bencoffman.com/blog

The Lean Startup -- Eric Ries

Ben Coffman — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:07:14 GMT

I really wanted to dislike this book. I mean c'mon, how could reading a book help one make a better start up? It's similar to reading a book about how to drive a golf ball right? My response, kinda, the great golfers still have a coach telling them the insider secrets like, how to stand, what to think, best ways to judge the wind, how much to practice, and how much practice is too much practice. The Lean Start-up is this coach. Eric Ries has a pragmatic approach to getting a product to market quickly, measuring the results of the launch and learning from the launch to apply to the next release. He doesn't tell you how to make your business he tells you how to make your business better. (cliché statement of the day)

Eric, revolves the entire book around 6 primary subject matters.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
5 Whys
Innovation Accounting
Build-Measure-Learn
Split Tests
Pivot Points

With each of the above topics he divides them into three categories vision, steer, accelerate and explains how the aforementioned points relate to building a successful product for your company. Eric translates this to not only start-ups but large established companies backing it up with real world examples from Intuit, a major established company to Dropbox a respective start-up when Eric was working with them.

I'll only focus on a few topics because some are very obvious in their meanings and others I really care about and wish deeply that all companies would follow. This should lead us right into Innovation Accounting:

To improve entrepreneurial outcomes and hold innovators accountable, we need to focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to set up milestones, and how to prioritize work. This requires a new kind of accounting designed for start-ups—and the people who hold them accountable.

This definition says it all and to it I simply say "Yes, Damit, YES!" Eric adds to innovation accounting and discusses vanity metrics aka "success theater", which I have seen a bajillion times. In short vanity metrics is the work you do to make yourself look better aka a super bowl add to bump traffic and give investors the appearance of traction.

The second point I want to cover is Pivot Point. I agree with this term also and so does Andy Grove, who covered the exact same topic in his book he wrote more than 10 years before Eric's, "Only The Paranoid Survive," except Andy calls a Pivot Point an inflection point. A pivot point is when you examine your data and the data says, our current plan is not working and we should refocus on what we think is this a more profitable route. I'll use Andy G's example because it's better than Eric's. When he was the CEO of Intel the company made memory, at one point Andy and team decided they could not compete with the countries who were heavily subsidizing memory manufacturing, consequently he realized the real margins were in processor innovation and manufacturing. The rest is history.

If you're interested in making innovation production better or possibly trying to shake things up in your organization enough to keep you awake at night this is a great read.

ASIHTTPRequest Doesn't play well with Automatic Reference Counting

Ben Coffman — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:07:59 GMT

Automatic Reference Counting causes the wonderful ASIHTTPRequest to not work, I suppose one could fix it, since it's on github, but for right now I took the easy route and just turned off Automatic Reference Counting.

Here are the steps:

Click on you project, in the left hand organizer.
Select your target, in the next column over.
Select the Build Settings tab at the top.
Scroll down to "Objective-C Automatic Reference Counting" (it may be listed as "CLANG_ENABLE_OBJC_ARC" under the User-Defined settings group),
and set it to NO.

Link from Stack Overflow

I Met Aaron Hillegass And He Is Tall

Ben Coffman — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:05:33 GMT

Funny story. I've been programming in Objective-C before you could even program in iOS, note: this doesn't mean I'm ridiculously good at Objective-C. All this being said when I first started out the guy that had made a name for himself through his book and his "Big Nerd Ranch" was Aaron Hillegass, sooo like any good programmer starting out in a new language I reached out to the community and asked what is the best book to start with. Nearly every single person said Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X, and so the journey began.

Fast forward about 4 years, I'm working with Capital One and through them working closely with Apple. I'm heading up to Reston, VA. to speak with Apple and when I first walk in the offices I received a nice surprise, Aaron is there. First impression, tall! Second impression, ...is that....? First thing that came to my head was, nobody else would wear a cowboy hat like that at a business meeting.

I had to have a picture with me and him, because hell he's cool, and for all the non nerds who have no idea who Aaron is here is a little tid bit that might give him some street cred in your book. Aaron worked about a 100 feet from Steve Jobs at Steve's company called NeXT. Aaron's got a few great stories about Steve, but even now after S.J. is gone anytime he starts being real about Steve's personality he gets a bit quieter in his speech as if Steve is around the corner (or an Apple employee...which they were).

I digress, so when the Apple guy is taking my picture he accidentally shoots video and you can see how I try and fake my height next to him since he is so tall. I'm 5'10" and change. At any rate, watch and enjoy the chuckle of me getting busted on cheating with my height.

iOS, Want a "button" above a UIPicker or Keyboard, inputView, inputAccessoryView

Ben Coffman — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:26:23 GMT

It's easy, so easy, it makes you a tiny bit happy inside once you see how easy it is. I'll post the code then give an explanation for those of you that want more.

CODE:




//
create a done view + done button, attach to it a doneClicked action, and place it
in a toolbar as an accessory input view...

