Alabaster & Chess Website Inventory System
Laying out the inventory for the website… We’re a custom/ bespoke clothing company. From a customer’s point of view, they want to order shirts, suits, trousers, jackets, vests, overcoats, etc. So what they probably want to do is select what sort of garment they are ordering, and then narrow down their garment by picking various … Read more
Alabaster & Chess website – Magento vs Satchmo
Right now I’m torn between going with satchmo on python and magento on php. Magento has the draw that there are a lot of people using it, while satchmo has the draw that it’s in python and there’s built in support for custom products. I’ve been working on Magento on and off for a few … Read more
Diwali
It’s Diwali right now. The Hindu festival of lights. Kind of like Hanukkah that way, but Indian style with lots of fire works.
Getting up to speed on Magento
I’m compiling a list of tutorials and steps for getting outsourced developers up to speed. So as a requirement I need to know what I could expect an Indian developer to know if I told him/her: Install Magento on your machine by following the instructions on ysiad.com/howtoinstallmagento (probably links to other resources, with my own … Read more
Halloween
Today is Halloween at Daya’s school and the lower school kids are having a parade. I’m going to show up with a bunch of candy and my gorilla suit. We are not allowed to wear “scary” costumes. So I will ask teachers if my costume is acceptable.
Magento Environment Basics
Quick notes to myself on setting up an environment for Magento work for future reference. If you’re on windows, you might as well run ubuntu in a vmware player instance. It’s easy to set up and if you plan to run Magento on a linux server, you might as well start using some linux flavor … Read more
Catch up
Hey I’ve spent the last couple of months settling in and exploring different opportunities in India and abroad. Quick summary: India feels like home. – I’ll post lots of pictures soon. Promise! I’ve been getting involved in outsourcing and doing a lot of computer programming myself as well- mostly web based work. I’ll cover that … Read more
Catch Up Post
Last week we went to Moti Mahal, Koh, and ordered twice from Elco. S, Daya’s neighbor, had a couple of German guys visiting him and we took a day trip to a national park where there were some caves. Over the weekend, A and A took us with them to Amby Valley. We stopped at … Read more
Elco Vegetarian
Daya and I agree that Elco Vegetarian is the best Indian food we’ve had thus far. It even beats out the fancier places like Caravan Serai. Daya and I got a pani puri that had yogurt in it, a paneer pizza, and a channa poori. All food was delicious.
Kombucha Baby!
Yesterday we got a kombucha culture, so Daya and I are going to start making our own Kombucha. On Tuesday, I emailed someone off a website about kombucha. Wednesday morning, she emailed me back. She said she lived about two hours outside of Bandra, but coincidentally, she happened to be attending a meditation workshop in … Read more
Trip to Pune. First Business Trip plus Delicious Food at Little Italy
Friday’s trip to Pune made a deep impression on me. It was nice to meet with an outsourcing firm run by honest, ethical people who do not oversell themselves. It’s inspiring me to get back into software development. Friday morning, at around 7 am, I boarded a cab to Pune. 11 am, I woke up … Read more
Breach Candy Club, Chez A, and literally the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had
Daya and I went to Breach Candy Club on Thursday night as guests of the two A’s. The two A’s, M, and S all grew up very near and they are lifetime members of the club. A2 first went to the pool when he was three months old. Breach Candy Club has a strong reputation … Read more
HelpWallah Feedback
Some people prefer helpwallah, while others prefer helpmewallah. H showed me a personal assistant service that had recently been in the press. It targets a different need and demographic, and is much more expensive. A suggested that we start with a 10 person beta so we could learn what peoples’ needs are in a low-risk … Read more
HelpWallah Beta
Spoke with H and A about HelpWallah. At the end of these conversations, it’s clear that the best way to take HelpWallah forward is to do a private, invite only beta of the service.
HelpMeWallah.com
This morning I started my first India-based business/ contribution to the community. It’s a personal help service called Help Me Wallah. Its intent is to make life easier for people living in India. Just Bombay at first though. (Nothing is up on the website yet, but we are already in operation.) 24 hours/ day, customers … Read more