time managing their own supply chain, and the result has been that they just run out of product every so often.
Their distribution model somewhat exacerbates this: they manufacture in China, and their distributors have to buy in full container (roughly 20'x8'x8') lots. This is a LOT of little radios, and a LOT of capital tied up in them, so they manage their inventory so it's just about empty when the next container load comes in. If Ubiquiti is a couple of weeks late (due to a manufacturing glitch, or a facility problem, or parts unavailable, or any of a zillion other things that go wrong), then these products just disappear out of everyone's inventory as everyone who uses them scrambles to get them.
To this point, we have been lucky - the two times they have run out of product, we have been able to get enough inventory to tide us over, but it has been both expensive and nerve-wracking.
The other major "supplier" hassle has been web hosting... a critical "commodity" for a web-based business.
We have two websites: ayrstone.com, which runs Joomla and is all content-based, and ayrmesh.com, which is the "backbone" of the AyrMesh system and is all code-based. Ayrmesh.com, because of the nature of the information, also is dependent on SSL encryption - all connections must be SSL encrypted.
We started off with GoDaddy, and it worked pretty well. We had a couple of short outages, but, through our early days, it worked just fine. The only problem I had with GoDaddy is their clunky interface for managing all the functions of the website. It is terribly slow, not very convenient, and, every so often, it just wouldn't work (possibly because it is Javascript-heavy and will tax the browser to the max). I also found it worked best with Windows and IE, but I use Linux, iPhone, Firefox, and Safari mostly.
When we launched AyrMesh, I wanted to go with a more solid, commercial hosting provider. A friend recommended Media Temple, so I started with their basic "Grid" web hosting. The tools and interface are WONDERFUL! Their tech support is great, and, for simple web hosting, they have been very good. A few short outages, but, overall, very good. The caveat here is to note I said, "simple web hosting." Ayrstone.com has been on Media Temple's "Grid" service for a year now and has been flawless. Ayrmesh.com, however, experienced an outage for several hours one night. Something in the configuration went wrong in serving SSL pages; eventually, after I called and tweeted the support folks, they got it fixed. I was put on notice.
Some weeks later, it happened again. This time ayrmesh.com was down for about 5 hours, including a time when a reviewer was trying to install an AyrMesh system. Same mysterious problem, and no explanation from the support people that gave me any confidence that it wouldn't happen again. Apparently they just don't monitor the software that provides the SSL support for their web servers very well.
That, of course, was the last straw. The next day I rented a "Virtual Private Server" from GoDaddy (they seem to have the best deals on the web... of course, it's very difficult to compare apples to apples) and moved ayrmesh.com to it. We have had one short glitch for "scheduled maintenance" (they swear they sent me an email notifying me), but otherwise it has run perfectly.
So, for the moment, ayrstone.com is still running on Media Temple and ayrmesh.com is running on the GoDaddy server. There is plenty of room/resource on the server to move ayrstone.com there, but everything is working pretty well right now and I don't mind blowing $16 per month on Media Temple for now.
The next frontier: IP cameras. Here we step into the murky world of importing, and all the fun that comes with it. Stay tuned...
One of the most interesting things has been dealing with suppliers. The AyrMesh Hub is a radio we buy from Ubiquiti, via one or more of their distributors. Ubiquiti is a pretty good company: they design really good stuff that's inexpensive and fairly bulletproof. However, they have a very difficult time managing their own supply chain, and the result has been that they just run out of product every so often.
Their distribution model somewhat exacerbates this: they manufacture in China, and their distributors have to buy in full container (roughly 20'x8'x8') lots. This is a LOT of little radios, and a LOT of capital tied up in them, so they manage their inventory so it's just about empty when the next container load comes in. If Ubiquiti is a couple of weeks late (due to a manufacturing glitch, or a facility problem, or parts unavailable, or any of a zillion other things that go wrong), then these products just disappear out of everyone's inventory as everyone who uses them scrambles to get them.
To this point, we have been lucky - the two times they have run out of product, we have been able to get enough inventory to tide us over, but it has been both expensive and nerve-wracking.
The other major "supplier" hassle has been web hosting... a critical "commodity" for a web-based business.
We have two websites: ayrstone.com, which runs Joomla and is all content-based, and ayrmesh.com, which is the "backbone" of the AyrMesh system and is all code-based. Ayrmesh.com, because of the nature of the information, also is dependent on SSL encryption - all connections must be SSL encrypted.
We started off with GoDaddy, and it worked pretty well. We had a couple of short outages, but, through our early days, it worked just fine. The only problem I had with GoDaddy is their clunky interface for managing all the functions of the website. It is terribly slow, not very convenient, and, every so often, it just wouldn't work (possibly because it is Javascript-heavy and will tax the browser to the max). I also found it worked best with Windows and IE, but I use Linux, iPhone, Firefox, and Safari mostly.
