I was moving the location of the mysql databases on my Ubuntu EC2 instance to an EBS volume. I had a little trouble. Small problem, but eventually found the solution. Did the normal things:

1. Shutdown mysql
2. copied the data files
3. Double checked and fixed as needed the permissions
4. edited the my.cnf to point at the new data location
5. edited the apparmour mysql cnf
6. (the part I forgot) restart apparmour
7. then start up mysql server

I had edited all the proper files. Poured over the permissions. Read the syslog a million times wondering why mysql couldn’t write the file. Finally restarted the apparmour service and voila! Mysql started up without a hitch.

I just read Obie’s post about employers and their fear of someone being successful without them. The non-compete doesn’t completely bother me, it’s the ownership of works really. Work on my time does not belong to you!

I have an issue with him owning the intellectual property for work I do off the clock.  It makes me less motivated to learn and be innovative when I’m tinkering around on my own. I have my pet projects that I don’t want him to have any part in.

– Obie

I can’t stand when employers think it’s their right to own my works even if done on my own time. Now, I completely understand if they have a problem with me directly competing with them. But if I come up with a product/service on my own time (which you wouldn’t have approved time for anyways), it’s mine.

I as an employee should have a couple of choices:

1. Market the product and make some coin.
2. Bring the product to the attention of the employer and hope I get some good karma/bonus/whatever
3. Let it go as a learning excercise.

All of these should be options. If the employer wants the best, allow us to innovate and create products that you didn’t think of. I, like Obie, would feel constricted and not feel so inclined to tinker and possibly come up with new ideas on my time if I might not own my creation.

Aside from creating new products, I can’t count the free training hours my employer received through my tinkering on side projects. How many pieces of code I’ve dragged in that could be repurposed in the employer’s projects.

If you want me to stay, quit trying to make me sign “we your own life” documents that probably won’t hold up anyways and start offering reasons to stay. If I come up with works that are good enough for me to branch off.  Then don’t try to sue your way out of it. Encourage me, share the profits. Clearly the ideas are good enough. Provide related bonuses tied to realistic goals in writing. If my employer offered to finance the idea and provide me with a healthy bonus or commissions, I would gladly bring more ideas forward. Sure the payout would be less than if I ran with the idea myself, but so would the risk.

Employers, listen up! We’re not trying to steal your business. We’re not trying to directly compete with you. We usually just want the ability to sow what we reap. Even if we never do.

Sorry for the delay guys, but I’ve had to deal with a lot of work and personal issues. It’s in the latest in the github repo http://github.com/buck2769/hellaphone/tree/master

Updated hellaphone. Finally fixed the download button bug. Also a few styling improvements.

Zecco has lost it’s appeal. The biggest appeal of Zecco was the 40 free trades per month (later reduced to 10). The signup process was kludgy. In fact the whole website has a early 2000 feel to it. It tried to be a “social network” for investing, but is missing the slickness. It’s missing decent inferencing. The social aspect is basically reduced to show me yours and I’ll show you mine with a forum attached.

I was really hoping they would achieve more. But driving off all the non-technical users with the pain in the ass interface and poor response time (except for my last post about them. I guess they’re quick to save face) leaves only the people willing to put up with crap because it’s cheap. Well, that’s gone too. Unless you have $25K in assets in Zecco. I don’t. It’s always been a play account for me.

No iPhone interface, no iPhone app. No general mobile interface. Where is the 2.0 experience they kept bragging about? Slick interface? Nope. Mobile interface? Nope. Cross browser friendly? Nope.

Oh well. I guess they still have decent prices for realtime trades.

I haven’t professionally used drupal since March of 2008, but yet I’m looking forward to DrupalCamp Florida tomorrow. Admission is free, so if you’re near Orlando you should check it out. I’m making an hour and a half drive to get there, so you guys that are closer don’t have an excuse.

Some bugfixing and behind the scenes work.

Replaced the old templating with HAML. Mainly because I wanted to give it a try. I like the cleanliness of it, and it is already starting to grow on me. 

Searching a second time replaces the original results now. If you liked the old behavior better (it was an oversite) feel free to muck around in the application.js. It’s rather easy to find.

I had a little wordpress problem this morning. Wordpress kept redirecting to the install.php script. Wordpress does this when it doesn’t find the options table.

I found that the options table was corrupt. Ran a repair and everything worked as normal. Sorry for the downtime.

As requested, I’ve implemented a category search filter for hellaphone. Neither the keyword, nor the category is required, but both will filter the results. It’s up in github

search with category

New Hellaphone release at github.

Now each news post has a post description available.