Category: Web Technology

When I was upgrading the CoolTea phpBB 3.01 bulletin boards, I had many technical issues along the way thus visited other sites around the web in an effort to track down resolve to these issues.

Some of the technical issues were simple like making sure the server path was correctly listed in a section of code. Other issues were more troublesome in that certain plugins had conflicts (e.g., took me better part of two days to find out why my board was not creating thumbnails from image uploads yet did so perfectly before the upgrade).

Along my journeys to find technical answers, clues and/or wisdom, I came across a site listed as an example of a technical fix I needed but also had some wild content about the Secrets of the Mayan Calendar Unveiled.

Here is link to that forum -> http://wachadoo.com/forum/sutra1623.html

So I paused and gave myself permission to watch these videos by Ian Lungold as he proceeded to unlock and explain the eternal truths about these Mayan Secrets.

It was a happy find and one of the things I enjoyed learning about the Mayan calendar was the different forms of consciousness that correspond to periods of Earth time and are physically represented in how the Mayan’s construct pyramids. The last and final consciousness Ian claims is “Galactic and/or Universal Consciousness” also the shortest span and represented by a pyramid’s top tier.

So that got me to thinking about all the skeptics I’ve danced with about the realities of aliens and/or angels.

Technically I believe in both, but it does not matter what I believe in because belief is just that, a concept I own or subscribe to but it is not scientific fact. Thus I never try to convince my friends of one or the other, but I do enjoy the dialogue in these depts.

And one of my other beliefs is that if I learn just one thing from something, somebody, some book, some movie, or some song, well then bravo - one thing learned makes that thing worthy.

So years back I started getting emails from a group claiming they were channeling Orion - see Orion Transmissions.

Before these emails, I had read a book by Fran Rosen-Sawyer, aka Parvati, whose book, “I Wish I Had Known” was positive inspiration and instrumental in moving me out of a funk at a time in my life and back into the joy of living.

Thus she is at the center of these Orion Transmissions and while I’ve never met her, I have been admirer of her penmanship and messages so I tried to approach these Orion messages with an open mind.

Over the years, these Orion Transmissions have become great fertilizer for internal thought and reflection, offering new perspectives, friendship, laughter, warnings and wisdom all combined into a format that to this day, I cherish when the latest version hits my inbox.

So back to the Mayan Calendars and my main point of this post, which is this - What do Aliens and Angels share in common?

Given the Mayan Calendar and this final phase of time we are approaching, I would argue that in both cases the Aliens and the Angels have “other worldly view points” - and probably view points that are galactic and universal.

This hit home with the latest Orion messages when they said, “What do you think the purpose of humanity is all about?”

Good question and I thought I knew but below is excerpt from their point of view so you tell me if they are onto something

Quote from Orion:

On our spiritual evolution and Unity

Yes. Yes. We would like to describe to our vehicle what to expect in the coming years from a positive standpoint. We all know what destructive forces are at work on the environment of planet Earth. For every negative force, there are greater numbers of Light Workers being ‘employed’ if you will, by the Light Energy on your planet, to combat the darkness. They are well-armed with positive energies, fuelled by love of a different nature—love of a more universal nature. And indeed, these Light Workers are working feverishly to achieve their goal. We are working together for the sanctity and preservation of our beloved planet Earth, the record-keeper of the universe.

We are walking through mysterious circumstances being heralded as progress by some and digress by others. Still, we are moving through the maze of traps manufactured by those employed by the dark forces on your planet. We do not see them as a threat to the integrity and balance on this planet, because their power is losing the battle. We know the directions they are taking and from whence they come. We are aware of the ‘opposition’ to good, to Light. We are quite aware of the big players in their ultimate world domination game. We have not been dealt a hand. We have created our own solutions. We have created our own force field of protection which cannot be penetrated by those whose natures are not pure, whose goals are not those reflecting the higher purpose of humanity.

