Mysql with remote access using Amazon AMI (Without EBS)

I thought this would be easy however it took me a day and a little bit of digging around.
Here is the few simple steps to set up Mysql on Amazon (Without EBS)

* Pick a basic Fedora AMI
ami-5647a33f (http://aws.amazon.com/amis/AWS/517 , Basic Fedora Core 8)
* Start your machine, make sure you have a security group defined (let us call mysql-dev)

* ssh to the amazon box
* yum install mysql-server (install mysql)
* /etc/init.d/mysqld start (start mysql)


Steps to change password for root user (Highly Recommended)
* Login mysql -u root
* Change the root password
SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost=PASSWORD('new_password');
SET PASSWORD FOR root@'127.0.0.1'=PASSWORD('new_password');
SET PASSWORD FOR root@'ip-*-*-*-*'=PASSWORD('new_password');
( Note here you need to set your internal ip from amazon)
* Restart mysql and test new password
* /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
* mysql -u root -p
* 'new_password'

Steps to set up remote access for root user
* To set up remote access from any host for root user
* update user set host='%' where user='root' and host='ip-*-*-*-*';
* flush priveleges;
* Enable 3306 port for the instance (I use elastic-fox for the given amazon instance)

Test the mysql remote access connection
* hostname :
* port: 3306
* user : root
* password : 'new_password'

NOTE : The hostname here is the public DNS name for your amazon box
Example:- It will be ec2-*-*-*-*.compute-1.amazonaws.

Hope this helps you in your mysql setup, let me know if you have questions/issues

Thanks
Ravi

San Francisco Parking Spots

From the open Government Initiative, Map of San Francisco Metered Parking Spots

Google Fusion Table Example

Tech Ramblings

It has been a long time since I have posted on my blog, Working as a Java Developer I get to play with and learn interesting tools/technologies and I wanted to share them with you.

This post is skewed towards version control, continuous integration and related areas. These areas interest me and I think the right choices/tools here help teams be more productive.

Here is the list

1) JSONP (JSON with Padding) : I like JSONP,the idea is to wrap the JSON response with a callback function.

Reference: JSON Wikipedia, Ajaxian,Oreily

At Citysearch we have been involved in building API's/ webservices to support Citygird.
Recently I worked with the consumer team to consume a citysearch webservice.
Support for JSONP from the webservice allowed us to get our work done in a quick and easy
manner. I do see the security concerns with JSONP, I think JSONP can also be used as a nice way for inter company web services to operate.


2) Hudson and CI : I worked on continous integration a long time ago (couple of years)
Recently I got an opportunity to set up CI for my team and we choose hudson :)
Hudson is super simple, intutive to use and easy to deploy. I like the maven2 support within hudson, the configuration for svn polling and periodic runs are also easy to use,
if you are looking for an easy to use, lightweight approach for CI I recommend hudson.

3) Svnrepo for SVN: Working at Nurall we decided to create a new SVN repository to
host the Java version of our site, we decided to use sourcerepo and their services have been
useful to help us get going on Nurall. We would need to play with this further to decide if we are going to use them for the long run, I do suggest them as an alternative to get you started quickly.

Few other technologies/tools I want to learn about, would love to hear your thoughts and feedback

GitHub and Git
Gerrit

Nurall Matching : How it Works

Hi All,
I am really excited to announce that we launched Nurall with Smart Matching.
Our Minimum Viable Product allows Mentors/Proteges to register and enter their preferences on Nurall. Once this is done Matching is as simple as 1-2-3

Step 1: The Nurall System Receives your Submission and starts working on smart matches.
An Automated Email is Sent to the Mentor/Protege with status updates on the matching.

Step 2: Once matches are found we get back to you with the profile information of the Mentor/Proteges. If you approve we proceed to the next step, note both the mentor/protege need to approve to connect with each other

Step 3: Once the approval is complete we allow the mentors and proteges to connect.

