Not sure if this will be useful to anyone else, but as my own personal memory proxy, here are the steps I like to take when starting a new rails project:

First, setup the project

• generate directory structure
  #> rails [projectname]

Second, setup the database and initial tables

1. create databases
   mysql> create database [projectname]_development
mysql> create database [projectname]_test
2. create database user
   mysql> grant all privileges on [projectname]_development.* to ‘[username]’@’localhost’ identified by ‘[password]’
mysql> grant all privileges on [projectname]_test.* to ‘[username]’@’localhost’ identified by ‘[password]’
3. update config/database.yml with proper usernames and passwords. Don’t forget to update the path of the mysql.sock file. On debian/ubuntu, add this to the dev & test database configs:
   socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
4. create migration
   #> ./script/generate migration initial_tables
5. define the schema in the migration file (db/migrate/001_initial_tables.rb) , remembering “proper” rails naming conventions
6. run the migration
   #> rake db:migrate

Third, get the basic CRUD app running

1. generate trestle
   #> script/generate trestle [modelname]
2. edit config/routes.rb to add a default route
   map.connect '', :controller => '[defaultcontroller]', :action => '[defaultaction]'
3. delete default html page
   #> rm public/index.html
4. start the webserver in daemon mode
   #> mongrel_rails start -d
5. connect to the app on port 3000

Now comes all the real fun…

Steve Job’s on design:

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,” Jobs told the Times. “That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

(via Straight Dope on the iPod’s Birth)

Last week, Greg Sterling posted about small businesses’ resentment of newspapers and Yellow Pages

I made a presentation last week to a group of landscaping business owners about online marketing, and boy, was that resentment tangible.

My presentation was part of a marketing seminar hosted by Judy Guido. Right before I got up, she asked the participants about their experience with the Yellow Pages.

There were two things the group (50 or so people) had in common:

• YP reps would drive them to bigger and bigger ads year after year. The reps are not incented to deliver better service but to increase their ad spend. Participants told stories about getting setup into ad-wars with their competitors by the sales reps.
• Despite their relatively large ad spends, results were really poor. One participant got 7 leads all year from a whole-page ad.

I’m going to rephrase a bit. The two reasons YP sucks for small business is:

1. Arrogance: “everyone has to advertise with us”
2. Unaccountability: Can you imagine a scenario where a YP publisher would partner with someone like Voicestar and provide tracking numbers to all their advertisers? I can’t, although I’d love to be proved wrong.

Arrogance and unaccountability are systemic problems that won’t be solved without YP publishers risking cutting the neck of their golden goose.

The challenge for those of us providing new Sincere and Accountable advertising vehicles is something that YP mastered long ago:

• Simplicity. Companies like Leads.com, Marchex and Reach Local are heading in the right direction
• Visibility. Google & Yahoo are certainly getting there, but they fail miserably on the Simplicity front.

Greg, I don’t have any hard numbers for you, but the 50 people in the seminar I was at sure had quite a few more YP-resentment anecdotes to add to your collection.

I’d also love to see some real research done on this.

I’m (finally) getting around to building a simple app with Rails. Installation of the various pieces (ubuntu, mysql, ruby, gems & rails) has gone surprisingly smoothly.[1]

I created three databases in mysql (dev, test & production), created and installed a simple schema making sure to use the proper table naming conventions, and made sure all the other prerequisites were taken care of.[2]

I was excited to finally get to the juice, generating a scaffold (or a trestle, as the case may be), that would allow simple create, update and delete on the tables.

Damn.

MySQL SConfiguration
Trying to generate either a scaffold or a trestle, I got the error

No such file or directory – /tmp/mysql.sock

This was a relatively straight-forward fix

• Add “socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock” to my development db config in database.yml (this path is of course specific to debian/ubuntu).

Woo hoo! I’m ready to generate again…

Damn.

MySQL & Ruby on Rails password incompatibilites

This time generating a trestle I got an odd error

Before updating trestle from new DB schema , try creating a table for your model ()

And the same thing when trying to generate a scaffold:

Before updating scaffolding from new DB schema , try creating a table for your model ()

This one proved to be a bit more tricky to figure out.

I knew that my table used the proper naming conventions, and that I could access the development db just fine from the command line.

Based on stuff floating in various forums, I removed my password and lo & behold, I was able to generate scaffolds/trestles, as well as access the app without a problem.

But not having a password won’t do. At least now I had a direction to investigate.

As of MySQL 4.1, there’s a new password hashing algorithm, and previous versions of Rails had problems with the new hashing algorithm.

Turns out that there are a couple of key pieces of information that took a while to track down:

• Even though there’s a new password hashing algorithm in mysql, it doesn’t mean that it’s enabled by default. To see if your version of mysql is using old-style passwords, just do a “select user, password from user;” if your password is 16 characters long, mysql is set to use old-style passwords.
• The rails mysql driver is expecting the new-style 41-character hashed password.

All right, cool. So we just have to get them synched up: both of them using the old-style passwords, or both of them using the new-style. I went for trying to get both of them using the latest and greatest.

