I announced yesterday that I’m leaving StepOut. Have you ever spent several years working towards something larger than yourself? This was my first time doing that. In college, you have projects that last for a few weeks. Maybe a semester. This one lasted me 5 years. You know the difference between a 5-week project and a 5-year project? If you’re lucky, if you really care, and if Read the article >>
There’s an old cliche that entrepreneurship is a journey, not a destination. If that’s true, then my journey has been a particularly long & windy one. In 2008, I quit my entry-level job in Philadelphia and moved to Boulder, Colorado with two guys I’d met on craigslist (now my co-founders) within 10 days. In 2009, we moved to New York City to grow our online group-dating site. In 2010, Read the article >>
I just had to fix a tricky issue with one of my mysql boxes. I’m posting a diagnosis below. If you don’t live & breathe MySQL DB admin every day, probably better to move on now. The issue is characterized by several ‘unauthenticated’ mysql users attempting to connect to the box on version 5.0.77. Here’s a screenshot of mytop: Here is the same diagnostic information in text form Read the article >>
Like many web engineers who have built teams as their startups have grown, I do not have an MBA. If you are like me in-so-far as you value management practice over theory, you probably learned to bootstrap & scale as a leader without one. That hasn’t stopped me from developing my own theories. Reading this quora thread on why many engineers detest their management reminds me, I have Read the article >>
EDIT: This bookmarklet is now defunct — I recommend users migrate to this IFTTT recipe. There are a few good tools around the web to export instagram pics from your account. Unfortunately, these tools only allow you to export you *own* photos from Instagram. Well, I’d like to be able to copies of other photos on Instagram too. I just coded up a bookmarklet that allows me to export anyone’s Read the article >>
Since I am in NYC and my team is in Mumbai, I usually wake up at an ungodly time to go for a run and then take calls with the indian team. I like to call my morning calls my “punch me in the face” wake up calls. When you’re a web startup moving as fast as we are, capturing a billion+ person market, building a product across 9 time zones, shit is bound to break. Daily. From speaking with…
As a startup CTO, one of the most challenging parts of my job is being on call. As the teams technology lead, I am responsible for all aspects of our technology, and that covers DevOps. When the site is experiencing abnormally high load, and you get paged, it’s time to jump into the fray. Into the hot seat. Where every second counts. I often chat with DevOps engineers at meetups, each has Read the article >>
The dream of integrating man and machine to create an Augmented Reality has been a feature of hundreds of science fiction books since the beginning of the computer revolution. By combining digital technology with ‘stereoscopic heads up displays’, projects like Google Glass offer the first opportunity for consumers to experience blur the line between real reality and virtual reality. Here are Read the article >>
I’m often introduced to folks who have been doing consulting/tech/corporate/academic work for a while, and are looking to start a tech startup. They have an idea, and if they’re good, a network of potential investors/mentors. Hopefully they have done their research on their market, finished up some initial customer development and have a paper prototype. The problem is: they don’t know how to build Read the article >>
Tweet. Text. E-Mail. Instant Message. Ring. Buzz. Growl. Chime. By the time you are done reading this post, you’ve likely received multiple requests for your attention. Perhaps they came in the form of notifications on a shiny new Apple device. Or maybe they were interruptions from your office environment around you. If you are not in your office on your Apple device, perhaps Read the article >>