Geoff’s Blog

SQLAlchemy and I have always had a love/hate relationship.  After doing SQL for 20 years it is definately a case of old dog new tricks.  I can typically write the most complex queries in a few minutes but take a long time to do it using SQLAlchemy’s constructs.

One of the crazy things out there is string matching in MySQL is not case-sensitive.   Pretty easy to fix using SQL but what about SQLAlchemy?   Well a buddy of mine provided me a Python fragment on how to make it happen.  Wanted to share it with everyone as well as not forget myself.  Enjoy!

>>> User.query.filter(’binary username=:username’).params(username=’qaadmin’).all()

[]

>>> User.query.filter(’binary username=:username’).params(username=’QAadmin’).all()

[<User id=1 username='QAadmin' >]

Unable to cope with the global economic crisis, Dow Jones was notified that it risks being delisted last summer.  Dow Jones Index (DJI) was unable to stay above the minimum $5 price level.

DJI was unable to comment on the story but many unofficial comments talked about how it is hard to be an index when the dollar has been devalued to historic levels.

In other news, Congress will take up the proposal of eliminating the penny now that it costs an estimated $23.42 per penny to manufactuer.   An amendment to bring back the ten thousand dollar bill has also been proposed.

Recent job has gotten me into python in a big way.  I wanted to develop some sites using python that can be hosting on my Bluehost account.   I have found that you can indeed not only run python on bluehost but also install a more up-to-date version of python.  Most of knowledge in this article has been spliced together from several blogs and forum postings.   I try to give credit where credit is due.

What version of Python is Bluehost running?  Well from this post on Bluehost Forums you can see the version of python running on your account.  The article says you need ssh access, but you really don’t and can just do this through the file manager under your cPanel admin.

1) Create a python file locally on your computer with the following code from http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Coo…n/Recipe/52220 :

#!/usr/bin/python
print "Content-type: text/html"
print
print "<pre>"
import os, sys
from cgi import escape
print "<strong>Python %s</strong>" % sys.version
keys = os.environ.keys()
keys.sort()
for k in keys:
    print "%s\t%s" % (escape(k), escape(os.environ[k]))
print "</pre>"

2) Create or modify an existing .htaccess file, add the following lines:

AddType text/html py
AddHandler cgi-script .py

3) Save files, upload them both to your public_html folder via sftp/ftp.
4) Using the File Manager on cPanel change the permissions to execute for user and turn everything else off.  If you do have an ssh account you can change the permissions with the following command:

chmod 700 ~/public_html/index.py

5) Navigate to <your domain>/index.py and you should see output of the environment variables and their values.

On my account I show an ancient version of Python 2.3.4

Building a new version of Python

A brillant post at pko.ch - Moar python reveals how easy it is to build a new version of python.  You will need ssh access to your account.  If you go to your Bluehost cPanel and go down to SSH you will be asked to provide a photo ID to get your account.

Anyway, get your source for python, unpack it on your bluehost account and compile it with the –prefix option.

mkdir ~/src

mkdir ~/local

Upload Python-2.6.1.tar.bz2 to ~/src

tar jxvf Python-2.6.1.tar.bz2

./configure --prefix=$HOME/local && make && make install

In the example to see what version of python you are running, change the line that reads:

#!/usr/bin/python

to

#!/usr/bin/env python2.6

Now go to your browser and see if everything works!   Note that Bluehost uses CGI to execute python.  It should now show Python 2.6.1.

Installing Trac / Subversion

Bonus points to this great post at Heidi Software if you are a Trac/Subversion fan.  Here they show you how to install all the peices to get Trac and Subversion to work.   On caveat, when you access your SVN repository you will need to do so over SSH and not HTTP.  The reason is because you need a special module on Apache to do SVN over HTTP.   If you need help accessing SVN over SSH you can check out this post on Bluehost Forums. You may have to some changes to get this to work. Some of the instructions require other ./configure options and other software packages.

GIT Source Code Management
Personally I prefer http://git-scm.com/” title=”GIT Source Code Management’>Git and use it over SSH.

Installing Mercurial Source Code Management System

Nice write-up on setting up Mercurial and Redmine on Bluehost on this post at GtTools.com. This is a pretty straight forward install and seems to work as advertised.

