Up In 3 Months

2008-06-17T21:35:00.001-07:00

git is pissing me off. i lost a file. i think. grr.

2008-06-17T21:05:00.001-07:00

After few days of nothing, I did some good coding today. Approx 2hrs.
Feeling good. I was feeling good all day anyway ;)

2008-06-04T20:15:00.001-07:00

bummed out. so did nothing. will do nothing today. am taking the fucking day off.

2008-06-03T20:23:00.001-07:00

today:
started work in lib at 6:30
made design changes.
it is coming along nicely.
made landing page... chalked out (on paper) about other pages... it is becoming cleared in mind.

yesterday:
(monday)
6:15pm to 8:45pm
wrote the core of the project
Proof of concept definitely done
i like it
read a lot of "django book"
several firsts: admin panel worked, used suggested ways of hacking on live django system. LOVE IT!

fri, sat, sun:
pretty much did nothing useful. wasn't in the mood / was busy.
(other things done: mark b'day @ mariners game - dad came with me. saw "iron man" again - this time with family. saw a woody allen movie.)

wed, thu:
read django book. learned a lot.
i like patiently reading thru a book.
i am trying to lose the "learn haphazardly" method i've been using since college... though it seems to save time, i end up wasting a lot of time due to shaky fundamentals. this "new" method is very soothing and makes me happy and content. (thanks to the comment of palish, i rediscovered my method. i used to do this earlier.)

2008-05-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

7:30pm to 9:00pm in Bellevue Downtown kcls

I made detailed plans for metro-client (on a tree based notebook).

2008-05-26T21:44:00.001-07:00

Did almost nothing towards startup in the past 3 days... due to circumstances and my reaction to it.

Back to normal and ready to make up for lost time.

2008-05-22T22:08:00.001-07:00

got all set up in the library today at 7:15

considered various ideas till 8:50

ideas i am considering r in the target mkt of highrise (37 signals)

Freeze on Smacklet

2008-05-22T19:22:00.001-07:00

Sis told her team about this. Her manager liked the idea and fwd-ed it to distribution list. Still total new signup (sis+ruchi) = 5

I thought long and hard about this. The issue we have is that not many people are signing up and even if they did, not many are telling their friends. There are loyal users and hence I am not going to shut this project down.

I've decided to put a freeze on writing more code for Smacklet. I will only continue the marketing effort. That too will happen during non-prime startup hours. I can revisit this after the three month period.

Smacklet is no longer the UpIn3 Project.

I'll be dedicating rest of today for brainstorming.

2008-05-22T05:57:00.001-07:00

current total user count = 104

ruchi emailed 27 of her contacts about smacklet

2008-05-21T20:45:00.001-07:00

7:52pm
all set in lib. [worked out in gym, took shower and came here. to come at 6:30 from tomorrow]

go to x-roads on fridays coz this closes at 6.

8:03 fixed "eyesup" bug logged by ruchi.

8:15 rewriting user mgmt as OO. this shud make the pgm transcend various enhancement probs.

8:45 leaving. lib about to close.

2008-05-20T20:24:00.001-07:00

came to library in bellevue downtown. everything setup. coffee too.
---
damn. it took 45 minutes to set up the dev environment. not distracted in any way -- this is a first! :) had to do some fine setup stuff to get it going.
---
fuck. the issue turned out to be production.ini not being right. probably the prev one would have worked just fine.
---
i got original setup to work... this is great coz i can now do rsync - which would have been messy with the new setup. [7:54]
---
checked eth. perfect. gr8.
---
did code changes. nothing significant...

next actions:
1. backup server
2. setup rsync
3. test this

mktg:

http://www.experiencing###addvantages.com/2008/05/effective-time.html

posted a comment

[8:26]

2008-05-19T19:58:00.001-07:00

Did some thinking. Looks like Smacklet has potential... especially since the redferret guy wrote in glowing terms. At least someone I don't know likes it for some reason. Probably monetizable - I have some ideas for having freemium features like team collaboration, employee productivity enhancement stuff etc. From a marketing point of view, this lends itself well to the bottom-up adoption by employees with a possiblity of top-down monetization. I should explore this before I throw it away.

What features are needed to make it a legit product?

Rating. This can be used for averaged table for now and for graphing later.
Have to modify the code so that the save-to-disk doesn't happen at every post. - to increase responsiveness.
write more copy and do other SEO stuff
marketing... this is where I need to focus full time.
Not sure if to-do list will be needed. Can do this based on user request.

Sign up went up even after initial blog-traffic died... this means ppl are telling ppl. So far so good.

Target:
If I don't get 1000 users in a week (5/26), work on something else.

Running into issues with setting up git. Next action item is to sort this out.

I saw cool email-processing-in-server tips in "building scalable websites". I can read that today.

Test post from email

2008-05-19T19:30:00.001-07:00

Testing if posting from email works... this will help me not go to blogger.com. Setting up this blog + choosing layout + feedjit + google analytics + posting took me 30 min.

The Start

2008-05-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

This a journal for Mark's challenge that I accepted. It will be crude. I won't be spending time fixing typos or formatting or other inconsequential details. This is just a personal journal, but I don't care if you look.

IM conversation

[in this IM, mark profusely quotes from my blog]

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:03 AM]:

Mar 15, 2008
First off, I'll give you a bunch of twittery updates, so that I can resume regular blogging after that. This is kind of like what you do on the first day in gym after a month long break... you just try to wake up all different muscles.

ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:03 AM]:
:-)

ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:04 AM]:
Many "mini-essays" are in the works
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:06 AM]:
Aug 22, 2007
Update: Seinfeld Chain
My "Start Up Efforts" Seinfeld-chain so far:
Thing of beauty, isn't it? It is working out great for me.
(My related post)

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:06 AM]:

Aug 15, 2007
Start Up Efforts
Seinfeld chain is working great for me. You can view my chain here: Start Up Efforts. (The link will also tell you what a Seinfeld chain is)

I am keeping a journal of what I do each day to earn the X. I thought about making that public but I am not going to. I just send an email (reply) with the subject 'Seinfeld Chaintart Up Efforts' everyday. Gmail keeps these emails together as a single thread.

This productivity hack works, because it is so simple. Try it.

ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:07 AM]:
:-)

ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:07 AM]:
Corrective actions are being taken
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:08 AM]:
Apr 9, 2007
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:08 AM]:
Apr 9, 2007 - I didn't go to Startup School this year (
But I'll be going to "The Startup Project", a conference hosted by Amazon.

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:09 AM]:
Ok, Seattle Startup links:
http://sampa.com/seattle-blogs/

I am planning to attend Ignite and other geeky events around here.
I should get over my shyness (stemming from my miniscule knowledge of Lisp) and go to the Lispers meetup in the area. You know, who knows what'll happen.

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:10 AM]:
March 4 2007, 3. Startup efforts
Working on startup is where all my personal non-wasted time is going. Someone might be interested to know about my experiences. May be not. I recently bought a website where I'm going to anonymously blog about my startup efforts - anonymous because I'll get to write my thoughts/experiences in their rawest form and still not be disowned by my family, shunned by my friends and fired from my job (I say enough offensive stuff as it is... that will not stop... this is for especially offensive/pathetic/embarrassing stuff that I think I'll need to write if I need

ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:11 AM]:
Yep my blog is a good source of ammo
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:11 AM]:
Lisp, Oh Lisp!

In my quest for my own super-successful startup, I searched far and wide for years and I now believe that mastering Lisp is a crucial step. I am not going to go into the details here. I am not going to answer "Why Lisp? Why not ____ ?" (Don't fill in the blank with Java or I'll permanently lose my respect for you)

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:12 AM]:
Sep 14, 2006
Competitive Advantage
I spend a lot of time every day drinking straight from the bottle/udder/hose about startups and related stuff. Here is a collection of some of that, in the 'competitive advantage' point of view - in a pretty raw format.

A startup should choose wisely and have competitive advantage in the following aspects:
[follow links for 'why']

ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:12 AM]:
:-)

I've learned enough Lisp to apply the techniques in my webapps, without actually using Lisp.
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:12 AM]:
Python is Lispy.
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:13 AM]:
Hey are you getting any of my messages?
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:13 AM]:
Startupy is stopy
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:13 AM]:

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:13 AM]:
arw you getting any of my messages?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:14 AM]:
yup
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:14 AM]:
ALL of them
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:14 AM]:
Are They getting through?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:14 AM]:
yep
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:14 AM]:
I don't think so....
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:15 AM]:
I will fix the pathetic state of my startup soon
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:16 AM]:
So.... You're going to fix your imagination? That's the only place I know where a start up is.
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:17 AM]:
Okay, I'll start something new soon and take it to completion
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:18 AM]:
You are right that there is nothing worthwhile right now
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:18 AM]:
I need a timeline and a monetary consqunce if you quit again.
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:18 AM]:
But I have lots of code I can readily use
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:19 AM]:
I can give you a timeline when I work out the idea
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:19 AM]:
kindling, toliet paper, fish wrapping
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:19 AM]:
I know you can use it, but can you put it to good use?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:19 AM]:
yup
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:20 AM]:
they are good code
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:20 AM]:
top of the line, using the frameworks that Google uses
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:20 AM]:
django
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:20 AM]:
The only good code is code that's used for good. otherwise it's just .........
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:20 AM]:
yup
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:21 AM]:
okay plz be patient a little bit longer
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:21 AM]:
how long is a little bit longer?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:21 AM]:
couple months?
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:22 AM]:
what in a couple of months?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:22 AM]:
working startup
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:22 AM]:
beta
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:22 AM]:
if not what is the consequence?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:23 AM]:
lets talk about that in a week or so coz i need to do more research
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:23 AM]:
Nope, what is the consequence.
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:24 AM]:
make it three months total (from today) for the finished beta.
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:25 AM]:
Ok, What is the consequence for failure?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:25 AM]:
consequence... hmm... community service?
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:25 AM]:
specific
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:26 AM]:
I don't know what the options are
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:27 AM]:
suggestions?
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:30 AM]:
I levae that up to you, you know what will motivate and what won;t
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:31 AM]:
do you have any tasks at ur home? chopping wood?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:31 AM]:
dig holes?
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:31 AM]:
plant trees?
WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:31 AM]:
nope
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:35 AM]:
i'll do 3 days of community service of the kind that courts make you do for traffic violations etc if i don't have a working startup on Aug 19, 2008. what exactly i need to do can be specified by you then. lets call it the "most difficult kind" for now.

WILLIAMS, MARK A [10:37 AM]:
You have to get on one of the teams that clean up litter along the side of the road. Three Saturdays.
ATHMANATHAN, KIRUBA [10:37 AM]:
okay