We have kept the process simple and we don't share your information without your consent/approval. We would love you to go ahead and try it out at http://nurall.com

As always we love to hear from you, tell us what you like/hate

Regards
Ravi

Validate Your Ideas Before Executing on Them

Most people would agree that both ideation and execution are critical for a successful organization. Working on the technical side of things I have focused on execution and executing efficiently. As I have started to work more on Nurall I have come to realize that it is critical for us to get our ideas validated before jumping in and building the product.

It is at this step that I have found the Customer Development Process to be extremely beneficial. The vision of Nurall is to connect Mentors with Visionary Proteges.
I see strong correlation in what we are doing at Nurall and the Customer Development Process. Our customers are mentors who can guide us to build a product that will satisfy their needs.
We seek to learn from the customers, if you are interested drop in at Nurall and Sign up with us.
We also see social tools like Nurall's FB Page, Nurall's TwitterAccount as means for us to engage and learn from users.

The challenge I see is incorporating the customer development process while we are in a mad rush to build the product. There are a bunch of questions that are running through my mind.

When do you decide that you have talked to enough customers?
Is there a magic number?
What do you do if you cannot get hold of enough people to talk?
How do you handle conflicting customer feedback?

As we go through the customer discovery and learning process at Nurall I will share my thoughts here. I hope this will be beneficial to Entrepreneurs and others who are engaged in a similar process. As always I love to hear from my readers. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Thanks
Ravi

Useful Books for Entrepreneurs

Recently I have been reading a bunch of books that are useful for Entrepreneurs.
I wanted to share my thoughts and get your feedback on it.

Here is the list

1) Purple Cow by Seth Godin

A must read if you are looking to build a product/service that is customer
oriented. I like the focus on the product in a marketing book. Also Seth clearly
instructs the concept of Sneezers/Early Adopters in his book

2) The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

I am reading this book, the concept of the long tail has been explained and made popular on the internet. I also see similar concepts with this book and Purple Cow. This book is useful to my role at Citysearch. At Citysearch I work on the Search Marketing Product.
I see how we can use the concepts of the long tail in monetizing search queries.
I was introduced to the concept of the long tail a couple of years ago while working at the Search Engine Marketing team at Citysearch. I finally got around to reading this book.
On the internet as we see economics of scale come into picture and the ability to provide almost infinite choice to consumers I feel this book will gain more and more value

3) The four steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank

My co-founder at Nurall , Karthik recommended that I take a look at this book.
The book focuses on the Customer Development Methodology. The focus on customer discovery and customer learning is nice. Also the step by step approach helps start ups.
We have incorporated this approach and methodology to building Nurall.com.
The introduction of a well defined process to the chaotic world of internet startups is great.
A must read if you are going to start any new company

I have the following books that I am going to start reading soon

4) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

I am interested in this book to explore further how an ideavirus grows and spreads.
A small groups of people can influence a majority. Is this true? How does it work?
How do you recognize these Sneezers/Early Users/Geeks?

5) The Art of the Innovation by Tom Kelley

I am looking to read this book with the following open questions
Is innovation an art? How can it be practiced?
Creativity: how to be creative?

These books have been useful to me as we are working on building Nurall.com
I feel lucky that I can learn and apply the principles in an internet start up company.
I am always looking to find more books/resources that would help entrepreneurs.
If you have recommendations I would love to hear your feedback. If you like/dislike my list let me know.

Thanks
Ravi

Late Night Work and The Side Effects

Long time since I blogged , It is a combination of being lazy and being busy.
I think being lazy is the reason and busy the excuse.

Lately I have been working late at work for the launch of the next big product for my company.
Late night work at a Tech company is always Interesting.You make good friends, engage in interesting conversation, get free dinner, free massages etc. Also for some reason I am more productive when I work at night, very few people are around and you get more work done.

