Update: they still are, however, I just stumbled upon The Next Web’s share button. Look how amazing it is! It counts the number of shares they have around the web. Pure awesomeness.

Share button perfection

The only thing missing is the one-click share but that’s hardly a detraction.

Kudos, TNW, way to be progressive.

Here is an example screenshot from Backup Box

It seems kind of ok at first, except that none of the bubbles are the same size. Google is the worst for this, at least the vertical height of the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Buffer widgets are equal.

Ignoring bubble size, lets look at how I implemented this.

First up, Facebook:

<div class=”fb-like” data-href=”http://www.mybackupbox.com” data-send=”false” data-layout=”box_count” data-font=”verdana” style=”top:-3px;right:-1px”></div>

I need to add a div for them, for whatever reason, then paste in a bunch of wonky JS to get the right tags and link to their script. The final part is the actual like div, which I expect. They make use of the HTML5 compliant data attributes, which is awesome. You’ll notice that I had to modify the styles to actually line it up with the other widgets. One should not have to do that. You’ll also notice that their JS source is a nice // instead of http or https, this gets around browser rules about insecure content. More about this later.

Next we have Twitter, they’re my second favourite:

Twitter uses an a tag instead of an, no big deal. They also make use of data attributes, so thumbs up. I add a line of javascript but I still have to actually write some JS instead of just linking… *sigh*

Now Google:

What the heck? 10,000 engineers can’t come up with something a bit simpler than this? I’ll give them credit for using a sprite (since if you manually change the height of their iframe in the console you can see all the images), but not much else. Data attributes are good. Tons of stupid javascript is not.

LinkedIn, the best share button implementation on the internet!:

Damn, that was simple! Two lines! There is ONE problem with LinkedIn’s implementation that I’ll mention further down.

Last but not least is Buffer. These guys are new to the scene, doing an awesome job, so I try to support them:

Ok, Buffer does a great job too, following in the footsteps of Twitter and LinkedIn, no doubt. Their only mark against them is they don’t support HTTPs. I actually had removed them from our homepage at the time of writing because of this.

The BIGGEST problem that ALL of these buttons have is that they don’t support a data-href without a protocol prefix, ie. //. Every one, excluding Google+ requires me to specific http:// or https://. This is a serious problem if you have an SSL certificate. For example, Facebook discriminates likes between https and whether you include the www prefer in your domain. There’s a potential four different like counts the we can have. I can either change the code to https://mybackupbox.com and lose our likes or leave it as http://www.mybackupbox.com and retain them. I shouldn’t have to make this decision For new companies like Buffer, having their javascript link not support SSL means that I have to remove them or have the “mark of the beast” beside my URL.

"Mark of the beast 2.0"

A few things to mention. A good share button will have:

• One <div> tag where the button will go
• One <script> link to an external file
• All settings are defined using HTML5 data attributes
• Support for non-prefixed links to their scripts, eg. //twitter.com/plugin.js
• Support for non-prefixed data-href links for their buttons so developers are forced to choose.

This post barely scratches the surface when it comes to share buttons. We’re only using the bubble count style and each widget has multiple form factors. Hopefully these companies can get it together and standardize on things. Maybe that’ll be my next project? Who knows.

If you liked this post you should follow me on Twitter: @EricWarnke

You should also check out our latest project, http://mybackupbox.com

Now, for a long time I’d had a problem: I still use FTP. Don’t get me wrong, I understand what version control is, but I’m just too lazy to use it for small projects, which is what most of my web design clients end up being. I currently host around 80 odd domain names on a Media Temple shared hosting plan, all of which I access using FTP. None of this is backed up, ever. Big problem.

Backup Box v1

For whatever reason I decided that it was time to back things up. A bit of research determined that I either had to set up custom server-side scripts to automate an rsync job, or download some software that I run on my computer to backup my domains on a schedule. I tried the software, it was clunky and complex and I ditched it quickly.

I’m an avid user and fan of Dropbox. I knew there were lots of third-party apps out there and I was hoping there might be something to help me out. Searching through the forums I discovered that there was a lot of conversation happening around the whole FTP to Dropbox problem. Lots of conversation, yes. Solutions, no. Word on the street was that Dropbox would never support FTP connections and yet nobody was addressing the problem!

