I’ve been beta testing Spinnakr.com’s new service now in private beta.

Spinnakr, founded by #dctech folks @adamsfallen and @mmayernick, allows you to target your website’s visitors to more clicks & conversions for your business goals through analytics and engagement action use cases. Normally, your website looks the same to everyone, but different people are looking for different things. Spinnakr makes it easy to reach and engage the different segments of users — not just analyze them like most people already do.

If you use wordpress, check out this plugin on github https://github.com/omaruddin/simple-spinnakr.

I appreciate your feedback and comments about your usage of the plugin and Spinnakr.

I’ve been working with a good friend and colleague, Paul Singh, Founder of Dashboard.io to beta test his new analytics tracking solution for startups/founders/investors which is based on the metrics standard AARRR from Dave McClure, Founder of 500startups and the guy behind Startup Metrics for Pirates. Dashboard.io allows startups to see how they rank against other startups while investors benefit from it the same way.

I threw together this blog post and WordPress plugin based on Dashboard.io tracking integration and AARRR standard to save time on applying the code on wordpress sites and to eventually make the plugin seemlessly integrate for all stages of the conversion funnel proposed by AARRR.

So far Dashboard.io is working well for me on my sites like Music.com and is helping people understand relevant metrics and conversion goals for their websites.

If you’d like to fork this plugin or download it for now I just have it on github. I’ll publish to WordPress.org CODEX if there’s demand for it.

I welcome feedback and kudos to Paul Singh for releasing this analytics app.

Innovation is a key driving force that has enabled our modern civilization to become what it is today. Innovation has taken us from being simple wandering hunter gatherers and nomadic tribes all the way up to the social, military and economic revolutions that have propelled us to where we are today.

Innovation is the process of trying something new and if it works or survives, you keep it, otherwise throw it away or tweak it until it grows and changes things for the better. Andy Singleton, from Assembla.com, writes about the Theory of Innovation requiring exploration, observation and optimization. People and companies who don’t challenge themselves to innovate themselves as well as provide a culture of team innovation are likely to fall by the wayside and be beaten by competition. Whether you are looking for a new job or whether you’re looking to grow sustainable advantage against your business’ competition, innovation mindsets are the key to success.

Re-invent, pivot, tweak, learn and optimize are alternative actions that I think of for innovating myself and my businesses. Out with the status quo and in with better ways, tools, methods and thinking.

The successive waves of innovation over the last century has taken us from electricity to telecommunications to microchips all the way into the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and has changed the way humans live and continue to advance into the future.

Science fiction has also inspired researchers, engineers and scientists alike to take visions of the future and attempt to innovate these visions into reality. From Star Trek’s communication devices to cell phone technology, human kind undoubtedly has an innate backbone and curiosity to innovate.

I wrote this post because I often come across a common theme in various sectors of our technology driven world — resistance or ignorance to innovation.

Working as a hive mind, an organization or business of any shape or form, must work to better themselves, achieve their shared vision and hopefully do good in the process for the world.

Whether driven by shareholder value demands or passionate social good there are many reasons why innovation isn’t in every nook and cranny of society.

Just as one example, cloud computing as an innovation has helped to reduce costs, reduce waste, increase profits, increase scalability and make better use of our energy resources. At the same time, ignorance and resistance to change have led to common beliefs that cloud computing is inherently insecure. With the right strategy and execution cloud computing can be highly secure, it just depends on your situation and needs.

I’m a firm believer that each and every person in this world should work towards betterment of themselves and so should the organizations where they work. Corporate values and social goals alongside innovation is paramount to everyone’s future. Eliminating disease, war, hunger along with conserving resources and capital waste are all very good reasons for leaders of society to innovate.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people innovating throughout the government, business sectors and even non-profits, but having an understanding of why you may not be innovating may be the first step in continuing to advance the progression of innovation — whether incremental or game changing.

Here are some reasons that you should look for in your organization or team to understand why you may not be innovating!

Lack of internal support or buy in

• Resistance to change
• Management discourages innovation in it’s culture
• Lack of focus, vision and direction from leaders
• Lack of association of innovation and differentiation with growth
• Leaders defensive to new ideas that challenge status quo

No common definition of innovation and how to measure success

• Lack of understanding of the types of innovation
• No key metrics and tracking for baseline and targets

Lack of innovation processes

• No idea management
• No new ideas, new problems or learning opportunities
• No process to bring idea from vision to growth
• No research and development
• Lack of effective communication between team on innovation process
• Failure to execute projects effectively
• Lack of measurement and tracking on projects
• Lack of user and stakeholder analysis
• No monitoring or communication on innovations

Lack of Customer Focus

• Lack of listening and talking to customers
• Lack of understanding of market and customer development interaction

Lack of long term goals

• A focus on risk mitigation and risk adversity
• Short term focus with no time spent on long term
• Focusing on unrealistic financial returns or short term gain

Lack of resources

• Lack of adequate funding
• Lack of prioritization of resources

Lack of teamwork

• Lack of challenging your team
• Lack of effective communication between team on new ideas
• Lack of knowledge management
• No perceived incentive to be innovative

As a web developer and software entrepreneur I often come to rely on Rackspace to support my hosting and infrastructure needs. I’ve also been tweeting and discussing Cloud Computing and it’s benefits.

