Up too late last night reading and writing. But funny how much difference 30min of extra sleep in the morning can make. Turning off the alarm works well, as the cats won't let me sleep in anyway, so they are walking, complaining snooze alarms. Still made it in to work at the same time as usual, just less lay-around time.
Fighting with the differences between an ubuntu and a mac implementation of Apache2. Finding some files is a challenge on the latter. Been making steady progress, but my days are not as productive as they could be lately. Need to do some focussing for a few core hours every day. 10:30 to 12:00 with no email/twitter and maybe 2:00 to 3:30. Just that sustained effort should make a difference. Not that I don't work the other hours, it just means I'll limit the distractions during those 3 hours. I still work into the evenings regardless...
Shouldn't be hard, right? (Famous last words?)
Researchinator gives it the old university try...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Experience Schmexperience
Whew, what a slow morning this is. Between blog posts, twitter posts and tea making, I'm still not really underway. I'm still trying to remember what I'm working on, but given rainy weather, I didn't have the think-about-what-to-do opportunity that I normally have.
So it's on to some real work.
I was reminiscing elsewhere, though, about my earliest networked experiences, creating a chat-room experience in 1984 just on a whim while using a shared computer system at school, and creating a blog before the tools existed in the mid 90's; my first browser experiences were with NCSA Mosaic before graphics and colour were part of the experience circa 1993. Ah, grey, who could want more?
Anyway, on with the day and something constructive.
Researchinator hopes all this experience pays off someday...
So it's on to some real work.
I was reminiscing elsewhere, though, about my earliest networked experiences, creating a chat-room experience in 1984 just on a whim while using a shared computer system at school, and creating a blog before the tools existed in the mid 90's; my first browser experiences were with NCSA Mosaic before graphics and colour were part of the experience circa 1993. Ah, grey, who could want more?
Anyway, on with the day and something constructive.
Researchinator hopes all this experience pays off someday...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Dangerous Office
Some twit in another office unit brings his pittbull in to his office, and the think tries to take a chomp at me this morning. I came into the office just behind them, but keeping my distance for just such a reason as this, and the thing was frothing to get at me. Nice training.
I hear it's kept tied up - that's a good thing. I'd hate to find it in the common spaces and have to fight it off.
Anyway, well into my morning and fighting with Django stuff. I wasn't up on the variable passing stuff but need to sort it out, and it's coming along. Seems, from other blogs I've read, that it's not the best implementation around in terms of the fact that template writing can break the website. Oh well, I just need stuff that works for now, and I can later hire a Django guru to make everything kosher and pretty.
But for now - I'm it, so learning way to much as usual.
Researchinator would rather apply some stuff rather than need to learn new stuff that will only have a short shelf life...
I hear it's kept tied up - that's a good thing. I'd hate to find it in the common spaces and have to fight it off.
Anyway, well into my morning and fighting with Django stuff. I wasn't up on the variable passing stuff but need to sort it out, and it's coming along. Seems, from other blogs I've read, that it's not the best implementation around in terms of the fact that template writing can break the website. Oh well, I just need stuff that works for now, and I can later hire a Django guru to make everything kosher and pretty.
But for now - I'm it, so learning way to much as usual.
Researchinator would rather apply some stuff rather than need to learn new stuff that will only have a short shelf life...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Incrementally towards a Transition Period
ANother day almost done, and most of the time was spent with django, getting automated content onto a web-page front end for my service. That done, I need to move some stuff between development and production environments.
But imminently, I will run through demos a few times, and turn up lots of things to fix. But shortly after that I need to move into biz mode, with perhaps only mornings or afternoons on development. Maybe one day a week fulltime on biz as well. Anyway, so sort of schedule that shifts the effort more towards making the business work, and less on making the technology work - because it essentially does already.
With that, I start the walk home. It's a beautiful spring day, and I should have left earlier to enjoy a bit of it.
Researchinator's wants to skip through the daisies...
