It was easier than I thought it would be to install Java and Tomcat. With a few apt-get commands, I had both Java and Tomcat up and running. The next step was to serve Tomcat through Apache. This was done by using the AJP Connector. Tomcat is running with AJP connector port 8009 and I can serve up JSPs and servlet content through Apache who is listening on port 80. Pretty slick :)
It was even easier to get a Rails app up and running on WEBrick on default port 3000.
Next steps will be to serve Rails content through Apache.
After trying to keep a blog numerous times already, I am committed to keep this one going!
It took me awhile to get setup after rebuilding my slice (I am hosted by SliceHost). Most of the time was spent having to google the commands I had to run and figuring out missing apache modules since this is all new to me. It's been a good learning experience though :)
But after 4 hours, I've setup the following
- 256mb Ubuntu slice
- apache2
- mysql
- subversion
- php
- ruby/rails
I finished reading Founders At Work by Jessica Livingston a few days ago. What a great read. For those who have ever thought of starting their own tech company or enjoy hearing about how great things come out of startups, this is a must read.
The book gives such deep insight into the inner workings of the minds behind of these companies. I'm inspired by what some of these people have built and in many cases, without any outside investment. It's interesting to see that most of the founders had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they started. The startup mind set is so different from Corporate America's. These founders had passion for technology and their products. It's very refreshing to see how you can create a company without money being the main focus. Passion drives great companies.
I can't really think of any job better than waking up in the morning and being able to say, "Today, I'm going to go build something that's going to change the world."
After working for less than 2 years out of college, I've already been in more ineffective meetings than I care to count. So here's a couple of guidelines I've come up with. Keep in mind, these meetings are focused around technical issues. Technical meetings are focused on coming up with a solution and are centered around the idea of Getting Things Done. I'm sure marketing meetings require a different set of guidelines since creativity requires a blank canvas.
- Have an agenda -- What is the purpose of the meeting? What does each individual want to get out of the meeting? Stick to this agenda. Don't get side tracked. That's what the end of meetings are for. If you didn't walk out of a meeting with new knowledge or any actionable items, you failed.
- Don't go to listen -- If you don't have something to contribute, don't waste your time going. This kills your productive for the day. You're stuck in a meeting while you could have been building the Next Big Thing. Sure, sometimes it's nice to stay in the loop about something but that's what lunch, instant message, e-mail, the water cooler is for.
- Don't invite friends -- Only the people who are critical to the meeting of being a success should attend. I used to want to be apart of every meeting everywhere and I felt left out if I wasn't invited. But now, I feel lucky when I've left out.
- Don't have meetings to have meetings -- Don't schedule meetings just to have a meeting. There are certain things that can just be discussed by stopping by and saying "hey you got a sec?" A 20-slide PowerPoint isn't required for everything in life, even if you were taught differently in college.
- Have a DD - Having a designated driver is probably the most important thing. You need someone handle the check and balancing of meetings. Without a DD, there's going to be that awkward pause some time during the meeting where no one knows what to talk about next. And then someone says "So, uhh..."
"That's what she said."
It's been a little over a month since I joined kajeet and it's been real exciting. In the past two weeks, we've opened our web site to the public and just recently we have a featured article in TIME magazine. This is just too cool :)
One of the best speeches I've ever heard.
Start at TiECon, May 13, 2006.
Here's a really good post on things we probably should have been taught in college.
I agree most of the items but would have placed them in different order.
I figured I'll try to come up with a list of my own.
Here's my list of 5 things I wish I didn't learn in college.
- Useless knowledge How many courses did I have to take because it was simply required for graduation? As a computer science major, why do I have to take American History 101? Why am I wasting tuition money on a course that I have no interest in? I'm all for developing "well-rounded" individuals but why can't university allow the individuals decide where they want to be well-rounded in? Just because I'm a computer science major doesn't mean I have other interests. I had interests in psychology, film, and I'm sorry to say, math. Let me choose to take courses that interest me.
- Short-term regurgitation This is probably a by-product of the first thing I wish I didn't learn. The fact that I had to take these mind-numbing classes that were of no interest to me, I quickly learned to memorize what I didn't to and spit it out come test time. The fundamental problem with this is that it is blind-knowledge. I don't know why, I just know who, what, when, how.
- Time Mismanagement I always found it funny when job interviews asked me, how do you manage your time at college? Or how do you organize your schedule if you know you have a lot of things coming up? To be honest, I didn't learn how to management my time. I learned how to stay up late, being useless and watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I learned how to wait until the last minute and get things done in the nick of time. I didn't have a day planner. I didn't use Outlook Calendar. How many hours did I waste surfing Facebook, playing computer games, watching TV instead of getting to bed for that 8am class or studying for that test, or writing that 30 page paper. Sure I got through it, but I'm sure the quality of the work would have been so much better if I had utilized my time better.