As I am waiting on my colleague to continue my work some of my random thoughts about recent events

1) Presidential Election and the aftermath : I am excited about Obama's victory. I consider this a historic result. The economy is a concern and here I am a bit concerned that we might over regulate. I believe in free economy with proper controls and at the same time I think over regulation hurts. Bailing out big companies seems to be the trend. I look forward to see when we are going to have the direct benefits of this practice.

2) Prop 8: I am sad with the results of Prop 8. I hope to soon see this overturned.
In general I think government should stay out of our personal lives.
Marriage is a personal choice and everyone should have this option and the laws should not regulate one way or the other.

3) Nurall: I am excited about http://demo.nurall.com
We are making good progress here. We are building tools with great content, I look forward to provide you more news on this front. On a more broader scale I see how websites are going to be places with content and users .We look at this as connections. These connections should be used on both nurall and outside nurall. More on this as we release additional features.
Working on a start up like Nurall is both exciting and frustrating. We are excited about the possibilities and frustrated at the speed and what we can get done. Our team is learning to be more disciplined and attack the problem.

I am looking forward to post more often, as always I love your feedback

Thanks
Ravi

Lakers, Socal and Social Utility

The day after a long weekend is not my favorite day, you get back to work from your partying,
relaxing, traveling etc. Surprisingly today has been a good day for me. I guess it is a bunch of things.

• Weather is good today, better than the weekend
• Lakers won and are ahead 3-1 in the conference finals :)
  
• Weekend was gr8 to catch up with old friends
• I am blogging after a long time, its been a fun time the last few weeks
• Excited about playing Mah Jong, Looks like a fun game
  

Tech Thoughts

Social Networks: I am looking to see if people will come with ways to serve vertical markets in social networks.I think social networks are horizontal and there are people with specific interests who gather together on social networks, how do you capture these vertical segments and build utilities that serve them , group of people who love astronomy, elvis fans etc.
I think there are better ways to serve vertical markets in social networks.

Maybe a Linked App/Gadget/Utility for Technology Recruiters.

Monetization: Content is becoming an increasingly valuable asset to monetize. You generate
valuable content then you can syndicate, distribute , publish and charge for it. The distribution channels are interesting to me , I am happy that I get to play with this at work.

I have been trying to learn Mandarin.

Xie Xie (Thanks)
wan an (Good Night)
Ravi

Gearing up for summer :)

Hi All,

Long time since I blogged and I cant believe that we are already getting ready
to welcome Summer.

I would like to start out with this weekend of singing.

This weekend was fun, I got back to Karaoke after a long time. We visited Orchid Music Studio in KTOWN. It was a fun night and we had a bunch of great performances.

Rahul was in his usual singing mode. We had the Music Divas singing melodiously in Kate,Ara and Garima. Hayk,Harshal and Anubhav were the three music musketeers. Simon and Roselyn were great together.

Of course I performed like a Rock Star :). Fun night and I think I should go to Karaoke more often :).

Things I am looking forward to this summer not necessarily in the following order.

1) Lakers BasketBall (We Started well in the playoffs 3-0, its time to take this all the way ). The team looks good and I believe we made the best trade in the league by picking up Gasol.

2) Working on Nurall, I am super excited to be working on Nurall, We have a bunch of exciting features coming up.I like the fact that we are moving ahead and with each small step we are moving towards our goal. Also as we interact with Inventors and
figure out how we might help them it makes me feel good about our venture.

3) Building an AdEngine I do this at work in Citysearch. I want to get this out and see
how we monetize it , this is a nice learning experience and a real world test
for what we are building.

4) Surfing Its time to Surf Up in the West Coast. I want to learn how to surf.

There are tons of other things (Work,Girls, Fun,Partying,Events etc ) that I am looking forward to and I will blog as significant things happen.

I have always been an optimist , Signing off with a Jimmy Dean Quote

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination"

Wishing you the best

Have Fun
Ravi

Red Rock : This place rocks

Its been a long time since my last post and today slightly inebriated from partying in red rock I have decided to post about this place. Red Rock is awesome , right across the building that I work.

