Beagleboard – Initial Impression

Posted on January 31st, 2009

I was using StumbledUpon today and came across a FANTASTIC website today; Beagleboard.org!!  Everyone that knows me knows that I am a technology junkie and this product is right up my alley!

The Beagle Board is an ultra small, linux project board for the low low price of $149.99.  A fantastic deal.  Furthermore, there is a companion product that features a tiny video projector.  Both products can be purchased from Digi-Key!

I will be posting followup articles on these products as I receive them.

Why Intelligent People Fail

Posted on January 30th, 2009

I was reviewing a website at http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/works/intelligentfailure.htm about why people intelligent people fail and I think its a great read for entrepreneurs.

1. Lack of motivation. A talent is irrelevant if a person is not motivated to use it. Motivation may be external (for example, social approval) or internal (satisfaction from a job well-done, for instance). External sources tend to be transient, while internal sources tend to produce more consistent performance.

2. Lack of impulse control. Habitual impulsiveness gets in the way of optimal performance. Some people do not bring their full intellectual resources to bear on a problem but go with the first solution that pops into their heads.

3. Lack of perserverance and perseveration. Some people give up too easily, while others are unable to stop even when the quest will clearly be fruitless.

4. Using the wrong abilities. People may not be using the right abilities for the tasks in which they are engaged.

5. Inability to translate thought into action. Some people seem buried in thought. They have good ideas but rarely seem able to do anything about them.

6. Lack of product orientation. Some people seem more concerned about the process than the result of activity.

7. Inability to complete tasks. For some people nothing ever draws to a close. Perhaps it’s fear of what they would do next or fear of becoming hopelessly enmeshed in detail.

8. Failure to initiate. Still others are unwilling or unable to initiate a project. It may be indecision or fear of commitment.

9. Fear of failure. People may not reach peak performance because they avoid the really important challenges in life.

10. Procrastination. Some people are unable to act without pressure. They may also look for little things to do in order to put off the big ones.

11. Misattribution of blame. Some people always blame themselves for even the slightest mishap. Some always blame others.

12. Excessive self-pity. Some people spend more time feeling sorry for themselves than expending the effort necessary to overcome the problem.

13. Excessive dependency. Some people expect others to do for them what they ought to be doing themselves.

14. Wallowing in personal difficulties. Some people let their personal difficulties interfere grossly with their work. During the course of life, one can expect some real joys and some real sorrows. Maintaining a proper perspective is often difficult.

15. Distractibility and lack of concentration. Even some very intelligent people have very short attention spans.

16. Spreading oneself too think or too thick. Undertaking too many activities may result in none being completed on time. Undertaking too few can also result in missed opportunities and reduced levels of accomplishment.

17. Inability to delay gratification. Some people reward themselves and are rewarded by others for finishing small tasks, while avoiding bigger tasks that would earn them larger rewards.

18. Inability to see the forest for the trees. Some people become obsessed with details and are either unwilling or unable to see or deal with the larger picture in the projects they undertake.

19. Lack of balance between critical, analytical thinking and creative, synthetic thinking. It is important for people to learn what kind of thinking is expected of them in each situation.

20. Too little or too much self-confidence. Lack of self-confidence can gnaw away at a person’s ability to get things done and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, individuals with too much self-confidence may not know when to admit they are wrong or in need of self-improvement.

Expert Python Book Reading

Posted on January 20th, 2009

Currently, im reading the book Expert Python, by Tarek Ziade.  You can find a free excerpt from the book here.  I will be providing a full book review later this week.

Defragment MySQL Database

Posted on January 13th, 2009

Believe it or not, databases become fragmented.  MySQL provides a nice and easy command to bring your databases back in check.

mysqlcheck -o <databasename>

Book Review: CherryPy Essentials by Sylvain Hellegouarch

Posted on January 8th, 2009

Buy Book Here

Starting in Late December, I began reading CherryPy Essentials by Sylvain Hellegouarch.  I have always had a high level of interest in the Python programming language and decided to look at it as an alternative to PHP.  This lead me down a search for the best framework to build the types of applications that I am used to designing.  This lead me to Django, Web2Py, TurboGears and CherryPy.

cherrypyessentialscoverCherryPy Essentials guides you through learning CherryPy from beginning to end. The first three chapters of the book offer the basics of working with CherryPy (from inception, to install, to basic usage).  A nice plus, which I think more books should do, occurs at the beginning of Chapter 3 where a functional web application is presented.  Although short and to the point, the application does give a since of what is possible with CherryPy in a “Rapid” development perspective.

