Change of address

Have moved to:

http://www.jimscollins.com/

Facebook on location

Facebook is set to announce in 3 weeks it's new location based platform for the web world to show your friends where you're going. It's hard to tell with Facebook where the hell it's going itself, tagging and posting nonsense is a great way to build communities but not so great as a business model.

If you look at the big 3, Microsoft/Apple/Google, they are coining money out of office/icrap/advertising at such a phenomenal rate the clock must surely be ticking for Facebook to pull out the finger. Facebook still occupies the "limbo" revenue categories with the rapidly-paling Twitter and the ghostly Amazon. So many users, so much potential, so little hard cash??

The new location feature is also being heralded as a direct attack on social location newcomers Foursquare. A social check-in company that is growing at rates last seen by twitter. Although this makes sense for a social network to expand into a location social network the tech world is littered with such disasters i.e.

• Microsofts efforts with Bing, a dominant company entering a seemingly capital-intensive market and falling on their knees.
• Googles efforts with Nexus One/Buzz, although I do agree with companies attempting to at least spread the web rather than a shitty app store.
• Anything that AOL ever did including AIM.

So the jury is still out for Facebook. Can social be profitable? They are making some cash but volumes of users ain't cheap. A social checkin/coupon app/planner app/AR app/(insert other location implementation here) won't really result in huge revenue for them as they've already missed the boat. The worrying part is that selling personal data to evil marketers (!!) is still the only realistic way to produce cash.

Feedomania - the modern day stock ticker

So what to Twitter, Facebook, Blippy, Plancast, Foursquare, Playfire and nearly all the latest startups in the last 3 years have in common?

The feed

We seem to be stuck in some kind of parallel universe where information needs to be fed to us in a 1920s style stock ticker format. Vertical never ending lists that follow a thumbnail-text box with some useless information scattered along the edges.

Web services and real time web are partly to blame, they emphasise short concise messages that can easily be subscribed to but they fail to communicate any form of personality beyond the short text permitted.

Sure we had some web page atrocities created by MySpace where early attempts to personalise pages resulted in some truly buggy profiles, but we've moved so far into the sterile world of feeds that the web is rapidly becoming social stock market that impersonalises interaction and instead focuses on the boring extroverts we usually tend to avoid.

These list sites also seem to assume the only way to grow is to get more and more potential customers onto their lists without focusing on satisfying the existing base.

Take Facebook, I continually find myself getting requests from people I hardly know and possess no desire to. Eventually I capitulate and end up having someones boring updates i.e. "attending auditing lecture today, can't wait to see the gang" pushed through to my feed.

Since Facebook has my network, tracks my usage,  surely it realises that I'd rather see something more interesting from a close friend, say write-up on a music event they went to, a recipe, music they like, clothes they bought, a song they're learning, something happening at work with them. This kind of content generation should be encouraged rather than focusing on creating a web of people I grow less interested in day-by-day.

Look at blogging, relatively few people blog as use facebook but it is in essence a much more interesting way of communicating. It doesn't even have to be as dull as posting an article, you should be able to post email conversations to your blog, add IM conversations, recommend the place you went last night or say how shite it was.


So a plea to the real time web, stop making feeds, start making it interesting.

Innovate 100 - The good, the bad and the hungry

Innovate 100 event was held in Dublin on Monday at the Radisson Blue hotel.

Plush enough surroundings really and free food which was handy for the lesser-well off. Plenty of networking style walking around and passing business cards, no brown envelopes received. As we'd not a single outstanding idea for the event we did feel a bit early stage for it but was good to see people were supportive and freely giving advice.

The morning kicked off with the CEO of Revahealth. Now this to me is a database of doctors profiles but from what the lecture contained it seemed to be fairly heavy staffed. The ROI seemed pretty slow to materialise though so he didn't paint too pretty a picture on going through the business. Google adwords got a bit of a slaying.