For the benefit of any nerds, admins, developers, entrepreneurs and CTOs alike, I’ve put together this Google Spread Sheet template to help you forecast your potential hosting budget impact as it relates to your hosting configuration and metered usages.

If you’d like help with this template applied to your business or with your hosting solution, let me know and I’d be glad to help. Also I’ve made this a free template at Google Docs but I welcome feedback and suggestions on improving it.

I hope you will find it as useful as my clients and I do to help forecast costs for your shiny new, contract-free cloud at Rackspace

Check out the template and feel free to modify and use it as you please — Rackspace Cloud Infrastructure Hosting Budget Planner

Over the last few months, I’ve been quite preoccupied with research and development and one of the most common tools I use in my work is Mind Mapping. I was also recently asked to be a guest for #nptalk to chat about Cloud Computing for Non-profits. For the benefit of non-profit leaders and to further my evangelism for non-profits and #nptech, I decided to share this mind map on the very same subject.

This particular mind map may not make sense to every #nptech person out there, regardless I hope you will find it useful.

If you would like any help or advice on cloud computing for your non-profit or business including government, I’d be happy to help, just reach out to me through the blog or contact form.

I plan to release more mind maps on variety of topics for the benefit of interested audiences. I also welcome your feedback and suggestions on mind maps you’d like to see or consider for discussion.

Here’s a PDF Download :
Mind Map : Cloud Computing for Non-profits by Omar_Uddin

There are countless articles, forums, blogs and other sites that try to either defend or blast PHP for use as a professional language for web development. There are a ton of PHP developers than ever before and there are many great options to choose from in terms of your web development technology.

A good example of these debates are like this one — which I will warn that you not read too much into as well!

Considering PHP is dominant due to it’s default installation with Apache on Linux web servers – the most dominant server distro on the web — this debate could greatly be ‘closed’ if these folks look through a magnifying glass for specific scenarios, or if they look to people that have worked on both sides of the debate — such as me.

My web projects across businesses, non-profits & government are currently using both .NET and PHP in various ways. I personally love open source technology especially PHP, MySQL, Apache and I contribute to open source projects like GeoMashup, a plugin for WordPress that among other projects. We also use a bit of Java when there is a simple way to integrate it through say web services and if we have expertise to work with it.

What I’ve learned from other experts and from my own experience over the years that technology is a commodity and the experts that are fluent in different technologies, may feel that they are better at PHP than Perl, or better at PHP then Java etc. So it’s sort of biased to say that one technology is better. Facebook, Yahoo and other big internet businesses are using PHP and are doing it well. PHP is not as ‘fast’ as C/C++, Java, .NET or any compiled language but unless you’re a web developer or software architect, you don’t need compiled languages for your website. You need compiled code for back end stuff a lot of the times and Perl can be compiled.

If you can still continue reading this article and aren’t bored out of your mind (to those reader’s that are not techies), you’ll realize that having these argument’s may be pointless.

When I build web application or website prototypes, I almost immediately go to PHP because of good frameworks or platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Symfony and others because I have an infinite amount of functionality and customization options as well as pretty cheap hosting solutions already where PHP/MySQL cost me a lot less than running say Microsoft SQL Server. I also use my Mac Book Pro most of the time I’m in my lab where I build and deploy many sites from my local XAMPP stack that gives me a web development stack that includes Apache, PHP, MySQL etc. When I need to work on .NET I fire up a virtual machine, Remote Desktop into a Windows box or use Mono – the open source .NET Runtime for Linux. But I can even be disconnected from the web and go to the coffee shop and continue developing.

Focusing on specific needs and the ‘right tool for the job’ are probably more realistic so I think developers and technology folks shouldn’t waste time with the “versus” debate. What matters most is what your folks are good at, documentation, having a pool of resources in case you need to grow (PHP has a lot!), whether or not you plan to integrate something that uses a certain technology, licensing concerns (Windows is not free), operating or hosting costs, scalability, and possibly acquisition concerns if you’re planning to sell your business.

