October 18, 2007
I have a compulsion to upgrade. Whenever there is new release of any software or driver that I use, I MUST upgrade. The problem is, most of these upgrades/updates just cause problems.
This classic situation arose last night. Excel 2007 has been crashing recently when I used the build in scroll function of my ThinkPad T60p. I figured it was worth downloading the most recent drivers from IBM (OK, Lenovo). I used their auto-update tool, which of course found tons of updates to run, including the BIOS, etc.
It all seemed to go well until after the wireless card driver was updated and I re-entered the WEP key to reconnect. BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). After a couple reboots to make sure it wouldn’t ‘work itself out’, I booted into safe mode (which took forever), and disabled the wireless driver. I then rolled back (using the nifty ‘rollback button’. This solved the BSOD but I still couldn’t connect. So I ended up downloading the newest driver again and installing, but it didn’t seem to take. So I found a more recent driver I installed earlier this year and reinstalled it. It didn’t work either. Well it did, but it took me a while to realize I was entering the wrong WEP key.
Bottom line, updates are necessary for security and often do improve functionality, but more often than not, when I update I find myself hacking/fixing something to get back to ’normal’.
This will have no impact on my reaction to the next shiny update though. I will still install immediately.
Oh, and I still don’t know yet whether any of this fixed my Excel 2007 scroll problem. We’ll see.
October 2, 2007
Marc Andreessen is writing a series of blog posts about career planning. His second post discusses education. Reading this post I cannot stress enough how right Marc is. He pretty much nails what I believe to be the best approach to building your skills.
Starting with a college education, build a foundation for success. A degree in Science, Engineering, or Mathematics is highly valuable regardless of whether or not you pursue it as a career. General Liberal Arts degrees are just stepping stones to something else, and essentially a waste of time. Graduate degrees can be useful (or required) in certain fields but in general you will be better off launching yourself into the working world. PhD’s are nearly worthless unless you want to make a big impact in a very specific field.
Get real world experience while you are in college. Absolutely.
Be excellent at something (or two). Before you become a jack of all trades, demonstrate your ability to learn something in-depth. Once you’ve been a rock start in a certain field, you’ll find it much easier to tackle the next one.
Get a broad set of experiences. Once you’ve tackled an area in depth (or better yet, while you are doing so), build the basic skills needed to handle the working world. Speaking, Management, Sales, Finance, International (an area have a lot of room to develop).
Read the post, it is dead on. Of course, I may be biased given our shared pedigree. Of course, while we both worked for the NCSA, Marc was writing Mosaic while I just worked in Mosaic customer support (for the Mac no less). Oh, I think Marc has sold a few more companies than I have as well. I guess I need to work on my skills.
October 2, 2007
NetBank, was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. My bank failed. Not something people think about on a regular basis, but it does happen.
Granted NetBank isn’t just any bank. As Internet’s oldest online only Bank (up until Friday at least), there is some inherent risk. However, NetBank had been around over 10 years and wasn’t some fly by night operation. See Wikipedia’s summary.
So this is what FDIC insurance is for. There is almost no immediate impact for customers with FDIC insured accounts under the maximum threshold. The existing website, checks, ATM cards, etc. are still functioning and they money is intact. However, money over the FDIC limit will probably only be recouped at 50%.
ING Direct purchased the existing NetBank accounts from the FDIC immediately and provides a clean transition. In the near future (~60 days) they will be working with account holders to transition into ING accounts and close the existing NetBank accounts. From what I can see on the website I’m not sure ING Direct offers checking accounts so I’m not sure how they will transition checking accounts.
As an early adopter of Internet banking (I was also a customer of the short-lived WingSpan Bank) I’m not sure this will scare me away, but I may be a little more selective in the future, and I’ll certainly be conscious of the FDIC insurance levels.
Let this be a reminder to everyone. Banks do fail. Make sure you are covered.
September 27, 2007
Maybe the title is a bit sensational. The post is really about the day my HD DirecTiVo got traded in for a DirecTV HD DVR.
Up until Monday, DirecTV had been transmitting their HD signal using MPEG-2 encoding, which my HD DirecTiVo happily displayed. Yesterday DirecTV rolled out new HD channels using MPEG-4 encoding, which required me to update to the new model.
The new model, a DirecTV HR20-700 High Definition PVR, does not use the TiVo software, but instead uses DirecTV’s own software. From a capabilities standpoint, the boxes are pretty similar, with the HR20 probably having a few additional ‘future options’ included in the hardware.
My biggest problem is that I think in TiVo. I’ve been using a TiVo since ~2002 and that is my only interface to TV. I’ve transformed my thinking into the way TiVo views the world. Now I have to readjust my thinking to this new and less elegant world.
After a few days I’m pretty confident that this new box will serve me will and allow me to do what I want. The new HD channels are certainly worthwhile. I’ll be watching the Illini trounce Penn State (one can hope) this weekend in High Definition on the Big Ten Network. I’m also really looking forward to FX and Sci-Fi’s HD roll out this fall.
September 6, 2007
After a three year hiatus, a new version of Java Email Server (JES) is available.
The new version, 1.5, adds the ability to use a SMTP server that required authentication as the default gateway. As ISPs continue to crack down on spam (a good thing), they are instituting policies that can make it more difficult to run your own email server. One of these policies is to require all outbound email to go through their SMTP server, and requiring you to authenticate with that server. With this new addition JES can now work correctly in these environments.
No other changes were made to this version. JES is stable software in maintenance mode. New features or changes are minimized to insure stability.
This feature was added by Matthew Lohbihler of Serotonin Software (serotoninsoftware.com). Thanks Matthew, and thanks to everyone in the community who has contributed over time to help fix and improve this software.
You can download the new update from the JES homepage:
http://www.ericdaugherty.com/java/mailserver/
September 3, 2007
I’ve written a couple of open source applications that have achieved a modest level of success. Both iTunesExport and Java Email Server (JES) have had both staying power and regular level of interest.
I quantify ‘modest success’ with the following yardsticks:
Google Search
Both projects are the top ranks for intuitive search terms (OK, so their name helps):
‘itunes export’ and ‘java email server’
I think the JES rank here is especially impressive considering the second result is the Apache project JAMES, which is also an open source Java email server.
Google PageRank
iTunes Export: 4/10
Java Email Server: 6/10
OK, so we’re not talking about the slashdot.org homepage here (9/10 BTW), but still a pretty impressive showing.
Downloads
Java Email Server: ~1000 downloads/month
iTunes Export: 4,500 downloads/august
You can tell from these links that JES is very stable while iTunesExport is still ramping up and has really taken off the last few months, in part thanks to a high profile post on LifeHacker.
Contributions
At this point both projects are primarily driven by contributions from the community. In the case of iTunes Export, Jeff Donnici has stepped up and taken care of many new features and updates. Java Email Server has contributions from quite a few people, including a recent contribution from Matthew Lohbihler of Serotonin Software who submitted a contribution I still need to release.
Time
The point of this post isn’t to talk about the stats for these applications, but instead talk about why I think they have been (modestly) successful. I think it boils down to:
- Niche
- Free/Open Source
- Treat your users well
- Time
First, they both attack a specific niche that is large enough to support. In the case of JES, I purposely kept the application small and easy. If you want all the bells and whistles you can just use JAMES. If you want something you can get running in 15 minutes and can understand ALL the source code yourself, JES is for you.
iTunes Export does just one thing, allows you to use your iTunes playlists in other applications. iTunes is a great product, and even if only 5% of the people want this feature, there will still be a huge potential user base.
The fact that they are free, as in both beer and speech helps. For JES a lot of users have made key modifications to make it useful for their specific environment. Most of these changes were rolled back into the main release. For iTunesExport this has been true, although to a lesser degree, but the free as in beer aspect certainly is a big plus for both.
I respond to every user’s email. My email address is posted on the website and I respond to all emails, even if my answer is ‘I don’t know’. In several cases, I’ve improved or patched an application within days of an email and put out a new release. I believe that this make users more loyal and more likely to post links to my applications elsewhere.
The real key though is time. iTunes Export is nearly 4 years old, and JES is over 6 years old. Over this length of time, many people have found them useful, and linked to them from various sites. Initially I got really excited when I came across a new site in my referrer log. Now, I subscribe to Google Alerts and see new links (especially to iTunes Export) on almost a daily basis.
I’ve never done any real extensive work to publicize them, although I think there were some key actions:
I registered both projects on freshmeat.net and updated the entries for each release.
I named the projects well. The names match well with what people would type into Google to find these solutions.
I kept the applications updated. Initially this was my own effort, but as the applications reached a critical mass, I just incorporated the contributions of the community.
Conclusion
If you want to write a (modestly) successful open source tool, there are a couple of things to do: Find a niche and own it. Name it appropriately. Make it free. Leverage free advertising. Be responsive. Keep with it.
If you find a niche and write a moderately useful application, as long as you stick with it and treat your users well, you’ll be successful.
September 2, 2007
The actual quote is: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA” (thanks IMDB).
