Rod Blog

Thoughts on Social Media, Technology & Startups…

…and along comes Pinterest

January 23rd, 2012 Posted in social media
Jan, 23 2012
2 Comments »

In case you have been in a social media cave somewhere there is a hot new site people are flocking to called Pinterest. Now you may say Pinterest isn’t really new but, it has been garning a lot of new attention lately. Enough that they received around 27 million in funding recently.  They also employ the exclusivity motivator in that you need to be on a waiting list to get access.  I waited 2 days.

I got more interested in exploring Pinterest when I talked to several people at a New Year’s Party that were becoming “addicted” to the platform.  I asked “What are you doing on Pinterest?”
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Cassandra – High Performance Cookbook

August 12th, 2011 Posted in software development
Aug, 12 2011
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I’ve been exploring several NoSQL solutions this year including MongoDB, CouchDB, Riak, HBase and Cassandra. For one problem set we are trying to solve it appears Cassandra is a good fit.

The challenge with using any new technology is there is a learning curve and new techniques to learn. If you get in deep with a technology you will soon find the limitations and maybe even “bugs”. You need to understand how it is built enough to know if there are acceptable workarounds and what directions will simply be dead ends. In searching for more information about Cassandra I came across a new book “Cassandra High Performance Cookbook” by Edward Capriolo and was asked to review it. Here is that review: Read the rest of this entry »

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Solved! My Laptop Can Take Networks Down

July 17th, 2011 Posted in general
Jul, 17 2011
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So I’ve been working with PC’s ,Windows and networking for quite a while. I’ve seen a lot of crazy things but recently I had a problem that has been both bizarre and extremely frustrating.

I have a new laptop that is wicked fast that I am very happy with except for one major problem. It would connect to some wireless networks and not others. Unfortunately one of the networks it wouldn’t connect to was my home network, frustrating! But, wait there is more. Not only would it not connect to my home network it had the bizarre side effect of taking my entire network down! That’s right, every PC, laptop, media player, set top box, phone got kicked off the internet and wouldn’t get back on. Read the rest of this entry »

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Empire Avenue – Social Media Exchange

June 2nd, 2011 Posted in social media, startup
Jun, 02 2011
1 Comment »
Empire Avenue

Social Media Exchange

What’s Empire Avenue About?

If you are an active participant in any of the usual social media channels you’ve probably seen Empire Avenue mentioned.    Empire Avenue is billed as a “Social Media Exchange”.  Basically a stock market where you can invest in other people, brands, companies, etc… that are big players or not so big players in social media.

You start by setting up an account and pick your ticker symbol.  If you sign up soon there are still plenty of great symbols available  (I have WHIS for my personal accounts and CROWD for my startup CrowdMesh).   You can then earn virtual currency, called “Eaves”, by linking your accounts and participating in social media (twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc..), or on EA’s Communities.
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Anatomy of Crunch-Time

May 19th, 2011 Posted in software development
May, 19 2011
2 Comments »
Tired Software Developer

Crunch-Time Participant

If you’ve been in a web or software development group you’ve probably experienced what is commonly referred to as crunch-time.  Crunch-time is when the deadline is quickly approaching for a project and everyone has to put in extra hours at night or weekends to get the project completed.

 

I’ve worked on numerous projects where the seems to happen and also numerous others where it wasn’t required.  So why is there a need for crunch time? It is simply poor time estimation , over ambitious goals, lack of resources, inflexible deadlines? Those are certainly factors.

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