The Diaries of Scaredy Horse

It has been a long time since I have posted, sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been working on one of the single most ambitious online efforts I have ever been involved in. The brand-spanking new Tripwire.com website launched on Tuesday, January, 26th at 5am Pacific Time. I worked with R2C group on the design treatments and an amazing in-house development team that wired the entire web site in just under 2 months.

Nothing short of an epic endeavor – and am very proud of the finished product. Take some time to check it out: Tripwire.com

Sorry for the radio silence over the past month or so. After over 6 months of development, we launched the new Tripwire Customer Center one week ago today. The private customer-only site contains software downloads and updates, a resource library full of diagrams and videos, a knowledge base with over 300 articles, a lively customer discussion forum, developer blog and the front end for our web support ticketing system. In just the first week after launch we have already had over 700 new registrations and over a thousand support tickets processed.

R2C Group here in Portland provided some of the design consulting for us to help us achieve a unique but similar style as the existing Tripwire.com website. Much of the site was built from the ground up and programmed by our development team. The discussion forums use the Clearspace platform by JIVE Software, and we worked in conjunction with the JIVE team to customize that engine to integrate with our Oracle OnDemand support ticketing system.

This site represents a focus on our customers – with hopes of improving our customer success with our products. The feedback we have received from our customers so far has been awesome. Unfortunately, the site is completed gated for customers only, but here are some screen shots so you can check it out.

I was just chatting with a friend of mine while walking to lunch downtown the other day. It seems I’m right in the middle of a demographic shift. Let’s be clear, it’s a lateral move. Going from a yuppy, dink into a yuppy sitk.. single income three kids. Suddenly Rolling Stone magazine doesn’t seem as hip and cool as I used to think it was. My old album archive is almost unlistenable (then again, 80’s arena rock went out of vogue with everyone else about 20 years ago). I spend more time shopping at the grocery store than at the mall, and I’ve been to Home Depot more often than Guitar Center by ten fold.

It became crystal clear this weekend. I bought a new lawn mower, and it was the single most exciting purchase I have made in over a year – make that, 2 years? I’m really not sure. But did you just hear me? Yea, I got super excited about buying a new lawn mower. And don’t think I didn’t immediately drive home, assemble it, fuel it up and mow the lawn directly -in-the-rain. I felt like a 10 year old opening Christmas presents.

So I guess this is how it happens… or ‘happened’…

I first listened to Paul Harvey in the early 90’s when I was working as a ranch hand at the Miles Ranch just outside of Livingston, Montana. We used to take a lunch break around noon, and would all sit inside the main shop building around the wood stove eating our lunches. I can still hear Paul Harvey’s voice narrating “The rest of the story” from the small radio that sat on the work bench next to us under the window. While the short program was playing, it was the only time that everyone was completely silent – listening to Paul Harvey.

The daily habit of listening to Paul eventually spilled into my morning commute, first with Yellowstone Newspapers, then Pulse Research, and on to my pastoral drives down Hwy 129 from Clark, Co. into my office in Steamboat Springs each morning. At that time, my wife would ride into town with me, and we used to coordinate our drive just right so we wouldn’t miss his broadcast during the 5 mile stretch we lost radio reception going through Mad Creek.

Towards the end of 2007 we starting noticing that more and more guest hosts would deliver the news, sometimes Paul’s son, or a handful of other hosts. All were very good announcers in their own right, but we couldn’t help but feel disappointed when it wasn’t Paul himself delivering his mix of headlines and smart humor for the morning. Eventually the program’s format changed and we heard less and less of Paul in the mornings, it was a sad daily reminder that the sun was setting for the legendary radio personality.

Paul was much more than just a radio announcer, spending much of his spare time with philanthropy, charity and speaking engagements at universities and any number of events around the country. Paul was truly an icon of how great radio used to be, proving you can build the largest listening audience ever through honest news reporting, and fascinating and heartwarming commentary.

I know I speak for millions of people around the country when I say, “Thanks for the memories, Mr. Harvey”.

Official story here.