But imminently, I will run through demos a few times, and turn up lots of things to fix. But shortly after that I need to move into biz mode, with perhaps only mornings or afternoons on development. Maybe one day a week fulltime on biz as well. Anyway, so sort of schedule that shifts the effort more towards making the business work, and less on making the technology work - because it essentially does already.
With that, I start the walk home. It's a beautiful spring day, and I should have left earlier to enjoy a bit of it.
Researchinator's wants to skip through the daisies...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
My Airport Needs Work
Tuesday and a sunny one at that. Cold to start, but warming up during the day. I had to go to the bank to straighten out some mess they created for me. Got some stuff done, but hardly as much as I'd wished. Spent the morning trying to get something working that seems to be more effort than it's worth just now.
So on to database management stuff, and have been pushing away at that. The organization of a database is a deceptively simple prospect - the result can be a mess that propagates through everything, or structure that holds it all together.
Back home now at the end of the day, and wishing I could have done more. In transit, I realized that I must soon switch to at least half days working on the business side of things, and try to prolong the runway for this beast, if I'm ever going to get it into the air.
Researchinator is looking for a good set of wings...
So on to database management stuff, and have been pushing away at that. The organization of a database is a deceptively simple prospect - the result can be a mess that propagates through everything, or structure that holds it all together.
Back home now at the end of the day, and wishing I could have done more. In transit, I realized that I must soon switch to at least half days working on the business side of things, and try to prolong the runway for this beast, if I'm ever going to get it into the air.
Researchinator is looking for a good set of wings...
Monday, March 23, 2009
Another week...
Week is off to a sunny, cold start. It's been about 6months now working away. I keep wondering if all this will be for naught or if the only result will be the learning, rather than the outcome. Regardless, I'm trying to focus on the value of the journey, while keeping the destination in my sights.
Not getting much done yet today, but know where I need to focus. I'm digging around in Django authentication stuff. Not too bad, but I see the use of Python decorators in there. I think those things are needlessly confusing - at least most of the outlines of them are. I guess I will play with them a bit and that will clarify them for me.
Reasonably quiet in the office this morning. Seems a nice change. One of my mates is off on vacation for a week too, reducing it back down to just two of us here. Their work hours are often 'gappy' too, so it works out pretty well.
Researchinator tries to focus...
Not getting much done yet today, but know where I need to focus. I'm digging around in Django authentication stuff. Not too bad, but I see the use of Python decorators in there. I think those things are needlessly confusing - at least most of the outlines of them are. I guess I will play with them a bit and that will clarify them for me.
Reasonably quiet in the office this morning. Seems a nice change. One of my mates is off on vacation for a week too, reducing it back down to just two of us here. Their work hours are often 'gappy' too, so it works out pretty well.
Researchinator tries to focus...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Molasses in my Shoes
An end of the day post. Working like molasses in january on demo related stuff. Getting a bit of progress going, but not really using my time effectively I don't think.
Forgot some of my copious passwords etc, so need to get those from home, and continue to tidy up the demo stuff this evening. Really want to push on stuff next week, including (yikes) showing people some of the stuff.
Then, the in-between times will be working on the app-side of things, in another go-around of fix-ups. I've got to keep iterating all the pieces of my architecture, or I'll forget how to work in one of those environments. Anyway, late afternoon drowsies are arriving, so should head out, get some catfood etc.
Researchinator wonders if work will be possible this evening or if cats will exact revenge for being away all day...
Forgot some of my copious passwords etc, so need to get those from home, and continue to tidy up the demo stuff this evening. Really want to push on stuff next week, including (yikes) showing people some of the stuff.
Then, the in-between times will be working on the app-side of things, in another go-around of fix-ups. I've got to keep iterating all the pieces of my architecture, or I'll forget how to work in one of those environments. Anyway, late afternoon drowsies are arriving, so should head out, get some catfood etc.
Researchinator wonders if work will be possible this evening or if cats will exact revenge for being away all day...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Moving Toward Resolution
The morning's underway following a nice walk in. Pushed it and got the heart going a bit. The balance of the week needs to be focussed to get some progress going on prettying up the system for demo. Really need to show off the stuff and get some cash in, but after several months it's a bit challenging to start putting it out there for some tough criticism.
