BTW my new experiment

A quick and shameless link out to my new experiment for no other reason than potential google juice

My blog has moved

I've moved my blog over to http://seantindale.com

Installing Rails on Linux Mint 12

I had a lot of problems finding a robust way to install Rails on Linux Mint 12. Long story short, using Ruby and gem installed from apt is not the way to go.

Here is what worked for me...

1. Install RVM 

(may need to install curl "sudo apt-get install curl")

> bash -s stable < <(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer)

2. load RVM into a shell session

Add the following to the bottom of /etc/bash.bashrc

[[ -s "/home//.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home//.rvm/scripts/rvm"

3. Install openssl

> rvm pkg install openssl

4. Install ruby

> rvm install 1.9.2 --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr

5. Set RVM version to be used in your session.  

Add the following to the bottom of /etc/bash.bashrc

rvm use 1.9.2

6. Install rails

> gem install rails --version 3.2.0 #or whatever version you want

Point of sales goes SaaS

Not sure how but the other day I bumped into this point of sales (POS) SaaS provider called Vend. I find this product quite interesting for some reason, I think it's because it demonstrates another level of maturity in the SaaS model. Not only is this app pushing even more super critical data and functionality into the cloud but it's also an example of a realtime application in the cloud. Just feels like another level of SaaS maturity to me. It takes modern web technologies with smart offline capabilities to pull an app like this off e.g HTML5 im assuming

Pros: Outsourcing POS could be a good idea. Most retailers don't have a deep understanding of IT. IT should not be considered a core competency for these organizations. Outsource POS to gain a quality capability run by qualified focused professionals e.g SaaS.

Challenges: Old habits die hard. "it's my data and only I can be trusted with it", the usual SaaS / cloud computing counter argument. Also perhaps a perception that this is an always online app and if the net goes down what happens to my POS...? Perception...

Priority driven development

If you're not currently working on the thing that is most important to your customer you are doing it wrong. Seriously...

Constant and relentless prioritisation. 

You need to be working with your customer and together asking the following questions...

• What are the consequences of not doing this?
• Is doing half as much good enough? 
• Is there a non IT solution to this problem, if so is it cheaper than an IT solution?

The answers to the above questions might lead you to wonder if its worth doing it at all... This is just ethical consultation, don't milk your customer they will find you out eventually.  Less is more.

Discipline

Don't work on whats cool, work on whats important. This can be a difficult thing for technologists to stick to. If you love technology you want to play with it, sometimes you just cant help yourself.