We have been working on bunch of products (indiereign.com, and others) for sometime. To take these products to next level, quickly and elegantly, we have recently started expanding our team.

We are starting our new development centre in Noida. We want to connect, talk to and hire smart and passionate developers (hackers) who love to work on products in a small company or a startup (like ours).

We are looking for:

• bright and smart guys
• one who can fit in our (small team/company/startup) culture, and becomes a great team player
• can learn, adapt and use cutting/bleeding edge technologies
• can inspire and mentor others
• importantly, loves building cool, useful and scalable products/services

Experience, we would like to see:

• Application Developer
  • Proficiency with web standards and frontend (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, etc.) development
  • proficiency with one ore more languages (Python, Ruby, PHP, Scala, etc.)
  • proficiency with analytical approach to problem solving
  • has worked or very interested to work on other frameworks (Django, Rails, Symfony, etc.)

• Mobile Application Developer (iOS or Android or both) - apps/games development;

I am playing with ExpEyes, which is awesome tool for anyone who wants to learn electronics (and physics).

ExpEyes comes with software (written in python) for GNU/Linux and Windows. I intend to run it on Mac OSX, because it can (provided all dependencies are met).

It is generally easy to install python packages on OSX using easy_install or pip, however, installing NumPy and SciPy turned out to be pain on OSX (10.8.2, latest version the time of posting).

In my case, I am using python binary installed via homebrew, so I can’t take advantage of numpy (which comes installed with mountain-lion).

I have XCode 6 installed, which comes with gcc-4.2.1 (llvm build). I figured out, I can build numpy and scipy from source.

Following is what I did to build numpy and scipy. SciPy requires gfortran, so that has to be installed (I used homebrew to do that):

$ git clone https://github.com/numpy/numpy.git
$ git clone https://github.com/scipy/scipy.git
$ cd numpy
$ python setup.py build && python setup.py install
$ brew install gfortran
$ cd ../scipy
$ python setup.py build && python setup.py install

BTW! In case, you are wondering, why didn’t I use Scipy Superpack script, which indeed makes job easier?

I didn’t, because I want to install gnu/unix packages using homebrew, and I already have git and other things. Super Spicypack downloads (gfortran, etc.), builds and installs packages directly to system, making it harder to remove those later? Homebrew makes job easier.

Just in case, you still follow this blog and wondering about me? I thought, it would be fair to leave some details on that.

• In Kanpur (my hometown)
• spending most of time on (or around) IndieReign,
• learning electronics and trying to build something,
• yet to grow to team, because it is hard to find and get right ones
• still does ActionScript, mostly for fun stuff,
• might start blogging again; got so much to talk about, and share.

While Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) has brought many enhancements and fixes (mostly performance), it has also caused frustration to old users.

You might have noticed following issues in Mountain Lion:

1. Web Sharing Preferences Panel has been removed, i.e. you need to launch apache manually or write some launch-agent script or hack to bring web-sharing preferences panel back
2. User Sites (per-user web directories) is disabled, i.e. http://localhost/~username doesn’t work by default, and you need to modify apache config file to enable it
3. PHP extension for Apache is disabled by default i.e. you need to enable it by modified apache config (httpd.conf)
4. Subversion is not installed by default, either you can install using homebrew or by install XCode command line tools

You can fix these issues (1-4) by following these two links:

• Install and configure Apache, MySQL, PHP and phpMyAdmin on OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion
• Where is SVN on OS X Mountain Lion?

Whenever I upgrade to newer version of OSX, I end up with broken development-setup i.e. custom permissions on directories are messed up, configuration files are overwritten/removed, etc.

I think, I have found a way to keep default directory permissions, so future upgrades don’t break things.

My development setup requires my virtual hosts to use directories within my home-directory (and outside of ~/Sites or /Library/WebServer/Documents directories).

I am using following technique to setup my virtual-hosts:

• Enable User Sites  (i.e. fix #2 problem above)
• Create symbolic-links(symlinks) of your project folder(s) inside ~/Sites directory
• Enable FollowSymLinks and SymLinksIfOwnerMatch options in virtual-host configuration.

In my case, I have a project inside ~/projects/myproject . I create a symlink of this directory inside ~/Sites, like this using Terminal (command-prompt)

$ ln -s ~/projects/myproject ~/Sites/myproject

I have following virtual-host configuration for this project:

<VirtualHost *:80>
 DocumentRoot "/Users/myusername/Sites/myproject/trunk/web"
 ServerName  myproject
 ServerAdmin myusername@localhost
 Options Indexes MultiViews Includes +FollowSymlinks +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
 CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/myproject_access.log" common
 ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/myproject_error.log"
</VirtualHost>

I use it on my development machine (i.e. my laptop), so I don’t really bother about security at Apache level, and I take care of security at firewall/other levels.

If you are going to use above technique/configuration, please understand everything (by reading documentation) before you use it.