Next up was the CEO of Getitkeepit.com, a bill aggregation site. Not a bad looking enterprise and currently just going live so it's fairly fresh. They talked about offshore development for startups and getting technology into service integrators (Accenture et al). Seemed like a good idea if not slightly "mint" orientated. Reckon they might find it hard to pull in revenue from a site like that considering they're hoping to charge service providers to host their bills on the site. No doubt a slew of services will be setup to replicate Patzers cash cow.

Next 2 lectures were some generic Microsoft stuff on partnering and going international. Boring stuff that was no pushing their software.

Ray Nolan, owner of Hostelworld.com  gave the "i'm loaded, don't talk shit to me" speech. He steamrolled through the presentation like primary school student through home time prayers. Making sure to throw in the odd "we stamped out them" and "expedia are bullshit" comments. Funny to watch and he did make some good points at the panel that followed.

He reckoned Ireland's too small to target anything other than a sweet shop at. Probably right but I'm sure there are lots of people with companies doing well (maybe not as well as the 500m hostelworld was sold for).

There was a dragons den style affair to top the evening off where 11 startups presented to the crowd. Honestly the startups were by in large shite (although better than what we have which is currently nada). Typical affairs with a mobile website builder, time managment software, network software, cloud computing analyser. Nothing really unique. The winner was the Sonru video interviewing software which seems to be taking steroids as it's picked up tons of awards around Ireland recently.

Decent event, met some good Po-lice and well worth a visit if just for the free food..

Using RSS feeds with Twitter

Slightly messed up way of doing this but here's how I got it to work. I use Tweetdeck usually for facebook/twitter so I don't have to login and go through the sites to read news. Lately though I've noticed most decent sites in Ireland don't use Twitter that much and keep blogs instead. Ideally I'd prefer to let everything flow through tweetdeck (and read stuff through small popups) so I tried setting up a twitterfeed account. This sounds like it should do the trick but it's pretty useless at explaining what it actually does.

What it actually does is post blog updates to your twitter feed which is rubbish if people actually follow you and your RSS is some useless company that only you are interested in.

Solution? Create another twitter account and post twitter updates using twitterfeed onto it, then follow your new user in Twitter. Stupid workaround but it does work! My twitterfeedRSS is @ilikerashersrss. Updates hourly and is new so don't expect anything useful from it for a week or two.

Innovate 100 tomorrow

Off to innovate 100 tomorrow. Disappointed to find out only 12 companies are presenting but will add a write up.

Bedroom development

Spot the difference...

One is a scene from Peep Show where recently unemployed Johnson sets up a consulting firm "consultius" from his bedroom. The other is the new workspace of an exciting and overconfident company currently making little progress.


Our first site was launched yesterday. Although not going to take over the world it was a good way of testing out what we can do.

Not a whole pile right now apparently but at least it sort-of works.

Possibly the best site ever created

http://trololololololololololo.com/

It's a unix system: Part 2 - Installing Django 1.1.1, Python 2.6.4 and MySQL 5.1.44

So this week I have mostly been configuring our VPS box. Although you'd think this would be an easy job, nothing in the IT world is ever easy.

Firstly getting back to grips with Unix took some time, getting used to the VI editor, chmod/chowd-ing, running shell and pearl scripts was a bit like attempting to remember leaving cert Irish. Unintuitive and slow.

So first I decided to put some server software onto the site. Cpanel cost 120 euro per year to install, a shit load of cash that didn't really need to be spent so I decided to battle with Webmin. Webmin uses port 10000 on the VPS and installed clean first time (from rpm). Trying to login though I kept getting 404s. I contacted the server admin and he said he can connect fine from his end. Queue a day or two of opening ports on routers, netstat-ing, opening ports on the firewall. I then tried to run Webmin through Apache, ambitious it turned out because Webmin was having none of it, the username/passwords weren't liked by the server and more time wasted. Eventually I sent an email of desperation to the server admin who discovered there was a firewall blocking the port his end. Nice. Once this was opened webmin was usable.