In my installation (via apt-get originally), there’s a section in /etc/mysql/my.cnf (line 46):

1. For compatibility to other Debian packages that still use
2. libmysqlclient10 and libmysqlclient12
   old_passwords = 1

   Now that we’ve identified the problem, the fix is simple:

   • Comment out the “old_passwords” line in /etc/mysql/my.cnf
   • Restart mysql
   • Update the password for the user in mysql—set password for ‘username’@’localhost’ = password(‘password’);
   • Make sure that your rails app database.yml file has the correct password
   • Restart your rails server – WebBrick, mongrel, lighttpd, etc. (WebBrick & mongrel are easy; see this thread on how to do it for lighty)

After I did that, scaffolds & apps have been working like a charm.

[1] My environment is:

• ubuntu dapper drake (6.06)
• mysql 5.0.22
• ruby 1.8.4
• rails 1.1.6
  Installation of the rails stuff followed “The Recommended Way” from this article on the Rails Wiki

  [2] Prereqs:

• db: create the development database
• db user: set up a user to access the database (grant all privileges on *.* to ‘username’@’localhost’ identified by ‘password’)
• db table: plural lowercase w/ underscores (e.g. ‘user_profiles’)
• database.yml: make sure that the development database name, username & password are all correct
• scaffold model name: singular CamelCase (e.g. script/generate scaffold UserProfile)

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted.

In the interim, Irita and I have had a beautiful daughter, Isabela Patrice Valdez-Smith (we’re calling her Isa—pronounced like Lisa without the L), I did a great sailing trip to a chain of islands in the Bahamas, the Exumas, and I’ve continued to work away at Market Hardware

Ironically, I haven’t posted because I have too much to say. And probably too much to process.

I’m blown away by the depth of feeling, the life learning and overall overwhelmingness of what it’s been to have a child.

Caring for Isa was, as expected, difficult at first; the first 6 to 8 weeks especially—we’re guessing, she’s upset and it’s the middle of the night. Nights in a row. But we eventually found our balance, she found hers, and we’ve settled into a great routine.

And having a child has magnified whatever small frictional points Irita and I have. Prior to this, we’ve made a point to establish great communication and work through issues as they arise. And I’m glad we did that—we’re putting the practice to good use.

Overall, though, the whole experience, from her birth (beautiful, violent, courageous), to her holding my finger as she was being weighed, to the sweetness of her breath on my neck last night, has been amazing. Seeing Irita give birth and now be a fantastic caregiver makes me feel grateful, amazed, blessed.

And Isa really couldn’t be better—she’s rarely upset, sleeps well, and does a great “brown bear” imitation when she’s falling asleep.

This is very cool.

Yahoo has publically released both Core UI Utilities & UI Controls as well as their design pattern library

Think of these as ethnographic observations rather than recommendations, but Marc Hedlund over at O’Reilly has listed seven software development practices he’s seen duplicated in several “Web 2.0” startups:

1. The shadow app – detailed glimpses into user behavior on your public-facing application
2. Sampling and testing – why debate features over and over when you can roll out a test and quickly decide which option your users “animal brains” prefer?
3. Build on your own API – “eat your own dogfood” and develop your app using the same api that you make publically accessible
4. Ship timestamps not versions – continuous minor changes spell the death of major versions
5. Developers—and users—do the quality assurance – take away the developer’s net; intimately connected to the next point
6. Developers and executives do the support – make developers responsible for not only building but also answering customer questions and compaints about specific features
7. The eternal beta – this one’s been talked about a lot; Marc makes the point that it grows out of the reorientation caused by the preceeding behaviors.

Some very fun foodie figurines:

Spent some time this morning going through some of the the 70-odd presentations from Demo 2006

Here are some products that caught my eye

• Intelligent Cross-sell from CNET Channel – a rules-based engine for complicated merchandising combinations (demo)
• EQO – Skype on your cell phone using a Java Mobile app (demo)
• Krugle – a search engine for source code (demo)
• LogLogic – “Google for your system and application logs” (demo)
• MooBella – fresh icecream from a vending machine (demo)
• StreetDeck – hackable computer for your car with features out of the box that include mapping, mobile phone integration, satellite radio, mp3 player integration, dvd player, vehicle diagnostics, wifi synch and lots more, including a software development kit (demo)
• Plum – collect disaggregated information across the web, organize and share it if you want (demo)
• Riya – automatically organize your digital photos through face recognition along with some tantalizing search capabilities (demo)
• Pleo from Ugobe – really cool “organic robotics” technology applied to a friendly baby dinosaur (demo)
• Vizrea Snap – share and organize photos from your camera phone; unfortunately only for the Nokia N60 right now (demo)

There’s not necessarily a direct correllary between cool products and viable businesses, but I’m hoping these are able to take root.

I haven’t been posting here much, but check out Market Hardware’s Compass, where I’ve been posting regularly (along with colleagues Heidi Scanlon and Jim Short) about small business marketing, customer services, and various helpful online tools.