When we launched AyrMesh, I wanted to go with a more solid, commercial hosting provider. A friend recommended Media Temple, so I started with their basic "Grid" web hosting. The tools and interface are WONDERFUL! Their tech support is great, and, for simple web hosting, they have been very good. A few short outages, but, overall, very good. The caveat here is to note I said, "simple web hosting." Ayrstone.com has been on Media Temple's "Grid" service for a year now and has been flawless. Ayrmesh.com, however, experienced an outage for several hours one night. Something in the configuration went wrong in serving SSL pages; eventually, after I called and tweeted the support folks, they got it fixed. I was put on notice.
Some weeks later, it happened again. This time ayrmesh.com was down for about 5 hours, including a time when a reviewer was trying to install an AyrMesh system. Same mysterious problem, and no explanation from the support people that gave me any confidence that it wouldn't happen again. Apparently they just don't monitor the software that provides the SSL support for their web servers very well.
That, of course, was the last straw. The next day I rented a "Virtual Private Server" from GoDaddy (they seem to have the best deals on the web... of course, it's very difficult to compare apples to apples) and moved ayrmesh.com to it. We have had one short glitch for "scheduled maintenance" (they swear they sent me an email notifying me), but otherwise it has run perfectly.
So, for the moment, ayrstone.com is still running on Media Temple and ayrmesh.com is running on the GoDaddy server. There is plenty of room/resource on the server to move ayrstone.com there, but everything is working pretty well right now and I don't mind blowing $16 per month on Media Temple for now.
The next frontier: IP cameras. Here we step into the murky world of importing, and all the fun that comes with it. Stay tuned...
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A real company is born...
Well, in case you haven't seen our ads or mentions on the web, we are truly up and running. In the last few months, we have been working on our website, particularly the Support page where all the instructions and FAQs live. We have added articles on the Community page, and worked to make sure it is more "SEO friendly" so we show up first in searches.
Most exciting, we have sold about 200 AyrMesh Hubs at this point. Some have come back because they didn't do what the purchaser had hoped, and we have even seen our first defects in the last couple of weeks. However, the VAST majority have found "happy homes" out across the U.S. and Canada - it's incredibly gratifying!
Now, while it's true that we have some revenues and expenses (hey, that's the sign of a real company, right?), there are still a few things separating us from being a REAL company:
1. When you call technical support, you talk to me.
2. When you call sales, you talk to me.
3. In fact, any number you call, if I'm not on the phone already, you talk to me.
4. I'm on the phone most of the time.
5. If you send an email to sales, support, info, or just about anything else at ayrstone.com, you're talking to me.
Of course, an awful lot of folks end up talking to my voice on the answering service, so we're going to get some people (who probably know more than I do anyway) to answer the phone.
In the meantime, AyrMesh has started showing up all over the web. Clay Mitchell has been a beta tester, and has mentioned it in his blog. Willie Vogt also wrote a good article about us on his blog, and a very nice article in Farm Progress. Finally, more and more of our customers are sending us great testimonials and reviews on our Amazon store.
It is gratifying to have gotten the company finally off the ground and moving in the right direction. However, now is when the hard work really begins.
Onwards and upwards!
Most exciting, we have sold about 200 AyrMesh Hubs at this point. Some have come back because they didn't do what the purchaser had hoped, and we have even seen our first defects in the last couple of weeks. However, the VAST majority have found "happy homes" out across the U.S. and Canada - it's incredibly gratifying!
Now, while it's true that we have some revenues and expenses (hey, that's the sign of a real company, right?), there are still a few things separating us from being a REAL company:
1. When you call technical support, you talk to me.
2. When you call sales, you talk to me.
3. In fact, any number you call, if I'm not on the phone already, you talk to me.
4. I'm on the phone most of the time.
5. If you send an email to sales, support, info, or just about anything else at ayrstone.com, you're talking to me.
Of course, an awful lot of folks end up talking to my voice on the answering service, so we're going to get some people (who probably know more than I do anyway) to answer the phone.
In the meantime, AyrMesh has started showing up all over the web. Clay Mitchell has been a beta tester, and has mentioned it in his blog. Willie Vogt also wrote a good article about us on his blog, and a very nice article in Farm Progress. Finally, more and more of our customers are sending us great testimonials and reviews on our Amazon store.
It is gratifying to have gotten the company finally off the ground and moving in the right direction. However, now is when the hard work really begins.
Onwards and upwards!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
And the product is out... to "friends and family"
The website is up as is our Amazon WebStore.
If you didn't get an invitation for our "Friends and Family" offer, leave a comment below and we'll get you one (it's a very limited-time offer, however, so let me know NOW).
For those who are familiar with the high-end wi-fi radios out there, you can see we have standardized on the Ubiquiti PicoStation HP radio (running, of course, our own firmware). It is a terrific little unit - very small, light, easy to mount in many different configurations, and quite sturdy and weather-resistant.
