Whats the dilly yo?
Posted on May 31, 2007
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Long time no update eh?
I must admit, I haven’t been updating as much as I used to. Alex King just posted something that pretty much sums up a large portion of my situation: The Twitter Effect. I basically get a lot of my thoughts out through twitter and then feel like I have nothing to say here. 
But hey, you can always follow me there 
In other news, whats new? Hard at work with SugarStats, we’re looking to launch in June! Pretty exciting for us. The private BETA has gone great and I have to thank everyone for their valuable feedback. We couldn’t have done it without you!!
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Posted on May 31, 2007
Filed Under Analytics, Apple, Business, CSS/XHTML, Daily Thoughts, Design, Productivity, Quotes, Ranting, Startup, SugarStats, Tech, Web
Subscription Based Services, Paypal and TrustCommerce aka “Integrating recurring payments into SugarStats.com with Rails”
Posted on May 17, 2007
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The guys over at ActiveReload posted an interesting article on their experiences integrating subscription-based recurring payments into their app Lighthouse.
Check it out: Dealing with subscription payments
Its funny as we’re having a similar situation with SugarStats.com . We’re on the last stretch before a public launch and all that is remaining is to get the payment processing integration finished.
We wanted (really really wanted) to have all our subscription issues magically handled by PayPal in one clean, managed solution. It didn’t turn out like that.
Actually, I had changed my mind and the direction of the project multiple times! First it was paypal, got it about 80% implemented and realized some new limitations. We then decided to switch to TrustCommerce, but with so much invested with implementing PayPal it was a little difficult to just throw that all away. We also didn’t want to leave out all the people who want to pay via PayPal as of course, TrustCommerce won’t fulfill that need.
Upon further deliberation we decided since it was almost done to finish the PayPal solution since it could process credit cards too. It can process credit cards right? It says it right on their website, users don’t even need to create a PayPal account! Yes, that would have been ideal. After many hours Google searching, API crawling and forum question asking the answer was found. It can process credit cards… For one-time payments and not subscriptions. Great.
But now the decision is final, TrustCommerce and credit card subscription process direct from the website and finish the PayPal subscriptions after launch. But it is our own faults for second guessing and really not doing all the homeworked needed.
Dealing with TrustCommerce has been a breeze so far. Their service, Citadel, is specifically made for recurring subscriptions. They even say it’s “A dream come true for the subscription based business.”, now I’m seeing the truth in that. Their API is as clean and clear as can be and they even have a Rails Plugin (The TrustCommerce Subscription Plugin) that makes implemention DEAD simple.
Another good element, as it was with PayPal as well, is that TrustCommerce’ Citadel keeps all Credit Card information secure on their servers along with automatically handle all the payments and invoicing (as it should be). Though we’ve still built our own house record-keeping solution for subscriptions and payment records.
Since the code base is about 80% done, we’re fairly sure we’re going to add PayPal subscriptions down the road. But so close to deadline, this takes priority though I wouldn’t be surprised (I love Rails) if we get both in there before launch 
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Posted on May 17, 2007
Filed Under Analytics, Business, CSS/XHTML, Daily Thoughts, Design, General, Hardware, Hosting, Marketing, Mobile Tech, PHP/MySQL, Productivity, Ruby on Rails, SEO, Startup, SugarStats, Tech, Travel, Web
Wordpress 2.2 Release - Go get it
Posted on May 16, 2007
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Wordpress 2.2 has finally been release with over 200 bug fixes and many new features. I’ll have to upgrade when I get some free time, sheesh!
Then again, if you’re a bit sick of wordpress there is always the Rails based Mephisto
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Posted on May 16, 2007
Filed Under Analytics, CSS/XHTML, Daily Thoughts, Design, General, Hosting, Marketing, Mobile Tech, PHP/MySQL, Ranting, SEO, Security, Tech, Web
In-Depth Ruby on Rails and Django Comparison
Posted on May 5, 2007
1 Comment
Vaporbase has a 15 part, very nice and very detailed post about the differences between Rails and Django. They compare the two frameworks on over 20 criteria and give some good things to think about when deciding to select one for your own project.
They evaluate in the following areas:
- Evaluating Web Development Frameworks: Rails and Django (part 1/15)
- Rails and Django – Project and Community (part 2/15)
- Rails and Django – Programming Language (part 3/15)
- Rails and Django – Framework Concept (part 4/15)
- Rails and Django – Installation / Directory Structure (part 5/15)
- Rails and Django – Database and Models (part 6/15)
- Rails and Django – Routing and Controllers (part 7/15)
- Rails and Django – Templates, Forms (part 8/15)
- Rails and Django – Data and User Administration (part 9/15)
- Rails and Django – AJAX (part 10/15)
- Rails and Django – Other Features (part 11/15)
- Rails and Django – Documentation (part 12/15)
- Rails and Django – User Extensions (part 13/15)
- Rails and Django – Development Cycle (part 14/15)
- Rails and Django – Conclusions (part 15/15)
Check it out here: Evaluating Web Development Frameworks: Rails and Django. I’m not experienced with Django, but from a Rails developers perspective, it is a good reflection of what I think in many areas. They even have it packaged in a printable PDF
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Posted on May 5, 2007
Filed Under Books Reviews, Business, Daily Thoughts, Design, Hosting, Mobile Tech, Productivity, Quotes, Ruby on Rails, Startup, Tech, Web
Why is this man smiling?
Posted on May 3, 2007
1 Comment
Simply Hilarious:
In case you haven’t read the whole thing yet, this is a snippet from the 9 things I learned about the world according to anonymous stock photo models post.
All I can do is attest to the truth of this picture as I’m always lefts grinning ear-to-ear whenever I help someone with a computer problem… [end sarcasm]
There is a quote from the post related to this picture that I can say is true for me as well:
“There are only two reasons you should ever be this delighted about anything, and both of them involve meeting me and lube.”
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Posted on May 3, 2007
Filed Under Art & Design, CSS/XHTML, Daily Thoughts, Design, Entertainment, General, Hardware, Marketing, Mobile Tech, Quotes, Ranting, SEO, Tech, Web
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I'm Marston and here you'll find my rantings, rhetoric and other useful info. I dig tech, photography, quantum physics and organic food. I'm the founder of SugarStats.com and thats my days developing.
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- Off to the airport for Cape Verde. 1 month. No Internet. No computer. No phone. Shocking right? I cant wait. See ya later ;) 15 hrs ago
- @brunofigueiredo oh yeah :-). Highly recommended. 1 day ago
- Suitcase packed. Now off to see Dark Night in IMAX before tomorrows flight to Cabo 1 day ago
- Trying to find Dark Night IMAX tickets for Wednesday night before we flight to Cabo Verde. Crossing my fingers... Must. See. In. IMAX. 4 days ago
- Watching "Young People F***ing". Freakin hilarious. 4 days ago
- @mbalara Oh yeah? Where to? 5 days ago
- @Reinier Off to coolhaven again? 5 days ago
- Looking at web conf apps like WebEx, DimDim and GoToMeeting. Any suggestions or other recommendations? 5 days ago
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