It is a tough proposition.  I helped build the website GameVee that was dubbed a YouTube for gamers.  The site was geared for gamers.   The best feature was the ability to take XBox Halo 3 film from your file share and convert it to video and put it on the web.   This was a great feature because the user didn’t need a capture card nor did they need to understand the multitude of video formats and bitrates.

GameVee tried to build a business based on advertising.   Like many other “Web 2.0″ sites this is a difficult way to survive as a company.   With advertising you need volume in traffic.   Volume in traffic increases the bandwidth costs.   It is a catch-22.   The advertising revenue generated from the increase traffic never would cover the bandwidth costs.   There were other opportunities to make money for that business but never pursued such as charging a subscription for converting Halo 3 films.   GameVee was eventually sold to GotGame and the best feature of GameVee was shutdown. Indeed it looks like they plan to shutdown GameVee altogether according to one of their administrators.  No doubt the bandwidth costs are the main reason.

Other companies are subsidising the bandwidth costs.  YouTube has been regarded as a money loser for Google since purchased.   If it wasn’t subsidised by Googles ad revenues from the search engine, it too would likely go the way of the doo-doo.

Solutions to this problem are being tackled like the company I now work for Digitalsmiths.  They provide video indexing and search services that will help generate targeted advertisements.  Many of the clients are showing videos of older TV shows.   These shows have a better chance with advertising.  Long running videos can reasonably place advertisements in the middle of the show just like you are watching TV.   More targeted advertising and ad presentations increases the revenue of a video asset.   A better proprosition then short clips like those found on YouTube and GameVee.   These sites would see a rebellion if the ad was shown in the middle of the video.  Instead they rely on ad placements on the page.   That is a very limiting option as there are only a few highly visible locations on the page for an advertisement.

With internet advertisements predicted to retreat in 2009, making money on video will be even tougher.   Time Warner Cable raised their fees recently and Viacom decided to raise their fees as well.  Time Warner Cable rejected the new contract and threatened to take their channels off the line up.  What a giant failure on Time Warner Cable.  They have zero leverage in that negotiation.  They even suggested that fans of Comedy Central could just watch their favorite shows online!   What a great suggestion.  Indeed why bother to deal with a greedy company with terrible customer service.   For years people have been asking for a-la-cart subscriptions.   With the internet that is almost a reality.

Premium movie channels on cable cater to movie buffs.   The failing of these channels is they hammer the same movie over and over.   Time Warner responded with their digital service On-Demand.  Nice service.  You can select a movie when it is convienent and watch it instantly.   Well that service is limited to the 30-50 movies they offer.  Netflix has responded with 10,000 movies that can be watched on demand for their $8.99 a month service for renting DVDs.   Brilliant!  Can you imagine if NetFlix teamed up with Viacom to provide the same service for Viacom shows?   How about working a deal with the NFL and MLB?   These franchises have realized that they can create a premium service because folks will pay for it.   Imagine Netflix creating the dream of consumers, a-la-cart programming service that allows you to watch shows on demand with content you want to see.

Indeed, I did sign up for Netflix after a 8 year lapse because of the “Watch Instantly” feature.   Add in a few a-la-cart options and I will flush TWC completely.   Does that mean it is the end of cable and satellite?  Doubtful, now that most of Americans have gone out to buy their digital TVs.   High Def will ensure cable and satellite will survive.   I’m just one consumer that doesn’t care if I can count the wiskers on actor’s face.

Back in early 90s, before I was married living in Atlanta and before my oldest brother Chuck was married living in Chattanooga, we heading to Mom and Dad’s for Christmas.   That year it seemed every channel was showing “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  You could literally change the channel and see 5 different scenes of the movie.   It was the brunt of many quotes and jokes as every line seemed to be drilled in our heads at the flick of the remote.

So my brother Chuck needed to shop for my other brother Taylor and we headed to the mall.   While shopping we noticed the colorized version of “It’s a Wonderful LIfe” and decided to get that as a gag gift for Taylor.   Colorized version always makes me remember Greg, a film major, I went to school with at University of North Carolina at Greensboro.   One day at lunch when the colorized version was released he went off about how the director could have shot the film in color but did not want it color and that it was a big mistake to colorize such a classic film.  I told him he should write his thesis on “How to F-up A Wonderful Life”.   Anyway, I digress.