Also I should note that if you have an existing investment then there a lot of CTOs and decision makers in organizations do not want to consider adding PHP into the mix even for certain things, like intranet, collaboration, content management due to their reliance on Microsoft. I just advise those folks to stick with their vendor-lock if they don’t understand open source’s benefits since they already have invested too much say in a pure-Microsoft environment including Exchange, Sharepoint etc.

I look forward to seeing what other great applications, frameworks, solutions and products come out but I can bet that these debates will always be alive. New technology from HTML5, CSS3 and more what will continue to push (new and old) developer’s into learning new technology both to build their resume and continue to scratch their learning itch!

After talking to my friends Robert La Gesse from Rackspace Cloud and @vidluther from ThirdPartyCode, I decided messing with domain alias feature of Rackspace Cloud Sites so I could save money from getting a Cloud Server, VPS or slicehost.

If you need to run multiple-separate domains and one base master WordPress template theme with multiple children themes (like what I needed was a product site, 2 blogs, a community and a corporate site) without the need for wildcard subdomains or subfolders per blog/site then running a single instance of code and database on Rackspace Cloud Sites is possible using their domain alias feature.

I recommend you follow these steps to setup WordPress MU:

1. Download and install WPMU Multi-Site Plugin
2. Setup your different domains, sites blogs locally with the help of this plugin on your dev installation and get everything working the way you want like content, themes, plugins etc.
3. Deploy to the core or ‘first’ site as you would normally do to the Rackspace Cloud Site
4. Test to see if this core site is working

Then follow these steps to setup the other Rackspace Cloud Sites & DNS:

1. Setup the actual core domain in DNS to point to the matching Cloud Site IP that should have an appropriate database for the instance
2. Deploy the local developer instance files and database to this core domain
3. Setup domain aliases with the help of this Help guide at Rackspace Cloud support
4. Test that wordpress mu is serving the core and new alias domains that you have set up in the multi-site configuration

It’s that easy and I was pleasantly surprised when it was working so easily in addition to not having to get a server or other dedicated vm/box for running WPMU in this way!

For those of you folks who are considering a cloud hosting solution for your ASP.NET web apps with or without WCF services, I strongly recommend you test out Rackspace Cloud.

I had some trouble getting things working but found an excellent article that should help you .NET developers looking to use Rackspace Cloud Sites as solution to host your ASP.NET web sites, web apps or WCF services.

Since cloud hosting has different conditions for security and reliability, there are some other considerations that you should check out at the Help support area of the Rackspace Cloud:

• Overview of modified Medium Trust
• How do I add impersonation to my ASP.NET site?

Cheers to the folks at Rackspace Cloud! PS When can I expect Cloud Servers to run Windows in a vm ?

For those of us wishing the iPhone included GPS receiver built in, this is a short term solution that’s a hack at best but even if it is ‘off’ by 100 yards, I can at least avoid the time wastage that occurs with putting a starting address into the driving directions feature of the iPhone Google Maps application!

Find out more from Gizmodo.

A good friend of mine, Vid Luther from PHPCult / Linuxpowered.com, showed me Selenium, a nifty Firefox extension, today for developing test cases that you can play back into the Firefox browser including pauses, delays, keystrokes, form values, and link clicks.

Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for Selenium tests. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit, and debug tests. Selenium IDE includes the entire Selenium Core, allowing you to easily and quickly record and play back tests in the actual environment that they will run.

If you find yourself repeatedly running the same user flow tests on a website or web application, try out this extension today!

Have you ever been into a meeting with a presentation being shown by some techie or project lead that attempts to describe some kind of trend or probabilistic projection and been bored by the visualization? Well many sectors of the economy rely on very simple visualization tools that aren’t at the fore front of data visualization and mining techniques that are available nowadays.

In the recent past I’ve posted about Google Maps mashups with heat map technology but there are many powerful tools out there (some web based, others not) that intrinsically yield powerful trends that may not even have been discoverable with simple charts, graphs and basic visualization tools of the past era.

An article in SmashingMagazine.com has catalogued and captured screenshots of the most amazing and beautiful data visualization models out there including everything from 3d heatmapping/contouring, content clouding, to mind mapping.

One of my favorites is a 3d visual population hill/spike density map from Time Magazine:

If you are in the business of analysis of any kind, you should definitely read this article and check out the screen shots. You might find the technologies that these companies are creating useful to your endeavor.

Steve Jobs deserves an applause again!

In addition to the recent price drop from Apple for the 8GB iPhone model, an open letter from Steve Jobs gives any first-to-buy iPhone owners a $100 offer towards other Apple gear.

Are you loving apple yet?