This leads us to the next main point. What is the main purpose of Humanity? Do you think that the main purpose is to amass large stores of wealth in order to destroy the planet’s ecosystem? NO. Do you think the main purpose of your individual lives is to hoard wealth, compete with others for the prize of self-importance, fame and pride? NO. Actually, the main purpose for all of HUMANITY is to become enlightened and begin to take your places in the hologram of life, which is ultimately a reflection of the Divine who created all of this—and ultimately, to preserve the Nature which is the reflection of Divinity on the physical plane. In so doing, human beings become elevated to the next dimension and reach a state of ‘I and My Father are ONE.’ Isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Yet, instead of keeping this goal first and foremost in your minds, you fill your minds with daily trivia, who said this to who, who did what, how much, how many, and what is my next conquest? Indeed, one rarely takes time to retreat within to find one’s own direction. One assumes it will simply be revealed to him when the time is right. Well, folks! THE TIME IS RIGHT NOW!

The proverbial saying, “Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today” is an excellent one to adopt when assessing your life, your ‘future’. One should place far less emphasis on Future. The present moment is the only breath you have. The breath you take in this very moment is the one you have in hand.

Establish priorities. What priorities? One places on top of the list all one’s menial tasks, one’s work-related daily errands. One’s life work often takes a back seat to the daily grind, leaving rare the moments of solitude and reflection. Indeed, we see this sorely missing in most beings, even those on a spiritual journey of sorts. Spiritual journey is one which connects one to the cosmos, to the greater whole, to the Universe. It does not necessarily make one appear more ethereal or speak in tongues! Indeed, it may make one more grounded and practical, if it is truly a spiritual journey. The greatest Masters have a grounded focus, a clarity which is far from accidental.

One shall perhaps consider a revision in one’s listing of priorities. Really examine the question ‘WHO AM I?’ followed by ‘What am I here for? What is my true higher work in this incarnation?” Then, when you really realize you are present on this glorious planet for a purpose other than economical or emotional, you can get on with your priorities. At the top of the list should be your spiritual awareness. Do something toward the advancement and enhancement of your spiritual awareness daily.

Seek to SERVE daily.

Seek to perform those beautiful ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ daily.

Seek to make amends to those with whom you have had conflict over the years. Do this daily from your heart, in your own time, in your own way.

Seek to assist in the dissemination of material which will serve to lift up humanity and create a sense of awareness so needed in this world. Do this daily.

Seek to become one with your higher spirit, communicate with the Devas, angels, your Master, GOD, the energy of LOVE daily.

If your daily schedule does not have time for INTROSPECTION (not analysis) revamp your schedule to include at least one, if not many more, periods of meditation, prayer or entreaty to Divine for guidance and direction, and clarity of that direction.

You seek to control your universe, but you do not seek to control your own mental faculties! Do not permit your minds to become engrossed in negativity. There is negativity all around you in the world, but if your mind is always or at least in training to be always in tune with your Higher purpose, the negative energies of the world will have no effect on you! This is entirely possible for each and every one of you who have embarked on an inner journey to the Light.

Look at great Saints and beings who embraced GOD or the concept of Divinity—in whatever way it manifested for them. They remain always in a state of BLISS, in the state of TRUTH, in a state of HARMONY. They exist to teach you all to become more engrossed in Divinity. This requires no adherence to a religious philosophy. THIS IS BEYOND PHILOSOPHY! This requires no membership in any spiritual group or following of any outer agenda. This simply means, one begins the search within to find one’s true spiritual quest. And then, without further delay, one embarks on the journey, fully equipped with all the prerequisites. Do you know what are the prerequisites?
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.
A sincere desire or longing to become one with DIVINE.

No other prerequisite is required. The Divine will feed your every need. Divine will provide direction, spiritual sustenance, Truth and comfort.

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND ALL WILL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.

And with that, we close these present transmissions.

Till next visit,

We are

Orion.

