I am beginning to flush our an api in rails that will leverage OAuth as the authentication mechanism. I looked at this article as a starting point: http://www.jbarnette.com/2009/04/07/http-apis.html.  This is exactly how I would envision laying out my api urls, but there is one update I want to note for Rails 3.1.1.

In your routes.rb file it should be:

 

namespace :api do

    namespace :v1 do

      resources  :widgets

    end

  end

 

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I had been having some "dead-air" issues with my HTC Incredible so Verizon kindly sent me a new device in the hopes that it would correct the issue. I received the second HTC incredible but that device had an issue if constantly rebooting.  I took it to the Verizon store and they diagnosed that the battery was the problem and so they would send me a new battery.  The new battery wouldn't arrive for a few days so I would be without a phone during that time. I really wasn't too upset about it as I was looking forward to being "disconnected." But what I didn't realize how liberating it would truly be.

I first realized it when I went to meet someone for coffee without a device on me. While I was waiting for the person to arrive I just sat there thinking. Not really thinking about anything deep and meaningful, but simply allowing my mind to wander. Boy did it feel good. If I had my phone with me I would have been checking my email, reading Google Reader, checking Twitter or a handful of other things to keep me occupied. I was able to just sit and think and it felt fantastic!

The new device is still not working so while I am waiting for my third device I have switched back to my original. But I decided to dumb it down. My plan is very good so not having data does not make sense for me, but what I am going to do is remove all of the apps that allow me to waste time and clean-up my home screen to remove applications that distract me.  I am also disconnecting my email from the phone. Essentially I am removing any application that I would use while sitting in a doctor's office or something that will interrupt my day like emails popping up.

We'll see how it works out.  I probably won't be caught up on the latest news or emails, but those things can wait until I get back to my laptop which I am never too far away from.

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I am sure most of have met that special someone, spent some time with them on our own and when the time was right took them out with your friends and family only to find they weren'y exactly what you thought they were.

I think ideas are very similiar to this.  Ideas start out in your head while you are in the shower, walking down the street, sitting in the airport and they bake. At first you might think wow this is the greatest idea ever. Why has no-one ever thought of this.  If you're an engineer you will probably want to get "doing" right away and start executing on your idea. But I think we should liken ideas to dating. It should go through several phases before we actually execute or "marry" ourselves to the idea.

The Meeting: in this phase you and the idea meet as I described above. In the real world hopefully it isn't in the shower, but it could be at a bar, church etc. You get to know eachother. You compare this idea to others you've had. You consider if you want to spend more time thinking about this idea.

Getting to Know You: In this phase you have realized there might be something to this idea, you want to learn more. So you right down some pros and cons to the idea. Perhaps you do a little research to see if anyone has done this before and if not why. Perhaps you see if there is a possible market for this idea by doing some searches online.

Introducing to your Friends & Family: This is often where ideas and in the real world where relationships can fail. When you're with your new found love at home on the couch watching Netflix or out at a restaurant alone, everything seems peachy. This seems like the greatest relationship ever. Now you have to introduce them to your friends. How will your friends like the person, how will each party react, will they fit in. This part is very critical because you want to integrate the person into your life. Much like a real-world relationship it is important for an idea to go through this stage. You need to vette the idea amongst other people. You need to see if they would use it. Have their heard of something similiar, would they pay money for it or know someone who might. What issues can they come up with to help  you further refine the idea.

Let's Take it to the next Level: In this stage you feel pretty confident you like the idea and want to spend more time with it, but you are not 100% sure you are going to marry yourself to it. So you want to spend some more time talking with possible users/customers. Perhaps you can do some mockups or prototypes to show and present your idea to more people and further refine the idea into something that would deliver value.

Getting Married: In this stage you have found you like the idea enough to devote your time, money and other resources to attempt to execute on this idea.

Often times I find myself going through stage 1 & 2 and then skipping right to Getting Married. I think it is important for an idea to go through all of these phases so as not to waste any time you could have been devoted on getting to know someone else ;)

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While flipping through the channels the other night I came across bull riding. In watching a little of it I had some questions as to how the sport works.

Most important question is who picks the bulls?

