Liveblogging App Engine Hackathon

1005 We're getting started with the presentation. The main "sample app" will be a wiki.

1030 _set() modifier to all model ReferenceProperty's - allows one to get "back references" easily.

1140 Left for Toastmasters

1312 Got back - I'm pretty sure I would have beat a car. The BG trail is awesome.

1454 Shirts were handed out. Also, figured out why unit testing wasn't working.

1730 Left for iSec meeting.

2100 Left iSec meeting. Great conversation about security issues in parallel web apps. Locking is a problem - is message passing a possibility?

Update

I dropped by open coffee at Louisa's today. It was pretty good. It's always good to have an excuse to get out of the house and exercise a bit; the conversation was pretty good as well. The whole networking thing is really, really new to me, so I'm just trying to experiment and play around a bit.

The Library

This is a branch of the Seattle Public Libraries 5 blocks away. There is something about walking distance that contributes to usage - hopefully that will be true for books as well as the movies I've queued up. The bandwidth of the postal system is truly a thing to behold.

STS: Acquisitions

I dropped by Seattle Tech Startups this evening. It was pretty awesome. The presentation was about acquisitions and there were about 6 people who formed a round table panel and talked about their experiences with both being acquired and buying companies and some of the issues surrounding the acquisitions. Some of the takeaways:

• Getting acquired is a bit like dating as a woman. You have to look pretty and available. Pretty means market traction. Availability can only really be communicated through soft networking, although partnering with "target" companies is a good way as well.
• Employee and customer retention are the big issues for the acquiring company
• The technology doesn't matter. For most scenarios, re-implementing the entire thing on the acquirer's technology stack is not that big of a deal.
• When doing deals, it pays to be nice. People who don't play well with others get cut, or don't get purchased at all.
• The actual acquisition process will grind the company to a halt over the short term. The legal minutia is overwhelming.
• Do as little informally, with friends, as possible. Weird, unknown liabilities the company has are major outstanding issues during the acquisition process. Also, they tend to come and bite people in the butt.
• Start vesting as soon as possible.
• When gathering people around an enemy, try not to have that enemy be someone you might acquire or be acquired by. It's not the end of the world, but it might unnecessarily narrow your vision.

Update

Went to the STS meeting about improving local startup resources. Some of the usual suspects were there, along with a bunch of new faces that were interesting to meet for the first time.

I game a speech yesterday at Toastmasters (4 speeches in 5 weeks is seriously hard core) called "FAQ is for Failure" about process design. The speech was alright, but as usual, I was assaulted by the flaws in the speech immediately after I gave it. I am seriously hampered by my continued inability to practice consistently; I am beginning to think that this is one of the major issues that will hold me back in life until I fix it.

Also, my right arm is improving. I skipped the last two fencing sessions, but lately my arm is becoming strong enough that I should be able to attend the next one. Here's to hoping.

Lunch 2.0, iPhoneDevCamp

Yesterday, I went to Whitepages.com for Lunch 2.0. The picture is of some of the swag I got. This event was actually really, really good. There was a quick talk by a panel of people who had developed for the iPhone who talked about their experiences developing for the iPhone. It was quite informative.



Right now, I'm at iPhoneDevCamp Seattle. There's eight other people. Looks like everyone is at an Adobe office somewhere.

The good: Krispy Kreme donuts.
The bad: The iPhone SDK doesn't work on non-Intel-Macs.

The awesomeness quotient is low enough that I'm thinking that going back on Sunday is not going to happen.