Irma L. Olguin Jr.

CAUTION: Very nerdy stuff below. Non-nerds need not continue. Short answer: Check your disk space. Problem If you’ve ever had this error: Warning: mysql_connect(): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ or it’s command line cousin: ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ You’ll know that googling the problem turns up a number of suggestions to recreate the symlink or to reinstall MySQL. Solution For me, the problem was disk space. One of my log files was HUGE and MySQL wouldn’t start because of it. So I just had to locate the offending file, get rid of it, and MySQL fired right up.  If you’re running Ubuntu you can do a little du -s -m * to see a listing of files in any directory that’ll have the file size (in MBs) right next … Continue reading →

Firstly, how about a big fat round of applause for the likes of Rob Walling and Mike Taber? They put on one rockin’ conference for self-funded startups. If you didn’t go, that was a bad decision. Don’t make that mistake next year. For, like, the amount you spend on bottled water each year, you could have listened to and learned from ONE-JILLION smart people talking about startups and what to do/not do with them. How’s that for value? (Seriously: 11 speakers, and 105 interesting attendees. Andrew Warner, Hiten Shah, Ramit Sethi, and Patrick McKenzie among them.) Here’s some stuff I learned that you would have learned if you had gone to Vegas instead of playing with Instagram filters at work: Test your stuff, but don’t waste your time testing. Email is not dead. Don’t let TechCrunch fool you. Investment, booooo. Bootstap, yay! Tomato juice … Continue reading →

In a recent conversation, all of the following were said to me — about me, if you must know. I had to post them because they’re both funny and sobering, and I just don’t know what to do with this information:   Knowing how shitty someone can think, but knowing they’re a good person, that sets the bar really high.   Really?   That’s the shitty great part about you.   Note: Not a compliment.   I don’t know anyone else that can do such a shitty great thing, that’s such a great thing.   Tell me how you really feel.   There has to be another way to say it so I don’t have to call you shitty anymore.   I sure hope so.     Thanks, Ryan. For the tea and conversation.

Almost exactly 8 years ago to the day and hour, I, tired from not sleeping and feeling outside of myself, got on a plane in Detroit to come home to Fresno. I’d been at work when my brother first called. Dad was in the hospital, he said, but not to worry about it. Probably just the flu, he said, and dad didn’t even want him to call. He was going to get a shot in the butt of something strong and flu-killing and then he’d go home and sleep it off. That was January 12, 2003. Roughly 2 in the afternoon in Ohio, where I lived. Last I’d talked to him was a week before. Sunday. I used to call every Sunday just to check in and make sure they remembered me. Dad was sick then too, had taken some … Continue reading →

Well, it’s long overdue, but it’s out there.  My company, Geekwise, quietly launched a new look over the last few weeks/days.  Like some eternal, sad truth, your own website tends to fall to the bottom of the pile when you’re busy doing work for clients (not that I’m complaining). And while we have a few more things we’d like to do (beef up the portfolio, introduce you to the team), we feel that there’s enough there to let the world know about the new look. We do all kinds of stuff, so if you’re in need of a nerd, or know someone who is, let us know.  Chances are, we do what you need. Also, want to give a big shout out to Simply Design for the …. simple design.  Couldn’t have done this without them. Feedback is always welcome.

It’s entirely possible that this problem exists in all major calendar platforms, and I’ve just called Google out for no reason, but I’ve recently had need to work extensively with the Google Apps platform (which I love, by the way), and came across a couple of interesting bits.  Here’s one of them: Other people can accept calendar invitations that they have no business accepting. In other words, with the right link, I can accept an invitation on your behalf.  Here’s a quick proof (all done using Google’s web interface): Send your buddy (we will call him Ryan) a calendar invitation to a bogus event. When Ryan gets the email notification, ask him to simply reply to the message.  He doesn’t  need to write a message, just have him reply to it. Now from  his reply in YOUR EMAIL, click “Yes” … Continue reading →

I work all the time. I get up and I work, I stay up all night — often — just to work. I try to relax and I begin longing for my keyboard and my Inbox. But I’m not a workaholic. I don’t need to work.  It’s not something I can’t help.  Oh, no.  I have a different problem: fear of letting people down. I get my ya-yas off being the hero.  I mean, who doesn’t? I don’t like to be the only guy that can do XYZ — infact, I think that’s a recipe for disaster — but I love being the best of 10 that can do XYZ, or the most efficient, or the most reliable…I love it.  I’ll put my own health on the line with too much adrenaline and too little sleep in order to be that guy. … Continue reading →

The Big, Fat Idea [ 16-26 year-olds, please take the survey. ] There are some of us in the Valley that think we can do tech education, specifically for web development, better.  We think we need more geeks — good ones — to help push our region in the right direction. You see, there’s about to be a big gap in the industry.  We can already see the beginning of it.  People who are not developers are having ideas (some of them are good!) and want to build the next big thing.  Instead of hiring out to software firms, or potentially spending tens of thousands of dollars to have their idea built, the smart first step is to get a rapid prototype out there and see if the idea floats. The Problem We’ve seen a lot of this happen:  Entrepreneurs — … Continue reading →

Warning:  There are a lot of parenthesis in this blog post. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Over and over again you hear this thing: ”Do what you love,” or, “Do what makes you happy,” or some variation on that theme.  Which, I have to say, sounds like great advice except that it’s useless to me. And if you’re like me (you are, I can tell) you have a pretty severe problem with that advice.  The problem is that you don’t know what you would love to do. Or put another way: We don’t know what makes us happy. Does that sound ridiculous?  Ok, kind of.  But not when you think it through.  Consider this scenario: You are given enough money to make your ends meet for 6 months; no strings attached.  That’s enough to quit your job and start fresh.  What do you do? (Or … Continue reading →

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