Romanos Fessas

So… I found myself googling how to use delayed_job without Rails, in a plain Ruby application. There’s lots of posts talking about how complicated it is and how “if it’s meant for Ralis, don’t bother trying to break it out.” But all it took was two small changes to make it happen (since you can’t use the Rails generators).

First, you have to manually create the migration and tables in your database. Look at the code on GitHub for delayed_job by collectiveidea. It’s a simple migration, and I’ll assume for this that you already have ActiveRecord up & running.

class JobQueue < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :delayed_jobs, :force => true do |table|
      table.integer  :priority, :default => 0      
      table.integer  :attempts, :default => 0      
      table.text     :handler                      
      table.text     :last_error                   
      table.datetime :run_at                       
      table.datetime :locked_at                    
      table.datetime :failed_at                    
      table.string   :locked_by                    
      table.string   :queue                        
      table.timestamps
    end
  end
end

Second, you’ll need to recreate the Rake tasks that they have embedded in the gem, in order for you to be able to run rake jobs:work and other tasks. Eliminate any reference to :environment, since that’s not loaded for you in plain Ruby. Instead, require your main Ruby file (the one that loads all the active_record and model dependencies). Save this as Rakefile in your working directory.

require File.expand_path('../my_main_file', __FILE__)

namespace :jobs do

  desc "Clear the delayed_job queue."
  task :clear do
    Delayed::Job.delete_all
  end

  desc "Start a delayed_job worker."
  task :work => :environment_options do
    Delayed::Worker.new(@worker_options).start
  end

  desc "Start a delayed_job worker and exit when all available jobs are complete."
  task :workoff => :environment_options do
    Delayed::Worker.new(@worker_options.merge({:exit_on_complete => true})).start
  end

  task :environment_options do
    @worker_options = {
      :min_priority => ENV['MIN_PRIORITY'],
      :max_priority => ENV['MAX_PRIORITY'],
      :queues => (ENV['QUEUES'] || ENV['QUEUE'] || '').split(','),
      :quiet => false
    }
  end
end

You should be all set.

unlikelywords:

“If you’ve seen a better picture of a dog dressed as two pirates carrying a treasure chest today, I don’t believe you”

via @chiefbrody1984 / Stellar

Back temporarily while we explore other projects. Just the tip. Just to see
what it feels like.

Awesome video by Alec Brownstein on Tweetforger…

Wow. Needed some perspective…

home sweet home

Amazing how much consolidation takes place in food & packaged goods, and yet how little real competition exists in the meantime…

Just launched another fun project called What Color is Twitter? Predictably, you can find it at: http://www.whatcoloristwitter.com. Here’s a widget you can embed if you want to know every 10 minutes what color Twitter is.

Great infographic from Mashable on the current state of tech & services that make up the average startup’s arsenal. Almost as cool as the spying features you get with http://builtwith.com/, it’s a good validation of the things most of us take for granted. Some surprises (Evernote? Omnigraffle?), but generally a good gauge of what’s out there, what’s hot, and what others are doing. If you’re stumped, just go with Google…

Nobody ever got fired for buying Google

Being born in Greece means having to explain a lot - how we could have mismanaged our economy for so long, why the Windex jokes in Big Fat Greek Wedding don’t really make sense and which of the famous Greek Isles to visit. The latter has been asked of me more than a hundred times. Rather than recycle the same email, here are my quick notes and thoughts. If you have additions or comments, please please add them in the comments. If you disagree, fuck off and go buy a guide book.

Note Bene: these recommendations are mostly catering to a couple’s trip, since most end up going to Greece with a partner. It’s the best way to see the islands, unless you enjoy unbridled debauchery until 7am with endless bikini-clad girls (that’s a different guide).