With the full resilient back-up capability in place now, the best thing is to push forward with business related stuff I think. To get some serious success going, I need some cash. Cash me!
I'm into the home stretch here. I will know in the coming 2 or 3 months whether this is going to do anything for me or not. If not, I don't want to be left homeless searching for menial labour at the end. I want to be comfortable, searching for menial labour. So I suspect April pushing on contacts, May both working contacts and sending resumes, June going to second tier sources, and July full bore on finding a job, while enhancing the service as well. I figure if I can't get something behind the start-up, I'll try to do a micro-bootstrap thing, and perhaps shop my patent around as well.
So by mid-summer the resolution should be much more clear.
Researchinator visualizes a shrinking bank account.
With the full resilient back-up capability in place now, the best thing is to push forward with business related stuff I think. To get some serious success going, I need some cash. Cash me!
I'm into the home stretch here. I will know in the coming 2 or 3 months whether this is going to do anything for me or not. If not, I don't want to be left homeless searching for menial labour at the end. I want to be comfortable, searching for menial labour. So I suspect April pushing on contacts, May both working contacts and sending resumes, June going to second tier sources, and July full bore on finding a job, while enhancing the service as well. I figure if I can't get something behind the start-up, I'll try to do a micro-bootstrap thing, and perhaps shop my patent around as well.
So by mid-summer the resolution should be much more clear.
Researchinator visualizes a shrinking bank account.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Non-HQ Contributions
Did the work at home thing today, as I needed to be able to connect to a NAS behind my gateway router. Got some scripts working and so I'm in good shape again. A way more working in low level 'bash' scripting than I wanted to do, and I really should have just done it in python perhaps. Oh well, always good to resurrect some old skills one hasn't used for a while.
The weather is quite nice, and the walk wasn't too cool this afternoon when I zipped in to the office to get my phone charger, and do a bit of corporate tweeting to keep that active.
I'm alone this week, as my SO has gone on her biz trip and so I will need to work at not getting too withdrawn and out-of-sync with the clock.
I even sent out a resume on the weekend. Not that I want to abandon the start-up world, but the job sounded pretty interesting. Would have to be convinced before taking something back with the same behemoth that I left. :( But for cash, fun job and chance to define some new stuff, maybe I would.
Researchinator isn't fooling anyone, least of all me!
The weather is quite nice, and the walk wasn't too cool this afternoon when I zipped in to the office to get my phone charger, and do a bit of corporate tweeting to keep that active.
I'm alone this week, as my SO has gone on her biz trip and so I will need to work at not getting too withdrawn and out-of-sync with the clock.
I even sent out a resume on the weekend. Not that I want to abandon the start-up world, but the job sounded pretty interesting. Would have to be convinced before taking something back with the same behemoth that I left. :( But for cash, fun job and chance to define some new stuff, maybe I would.
Researchinator isn't fooling anyone, least of all me!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Have a Seat on the Couch
Seemed ridiculously cold today walking in, but sunny. Good opportunity to think, and I was giving it a good once-over on the javascript considerations side of thing. I don't want to obfuscate as it looks like you're a virus site, but I do want to control certain aspects of my service delivery: ie not allowing hijackers of my data. So some ideas there to capture.
Meanwhile we're leading into the weekend, and I feel the pressure rising a little bit to get somewhere. My patent lawyer seems to be alive, but I'm not getting a lot of back-and-forth. Granted, I read through my disclosure doc again, and it still seems pretty thorough. Hopefully the quiet is a sign of cheap and complete for me. I'd like to get out of this for less than $6k, but it seems a big challenge. Hopefully this lawyer isn't as bad as most and won't milk me for every cent. (or is that bilk?)
My server is still running. That's a nice thing. Plus the IP address is quite stable. Might be able to patch that into my beta site then and use it direct for the one or two people who will ever use the server.
Will have to put up lots of caveats.
Researchinator starts to couch expectations...
