Why localhub?

Ok, so what’s with the name?  Why localhub?

Well, years ago, early 2000’s I had a dream…   I wanted to open a network gaming center.  A place where people could come play their favorite computer games online, and with friends.

In high school my friends and I would carry our computers over to eachother’s houses and hook them up on a local Lan.  At that time using a hub.  We would play games like Duke Nuke’em; Quake, Wolfenstein, and Doom.  Years later and at my In-Law’s house we had six computers set up on a local network, all connected ot the internet and we would play games like Unreal Tournament.  The cool thing was working as a team on your local network and hosting a game for others on the internet to join in on.  This usually gave us a slight advantage. 

So, a few places started popping up around time doing just this.  Hosting a place with 20 computers or so where you and your friends could come play.  And I had to have one…

Days later I came up with the name.  Localhub.  A play on Local Pub, and Network Hubs, etc.  Sounded good, domain name was available, business name was available.  I incorporated, grabbed the domain name, and then I know all geeks love a cool logo, so I started looking for a design place.  Found one, and a few months later had this really cool logo (I still love the logo.)

Well my wife, being the smart one, made me sit down and figure out the business plan before I spent any more of our money on this.  Everything from buying the computers, maintenance, billing of time, licensing for the games, internet connectivity, payroll, taxes, lease, etc…  And wow was I suprised.  No money in it.  No way to pay for employees to watch the counter, to cover the cost of the lease for office space, but most importantly the cost of the corporate licensing for the games was ridiculous.  If I managed to keep 80% of my gaming computers running 20% of the time I could afford enough employees to cover being open decent hours; but not enough to pay for me.  Not enough to pay benefits, or to upgrade the computers, or much of anything else.  To stay open fewer hours I would have to charge more, and keep the computers going at a higher percentage.  (Office Lease, and internet costs per month do not go down simply because your closed.)

I started looking for ways to cut corners, and try to make it work.  For years I tried.  I kept trying to figure ways to make it work, and the whole time I kept watching every other gaming center that opened here go under.  There are now none.  I had joined a company that assisted in marketing, and reduced license fees, etc.  They are no longer around, the largest network gaming center in our area (who I think saw the problem coming and tried to franchise out their system) are no longer around.

Currently with the ridiculous licensing fees from the Game manufacturers and the cost of Office Space, etc.. there is just no real way to make it work. 

It took about 6 years, but I finally gave up the dream.  Constantly trying to re-arrange numbers, looking for dirt cheap office space, etc.  The only way to make it work would have been illegally.  The biggest expense is the corporate licensing fees.  That in a couple of the Game Publishers want a percentage of your overall income (not profit, a cut off the top of total gross sales) if more then a certain percentage of your gross sales comes from their games.  Which also means you have to track usage, etc, to license their games, and they reserve the right to audit you at any time.  (And this was a large game publisher that puts out some of the best games, could not do it without them.)

Well here I am, cool name, cool logo, no business.  I had been holding on to because I spent years and thousands of dollars trying to make it work, and I have been using this domain for contact info for years.  So, no more social gaming center, what to do next?  Why not make it my persnal site.  Why not? 

So here we are.   The site is no longer about localhub the company, but Me. So, About Me:

I am a just a simple techie.  (Those that know me, are laughing right now…)  Early thirties (at least when I took these pics, and started the latest iteration if this site.)  Hmmm… Ever feel like your bio pages are more of a personal’s ad?  I have been married for 11 years (11th anniversary in January.) We have one son, 5, and a new son due on 12/31.  Computer nerd at heart.  (at least I used to be, not sure if I really am anymore – the dangers of working in a field you started out loving.)  Now I have no time for computer games, and even less time \ money for building the latest and greatest computer.

I have been getting more and more involved in photography.  One of these days I really would like to take a class on how to actually use a camera.  Right now I am using tips and tricks I have picked up here and there, just trying to get my photos to turn out better.  Most of my photos can be seen on my gallery site (family\friends only.)  For now I am only shooting family\friends so I don’t really have any pictures to share publicly.  I have a RSS feeder pulling a few pre-configured galleries from SmugMug account and displaying random pictures in column to the right.  Maybe eventually I will start actually shooting just to shoot and start opening up those as public. 

On a more personal note, over the last year I have lost 90lbs.  I had been heavy most of my life (causing a hip condition when I was young – facing hip replacement surgery in the next 10 years.)  So, it was a chore to lose it.  I am still mainly fat though and have started trying to switch my goal from burning fat to gaining muscle.  It would help if I actually worked out, but at this moment I am kind of stuck in a situation where it is harder to do then I would like.   For now, I struggle to keep myself where I am, and do a little more every so often to help out.  – If your interested drop me a message and I can share what I did.  I kind of like sharing info – as if you can’t tell by now, I have a hard time shutting up… 

So, that’s what it’s all about.  The site name, where it came from, and a little about me… as if you really cared… 

For those that still email me asking if I am willing to sale the domain.  I spent years and thousands on this site, so what if I no longer use it for the original purpose.  I have to weigh the ongoing cost of keeping the domain up and use it personally vs what I have put into it, and what I would lose if I walk away.  Not to mention I have been using this domain for email for over 6 years.  It would take thousands to get the domain from me… So for now, the domain is not for sale… go find a different name; and: