Dealing with workers block is always a challenge, but the baby steps strategy seems to have worked. The last week has been tough to focus, but my goal of even doing a few of the smallest things usually mushrooms into actually getting some accomplishments under my belt.
I have a few days of technical document reviews on contract to an occasional client, which is nice to get a bit of cash into my pocket, though the billing cycle is quite slow. The opportunity to be productive on another topic is nice.
Then yesterday, I also managed to spend a couple of hours on some javascript/AJAX stuff that was buggy and solved it, so that felt progressive.
Today I've been cleaning up environment stuff, doing some system upgrades, security upgrades and trashing some desktop litter. But now I've managed to open Eclipse and PyDev and am soldiering forward on development stuff again. This afternoon I expect to put in a few more hours on the document review work.
These are the tough days of entrepreneurial life, finding a means to push forward when the opportunity turn it into a going-concern are still pretty nebulous. So I'll keep on trying with the small steps to get to my near term goals, and not let the big hill I'm on wear me down too much.
Researchinator plugs forward...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Kick in Pants
Just saw an article about the competition. Big corporate effort at solving some of the same issues as my venture is dealing with, but luckily they are going about it in what I think is an inferior manner.
The good thing is that there is some good data in the article about how much money is changing hands in that space. Plus it should serve to illustrate the poorer alternative to my scheme.
This creates both eagerness to deliver my offering to the marketplace, but also frustration that the odds of getting funding are so low in this economy. Grrr.
The other big frustration is that I've so often had good ideas, which were captured and even sometimes prototyped by my staff in other companies or fleshed out on paper, only to see them arrive 5,6,7 years later. I really don't want that to happen again with my current venture, but you KNOW it is going to if I can't get it off the ground.
Ah, the challenges of technology on a budget.
Researchinator faces the cold clammy truth of the real world...
The good thing is that there is some good data in the article about how much money is changing hands in that space. Plus it should serve to illustrate the poorer alternative to my scheme.
This creates both eagerness to deliver my offering to the marketplace, but also frustration that the odds of getting funding are so low in this economy. Grrr.
The other big frustration is that I've so often had good ideas, which were captured and even sometimes prototyped by my staff in other companies or fleshed out on paper, only to see them arrive 5,6,7 years later. I really don't want that to happen again with my current venture, but you KNOW it is going to if I can't get it off the ground.
Ah, the challenges of technology on a budget.
Researchinator faces the cold clammy truth of the real world...
Monday, July 20, 2009
Perseverance and a Cuppa
I've been expecting this period for the year it took to arrive. I'm feeling low on motivation, and staring at the funding gulf trying to make the leap from concept to active venture.
Concept proven, patent filed, but a whole pile of work to do, and it's mid-summer, the bank account is getting lower and I have to think about probabilities.
I've recently got a line on a short term consulting contract - interestingly enough for a funding agency for whom I'll review some business plans. Of course, they are not in the area in which I'm searching for funding, so it's not to perverse, but still a bit ironic.
My concept has a pretty good shelf life, I think, and there are many things I can do while trying to get it to catch hold, little nudges forward I mean, so perhaps there will be something that comes out of it in the future.
For now, I'll dedicate myself to the next 6 weeks, but after that I may be forced to step back from the venture. Perseverance pays off sometimes, but for every story I know of someone who persevered to make their business succeed, I know 10 who threw their money and years away on something that never caught.
Regardless of the potential given the money to make it go, without the money the chasm still sits there, no matter how much you walk back and forth on the far side. Or in the more common parlance of the start-up world, no matter how much I taxi around my patch of asphalt, without the runway, there's no flying today.
Researchinator opts for a cup of tea...
Concept proven, patent filed, but a whole pile of work to do, and it's mid-summer, the bank account is getting lower and I have to think about probabilities.
I've recently got a line on a short term consulting contract - interestingly enough for a funding agency for whom I'll review some business plans. Of course, they are not in the area in which I'm searching for funding, so it's not to perverse, but still a bit ironic.
My concept has a pretty good shelf life, I think, and there are many things I can do while trying to get it to catch hold, little nudges forward I mean, so perhaps there will be something that comes out of it in the future.
For now, I'll dedicate myself to the next 6 weeks, but after that I may be forced to step back from the venture. Perseverance pays off sometimes, but for every story I know of someone who persevered to make their business succeed, I know 10 who threw their money and years away on something that never caught.
Regardless of the potential given the money to make it go, without the money the chasm still sits there, no matter how much you walk back and forth on the far side. Or in the more common parlance of the start-up world, no matter how much I taxi around my patch of asphalt, without the runway, there's no flying today.
Researchinator opts for a cup of tea...
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Designing for Humans, the Technical Innards
So, part of the venture is this app I've been mentioning. Python apps under their AUI frame appoach (a set of tools that lets you make applications more easily by giving you all the common pieces - windows, menus, and mix-match capability within the window of other subwindows) are versatile, but complex.
The graphical elements are provided under a superset of tools called the wxPython suite. There, you create panels of stuff, and on those panels you use sizers which deal with all the flexible positioning hassels that other programming languages make you do by hand.
THe behaviour is not always obvious. And hierarchies of sizers within sizers, panels within panels all give you size setting opportunities, and all try to impose their own as well. So you can easily get behaviour you don't expect and can't easily deal with. So many hours of my programming life hve been dedicated to trying to meke these things behave how you think they should. Mostly I've made it through, but the effort...
THis morning, with my year of experience behind me I'm looking at juggling around buttons and panels on the infamous app. There's that dread you sit with before committing to it. When you start to rip stuff up, you want to be sure you'll be able to recover from when things go awry. And you know they will.
But the result should be a better organized app, so I have to do so. That will be be journey today and likely tomorrow as well.
Researchinator delves into the challenges of the geometric positioning and human factors sensitivity...
The graphical elements are provided under a superset of tools called the wxPython suite. There, you create panels of stuff, and on those panels you use sizers which deal with all the flexible positioning hassels that other programming languages make you do by hand.
THe behaviour is not always obvious. And hierarchies of sizers within sizers, panels within panels all give you size setting opportunities, and all try to impose their own as well. So you can easily get behaviour you don't expect and can't easily deal with. So many hours of my programming life hve been dedicated to trying to meke these things behave how you think they should. Mostly I've made it through, but the effort...
THis morning, with my year of experience behind me I'm looking at juggling around buttons and panels on the infamous app. There's that dread you sit with before committing to it. When you start to rip stuff up, you want to be sure you'll be able to recover from when things go awry. And you know they will.
But the result should be a better organized app, so I have to do so. That will be be journey today and likely tomorrow as well.
Researchinator delves into the challenges of the geometric positioning and human factors sensitivity...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
How To Turn 500grams of E-Coli Tainted Beef into a Weed Wacker Repair Kit
This morning I nailed a couple of chores I've put off for a few days. It's a bit of a convoluted story, and it has nothing to do with building a start-up venture. Well, it does in that it took me away from the job for 30min this morning as I managed the transmogrification.
It all starts back in mid-April when, while shopping we purchased some beef. Now, we're not huge meat eaters, though we tend to do it probably 60% of the time, though we're just as likely to have pasta and tomato herb sauce, or beans and rice. Not because they are vegetarian, but because they taste good.
Anyways, there was a nice sirloin steak in the freezer for future use. Then, recently the news reports carried a story about E-Coli contaminated beef produced in the US imported by Canadian grocery store giant Loblaws and sold to Canadians.
Curiously, when US stores imported well inspected and cleared beef that come from farms where a BSE cow was later found, the Canadian industry was decimated as the borders were closed to Canadian beef for I forget how long. Okay, this gets me off on a further aside, of how the meat packers went on to screw the Canadian farmers by lowering the price the would pay for their product to almost nothing, while wholesale and retail pricing on Canadian beef in Canadian stores stayed put at pre-scandal prices. But I digress.
Anyway, no biggy. Loblaws makes no announcement at all. The media however tells consumers if you have beef with certain labelling and dates in your freezer, throw it out. Well, thanks I'm not going to throw away a $8 steak. It's not me that messed up, it was the meat producer/packer who contaminated the product, and it's up to the retailer to take that up with them. This is not my fault, I am not going to pay for it. It's bad enough I have to take time out of my day to deal with it, and that my health was at risk while that tasty contaminated slab of beef sat in my freezer waiting for me.
Change of scene: it's the summer of 2006 and I dutifully trim the grass around our house and in doing so, the black and decker weed wacker (sorry, I don't recall their specific product name) tears into its work. Moments later, the handle breaks off into my hand, and I have to awkwardly hold the central shaft of the thing to get the job done.
It's about a year later before I finally throw the broken piece into my car, and many months after that before I finally hit the brakes while driving past the Dewalt/Black and Decker rebuilt product and parts store just near my neighbourhood, and inquire about a replacement. No problem I'm told, what's the model number of the product?
Cut to a year later and I've finally not only looked at the part number, but remembered to not just write it on a slip of paper, but this time onto a piece of tape which I affix to the broken part. That very same day, I make it to the Dewalt store again, and inquire about the replacement. The good news is that it's only just under $5 for the part. The bad news is that four of them have been on order for months, and it doesn't look like they are available.