The last few months have been fun , working for www.citysearch.com, traveling around the country seattle,san francisco,redmond,new jersey and chicago and of course our regular hang outs at red rock.

For the uninitiated
Red Rock
is the bar right across my work place on Sunset Blvd, it is a weekly hangout on Thursday night to watch football,catch up with friends and relax after a long day at work.

Also having been to so many different places I think LA still rocks, Of course I am being slightly biased as I like L.A. However the weather is perfect it is underrated, believe me after traveling to Chicago in December I think I have seen enough snow for a year,maybe we are slightly spoiled :) by the SoCal Weather.

Also it is great to watch USC win the Rose Bowl yet again and I believe college football needs a playoff system,Is it ever going to happen ?

Today was a nice day hanging out with colleagues John,Gabe,Kate,Ara,Simon from Work
and getting back home and to the city for 2008. Wishing you the best for 2008.

Signing Off
Ravi

Ron Paul : Got me thinking

Here is my story. As an active young blogger I follow politics but recently
few events hapened that got me really interested about the Presidential Race.
One of my good friends recently quit is Job and traveled cross country from
Los Angeles to New Hampshire to Support and participate in the Ron Paul campaign.
Crazy and foolish act I thought.

I later talked to my friend and he provided his reasoning.I was more surprised
that he was not alone and more of his friends had joined him in the campaign.

This got me thinking.Who is Ron Paul? and what is this all about.
So as usual I followed main stream media like CNN,FOX,MSNBC etc and it looks like this guy does not have a chance. But Wait lets check out the internet and see if this
story has a buzz and here you some of the numbers from different sites.

You Tube (Around 41,500 results)
Digg ( Has more than 10,000 diggs for some posts)
Technorati Ron Paul is one of the most searched for items

Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends?q=ron+paul

Notice I am not comparing Ron Paul to other candidates. That is not the point
I am making. The point is that there seems to be more buzz,interest about him
on the internet than on traditional media.

I discussed this with my friends and there were different reasonings provided.

Some of the common one's

A media conspiracy.
A political conspiracy.
He has a bunch of bloggers working for him.
Young people like him.
People Hate Him.

As a practical personal I debated about this. One thing that occurred through this
process is that it got me more interested in the presidential race.

It also got me thinking more about traditional media versus the internet.
People kept mentioning that it is easier to game the system on the internet
than on traditional media channels.

I cannot concur to this idea simply based on the fact that the internet is all about
me and you. The people. How can we say that few people know better than the masses
on the internet. The internet also lends itself to self regulation.

Still unanswered questions. Do comment on this topic.
I would love to hear your reactions and wouldn't mind if you hate this piece

I have always received passionate responses on this topic.

Signing Off
Ravi

Pausing Google Web History

One of the things that I noticed is that when I am signed onto one of Google's services like gmail,orkut,blogger,etc and perform web searches on Google. Google collects my web history, the web history is the record of searches that you performed on Google.

My friend Rahul was freaking out that Google was collecting all this information and
he didnot want them too. Google does have a simple way to pause it from collecting
your web history, when this feature is enabled I believe all your searches are not
recorded.

Here are the instructions on how to pause your web history on google

1) Log On to Google Web History by clicking on the option Google Web History

2) You can delete all items from your webhistory using the clear webhistory button.

3) When this is done it will also pause your webhistory. Alternatively you can click
on the pause button to prevent your searches from being recorded.

4) Help section for the google web history feature


Help for Google Web History


It is nice to know that the Opt Out feature from Google is Simple.
As always there is debate on whether people should Opt In to such features or
Opt Out as shown above.

So If you want to pause your web history on Google, Go Ahead.

Am I paranoid or is this is something that people want :)

Ravi

Yahoo Pipes:Having Fun

I started playing around with Yahoo Pipes.
For information about Yahoo Pipes.

Yahoo Pipes


Yahoo Pipes is a powerful framework for mashups, working with RSS,Feeds
and also data integration.

