Planet Startup

Git is a Pain in the Ass

2009-01-06T17:26:00+00:00

Everyone's been talking about how great and wonderful git is, and I've tried using it for a few projects of my own, on a local basis, sort of like an advanced form of 'rcs'. So I thought I'd try it out in a little bit more complicated setup, for a site I host on my web server. I want to have a main repository, that I "check out" (or 'clone', in git terms) on my laptop. My laptop can't be the main repository, because I also want to be able to commit from the web server (once in a while a quick live update is called for), so I need a stable address. Ok, I'll put it in my home directory on the web server, just to see how things work.

mkdir foobar
cd foobar
git init

Ok, so far so good. Now I try and clone it on my laptop, where I will then add files, commit, then push them.

Oops, that doesn't work. You can't clone an empty repository.

Ok, I add something on the server where I init'ed it, an empty file, just to give it some content. Now cloning it works on the laptop. Great, we're in business! I add a bunch of files from the project to the laptop repository, commit, then push them. Seems to be ok so far... I do a checkout on the remote/server machine, and I see my files. Good. Ok, let's try making a change on the laptop. I remove a file, commit it, push it (which is already an extra step compared to subversion... hrmph). I do a checkout on the server, but it won't erase the file I removed on the laptop. Weird. I google around a bit, and find that this is supposed to be for my own good, so I won't wreck things on the server. I need to do git reset --hard (which isn't a very reassuringly named command) there, and then a checkout, and now things work.

That, however, is a lot of work just to commit and update stuff! I ask for some help on #git, where they mention the --bare option to init. Since I'm just messing around, I go back and redo the init step, wiping the old repository. Now I try and clone that to start over again. Oops, I forgot, I can't clone it because it's empty. Grrrrrr.... this is getting annoying.

So, the kind folks on #git tell me I should push to the new server repository from one that's already populated. Ok, let's try setting up the laptop:

git init
... add/commit some files ...
git remote add origin ...myurl...

Now let's try pushing. Nope, still doesn't do it, I'm missing something. Frustrating. A bit more fiddling and googling, and i find:

get push origin master

Aha! It worked! Weird. And now a simple git push works too. The whole thing seems kind of shaky in the sense that it's not very confidence inspiring: I feel like it wouldn't take much to make a wrong turn and find all my files gone forever. I can see some of the advantages, and will likely stick with it - git is quite convenient for local files that I might not have bothered putting under version control in the past, but it's also a bit more "bureaucratic" in that you have more steps to do, and you have to fill in the forms just so... or else!

Interview with Intruders.tv

2009-01-06T15:46:24+00:00

Thanks to Jof and Vincent from Intruders.tv for doing the interview!

Help with a New Years resolution…

2009-01-06T02:15:32+00:00

Tomorrow I’m going to be posting my New Years post called ‘12 people I want to meet in 2009′. I wasn’t going to do any kind of resolutions. They last 2-3 months and don’t really mean that much anyways. Then I got a great idea from Tiho over at Rypple to crowdsource my resolutions…

So, I’d like to ask you guys to help me out a bit. I’d like feedback from you. Feel free to use a fake name if you want in your comment. Let me know how you think this blog can improve and if you know me personally PLEASE let me know how you think I can improve in 2009. I’m very open to feedback so please be bold and provide it.

I’ll obviously be posting many of the comments. Thanks very much.

Why the downturn is good for starting…from Hubspot CEO

2009-01-05T23:53:11+00:00

Dharmesh wrote another post on why the economic resession is good for startups. I wanted to post 2 that I’ll be keeping closely in mind as SocialDreamium really picks up here in early 2009.

You need constraints to build great software. If there’s one thing we’ve got plenty of in this economy, it’s constraints. Make good use of them.

Constraints enforce discipline. You’ll need to, among other things, manage your expenditure, focus on making products that people actually want to buy, learn the difference between cash flow and profitability and figure out how to market on a shoe-string. Now is an excellent time to forge those skills. You will need them the next time things go bad.

In difficult times, skill and hard work, which you can control, become more important than luck, which you can’t. I like this soccer analogy. If you want to compare my soccer skills with David Beckham’s then don’t put us both six feet away from an open goal and ask us to kick a ball into the net. I might get lucky, and he might show off and miss. Instead, start us off from the other end of pitch against a couple of defenders and a goalkeeper. Then you’ll get a true picture.

Starting a business is risky, but not as risky as you think. The oft-stated fact that 90% of startups fail within their first year is an urban myth. In reality, the four year survival rate for IT startups is over 50%, and there’s no evidence that this is significantly lower for companies founded in a downturn. And most start-ups that fail don’t crash and burn, owing people money and bankrupting their founders. They are quietly wound down, or sold on, and the founders set something else up or return to employment, with the added skills that even attempting, and failing, to build a business bring.

Dharmesh is an obvious thought leader and subject matter expert when it comes to software startups which is the direction that SocialDreamium seems to be taking. With the combination of his expertise and his optimism, I’ll be listening closely.