Needless to say, this was a lean startup dream! I had a problem, which many other people do too. My very first assumption was satisfied, that I’m not alone in needing this service. But I still needed more validation before I start coding.

Backup Box V2

So I threw up a landing page. I wrote a cute description of the problem, slapped down four payment options, and recorded what you clicked, and then asked for your email address to be notified when we launch.

I posted a few times in the Dropbox forums letting people know I was going to help solve their problems, and I weaseled an AdWords credit out of Google. Forums worked, AdWords were useless.

From October 16th to March 8th we had over 570 unique people sign up to use the site. I was ready to build it at 50 signups, but real-life and our other startup got in the way. Plus I was still in Chile and we were travelling around!

Backup Box Launch

The very night that I returned to Canada I went to the second hackathon put on by Startup Edmonton. Mark, my partner, and I had decided that this hackathon would be a good place to start our Backup Box development. We built the prototype in roughly 15 hours. Over the next four weeks we revamped the prototype and prepared it for users and accounts and automation, etc. That’s what we launched with.

So here we are. We launched with a few posts in the Dropbox forums and emails to the early signups. Albeit we didn’t have our screencast up at the time, but it’s up now. We’re tracking conversions on almost everything our users click. Looking forward to what the future holds with Backup Box!

Instead I use .bind(“change keyup input”) to catch all changes on an input field, regardless of how they are done.

For example:

// detect the change
$('input#myId').bind("change keyup input",function() {
    // if there's a bad value
    if (this.value.match(/[^a-zA-Z0-9\-_\s]/g)) {
        // replace it with nothing
        this.value = this.value.replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9\-_\s]/g, '');
    }
});

Pretty simple, eh?

If you liked this you should follow me on Twitter where I tweet about startups, code, and other useful things.

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.

Google Apps is FREE for small business and startups who have less than 10 user accounts. If you need more than that you’re either funded, have revenue, or you have too many partners anyway. You can find Google Apps’ free page here.

Step 1:

Enter your domain name, obviously. Or you can buy one if you don’t already have it. I’ll assume you already own one.

Step 2:

Fill out the Account Administrator fields. I only fill out what is required. First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone, and Country/Region. Make sure your administrator email address is something you will never lose access to, you will need this if you ever have to reset your password, which has happened to me.

Step 3:

Select your administrator account email and password, I usually just pick eric (or admin if it’s a client). This counts as your first account.

Step 4:

Set it up! Your Apps account will prompt you to run through a setup wizard. If you think you’ll learn something then go ahead and walk through it. Personally I like to just learn as I go, so I just close the dialog box.

Step 5:

Before doing anything else you need to activate Google Apps. You can ignore anything else until you do this since there’s no point in using Apps unless your domain name knows what to do with it.

Google tells you that the recommended way is to upload a special HTML file to your server so you can prove you own the domain. But there are alternatives!

I prefer to select the Add a DNS record to your domain’s configuration option. The reason I do this is two-fold: 1. I don’t like random HTML files or META tags that serve no purpose, and 2. I need to be in the DNS record screen of my domain management software in a few moments anyway!

Since I use Media Temple to host my DNS records, even if I host the website elsewhere, I have to select Other since Google Apps doesn’t have instructions for how to verify a Google Apps account with Media Temple. Good thing I’m writing them here!

The instructions for verifying an account with Media Temple should be fairly similar to any other web host or domain registrar. I’m using Media Temple’s Grid Server service which lets me host up to 100 domains on a shared server for very cheap.

I edit the DNS Zone File so I can add the custom TXT record that Google has given me.

You will have various settings. Simply click Add a Record, select a TXT type for the record, leave the name blank, and paste in the TXT value that Google Apps gave you. Hit Save.

Media Temple’s DNS propagates instantly so as soon as I saved the new TXT record I can click the Verify button back in my Apps tab and it instantly verified my account!

Step 6:

Arguably the best reason to use Google Apps is for email. So let’s Activate your email. On the home dashboard for Apps you’ll see the different services that you have available to you. You’ll notice that there are some really ugly links like http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/surrealwifi.com. Don’t worry, we’ll fix those in a bit.

For now, click Activate Email.

This next page has a ton of information. Google Apps does a good job of explaining how to set up your MX (mail exchange) records but again they don’t have Media Temple as an option. It’s all pretty generic anyway. Here are instructions on how to set up your Google Apps email with Media Temple’s Grid Service.