Some of the pipes that I Created.


Search for apartments on craigslist.



Flickr+Delicious.


I can see this as a useful tool and it is hosted by Yahoo.

Got to Go, Have Fun

Social Networking: Better Late then Never ?

For a long time I have been too lazy on social networks.
I decided to come out of hibernation and become active on orkut and facebook.

My Friends if you read the blog find me on orkut,facebook.

I get why people get hooked on to these sites.
It s kind of fun actually to track your friends find out what they are upto
and discover new friends.

I am looking forward to the SC game tonight.
Waiting to see our Q.B Booty has improved from last year.

In the season I am looking forward to SC vs Cal and SC vs Oregon.
I believe these are going to be make or break games for us.

Signing Off, Fight On !

Ravi

Social Networking and Monetizing them

Social Networks have always intrigued me.
They are great now I can keep in touch with friends,family,coworkers,discover ppl etc

Facebook,MySpace,LinkedIn,Orkut etc are great and useful sites.
Also Ning now allows anyone to create their own social network.

One thing about social networks that intrigues me is revenue generation.

The CPC,CPA etc methods work fine with click based systems.

Having worked with SEM Systems and also Local Search Engines I think we need
to have better systems for monetizing social networks.

Pretty soon I believe we will see behaviour targeting on social networks.
They will not just look for keywords but also look at our friends,interests,actions to determine which Ads to serve.

Maybe we will see different types of ads, widgets may serve the function of dynamic ads.

An Interesting article about this topic.

Fox Interactive Media NYTimes Article

One thing of note is that there are going to be privacy concerns especially with the way we can target users on social networks.

A personalization dream a privacy nightmare?

I believe we can still reap the benefits of personalization and protect our privacy.

Remains to be seen who is going to be the first one to one to come with something similar to
Google AdSense for Social Networks.

Let me know if you see interesting things in this space.

Late Night Blogging, Time to Sleep

Ravi

Personalization vs Privacy

This topic has always been of particular interest to me.

This ties to my research interests and here goes........



As we see companies like Yahoo,Google,Amazon provide better user experience and
benefits through personalization on one front, we start looking at the privacy concerns.


Can we provide personalization benefits while still honoring user privacy concerns?

As an example lets say I login to Gmail, use Google Search, Blog using Blogger,Picassa for pictures. Orkut for social networking,etc.......the list goes on, Google will have a more complete
picture of me. This would allow more targeted advertising, provide me better search results......



I do see the picture that personalization has very useful benefits. However what If I didnot
want all my activities to be linked, I would not want by blog to be tied to what I search.
Can I selectively Opt Out ?



I think we need to provide consumers the choice on what they want to be tracked and what they
dont want to be tracked. Also technically we should have obfuscation methods, opt out techniques for users to make the decisions



Also privacy violation is a huge liability for companies.
This should encourage them to work more closely with users to create a good user
experience while honoring their privacy concerns.


So in short I think we should start looking at technology to restrict what technology can do and provide users the CHOICE on how their information is tracked.



Here's a link to my research paper

http://www.isr.uci.edu/pep06/papers/PEP06_Chellappa.pdf


Let me know your thoughts on this.

Why Start Now?

Its is late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning when I finally start blogging.
The question is why now? I have excuses better late than never, etc.........

I guess part of it is feeling guilty for not being in touch with a bunch of my loco friends
from India. Another part is I do think I have a story to tell..........

I recently came back from a trip to Northern California and I enjoyed it a lot.
Having stayed in SoCal for 4 years I must agree that visiting Northern California ( Some ppl evidently hate the term NorCal) was fun.

I have heard of the famed SoCal-NorCal Battle. Personally I don't give a shit.
I love both NorCal and SoCal.

Now Getting back to the blog. Why this name? Hmmm
I guess it is part of my geekiness to obtain a very literal name for my Blog.

For Now some photos of my trip.