Right now, the focus is on helping farmers (and other folks who live in the country, of course) deploy the AyrMesh network on their homesteads. Next we'll start moving out into the fields... stay tuned!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
And time marches on...
It has been a busy, busy time for the New Ag Business. This summer I drove back to Illinois and Iowa to install beta hardware to "prove out" the AyrMesh(TM) concept. It was an amazing trip, full of discovery and accomplishment, both professionally and personally.
Professionally, it was a huge relief to finally put this system into the hands of some growers so they could see the value it provides and give us feedback on it.
In each location, we installed a gateway node (on top of a house, attached to a router with broadband access) and a field node (solar powered) with a weather station and a field camera. At our Illinois location, the field station is 3/4 of a mile from the gateway; in Iowa, it is 2.4 miles from the gateway.
The systems have performed, albeit not flawlessly. There have been some small glitches, especially in the power systems. In early October, I flew back out there to update the systems and add more solar panels. We're still facing a few problems, but the radio systems have worked flawlessly since I returned.
Personally, it was a great trip - I saw my parents, drove across the Sierras and the Rockies, saw wildlife from Antelope to Pheasants, crossed the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, saw old friends and made new ones.
Now we are just putting our noses to the grindstone to get the first products ready for sale.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Backtracking a bit
It occurs to me that I have never really explained why we are starting the AyrMesh™ product line or even what it is. Better late than never...
The motivation for the AyrMesh product was born from a number of independent yet related observations:
Setting up some minimal remote sensing equipment (rainfall at the very least; windspeed and direction, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are easy to include, and, once you have those, soil temperature and moisture sensors are just as easy to plug in) in the fields will at least relieve the grower from having to drive out to the field only to find out it's too wet to work.
While good and even inexpensive weather equipment is available, no good, inexpensive weather stations exist that meet our criteria:
can easily and inexpensively be integrated once you have the IP network available. What other data might be interesting to have collected automatically in the field?
One of the other things we have realized is that, today, all the remote sensing solutions available have the goal of getting data to the home PC. However, a grower belongs in the fields, not in the office staring at a computer. If the grower has wireless internet access in the fields, either via the field network or the cellular network, then a far better solution is to put all the data on a server on the internet where he can access it any time from anywhere - on any internet-connected device, from the computer at home to a laptop to a "nettop" to a smartphone.
This remote sensing capability brings terrific value to the grower, but, as we have learned in the corporate world and, increasingly, even in our own homes, once you have the network, it tends to find a lot more use than you had originally envisioned. We have a lot more in mind for this network... more on that later.
The motivation for the AyrMesh product was born from a number of independent yet related observations:
- Growers already have a number of wireless communication systems on the farm: RTK GPS systems, irrigation systems, two-way radios, cellular telephones, and, possibly, several others.
- Each of these systems is independent, requiring separate base stations, clients, maintenance, and, possibly, licensing. However, they may still interfere with one another - unifying these into a single network can save money and time.
- There are benefits to having these networks connected to the internet: access to RTK networks like the one recently installed by the state of Iowa, and being able to access things like irrigation systems via a web interface, for example.
- Growers who have such networks find them indispensable, but they are expensive
- For most growers, the only way to find out the condition of a field is to drive out and take a look at it.
- For most growers, fieldwork data is kept on the flash cards in the in-cab computers on their equipment and/or on notebooks stored under the seats of the farm vehicles and is not collected and analyzed until after harvest.
Setting up some minimal remote sensing equipment (rainfall at the very least; windspeed and direction, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are easy to include, and, once you have those, soil temperature and moisture sensors are just as easy to plug in) in the fields will at least relieve the grower from having to drive out to the field only to find out it's too wet to work.While good and even inexpensive weather equipment is available, no good, inexpensive weather stations exist that meet our criteria:
- Deliver information via standard Internet Protocol (IP),
- Can send weather data directly to a server via the internet and display that data as a web page,
- Have the ability to transmit weather data 5 miles or more wirelessly,
- Can be run off of a solar panel and a battery (no power outlet or AA batteries required),
- Don't require the use of a PC or server on the farm, and
- Cost less than a good used car.
can easily and inexpensively be integrated once you have the IP network available. What other data might be interesting to have collected automatically in the field?One of the other things we have realized is that, today, all the remote sensing solutions available have the goal of getting data to the home PC. However, a grower belongs in the fields, not in the office staring at a computer. If the grower has wireless internet access in the fields, either via the field network or the cellular network, then a far better solution is to put all the data on a server on the internet where he can access it any time from anywhere - on any internet-connected device, from the computer at home to a laptop to a "nettop" to a smartphone.
This remote sensing capability brings terrific value to the grower, but, as we have learned in the corporate world and, increasingly, even in our own homes, once you have the network, it tends to find a lot more use than you had originally envisioned. We have a lot more in mind for this network... more on that later.
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