Do the riders pick their own bull? Or do they bring their own with them? Maybe it is some jury picking type process whereby all of the bulls are led into the ring and the riders rank their favorite.  The reason this is important is because it doesn't seem fair. I mean what if one rider stays longer on his bull because it was more tame than another? Or is there some minimum level or "pissed offedness" that a bull must possess in order to qualify?

I'm trying to expand my horizons.

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I have Rails 3 running on an Apache web server on Slicehost and was using send_file() for Boply after someone made a file purchase. The problem was it would successfully email the file to the purchaser but if they clicked in their browser to download it was sending an 0 byte file. And of course "it works on my local machine." The problem as it turns out is that Rails 3 added a new configuration property to production.rb.

Namely this one: config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = "X-Sendfile".

This configuration property leverages Apache to stream the file to the user's machien rather than letting Rails do it. But the problem I was facing was that I did not have the mod_xsendfile module enabled in Apache so it wasn't working.

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For Boply I had been sending out the notification emails when the user confirmed their order. The issue with that of course is that it could be slow or it might never respond depending on the SMTP server. Given that I decided to queue the emails and send out later. To do that I did the following:

1. Create a model called EmailQueue (order_id, method_name).

This will store the orderId as well as the method name in the Notifier to call

2. On confirmation of the order put an entry into the email_queues table

3. Create a rake task to send the emails

    I added a new file in lib/tasks called mailer.rake with the following contents:

desc "Send any notification emails"

task :send_emails => :environment do

queuedEmails = EmailQueue.find(:all)

for qEmail in queuedEmails

order = Order.find(qEmail.order_id)

notification = Notifier.send(qEmail.method_name, order)

notification.deliver

qEmail.destroy

end

end

 

4. I am using slicehost so I createda file called runCron.sh which will be called from a cron job to run the rake task

 

#!/bin/bash

cd <root of your rails app>

rake RAILS_ENV=production send_emails

5. Finally I added to the crontab

crontab -e 

*/5 * * * * <path to shell script>/runCron.sh

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If you are using sqlite in a Windows 64-bit environment and you are running into the following error: 

"System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory"

you might want to try using sqlite3.

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If you want to run a migration to your production db when using Ruby on Rails run the following command:

rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

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It is not too often that I have to pull out the dress shirts from the closet and don my business casual attire, but it seems I have been doing it more and more recently. When I do I always seem to be stuck with the time honored dilema of choosing the right undershirt. I like an undershirt because is provides sweat protection and offers an additional level of comfort under my dress shirt. I don't like it though because I feel it looks kind of ratty when you are able to see the undershirt (This is a new. Maybe I am going for the more metro-look here) In this regard I see a a few options each which present their own pros and cons. 

1. the sleeveless undershirt aka. "A-shirt", "wife beater". We all know this one and seems to have been the choice of our Grandparents generatation. I like the idea here of an additional layer and not being able to see it above the collar of the dress shirt, but it does not seem to afford much in the way of sweat protection
2. the traditional t-shirt undershirt with the straight-across collar. I like this one and it is my fall-back because it is comfortable and offers a lot of protection, but I am not sure I like the white collar sitting above the dress-shirt collar
3. no undershirt. I have been trying this one out recently as I was trying to see how I liked the look of no-undershirt showing about the dress shirt collar. I have to say I didn't like it. I felt almost naked and without the extra level of sweat protection I felt nervous if I had to go into a stressful situation
4. the v-neck. I have not yet tried this option, but I think I am going to give it a shot. It seems it would offer the sweat protection I desire, would not show a collar above the dress shirt collar and would give the comfort of the traditional t-shirt undershirt.

Is anyone else faced with the same questions when you put on a dress shirt?  What do you think about having the white part of the undershirt show above the dress shirt?