For more information about Orion, talk to Rich at agnihotra.org or go to Orion Transmissions

Special Thank You to Artist Jeff Bowe for permission to include his images here in this post - for more info about Jeff and his art, contact Jeff Bowe directly!

To those who are concerned about a “global big brother” resulting from all our digital and global village connectedness, I say humbug and let the global standards roll forth.

I say this partly in jest as I believe there is already a Universal All-knowing being, one who is loving and graceful but really really smart and ever expanding who already knows everything there is to know about each one of us, and on a more serious grounded earthly level, I was reminded recently of the glory of universal standards that come from collective agreements among men.

This reminder came by way of processing international credit cards for Tele-Vision DVDs. Up to now, most of my e.commerce exposure has been with processing Canadian and US credit cards.

As running start fyi, early on most of CoolTea’s credit card sales were for event tickets, thus we didn’t care too much about what your billing or shipping address was as you had to come to the event to get the deliverable.

But along the way, Mastercard and Visa started charging bill backs for merchants who failed to run AVS (address verification system). One day, six months after a big event where we had charged $5,000 worth of tickets, I was aghast to see an additional charge to our bank account in the way of several hundred dollars.

I called my Merchant bank and said, “What gives - where are these charges coming from?” and as politely and professionally clean as any large institution can do, they did their best to explain that these were billback charges from Mastercard and Visa because CoolTea did not pass the billing address information to the banks during the real-time credit card transactions.

I tried to explain that CoolTea was in the event business, and the likelihood of some hacker buying tickets with a fraudulent card and then showing up at the event was very unlikely, but they just laughed at me and said, “Sorry - take it or leave it. If you want to accept Mastercard and Visa, gotta play by their rules.”

CoolTea had been capturing your address info just-in-case we needed to call you or send mail but had not been passing this info along during the transaction.

Okay, ouch to bill back lesson ,and when we started passing the address info to banks, double ouch. Our customer service calls started to climb.

“Hey Chuck, why was my card declined?”

It turned out that most of the cards were valid but did not pass the AVS code verification - e.g., most of the time it was a simple faux pax by a customer in that they were at work using their personal cards but entered their work address; or it was the reverse - people working at home using their corporate cards but entering their home address. Most of this got cleared up when we changed our online forms and improved the language about billing address entered needing to match 100% with what is on file with banks.

I should also mention we were always getting your card’s three digit security code but Mastercard and Visa didn’t give us a break - they still wanted to see matching billing addresses, otherwise they would charge us more points.

There is nothing more frustrating than looking at accounting statements and thinking it was all settled and done, only to find a couple of months later that Mastercard and Visa decided to penalize us.

So fast forward and CoolTea has a wonderful e.commerce system, no more charge backs, almost no customer services calls, and all is good, until we ventured into the international scene.

First it was funny stuff like different characters for other languages - e.g., Norwegians have some funny characters, and no, I’m not talking about people, but literal text characters that are considered “high level ASCII” - you know, the E’s with the funny slants on top, the O’s with double dots, etc.

So these funny characters wrecked some havoc with our banking transactions. We got around this with some data scrubbing before passing the variables to the banks, but then AVS bit us again.

In particular, our German customers started complaining, “Hey I know my card is valid, my address is valid, my 3-digit code is valid, so why are you bouncing my card and transaction?”

This triggered my auto neurosis of “Now what have I done and missed” but alas, I came to find out after much technical digging with gateways and banks that there is no AVS with most of the international banks.

It’s not my fault that most international banking systems cannot confirm their customers billing address in real-time, so now what? Don’t do AVS and pay more points, don’t accept international customers, or ..??..

Suffice it to say we found a solution - some logic under the hood that says, “if US/Canada customer go this way, otherwise process it this way”, and now the international cards from around the world are going through the system without hiccups - at least for now until somebody changes the systems or rules, etc. - a reminder of the golden rule, “those with the gold rule” and since CoolTea is not on par with Mastercard/Visa’s gold, so be it and let’s learn to flow.

