Amit is one of those special people who came forward to help us when we were getting ready to launch CurdBee few years back. We just dropped him a mail inviting him to check CurdBee and share his thoughts, possible improvements we can do, etc. But we never thought he would even have time left in his schedule to pay attention to us, we being total strangers. But he did and replied back within matter of hours.

Today we think its our turn to help this wonderful entrepreneur, who’s fighting against Leukemia and is looking for a bone marrow doner from South Asian descent. If you are one of them who’s living in US, you can surely help Amit. Not a South Asian descent living in US? Still you can spread the word and we salute all those efforts.

Tony Bacigalupo wrote a detailed post about Amit and here’s an excerpt,

” Amit is the founder of the endlessly wonderful DIY photography site Photojojo. He’s the cofounder of Jelly, a casual coworking community which started in New York in 2006 and spread to over 60 cities worldwide, acting as the starting point for countless coworking communities. The original Jelly in New York was my first coworking experience, and my firsthand inspiration to dedicate myself to what would become New Work City.

Amit has leukemia. He was diagnosed only two weeks ago, but already so much has happened. He’s undergoing chemotherapy now at Connecticut’s Smilow Cancer Center in Yale-New Haven Hospital, near his family.”

Read the post and see how to contribute: http://tonybgoode.tumblr.com/post/11098100728/lets-help-amit-defeat-leukemia

From the Dancing Baby of the 1990s to the phenomenon that is Susan Boyle, the web has seen its share of viral video sensations. However, these 20 are the cream of the crop. They have been seen by millions and discussed by millions more. Many of them are part of not only Internet culture, but mainstream culture too. Here are the top 20 YouTube (YouTube reviews) and video memes in chronological order.

Top 20 YouTube and Video Memes of All Time

Never let your schooling interfere with your education, someone clever once said. Being willing to sacrifice at the edges is one of the most important skills you’ll ever learn.

I’ve received plenty of Bs and even Cs for classes that I was incredibly proud of because they came from hardly no time spent at all. Time that I could then spend on reading my own curriculum, starting my own projects, and running my own businesses.

Can’t agree more with David Heinemeier Hansson on this. There’s enough time for everything in life, only just you are ignorant.

FIVE? What does that mean to you? Just the number you get after 4 or the answer you
get when you divide 10 by 2? Well done, genius. Both answers are correct and I know there are more ways to explain that through mathematics and what not. But today, five means something more. Vesess is five years old, and we’re here to remember the past.

It’s a great moment for all of us. We’ve survived for FIVE complete years despite the ups and downs and kept our promise to our clients. We’re really happy that we could come through for those who had a lot of faith in our young team, especially during the first two years when we came out of nowhere. Whether you believe it or not, at the start we had just one machine (a second hand P IV desktop computer), a phone line, one table, FIVE chairs and a dial-up connection to check our mail from. I know this is quite common for most startups, but being a startup from a developing nation it was a lot harder compared to a startup in US. Prabhath wrote a great post about the third world designer during this time.

We operated from a small room in Asantha’s house at Maharagama (a suburb situated 10KM away from the capital Colombo) and were battling really hard to get out of the chicken and egg scenario. To survive, we needed projects, and that meant new clients to work with. However, whenever we pitched to a potential client, always the first question was “Can I see some of the work you guys have done already?” We had a few samples ready to show how good we are at web design and graphics. But that was not enough in most cases as most people wanted to see real work. So, this cycle continued for a few months before we opened our account with the Institute of Human Rights, our very first client. A couple of weeks later, CD Labs hired us for their website revamp and things finally got going.

So what? Did you know that prior to incorporating the company as Vesess we operated under the name FIVE for a couple of months? Yes, that was our first name. The founding team had FIVE members (Prabhath, Thiva, Venu, Asa and myself) , and we thought that it was the best name to go with. However, we soon realised the importance of having a name with a .com domain, especially since we always wanted to target international clients. Not to mention, .lk domains were three to four times as expensive as .com domains at the time, and saving cash was obviously a top priority.

Our logo during the FIVE days.

So, FIVE years have passed, and many things have changed, including our strengths. Today we have a nice office in the heart of Colombo. We also have a presence in US, a great network of clients, and everyone is equipped with laptops, and broadband connections. We’re happy about the growth we have been blessed with, but always remember that it didn’t come easy.

Since 2004, we have had FIVE complete redesigns to our website, and each iteration has brought us new and exciting things. Will we be on version 10 by the time we celebrate our 10th birthday? Only time will tell. Whatever said and done, however, rest assured that we will be here, enjoying the living web as always.