So I’ve been yapping about touch screen technologies a lot this year (Apple iPhone, Microsoft Surface, Jeff Han’s Multi-touch) and you may have enjoyed the essential tools I’ve posted for Apple’s iPhone but I thought that my fellow TabletPC friends out there could enjoy some of the tools and resources that I’ve been enjoying on my TabletPC.

Also if you’re not yet a TabletPC lover and are thinking about getting a laptop PC in the near future, I recommend you review and compare the prices / features of your choice notebooks and also the top TabletPC’s out there. I own the Lenovo Thinkpad X61 TabletPC which I believe to be the best TabletPC out there by far in comparison to the others.

Now here are your tools. Enjoy!

My Favorite TabletPC Software

• ArtRage – It’s free (limited features), and it’s amazing. Kids, adults alike have loved this application that I’ve had on my tablet they love the ability to be able to paint on a canvas just like an artist would do. You can create some AMAZING art with an organic quality I’ve just never seen on a PC. Try installing it now and use the “Load Tracing Paper” feature and show off your masterpiece to everyone
• Microsoft OneNote – This is the most used tool on my TabletPC. I use it for meeting recordings and notetaking. I use it for brainstorming ideas, designing business requirements and workflows for my ventures. I love the ability to OCR anything (screen clippings from other apps or websites, and even what I doodle or jot down). The software allows you to organize yourself in hierarchical groups of tabs so you can organize your notes the way you want. Honestly I’m not trying to make a sales pitch here, but just try it out, whether you’re a student, a doctor, or engineer you’ll appreciate OneNote’s power.
• Alias SketchBook Pro (now owned by Autodesk)- It’s not free, but it is different from ArtRage. The tool is more for penciling, concept drawings, sketches, illustrations, fine art, drawings, annotation, education. Check out what people are doing with Sketchbook Pro.
• Mindjet MindManager Pro – MindManager software, a mind mapping tool that’s also optimized for the TabletPC, inspires people and businesses to align individuals and teams, engage and excites employees, accelerate business processes and win new business faster.

TabletPC Software Directories

• Microsoft TabletPC Powertoys – All of Microsoft’s Powertoys made just to take advantage of the TabletPC
• TabletPC Post
• TabletPC2.com Software Directory

TabletPC Enthusiast Related Blogs, News, and Forum Sites

• Scott’s List of Great Tools for your TabletPC
• TabletPC Buzz
• Student TabletPC Blog and News Site – An excellent blog for students to keep up to date on the TabletPC world
• TabletPc2.com –
  The Place for Tablet PC and UMPC Comparisons, News, Reviews and Information

TabletPC Developer Resources

• TabletDev.com – Essential information for Tablet PC developers and users.
• TabletUML.com – A UML tool for Tablet PCs (that I highly recommend if you’re a software engineer or architect)
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Technion Israel Institute of Technology researchers have developed a theoretical model of a time machine that, in the distant future, could possibly enable future generations to travel into the past. An article on this research was published last week in the scientific journal Physical Review.

By tweaking Einstein’s space time and general relativity models these researchers are becoming more confident with the idea of travelling back in time, something that most scientists believe to be improbable because of the paradoxes and other reasons that could happen if one did so. Curving space time, as is the basis for wormholes to travel instantaneously from one point in space to another, is the basis for this research. So instead of going to another space point in your time, you go from your point in time to another point in time.

Several issues with the stability of such a curve of space time that can cause disturbances are at the forefront of the research which the scientists hope one day the world will be able to solve.

Many people believe that if a time machine using such technology were ever possible, then why isn’t there any evidence of people coming back and telling us about it? If the positive benefit of time travel into the past is to undo our own mistakes in this world, why hasn’t it already been done, or would we even feel the effect in our reality?

The arguments on all sides of the subject bring up good points, but if we are to expect any evolution in this technology we should continue the discussion until these theories can be completely thrown away, by doing scientific research to rule it out.

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Here are some great tools, tweaks, hacks, and other cool stuff for your iPhone.

I’ll probably be posting more stuff like this so stay tuned.

If anyone has any good tools that may be useful, feel free to drop a comment with the url(s).


• 199 wallpapers for the iPhone by ^manicho on deviantART
  
• iWeathr – iPhone Doppler Radar
  
• MacMost iPhone Games
  
• iPhonify – Google Reader
  
• iPhone RingtoneMaker
  
• iPhone TadaList
  
• AppMarks
  
• iFuntastic – Tweak for your iPhone (requires OSX)
  
• NES Emulator (Native for iPhone)
  
• iPhone Fluther -Tap the collective
  
• FastApps
  
• FlickIM
  
• BBSNews for iPhone
  
• i.del.icio.us
  
• iChess
  
• iPhone Music Discovery
  
•