In order to take an API call to Piwik and use the returned JSON to generate a custom graph with jqPlot, do this:

    $.getJSON(url, function(data) {
        var i = 0;
        var line1 = new Array();
        $.each(dates, function(x, y) {
            line1[i] = [x,y];
            i++;
        });

        $.jqplot("chartdiv", [line1],
        {
        // the rest of your jqPlot options
        });
    });

The part that took me a while to wrap my head around was that jqPlot requires an array of arrays for the data points. Hopefully this is helpful to whomever finds it.

“I’m messaging because I’d love to pick your brain a bit about SUP as I’m smack dab in the middle of the fence on applying. I’ve got a few questions that I’d appreciate you taking the time to answer as there really is no other way to get clarity on the situation than to talk to someone on the inside, actually living it.

As with every time I ask for people’s opinions, the most blunt and honest you can be, the better.

1. What was your biggest hesitation in applying?
2. Did you look at it more as $40k in funding or as a crazy life opportunity? And why?
3. To what degree were you worried about being disconnected/remote and “out of the loop”? To what degree are you actually finding that to be a hindrance?
4. How many trips do you plan on taking back to North America while you’re down there?
5. What’s been the most unexpected benefit to your business since being down there?
6. Other thoughts?”

I figured it would be best if I answer those questions here so that other aspiring applicants can benefit!

1. I had almost no hesitation in applying to Start-Up Chile. I’m at a point in my life that I look at most things and think “what’s the worse that could happen.” Then I usually ignore my own answer and sum it up to “future Eric’s problem.” I applied the same mantra to the idea of moving to Chile. Worst case scenario was I lived on beans and stayed hostels for 6 months. Best case scenario we focus hard and make our company into the killer product I know it will be.  My girlfriend, Megan, was probably the biggest consideration I had to make, if she couldn’t come with me for at least part of the time I might not have applied. She’s very understanding and open to adventure as well so it’s all working out!
2. I definitely looked at Start-Up Chile as more of a crazy life opportunity than as just a chance to get $40k. At the end of the day, $40 isn’t a ton of money. It’ll get you to Chile, rent you some digs, and give you some spending money, but it’s not like you’re hiring a 5 developers for six months. We do plan on hiring an intern or two from one of the universities here in Vina, but that’s happening in a month or so. I want to get as much traveling and world experience as I can and the opportunity to come down here and work was simply an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. Again, what’s the worse that could happen?
3. I’m not, nor was I ever worried about being disconnected/remote and out of the loop. Any news or communication I do is basically through the internet anyway, even my phone, so it was a non issue. In fact, our internet connection here is blazing, we get like 40meg down and burst to 8 up. The pipe into Chile isn’t the widest, but we’re not noticing too much of a difference.
4. I’m not leaving Chile until the end of the term. My partners will be returning once each to talk with clients and some investors that we have in Canada, but they will be back in Chile well before the end of the program. Personally, my time is better spent in Chile. There’s so much opportunity down here.
5. The largest unexpected benefit of being down here was the people we have met. There’s not only a wealth of talent that Start-Up Chile has brought in, but we’re already in talks with two separate Chilean parties to start doing business. We’ve also been introduced to possibly the best angels and investors in our space, people I’d known about before but I had forgotten that they’d settled in Chile.
6. Chile is very modern, with largely the same gadgets and tech that we’d get in Canada. The developer talent is also quite rich, with top notch schools and institutes. Prices here are overall cheaper than what we’d get in Canada, but it’s very easy to spend more because you’ll forget the conversion or not seek out deals. Don’t get me wrong, you could eat hotdogs and roasted peanuts for every meal but if you want tons of North American style food you’ll be paying for it.

Overall, I’d say stop procrastinating and just apply. Any excuse you have is just that, an excuse. Excuses never made anybody successful

We mashed together our own minimally viable product for a client and when I heard about Start-Up Chile (SUP) we decided to apply. The next iteration of our product, Surreal, was somewhat planned and we thought it would be a great opportunity to focus if we were in a foreign incubator.

So now here we are! We arrived in Santiago on July 14th. We stayed in a neat little place called Hostel el Castillo for a few days while we got our bearings. There are about 100 companies that were arriving around the same time so the SUP offices were packed and there was a lot of orientation to be done. It took a few days for us to go and get our RUT numbers, which is essentially the Chilean national ID card. That process took all day. The next day we opened a Scotiabank bank account when the bank executives came to the SUP offices.