This set up works for me and solves some problems for me – I don’t have to change default directory permissions, and I don’t have to keep my projects within ~/Sites or /Library/WebServer/Documents directory.

(Image Courtesy: Linux Bangalore (foss.in))

Kenneth Gonsalves, a champion in Indian (NRC)FOSS, Python and Django community passed away on August 3, 2012. Kenneth’s presence would be hugely missed in the community.

In 2008, Tarun Dua introduced me to Kenneth. I interacted with him at various occasions about NRCFOSS and general stuff. I was very inspired to see his contributions, specially some of his open-source projects.

While checking out NRCFOSS website today, I came to know about this sad news.

May his soul rest in peace.

We have been asking for an online Adobe Store (for India) for years, finally it is here - http://shop.adobe.com/in.

I am sure, Adobe would soon realise that they should have done it earlier. Anyway, it’s better late than never.

Thanks to everyone in community and at Adobe, who pushed for this.

(Image Courtesy: WikiMedia)

Dennis Ritchie passed away couple of days back (on October 8, 2011).

As Tim Bray has written summerised, this world would have been different, if Dennis Ritchie had not created ‘C’ and helped inventing UNIX.

I don’t know, if I would be what I am today without ‘C’ programming-language — the first programming language I learnt, used to solve problems, and wrote programs.

These days, I don’t write pure’C’ code except when I am debugging something or in need to write some utility executables. But UNIX (in some-form) is part of my day to day life.

Thanks to you, Dennis Ritchie Sir. May your soul rest in peace.

I regret for not thanking you when you were alive. Why we don’t do that when people are alive?

Image Courtesy: WikiMedia

When I woke up earlier today, my wife told me about Steve Jobs‘ death (on October 5, 2011). I was speechless and really didn’t know what just happened. I am still thinking about Steve Jobs, and whatever he has said (quotes) I remember.

Steve Jobs’ influence and contribution is not limited to Apple Computers and competitors, it goes beyond — design, technology, product development and many other communities/disciplines.

He showed a different way to design and build products.

He has inspired me everyday of my life since I came to know him, probably some years before I started using Apple computers. I have repeatadly read and watched him talking/saying/presenting.

I have told his story to many folks over the years, and every-time I was motivated (by just talking about him).

Steve Jobs is an idea. He would always be with us.

This post is dedicated to people and companies, who allowed me to work with them. They hired me when I was nothing.

I messed up so many times, yet they kept supporting me. I was not up to the mark, yet they were optimistic. They told me the truth and helped me grow to what I am today.

In last one decade, hundreds of people influenced and inspired me. It would take days to write their names, I would probably do that one day. Thanks to every one of them

I can’t imagine, if I would be what I am today without their trust and support.

Here is list of companies and people (managers, leaders, mentors), who trusted me and allowed me to work with them. I am very thankful to them for everything they did.

Tata Interactive Systems

• Vivek Kashyap
• Pavan Kota
• Anubhuti Kashyap
• Ashutosh Pathak
• Nimpee Kaul
• Nikhil Puri
• Rohit Sharma
• Albert Lewis
• Vikas Dwivedi

Macromedia

• I. V. Nagendra
• Victor Grigorieff
• Vidya Murti
• Lauren Park
• Ramanarayanan Krishnaiyer
• Susan Lally
• Kari White
• William Taylor
• Manish Jethani

Yahoo! Bangalore

• Vijay Ramachandran
• Sapna Chandiramani
• Raghuram BK
• Hemang

Mixercast

• Adarbad Master

Allies

• Abdul Qaiyoom (friend, mentor and brother)

Most of us have or have had this syndrome “I need X to do Y”.

• I need to join X course to learn Y
• I need to X training to start doing Y project
• I need a Laptop to start programming Python; Desktop doesn’t make me productive
• I need an iPhone to start learning iOS programming; Simulator doesn’t make it feel real
• I need to join Gym to workout; Workout at home doesn’t work

Get over with it this syndrome:

• Start learning/doing as soon as you get curious about anything, we don’t have to wait to do X to start doing Y by ourself.
• We can always do X, but who is stopping us from starting with Y?
• Wouldn’t it be better to get our hands dirty and try to learn more about Y by ourselves?

Eventually we have to do it by ourselves, doesn’t matter if we do X or not. It is more fun and engaging when we do Y by ourself; it is also a litmus test, if we really want to do Y.

Discipline and Passion matters. I wish, I had more of these in me.

Illusory superiority is a topic of psychology, and it is considered to be one of many positive illusions relating to self.

I am not a psychologist. This blog post is based on my observations about this topic in context of coginitive tasks and something highlighted by Dunning-Kruger effect  (Research - PDF).

In my experience, if the culture of place, we live or work doesn’t provide enough challenges and competiton (validations), it’s so easy to get dilusional about our actual competence and  have illusory superiority.

In my own experience, we stop learning and improving once we get to a certain level (in an organisation). We think, we know what we are supposed to. We think, we are great or good enough for tasks in hand or in job?  I believe, these are symptoms when we start living with “Illusory Superiority” or “Distorted Reality” or “Cognitive Bias”.

