My MTV Engine Room Audition

I posted my MTV Engine Room Audition video on YouTube here!

The deadline for submissions is June 30th, and filming starts somewhere around the 14th of July...apparently they will notify who will be on the show by the 10th of July.

jorge

Yahoo.com $34.95 Domain Renewal is Not a Hoax

It's not a Hoax. I called and they told me that yes, domain renewals after July 1st, 2008 will be $34.95. That's too bad. I am transferring my domains to godaddy.com.

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This is part of the email I received on June 19th.

Important note: Beginning on July 1, 2008, Yahoo!'s annual domain renewal price increases to $34.95 per year.

Here's why I was thinking it sounded like a hoax:

1. There is no mention of it on the Yahoo website. I'm on hold with them right now and I'm going to ask them (1 hour and 40 minutes later). I will post what they tell me here. (no one's blog or news article is saying anything official from yahoo.com, everyone is just bashing yahoo.com).

2. (from the yahoo.com site): As long as your service is active and not past due, Yahoo! will automatically renew your domain registration (and pay the associated renewal fees) at the end of each term.

3. This part of the email is fishy: We're writing to remind you that it's time for the annual autorenewal of your service. I say that it's fishy because "autorenewal" means "automatic". That's what it's been this whole time. I don't ever get an autorenewal notice.

4. When I go to manage my domains on yahoo.com, they all say my renewal cost is $12.95. And although the email says that the price goes into effect on July 1st and won't be seen until after July 1st, it just doesn't make sense.

5. Why would yahoo.com do this? It doesn't make sense. Unless godaddy.com and all the other registrars are going to have to do it too, but I can't find anything that says that. Verisign increased prices at the end of last year, but not this high. ICANN is steadily going up too, but again, not this high.

6. I searched the yahoo.com small business help site using "domain renewal $34.95" and nothing came up. Nothing about the specific price. I even searched "Yahoo!'s annual domain renewal price increases to $34.95 per year." and nothing came up.

7. Yahoo.com is still selling domains for $1.99 for new first time users. OK, that's a loss leader...so if GoDaddy.com, but this is a direct quote from their site (on June 20th) $ 1 .99 /1st year for Yahoo! Domains ($12.95 / year after).

I'm just saying that this sounds like it could very well be a hoax by some yahoo.com hater, who wants to hurt yahoo.com.

I know that "sender" addresses can be "forged" and made to look like it's a legitimate company. I get fake ebay and paypal emails all the time.

I only have a few domains on yahoo.com, and have transfered a domain from them before and it was a total pain to do it, hopefully they have changed some things to make it easier (I noticed it's quite a bit easier to find the authorization code...that's nice).

jorge

I Might be on MTVs Engine Room

Wow, well, I did something kind of on a whim. I entered an MTV reality show casting call. It looks like it has to do with designing and being on a team of international artists and designers, and then competing against other teams. I'm now going to do some research on their websites (MTV Engine Room, SuPak's Blog) because I received this today:

Jorge, Thank you for entering the Engine Room casting call. We checked out your work, and we're strongly considering you for the show! As a top contender, we'd like to encourage you to upload some more samples of your work on our casting site. Not only is it better for us to evaluate all the narrowed down entries in one place, but in addition, by uploading your work, your portfolio will automatically be eligible for a chance to be selected as a weekly audience winner in accordance with the Official Rules should you not make the show. If you choose not to upload any additional works, this won't be held against you as we narrow down the contenders.

The casting call deadline is June 30th, so please respond as soon as you can.

Thanks!
- Engine Room Casting Team

I can't tell if this is a form letter or not, but wow. I'm kinda trippin'. Maybe everyone gets this email. Maybe so that more people start talking about it. Maybe I'm just skeptical. I'm still excited.

I sent in some examples of website designs, some of my wallpapers, some music, just anything I had that I thought would catch their eye. I guess I did just that.

The deadline is June 30th, and I'll know by July 10th if I've been chosen. If I'm chosen, I will be off to New York for a Month. That's a long time. I'll have to invest in a webcam or something so I can hang out with my family. Skype's the way to go, right?

Crazy.

Redneck Trailer Flash Game Nears Half a Million Plays

You remember that flash game I submitted into the JayIsGames.com flash competition. Although I did not win, It was picked up on a "non-exclusing" basis by AddictingGames.com and in about 2 weeks, has gotten almost 500,000 plays.

This is amazing to me. See my Redneck Trailer Flash Game here!

Sure, the game is silly and it's no action arcade game, but it's getting plays. I was told that the average play time for the game was around 10 minutes. That's pretty good. In fact, the website likes that stat better than the amount of plays.

The game is rated and reviewed by members of the website and it hasn't moved much from about 60% like it and 40% don't like it.

It's really great to see the comments. Some have reviewed it as "best game ever". That's pretty funny.

More of my Original Flash Games here!

jorge