A great movie (Wall Street) that grew larger and larger as time passed. It sounds like Gordon Gekko may be making a comeback in a new film called “Money Never Sleeps”. The Telegraph has an article that discusses the stature of Wall Street and the ideas behind the new movie.
I’m interested, but mindful that most sequels fail to recapture or improve on the initial magic that the first hit provided.
September 2, 2007
Not to turn this into a soccer blog but…
The U-20 team was sent home by an obviously superior German team. The US played well but were simply outmatched. Since they were lucky to escape group play with their poor performances in the first two games, I simply can’t criticize their result in the second round.
Beckham. He is out 6-8 weeks, which is most if not all of the remaining season, with a sprained knee. LA was a long short before the playoffs before Beckham showed up, and I have to said I’d be pretty surprised to see them in the post season now. I do know there will be a lot of disappointed ticket holders for the remaining LA games this season, home and away.
There are a lot of other new players in the league under the ‘Beckham rule’. Unfortunately for the Chicago Fire, New York’s Angel scored the only goal in a victory over Blanco and the Fire. Both Angel and Blanco are new to the league and delivering a lot of new fans and exciting plays for both teams. There are a lot of interesting players to watch in the, with or without Becham.
August 27, 2007
It has been a while since I’ve posted, and the wealth of interesting Soccer recently has been partly to blame. The fact that my daughter was born this month may have had an impact as well.
U-20 World Cup
The US team made a disappointing showing in the U-19 world cup. They got through group play but lost to Austria 2-1 in the Quarterfinals. Freddy Adu and Josmer Altidore were exciting but didn’t have the consistent play necessary to really make run.
U-17 World Cup
The US team managed to squeak through group play with one play and two losses. Luckily, 2 other teams also had a 1-2-0 record and the US won the tie-breaker. They really didn’t deserve to move forward, but hey, luck is luck. They play their Second Round next game early Thursday morning against Germany, and hopefully they perform better than they did in the first two games.
MLS Stars
I’ve already mentioned Beckham’s arrival and the excitement that it generated. Beckham continues to have an impact, although he hasn’t turned around LA’s fortunes yet. There are several other players that are making as big or bigger impacts on their teams though. Cuauhtemoc Blanco, a Mexican club and National team star has joined the Chicago Fire and is helping them make a run at the playoffs. He is also helping increase attendance, both at home and on the road. Not to the same degree as Beckham, but it will also probably be a more sustained increase. Also, players like Juan Pablo Angel and others are making similar impacts around the league.
Womens’ World Cup
The US Women completed their final warm up match for the World Cup, which kicks off next Month. With a 40+ game unbeaten streak, anything short of a win will be a letdown.
With so much soccer to watch, and so much of it occurring overseas, I’m glad I have my TiVo so I can watch them at my leisure. Also, it is times like these that I appreciate soccer’s low popularity. I don’t have to worry about hearing spoilers before I sit down to watch the games!
July 31, 2007
I decided to play with Ruby on Rails a little more and was just reminded of the painful process to get Rails working at GoDaddy.
First, you can have Java or Rails, but not both. But as I posted earlier, Java is near useless at GoDaddy anyway.
So, the key steps to getting your Ruby on Rails app deployed at GoDaddy are:
Setup at GoDaddy:
1. Log in to the GoDaddy Hosting Control Center
2. Make sure Java is disabled (under Language Options). If it is enabled, you can’t deploy a Rails application. Change the setting to none (and you’ll need to wait 24 hours for your site(s) to be moved to a new server).
3. Log into the CGI control panel and create a Rails application directory.
4. Create a symbolic link to your newly created rails directory.
Local Edits:
1. Freeze your gems: rake rails:freeze:gems
2. Edit your dispatch.* files to reference #!/usr/local/bin/ruby
Upload:
1. Upload your rails application to the rails directory.
2. Chmod the dispatch.* files to 755 (in FileZilla, right click and select File Attributes).
3. Wait. GoDaddy won’t recognized new .htaccess files for about an hour, so go do something else and come back later.
Test:
1. Test your app. Hopefully it works. If not, good luck. A couple things you can try:
1a. Enable your Error Log in the hosting control panel, wait an hour, try again and view your log file in the CGI control panel.
1b. Download the /log/production.log log file.
2. Change to FastCGI. Update your .htaccess file and change the dispatch.cgi reference to dispatch.fcgi.
I omitted the DB setup. You’ll need to create a database using the control panel and update your database.yml file with the appropriate information.
It isn’t great, but if you already have GoDaddy hosting, it is workable.
