Diego's web

About a year ago we decided to rebuild gamezone.com from scratch since it was built on Expression Engine and not only it had poor performance but it also was very hard to add features to.

As my weapon of choice Rails was used and with a very small, but great, team we were able to do it all in about 3 months.

Once we had the project working the question came up on where to actually host it. Gamezone is a site with a lot of traffic and the hosting is really critical.

We had a couple servers with Rackspace already and we decided to use their cloud for this site too. Setup with them is always a breeze. The load balancer, app and db servers were up in minutes and after the standard configuration the site was ready for testing.

We used LoadStorm to load test the servers and it worked flawlessly.

The problem started when we had to scale the service from the initial load to support the additional users that started to join after we started to add more features.

We had some scripts but it was very labor intensive to add servers or move stuff around. Moreover we started to run into some issues with Rails scaling and as we started to add more caching layers the pain grew. That’s why we decided to shop around.

I’ve been hearing great things about Engine Yard for a long time so we decided to take them for a spin. And since they have a free trial account it was even better.

The deploy process is really easy and their GUI/CLI tools are great so we were up and running in no time. You just pick the packages that you want to use and boom they are just there. I know that this is just a bunch of chef recipes in the backend but it is just beautiful how it works.

It was all very rosey until we decided to proceed and actually move to their services. Setting up the cluster was also a breeze just like the demo. The only problem was that some servers didn’t provision correctly so we had to terminate them and re create them, but no big deal.

After we had everything setup I noticed something: every time you deployed code that needed a migration the maintenance page would go up. I don’t know about you but I cannot have the server down for 5 minutes or more waiting for the migration to happen.

I contacted EY support and, always graciously, told me that Rails couldn’t handle rolling migrations but you could disable this at your own risk. Scratching my head a bit since I’ve always done migrations on live apps without problems, I decided to disable the “feature” (here is the code). Lo and behold nothing happened and we could do rolling migrations just fine.

Once that was settled we moved the DNS records and all went pretty smooth from there.

We had two minor issues worth mentioning. The first one was that with Rackspace we were used to having 4 virtual cores per server and now we have 2 (on the Medium High CPU instances) so we had to use large instances for the DB servers. The second one was that we had custom config settings for nginx and we didn’t know how to “keep” them. You can actually create “keep” files that engineyard won’t get rid of every time you apply the configuration.

If you have any questions about Rackspace, Engineyard or the process please comment below and I’ll do my best to answer!

Since the release of the App Store from Apple there was this talk about apps killing the web. Particularly this couple months there has been a lot of buzz about this and how the web would be dead in a couple years.

The idea is that people would use the Facebook app instead of using the web site. You would use the Yelp app instead of googling where to go to dinner, and so on.
This not only sounds good but it is actually a trend. Time spent inside apps in mobile phones is greater than web usage as a recent study pointed out.

There are a couple problems with this approach though:

One is that we are considering “apps” as a whole and we should split it in, at least, three categories: gaming/entertainment (like Angry Birds and Netflix), productivity, and informational/news.

For the first two categories I would definitively agree that the apps are killing everything else. My PSP is gathering dust like there is no tomorrow and I would use my basecamp app over any mobile web interface all day long. But for the news and information I don’t think they will ever replace the web.

The nature of the online world there is no app that will ever contain the amount of data (or be able to connect to an API to get it) that could live on a phone. Unless you consider the Google App a real app then nothing is going to beat a quick search on your browser to get some sports result, the definition of “bibulous” or what car brand has the most safe lineup.

There are apps dedicated to some of those things but that leads me to the second problem: discovery.

If you keep yourself within the limits of your apps you are missing a whole world out there. Even if you get news on you USA Today app you might not see what the Washington Post said. Even if you look at the cars.com listings you are missing a bunch of other postings in some other site.
And moreover, how would you find new apps? Just the market? Don’t think so.

Anyway I believe that we will have a long living ecosystem of apps and web for a long while so lets be all friends!

At Intergi we built a custom ad unit that is really nice. You can grab a bookmark let from a landing page and when you click on it on any website you can play change any picture of that page.

It allows you to add hats, change hair, add glasses and a bunch of other things.

After you are done you can submit it as a contest entry with just a click.

It was built using javascript, flash and ruby on rails.

You can check it out at syfy.gamezone.com

The passing of Steve Jobs and, the following week, Dennis Ritchie made me think about what they did and we all do in technology.

Usually you hear people say, and even complain, that technology changes too quickly. That what you get one day the next is obsolete. And you can argue that at some point that is true but it is mostly a marketing gimmick.

If you start to think of what Mr. Ritchie created you can’t be short of amazed. He created the programming language C and was part of the development team of Unix.

