Today we will be featuring Pat Ramsey, aka pFro, aka pFro Fo Sho, aka Pat “The Man With A Plan” Ramsey:

From the mean streets of Maine, pFro grew up with a love of snow that seems to know no bounds. He enjoys shredding the stuff pretty much every single weekend, sometimes twice. It’s a good thing he moved to Colorado where some of the best skiing in the US, and perhaps the world, is just a hop, skip, and a slow agonizing traversal up the automotive gauntlet known as I-70 away. Give this man a pint of ale, a freshly powdered hill, strap some fatty boards to his feet and he’s in heaven.

Aside from cutting up the slopes Pat is also equally adept at cutting up some code. PHP and Javascript are his mainstay when he’s deep in the bowels of the Name.com trenches but he also likes to dabble with Android development, Nodejs, and cutting edge CSS3 magic. So without further ado, ask away. And ladies, before you ask, the answer is yes, the man is single and his smooth deep voice is like steamed milk and honey on a cold winter’s day.

THE RULES:

• Ask your questions in a comment to this post.
• Make sure you check out our about us page and  let us know who you want to ask questions of next.
• Not really a rule but you should probably tweet this out to your peeps so that they can get in on the fun.
• Play nice.

THE PRIZE:

• A custom video with Pat himself speaking a message of your choice, within reason of course, in his sweet summery baratone voice.

And thanks Chris for letting us use you and your info!

And now think about Steve Jobs. He created technology before we knew we even needed it. There was a time when a computer was loathsome. We couldn’t wait to leave it at work. Now we hold it and caress it. We name it, we love it and then stand in line for another one.

If that isn’t enough for immortality, there are the people. The people who didn’t know they could make posters, graphic novels and insane animations. Bands that had no idea how good they were until they used a Mac to edit the pieces together. And how many movies? Pictures? Songs? How much has rippled from that one garage? How many of you made out over an IPod mix? Yes, there’s a chance Steve Jobs helped you fall in love.

Jobs helped a lot of us fall in love with the company he co-founded in his parent’s garage. Now that takes guts, and the ability not to cower when someone asks you if your nuts. After the ugly split from Apple, he started another company, only to be bought up by the company from which he’d so unceremoniously parted. And then…and then he spends about a decade losing money on Pixar. What we’re getting here is that this guy doesn’t go away easy.

Right now my Iphone is on the table and I’m typing this on a Mac laptop. My boys are watching The Incredibles. A Pixar movie. Obi Wan can you hear me? It seems to me that Steve Jobs is anything but dead.

I’m also one to make it worse with errant attempts at humor. I mean, just after you meet someone it’s best to fly low and keep it simple. I try. However, out of my need to fit in, I shared with a new co-worker that I just tore a hole in my pants. That was on the initial handshake, and I’m sure there’s something wrong about touching someone you’ve never met and telling them about your crotch. Now, I sit here behind this Mac computer the size of a car door and quietly admonish myself.

How did I end up here? I’m a radio guy who got out of the industry to care for my mom. If there’s anything you should do it’s take care of your mother. One unintended side effect is that after doing what could be the best thing you can ever do, you have no idea what to do next. You find yourself sitting on the edge of her daybed with fifty-some years of sewing patterns and boxes of pictures of distant relatives. I don’t write this to be melodramatic, only to illustrate the process. You have to find something really darn good. It can’t be just any old gig because suddenly your soul satisfaction has gone all high maintenance.

And then your wife reminds you that the kid we just had needs pants. Oh, that.

So I scurried to the government sector where I discovered all my old radio tricks would help the government save some taxpayer dollars. And then those same taxpayers went crazy for a smaller government and my hopes for a permanent position wafted away with the winds of change.

There I was again, but now with two kids who needed pants. Inspired in kind of a Jack Nicholson Shining sort of way, I spent day and night sending out cover letters and resumes. I didn’t hear a thing back, but at least my friends were supportive and would say things like, “You’ll never hear a thing back.” That drew cause for contemplation. I had been hammering out run-of-the-mill application material, but I’d never been hired for anything run of the mill. I’ve never even used that phrase “run of the mill.”

Newly epiphanized, I went to the DOCC, or Denver Open Coffee Club, a biweekly gathering of tech and media geeks, and asked about a good, local company. A hip-looking dude glanced up from his bathtub of coffee and said, “Name.”

“I have a friend who works at Name,” he said between sips. “And she really likes it.”

I went home and took a gander at the site. Looked cool–a company doing great things with a product of infinite possibilities. I started a cover letter even though I loathe cover letters because you go on and on touting all your greatness and end up feeling like a bad guy in an 80s movie.

So instead I sent them a limerick:

There once was no place for a name
That wasn’t at all a bit lame,
And then from the throng
Came a company strong
A Denver-based master of Domains.

And then, with the same compulsion that has me telling someone I’ve just met that I’ve torn a hole in my pants, I continued with a Haiku.

Boom goes the Daddy
Shooting an elephant at night
and himself in the foot.