Which brings me full circle to standards.

The 1980s IBM PC is a great example of the explosion of growth that can occur when we collectively agree to open standards.

MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) is perhaps the most profound example of benefits from standards, but unless you are musically inclined and want to gig and share your music with other like-minded creative folks, it is perhaps a tad esoteric for the average person who is not musically inclined, so let me jump to open standards we all can relate to.

Without the alphabet (e.g., here are 26 symbols that mean this) and grammar (e.g., here is how we arrange the alphabetic symbols) and other open source frameworks like musical chords, notes and scales, what kind of a planet would we have, and how enriching would our lives be?

Thus I say, standards, especially open source, collectively agreed upon ones, are a good thing - even a beneficial thing and necessary for free, open democracies that win with growing markets.

After all, and looping back to credit card processing, I am grateful for the service that Mastercard and Visa provide. I am mindful of the thieves, scoundrels, and risks that the likes of Mastercard and Visa endure. And yet I am committed to providing our customers with the most efficient shopping experience possible that balances et al.

In summary - viva the open standards enthusiasts - and back to my opening point about already being known by some other intelligence - double bravo to accountability and transparency!

Is this a great planet or what!

While downloading music from online stores might be all the rage with iPod enthusiasts, business people could learn a thing or two about how to leverage their knowledge by selling audio content that is made available as digital downloads.

Consider three doctors from New York who recently released their new book, The Somatic Companion - Your 30 Day Emotional Makeover, as both a traditional audio book (cds plus printed booklet) and as a digital download (mp3 audio files with pdf version of the booklet).

This is a seven hour audio course that will change your life in 30 days, and CoolTea is honored to have created their CoolTea Store with our new digital download technology.

For customers on the go who travel and commute, downloading mp3 files to your computer’s hard drive then transferring to your favorite portable mp3 player (zoom, ipod, etc) makes tremendous sense. Not only is the digital version less expensive, it is available immediately upon successful checkout so there is no wait for shipping.

In these days of instant gratification, I’m really excited by this new download option. Part of the trick was how to make the download files private, meaning unavailable off the web root of the server and also making the download link secure so that it could not be shared with others - e.g., somebody pays for digital download and gets idea to highlight the url path (and code) in their browser’s url bar, then copies it to text file and forwards to friends with “Hey - I just bought this cool program and here is link if you want to go get a free copy on my nickel - just paste this link into your browser and enjoy.”

Our CoolTea technology does not use cookies (which can be easily hacked and/or forged) but uses a proprietary method that insures the client has only one option to click on the link to begin their download. Our technology is logging their browser session, their ip address and several other variables so in the event they encounter a problem, our customer service team can quickly confirm and make sure they get to a happy ending.

As more and more of us become knowledge workers, the opportunity to leverage our knowledge by bundling it into audio (and/or video) clips and products is a huge market opportunity.

After identifying your market, probably the most important step is making sure you have a quality production (e.g., solid sounding audio and/or good looking video), and then after that, having an e.commerce partner like CoolTea who can deliver 24×7x365 digital downloads in a secure, fast and friendly format.

I should also mention that our shopping cart with digital fulfillment is only three pages, including the confirming success page - i.e., page 1 - enter your info, page 2 - confirm your info, page 3 - success (or error if credit card is declined) with receipt and download option (if selected, otherwise tracking information for physical delivery is presented) - how cool is that 1-2-3 and downloads away!

Lastly, your bank or ours. If you have a traditional Merchant Account (e.g., you are already processing Mastercard and Visa) and your bank offers Authorize.net as their payment gateway, we can wire our shopping cart to put the money directly into your account. And if you don’t have a merchant account or authorize.net gateway, we’re happy to collect monies for you and send you your checks.

Stay tuned for my upcoming blog post about the joys of processing international credit cards - ka ching and to be continued! cs