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Justin and Jason discuss the death of Justin’s father, Udi’s blog post about Appignite, Uber’s technological origins and the new Node.js based dispatch server, rapid UI design using mockups, the core problems that AnyFu needs to solve, using Showcase Lane to get feedback on UI design, a La Critique of The Birdy, an update on Pluggio’s growth, whether it’s better to use dashes or underscores in SEO slugs, finding a logo design for AnyFu and the importance of good design, Jason’s slightly contrarian position on the lean startup model, using MySQL fulltext search vs a search engine like Solr or Sphinx, running server-side Javascript on RingoJS, Justin’s strategy for curing himself of diabetes, how Kevin Rose and Evan Williams are both starting incubators, the possibility that Justin will be moving back to Ireland and the idea for an open version of Y-Combinator.
Sorry for your loss, Justin.
The Birdy looks similar to PocketSmith.
Hi,
Justin, very sorry for your loss.
That was a good episode, interesting (oops, I said it!) subjects.
Regarding the blog post – I’m happy that AppIgnite got so many signups. Can you tell us what the roadmap for AppIgnite is? basically, when you’re going to release it? I know you got the design to take care of, is there any big development that you still need to do? How about outsource some of the work?
Fulltext search – I heard good things about Apache Solr, in fact I know that Outbrain.com uses it, they have a content matching system (for example the “We Recommend” and “From Around The Web” under CNN’s stories) and it works good for them.
@Udi – “What’s the roadmap for Appignite?” – That’s a great question, but before answering I need to do some thinking and some planning. I suppose that I should write a blog post as well.
Anyway, at the very least I’ll try to get it sorted out by next weekend’s show and will also send a detailed email to all the beta users.
Thanks again for the great blog post!
Sorry for your loss Justin.
guys i love the open combinator concept! great show
Hey guys, I think you only strengthened the relationship you have with listeners during the first 10 minutes of the show. You packed a lot of other great tech content into this episode, but the first segment about Justin’s father was really nice — I stopped what I was doing (normally exercising) to listen. Justin, my heartfelt condolences to you and your family.
I was one of those people who thought you might have packed ‘er in… and I’m pleased that’s not the case!
So sorry, Justin! I lost two grandfathers this year, and it’s been really tough. At the same time it’s lead to a sea change in how I view my life and priorities. Make sure you give yourself some time (in between 12 hour days 🙂 ) to reflect and truly process. Soul searching can be hard, but extremely rewarding.
I’m very sorry for your loss Justin. You might want to listen to the interview with David Smith from Enterprise Ireland:
http://startupsuccesspodcast.com/2011/01/show-96-david-smith-enterprise-ireland/
Looks like Ireland is a great place for startups. I don’t think there is any other government that runs VC fund and invests in startups and startup incubators directly.
BTW, what’s that song in the podcast? Can we get high quality MP3 please 🙂
@Michael Rakita – As is the case with our normal intro / outro song, Justin wrote this song and is the one singing it. It’s kind of surprising that he didn’t make it as a musician, isn’t it? It might be a fun thing to talk about on the next show.
As with everyone else sorry for your loss Justin.
As for search I have gone with both Solr and Sphinx and vastly prefer Sphinx. The reasons being you don’t need to install Java (which can be a pain), its incredibly easy to setup (./configure && make && make install), you use it just by plugging in some SQL, its really easy to set up real-time search (or close to, by just doing a delta which you re-index every few minutes). Its also incredibly fast to index documents, here are my times,
Sphinx 0.9.9-release (r2117)
Copyright (c) 2001-2009, Andrew Aksyonoff
using config file '/usr/local/etc/sphinx.conf'...
indexing index 'searchcode'...
collected 139229 docs, 31.6 MB
sorted 30.7 Mhits, 96.2% done
total 139229 docs, 31649717 bytes
total 22.543 sec, 1403965 bytes/sec, 6176.13 docs/sec
total 57 reads, 1.005 sec, 2399.3 kb/call avg, 17.6 msec/call avg
total 330 writes, 0.371 sec, 994.9 kb/call avg, 1.1 msec/call avg
I found with Solr I was diving into the XML configuration which most Java products seem to have. I actually use Sphinx on http://searchco.de/ and it returns incredibly quickly (and the machine is just a cheap server)
Sorry for your loss Justin…
My heartfelt condolances for your loss Justin.
I just happened to check the site out from France and saw the post – will listen to the show when I get back.
Sorry for your loss Justin…
I lost my mother two years ago, father is still around but is close to 70 and isn’t getting younger. We should cherish time we have left with them, and time we had with them.
Life has to go on.
Thanks very much everyone for your good wishes. Here is a direct link to the mp3 of Pride & Shame (that is at the end of the podcast)
http://justinvincent.com/audio/pride-and-shame.mp3
No words can do justice for feelings of loss, but my thoughts and prayers are with you Justin and your family.
Also wanted to say (is it necessary any more?) that it was another great show. Makes my morning commute as much of a delight as a morning commute could be.. 🙂
Justin, you might find this interesting:
http://startupsuccesspodcast.com/2011/01/show-96-david-smith-enterprise-ireland/
Sorry to hear about your dad. That was a very nice tribute and song.