Meanwhile we're leading into the weekend, and I feel the pressure rising a little bit to get somewhere. My patent lawyer seems to be alive, but I'm not getting a lot of back-and-forth. Granted, I read through my disclosure doc again, and it still seems pretty thorough. Hopefully the quiet is a sign of cheap and complete for me. I'd like to get out of this for less than $6k, but it seems a big challenge. Hopefully this lawyer isn't as bad as most and won't milk me for every cent. (or is that bilk?)
My server is still running. That's a nice thing. Plus the IP address is quite stable. Might be able to patch that into my beta site then and use it direct for the one or two people who will ever use the server.
Will have to put up lots of caveats.
Researchinator starts to couch expectations...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Why My Business is More Healthy Than The Car Industry
A bit of winter back in the air, after an insanely blustery night, but the week ahead looks warmer again - so I should be able to resume the walking process... which I've been missing somewhat.
Had some luck with using a software revision system called Mercurial for 'revision control', and it appears it will work with my Buffalo NAS as well. Tried it out last night with making a small repository and syncing it. So that moves ahead a bit. I think I'll need to write some serious scripts to copy stuff around though. Not sure I like Hg's 'working directory' approach.
Listening to the news of the crazy economy and can't help but wonder at the craziness. Things are out of wack. But there are little hints of repair. Americans are saving more, says an NPR report. The rampant consumerism and growth in debt couldn't be sustained. One would think growth in savings means more funds for banks to work with, which helps repair that as well.
Car companies though are thoroughly screwed, and continue to do pretty much everything wrong, while getting cash to help them continue to do things wrong. If people aren't buying cars, will funding them to keep producing cars that nobody wants help the economy? Seems it will create a glut of crappy cars that will further kill their industry. IF everyone can soon buy a 3yr old 0km car for half price, who will buy their crappy new vehicles?
Instead, it will just hurt car companies that are making GOOD vehicles, and don't pay their employees too highly for their unskilled labour.
And all this talk about concessions that the autoworkers have 'supposedly' taken. Wage freezes, and holiday reductions. Big Whup. Shouldn't the car companies drive for a 45% correction in salaries? That's where they should be. The free market means that the employer should push when they have the advantage. 'Down' side is they go on strike, and save the employer millions in salaries, and reduce inventories. What could be better.
Oh well - we're a long ways away from sanity in that industry. In my industry, some of us continue to work with a 100% wage reduction, and enjoy the process...
A lunch today too, so probably limited productivity.
Researchinators first task - put on the kettle. Second task, double my salary...
Had some luck with using a software revision system called Mercurial for 'revision control', and it appears it will work with my Buffalo NAS as well. Tried it out last night with making a small repository and syncing it. So that moves ahead a bit. I think I'll need to write some serious scripts to copy stuff around though. Not sure I like Hg's 'working directory' approach.
Listening to the news of the crazy economy and can't help but wonder at the craziness. Things are out of wack. But there are little hints of repair. Americans are saving more, says an NPR report. The rampant consumerism and growth in debt couldn't be sustained. One would think growth in savings means more funds for banks to work with, which helps repair that as well.
Car companies though are thoroughly screwed, and continue to do pretty much everything wrong, while getting cash to help them continue to do things wrong. If people aren't buying cars, will funding them to keep producing cars that nobody wants help the economy? Seems it will create a glut of crappy cars that will further kill their industry. IF everyone can soon buy a 3yr old 0km car for half price, who will buy their crappy new vehicles?
Instead, it will just hurt car companies that are making GOOD vehicles, and don't pay their employees too highly for their unskilled labour.
And all this talk about concessions that the autoworkers have 'supposedly' taken. Wage freezes, and holiday reductions. Big Whup. Shouldn't the car companies drive for a 45% correction in salaries? That's where they should be. The free market means that the employer should push when they have the advantage. 'Down' side is they go on strike, and save the employer millions in salaries, and reduce inventories. What could be better.
Oh well - we're a long ways away from sanity in that industry. In my industry, some of us continue to work with a 100% wage reduction, and enjoy the process...
