Thank you google!

I'm making progress on the technical front. (On a side not I promise this entire Blog will not be technical... but in the beginning a web site needs a bunch of technical stuff.) My virtual test system is up and running. I've enabled Apache, PHP and MySQL. It was actually very, very easy. I did a google search on Fedora and MySQL and found a web site that told me exactly what to do step by step:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/linux/install_apache.htm

Thank you google for making it so easy to learn from other people! Remember when ever you are stuck on something try a couple searches using different terms and see if someone else has already been down the same path. The only glitch I had was when MySQL didn't want to start because resolveip couldn't resolve my systems hostname and IP Address. Since my system gets it's IP dynamically using DHCP I never bothered to set a host name. To solve my problem I had to do the following (Time to return the favor and hope someone with the same problem will stumble on this in a search since they may not be convinently married to a networking expert):

• run 'ifconfig' to find the ip address
• run 'hostname ' to set a hostname
• edit /etc/hosts to add a new line with the ip address and hostname (I'll need to update this everytime I reboot or restart the network since it could change.)

Now my current todo list is:

• Find a name
• Set up source control using CVS so I can keep track of the code I write
  
• Fix my daughters bedtime... how in the world did I let it get so messed up she wasn't asleep until 9! It should be 7:30.
• Unpack the last couple of boxes (and the mess hidden behind them) in the corner of the living room.
• Cook and freeze the chicken and beef I bought for advanced meal planning. (Better do this before it goes bad.)

Sometimes You Just Feel Dumb

Ok... before starting brief inventory of the house:

• Daughter is currently taking a nap
• Dishes and toys are all picked up
• Dinner is planned and I just need to reheat and make the vegetable
• Laundry that was left to sit to long wet is being rewashed on hot with vinegar to get rid of the musty smell.
• Junk hot spots were worked on.
  
• Floor should be swept... but isn't that crunchy

Ok.. it looks like I have a few minutes to work on this business. Right now I'm in the middle of getting my technical environment running on my virtual test machine. So far I have VMware installed and Fedore Core 6 (linux) installed on a virtual machine. It was not as easy as I planned. I got the install finished and my test system wouldn't boot. I had to update my copy of VMware to fix a bug and try again. Finally after some hair pulling I had a working system... kind of.

After my install my virtual machine was crawling slow. I was ready to pull my hair out all over again and buy a real test system. I hadn't even started any of the software I needed so I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Luckily I off handedly mentioned the problem to my husband. This is the point where it really pays to talk to other people (preferably experts) about the problems you are having before you make any rash decisions. He glanced over at my computer for about 3 seconds and goes, "What's it worth to you to have your performance fixed?" At this point I paused... cause I could tell from the gleam in his eye he knew exactly what was going on... and I was going to feel really really dumb for not figuring it out. I finally push down my pride and go, "Ok, what's wrong?" Two minutes later I had a nice fast system.

Now what had I done wrong? I'd left my virtual test system running it's windows like environment. If you aren't technical think of it this way. My computer is a painter that is making a picture on the screen. By leaving that environment running on the test machine I was asking the painter to create two different pictures, one with each hand. No wonder it was swamped. All my husband had to do was switch the virtual system to a text environment and my performance issues were gone.

So what lesson did I learn today? Sometimes you will just feel dumb and that's ok. The smart thing to do is surround yourself with lots of other smart people you can ask for help. Even in areas where you think you know what you are doing you might still miss the obvious. (Especially if you've been up half the night with a sick toddler.) Make sure you have good sounding boards for your ideas and use them often.

Start Point

Having played with multiple business ideas over the past 6 months I believe I've finally found one worth spending some time on. I'm officially committing myself to the dual jobs of stay at home mom and part time web entrepreneur. My idea is a web site for moms... but for now I'm keeping the details secret. As a start point I'm taking stock of my strengths and weaknesses and creating a beginning to do list.

Strengths

• Programming background - I've got a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering and have been programming computers for over 9 years. To save money I'll be doing all my own design and development, at least until the site is up and running.
• Some management experience - It's not much but some is better than nothing. At my last job I was an engineer but I managed a small project from start to finish, negotiated contracts with vendors and trained support personnel. I also worked closely with other departments like marketing, support and operations so I at least have a feel for some of their issues.
• Market Knowledge - One piece of advice I read that always stuck with me is if you are going to start a business stick to areas you are knowledgeable. I guess I'm going to have to skip gourmet restaurants and wind surfing supply shops for now. (Please never, never, never ask my family about the time I tried wind surfing.) In this case I'm well versed in both the technical field and being a mom so it makes the perfect combo for me.
  
• Energy - Ok.. I admit that having spent the last 5 days taking care of a toddler with a cold leaves me lagging in the energy department. However I still count it as a strength. Have a year and a half out of the work force has left the working creative part of my brain ready to go. Plus while my current job is sometimes physically tiring emotionally it's left me overflowing. Unlike when I was working my migraine medicine is sitting on a high shelf gathering dust right now.
• Family and friends - I have a great network of supportive family and friends with a variety of interests. My husband has already been a great sport about answering my system administration questions. My dad manages a business and I've already gotten several good suggestions from him while I was considering different ideas.
  

Weaknesses

• Web Design - I'm technical. I can make a website but making a pretty web site is another matter entirely. I'm going to need to get some design advise from my more artistic family and friends and budget some money to pay for a web designer.
• Web Programming - I might be good at programming but I have almost no experience using MySQL and PHP. I've played with them before but not to a production level. I bought myself "Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL" by O'Reilly to use as a tutorial and reference.
• Business experience - My degree is engineering and my experience is primarily engineering. I've never ran a business before. I've read lots about starting a business but that's not the same as hands on work. I've started reading to expand my knowledge base into other areas. My favorite so far is "Marketing to Moms" by Maria Bailey.
  
• Limited time - Will be working primarily in the evenings. I need to get my days more organized so I don't have a ton of house chores to do after Claire's asleep. Good thing she thinks chores are fun. (What 18 month old doesn't like playing with a sponge and a bucket of water.)
• Limited money - When I stopped working our income was cut in half. We were good at saving before and have cut back on spending but that leaves a lot less disposable income. I'm going to have to be very careful to keep start up costs at a minimum.
  

Action Items

• Setup source control on a shared machine. - Source control is where programmers store the programs they are working on to make sure they don't accidentally delete it. It also keeps track of changes so if you make a mistake you can go back to an earlier version. A bunch of college friends and I all shared the cost of a system for everyone to use a while a go so I'm going to make use of that resource. I can't use it for my testing since I'll need more control over the system then I can have for that. This is a lot cheaper then buying or running my own system.
  
• Setup virtual test machine using VMWare Workstation - This is a nice money saver. I need a test system that I can do what ever I want to and keep on my internal network. Instead of buying actual hardware I just buy this program. It pretends to be other computers running on my current computer. I can have as many test systems as I want for development. I can also backup copies of them so if I make a mistake I use a copy without having to reset up a system. I'll need real hardware if I test performance but for now this is perfect.
• Start a blog - I guess I can check that one off.
  
• Figure out a name - I had a great one. Right until I checked if the web site was available. Not only was it not available but to add insult to injury it was a porn site! This is going to take some work.
• Unpack the last couple of boxes (and the mess hidden behind them) in the corner of the living room.
  
• Cure the common cold and make teething pain free - Hmm... if I manage this one maybe I should forget about this business. :)