Bob's Blog

Every time I finish an Ironman, tell myself that it was my last. The soreness fades after a few weeks, and I start craving the rush again.

This time it was in Kona, Hawaii. I qualified for it in St. Croix and couldn’t wait to head to Kona. The running and biking are hard but doable. It’s the swimming that always gives me trouble. This year was no exception, but a great marketing effort by Coffees of Hawaii took my mind off the 2.4 mile swim.

CoH set up an espresso bar on a boat on the race loop. Imagine swimming out there and seeing a crowd of people around a boat, sipping a drink. I pulled up, downed a double shot and went on my way. I’m certain that the caffeine more than made up for any time I spent treading water around the boat!

I’m sitting here in the British Airways lounge in JFK after a great weekend with my old friend Tiki Barber. Tiki was taking me around NYC to sample the different places he recommended on the City’s new site ‘Just Ask The Locals.’ The site is a great idea, taking famous New Yorkers and having them recommend their favorite places. The site has great functionality as well, with interactive maps, audio form the celebrity and more.



Tiki and I met when he was much younger. I was asked to be the commencement speaker at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke Virginia the year that Tiki graduated. He was the valedictorian, so we both took the podium. I was struck by his maturity and poise and knew right then that he was destined for great things. We traded contact information and stayed in touch ever since.

After a great dinner at Mediterraneo Restaurant, Tiki drove me back to the airport for my flight back over the pond. While relaxing in the lounge, I received a note from the team that we were awarded the State’s Superstars in Business Award, which only went to 3 companies this year.

This award caps a great couple of years of awards for the team, earning over 20 so far. As proud as I am of the team, we all know that it also takes clients who have the faith to let us try new things with their web.
As I’m typing this, I’m raising a big glass of Malbec for the team. GREAT JOB!

I was helping an ICANN sub-group on an interesting situation that involved the old Soviet Union. ICANN controls all the country domain names, such as .us, .uk, .de (for Germany.) I remember leaning over to a colleague when we decided to give the little island of Tuvalu .tv, that we gave them quite a prize. I lost touch with the board after my term was up and moved on.

Well leave it to my dear friend Anna Kournikova to pull me back into things. We had a bet in Miami that if I could hit at least one of her serves, she would join me on a trip to Moscow to show me her birthplace. Three hours later, she took pity on me and I was able to get one back over the net.

While in Moscow, she took me around to see her friends and to see some amazing sites throughout the city. I certainly didn't feel like a tourist with her showing me through the city and enjoyed walking with a celebrity in her hometown.

She took me to this one party just outside Moscow where I ran into an old friend from my ICANN days. It turns out that he was getting back involved with the old Soviet Union’s .su country code. I remember when we established the .ru country code for Russia after the Soviet Union fell. Apparently the .su never went away, and people kept registering domains with it.

My friend was telling me that there are over 10,000 websites with the .su domain, and 50 more registering everyday. These websites are making it harder for ICANN to get rid of this country domain name.

Knowing that Anna had zero interest in ICANN, I exchanged email addresses with my friend and promised to keep in touch. Anna and I spent the rest of the weekend touring the city, and I promised to get tennis lessons when we got back!