One of many ways, I avoid to have this distorted view of reality or illusory superiority or coginitive bias is by looking beyond the boundaries of my organisation/city/country. I look up to great people in community at large, places (great companies) and practices. I try hard to follow the gurus and be like them.

Another way is to think like, ‘I am a software-developer/technologist and I work at X place/company’ NOT ‘I am a software-developer/technologist in X place/company’.

The difference between these two statements is, former makes me live in actual reality, and look beyond and place myself in larger community). Latter might make me live with distorted/percieved reality, and place myself in a smaller community (organisation, place, country).

As a leader/mentor, we need to challenge and help our team so that they keep living in reality. We have to do it, carefully, without affecting their self-confidence.

I am evaluating various nosql solutions for our existing/new projects. Bluesmoon recommended about Riak which is an awesome nosql datastore/database (and lot more).  I couldn’t wait to check it out.

As usual, I relied on Homebrew – the best package manage for OSX – to install applications/libraries. While installing, I got an error:

$ brew install riak
$ ...
$ Error: Failed executing: make all rel

After searching for a while, I figured out that there are known issues. With the help of Adam‘s comment on github, I was able to install Riak finally.

We make brew ignore Riak’s dependencies while building it.

Following commands should build and install Riak:

$ brew update
$ brew install erlang
$ brew install --HEAD --ignore-dependencies riak -v

Do you want to create/customize an EC2 AMI?

Check out this tutorial by Rohan.

Briefly, steps are:

• Find a suitable base AMI. You can use EC2 Console to search
• Launch an instance from command-line using ami-id or EC2 Console
• Copy(scp) your private (ssh) key, ec2 key-pair and certificate from your machine to instance’s /mnt directory
• SSH to instance
  • Install/customize tools and configuration
  • Test if things work
  • Install amazon-ami-tools
  • Bundle image (from current running instance):

    ec2-bundle-vol -d /mnt -k /mnt/pk-STRINGOFTHIRTYTWOLETTERSORDIGITS.pem -c /mnt/cert-STRINGOFTHIRTYTWOLETTERSORDIGITS.pem -u XXXXXXXXXXXX

    XXXXXXXXXXXX is your Amazon account number without dashes.

  • Deploy/copy AMI files to S3:

    ec2-upload-bundle -b [your-s3-bucket] -m /mnt/image.manifest.xml -a [aws-access-key-id] -s [aws-secret-access-key]

Before bundling the image, do test customised settings and configuration; it’s pain to repeat above steps again, in order to change anything post-deployment.

Tip: Don’t shutdown/terminate the instance, you used to create AMI, until you have tested instances (based on new AMI). If anything goes wrong with new instances, you can come back to this instance (based on base-ami), change, bundle and redeploy.

Recently, we have started noticing “RequestTimeTooSkewed” erro while making requests to Amazon S3. The official FAQs suggests following:

Amazon S3 requires all machines making requests be within 15 minutes of an Amazon S3 webserver’s clock

Reading documentation and various blog posts made me believe, this is problem with the date/time settings on machine (which makes request). However, in our case, it turned out to be something else.

We use boto (Python library) for AWS stuff. Boto caches the connection objects (for S3, EC2, SQS, etc.), and tries to reuse those in later calls.

Imagine a simple use-case:

1. Read data from S3
2. Process data on EC2-instance/your-server
3. Store processed-data on S3

In our case, #2 takes longer than 15 minutes (allowed limit by S3) sometimes, hence,  we were noticing ‘RequestTimeTooSkewed’ error.

Anyway, we fixed it by explicitly creating a different/fresh S3(http) connection before sending request to S3. This might sound inefficient, perhaps it is.

This is how we do now, a stripped down version of code from our class:

s3_connection = boto.connect_s3(aws_access_key_id="aws_access_key_id",aws_secret_access_key="aws_secret_access_key")
output_bucket = s3_connection.get_bucket("output_bucket")
key = output_bucket.new_key(key_name)
key.set_contents_from_filename(file_path, file_headers, True, None, 10, file_policy)

I am Python and boto noob; I am sure there would be a better way of doing this, so please share if you know one.

I have been thinking about open-standards for movie-rental business. I searched to find about such standards but I couldn’t locate. Do you know of any?

Basically, a set of specifications/protocols which can be implemented by different players in movie-rental chain. Players include studios, distributor, application-developers, portals, et. al.

Rough thoughts:

• A studio/distributor implements this specification/protocol and exposes API  for metadata/streaming(or playback)/file-access from their own server
• Third party developers use the API to to pull metadata and play the content
• Third party developers can charge the user and split the revenue with content owner
• Or, studios/distributors can enable payment-gatway APIs as part of their offering
• Content is always played directly from studio/distributor’s server
• Studio/distributor have total control over their assets and also charge based on subscription/per-access