My Blabbery

The Anatomy of a 1,000 Page View Blog Post

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:22:29 -0400

At the beginning of the year I started writing on this site and have managed to publish 21 posts. Of the 21 posts, 7 have been viewed over 1,000 times so I thought it would be fun to do a deep dive and see if we could dissect what exactly makes a 1,000 page view blog post.

Why 1,000? Because a 1,000 page view post is achievable by anyone, but still large enough that it could be seen as a challenge. Plus it’s a nice round number.

So lets jump right in…

Read More

Agreed life-of-an-architecture-student: Great response by both...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:17:28 -0400

Agreed

life-of-an-architecture-student:

Great response by both thecathal and fatinely-yours

Making rendering are visually nice- yes… but sometimes the design is completely overlooked because of it.

23 Things That Don't Matter When Starting a Startup and 2 Things That Do

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:17:05 -0400

Only 2 things matter

wadef:

When you are just getting your startup off the ground there seems to be an infinite amount of tasks you have to do to be successful. But the truth of the matter is very few things actually matter on day one of starting a company.

Here’s a list of things that after starting Zapier I realized didn’t matter on day one of the company.

If you’re persistant and continue to grow your company, some of these tasks might eventually matter, but when you’re getting started there are usually more pressing things to attend to than these tasks.

Read More

Disqus: The Official Blog: Meet the Man Behind Gooqus: The Mashup of Google and Disqus

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:56:12 -0400

Disqus: The Official Blog: Meet the Man Behind Gooqus: The Mashup of Google and Disqus:

Awesome aswesome awesome

disqus:

Hi. I’m new to Disqus as the head of marketing. I’ve had the good fortune in my career to work with many great inventors and innovators to help them tell their story. My first client was the inventor of the Post-it Note. (Another ubiquitous communications tool, just don’t call them “stickies.”)…

Fun with Python and Javascript: Rarely Mentioned Benefits of Tornado Framework

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:19:29 -0500

Fun with Python and Javascript: Rarely Mentioned Benefits of Tornado Framework:

didip:

What is Tornado? Tornado is a popular event-loop based web framework.

Most people who talk about Tornado usually mentioned how fast it is when hitting “Hello World” using Apache Benchmark. This post is not about that.

Background jobs

In most web application request cycle, it’s common for…

One Database to Rule Them All?

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:31:26 -0500

One Database to Rule Them All?:

nosql:

Curt Monash took upon himself the task of writing about why a data store independent of consistency models, upfront data modeling and access algorithms is almost impossible:

To date, nobody has ever discovered a data layout that is efficient for all usage patterns.

He’s reached a similar conclusion to what I wrote in my link post. Here’s mine:

[…] a database feature an ubiquitous interface independent of consistency models, upfront data modeling, and access algorithms is never going to be efficient. Actually, I’m not even sure it would make sense being built

Here’s Curt Monash’s:

So what would happen if somebody tried to bundle all conceivable functionality into a single DBMS, with a plan to optimize the layout of any particular part of the database as appropriate? I think the outcome would be tears — for the development effort would be huge, while the benefits would be scanty. The most optimistic cost estimates could run in the 100s of millions of dollars, with more realistic ones adding a further order of magnitude. But no matter what the investment, the architects would be on the horns of nasty dilemma

Definitely more impactful.

Original title and link: One Database to Rule Them All? (NoSQL database©myNoSQL)

David Hauser: 25 Entrepreneurs Tell What They Wish They'd Known before Founding Their First Startup

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:58:34 -0500

David Hauser: 25 Entrepreneurs Tell What They Wish They'd Known before Founding Their First Startup:

davidhauser:

Hindsight is 20/20. When you look back on any project or endeavor, you get a better idea of what was important and what wasn’t.