So we gave Taylor the colorized version of “A Wonderful Life” that year.  We all had a nice laugh.   Next month for my birthday I received a wonder present from my brother Taylor, “A Wonderful Life”.   The next month I was visting my brother Chuck and slipped the tape into his bookcase.

Several months later, after one night on the town in Atlanta, I was looking for something to eat in my freezer.  There in the freezer looked to be a steak wrapped in white paper.   I couldn’t believe my eyes that I had forgotten I had a steak in the freezer.   Just the thing I wanted to eat!  I opened the wrapper to find “A Wonderful LIfe”!

Next time I visited Chuck, I took his breakfast cereal box and buried the tape on the bottom.  Sort of a Jack-in-the-Box surpise.   Next Christmas came and we all gathered at Mom and Dad’s again.   Chuck gave me Mitchell’s book Space.   Inside was a space cut out to the perfect size to hold “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  I was ready for such an event and had a shoe box with the top wrapped seperately from the rest of the box.   I quickly disposed of the tape in the shoe box and slapped Taylor’s name on the gift.   Later as we opened more presents, Taylor was surpise how fast that gift was regifted.

At this point the history of the tape is a little fuzzy.  But eventually it got back in my possession.   This time I conspired with my mother and she baked it into a strawberry shortcake and gave it to Taylor.   They had a nice dinner and looked forward to dessert.  As they cut into the cake they discovered the tape.

End of that year I went to Europe on a bus tour with my father.   We started in London then hit Paris and many other cities and countries.  Great trip, highly recommend the tour company Trafalgar.  Anyway, when in Paris I was working my way down on the suitcase only to find that VHS tape, “It’s a Wonderful Life”.   I laughed and turned on the television only to see a French version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” dubbed in French.  Timing was everything.

The following year was busy as I got married.   My brother Chuck soon thereafter also got married.  Chuck and my sister-in-law, Rebekah had a pool in the backyard of their house.   One Thanksgiving, I wrapped the tape in a brown paper bag, then plastic and then made it waterproof with duck tape.   While enjoying the Thanksgiving at Chuck and Rebekah’s I slipped the package under the pool cover and into the pool.   The next spring, Chuck went to open up the pool to discover this rectangular package.  Thinking that some criminal dumped drugs in the pool to evade police he fished it out of the pool and opened it.  What he found was “A Wonderful Life”! I’m not sure how, but he somehow managed to return it to Taylor.

So at my 30th birthday, my wife did a fantastic job of pulling off a surprise party.   All my family and friends were there and even Uncle Bob.  Uncle Bob was the life of the party (we will leave it at that for a future article).  While my brother Taylor was there he went out backand buried “It’s a wonderful life” in my son’s sandbox.   The tape was not found for six months until it was dug up the following summer.

The tape bounced around and then disappeared for 5 years.   My sister moved from Des Moines, Iowa to Virgina.  At the house warming party we found the tape in the drawer of her dining room hutch.  This Christmas, my mother opened up a gift from my father and behold, the tape is now back in play.

Mom is a master and has been playing a similar game with a pair of socks found in a parking lot by her friend in Connecticut.  That game has been playing out since the early 80’s.  I will tell that tale another time!

Over the years there just stories and jokes that keep me laughing.  I finally just had to put them all together so I can go back to them when I need a laugh.  I hope you enjoy them as well.

World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer online game.  You basic fantasy game of wizards and swords.  What makes the game great is that teamwork and careful planning on raids in order to survive and have a successful outcome.   Funniest video of all time is the infamous, Leroy Jenkins.

This next clip is Topgun according to Tarantino (Director of Pulp Fiction).  Subversion on a massive scale!  You’ll never watch Topgun the same way again.

How about a little horse race?  This is a hilarous clip for you married folks!  3rd Race at the Honeymoon is Over Downs

And finally, my most favorite of all favorites.  This one makes me laugh so much I’m crying.  The Texas Chilli Cookoff just in time for Fall.