Those two tools are not only the building blocks of a lot of technologies, like Mac OS and Objective C (the language for iOS apps), but they are tools that are being used Today. Those projects have moved forward from what was the original versions, probably beyond recognition of the first version, but still keep the same structure and idea.

You can say the same thing about the windowed GUI for personal computers. It started in the Apple Lisa about 30 years ago and we still use the same concept. The look and finish are completely different but I am typing this in a window not a door, or a cube or a quantum space.

Basically you can say the same thing about hardware and software, the fit and finish change on every breathe but the underlying technologies are pretty much the same. In fact I believe that there is less focus these days in figuring out the deep end of the technology and there is an overrated bias towards the “revolutionary” applications that come and go.

After applying a couple times to Startup School I was finally invited this year. Every year I hear the talks online and look at the lineup and just feel that I had to be there.

And, well, it didn’t disappoint It was a great summit, great speakers and a superb audience. This was my first time in the valley but I will write about that in another post.

The first talk was by Marc Andresson and was great start since it was so cool learning a bit about the beginnings of the modern web. And how he could barely believe what it was being unlocked by the browser, people would not only post existing stuff but create new content just for the web.

Another very inspiring talk was Ashton Kutcher’s. Even though most wouldn’t think much about him, he is very smart and was very nice during the day. He did a bit of story telling but the message was that you should help people not only for the money but to be good.

Zuckerberg was interviewed by Jessica Livingston and it was really funny how some times it felt like Facebook was a bit of an accident and he didn’t think it would become what it is Today.

Max Levchin’s talk was the most practical of them all and, also, one of the most candid ones. He was another great speaker.

A recurring topic was that you should think big, think long term and don’t try to “flip” a business. A startup is where you would be for at least 5 years and you should pick your idea carefully.

Here is a snippet of each speaker of what stuck with me most of what they said:

Marc Andressen (Netscape, Andressen Horowitz): It’s better to be a technical CEO who learnt the business stuff. CEOs are not born with shiny hair and a suit.

James Lindenbaum (Heroku): Building tools for developers is very hard but very good. And being bashed by Larry Ellison is a good sign.

Jim Goetz (Sequoia): Build companies that last. Think big but start small, unknown entrepreneurs are the future leaders.

Ashton Kutcher (Agrade): “If you want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, you will always be second best, because Mark Zuckerberg will always be a better Mark Zuckerberg than you.” Don’t jump to the effect, start by the cause of the problem.

Matt Mullenweg (Auttomatic): Be your own user and force the whole company to do support so all of you feel the pain.

Mark Pincus (Zynga): Never waste a single engineering hour. Test, test, test. Go all in.

Paul Graham (Y combinator): Look for problems to solve not random startup ideas.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook): The biggest risk is not taking any, try moving fast even if you have issues. Also, you don’t need to be in Silicon Valley unless you know nothing about businesses and you need lots of help.

Stephen Cohen (Palantir): Trying to fix huge problems can actually work. The product advice you get from a VC is worth as much as you are paying for it.

Max Levchin (Paypal): You don’t need a cofounder but you do need someone to tell you that “everything is going to be fine” without being complacent. Ignore your mistakes.

Ron Conway (SV Angel): Design and user experience is the new IP. Entrepreneurs who own their user’s mind succeed.

Drew Houston (Dropbox): The fastest way to learn about startups is being in one, not b-school. Learn a bit about everything. And surround yourself with people that can help you.

Overall I found the talks very inspiring and most of the speakers very kind.

Thanks to Y combinator for inviting me and all the speakers for taking the time.

One of my clients was having issues uploading content to their website. The site is a simple CMS but since we were using TinyMCE anything that they would paste from Word it will get some weird format.
Enter the “paste” plugin for TinyMCE which cleans that up and boom uploading in no time and with no more issues.

Another small big change was on a bigger site that I am working on: I moved the login from a standalone page to the modal and now it is much quicker for the users.

As the title says, small changes go a long way.

Recently there was a lot of talk about Apple not supporting Flash in the iPad. Moreover, there were articles in the press stating that Steve Jobs said Adobe was “lazy” when developing Flash. Those remarks were the cue for Adobe to enter the field and hit by saying that Apple has created a closed platform that can only be governed by them.

Basically most of the opinion articles around the web either say that Apple is right because Flash apps would crash the iPhone/iPad or that Adobe is right because it is the user’s device and he can do whatever he wants with it.

If we try to understand each company’s policies, and market behavior, we can see how they reached this situation.

Apple is a company that is forward looking, there are tiny compromises in terms of compatibility. This was proven over time like when the iMac shipped without a floppy disk or the Macbook Air without an optical one. Not only that but most of Mac OS releases only worked with a limited amount of older computers.

This means that Apple is always trying to bring the best possible experience to the user regardless of what is out there. Flash is proven to be less than optimum in the Mac and you can only imagine how it would look like in the iPhone. So they just decided not to support it.

