Archive for the ‘startup’ Category

Custom CakePHP install script for WebFaction

Posted on July 13th, 2009 in development, startup | No Comments »

The WebFaction install script for CakePHP (at http://wiki.webfaction.com/wiki/InstallScripts) was a bit outdated so I modified it for CakePHP 1.2.3.8166. Enjoy!

Update: Apparently WordPress wasn’t displaying the code correctly. I’ve saved the file locally so you can install it just by clicking here.

#!/usr/local/bin/python2.5

"""
CakePHP 1.2.3.8166

Notes:
-If CakePHP isn't going to be web accessible at / you'll need to update the following line in ~/webapps/(Application Name)/.htaccess accordingly:

RewriteBase /

"autostart": "not applicable"
"extra info": "leave empty"

"""

import sys
import xmlrpclib

def create(app_name, server, session_id):
app = server.create_app(session_id, app_name, 'static', False, '')

# Download, extract, and organize.
cmd = (
'wget http://cakeforge.org/frs/download.php/717/cake_1.2.3.8166.tar.gz/donation=complete -O cake_1.2.3.8166.tar.gz > /dev/null 2>&1;'
'tar fxz cake_1.2.3.8166.tar.gz;'
'mv --target-directory=. cake_1.2.3.8166/* cake_1.2.3.8166/.htaccess;'
)
server.system(session_id, cmd)

str = (
'RewriteEngine on\n'
'RewriteBase /\n'
'RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]\n'
'RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]\n'
)
server.write_file(session_id, '.htaccess', str)

# Clean Up
server.system(session_id, 'rm -fr cake_1.2.3.8166/ cake_1.2.3.8166.tar.gz index.html')

print app['id']

def delete(app_name, server, session_id):
server.delete_app(session_id, app_name)

if __name__ == '__main__':
action, username, password, machine, app_name, autostart, extra_info = sys.argv[1:]
server = xmlrpclib.Server('https://api.webfaction.com/')
session_id, account = server.login(username, password, machine)

locals()[action](app_name, server, session_id)

Free professional documents for anything you can think of

Posted on June 12th, 2009 in development, startup | No Comments »

Have you ever started a document thinking “Man, tons of other people must have done this same document or something similar. I wish there was something I could use as a sample or template”? That’s exactly what I was thinking today. And then I found .docstoc. This website is a huge repository (over 3 million documents!) where tons of people share their professional documents. Anybody can view the documents for free, but if you want to download them you’ll need to create an account (which is free).

To give you a feel for what they have to offer: I was looking for a document to help me lay out Skill Capture’s financial projections. My search for “financial projection” gave me 250 resulting documents. I didn’t even bother looking at any of the documents past the first page because I found several really useful ones right at the top of the search. I downloaded the xls files and was ecstatic to find that they were full-fledged spreadsheets with formulas to calculate lots of things automatically.

I did several other searches for documents on the service and found that each of my searches had an equal abundance of quality results. This is something I’ve wanted for a long time and I’m extremely excited that I found it.

14 Great free stock photo sites

Posted on March 5th, 2009 in development, startup | No Comments »

I was revising the tutorial on Mark The Dark and decided I needed some graphics.  Seeing that I’m cheap, I looked for free stock photo sites.  I compiled a list of the best sites I found.  These photos are great for using on websites when you want to fill up an empty space or even if you’re printing something.  Make sure you read the terms of use–their licenses differ depending on the site and the photographer.  Here’s the list (in rough order of usefulness):

Stock Exchange
Free Photos Bank
photocase
OpenPhoto
Morguefile
BigFoto
Pixel Perfect Digital
FreeImages
FreeFoto
Aarin Free Photo
NASA
NOAA
National Park Service
gimp savvy (Index of other free stock photo sites)

Startup in a weekend

Posted on February 12th, 2009 in development, startup | No Comments »

This past weekend, I went to Seattle Startup Weekend 2 and talked about it at jongela.  In this post, I’ll talk about the more technical parts of the experience.  When we first got there, several people (over 50 of them!) gave quick idea pitches.  They ranged from cooking websites to crowdsourcing to iPhone apps.  A comprehensive list can be found here and here.  After eliminating the less popular ideas, we got to choose between the finalist ideas.

Here are some of the ideas that I thought were cool.  The purpose of Onevite (later called 1nvite) is to send one invite that will add a person’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social network accounts all at once.  Wishing Well (later named FavorWish) was a website where people can list their wishes and have their wishes fulfilled (described as a “pay it forward for the web”).