Now to the actual project part. I went with mod_wsgi to install Python as this is the faster and recommended plugin to get apache working with djgano/python. This installed fine, updated the httpd.conf to include the .so file. Few tweaks here and there. Python also installed clean as did Django.

Now to MySQLdb. This is a python MySQL plugin and causes problems everytime I try to install it. So I discovered a nicer way of doing it.

The first problem you encounter is setuptools missing. You could install setuptools into your python but I found it easier to edit the setup.py and enter

import distutils
from distutils.core import setup, Extension

This will add the libraries you need (this is for python 2.6 btw). You'll have to remove the setuptools reference.

Next the install will throw an error saying something about mysql_devel or mysql_config. This basically means you don't have the full MySQL install on your system. I made the mistake of just adding the client like you do for windows. Normally with MySQL I click the first download link and run the package but not so for unix.
It involves downloading the client, the server and the development package and running the rpms (rpm -i ) . Look down the download page and you'll see all the installations.

Once these are in rerun the install of MySQLdb and it'll work as it should.

Next is the problem of Apache and wsgi. The Django website will work fine for the scaffold code that goes around a wsgi installation. The biggest problem I had was with 403 errors appearing for all aliases and directories. Everything I tried didn't work and I've been to alot of sites on this. By some strange chance I got this to work and open my directories:
  
    Options Indexes MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny

This should get you up and running with Apache 2.2, Django 1.1.1, Python 2.6.4 and MySQL 5.1.44. My install was on a Linux RedHat CentOS server.

Django db lists

Keep forgetting this one.

To get data from the database and convert into a list in Django

Entry.objects.values_list('id', flat=True).order_by('id')

iPad - why business should take a look

A few ideas" I had about the Pad".
Initially I had little hope for the latest $AAPL device but whenever Jobbs gets involved, change usually follows.
The mistake skeptics are going to make about it is that the device is neither a netbook or a phone. Comparing the devices is pointless, a netbook is a device for surfing the net, listening to music that sits on your desk or occasionally on your lap if you've "man on wire" balance abilities. An iPhone is a pocket device for calling, passing a few minutes on the tube and sending texts.

The iPad occupies a new user interface market, the example I was thinking of is its use as a survey tool. Say tesco have a promotion and want people to hand in fliers with their details. Traditionally you'd get a sheet of paper, fill it out and drop it into a box. Then someone picks up the sack, goes through each one, enters them into a computer. Old, slow and expensive.

The iPad in this case could be a survey app that could use the large screen area and touchscreen to enter in this information easily without requiring a desk for typing like a laptop would and having an interface that even grandmothers could read.

Another example is waiting rooms, why not have the magazine sized iPad to read? You could facilitate the filling out of doctors forms, removing manual entry and also allow users to read relevant articles (do magazines do online subscriptions?)

Irish Franchise Expo

So Brian and I hit the Irish Frachise Expo yesterday. A good indicator of a franchise value seems to be the eagerness of the franchiser to get you involved. Franchisers like O2 and Subway, the premier league of Irish franchisers (McDonalds is a shut shop), give out a few details, hand you a sparse flier and send you on your way.

Cartridge Green had a really good pitch. They run a franchise that reinjects ink into your cartridge for 25 euro. Not a bad deal really but I dunno is my future in injecting ink. They were really selling the "you have to love it", I wonder sometimes do people really love what they do that much. Like does a toilet cleaner have posters of toilet brushes and domestos on their wall? I'm not so sure but I never imagined myself doing work like that.



We did pick up the cards of some franchise "consultants". Although consultant does have as much positive connotations as "sex offender heroin dealer" they seem genuinely helpful (and free). There are 900 franchises in UK (according to our consultant), cartridge refills have probably 20 alone so he was saying to research until you cant research no more to get moving on it. Makes sense not to get caught up too early.


Pumping the stats
Statistically 90% of franchises succeed
80% of start-up businesses fail
However 100% of McDonalds will succeed, 95% of subways and PC worlds will succeed, lesser known franchises are down aroun 50% so it is something to bear in mind.