Everything has been a bit confusing. SUP is still getting their ducks in a row and communication has not been the greatest, but they are doing their best and we think things will improve. Once we get our first reimbursement under our belts we will feel much better.

Last week we moved to Viña del Mar, which is a resort-like town near Valparaiso on the coast of Chile. Viña is only about 130km west of Santiago and the air is not polluted and the beach is our backyard.

We found a great apartment through a local real estate agent name Marcello Cresta. If you’re ever in Viña and you want to rent or buy a place for any length of time you should call him at +56-97931427. He’s been nothing but charming and any small thing we needed he took care of. Our apartment has three bedrooms with an en suites for each, a kitchen, laundry room, and it’s fully furnished, all for under $600 000 Chilean pesos, which is about $1250 at the time of writing.

Overall things are going pretty good. We’re finally curbing our spending now that we’re settled and we can easily buy groceries! Photos are being taken all the time and you can see our shared gallery with everything by going here: http://db.tt/2xlRFH8.

I hope to make a habit of posting more often. As you can see I’m terrible at it, so lots of questions and comments would be encouraging!

First off, this thing was cheap. We shopped around and found a cutter from US Cutters on eBay (don’t buy from their website). After negotiating my own shipping the end price door to door was around $505. Not too shabby for a 36″ vinyl cutting monster.

The cutter itself is about 50″ long and it comes with a stand. Along with the tiny little cutting blades there is a pen plotting attachment that you can use to draw with.

We’ve cut a few things already, mostly stuff for Rob’s farm as you will see in the pictures.

Applying vinyl is pretty straight forward as long as you think things through in advance. It’s really sticky and once it’s on whatever surface you are using it’s not really coming off without being destroyed.

Anyway, with the amount we spent it’ll save us a fortune in sign making costs. Since cutting a few yards of vinyl ourselves will cost about $4/yard and having a shop do it would cost 10 times that.

The plugin gave me errors the entire time I was running it but I just kept hitting next and now WP isn’t bugging me to upgrade. Yay!

The last two months have been pretty frustrating as DreamHost was constantly having problems and my blog was extremely slow. Even just navigating their control panel was a boring nightmare. And WordPress! It’s slow enough as it is but when I have to wait a full minute to post something it’s not bearable.

So I switched to GoDaddy. My friend Rob and I pitched in for a Virtual Dedicated Server together and it’s only costing about $35/month total. So far it’s going well and I have a lot more options for customization with their full cPanel install that DreamHost’s dumbed down manager.

I am still well within the 90 day refund policy that DreamHost has so I emailed them today asking for a refund. Hopefully they don’t make up an excuse and just give it to me.

It was an interesting listen and I heard a few familiar voices. Check it out here:

Starting Your Own IT Company with Ken Gordon, Boris Wertz and Daniel Boulet

Wow, that was the simplest update I’ve done for a piece of software online before. Just copy a few files and go to the upgrade page, super simple.

I really like the new WordPress layout. It’s smart looking and a big improvement over the outdated layout they previously employed.

My favourite part is the write page: it’s a lot easier on the eyes and the options are grouped in a much my organized manner. All the common tasks are on the right while most of the extra junk you’ll never use is pushed below the post.

What really looks awesome is the new built in gallery part. You can upload multiple files at once and it will catalogue them in the nice gallery for you. Matt Wullenberg, WordPress’s founder, has a great example of a fully functioning gallery.

My biggest gripe with WordPress to date has been the speed and the stats. Right now my installation is pretty sluggish, and I don’t think it’s DreamHost. I’ve read a few comments and it’s one of the top ideas in the Most Popular Ideas section of WordPress Ideas. On that note I think it’s awesome how WordPress includes the highest rated ideas in their upcoming releases. Most community sites might do well to implement something along these lines

So far I haven’t been able to get my stats to work with WordPress, but that’s ok because I’m using Google Analytics as well and I think it’s a bit more accurate anyway.

Screencast of WordPress 2.5

You can grab the latest WordPress release here: http://wordpress.org/download/

Nexopia…

…haha, made you look