A lunch today too, so probably limited productivity.
Researchinators first task - put on the kettle. Second task, double my salary...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Revisions? What Revisions?
This time change morning fatigue just seems to hang on. You'd think I'd never been through one of these before, but I've got more than a few on my belt. I suppose in the teenage years, getting up earlier was the hardest.
Well, sitting down to get some work done, and as usual there's a whole menu of stuff in front of me. I have my patent summary in front of me awaiting a good read, and I should charge my phone in case the call comes to review some little detail of the thing.
Meanwhile, I'm also looking into revision control again. I had been leaning toward subversion, but when it didn't play well with my NAS server, I gave up on it. Lately it seems that both Mercurial and Git are attractive options. I'm partial to the Python world, of course, so the Mercurial path appears interesting. The discussion at the Mozilla site is a bit scary, but it sounds like still a positive regard for the thing.
So I'll read a bit more about the options and make some decisions. Revision management alone is an attractive element, and of course tying that in with backup sounds good too.
Researchinator gets all CVS on your ass...
Well, sitting down to get some work done, and as usual there's a whole menu of stuff in front of me. I have my patent summary in front of me awaiting a good read, and I should charge my phone in case the call comes to review some little detail of the thing.
Meanwhile, I'm also looking into revision control again. I had been leaning toward subversion, but when it didn't play well with my NAS server, I gave up on it. Lately it seems that both Mercurial and Git are attractive options. I'm partial to the Python world, of course, so the Mercurial path appears interesting. The discussion at the Mozilla site is a bit scary, but it sounds like still a positive regard for the thing.
So I'll read a bit more about the options and make some decisions. Revision management alone is an attractive element, and of course tying that in with backup sounds good too.
Researchinator gets all CVS on your ass...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Change of venue today.
Well this is going to be a low productivity day. A Dr. appt this afternoon, and so working from home office. Getting more done potentially without the 30min lost to transit and setup time.
Cleaning up my financial accounting stuff for the biz and trying to figure out some small, non-immersive activity that keeps my stuff moving forward. Heard from lawyer working on my patent. Perhaps re-reading the disclosure documents would be good to keep what I said at the top of mind to anticipate the questions.
Anyway, more tea - turning up the heat, and fixing a few clocks that are still locked in pre-daylight savings time seems in order.
Oh yeah, and I've got twirl running with multiple twitter identities. Liking that - was looking around for something that enabled that. Much easier to be active on all them.
Researchinator, plugged in, pulsating with connectivity...
Cleaning up my financial accounting stuff for the biz and trying to figure out some small, non-immersive activity that keeps my stuff moving forward. Heard from lawyer working on my patent. Perhaps re-reading the disclosure documents would be good to keep what I said at the top of mind to anticipate the questions.
Anyway, more tea - turning up the heat, and fixing a few clocks that are still locked in pre-daylight savings time seems in order.
Oh yeah, and I've got twirl running with multiple twitter identities. Liking that - was looking around for something that enabled that. Much easier to be active on all them.
Researchinator, plugged in, pulsating with connectivity...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Start Monday with a Look Forward.
Another week. Tonight, a networking opportunity among a room full of techy types. Build some relationships. Today, fresh light snow on the ground and a few hours to get some stuff done. More pressing forward on the documentation, slides and perhaps an inventory created for first meetings.
I'm anticipating being close to patent filing soon. Better ping the lawyer to see if he's actually getting somewhere or not. Getting tired of being too isolated in this project. Need to get the funding acquisition moving forward.
Researchinator needs some tea...
I'm anticipating being close to patent filing soon. Better ping the lawyer to see if he's actually getting somewhere or not. Getting tired of being too isolated in this project. Need to get the funding acquisition moving forward.
Researchinator needs some tea...
Friday, March 6, 2009
Distracted by Bad Apps
Distracted first thing this am, by trying a new app and really hating it, then itemizing the deficiencies and sending a note to the company that makes and distributes it. Ugh, man it was terrible. The UI was some wacky new non-mac interface that didn't use any of the normal vestiges of the mac app world. That sort of erosion is bad, bad, bad.
