MangoOrange™

Due to my busy schedule, I can no longer monitor the forum and worst of all, it got heavily spammed. I will be removing it and support will back to the normal system where you leave your request/problems on the respective product's page.

written by mangoorange \\ tags: Announcements, forum, support

Last week, I signed up an account with Webfaction, for my latest Django (sounds like Jungle) adventure. So far, it's one of the few web hosting companies out there that offer support for Django framework and they did a superb job at it. I love them.

A few days back, I wrote my first Django app, Tweeeter, after following a few tutorials. With the app, I think it will be great to get it deployed to have a full experience from programming to deployment. So I followed the tutorial from Webfaction's knowledgebase.

However, I felt the approach has messed up the normal structure that I usually used, which is having apps folder and includes folder in the django project folder. The tutorial shows how to server static files by creating Webfaction's app. So if you have 10 static folders, you will have to create 10 Webfaction's app, which I can't understand why I must do it. So, after hours of trying, with the help of Webfaction's support, it finally works the way I wanted.

So how do I setup my own django app in Webfaction?

I followed exactly what the tutorial said except the part of setting up the static files. Instead of creating multiple apps, I just add the following to the apache/httpd.conf in the djangoproject.

Alias /includes/ /home/username/webapps/webfactionapp/djangoproject/includes/
 
    SetHandler None

Alias /media/ /home/username/webapps/webfactionapp/lib/python2.5/django/contrib/admin/media/
 
    SetHandler None

I hope it's clear enough. If there is any questions, feel free leave it in the comments.

written by mangoorange \\ tags: conf, Django, httpd, Python, static files, webfaction

As much as you wish it is true, it is not. I did some googling when I need to disable the HTTP authentication on one directory from the rest of the directories.

Usually you will have one configuration for all similar directories (i.e. /home/*/public_html) that enable the HTTP authentication. Now, you want only one of the directories (i.e. /home/mickeyckm/public_html) to be open to the public.

So all you need to do is to makesure the single directory configuration doesn't have any Auth*** entries and add in "Satisfy Any" and "AllowOverride All" to the configuration as highlighted below.

Below is a sample of the Apache configuration file:

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
        Options +Indexes
        AuthName "****"
        AuthType Basic
        AuthUserFile /****/****/****/passwords
        Require mickeyckm **** **** **** ****
        PythonPath "['/****/****/****/****']+sys.path"
        AddHandler mod_python .psp
        PythonHandler mod_python.psp
        PythonDebug On
        AllowOverride All
        PythonInterpPerDirectory On
        PythonAutoReload On
</Directory>

<Directory /home/mickeyckm/public_html>
        Options +Indexes
        PythonPath "['/****/****/****/****']+sys.path"
        AddHandler mod_python .psp
        PythonHandler mod_python.psp
        PythonDebug On
        PythonAutoReload On
        PythonInterpPerDirectory On
        Satisfy Any
        Allow from All
        AllowOverride All
</Directory>

[Image taken from here]

written by mangoorange \\ tags: Apache, authtype, http authentication

Had a good luncheon session yesterday with Yorgen Edholm at the Cabana Hotel. It's pretty interesting for him to share his knowledge on starting his previous company, Brio Technology.

A few takeaways from the session:

1. Plan is just a tool to measure performance, not meant to be follow strictly. Also, be flexible with the plan.
2. Good to hire marketing persons to generate more interests and leads, as compare to salespersons
3. Don't hire too many salespersons, because more salespersons does not mean more sales. He mentioned that he used to have a salesperson who are as efficient as the other eight salespersons he had. Also, scarcity of salespersons will help to come out more innovative ways to handle sales.
4. Don't let salespersons hijack the company. He mentioned that a salesperson could deliver promises like "This $Xmillion deal could go through if the product have Y features."
5. Deal direct with the customers' feedback/request. Sometimes, the salesperson might misinterpret the customers' expectation of a feature as their core competence is selling, not engineering.
6. Beware of Linear Thinkers. Linear Thinker is usually someone who has a set of rules in handling situations. These often come from someone who has past experience in large corporation. What can be done in the large corporation are not necessary useful in a startup.
7. Linear Thinkers and Genius doesn't get along well. Genius is sometimes erratic.
8. From Yorgen's experience, he found out that "there is no positive correlation between more education and better problem solving ability in a startup environment"
9. Startup is more of an art than science.
10. Too much money and people are a big problem in a startup. When having too much money, procrastination tends to happen.
11. A specialist that doesn't understand the situation should move on. He mentioned that he once used to have an experience CEO in the board of directors, but this person doesn't understand the situation of the company. He only give advise based on what he experience in the past.
12. Don't start the company with spouse and family members.

written by mangoorange \\ tags: Entrepreneurship, startups, talks

I'm so proud of myself. I finally put together my very own, first Django project, FakeTwitter. I just created a simple wall to post with a timestamp. Simple stuff, but I have a wonderful time doing it.

Here's the screenshot of FakeTwitter.

written by mangoorange \\ tags: Django, Python, twitter