The Basics

You definitely want to stay in the Cycladic islands. The stuff out west (Ionian) is nice, but far and more expensive, with less to see in terms of history and culture. The Dodecanese are also some of my favorites, and they’re next to the Cycladic islands. You can mix them up a little, I think. Here’s a good map with a link to an interactive guide…

In general, it pays to lock down your trip in advance and do some research online about hotels on the specific islands you want to visit. I’ll describe a few of them below, but it’s really up to you. Check out pictures and Google the different islands – where you go really makes a difference. These islands grew up very isolated, historically, which has led to a unique topography and social scene on each island. If you plan on booking hotels in advance, I would use a travel agent and book your rental car (if you need one) and domestic plane or ferry tickets together. Prices are pretty flexible, so you can end up saving a bundle.

The General Character of Greek Islands

Here are my general island thoughts. I’ve roughly labeled which ones are (P)arty, (R)omantic or (G)reek, which should give you an idea of character.

• Mykonos (P)(R) – big party island, beautiful with great beaches. Don’t miss that one if you want to see what the posh islands are like. A nice mix of tourists and Greeks with some really upscale restaurants, shopping and hotels. Lots of nude beaches, but also lots of smaller, romantic places to hang out. More below…
• Santorini (R) – romantic, picturesque, but a bit further than the others. More upscale, but less of a party. If you stay in Ia (sometimes spelled Oia), you will have a tremendous view of the volcanic bay (“caldera”) and you can sample the general character of the Cycladic islands. It is one of the most beautiful, quiet and memorable places to spend time with your significant other. It’s often called the Honeymoon Island.
• Ios (P) – party island, and covered in drunk, British teenagers. Can be nice, but totally skippable.
• Naxos (G) – large, historically important island. Some ruins and stuff, with a mix of nice beaches. Not really a party island at all, and far too big to be that interesting or manageable on a short vacation.
• Paros / Antiparos (R)(G)(P) – beautiful, mix of fun and great dining, gorgeous little town in the north and great restaurants all over. I always try to get to Paros a little. Antiparos is much smaller, great for a tour off the beaten path, more of a Greek vacation spot.
• Amorgos (R)(G) – gorgeous, but far off the beaten path. It’s quiet, with fewer tourists and less developed retail. The main town is really special, as are the beaches on the eastern side. We’re talking lonely, stone-covered beaches with a sprinkling of German tourists and families.
• Koufonissia (R)(G) – beautiful, but tiny! 4 square miles, and hard to get to. Last time I went, they didn’t even have an ATM or credit card functions on the island. The facilities are sparse, but the beaches and water are some of the most picturesque in that part of Greece. [Update 2011] I haven’t been there in 9 years, but have heard that the island has become overrun with people. It’s crowded and full of yachts and tourists. Read up on it before you decide to go…
• Sifnos, Serifos & Folegandros (R)(G) – I hear really good things about all three, but I’ve never been. Probably not worth the travel time if you’re limiting yourselves to a few days, but might be an idea if you’re spending more than a week there. Folegandros, in particular, is one of the Greek gems (I’ve been told).
• Syros & Tinos (G) – less interesting, but important nautical islands. Not really that touristy. There are nice beaches, but unless you have to stop there, don’t.

A Rough Itinerary

My recommendation would be Santorini – Paros / Antiparos – Mykonos. That, of course, is if this is your first time. It’s a shame to travel across the world and miss these islands. They are perennial favorites for tourists, and for good reason. I personally avoid them in favor of exploring islands off the beaten path, but you might enjoy them. Mykonos is party-heavy, expensive and glitzy. Paros is lower key, but still really nice. Santorini is gorgeous, quiet and romantic. They’re all a mix, but none of them is really inexpensive. In each, you can find lower-priced accommodations, and the reviews on TripAdvisor tend to be spot-on. I would do your homework if you’re trying to save money.

• In Mykonos, you want to stay relatively near the main port town, which is where most of the hotels, villas, etc. are. Also, the nightlife and restaurants are all there, and you don’t really want to drive at night.
• In Paros, I recommend staying in Naoussa. It’s smaller, better restaurants, and a cooler vibe. The port town (Parikia) is cool, with a great restaurant called Levantis (http://www.parosweb.com/goingout/home/levantis/) that I love, it’s just not worth staying in the middle of the hustle and bustle.
• In Santorini, I recommend Ia (Oia). Katikies was a dream come true, but pretty expensive. Tablet Hotels (www.tablethotels.com) runs deals on these once in a while.