- Working on a Team Yes, I know. This was on the other list. I put this here because my college experience with team work was generally crappy. College gave me the false impression that all group work would be like this: One or two people doing all the work, everyone else mooching off the work. There is no accountability. Professors turn a blind eye to it. The most professors can offer is "work it out among yourselves." In college, there are your "haves" and your "have-nots". The "haves" have the drive, determination, and interest in doing well in the courses and contributing to the team. The "have-nots" simple don't have any interest in doing the work or contributing anything worthwhile. It turns out in the real world people take a vested interest in the work they are apart of. This isn't true everywhere but at least you have some control over it. You can surround yourself with passionate people and, even for the dispassionate people, at least there is real accountability. Losing a job is much more of a severe consequence that a poor letter grade.
- Lecture Learning This is more of a criticism of how a lot of courses are taught. Usually there's a single professor standing up in the front of a class with a PowerPoint presentation with about 70 slides of material. For the next hour and a half, the processor proceeds to talk through the slides. You walk out of that room feeling mind-numbing bored and sleepy. This is a terrible way to learn. It's only one-way. There is no creativity. There's no exploration of concepts. It's just facts. It is because it is. There's no room to ask "why?" or question the why. On a small scale it promotes conformism. Conform to think the same way as the previous class. New ideas are inspired by taking a step outside of conformism. With lecture-style learning, the only reason why I would pick up a book is to read about something I missed when the professor went over it in his/her slides. If the learning was more dialogue between the professor and the students, students have a vested interest in thinking about the concepts deeper than face value. They would pick up the book to not only learn more about the concepts but to come up with their own beliefs and thoughts that they can contribute to the dialogue.
I'm not sure how I got to thinking about this but I thought I would express it in a post.
Given the choice between having more of less and less of more, what would you chose? Of course we're speaking in general terms. When I first thought about this question I immediately thought of quality vs quantity.
More of less = pro-quantity
Less of more = pro-quality
This is simply saying that between the two, I would rather a really good thing (albeit a lesser amount) than a so-so thing but lots of it.
Sounds like common sense but on the day to day, I know that I succumb to the falsity that is more is better. More sometimes just means more. More crap to filter out. More noise, more fluff. The example I can think of as I write this is music collections. I have a music collection that encompasses the most random stuff. Stuff that I never listen to but since it was available at one point in time, I added it to my collection. Now when I play my music, I have to occasionally skip to the next song because I have no idea why LEN - Steal My Sunshine just started to play.
More and more things are coming out in today's market where more and more stuff is being packed into a single product. You can't find a cell phone that's just simply a cell phone anymore. But I'm sure you'll be able to find a text messaging, instant messaging, calendar-syncing, Bluetooth connected, picture messaging, push-to-talking, word processing, Wii controller-compatible, internet-enabled, wireless mousing, mp3 playing, Mini DV playing, HDTV quality, tax/bill paying, laundry doing, dinner making cell phone in the next few years.
Just something to think about...
I just started my new job at kajeet, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) targeted as "tweens".
I'm really enjoying it. Minus the commute but it's all good. It's an exciting time for the company and I'm really glad I get to be a part of it.
One of my life goals was to join a startup so I already feel like I'm making process in doing what I want. And that's important.
It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do after college. I had general ideas and thoughts as to things that I would like to do. But sitting down and really coming up with actionable things helped me figure out where I wanted to go from here. I went through a period where I felt like I was in a void, floating about, not really feeling all that accomplished. The best way I can describe it is that I felt uninspired. Don't let yourself feel this way. It's a sucky way to live life. If you don't already know what you want to do or what inspires you, find it quick. If you are already trying, try harder. The faster you figure it out, the more you will enjoy life. Once you figure out what gets you, figure out how you can latched onto that and progress toward it. The earlier you begin taking skips towards the inspiration, passion, whatever you want to call it, the sooner you will find yourself happy. HAPPY. Not just content.
As promised, here's the problem my cousins and I spend Christmas Eve doing while the little kids opened presents.
There are 100 cows and 100 barrels of hay. There are 3 distinct sets of cows: standing, laying, and old. Each standing cow eats five barrels of hay. Each laying cow eats three barrels of hay. And every three old cows eats one barrel of hay. There are no more barrels of hay. How many of each kind of cow are there?
Years of higher level education makes this problem very difficult. But I bet a C-average 7th grader could have done it faster than me.