Charlie O’Donnel’s prediction collection

2009-01-05T17:34:40+00:00

I just wrote last week about not making prediction…I’m still not going to spend my time thinking about what could happen. I’m going to focus on making it happen. But, Charlie O’Donnel CEO of PATH101 made this collection of predictions from man well informed web folks about what is to come in 2009. Enjoy…also leave comments on Charlie’s blog here.

Go Bolts!

2009-01-05T03:19:47+00:00

Utah - National Champions of 2008!

2009-01-04T22:06:00+00:00

Congratulations to Utah, National Champions of 2008!

What a game! After seeing Alabama being able to hang with Utah for only about a quarter I have no doubt this team would have absolutely no problems dealing with Florida not to mention OU.

Texas Longhorns fans should drop their bitterness about OU playing for the title - the title game has been played already and Utah won it hands down. Even the most hardcore college football fan wouldn’t be able to disagree without making a fool out of himself: Alabama spent more time at #1 spot than any other team in the country, Alabama actually had weaker schedule than Utah and “non-BCS schedule” argument doesn’t apply. Should I state the obvious and say that Florida didn’t beat Bama as convincingly as Utah did? I mean did anyone question Utah’s superiority at any point in the game? Was it ever close? And here comes the kicker - Utah is the only undefeated team in the nation.

There is really not point for Florida and Oklahoma playing as far as National Championship question is concerned. I can only imagine the awkwardness of someone NOT from the state of Utah holding the trophy. I wonder if talking media heads will ignore this awkward and pathetic moment and won’t say a word about fucked up state of the BCS at the end of Florida vs OU game.

Congrats to Utah. At least I and my fellow longhorn friends will remember you as the 2008 National Champion. I almost wish this sort of thing happens every year just to trigger as much outrage as possible. Perhaps fans will have to resort to some street violence to alter the current BCS system fed by nothing but sheer greed.

Twitter? Hrm. Ok...

2009-01-02T18:11:00+00:00

Yoav's post about twitter was interesting:

http://yoavs.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-curious-thing-about-twitter.html

Personally, I don't really see the appeal. So far there are only two uses I have for it:

Lance Armstrong writes a fair bit, and even posts some pictures, and since I am a huge cycling fan, that's kind of fun to read.
I use the search API to keep track of people talking about my stuff... Hecl, LangPop.com, and so on. That's kind of handy, but it feels more like a big wiretap than a "conversation".

Other than that, it's another firehose of data that I really don't need - I probably read too much junk on the internet as it is.

Lessons from 2008, no predictions for 2009

2008-12-31T16:07:38+00:00

The first version of this post was a bit more detailed but I lost it because of wordpress sucking…here’s the second version.

Brad Feld wrote a post encouraging people not to post “2009 Predictions” or “2008 Year in Review” posts…I agree with him. I commented…

Brad- On the whole I completely agree, however, I will say that looking back on the year past is a good exercise if you do it with the attitude of, “what can we learn from 2008″. I always think its a good idea to look backward for lessons and forward for opportunities.

So, here are 3 lessons I learned. Please share your lessons from 2008 in the comments, I’d love to benefit from your experiences.

Lessons

1) Find out what is important and keep it close. I got engaged on Dec 26th and with the wide spread pessimism in the economy and around the world, I couldn’t feel any more optimistic about my future with the future Mrs. Graves.

2) If something motivates you, do it. One of the hardest things to find is passion and motivation in your professional life. If you stumble across something you enjoy that is motivating, then chase after it fervently. This world would be a lot better off if people did more things they enjoy and the likelihood of success is much higher if you enjoy your work.

3) Make the social web real. I’ve spent the last 6 months making a concerted effort to meet people in real life or over the phone from Twitter. There are more and more amazingly talented people joining the social web everyday making it more and more powerful. To fully take advantage of that power you’ve got to make web connections become real relationships.

Rant: Ubuntu, Google, J2ME

2008-12-30T22:44:00+00:00

Long day, lots of broken stuff. Rant time:

Ubuntu's Intrepid Ibex has way too many regressions. I've mentioned this before talking about wireless, but also on the sidelines are bluetooth and my laptop's multimedia keys. Other things are probably slipping my mind, but that's what's bugging me today. I've use Linux for a while, and am used to not always having everything working just right, but "it's never worked" is less annoying than "it used to work but this release broke it". Also, I bought this computer from Dell because it shipped with Ubuntu. I would have expected the Ubuntu guys to have a few around themselves to test on prior to release.
J2ME marketing: http://blogs.sun.com/hinkmond/entry/getjar_3rd_annual_mobile_awards GetJar is a nice service, and I put my own ShopList app there, but you can't seriously compare it to the Apple or Android stores without insulting my intelligence. What percentage of people with J2ME capable phones actually use GetJar? Is it on their phone when they turn it on? Can developers actually sell stuff there?
Google has started dumping lots of my mail in the spam folder since I switched the domain over to a new server. I can't believe they're dumping so much non spam mail, and yet can't figure out that I have never, not once, received an email written in Chinese characters that I actually wanted to read.

Add in some bugs and broken stuff of my own, and it's made for a frustrating day.