The same is true with startups. After working on a business for a year or two or more, you have a better idea about what was worth worrying about and what wasn’t as big…

Buy Africom & Brodacom recharge vouchers/airtime online using EcoCash

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:45:32 -0500

Buy Africom & Brodacom recharge vouchers/airtime online using EcoCash

The Architecture of a Credit Card Analysis Platform: Using Project Voldemort, Elastic MapReduce, Pangool

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:03:11 -0500

The Architecture of a Credit Card Analysis Platform: Using Project Voldemort, Elastic MapReduce, Pangool:

nosql:

Ivan de Prado and Pere Ferrera on HighScalability.com:

The solution we developed has an infrastructure cost of just a few thousands of dollars per month thanks to the use of the cloud (AWS), Hadoop and Voldemort.

This is one of the few projects outside LinkedIn that I know of that uses Project Voldemort. Plus the Voldemort backend storage is configured to use BerkleyDB.

Original title and link: The Architecture of a Credit Card Analysis Platform: Using Project Voldemort, Elastic MapReduce, Pangool (NoSQL database©myNoSQL)

Giving lifestyle entrepreneurship a second look.

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:01:30 -0500

Giving lifestyle entrepreneurship a second look.

Extreme Big Data: From the Memory Grid to Cassandra

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:43:19 -0500

Extreme Big Data: From the Memory Grid to Cassandra:

extremebigdata:

The new Cassandra Space Persistency implementation allows persisting space entries to Cassandra.

It’s pretty cool.

After setting everything up, you can write entries to the space and with no additional configuration, a matching column family will be created for you in the configured…

My take: College/Not, Dropout/Not, Leave the Job/Not, Part-Time/Not, Startup/Not

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:49:00 -0500

I rarely write “publicly” (lol like i have an audience) about my opinions on anything but i can’t afford to continue ignoring the heat around what’s best for our entrepreneurs.

The problem with a lot of people is that when they take a certain route in their life/career and it works they immediately declare it as the way to go and they will, directly or indirectly, weigh down the other routes when they have a chance to.

The problem with most advice people give when they’re asked for it is that instead of wearing the asker’s shoes fully (where they are coming from, resources, risk, vision, skills etc) and giving an opinion based on that perspective, their own and what they have “seen and heard” - they take themselves and their entire life as it is (interests, responsibilities, passions, past, future) and place themselves in the person’s place (not shoes). Then they base their advice on “what would i do if i was in their situation” not “what would i do if i was them”. You will see a lot of advice you get from a person inclines unfairly towards taking the path they took.

I just think that’s very wrong.

The best advice i ever got about advice was

Never take advice from someone who hasn’t done or is doing what you are trying to achieve

That’s why i’m off blogs anyway, after all “Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work”

Well, i’m still looking for what my profession is ;)

"Always remember the kid you were. You´re that child, she´s still on you. Remember how she is, the..."

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 04:54:05 -0500

“Always remember the kid you were. You´re that child, she´s still on you. Remember how she is, the things she likes, the way she sees the world and how she enjoys life. Now, you go and take care of that girl and don´t you ever forget to make her happy.”

- Read Quote of Anon User’s answer to What is the best advice your father ever gave you? on Quora

Enjoying each phase of the startup curve [MixPanel]

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 20:01:00 -0500

I first came to learn of MixPanel barely a year after they launched when the founders themselves would reply to emails and they were just another startup by some college students that i was watching progress. They loved what they were doing all the while & they believed in the vision they had for their product.

I’m particularly fond of their MixPanel Nest Facebook Photo Album captioned

We are living poor but damn we love it.

Captioned: “You know you found a good hire when they sit on a green stool”

The bedroom

Fast-forward 2012

Doshi says revenue has quadrupled since nine months ago, that Mixpanel now on a run rate for several million dollars of revenue a year, and that the company is cash-flow positive.

An Unexpected Ass Kicking

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:38:41 -0500

An Unexpected Ass Kicking:

“Wait”, I said, pausing at his last sentence ”What was that quote again?”

“Nothing is withheld from us what we have conceived to do.”

That’s good, who said that?

God did.

What?

God said it and there were only two people who believed it, you know who?

Nope, who?