I chose to join the eco-friendly commuting competition project.  We named it TripChamp.  This project utilizes a competition setup to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint.  We’ll be marketing to businesses that want to help their employees be more eco-friendly.  Watch the TripChamp Screencast.

The people on our team were Dave Albano, Kevin Leneway, Nina Strasser, Elizabeth Grigg, Angela Chin, and me.  Our team worked out really well.  Dave was our leader and provided the vision.  Nina, Elizabeth, and Angela worked on designing the UI and the page content.  I worked with Kevin on doing the actual programming.  I did most of the database interface and functionality while Kevin did the styling and screencast.  It all worked out well.

We developed the website using CodeIgniter.  This helped A LOT in getting the website live as quick as possible.  Using DX Auth and CodeIgniter sessions cut a lot of the programming work involved.

I learned a lot from this weekend.  I networked with lots of really bright people and I’m already looking forward to the next one!

Some database planning

Some database planning

Watching the progress reports

Watching the progress reports

Mark The Dark light graffiti

Posted on December 11th, 2008 in development, startup | No Comments »

I decided to make a website (markthedark.com) to be a light graffiti community.  If you don’t know what light graffiti is, it’s a fun technique where you take LED (and other) lights and “draw” while the camera is taking the picture (you have to adjust your camera settings to do this).  Light graffiti is pretty fun and almost everybody that I’ve talked to has enjoyed it.

Although there are several blogs and flickr galleries on the internet where people post their art, there wasn’t any site that really serves as a community–share and see others’ artwork, talk and learn about techniques, get ideas, etc.  Right now it’s just a gallery–sort of a Digg for light graffiti.  But I’m working on adding a forum and more “best practices” info.  If you have any advice, requests, or bug reports, please email me!

Printing business cards with PrintPlace

Posted on November 25th, 2008 in startup | No Comments »

I got business cards printed a couple weeks ago and thought that it would be useful for others to see my research.

Local print shops
I called up various print shops near me as well as national chains like Kinko’s and Office Depot.  It was really pricey!  For business cards with full color on one side, I was quoted $80-200 for 500 cards.  Office Depot had 500 cards for $30, but it was only for one color and you had to use their templates.

Online print shops
VistaPrint
I didn’t need to research VistaPrint too much.  It’s likely that you’ve already heard of it.  It seems to be the biggest name printer on the internet.  But I wasn’t impressed.  First of all, I don’t like companies that spam, and I get tons of spam from them.  Secondly, they give out tons of free business cards and people give them to me all the time.  I didn’t like the quality.  The budget-priced cards are really dull and I definitely didn’t want people getting that impression about my business.

48HourPrint
When I got the sample materials from 48HourPrint, I was impressed.  They looked like a high quality printer with really good service and fast turnaround.  The only problem was, when I looked at their prices, they were pretty high compared to the alternative online printers.

UPrinting
I liked the interface of the uprinting website the most.  The sample materials were great and were really helpful in helping me  understand the options.  The interface for uploading your design was really nice.  The prices were about the same as PrintPlace, which were the lowest I’ve found.  It also has a nice interface for you to design your cards directly on the site.  What was the dealbreaker?  I requested a sample kit (as I did with all the online printers) and when it didn’t arrive within a week, I requested another.  I eventually got one about 3 weeks after my initial request.  If the company doesn’t impress you to get your business, how are they going to treat you after you’ve given them business?

PrintPlace
PrintPlace is the online printer that I ended up ordering my business cards from.  The best part about them is that they have the cheapest prices available.  Their website, in my opinion, is ugly and sort of hard to use.  But once you get past that and figure out how to use it, it’s great.  What’s great is that they have people running the IM service.  So you can get help with knowing how to set up your design (borders, printing area, etc).  I placed my order for full-color one-sided glossy business cards and it arrived exactly as requested.

There are a number of reviews talking about how bad PrintPlace is.  My guess is that they didn’t follow directions carefully.  When you order things on PrintPlace (not just business cards), they give you a ton of options (paper thickness, finishing, etc).  When I started, I didn’t know what some of the options were.  But after looking at the sample pack and asking questions on their IM service, I figured out what it all meant.  Also, a common problem is how you set up your design.  You’ll need to use CYMK color, otherwise the color might come out wrong.  You’ll need to set up specific margins and borders for the print to come out correctly.  Again, IMing the people on the website would give you the exact specifications for that.  As you can tell, I was really pleased with the service.

new blog

Posted on August 25th, 2008 in development, startup | No Comments »

I’m starting this blog to put some of the things that I’ve been discovering.  Hopefully they’ll be useful to somebody.  I just slapped in a theme I got off of wordpress.org and a few plugins.