In terms of timing, you could do all 3 plus Athens in a week, but it will take great planning in advance. I suggest 3 nights in Mykonos, then 2 nights in Paros and 2 nights in Santorini. That way, you can leave Saturday morning and get to Athens early (flight recommended). You can hit the Acropolis in the afternoon (but check the times it’s open first), hit the city in the evening and take off Sunday morning. You should talk to a travel agent or look online for the details of (a) ferry schedules between islands, (b) flights to & from the islands and (c) Acropolis schedule. If any of these don’t work, you’ll have to rejigger your plans. Also, you should probably rent a car or mopeds in every place you go, since the beaches can be far and it’s nice to go exploring. If you’ve never driven mopeds, I don’t suggest trying to learn on vacation. The car rentals are usually pretty cheap (20-30 EUR per day at most place), so it shouldn’t be too bad. Plus, way safer and less stressful. General Thoughts on Visiting Greece

• As of Summer 2011, the country is a mess. Really, it’s always been a mess, but now the tourists can see it. I would avoid Athens unless you’re really into the history. The riots and discontent are probably limited to the city, and you can probably avoid interruptions and delays by not relying on city infrastructure (subject to strikes, protests and the like).
• A guidebook might be worthwhile. Not just for the history and details, but because information changes a lot and mine might be a bit outdated.
• Greeks start LATE. You might go to dinner at 9pm and see no one (or just tourists). Usually, depending on the day, dinner starts at 11pm or 12am. Be prepared. The party goes late, too, but we also sleep in. On busier, more modern islands (Mykonos, Santorini), your day might start around 11am heading to the beach. Sleep/swim all day, watch the sunset around 7pm, nap and shower, out around 11pm, Home around 4 or 5. It’s tiring but great.
• Tipping is not expected above a few euros. Less than 10% almost all the time.
• If you want to save money and don’t care that much about the amenities of your hotel, don’t book a room. When you get off the ferry or arrive at the airport, you can usually see a gaggle of 10-20 people holding signs trying to get your business. They will have pictures and speak English, and will negotiate hard for a rate. Hold off until you find the one you like, and don’t be afraid to ask to see the place before agreeing to stay there. I remember finding rooms this way for $20-30 per night a few years ago. Depending on season & island, it shouldn’t be too much higher.
• The above notwithstanding, rooms on Mykonos & Santorini should be booked ahead, and be prepared to pay Manhattan rates. 300-500 Euros per night is not unusual, and booking early pays off. If you’re looking for something special (read: extremely expensive but unbelievable), try Katikies, Rocabella, Canaves (I think), Grace and Asteri (I think).

Mainland, Peloponnese & Other Sites

• Nafplio, Olympia, Epidaurus and some other sights on the Peloponnese are really worthwhile if you’re looking for traditional historical ruins to see alongside your beach vacation.
• Delphi, north of Athens, is really an amazing place as well.
• Athens is worth seeing at the end of your trip, once you’ve had a chance to adjust to the climate and you’ve really gotten the beach and sun side of the trip out of your system. It sucks getting off the plane and spending 2 days in hot, crowded Athens on the Acropolis (110 degrees) if you haven’t already been on a beach for a week.
• Monemvasiais also pretty incredible, with a lot of cool scenery on the drive down the coast.

Finally

This is not meant to be an exhaustive guide to Greek travel, culture or anything else. If you want that, again, go buy a guidebook. These are my quick thoughts, full of bias, snobbery and anything else that will avoid your criticism. If you know me, please follow up for more details or a different type of trip. I would be happy to help!

A work of art

On April 1st, two friends and I launched a humorous art project called TweetForger. It lives at www.tweetforger.com. The idea came about when we were discussing the immense stock that people place in 140 characters. People use the medium to discuss their lunch, and yet the same platform starts revolutions and ends careers. There has been a proliferation of clients, platforms and ways to interact with Tweets, and we were very interested in how people consume that information.

