LFGSS: Turning a hobby into a technology startup

You might have noticed me doing more work on here... I'm basically aiming to catch up on all outstanding issues so that I'll be able to focus on the new stuff.

I had to stay at my current employers a bit longer due to stuff not working right in their network... so my last day here is this Thursday and the revolution starts Monday.

In an act of solidarity I'm quitting my job altogether to spend more time on LFGSS.
You're not alone! We see and appreciate your efforts.

Are you unemployed? Is this just an excuse?

I realised this morning that I'll be paying myself below minimum wage, and that's before deducting national insurance (which I don't know how to pay).

I'll speak to the accountant next week. He can laugh at me.

Good luck there, David.

I'll be a full time single parent from an estate for now on. You're welcome to buy me a tin of White Lightning when you see me again.
I also enrolled my self to OU, but six years for a degree sounds bit drastic.

I realised this morning that I'll be paying myself below minimum wage.

1. Sue yourself
   
2. ...
   
3. Profit!
   
   

Will "microcosm" be a complete build from scratch? Or will you be modifying the existing forum code?

I read a book called Kingpin; it's about a misanthropic computer hacker called "Max Vision" who got involved in the credit card crime underworld. One tale from the book describes how, overnight, he builds the largest criminal forum by hacking the two main forums of the day and stealing all of their users...

#bikeradar #notaserioussuggestion

#bikeradar

Mr Burns - Excellent - YouTube

Build from scratch.

I'd rather use off the shelf, but that is in effect what I have been doing, and there are too many problems to overcome that can't be overcome using someone else's software.

So it's a fresh build.

You might have noticed me doing more work on here... I'm basically aiming to catch up on all outstanding issues so that I'll be able to focus on the new stuff.
I had to stay at my current employers a bit longer due to stuff not working right in their network... so my last day here is this Thursday and the revolution starts Monday.

Awesome :)

Very exciting stuff. I only just noticed this thread.

Have you decided which language to use? Have you looked at using something like AWS or RackSpace hosting - I wonder how those costs would compare to your current hosting.

My next donation to the forum will come with the proviso that it is spent entirely on baked beans.

Anyway, all the best. I know half the forum have already offered their considerable and diverse skill sets, but I'd like to offer mine too. Perl/PHP/MySQL/JS (jQuery)/HTML/CSS/etc

Technology

Database: Postgres
Attachments: Amazon S3
API: Python + Flask + Nginx + Protocol Buffers
Web: Python + Django + Nginx + HTML5 + CSS3 + JS
Email: Mailjet
DNS: DNS Made Easy with GTD Domains
Hosting: Linode + Rackspace + AWS S3
Backup: Rsync.net + TarSnap

Company

Accounts: Xero + Accountants
Bank: HSBC (they are the only bank to integrate with Xero)
Source: Github
Project Management: Pivotal Tracker
Payments: Stripe
Collaboration: HipChat
Advertising: iSocket
eCommerce: Shopify

What was the question?

HTML5 + CSS3

Go team!

I'm also... ignoring the images you guys post which weighs the pages down... aiming to make the whole site load within 3 seconds on an assumed bandwidth of only 8 Kbps.

That is to say: It should be fucking fast.

Oh, and content will all be in Markdown hopefully.

No more of this BBCode rubbish.

Sounds really good!

Will the API make it easy to code 3rd party apps (i.e. android and iPhone apps)? OpenID or oAuth would be really handy, to that end.

Yes, very easy to make apps.

In fact the idea is that the web app will use the API, so that anything possible on the site is possible via an API.

The only exception is forms based login... that is web only. But with an OAuth key you'll be good to call the API to do everything else.

Today is my last day at work.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a day off and on Monday I start.

For a laugh I worked out what my hourly rate will be for the first 9 months or so: £4.62 apparently.

I'm not laughing now. I'm not sure what the minimum wage is, but I suspect I'm paying myself below that rate.

The reality is quite scary, but I do really believe in what I'm doing. Now all I have to do is to go do it.

see you tonight

Go do it!

For a laugh I worked out what my hourly rate will be for the first 9 months or so: £4.62 apparently.

Luxury...

Hope you get a sweet leaving present...

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/TheNationalMinimumWage/DG_10027201 says the National Minimum Wage is £6.08 (or £4.98, or £3.68 or £2.60, depending on circumstances). However, I suspect that http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/TheNationalMinimumWage/DG_175114 would say that you're not entitled to it.

HTH, HAND :)

Oh, and have a great day riding tomorrow, I hope the weather clears up a bit...

Yeah, I'm not entitled to minimum wage, company director now.

As for riding day, that will be next Tuesday. Got personal chores tomorrow, and work chores on Monday.

Godspeed and good luck!

Right, see you on the other side. Hope it will all pay off well pretty soon.

so it's been ~4 weeks :) what's the story in Velocioland?

Updates every week, with occasional side-thoughts on http://blog.microcosm.app/

But the gist so far:

Everything takes longer than you think, even when you know this and try and account for it.

All assumptions about the suitability of my home working environment were wrong... what works 3 hours in an evening doesn't work 8-12 hours a day. My shoulder is killing me.

I've joined a gym to stop myself going insane and becoming fat and lardy. I have no idea what I'm doing, I've never really used the equipment in a gym before, and I'm still afraid of walking over to the free weights section as the men are HUGE and I'm puny. I can do 2KM rowing in 8 minutes, but 2KM on the cross trainer takes over 30 minutes even at 140rpm constant.

I've had to learn vagrant, puppet, bits of sysadmin stuff I've not done before, but I'm making good progress on getting the existing LFGSS environment under much better control.

I've been solving many of the papercuts on this site, little bugs in the background that were just not helping.

I've had to do a few bits of work on the side to help increase the confidence that I will be able to feed myself and Felicity.

On the bootstrapping front: Our target is to have our costs below £1,100 per month, that is the total to cover both of us and all our costs (rent, bills, food, cosmetics, groceries, clothing, everything). I've amassed a whole load of tricks to make this possible, including buying clothes from the suppliers to marketing companies (£4 for a polo shirt!)... and we now make all our own food (inc' bread and soups) to reduce costs.

I keep getting asked for business cards. Everytime I find myself sharing the idea, I get all excited and people get all excited with me, and then they say, "I really want to keep track of this, have you got a card?". I have no card, I have no logo, I have no design, I have nothing... do you have a bit of paper, I'll give you my blog URL.

It's weird, surreal. I'm so broke it's insane, but yet, I feel liberated and much happier than I did.

Every day when I think to myself, I haven't got enough done today. I reflect on the years in a large company, and that in a couple of hours solo I actually achieve what I used to achieve in a week with 5 members of staff helping.

I still have a plan, I'm sticking to it... I'm behind schedule now I realise there's so much more to just sitting at a computer and coding. There's dull stuff, but the dull stuff is important.