It's a unix system

Living dinosaurs I can believe, little girls knowing UNIX? Yeah right

Zero Punctuation

Yeah, new zero punctuation

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1461-Mass-Effect-2

Server Hosting

Few problems with hosting. Shared hosting is proving to be a problem. For starters, no SSH access means we pretty much can't run/install anything other than CMS systems which is pretty rubbish.

We considered going to the cloud, as we're not exactly expecting mammoth numbers of hits. The cloud, the latest buzz, is the amazon EC2 affair. The future of web development. Even comes with a calculator.

http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html

Trouble with the cloud is, like most things, strip away the silky velure and you realise that this is a whole pile of shite. For a prototype site you're looking at 500+ per year for a VPS (virtual private server). So great for those who want to upscale large sites and use resource "bursts". Crap for us.

So gonna use plain old VPS on our irish host at 18 euro per month. Functional, cheap, not so pretty but should work, like a wank sock.

Irelands inverted anus economy

Right, I ain't no fancy economist type but here's my take on the Irish economy.

The 100k lads. These people seem to occupy a range of positions, pharmacists, dentists, doctors, insurance. These people are the high rollers in our economy, high stakes straight out off college. Without any risk involved, just a college course, you seem to be entitled to the highest starting salary grades. Good for them right? We reward the safe job joes, the jobs we understand. My personal hope is that as volumes increase into this false economy, people are going to realise that having a piece of paper doesn't really entitle you to a whole pile in life.

Public service workers I know seem to generally be doing ok. Ok in the irish ecomony is a salary band > 50 k. So your teachers and nurses, generally benefitting from the safest jobs will generally be below this, circa 40k by their early 30s. Higher paid public servants will no doubt shoot well past this, a majority around the 60k mark and upwards. Not complaining here, those are hard enough jobs to get to and are regularly supported by union meddling and government quangos.

Social welfare equates to the nextlower bracket, we have a society which supports unemployment. Taking a job actually lowers your salary and cuts off benefits in alot of cases. On front line last night, an unemployed couple with 2 children were used as an example, having an equivalent salary of 39k. Not bad for doing nothing.

Now onto the lowest point of the bucket. Internationally competitive jobs, often export driven seem to signify the new low for the Irish economy. Engineers, designers, developers, anything that's export driven is a low income scenario. A job, that in a healthy economy, would normally be rewarding is instead pushed down the paid ladder. To the point that some of the worst paid in our economy are engineers. 40k is considered a decent salary (note this is 1k more than social welfare, add work related costs this disappears). So you're probably better off on the dole than working in an export driven industry. I recently encountered software developers working for 20k. We're looking at indian wages, soon enough we might have a chance to become an offshore hub if there wasn't a realistic economy across the water from us that has and will suck up our talent.

Worse still, is the fact that the self employed are entitled to nothing in this great state. For taking on risk and entrepeneurial ventures, the government removes any welfare if you fail and any entitlement to medical benefits. If you fail you'll also be prevented from ever being allowed to attempt to launch another venture again. I think it makes sense to add an "if you fail - you will face casturation" clause to the constitution.

So I term Ireland, the inverted anus economy. It prevents exports from flourishing and promotes the retention of anti-competitive strategies. Holding onto the shit and acting exactly opposite as to how a healthy economy works.

So as a mantra for living here, I like to think the clever screw the system, reap the benefits, work as many nixers as you can, get your medical card, milk every entitlement. The sooner the state (or IMF) realises that EVERYTHING IS BROKEN, the quicker we can start from scratch at building somewhere worth living and working for.

MySQLdb import setuptools registry key blah

For my nth time reinstalling python and setting up MySQL on a windows machine, i'm back to the same list of errors

ImportError: No module named setuptools

I go find setup tools and install this. Next:

File "setup.py", line 15, in
metadata, options = get_config()
File "C:\Software\MySQL-python-1.2.3c1\setup_windows.py", line 7, in get_confi
g
serverKey = _winreg.OpenKey(_winreg.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, options['registry_ke
y'])
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified

Gotta love these errors. Completely unintuitive for a relatively tiny and essential package.