Most important to me was the work behind the scenes. It has been a serious technical challenge to build something this quickly (~60 hours) that could scale well and retain its lightweight structure. It’s a validation of the technical skills I’ve been trying to develop but, even more, it’s the satisfaction of seeing a fun project come together in a few weeks and actually make people laugh.

I had a great professor in business school who used to quote that to us all the time. It was only later I found out there’s a second part. The whole quote goes like this:

Out of chaos, revenue; Out of discipline, profit.

That stuck with me, as it really does hold true across industries and time. Perhaps a look at the ad tech landscape (below) can highlight why there is such a tumultuous upheaval constantly taking place. It’s an ongoing arms race rife with the kind of nuance and industry jargon that ends up making people rich. I wish I understood more, but this is certainly an interesting view of the landscape. Here is the graphic, in all of its dizzying glory:

Chaos, for sure. But discipline?

Click on the photo for a full-size view, courtesy of http://www.adexchanger.com/.    

Really simple white noise generator - allows me to tune out everything around me without having to listen to music (which I find equally distracting sometimes). Love the simple interface and easy-to-use options. Great example of what an ultra-simple, laser-focused value proposition looks like. This is the ultimate minimum viable product… www.simplynoise.com

OMG. What an awesome tool. I just discovered Twilio and I am totally addicted… I mean, I had heard about how easy and powerful the tool is, but wow. The community is intensely helpful, and the documentation makes it easy to follow along and create powerful voice & sms interactivity for your applications.

Case in point: long distance for my parents.

They’re in the country for only 2 months, and they don’t want to set up long distance service for that period of time. Why? Because they’re old & crotchety, but more on that in a moment. In just a matter of minutes (seriously), I set up a Twilio account (with $30 of credit for free!), bought a local number for them to use, deployed to Heroku and set it up to forward to any number they want to in Greece or Europe. No logging into Google voice, no crouching around Skype with headphones in their ears. This is a phone. Exactly like they’re used to using one, with no strings attached. It got me pumped, and I’ve been trying to come up with fun projects…

First, I integrated SMS reminders into the Brio Limo project I wrote about a few weeks ago. It was a great weekend project for Christmas, and it works like a charm. The system can send a reminder text to a client about 20 minutes before their reservation (using a Cron job), and can then connect the client directly to the driver if they call the number back. Great functionality, and should be impressive for the customers. I just have to build in the ‘press 1 for a ski report’ idea!

Next, my crotchety parents. They’re not actually that bad, but they need to be reminded of things once in a while. Here’s an idea: a service that automatically calls senior citizens with a reminder to take their medicine and check in on them virtually. I’m not trying to put more distance between people and their parents, but it could be a real burden off of busy families. Imagine the following:

Hello, this is NurseNancy calling with a message for Mrs. Hurlihy. It’s 3 o’clock, I just wanted to remind you to take your Lipitor and your Avandia. Please press 1 to repeat this message. Press 2 for information about your medications and how to take them. Press 3 to speak with a nurse. Press 4 for a quick weather report. Press 5 for a joke.

The beautiful thing about it is that the system knows whether or not they picked up. If they did, it registers that someone is home and that everything is OK. Otherwise, it could dial back in a few minutes. If it’s the same result, a text message or email could be sent to the individual who set up the calls (younger family member) letting them know they should check in themselves. Further, it provides a nice service to seniors, letting them stay connected in some way to the world and cheering them up with a joke or a light-hearted weather report.

Of interest to managed care providers, physicians and family members, the system:

• Drives up compliance, especially with sensitive medications (multi-dose, controlled release, empty stomach, etc.)
• Should improve outcomes for patients by connecting them to information they need about their medications (reminders about if/when to take them with food, what time their next dosage is, etc.)
• Reduces chances of missed dosage or other non-compliant behavior
• Drives up use of health management services and on-staff nursing through a patient’s insurance provider, reducing complications and misuse of medicine
• Allows a non-invasive way of checking in on seniors living alone

Name ideas? Thoughts on how to pitch it? I didn’t see any competitors doing this, but maybe I’m wrong. Seems like a really simple and fun way to make people’s lives better.