Another good point about the book is that it does give a wide overview of what is “possible” with CherryPy from Templating, to Web Services, and even Testing.

The book is well organized and can serve as a an excellent resource for anyone looking to give CherryPy a look for their web development projects.

PROS

CONS

OVERALL

Overall, this is one of the best books I have ever read.  Very easy to get through.  If you are new to CherryPy or web application development, this book is an excellent choice.

New for 2009 – Simple Motivation

Posted on January 4th, 2009

As I searched for ways to motivate myself this year to do better in all sorts of activities (reading books, health awareness, blogging, new ideas, etc) I came up with a very simple slogan:

“1 plus anything = IMPROVEMENT”

When I disected the slogan, it made absolutely perfect sense.  Generally, the hardest thing to do is “getting started”.  For people trying to go on a diet, starting a workout program or any other self improvement activity, it is the simple task of starting and being consistent that causes most people issues.  Then it is being consistent.  Once no results or minimal results are recieved, then there is the tendency to start over or quit.

By simply understanding that doing your targeted activity once eacy day (or at your specified interval), you will always improve.  To take it a bit further, what I have decided to do is to alywas have something to do “once” per day everyday.  I may read a chapter of a book every other day and workout the days in between.  Then I may cook a new dish, every third day, etc.  What this does is build a consistency for “doing” something new.

Simple motivation techniques, or simple techniques in general, are ways to help improve livelihood.  I will be updating this blog, or Twitter references, with updates on how well this motivational technique is doing.

New Category for 2009 – Book Reviews

Posted on January 3rd, 2009

In 2009, I will begin to review IT books on topics such as PHP, Python, SQL, etc.  The first review will be on CherryPy.  Stay posted for further details.

Happy New Year 2009 and Management Planning

Posted on January 1st, 2009

This is my first blog post of what should prove to be an EXCITING New Year!

Well, as customary for most people, I do have some New Years resolutions.  All of them are not related to me personally but are for business reasons as well.  I believe that just as an individual has some things about them that they would like to change, a business may as well.  To accomplish this, for business purposes, I and my management team, sit down right before the new year and make a management plan, budget, and monthly task list for the year.

The Management Plan consists of six parts: Executive Summary, Focus (products and/or Service Offering), New Innitiatives, Yearly Recap, Milestones, and Finances.  In the Executive Summary, as in most business plans, we summarize our management plan.  It is a good idea to keep this section to at least a page but no more than 2 pages.  As this is an internal document, you want to have this section setup in bulletted form so that it is easily read by your management staff.  For me, I can take the executive summary alone and keep myself on track; using it for a refresher of activities.

Secondly, in the body of the plan, we target our Focus.  Being in business, it is easy to stray off course as many new ideas come crashing into our business lives.  However, as in the business plan, you want to have a CLEAR focus on what you want to accomplish for the upcoming year.  I tend to, in this section, discuss new web applications to be built, service offerings, and if we are keeping or removing previous business interests.

New Intitiatives make up the third section.  As in the previous section, we take all of our new inititiatives and flesh them out as much as possible.  Whether they are simply new ideas or have full blown components, the idea here here is to place everything on paper so that it may be voted and decided upon whether or not it is worth your time doing.

In the next section, I always perform a Yearly Recap.  This section is used to document successes and to setup next years milestones.  We place financials (balance sheet and P&L) and milestones in this section and rate our performance.  Finally, we conclude this section with a SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).  Your question at this point is “Why are we doing a SWOT analysis in this section and not earlier in our plan?”  Great question.  Ill answer it in closing of this article.

Based upon information gathered in previous sections, we place our Milestones in the plan.  These are short, sentence based, date driven (month or month and day are fine) action items.  We place dates on them to help us track if we were successful or not in getting our milestones completed on time and if not, what items hindered us from doing so.

Finally, we conclude with our financial plans for the year.  This includes a budget, projected balance sheet, and projected P&L.

So, to answer the question of why we have a SWOT analysis in our Recap section and not one in the beginning of the plan is because the entire management plan, in my view, is the SWOT analysis.  In the recap section, I like to note for historical purposes what are SWOT analysis looked like for the year and how we overcame opportunities and threats and improved on our weaknesses by making them strengths (if possible).  Basically a scorecard.

To assist in your planning you can utilize either a paper based plan or an electronic version like the one at PlanHQ.  At MIDS, we will be launching our take on business planning and scorecard software in the first quarter of the New Year so please stay on the lookout for it.