The solution???

Give up trying to use the latest release, maybe it's optimised for linux anoraks and use:

http://www.technicalbard.com/files/MySQL-python-1.2.2.win32-py2.6.exe

This installer will sort out everything

Filtering list in Django

Right so .filter is the way to get data from a query set. How do you go about filtering a set based on on a different set?

For SQL heads this is usually done by WHERE ID IN () or WHERE ID CONTAINS()

What you need to do in Django is convert the () part into a list and filter as normal

random_questions = All_Questions.objects.filter(pk__in=list(ordered_questions.values_list('id', flat=True))).order_by('?')

Flat = true implies the results are returned efficiently [1,2,3] as opposed to [(1,),(2,),(3,)]

Extending Django user model

Right so using the nifty Django user model is easy but how do i create a foreign key reference?

First use:

from django.contrib.auth.models import User

This gives access to the user model. Then just use the user as you would a normal foreign key reference

user_fk = models.ForeignKey(User)

Back from Val Thorens

Well Ski trip is done for another year, board survived intact this year and no bones broken which is always a good sign.

Will be moving this blog subject more to tech things i'm working on, first should be the use of the twitter Geo-location API.

Installed the planet

Right, have eclipse installed, subversion set up, django plugin for eclipse in (PyDev), tutorial applications moved to google code. Fun fun fun

Waking up early

I'm 100% getting into the wake up early, jog and then start work routine. Also might have the energy to spend the day coding now!

Broken laptop

Laptop went down and lost my work. Damn, gonna get subversion up and running to keep content in check.

Django is grinding away in the background. Although not terrible complex it'll take some time, also the site design and what we actually want to do is gonna be important. We keep revisiting ideas which is a little worrying. I think it's shoulders to the wheel time.

Djano template systems seems pretty interesting, integration with Ajax might be a complete balls though so am keeping aware of that in the back of my head!

Nothing new to report, trying to learn YUI which is another dead end. At some stage will all this web development make sense? Please God yes

Snowed in

Too much snow today to do anything. Normally working at a computer isn't really affected by snow but for some reason it does to me! Got an ajax tutorial done and messed about with jQuery plugins. No expert by any stretch but I think I'm closer to understanding what an expert should know.

Day 3 - A day of sorting crap

Sick today, didn't get a whole pile done. Finally sent off my business plan and what a shite one it was. Actually going through the different headings and trying to write a piece about the product is a nightmare. But it's better to think about these things.

Triathlon timing is on the agenda again and starting to pick up momentum to a degree. Loads of plans but the proof is in the proverbial pudding, can it work? Only one way to find out. While I excel at dreaming up things I'm afraid my work rate has grinded to a halt lately.

Had a look at jqBarGraph but failed to get it to work. JQuery runs fine but when i introduce the custom graph it fails to display.

At least today was a day to sort things out!

First Post - Jocks and socks update

First post of many hopefully when I get off my arse at last and get cracking with this startup business.

Currently sourcing products for an ebusiness selling underwear. Brian and I spent the day skulking around isles in Brown Thomas and various other department stores checking out displays and trying to tell what people are buying and for how much. Not too successful although we did come up with a range of prices.

What was definitely much more interesting was the trip to the distributor center, not sure where this was but they had nothing relevant. Asking a worker there was the best information received. He gave us a list of fashion shows to watch out for and to attend if we are going to look at this market. The most interesting one is in Florence which is coming up pretty fast. Could be interesting. The smart arse told us we need to get new clothes if we intend to go to a fashion show. Pretty funny stuff and a good buzz off it.

Enterprise Ireland turned their nose at us, not in a rude way but more of a, come back to use when you're making tons of money. Local Enterprise Board it is although they may be more suitable, who knows???

6 hours on the road and one good lead, gotta start somewhere?!?