Chili # 1 - Eddie’s Maniac Monster Chili…

Judge # 1 — A little too heavy on the tomato. Amusing kick.
Judge # 2 — Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.
Judge # 3 — (Frank) Holy sh*t! What the hell is this stuff?! You could remove dried paint from your driveway. Took me two beers to put out the flames. I hope that’s the worst one. These Texans are crazy.

Chili # 2 - Austin’s Afterburner Chili…

Judge # 1 — Smoky, with a hint of pork. Slight jalapeno tang.
Judge # 2 — Exciting BBQ flavor; needs more peppers to be taken seriously.
Judge # 3 — Keep this out of the reach of children. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to taste besides pain. I had to wave off two people who wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver. They had to rush in more beer when they saw the look on my face.

Chili # 3 - Ronny’s Famous Burn Down the Barn Chili…

Judge # 1 — Excellent firehouse chili. Great kick. Needs more beans.
Judge # 2 — A beanless chili, a bit salty, good use of peppers.
Judge # 3 — Call the EPA. I’ve located a uranium spill… My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano. Everyone knows the routine by now. Get me more beer before I ignite. Barmaid pounded me on the back, now my backbone is in the front part of my chest. I’m getting sh*t- faced from all of the beer…

Chili # 4 - Dave’s Black Magic..

Judge # 1 — Black bean chili with almost no spice. Disappointing.
Judge # 2 — Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for fish, or other mild foods; not much of a chili.
Judge # 3 — I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it. Is it possible to burn out taste buds? Sally, the barmaid, was standing behind me with fresh refills. That 300-lb. woman is starting to look HOT…just like this nuclear waste I’m eating! Is chili an aphrodisiac?

Chili # 5 - Lisa’s Legal Lip Remover…

Judge # 1 — Meaty, strong chili. Cayenne peppers freshly ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.
Judge # 2 — Chili using shredded beef, could use more tomato. Must admit the cayenne peppers make a strong statement.
Judge # 3 — My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead, and I can no longer focus my eyes. I farted and four people behind me needed paramedics. The contestant seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage. Sally saved my tongue from bleeding by pouring beer directly on it from the pitcher. I wonder if I’m burning my lips off. It really ticked me off that the other judges asked me to stop screaming. Screw those rednecks.

Chili # 6 - Pam’s Very Vegetarian Variety…

Judge # 1 — Thin, yet bold vegetarian variety chili. Good balance of spices and peppers.
Judge # 2 — The best yet. Aggressive use of peppers, onions, and garlic. Superb.
Judge # 3 — My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous, sulphuric flames. I sh*t on myself when I farted and I’m worried it will eat through the chair. No one seems inclined to stand behind me except that Sally. Can’t feel my lips anymore. I need to wipe my butt with a snow cone.

Chili # 7 - Carla’s Screaming Sensation Chili…

Judge # 1 — A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned peppers.
Judge # 2 — Ho-hum; tastes as if the chef literally threw in a can of chili peppers at the last moment. **I should take note that I am worried about Judge # 3. He appears to be in a bit of distress, as he is cursing uncontrollably.
Judge # 3 — You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin, and I wouldn’t feel a thing. I’ve lost sight in one eye, and the world sounds like it is made of rushing water. My shirt is covered with chili, which slid unnoticed out of my mouth. My pants are full of lava to match my shirt. At least during the autopsy, they’ll know what killed me I’ve decided to stop breathing; it’s too painful. Screw it; I’m not getting any oxygen anyway. If I need air, I’ll just suck it in through the 4-inch hole in my stomach.

Chili # 8 - Karen’s Toenail-Curling Chili…

Judge # 1 — The perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili. Not too bold, but spicy enough to declare its existence.
Judge # 2 — This final entry is a good, balanced chili. Neither mild, nor hot. Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge # 3 farted, passed out, fell over, and pulled the chili pot down on top of himself. Not sure if he’s going to make it. Poor fella, wonder how he’d have reacted to really hot chili?