Anyway, back to my own apps. Hopefully they will be somewhat better.
Researchinator - well, does... stuff....
Anyway, back to my own apps. Hopefully they will be somewhat better.
Researchinator - well, does... stuff....
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Head Down, Get Some Work Done!
Well this week is a bit of a write off, as I've not felt very great all week. Really need to make some progress though. So today I have a couple of things on the agenda. Wrap up some longer term pro forma spreadsheets and work through some valuation calcs, and get all that into the slide deck.
Can we hope to get through that? Sounds like only a couple of hours of work really, for a first pass. Here's hoping.
Researchinator resolves to give it a good shot, as the Japanese say, Hai, Gambarimas!
Can we hope to get through that? Sounds like only a couple of hours of work really, for a first pass. Here's hoping.
Researchinator resolves to give it a good shot, as the Japanese say, Hai, Gambarimas!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
What do you do when its painful
This day isn't going well. Headache is back since late morning and impinging on my ability to get anything done. Working on slides today, capturing the detail of the biz plan again. Can't make progress on the documentation as I'm just not happy with any of the solutions. I suppose the wiki makes good sense, but I'll leave it for a bit until I have a clearer head.
A cup of tea, and probably a nap would help too.
Researchinator doesn't want to work today...
A cup of tea, and probably a nap would help too.
Researchinator doesn't want to work today...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Document This...
One of those migraine mornings. I need some special medicine. Had some, but its gone, and I just don't get around to calling the dr again. :(
Anyway, I'm in the office, and the extra frosty morning was nice on the head during the walk in. I had some good progress on documentation setup yesterday, but I really need to hammer away at content now.
So not much to pontificate about. Just get down to it and hammer away at the documents.
Researchinator tries to avoid thinking about the discomfort...
Anyway, I'm in the office, and the extra frosty morning was nice on the head during the walk in. I had some good progress on documentation setup yesterday, but I really need to hammer away at content now.
So not much to pontificate about. Just get down to it and hammer away at the documents.
Researchinator tries to avoid thinking about the discomfort...
Monday, March 2, 2009
Launching the Month isn't always Predictable
A new month, but so initially a bit hamstrung. The morning wasn't very productive, as the network was out at the office. Typical big-co service provider who can't keep their customers connected. Cable service seems to be worse than DSL in terms of the rigamarole around getting service.
Anyway, worked on documentation - not content so much as getting it online. More microsoft hassle has driven me to skip the word processor world and go for totally online documentation. If I'm going to invest the time in changing, I may as well go all the way and have my docs cross linked up the wazoo, making them more helpful than ever. I'm tempted to say that the editability suffers, but really, any tool seems to have it's effort associated with maintenance, so it's just different.
At the home office all afternoon. First for lunch then staying here to avoid any network issues, and realizing I should just have planned to be here as there were two visitors expected. A delivery and a pickup. Both happened and I'm happy to have taken care of those things.
So doing a bit of cleanup of other chores and wrapping up the day, ready for tomorrow. So in retrospect, it wasn't a wasted day. Different than expected, but not unproductive.
Researchinator finds satisfaction in some small things sometimes...
Anyway, worked on documentation - not content so much as getting it online. More microsoft hassle has driven me to skip the word processor world and go for totally online documentation. If I'm going to invest the time in changing, I may as well go all the way and have my docs cross linked up the wazoo, making them more helpful than ever. I'm tempted to say that the editability suffers, but really, any tool seems to have it's effort associated with maintenance, so it's just different.
At the home office all afternoon. First for lunch then staying here to avoid any network issues, and realizing I should just have planned to be here as there were two visitors expected. A delivery and a pickup. Both happened and I'm happy to have taken care of those things.
So doing a bit of cleanup of other chores and wrapping up the day, ready for tomorrow. So in retrospect, it wasn't a wasted day. Different than expected, but not unproductive.
Researchinator finds satisfaction in some small things sometimes...
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