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Now I was a child of Australian immigrants so my knowledge of football is very limited, but I have a strategy that I would like to vette if I ever became a football coach. I was watching the Allstate Sugar Bowl and Arkansas was on the offensive. They had a first down at the 20 yard line so in order to obtain another first down they would have to reach the 10 yard line at which point it would be first and goal.  The Arkansas runner ran past the 10 yard line to about the 8 yard line which picked up the first down and resulted in a 1st and Goal. My question is would it be better in a situation like that where you don't NEED the first down to stop short of the 10 yard line. Maybe just fall down at the 11 yard line.  Then it would be 2nd and 1 at the 11 yard line. Then instead of having to score if it were a 1st and Goal you could take a shot or 2 for a touchdown and if you don't make it just pick up the 1 yard and have 3 or 4 more shots?  Does this seem like a legitimate strategy?

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I have been sick and stuck in bed for the past two days and as a result of have a lot of tv. Here are some things I have seen:

1) Dr. Oz is promoting a website called sharecare.com where people can track their fitness as well as track food intake with the idea of helping people to lose weight by exercising and eating better.  But then a little later I saw a commercial for an upcoming show which features Dr. Oz speaking with Deepak Chopra and promoting some new weight loss scheme from Mr. Chopra that doesn't require excercise or changing your eating habits. Seems like Dr. Oz's message is muddled here. Which is it dr? Exercise 30 mins a day, track your eating and exercise? Or hold out for this magic cure?

2) Have you seen those commercials for Farmers insurance with J.K. Simmons where they show the agents training in real-life scenarios?  The specific commercial I am referring to is when the pipes are leaking and the agent at the back asks why they don't just shutoff the main water line and Mr. Simmons responds by asking if he is aware this is just a training scenario.  My question is do you really want an insurance agent who doesn't know real-life from a class he is currently taking? I would like my insurance agent to be able to decipher between the two on his own.  That being said I suppose the commercial accomplished its task by getting me to think about it.

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Tonight I turned to ESPN in preparation for the UNC bowl game and caught the end of the Kansas State vs. Syracuse game.  With about a minute left Kansas State threw a scored a nice touchdown where the receiver caught the ball and made a sweet run into the end-zone.  This brought Kansas State within 2 points and made the score 34-36. After the receiver scored the touchdown he dropped the ball and saluted and then joined his teammates in the end-zone. What is crazy though is that the referee threw a flag for unsportsmen-like conduct.  This was a 15 yard penalty and took the ball from the 3 yard line to the 18 yard line and made the possibility of a 2 point conversation extremely difficult.  Kansas State missed the 2 point conversion and lost the game.

According to the commentators a flag can be thrown for unsportsmen-like conduct if the player brings excessive attention to themselves.  Now technically you could consider that by flexing his bicep he did just that, but I mean come on. We have all seen a lot worse and a lot more excessive.  The referee who threw the flag either did not play sports or has forgotten how it works, but if you score a touchdown to bring your team within 2 points with 1 minute left in  bowl game the adrenaline is going to be flowing. The excitement will be uncontainable. In fact I think the receiver did quite well to restrain himself and not celebrate excessively.

Has this penalty gone too far? I get the idea of trying to prevent people from hiding cell-phones under goal posts or do freaky dances in the end-zone, but throwing a flag for a guy who just scored with 1 minute left to setup a potential game-tying play because he saluted seems outrageous.

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I used to have this idea that it was ok to be late for anything. A doctor's appt, meeting, class, flights etc. It wasn't that I wanted to be late, it was more that I tried to squeeze an extra 3 mins of work right before I left rather than leaving what I was doing until I got back. As a result I would usually be late for most things by 5 - 10  mins and not really mind if others did the same to me. It didn't stress me out.

My wife however is quite the opposite. She hates being late for anything and will leave extra early to account for traffic etc. I used to think this was crazy and a waste of time when you could use those extra minutes to do something productive before you left.

I don't know if it is me getting older and potentially wiser or if my wife's attitude has been rubbing off on me but now I hate to be late. Mostly because I feel I am disrespecting the other person's time. It is so funny now to think that I take great pride in being early for a meeting because I see how I have grown in that respect. It's not to say that I am still not late, but I try my best to not be.

Is there something in your life where you have grown and are proud of the fact?