Remember that DNS Zone File that we were editing back in step 5? Yeah, we need that again. I start by clicking the Add a Record button 5 times since we need to add 5 MX records. Change each new record type to MX from their drop down menus.

Google Apps prefers if you set priorities for the records. Media Temple doesn’t have a specific field for this so we prefix them with their numbers. This of course could vary depending on your host. If in doubt, Google says to leave the priority blank and just make sure they are in the right order.

I use these:

• 10 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
• 20 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
• 20 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
• 30 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
• 30 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

Leave the names blank, just change the values.

Save the new MX records and then click I’ve completed these steps in Activate Email screen for your Apps account. You will be taken back to the home dashboard and under email it says “We are checking MX records for your domain. This may take 48 hours to complete.” In reality it usually takes less than an hour.

Don’t close this tab, we still need it!

Now let’s change those ugly URLs that are set by default.

Step 7:

Click Settings from the menu bar at the top of your Apps account.

I mainly use Email, Docs, and Calendar, so let’s change those URLs. The latest version of Google Apps lets us change them all at once.

Click Change URL under the Calendar section.

Then click Change URLs for all domain services

For the heck of it let’s change all the URLs. I’ve left the default suggestions like docs., calendar., email., etc.

Hit Continue.

Head back to your DNS Zone File settings. If you’re like me, which is slow, your host might log you out for taking too long. That’s ok, just log back in and find those settings again! I actually reload the page just to make sure that I’m logged in, otherwise I might make a bunch of changes just to find out that I’m logged out, and that is a real kick in the teeth.

Add 5 more records. Change their types to CNAME.

In the Name section of each record enter in your custom URLs prefixes. I left them as default so I used:

• mail
• start
• calendar
• docs
• sites

Each record should have the value set to ghs.google.com. Save them. Your provider might spit out an error saying that you have two records the conflict. For me, Media Temple creates a mail record by default, so I just deleted their default one so the only thing left was my Google Apps record.

Click I’ve completed these steps in your Apps account and they should all redirect. This was instant for me but it all depends on your DNS.

At the time of this writing, Google Apps doesn’t support custom URLs for their Contacts feature.

Your Media Temple DNS records should now look like this!

Now would be a good time to test out your custom URLs. Just type http://mail.[yourdomain].com to try it out.

Step 8:

By the time I’d finished the custom URLs, the Email section on the page now said “Updating Google servers… This may take up to 1 hour to complete. We are updating Google servers to enable email for your users.” Hardly 48 hours, eh?

I suppose there really isn’t a step 8. You’re pretty much done. Plus this post is already over 1200 words… thanks for sticking around!

Google Apps has many more features to explore and they are really pushing their app marketplace. Personally I don’t use any marketplace apps, but you might find them interesting.

If you’re clicking around your Google Apps dashboard you might want to try the following:

• In Settings
  • Enable Calendar labs to get the latest features.
  • Enable the Preview for the new Contacts manager.
  • Change the default document visibility in Docs so you don’t have to share it with your coworkers every time you make a new document.
  • Enable Google Sync in the mobile section so you can add your new account to your smartphone the proper way.
• In Domain Settings
  • Enable SSL to Automatically enforce Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections when your users access Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Sites. In short, it makes your accounts a lot more secure if.
  • Upload your own logo to customize the branding of your Google Apps account.

I would not enable 2-factor authentication. I had a really bad experience with it when I moved from Canada to Chile and time zones changed and my authenticator iOS app wasn’t working and blah blah blah. It was also really annoying in general.

This post is really long, and has 8 steps, but Google Apps is so worth it.

Please post any questions, comments, or suggestions below!

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.

Start-Up Chile asked me to speak about my project and entrepreneurship. I figured I could do this. Talk about my background, how I got to Chile, give some good no bullshit advice on being an entrepreneur. Heaven knows there’s enough patting on the back and good-for-you’s going around.

Several things went wrong. Firstly, I was almost 30 minutes late. I legitimately made the mistake of entering in the meetup time in my calendar as 7:30pm instead of 7. It worked out ok though since the organizers were pretty relaxed about it, and I think everyone was just relieved that I showed up. Apparently part of Chilean culture is to show up late when invited to dinner, but this wasn’t the time for me to practice.