First thing you do is write a business plan.   Learn more. Then the second thing you do is write a business plan.  Yes it is painful but you have to write a business plan.   You cannot get a loan, venture capital financing or know where you are going or if you are getting there without a plan.

Starting a business takes a lot of work.   You need to understand what you are providing, how you going to measure you success, what is the financial return, what is the break-even point.   The business plan provides a lot of these answers.  If you don’t like the answers, then you probably ought to stop and come up with some other idea.

Ernest Young had an outline that I like to use when I evaluate ideas and potential businesses.   There is a PDF located here.

The first thing to tackle is the financials.  Lets face it, the purpose of the business is make money and you need to know how long it will take to break even.   If you cannot live on water and bread until that point then maybe you should find investors, but I get ahead of myself.

Financials need to be there and they need to be realistic.  You can look up online for key ratios for the industry.  This is important to double check that your numbers are real world.   If profit margins are high or cost of doing business is too low, it is likely you didn’t do your homework or you are not being realistic in your financial statements.

Products.  What is your product?  What business are you in?  More importantly what business are you not in?   Figure out who your customers are and how are they are grouped.  Each group may have a different need for your product.   Each group will likely have a different marketing message.   Which group are you going after?  Don’t say all of them, that is not realistic.

Who is your competition?  Why are you different?  Why would someone switch from your competitor and use you?   You may want to read Purple Cow by Seth Godin.   It is good book for differentiating yourself from everyone else.

Still want to go into business?  Still viable?  Great!  How is your company going to be run?  What is the operational plan?   How are you going to run the business?  Who is doing what?   What are they responsible for?  I recommend reading E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.  Excellent book to help you define your organization so you can work on the business instead working in the business.

Need help with the business plan?   There are plenty of professional services likely in your area that can help.  The Small Business Association can point you to SCORE that helps entrepreneurs put a plan together.

So you still like the plan but you need financing?  Well the Small Business Association is a good place to start.   There is also likely an “Angel” investment group that meets monthly that listen to people with business plans to attract early investors.   Understand this group of early investors wants to make 5 - 10X their money.   If your plan realistically is not going to generate that type of return, then don’t waste your time.   Same goes with Venture Capitalists.   They finance 1 in 1000 buiness plans and they are looking of a high rate of return on their money.

Other options is go the slow and steady route if that is possible.   Instead of starting out with a large organization or retail space or server farm, can you do it cheap?   Start small and validate the market?  Can you do it without quitting your day job?  This is usually the best and safest way to enter a market. Some of the biggest companies started small and cheap. Home Depot is a perfect example.   Know why the sign is orange?   Because they couldn’t afford a lighted sign so they made one out of plywood and used florescent orange paint to attract attention.

A business plan is a living document.  During initial development of plan you may rewrite or refine the plan a dozen times.   Once the business has started you will likely need to update or change the plan often.  Any changes in business plan must be communicated to the employees so that everyone in the company is moving in the same direction.  It does no good to make a plan and not communicate it to the employees.  Nothing will happen in that scenario.  Management by wishful thinking is not a viable business planning.

One thing I cannot stress enough is please do not go into business without a business plan.  Too many good companies fell apart because they failed to plan who they are and where they are going.   Too many company have failed because nobody knew how much money was needed to get to the break even point.   These questions cannot be answerd without a business plan.

Took the kids to see Maw-Maw (grandmom) in rural North Carolina.   Driving there I was thinking of my own childhood on Signal Mountain, Tennesee.   We use to go up to the corner gas station and Junior was there with his overalls and we would pick up a case of soda in bottles and return the empty case of bottles.   Now I doubt anyone would argue that ice cold soda from a bottle is one of the best experiences.

Now that the big cola providers have all given up glass except around Christmas time for Coke, I was thinking it would be great to return back to those grand days.   RC Cola is a Carolina product as much as moonshine and tobacco.   They have always fought for shelf space at the grocery store even when they are cheaper better tasting product IMHO.

Maybe Royal Crown should pull a purple cow right out of Seth Godin’s playbook.   If they can setup distribution with local businesses in rural North Carolina and start packaging their product with glass they may see growth against the big companies.  It would be some time before they hit the cities with this strategy because the cities and suburbs are full of transitional people from other lands that just wouldn’t understand and honestly wouldn’t slow down to notice.   But in rural North Carolina it could make a resurgance.  Who knows, maybe we will be seeing more RC Colas, Moonpies and checkers.

