Monthly Archives: May 2011

I just submitted an article abstract to Developer Force on Ruby/Salesforce

Here is my e-mail & wish me luck.

Hello,
I would like to write an article, discussing Rails/Salesforce development. I would like to focus on methodology, as in translating use-cases into useful architecture artifacts / models. Because Ruby/Salesforce application development is relatively young, I assume most of my audiences will be beginners who are seeking introductory information. Therefore, I will begin my article talking about the Pro/Cons of Rails, its strength and weakness. How its programming model differs from that of Apex, VisualForce, Spring, Python, etc.

The main goal of article is to communicate the urgency in exploring Ruby/Salesforce as a viable development venue. And, we will examine barriers facing traditional developers, who are already accustomed to Apex, Visualforce, Spring development methodologies. While all paths lead to Rome, there are shortcuts to rapid application development methodology. Some of which leads to time saving, while others lead to potential pitfalls.

As a developer of the Ruby/Salesforce Toolkit, I am keenly aware of those problems. I like to discuss from my first-hand experience, where I made incorrect assumptions, and where I did things correctly.
To keep things simple and easy to read, I will keep source-code to a minimum. Rather, I will be examining the development methodology and architecture considerations.

It will be an easy to read article, where laymen can understand, and not a highly technical article, where only a rocket scientist can comprehend its notations.

best,
-Raymond Gao
twitter: raygao

Review of Ash’s Lean-Startup Book

I just browsed through Ash Maurya’s Lean Startup book. First of all, I like to say my comments are biased, favoring the author. He and I worked together to secure the first major investor for WiredReach. Sverre is a Norwegian guy, he had a vision of building music sharing service (Mobster), where the paying model was similar to Mary Kay, revenue generated from referral services and a vendor club. Three of us held discussions with SnowCap, Shawn Fanning’s startup after the Napster. The story is this: in 2005, Ash was working on a prototype for file sharing. During that time, I was one of three elected board of directors for Project JXTA (a peer-to-peer network, similar). One day, Ash drove out to a restaurant near my Office, Nokia America’s HQ in Irving.) And, we discussed the strategy for starting a company. We collaborated until Ash moved to Austin.

That’s probably enough background story. As a reader / reviewer of Ash’s Lean Startup book. I like to say:

  1. He made a solid case for User-Driven Business Model, where the continuous interaction with paying customers / investors facilitates learning; hence, improving the product.
  2. UserCycle, his proposal definitely has a sexy name. The author takes readers through a very convincing situation, where the founder successfully engages the potential clients, turning them into customers, and finally advocates for the products.
  3. The startup cost is kept low by getting users to pay from day one. And, the goal is to build a product that creates UVP (Unique Value Propositions). Clearly, balancing the revenue and cost is an integral part of Ash’s strategy, e.g. minimize h/w, s/w, and labor costs, etc

Those are the pros for the book. I like Ash to also consider following situations:

  1. What if the project was started in the middle, e.g. building of an open-source project, where the intellectual property inherently belongs to the public domain? Or, if the founders decide to buy the technology from someone? It’s probably faster to buy than to build from scratch.
  2. How can you iterate a product profitably, if the majority of the installed user-base already are accustomed to getting it free or nearly nothing?
  3. How to think outside of the geographic boundary? As a startup, one should never be mentally constrained by geography. While it is favorable to live in Austin, Boston, or San Francisco, there is no reason why someone in Idaho could not start a profitable company. This will make an even stronger case for LeanStartup.

Good luck to Ash,

From you buddy, Ray

Got SyntaxHighlighter working on my Wiki

Today, I got SyntaxHighlighter plugin work on my wiki (for Salesforce Ruby project) http://wiki.are4.us

I follow the instruction.

After installing the Plugin, simply create the http://your-site/wiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Geshi.css page. Add the source. Mediawiki uses special pages to control the CSS and layout. There is no need to touch the filesystem and add the Geshi.css via commandline.