// Prepare done button


UIToolbar*
keyboardDoneButtonView = [[UIToolbar alloc] init];

keyboardDoneButtonView.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlack;

keyboardDoneButtonView.translucent = YES;

keyboardDoneButtonView.tintColor = nil;

[keyboardDoneButtonView sizeToFit];



UIBarButtonItem* doneButton = [[UIBarButtonItem
alloc] initWithTitle:@"Done" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
target:self action:@selector(pickerDoneClicked:)]; 


//
I put the spacers in to push the doneButton to the right side of the picker view UIBarButtonItem
*spacer1 = [[UIBarButtonItem
alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil]; 


// I put the spacers in to push the doneButton to the right side of the picker view UIBarButtonItem
*spacer = [[UIBarButtonItem
alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil];
[keyboardDoneButtonView setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:spacer, spacer1, doneButton,
nil]]; //
Plug the keyboardDoneButtonView into the text field... self.businessType.inputAccessoryView = keyboardDoneButtonView;

Bam, and you are done.

Explanation:
For nearly every input field (I focus on the UITextField here) in objective-C iOS you can choose one of the core SDK libraries input tools to pop up, whether this is a keyboard or a picker, or one of the many others to choose from. You simply need to assign the input tool to the inputview, but what I stumbled across is Apple so graciously made an additional built in view to give you just a touch more creative flexiblity, it's the inputAccessoryView and it sits on top of the inputView. All you have to do is stuff another view into the inputAccessoryView. I imagine you could put whatever you want, but a UIToolbar seems to be the unspoken consensus on what to use. Put a few buttons in the UIToolbar and set it as the inputAccessoryView. Done. Yeah. It's not complex, but a nice to have.

Easy enough!

Code Repository Development Tools For My Apple

Ben Coffman — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:19:12 GMT

Soo one can say I swing both ways Windows and OS X. Both have their advantages and each has a particular tool set that I would like to see on the other. In this situation I was wanting a nice GUI for SVN and GiT. I'm on two different projects that use one or the other. With my exhaustive 30 minutes of research here are the two best tools that I came up with and have been using for about 3 months now (screenshots were grabed much earlier).

For SVN I downloaded Versions.
Pro: Best tool around, closest thing you can get to Tortoise SVN for Windows
Con: 60 bucks...sixty freaking bucks. I let Capital One graciously buy this for me. Would I pay sixty for personal use. If I used SVN day in and out for my work, yes. Though most of my personal work resides on GiT now.

For GiT I use GitBox
Pro: Best GiT tool around hands down. Nearly all will agree who use GiTBox in comparison with the others.
Con: While it's free to use, you can only have one project at a time with the freemium version. To get more projects going you need to pay $20. $20 is doable for a tool that you potentially use multiple times a day, nearly everyday.

Remember with both of these tools you cannot checkout the code from a remote repository with them, you must use the Terminal to check out the code base then use either of these tools and point them to wherever you checked out the repository too. NOTE: GiT and SVN are built in natively to OS X

mutableCopy a NSMutableDictionary and NSMutableArray If Used Incorrectly May Give You Wierdness

Ben Coffman — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:47:10 GMT

Solution:
The important thing to remember is that whenever you want to to make a mutable copy of NSMutableArray or NSMutableDictionary, or most likely anything with mutable in the name always use "mutableCopy." Do NOT simply assign one mutable dictionary to another. Like so

Wrong:

NSMutableDictionary
*mutableUsers = mutableDictionaryOfUsers;

Right:

NSMutableDictionary
*mutableUsers = [mutableDictionaryOfUsers
mutableCopy];

Problem:
After pounding my head for more than I would like to admit I edu-micated myself to find out that if one has two NSMutableDictionaries and one tries to set one NSMutableDictionary to the other without using the method "mutableCopy" it simply passes a NSDictionary. If you notice in my wrong example I was simply receiving a NSDictionary of mutableUsers and when I was trying to modify the dictionary or append to the dictionary it was failing.

Hope this helps someone somewhere.....

UINavigation Controller before Tab Bar Controller

Ben Coffman — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:29:19 GMT

Turns out this isn't too hard, just a few simple things to understand.
1. If you are creating a TabBar Controller, the TabBar Controller will always have to be the root view.
2. Once you know the last step the next step is to see what view or xib the TabBar controller calls first. Once you know what xib or view gets called first go to the view or xib's view controller code. In that code create function

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated { }

Within the above function you can inject the navigation view, but first you must tell the navigation view what the first view you want to be displayed, done like this:

PersonalInfoVC *personalInfoVC = [[PersonalInfoVC alloc] initWithNibName:@"PersonalInfoVC" bundle:nil]; UINavigationController *navController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:personalInfoVC]; [self.tabBarController presentModalViewController:navController animated:YES];

Next in each subsequent view in the navigation controller you can call the view after it like so

DepositDetailsVC *depositDetailsVC = [[DepositDetailsVC alloc] initWithNibName:@"DepositDetailsVC" bundle:nil]; [self.navigationController pushViewController:depositDetailsVC animated:YES];

Finally when you are done with the flow of the injected navigation controller run this code to go back to your original TabBar controller

[self.navigationController
dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];


Easy enough. :)

Mac OS X Hacking Admin Account, Want Admin But Don't Have The Rights?