Adobe, in the other hand, always tries to be compatible across the board. Flash, a technology that Adobe bought from Macromedia, was developed to bring compatibility, and extended features, to the web.

It is definitively not an easy task to be compatible with every platform out there, kudos to Adobe on that, but the compromise they need to do in order to bring Flash to every device almost ruins the user experience in some.

Furthermore, there are news today that Adobe wants to bring it’s AIR system to different platforms on the mobile space so developers can have one version of their app that works across the board.

As a user it’s frustrating that I cannot see Hulu on my iPhone but it is not pleasant seeing my CPU hitting 100% when I am watching it on my Mac.

That is why, in my opinion, new standards of web technology are needed that work on every device that supports them so there is no need for an artificial abstraction layer that compromises speed and reliability in terms of compatibility.

Nowadays it is almost instinctive for any business to create a website. Basically every person that is asked if a business should have one would doubt very little to reply affirmatively. But when asked “Why?” the doubt starts to grow.

It is so simple and so powerful that is hard to imagine why not, but in this humble post we will try to explain why it is not only important to have a website but a good one.

Before the internet was born businesses used strategies to promote themselves like having a big sign on top of the store, advertise on newspapers or TV, mail coupons or fliers, have a nice window display and rely on the happy customers to spread the word about it. This strategies are still being used today but they are moving online.

Having a website for your business is like opening a new virtual office or store. Visitors will come in, look around and eventually convert to customers or leave. It doesn’t matter if you sell shoes or plumbing services. Visitors will come in, and if your website works properly, you will get new customers.

And the beauty is that not only are you opening a virtual office for visitors around you but for a world wide audience. You might have the biggest sign on your town, but from two miles away it is hardly ever seen. You might have the biggest ad on the local paper but no one will call you from out of state. A website can open a business virtually unlimited opportunities.

The value of an internet presence is much more tangible for retail stores since they are opening their doors 24/7 to customers all over the world without much hassle. If your store is in Kentucky you wouldn’t care to ship your products to Bangladesh, there is almost no difference that shipping it to New York. For a small investment your possible customer base is expanded borderless.

So, what will a site provide you? First of all, presence. If you have your website it will be there when someone is looking for your products or services. It will also let you tell the story, it is not just a phone or address in the Yellow Pages but a display of what you want to tell your customers. If they have a warmer feeling about your website they will pick you instead of the competition, the battleground has changed. And lastly, it is a great tool to communicate with your patrons. Not only you can tell your message to them, but you can also hear them back, receive feedback about your work and how to improve it.

With the present status of the internet the communication is not only between you and your customers, but between them. The mouth to mouth marketing has moved to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. If you fix computers and someone was happy about your work they will talk about it and your site can be the hub of that information, and if someone was unhappy you can prevent the word from spreading by just saying sorry.

It is now clear that you must have a website. The quality and functionality of it will depend on your budget and willingness but if it is just a free one with the business description and a phone you are on the right track.

A couple months ago Google started a campaign about their Google Apps products called “Go Google”. We have no affiliation with them but I must say that we have been using their products and I can provide some insight about how it is to live with an online suite of productivity and collaboration tools.

Google Apps is basically designed to work for every type of organization: from a small group to a big corporations. If you are a small business or group with up to 50 members you can opt for the Standard Edition which is completely free and provides most of the features you could want. If you need more users or more that 7gb of storage per user you can choose the Premier Edition.

These Google Apps that we are referring to include: Email, Calendar, Contacts, Word processor, Spreadsheet, Presentations, Google talk and Google Sites. In Microsoft terms this is Exchange + Office + Messenger.

If you ever asked about Exchange you probably know that the cost of a MS Exchange setup can cost thousands of dollars and you need quite some time and knowledge to get it right. And if your team grows over time you need to spend more in Exchange licenses.

Having that in mind , Google Apps is a huge money saver. But it not only it has an advantage from the money point of view, it also saves time in the setup (it’s almost as easy as opening a gmail account), and it has a great interface for web collaboration. You can use it online in any computer in the world and you don’t have to rely on the IT team or your internet connection. Google had some outages but they are minor compared with the things that can go wrong with your own setup.

They even have interfaces for iPhone and free POP/IMAP email so you can read it in Outlook.

For me it was a no brainer, it works great and it is really easy to manage.

There are plenty of online sites that claim they can get you rich online, most of them are scams and some others get real in very few cases, but this blog is not going to be about it. We want to help real people, with real jobs, improve their work and their business with online tools, tips and solid advice.

My name is Diego Lapiduz, I will be one of the writers here. I am an economist who has specialized in business IT  who have been working on the web for over 10 years now at Sinai Studio.

The title of this post will be the general topic of the blog: how to make or save money by using online tools or IT strategies on your current business.