I go to the shelf and grab a late model weed wacker and say, "This shaft looks about the same, can you get me the secondary handle that would replace this one." No problem, says the store clerk at this small industrial products store, who incongruously looks, dresses and sounds like the male fashion correspondent for the avant garde collection at Milan fashion week. It's also about $5 and we'll call you when it's in.
Flash forward a week, and we've just heard about the E-Coli contamination, and the advice to throw out the tainted meat, and similarly find nothing on the Loblaws website, but a list of the products on the CBC news website. Our steak is implicated in this mess.
A couple of days later a message on our answering machine - apparently from Fashion File, turns out to be from the parts shop, and my part is in.
The stage is set for a world class transmogrification. Okay it takes me a couple of more days, but this morning, I put the hard-frozen contaminated steak into a plastic bag, and that into my re-useable Loblaws branded pseudo-cloth bag and jump into the car. Behind me on the floor still sits the broken grass trimmer handle presaging my upcoming meeting with fate. I'm en route to the grocery store ready for an argument, and vowing to talk really loudly about EColi tainted products with the customer service folk if I have any trouble.
I feel a little guilty, as my little rental office, global HQ, is located equidistantly between the grocery store and the Dewalt store, meaning I will drive into the office on my way, eliminating the opportunity for the exercise associated with a walk in today. But I proceed.
At the store, I approach the counter, and a not-too-cheery looking customer service person arrives to take my return. She says nothing, but goes to a sheet of paper at the far side of the desk, and then tries first one computer then another (she appears to not remember the password to get past the first screen). I see her counting out money - it appears I will not need my loud speech about how "You sold me EColi tainted meat which was publicly recalled and will not take it back!?".
She comes over, gets a signature (I make nonsensical scrawls in these meaningless unidentified signature situations) and gives me my refund, while also jabbing me in the thumb with her pen, and leaving an ink streak on my skin. Ahhh, her revenge. That will teach me.
Then the magic happens.
I take my $7.57 and drive it straight over to the Dewalt shop. I enter and see a lady shuffling box and power adapter awkwardly back and forth on a pile, seemingly oblivious to my standing a few feet away. I wait, figuring that a few seconds for her attention is courtesy, and am about to give her an 'ahem' when she notices me with a start, the chime on the door not seeming to have fulfilled it's intended function. In the back I hear the lisped accent of the fashionista regaling the middle-aged gentleman with the plot of a recent movie he's seen.
The exchange happens, and I have in my hand a handle which will hopefully fulfill the needs of my handleless lawn trimmer. The conversion is complete, tainted meat becomes grass trimmer repair parts.
Somehow there is some universal justice in this tale. Had the poor bovine whose years of grass eating been present, he would surely have approved of the lawn that had gone poorly trimmed for a few years.
It all starts back in mid-April when, while shopping we purchased some beef. Now, we're not huge meat eaters, though we tend to do it probably 60% of the time, though we're just as likely to have pasta and tomato herb sauce, or beans and rice. Not because they are vegetarian, but because they taste good.
Anyways, there was a nice sirloin steak in the freezer for future use. Then, recently the news reports carried a story about E-Coli contaminated beef produced in the US imported by Canadian grocery store giant Loblaws and sold to Canadians.
Curiously, when US stores imported well inspected and cleared beef that come from farms where a BSE cow was later found, the Canadian industry was decimated as the borders were closed to Canadian beef for I forget how long. Okay, this gets me off on a further aside, of how the meat packers went on to screw the Canadian farmers by lowering the price the would pay for their product to almost nothing, while wholesale and retail pricing on Canadian beef in Canadian stores stayed put at pre-scandal prices. But I digress.
Anyway, no biggy. Loblaws makes no announcement at all. The media however tells consumers if you have beef with certain labelling and dates in your freezer, throw it out. Well, thanks I'm not going to throw away a $8 steak. It's not me that messed up, it was the meat producer/packer who contaminated the product, and it's up to the retailer to take that up with them. This is not my fault, I am not going to pay for it. It's bad enough I have to take time out of my day to deal with it, and that my health was at risk while that tasty contaminated slab of beef sat in my freezer waiting for me.
Change of scene: it's the summer of 2006 and I dutifully trim the grass around our house and in doing so, the black and decker weed wacker (sorry, I don't recall their specific product name) tears into its work. Moments later, the handle breaks off into my hand, and I have to awkwardly hold the central shaft of the thing to get the job done.
It's about a year later before I finally throw the broken piece into my car, and many months after that before I finally hit the brakes while driving past the Dewalt/Black and Decker rebuilt product and parts store just near my neighbourhood, and inquire about a replacement. No problem I'm told, what's the model number of the product?