In closing, a management plan is a great way to keep your business focused for the upcoming year and keep your business ideas fresh.  I wish you all a Happy and Prosperous NEW YEAR 2009!

Using PayPal with Django

Posted on December 28th, 2008

For several days, I have been seeking a solution for allowing Python to access PayPal or Authorize.net.  Today, I have found a way to allow Django to access PayPal.  You can find the article here.  To utilize Django with Authorize.net you can view the article here.

Enticing use of Cloud Computing

Posted on December 22nd, 2008

Ever wanted to run your own version of Amazon Ec2 privately?  Curious about finding out how to accomplish this?

From their website, “EUCALYPTUS – Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems – is an open-source software infrastructure for implementing “cloud computing” on clusters. The current interface to EUCALYPTUS is compatible with Amazon’s EC2 interface, but the infrastructure is designed to support multiple client-side interfaces. EUCALYPTUS is implemented using commonly available Linux tools and basic Web-service technologies making it easy to install and maintain.”

Give it a look here!

The importance of a mentor

Posted on December 15th, 2008

You have finally took the “big step” and started your own business. No more worrying about cutbacks, bonus checks, your ex-boss looking over your shoulder, co-workers trying to keep you from getting a promotion, and the other daily corporate politics. You are your own boss. With that, comes a lot of responsibility. Now, you sign the checks, handle legal issues, write the budgets, watch the balance sheets, become the focal point, set the tone, and the other hundreds of tasks the entrepreneur handles on a daily basis. To many, this can be overwhelming. Running a business is more than just the skill that you may have; its all of the tangible items as well.

Considering you no longer have a boss to guide you, one way to get a feel of the business side of things is to obtain a mentor. A mentor is someone who, generally free of charge, serves as your confidante and offers you advice on an ongoing basis. Your mentor should have more experience than you both in the area that you are pursuing your business AND has been successful in that area for some time. They have gained a great deal of entrepreneurial experience over the years due to their business dealings and relationships with other professionals in the industry.  They can also assist you in making the difficult transition from employee to employer.

I will be dedicating a few posts centered around the importance of a mentor in the life of an entrepreneur over the next couple of days and weeks.

Turnkey Linux Appliances

Posted on December 5th, 2008

After visiting FreshMeat.net today, I stumbled across Turnkey Linux.  From their website, Turnkey Linux is an opensource project that aims to develop high quality softare applicances that are easy to use, easy to deploy, and free.

They offer a wide variety of packages/appliances from PostgreSQL database appliances to Joomla Appliances.    All of the appliances are based on ubuntu 8.04 LTS.  You can also use the ISO images and run them under VMWare or other solutions or install as a standalone package.

I have installed the PostegreSQL package on a test server and I must say that the installation was painless and extremely simple.  The server is up and running in my test environment and is accessible (with a few tweaks of the firewall) to other servers on my network.  It comes with an easy to use Webmin web based interface.

If you are interested in testing various products on a Linux platform and want a stable system to utilize, give Turnkey Linux a shot!

Use of Patient Focused Social Networks

Posted on November 30th, 2008

As many of you may or may not know, one of my long term interests for many years has been to write a software application that will allow patients to manage their own healthcare record. The product to do so has been namely called, PatientAssist.

Today, I was reading an article on Manhattan Research, which concluded that more than 60 million Americans are using Health 2.0 type applications. For myself, this is absolutely perfect timing. With the new healthcare agenda for President Elect Obama, and general social trends, I feel that this is a great opportunity to release PatientAssist formally to my readers. Its ability to allow patients to communicate to several outlets makes it a truly innovative platform. Ill be posting more information here as well as the PatientAssist website.

Joining Twitter!

Posted on November 30th, 2008

Today, after very little debate, I just signed up and registered for a Twitter account. You can find me at http://www.twitter.com/stlyz3 . While my company, Mega Input Data Services, Inc., already has a Twitter Account, it personally took me some time to do so for myself. I didnt want to do so until I knew for sure that I would have the time to devote to it.

As my business life moves moreso into “executive”/philanthropic dealings, I find myself with more time to devote to such tasks.

For those of you who may not know, Twitter is a web service that answers the very simple question of “what are you doing”.

History is made . . . .

Posted on November 5th, 2008

Baracks Acceptance Speech

Today, as im sure much of you already know, an African American was elected President of the United States of America.  With a message of “Yes We Can!”, Senator Barack Obama became the next President of the United States.  Congratulations!

Older POSTS