Software


26
Oct 11

Google Apps for Startups

I’ve toyed with the idea of this post for a long time. Recent interactions and my time spent with Start-Up Chile have really shown me that it needs to be written. I get too many business cards with @gmail.com email addresses. Give me a break. It costs $10 to register a domain name and Google Apps is free.

If you own a small business, or a startup, then you absolutely need to use Google Apps. Hands down, Google Apps is the best tool to manage your business. There’s a reason over 4 million businesses have switched.

Your role as a startup owner is to run your damn business, not fiddle around with mail servers and worry about document backup. That’s where Google Apps comes in.

Continue reading →


24
Sep 11

Piwik and jqPlot

This took me waaaaaay longer than I wanted it to, so I’m making a point of posting it.

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.


5
Oct 09

How to Dropbox your Firefox/Thunderbird Profiles

DropboxI use Dropbox religiously. I own a laptop, two personal desktops, and an internet cafe full of computers, not to mention I’m constantly on the go with my phone. Since you can’t selectively sync folders on your computer with Dropbox, I’ve moved my entire My Documents folder to the Dropbox. Continue reading →


27
Jul 08

Open-Mesh Update

Open-Mesh.com is slowly but surely improving. Just recently I noticed their homepage changed slogans. It went from something like “WiFi for the developing world” to “WiFi Where You Need It”. I like the latter, myself.

New firmware updates have also happened and beta 1.21 has been released. There was a glitch upgrading to the c953 firmware because of the technique used to upgrade. This required a lot of people to manually reset their routers if they were using the test firmware. They fixed the problem by using the “normal” way to upgrade and version c955 went off without a hitch.

According to Antonio Anselmi, author of the ROBIN mesh network software which powers Open-Mesh, says that the latest kernel is about a week away. Yay!


19
Jul 08

BarCampEdmonton Was a Success!

BarCampEdmonton was a great success this weekend. There were over 100 people in attendance and it was great to meet new people and learn about new projects and interests.

A picture of the schedule is here:

I went to

  • Financing an Idea
  • What Problem Does The Semantic Web Solve?
  • Angel Fund, U of A, Robert
  • Evolution of Nexopia
  • Why Twitter Will Rule The World
  • Emerging Mobile Platforms

I also led a session on Edmonton Wireless & WiFi Mesh Networks with Mack Male.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a fellow named Clark Murray. Clark and three other guys have created a great product called dub5 which stands for the 5 W’s in everyone’s life, the Who What Where When and Why. Essentially dub5 is a new take on scheduling and calendar management. Their major advantage over competitors like Outlook and Google Calendar is their text message integration. Personally I love this and I hope to be using it as soon as it’s ready.

Since all the video I took of my sessions ended up being like 300mb a piece and 20 minutes long I haven’t finished uploading them to Google Video yet. However, check out the quick demo I had the dub5 guys give me.


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