Cut to a year later and I've finally not only looked at the part number, but remembered to not just write it on a slip of paper, but this time onto a piece of tape which I affix to the broken part. That very same day, I make it to the Dewalt store again, and inquire about the replacement. The good news is that it's only just under $5 for the part. The bad news is that four of them have been on order for months, and it doesn't look like they are available.
I go to the shelf and grab a late model weed wacker and say, "This shaft looks about the same, can you get me the secondary handle that would replace this one." No problem, says the store clerk at this small industrial products store, who incongruously looks, dresses and sounds like the male fashion correspondent for the avant garde collection at Milan fashion week. It's also about $5 and we'll call you when it's in.
Flash forward a week, and we've just heard about the E-Coli contamination, and the advice to throw out the tainted meat, and similarly find nothing on the Loblaws website, but a list of the products on the CBC news website. Our steak is implicated in this mess.
A couple of days later a message on our answering machine - apparently from Fashion File, turns out to be from the parts shop, and my part is in.
The stage is set for a world class transmogrification. Okay it takes me a couple of more days, but this morning, I put the hard-frozen contaminated steak into a plastic bag, and that into my re-useable Loblaws branded pseudo-cloth bag and jump into the car. Behind me on the floor still sits the broken grass trimmer handle presaging my upcoming meeting with fate. I'm en route to the grocery store ready for an argument, and vowing to talk really loudly about EColi tainted products with the customer service folk if I have any trouble.
I feel a little guilty, as my little rental office, global HQ, is located equidistantly between the grocery store and the Dewalt store, meaning I will drive into the office on my way, eliminating the opportunity for the exercise associated with a walk in today. But I proceed.
At the store, I approach the counter, and a not-too-cheery looking customer service person arrives to take my return. She says nothing, but goes to a sheet of paper at the far side of the desk, and then tries first one computer then another (she appears to not remember the password to get past the first screen). I see her counting out money - it appears I will not need my loud speech about how "You sold me EColi tainted meat which was publicly recalled and will not take it back!?".
She comes over, gets a signature (I make nonsensical scrawls in these meaningless unidentified signature situations) and gives me my refund, while also jabbing me in the thumb with her pen, and leaving an ink streak on my skin. Ahhh, her revenge. That will teach me.
Then the magic happens.
I take my $7.57 and drive it straight over to the Dewalt shop. I enter and see a lady shuffling box and power adapter awkwardly back and forth on a pile, seemingly oblivious to my standing a few feet away. I wait, figuring that a few seconds for her attention is courtesy, and am about to give her an 'ahem' when she notices me with a start, the chime on the door not seeming to have fulfilled it's intended function. In the back I hear the lisped accent of the fashionista regaling the middle-aged gentleman with the plot of a recent movie he's seen.
The exchange happens, and I have in my hand a handle which will hopefully fulfill the needs of my handleless lawn trimmer. The conversion is complete, tainted meat becomes grass trimmer repair parts.
Somehow there is some universal justice in this tale. Had the poor bovine whose years of grass eating been present, he would surely have approved of the lawn that had gone poorly trimmed for a few years.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Friday Progress
Second Friday this week - or so it seems, with a mid-week holiday on July 1. I had some good success yesterday with my app. I've been adding a second function, one of dozens that should eventually be added, and just got to the point where the app's side of the process seems to work. The other side is a client side piece that works over the net. I'll have to start looking at that next. Should be reasonably fast.
Oh yeah, there's another piece on the app. It's a readback function that needs to render the same results as the client experience. I've got to make that work too. The good thing is that they use roughly the same algorithm. Well, AJAX/javascript on the client has a different real-time experience than the pseudo multi-threaded python experience on the app side, but the decisions are roughly analogous.
Meanwhile a rainy day, and wet feet, and I have a visitor to HQ later this morning. Potential collaboration if we can find a mutually positive engagement approach. I'm concerned about losing focus on the first piece of this. But we'll see how that comes about.
Beginning to see the end of the tunnel in terms of the HQ office. Either I'll give it up in September to save money, or give it up because I have money. Odds are it will be the former, but we'll see.
Researchinator is wrapping up the week.
Oh yeah, there's another piece on the app. It's a readback function that needs to render the same results as the client experience. I've got to make that work too. The good thing is that they use roughly the same algorithm. Well, AJAX/javascript on the client has a different real-time experience than the pseudo multi-threaded python experience on the app side, but the decisions are roughly analogous.
Meanwhile a rainy day, and wet feet, and I have a visitor to HQ later this morning. Potential collaboration if we can find a mutually positive engagement approach. I'm concerned about losing focus on the first piece of this. But we'll see how that comes about.
Beginning to see the end of the tunnel in terms of the HQ office. Either I'll give it up in September to save money, or give it up because I have money. Odds are it will be the former, but we'll see.
Researchinator is wrapping up the week.
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