God and me, so I went out and did it.

every_jazz_matazz: My life's theory : ASP (Always Stay Positive) - NYC, Startups, Clippings & Musings

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:31 -0500

every_jazz_matazz: My life's theory : ASP (Always Stay Positive) - NYC, Startups, Clippings & Musings:

everyjazzmatazz:

When I’ve taken a job at Zlio.com in 2007 to start their US operations, with Jeremie Berrebi as a CEO, I was really excited by the growth I was seeing. All signals were green : users, revenues, traction, VC funding. They had it all.

A week after I joined the company, Google…

Stop Sniffing Ur Own Farts. Great Entrepreneurs are Passionate about Customers, not Entrepreneurship.

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:41:49 -0500

Stop Sniffing Ur Own Farts. Great Entrepreneurs are Passionate about Customers, not Entrepreneurship.:

The reason i haven’t been able to partner up with entrepreneurs is because of this. At least Dave says it more loudly than i could.

PS: I didn’t say “partner up with other entrepreneurs” for a reason. I’m not one, but joining an ego-drenched team is not worth my effort.

[vPayments] It would be funny if it weren't so sad

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:14:00 -0500

I applaud Zimswitch’s Mr Roscoe et al for bringing us a step closer to eCommerce in Zim.

Having followed on their progress to where they stand today it’s an understatement to say they have gone through quite a lot of legal and technical headaches.

But my mind couldn’t help but picture a man who teleported back in time and gave ol’ cave-man an iPad.

Apparently cave-man (the economy) is still to discover fire (Always-available ZESA, always-in-range and more affordable internet, better water). New local startups have slowed down, almost stopped actually. Can anyone remind me the last time we read of a new startup on Techzim? Where are our entrepreneurs? Has the economy proved to be so harsh that nothing will take off the ground old-fashioned style (bootstrap) and you have to own another successful company to successfully (as in wait a looooong time) found a profitable startup in Zimbabwe?

It’s like PayPal (vPayments) launched in the era of bulletin boards - when there was almost no way and almost no one to practically use it.

Zimbabwe is ready for eCommerce, theoretically. If eCommerce was a guest then yes (s)he would find a comfy home here; but then it’s not. It has to be built. One thing you’ll notice in the history of the web and all the trends that came with it (Social Networking, email, eCommerce, portals, search engines, communities, smartphones) is that the first wave of people that pull off the concept bounce off the market. The ones that model after them come and bounce off again and gradually the wall begins to crack as the market increasingly begins to appreciate and maybe actually rely on the technology. See what happened to the portals before Yahoo, the networks before Facebook, the smartphones before the iPhone & Android. Startups can choose though to put the Juggernaut helmet on so that when they bounce off the market they get back up and keep hammering until the wall gives way. That helmet’s other name is “money to spare which is not what you livelihood depends on” and it is rare indeed for most entrepreneurs.

But the story of Zimbabwe and Africa will not follow closely that of Europe and America. Africa will skip phases because most of the wall-breaking has been done for us by other startups in the valley. Look how Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram took off: because it’s already hip all over the world it takes off some of that negligence the market likes to show when something new comes along.

I don’t know how Africa’s or Zimbabwe’s story will go but what i know for sure is that the wall is about to give way. We just need more people eh sacrificing their heads and knowing that they will either bounce off or break the wall.

Now, can we have some new startups to write about please?

Facebook Feature Request: Cache users in a comment thread for easier @mentioning

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 03:59:00 -0500

Yeah i know, a developer complaining about Facebook. Too bad i’m a networking junkie. Chrome says my fav 4 are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr.

Request

Replying to other people’s comments in a group or on a page is *almost* impossible when these people aren’t your friends. They never show up in the @ suggestions, ever. Comments build up fast especially in the page/group setting and you can only hope someone doesn’t out-comment you before the question you asked regarding the last comment is answered. So if Facebook could, for lack of knowledge regarding how the @suggestions work, include and prioritize the users commenting in that thread.

Unsexy Tech-companies that just make money

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 03:31:28 -0500

Unsexy Tech-companies that just make money