Being late cut into the amount of time I was able to talk, which wasn’t much. I figured I could just informally chat about my adventures and give some good dos and don’ts along the way. What I didn’t account for was how long I can actually run my mouth if I don’t have a formally memorized presentation. Normally I’m struggling to cram everything into a practiced amount of time, but with no perceived limit I could have literally talked for 2 hours. Good thing Cristian cut me off at about 45 minutes with a curt “wrap-it-up” hand signal from the back of the room.

Needless to say, I barely even talked about Surreal, but I think I crammed in some good points about how being an entrepreneur is ridiculously not easy, which I don’t think most people realize. I also was happy that I spent some time defining what an entrepreneur is. What I said was:

“You are an entrepreneur when, and only when, you are taking some sort of personal risk in order to achieve goals that you have defined. To me it’s a state of being, not a perpetual label you can slap on anyone. There’s a reason people are called serial entrepreneurs, because they keep becoming one.”

A few more points I mentioned to the group:

• It’s hard, really hard, don’t think it’s easy to run your own business.
• You aren’t working hard enough. I go to bed at 4am most nights (mind you, I do get up at like noon). Even I’m not working as hard as I can. It’s tough to plow through the fatigue and get your shit done.
• You don’t have a business until you have a client.
• Don’t spend all day on Twitter or news sites.
• Pick up the phone and call that potential client. It’s terrifying until you actually do it.

I’m glad I was part of the first meetup in Viña.  I hope I can participate in many more to come!

“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

Arriving in Santiago the conductor on the metro line was telling people that several stations were closed… or rather, under siege. We, however, didn’t speak enough Spanish to interpret this and we got off at our regular stop at the University de Chile, to go to the CORFO Start-Up Chile offices. The second we got off the train we thought we could smell someone welding, or something burning. Turns out that smell was tear gas, and the burning was our lungs!

Tear gas ain’t so bad. You just start crying like a little girl, your throat gets all scratchy and you wish you were miles away. We didn’t even get that much of it, just what had drifted down from the street above. Either way we needed to march through the subway station, backtracking a few times because entrances were blocked by riot police, until we finally found open air. It was a bit better then, but not much. Good thing the 10th story of Moneda 975 awaited us across the street. At this point they hadn’t boarded up the glass at the front of the building in anticipation of a full-scale riot.

The reason for all these protests is the state of the education system here in Chile. Apparently it’s not so great. I’m a personal fan of the idea that education should be mandatory and free until you are finished high school. Then, if the student can sustain a minimum grade point level in university there should be automatic scholarships that cover their entire tuition. The University of Alberta has a half-cooked version of this where if you maintain a 3.3 you are awarded $1000 per semester, or around 1/4 of your costs. Hopefully the student groups gain some good ground. I’m glad that they keep condemning the government’s non-specific and poor proposals.

Anyway, at least we got to have a good discussion about our reimbursements with our Start-Up Chile account executive. If you’re applying to this program in the future, keep in mind that you will need twice the cash on hand that you originally planned, and that you will not get reimbursed until you have paid for an item, or completed the service that was paid for. For example, they won’t reimburse a credit card purchase until you show that you’d paid it off. Also, a flight won’t be reimbursed until you have actually gotten on the plane, since you could potentially change it after they paid you back.

So far our team has spent about $10,000, we anticipate getting maybe $8,000 back. We had three flights from Canada, hostels, apartment deposit and agency fee, VISA requirements, insurance, and on and on. Once we get our first reimbursement completely done and back I will post copies of it for whomever is interested.

The Start-Up Chile team is doing a pretty good job, but they are hindered by a lot of red tape from the government that is beyond their control. One example is the idea of original contracts. In Canada, a scanned or faxed copy of a contract is good enough for most things. Here in Chile they must have the original paper with original signatures, copies don’t fly.

One thing I’ve recommended to SUP is that they get all the startup teams on a separate Google Apps domain. Ie. eric.warnke@supchile.org or whatever. This would massively streamline all the documentation and communication problems that have plagued the group. I’ll write a separate post about how amazing Google Apps is at another time. If any of you at Start-Up Chile (yes you!), want to sit down with me and chat about streamlining processes I’d be happy to help, I’m no stranger to implementing more efficient technology in small businesses or startups.

You can read more about Start-Up Chile here. It’s still not to late to apply for the next round, which, despite it all, I still highly recommend!

You can read more about the 2011 Chile student protests here.

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!