So what do you think the goal of these websites are: Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Pownce, YouTube, etc?   Wouldn’t you love to read the original business plan vision, mission and strategy statments?   I bet it is full of B.S. and what they stated in there business plans was very specific and they became something else.    Facebook prolly had something like, “To recreate the high school/college yearbook online”.    Total crap, they became a lot more then that.

Why are some of these sites so successful and others not so successful?   Look at Twitter ridiculous growth curve.   Do you think they had some vision of becoming a tool for other companies/applications backbone?

I have been reading one my favorite authors, Seth Godin’s latest book.   And it hit me that all these websites basically should have the same vision and mission statement.   Why some are successfull and others are not is really a case of how close their statements are to the following or just dumb luck.

Vision - Create online community

Mission - To enable users to tell there story, connect with others, and promote discussion

Now you look at that and say, how do you get from that to Facebook?   Well, that is a long story but you can look at your Facebook account and the applications you use and look at the ones you passed on.   My bet is the ones you passed on add no value to your interaction with others or are just stupid marketing applications.

Speaking of marketing, look how bad companies are implementing it on social networks.   I get at least an invite a day to some twitter user that is following 55,000 users.   Like anyone is going to follow them and listen to their marketing BS.   Definately old school and pretty much completely worthless today.   I’m afaid Seth Godin is correct, old school marketing is dead.   Move on and use the social web as it is intended.   To tell a story, interact with others and garner discussion.

Many of my peer call me an old fart.   Yeah, I’m the oldest at the office.   I remember in my youth the community that existed on Signal Mountain, TN.   It was great to be a kid, plenty of woods and caves to explore.  But the community was there.  People knew there neighbors and small business owners.   They new everything that was going on in town.   If something bad happened, or there as an escaped convict from the chain gang that worked the roads, the word went out and went out quickly.    Now remember, this is a time before internet, before cell phones, before cable and there was only 3 channels on TV: CBS,  NBC, and ABC.   Everyone took a sense of pride in there town and community.

Since then I have seen many town have a complete breakdown of community.  No body cares about small business, where is the Walmart?   Neighborhoods are full of people that do not talk to each other.   My wife and I moved out of town to the county.   No yard nazi’s telling people they didn’t edge there yard and did you get approval for that bush?   Yet in our neighborhood people talk to each other and watch out for each other.   Maybe we are the last few folks that hold on to geographical community, but for the most part, geographical community is dead.

Long live the social community!  Community is a group of people with shared beliefs.   This still exists in churches in these small towns but instead of the one or two churches in the community, there seems to be one on every block.   Online communities are far and wide, banding together every conceivalbe interest imagine.   But again, these online communities are very fragmented.   This is a coffee community, this is a gaming community, this is a cycling community.   All these disjointed communities are not connected directly.

Facebook, Myspace created their groups to have members associate communal ideas.   The exchange of information on these communities seems to be light and more a “I vote this is cool” then actually participate in the community.   FriendFeed came out as an aggragator of “lifestream”.    A person can setup a FriendFeed account and pull in al the activity he is doing elsewhere on the internet.    So if I want to see what Geoff Corey is doing, I go to his lifestream feed at FriendFeed.com/geoffcorey.   FriendFeed has gone further and created Rooms.   Rooms are kind of like a topic centric.   So if I do a post about coffee, I may repost the link in the “Coffee Lovers” room.   The beauty of these rooms is the article is a  cross-link to my lifestream.   So if someone posts a commet or simply likes the article that shows up in my lifestream.   I can even have the comments linked into my own blog (see below the article!).

FriendFeed also allows you to subscribe to other people.    Here is beginnings of friendship.   So I join a topic of interest room on Social Media and see some posts of a like minded individual.   By subscribing to the individual, I see other things they are doing on the net.   This may or may not be something I’m interested in, but  I have now been exposed to new things to do, read or try.   In effect, I have made my own personalized community that I interact with on a broad set of topics without any geographical connection.