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Recently I read a post from Mark Peter Davis' blog entitled "The Venture Mullet." It is a great post and something I have been thinking about for some time when watching people at tech conferences. It seems like the "hip" fashion for tech entreprenuers is jeans on the bottom and sports jacket on top with either a dress shirt or t-shirt below.  The reason I have been thinking about this is because I wondered how this came to be the norm for tech entrepreneurs. For me its almost as if you don't want to wear a suit because that would be too serious and you can't wear jeans and a t-shirt because that would be too casual. So this seems to have been some sort of compromise.  

Why does it matter though? Well the issue is that other people also think this is norm and by wearing this outfit you will meet people's expectations of what a tech entrepreneur SHOULD wear. So if you're not wearing this then you must either 1) take yourself too seriously 2) not be in the "know" 3) not take yourself seriously enough.  And who would want to risk that.

But this lends itself to a broader discussion which I have thought about for years. Why is it that you can stereotype a person by the clothes they wear? If you want to be a hispter then skinny vintage pants is expected.  If you want to be a hippy then sandals and long baggy clothes should suit you. A republican should wear dress pants and a golf-shirt. But how does this happen? And why is that you feel compelled to have to wear those clothes in order to fit the ideology or group that you are a part of.

Over the next few posts I will try to delve deeper into these questions and I thank my friend Mark for opening up this avenue of exploration that has been floating around in me for some time.

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The other night we had a great meetup at Hosted Solutions. I have to thank Hosted Solutions and specifically Rich Nowalk for getting everything setup and supplying a huge spread of food and drinks.  You can see the lineup here: RTP New Tech.  We started off with Mark Davis from DFJ Gotham. Mark is a Duke and Columbia grad and very involved in the NYC and specifically Columbia entreprenuership community.  That is where I met him.  Mark's presentation focused on what he termed Data Synergy. Essentially when creating a "tech-lite" company, or a company that does not have a huge technical barrier to entry, you should be creating a concept called data synergy whereby each user who uses your product or site, should be adding value for the next person. What this gives you then is the ability to grow exponentially rather than have to re-engage with each person individually.  I would highly recommend you check out his presentation here.

The whole presentation was run through webex with video and audo through the computer. It was fantastic! I envisioned it as a Oprah style conversation in the same way she uses Skype and I think it worked out that way except I didn't give away free gifts!

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The other night RTP New Tech hosted Vivek Wadhwa for a roundtable discussion. It is kind of amazing how it even came about.  I saw that Vivek had posted to twitter that he would be out in RTP and so I reached out to him asking if he would come by for a chat at the meetup. I didn't have a meetup planned and I didn't have a venue.  And for those of you who have planned meetups, not having a venue a priori can make for things to be hairy.  Nevertheless Vivek was gracious enough and willing to stop by even after just having gotten off an all day flight from California.  I did not set a topic and figured Vivek would get the talk going. Right before I was set to take off for the meetup I learned that Vivek had been talking to the local newspaper. You can view the interview here: http://goo.gl/wU6Q  His interview definitely stirred the pot and got the blood flowing for a few people.  The discussion was good. Here are some of the points Vivek made:

1. Move to Silicon Valley if you want to start a company or Chile
2. RTP lacks people with the willingness to fail
3. Not enough entrepreneur collaboration and coffee-time sharing of ideas
4. Government is too focused on spending money on big companies and big projects and not injecting seed capital into small companies
5. Not enough angels or people willing to write 10k - 30k checks to get people going
6. Failing is a badge of honor in Silicon Valley
7. CED consists of lawyers and real-estate agents
8. we need more meetings like RTP New Tech, going on all of the time

I am sure I missed some thing but that is the gist.  I will try to outline where I agree with Vivek and where I think he might be off base slightly. One disclaimer though. Whether you agree or disagree with Vivek, the conversation is has started is only good for this area and will further fuel the fire of innovation that is already burning in this area:

1. Obviously I hope this is false, although Chile does sound kind of nice
2. I do agree with this to some extent, but I think this one falls in-line with #5 which it is hard to fail when there is little prospect of having a minor success. With little angel/seed money to go around it makes it difficult to get started on something small.
3. I dont agree with this one fully. Compared to the valley I would agree, but there is a lot of going on. In fact I often times have to choose to stay at home otherwise I would be out every night at an event. And I think it is only picking up steam. Possibly the event organizers could have better collaboration as far as helping each other find venues etc.  I think that needs to happen.
4. I agree with this. A lot of money is being spent attracting very large companies to come to the region and little spent on using the talent here in small companies to satisfy the needs. Although I dont like to use this as a crutch.  I wouldn't want to sound like I was whining about some one not doing something for you.
5. I spoke to this already above.
6. I guess that is true and I hope we can get there one day. Like I said I think we could fail more if there is small seed funds to go around to get more people out there.
7. This one is interesting. I know Vivek spent the 90's out here and I can't speak to how CED was at that point. To some extent I think his analysis has been true and could even be true today. I formed RTP New Tech because I felt that the early stage tech entrepreneur community wasn't being served organically. We don't want to be a member of something and pay dues and pay for meetings. We want to get together and try to help each-other.  But I have to say Joan Seifert Rose has impressed me. She came to our second meetup. And joined us at the bar afterwards and I point-blank told her that I don't think CED is serving our needs and isn't helping us.  This was my personal opinion, but after having multiple conversations with Joan and seeing how she is trying to work within CED, I think CED is doing some good things to change that.  I do believe they are working hard and hearing our concerns and looking to help the small/early stage entrepreneurs.  I am very excited about the new CED and like I said before we need to work with them to help guide them in the direction that we need rather than sitting back and throwing our hands up. Joan is helping with RTP New Tech and other organic meetups like it. Trying to give us a voice within her group. They have the organization, they have the resources, let's continue to help guide them in the direction so we can all benefit.  I will continue to work with Joan and team and I appreciate her willingness to help us out.

At the end of the day there are a lot of people working hard to make this region a hotbed for innovation. Let's just continu to put our heads down, work together, and get 'er done!

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I love motivational quotes. Although I don't have any of those motivational posters I enjoy reading them when I go to the book store.  I also happen to lose my keys a lot. I must admit I have been better about it since I now have a designated spot in the house to hang them. Nevertheless I still manage to lose them from time to time. 

As a result, sometime ago I came up with a quote to combined these two aspects of my life.  Here goes:

"Dreams are like lost keys, you won't find them until you start looking."

and a follow up:

"Dreams are like lost keys, you won't find them by sitting on the couch."

The idea behind this quote was you that can't find your keys by just sitting around. You have actually look for them. You can re-trace your steps, you can search the cushions of the couch, but you have to start physically looking.  In my opinion the same principal applies to your dreams. We all have them big and small. But if you want to realize your dreams you need to get out there and start searching for them and only through that process can you begin to make them a reality.

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So if you happen to watch the show "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" (I don't watch it, but sometimes I catch it with my wife)  you will surely be caught up with all of the drama going on with Danielle Staub. Long story short, she is the outsider to the other house-wives who happen to all be in the same family either by blood or through marriage. She is very dramatic, sometimes with proper cause and sometimes without, but always dramatic. Recently she and the other housewives had stopped speaking, but a few of them were at a dinner with Danielle and they got it a big fight.  Jacqueline's daughter Ashley pulled out some of Danielle's hair. (Ok I confess I do watch the show occassionally.)  Danielle called the cops because they were all chasing after her and harrasing her and when the cops showed up they took statements.

In the most recent episode Danielle is sitting at a diner speaking to her friends about the possibility of pressing charges against Ashley. They are all buying into her argument and agreeing with what she has to say. She is going on about how Ashley's behavior is unacceptable and this behavior needs to be punished etc. I think Danielle feels she is helping to tame an out of control 19 yr old by pressing charges against her.

There have been instances in my life, nowhere near as crazy as this, when I needed someone who had a level-head to tell me to stop being an idiot. When we surround ourselves with people who will either not be honest with us or think exactly like us we risk going down a path that may not be the best place for us to go. There has to be someone who can bring up the other side of the story, look a situation objectively and tell us where we might be wrong. This applies to all aspects of life. From personal to professional we need people around us with a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints.  With those backgrounds and viewpoints they can put us back in check and we can do the same for them. Critical feedback is often under-valued, under-used, and/or under-appreciated.

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