You might recognize that reference. If not, then shoot me an email and I’ll tell you about it.

Within a few hours, Paul Carter, Name’s Veep of Operations, sent me this:

“You have my attention :) What does your schedule look like next week to speak?”

We spoke. And now here I am.

Right now I’m feeling a bit small, you know, with the breach and all. But I look forward to big things. Probably even a new pair of pants.

We’re hiring a UI Designer, the video gives you a pretty good idea why.

More information about the position can be found here. Cheers!

Hi folks! Name.com is looking to hire two customer support representatives to join our awesome support team. If you can tell us what DNS, ICANN, ISP, ccTLD, WTFBBQ (heh, just kidding), and ASCII mean then we’d like to talk to you! With an office in beautiful Denver, CO, Name.com offers a fun work environment, great perks, and a chance to be a part of a very special team of people. You can find more details in our job listing here, we look forward to hearing from you!

As I sat with the individuals who cared for our customers, who made sure our services were the best they can be, I thought about some of the questions I get asked every day:

1. Why do you charge $8.99 for a domain?
2. Why did you raise your price from $5.99?
3. Can you match $6.99 that Registrar X is offering?
4. Can I have a discount code?

Let’s discuss domain economics for a minute:

Every business has a margin. The margins in the domain industry are often razor thin. The cost of a .com name is $7.06 at the moment. In a world where retail margins are often 200%, we eek by with a 21% margin (before credit card processing fees). Out of the 21% we pay payroll & various HR costs, rent, accreditation fees, credit card fees, utilities, technology costs, communications costs, taxes, and various other operating expenses. 18 – 20% is what many of the companies I’ve worked for could expect to put in their profit column.

We began cost cutting measures in October, first with little things like the couple hundred bucks we spent to bring in a chair massage session twice a month, then with some big changes which would save us money like a change in some of our service providers. It wasn’t enough. We had to let go of some very dedicated and very talented folks.

We’re confident that we’ve done the right thing for the health of the company but we’re sad to see members of our family off on their own during this tough economic time. As we move into what is likely to be one of the hardest economic periods our company is likely to encounter we’re hopeful for the future while we keep a keen eye on the bottom line.

We’re not going anywhere. We’re in it for the long haul, but we’re all about letting you know what’s happening behind the orange facade of Name.com.

We wish our recently departed family members the very best and hope they will find a new work home that will treat them better than ever.

I’ll have a new promo code for you later this week. Watch for it.

Web Developer: Object Oriented / PHP etc.
We are currently seeking multiple developers to join our team. Our office is casual and the work environment is fairly relaxed and enjoyable. We have multiple positions to fill and welcome resumes from experience professionals as well as talented entry level programmers.

The Responsibilities:
• Working with a team of developers on new and existing products and features.

The Requirements:
• Academic background in Computer Science or related field.
• Excellent programming skills (knowledge of Object Oriented Design Methodologies or PHP a plus).
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
• Good understanding of the technologies behind modern Web Applications.

UI / User Interface Specialist
If you’re a critical thinker with good design sense, a strong technical background, and an eye for making things better we want to talk to you. This is a full-time salaried position.

The Responsibilities:
• Help define and create the user interface for new and existing products and features.
• Develop high level and/or detailed storyboards, mockups and prototypes to effectively communicate interaction and design ideas.
• Evaluate the usability of new and existing products, and making informed and constructive suggestions for change.

The Requirements:
• Demonstrated experience in designing usable web-based interfaces.
• Understanding of the MVC architecture and experience developing user interfaces in Symfony, Ruby on Rails or similar platform.
• HTML & CSS skills.
• Knowledge of JavaScript.
• Strong, clean visual design sense.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.

System Administrator / Hardware Specialist
The ideal candidate for this position is a passionate Linux enthusiast that is able to work closely with developers and others to implement and maintain hardware and software solutions that meet the needs of a dynamic company in an ever changing industry. You should be able to troubleshoot and solve problems fairly independently and, should they come up, be able to find solutions to issues with which you may not have much experience.

The salary for this position is negotiable. This position is open to both experienced and ambitious entry level administrators.

Preferred Experience
—————————–

1) knowledge and experience with the Linux OS
2) experience setting up and installing servers and server hardware
3) knowledge of networking concepts and the installation of networking components – both software and hardware
4) experience with installing, setting up, and customizing Linux based applications
5) knowledge and experience with Linux, networking, and application security
6) knowledge of Mac OS X a plus
7) experience working with hardware and software vendors

The following is some of the software and hardware that you will be in contact with and will more than likely be in charge of setting up and maintaining.

1) Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL, PowerDNS, Qmail, LDAP, Bind, DHCP, Iptables, etc.
2) IBM Bladecenters and Blades
3) Nortel Layer 2-7 Switches and other networking devices
4) Other miscellaneous hardware and software
5) Figuring out whatever needs figuring
Please indicate which position you are interested in when submitting your cover letter and resume to careers@name.com. For the UI position please be sure to include samples of your work or a link to your portfolio.