Ben Coffman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:37:18 GMT

Problem:
You need Admin rights on your Mac because you forgot your admin password and your current account doesn't have admin rights.

Solution:
1. Turn on the computer and when you hear the startup chime hold CMD+S
2. At the prompt type in: "/sbin/mount -uw"
3. Now type "rm /var/db/.applesetupdone"
4. Type "reboot"
5. Go through the rest of the setup process. Select "Do Not Transfer My Data"
6. Be sure to make the admin account different from the existing one.

Explanation:
I stumbled on this gem today. It allows one to give themselves admin rights on any Apple computer running Snow Leopard (maybe Lion didn't try). Frankly, it's quite scary how easy it is and how clever it is in what it does.
-- In short it deletes the file that tells the Mac that one has logged into the machine...ever, as in it thinks this is your initial setup stage, however it doesn't delete any other accounts created. Once you log-in as admin you have the ability to grant any account you like with admin rights, logout of the newly created account and then log-in as your old account now with admin rights. Once you are in you have the ability to delete your newly created admin account making it look like it never existed.

Visual Studio Vs. Eclipse

Ben Coffman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:41:30 GMT

Visual Studio Vs. Eclipse.
Here is how this starts, two strong coffee’s and two nerds/geeks that have opposing technology backgrounds: .Net and Java.

.Net Guy: I programmed Java a while ago, but Eclipse (shakes head while talking to Java Guy).

Java Guy: What about Eclipse, it’s had refactoring practically from day 1. How long did it take Visual Studio? [This is a loaded/poking question because it took a hot minute for Visual Studio to get refactoring]

.Net Guy: Refactoring, heh and do you need to use that quite a bit? [Ohhh burn is what the .Net guy is thinking in his head, the rest of the world however is thinking: dear god, really, am I listening to this?]. I’m going to say one word “intellisence.” Let that sink in for a bit.

Java Guy: How much was Visual Studio Professional again [dramatic pause]? Eclipse “Professional” is free. Oh did I mention Eclipse “Premium Edition” is faaa-reeeee. One more thing Eclipse “Ultimate” is…. [Java guy makes a circle with his index finger and thumb and says wazang as he raises his hand] free as in if yo’ Daddy was Visual Studio yo’ Mama could download Eclipse and have an affair for free.

.Net Guy: [Laughs] WTF are you talking about? [Laughs some more] This is why we get along so much, because we can joke about this with each other. We probably should get back.

On the way back to the desk:
.Net Guy: Eclipse really is pretty darn nice these days, and I can’t believe that it’s free.

Java Guy: I would like to have an affair with LINQ.

[Both Laugh]

Here is what I came up with world. This is an astronomically dumb conversation because there really is no winner. It’s an apples to oranges kind of conversation. Further, if you think about it on any level, nobody is ever going to do Java programming in Visual Studio and on the other side nobody is ever going to do .Net programming in Eclipse, therefore it’s a trivial argument, but with the right buddies it sure can be a funny one.

Sh*t My Dad Says

Ben Coffman — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:59:32 GMT

When I was a kid, I liked to work my math problems from left to right on a page and not from top to bottom. Whenever I would ask my Dad for help he would say he would only help me if I worked my math problems from the top of the page down and I would always reply, "Would you tell Jimi Hendrix to flip that guitar right side up and play with his right hand?"

Fast forward to me graduating with my undergrad degree in computer science. I think to myself, psshh what does my Dad know, I just graduated with a degree that is quite nearly a degree in math, I bet I could run circles around him now...then I have a come to Jesus moment. When this happened my Dad, a psychology major, and I were sitting at the kitchen table and he was a few strong beers in (we are talking 11% folks), somehow a division problem was tossed out from my Mother and my Dad strait up answered it before the numbers even began to tickle my brain, he then follows the answer with a "I thought you were good at math," in a slightly mocking tone. Now anybody that understands a father-son relationship knows this is code for, GAME ON. "Come on Pops, you know division is my weak area," I say. He replies with, "Let's do some multiplication then." 4 problems later I'm beginning to realize I might be out gunned. "Pops let's do some basic addition, the foundation of all math", I say ~~heavily~~ slightly mockingly, "And I'll show you how one generation of evolution changes everything." My Dad calmly says, "No problem," gets up from the kitchen table walks to the fridge and gets another beer. My mom throws out one last problem, it's addition. As my Dad is opening his beer he simultaneously speaks the correct answer, and throws the cap in the sink halfway across the kitchen. My face goes white and I'm left sitting there trying to comprehend everything that just happened. Somehow the only thought that keeps going through my head is W.T.F. As my dad walks by the kitchen table holding his newly opened beer he takes a quick swig and delivers a line, which felt, he had waited 2 decades to deliver, "Maybe you and Jimi should go practice your left to right method again." What else could I do at this very moment but laugh and reply to his statement with, "What kind of beers are those anyway?"

Now imagine an entire book of moments like this with an explicitly speaking father and you have 150 pages of laugh out loud reading. It's cheap reading, I know it, but right now I'm deep into Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near, which is a good read so far, but I needed something less serious to enjoy on my Christmas break. If you love shoot from the hip, anecdotal, witty statements only "that father" or "that uncle" can deliver, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.