I always thought people who used this phrase were assholes. Now I’m one too…

Part of my work with the startup I’ve been helping out has been working on site redesign to improve conversion and registration. We’re ready to roll out a better User Experience, A/B testing and, above all, improved analytics. Some reading in preparation:

• Great article on signup form design. A lot of it is obvious, but the tips are actionable and succinct… 10 Ideas
• Awesome theory behind ‘persuasion triggers’ at Smashing Magazine. We are living in the era of Social Proof (Facebook Like button, Groupon), perceived Scarcity (Gilt) and spurious Authority (StackOverflow, Quora, Twitter). Really good read.
• 101 Conversion Tips from the great people at KISS Metrics. Absolutely awesome.
• All of which, of course, goes back to what we’re trying to do - product/market fit. Courtesy of Steve Blank… Strategy is not a To Do List.

The problem is figuring out which data to gather, how to process it and which tools to ultimately end up with. Currently, I’m working on a stack comprised of Google Analytics (obviously), Chartbeat (awesome) and Reinvigorate(interesting). I’ve been passed the following leads as well, plucked from the field of such companies:

• JS Analytics (www.jsanalytics.com)
• KISS Metrics (www.kissmetrics.com)
• Monetate (www.monenate.com)
• Unbounce (www.unbounce.com)
• Spreadable (www.spreadable.com)

What do I do? There are so many options, and it’s hard to define exactly what I’m looking for. I’d love to get detailed metrics on unique visitors (across computers and IP addresses). Even more, I’d like detail on how people use our site - some kind of automated cohort analysis that illustrates different patterns of use. For example, 15% of users come to the site a few times and then stop visiting, only to buy a premium package a few weeks later. Or 25% become die-hard fans from day one after landing on X page and watching Y minutes of video. How do I glean this information from the massive data dump?

More to come…

I’ve got a meeting with Bartek Ringwelski, the founder of SkillSlate, this week. We chatted briefly at the Hunch Lunch, but I’m really curious to hear about how he and his team are attacking the problem of fragmentation and (un)sophistication in the urban labor market. My first startup, Fresh Maid Cleaning, attempted to fix this for one vertical, and we tried to do it by intermediating the channel.

My Marketing professor used to talk about the Iron Law of Distribution, which holds (roughly) that: certain functions need to be performed regardless of channel, so be careful when you try to cut out your distributors. For housekeepers, the problem is that they tend to be great at cleaning and horrible at pretty much everything else (marketing, sales, pricing, support, payment processing).

We created a subscription-based model where we would contract with individual cleaners and try to create density in a given apartment building. Thus, we would market, acquire and schedule customers ourselves, and the cleaners could show up and clean for a full day without dealing with anything else. We packed their schedules tightly in a single location and took care of the details, so they earned more and had fewer headaches. [You would be surprised how much of a housekeeper’s time is spent commuting to and from jobs.]

SkillSlate attempts to fix the sales & marketing angle, but I’ll be curious to see how they deal with everything else. My gut says they simply don’t, which is ok right now. But some substitute for support & payment will have to be implemented in the future, even if it is as simplistic as customer ratings (Angie’s List, Service Magic).

Surprisingly, we found with Fresh Maid that the single source of customer stickiness was the ability to accept credit cards. People liked online scheduling, email support, peace of mind from insurance, ‘green’ cleaning supplies, uniforms, etc., but these were not sufficient to keep them happy. Earning points on your AMEX is apparently the biggest thing there. If SkillSlate institutes an interesting payment platform or scheduling system, this could be the source of stickiness for the consumer side of this two-sided platform. 

This is why I still love Google (via Geekosystem):

1.Go to Google maps. 2. Go to directions 3. Type Japan as the start location. 4. Type China as the end location. 5. Go to direction #43.