Tens of thousands of Africans – men, women and children fleeing their homeland – attempt to make the perilous trip from their home countries to Europe every year, seeking refuge, asylum and economic opportunity. Some travel thousands of miles overland, being handed from smuggler to smuggler, ending up at one of many ports in northern Africa, to be packed into makeshift boats and make treacherous sea crossings to European soil, to places like Spain’s Canary Islands and tiny Malta where they hope to either sneak in unnoticed, or, if intercepted, be allowed to stay. Many do not survive the journey.

Checkout the Photo Essay

We are back to the normal work routine after enjoying (a rather exhausting) run on Rails Rumble. The challenge was to build a web application from scratch using Ruby On Rails, within 48 hours. Though we are still grasshoppers when it comes to the web app arena, we thought the experience gained by participating in such a challenge would help us in the long run. Besides, we had several concepts lying in our idea wallet for sometime, and this sounded like the perfect opportunity to get the ball rolling. Generally, our ideas emerge from real life problems we have, and so we knew that implementing one of them would at least scratch our own itch, and perhaps help a few others like us. We decided early on that the project we start should be sustainable beyond the rumble.

After a few brainstorming sessions we selected the idea of building a social conference management application, which we would code name MyConf. We started the challenge at exactly 5.30 am local time on Saturday. Some quick mocks were drawn based on our ideas and we picked one to proceed with. So Amila and myself started coding the application, while Laknath managed the VPS setup at Linode. Of course, as is often the case with new projects, the task was not as easy as we anticipated. We had to face many new challenges as we dived deeper and deeper into the process. Also, bad weather, and problems with electricity and internet connections also interrupted work flow, especially since we’ve been operating from our homes since of late.Yet, we managed to hold our nerve till the end. Unfortunately, when the time came for pencils down, we weren’t quite ready with the full version and had to tag a half baked release of the app.

Screenshot of MyConf

Lessons Learned
It’s true that we couldn’t complete the app as we had planned, but that’s fine. We tested ourselves against a tough standard, and gained some great experience and exposure. To us, Rails Rumble was always much more than just winning the competition. Working under such a tight deadline, it required some quick decision making and getting things done right from the word go. Agile development practices, such as rapid prototyping, pair programming and continuous integration had to be used extensively. It was all about doing “git pull, commit and push” throughout.

Secondly, the scope of MyConf was bit a broad for this kind of a competition. We could have done better if we focused on producing a few selected features, as opposed to a full app. Though we started writing test cases at the beginning, we ignored it as the competition progressed. However, we realised that if we continued with test driven development, we would have saved the hours wasted in debugging unwanted issues. Something else we learned is that you should never experiment with new tricks or try to use new tools when working under such tight deadlines. No matter how productive and efficient they may eventually be, using them will most probably lead to lot of trouble. So always trust your old bag of tricks and tools.

On the bright side, we came to know the real strength and capability of our team. The whole team was able to keep their morale and stamina up, even under pressure, a characteristic which I think will help us as we engage in more challenging endeavours in the future.

What’s next?

We have the current version of MyConf running at http://www.myconfapp.com. If you feel like casting a vote for the work we have done so far, please do by visiting the RailsRumble site.

Like I said, we will continue to develop MyConf and have plans to offer it to you as a FOSS product. We would soon like to see you running your conferences on MyConf very soon!

A couple of weekends ago, the Vesess team took a much needed breather, and headed out for a weekend away from work, email and reddit. As a team with a lot of virtual members, the time we get to spend together in meatspace is limited. Although we’re used to always being in touch via email and IM, the weekend at Sigiriya was a chance for us to really engage each other IRL, and find out what makes each of us tick. From Python, to GNOME, Rails, and beyond, a lot of what we talked about was based on what we do.

Sigiriya, the ancient royal fortress that our coders use as inspiration when designing our data security policies.

Boring? Not in the least. What’s different about talking shop with a geek in his or her spare time is that the issues and projects that surface will most often be personal ones. From quick hacks used for everyday productivity, to complex applications written for class, I learnt a lot about each of our interests on this trip. It didn’t have to be just tech either. From general business sense, to global warming, rising oil prices, and the recent food shortages, I listened a lot, and learnt a lot.

As a recent graduate, I’d call myself lucky to be at a place like Vesess. While most people my age are filling out twenty page forms, and sitting in on meetings that last for hours and never seem to go anywhere, I get to push my ideas, voice my opinions, and interact with some genuinely talented people. In $BIGFIRM, I would be a PR junkie, a drone who spewed out manufactured, corporate prose. Over here at Vesess, I get to set the textual style and tone for each project. I get to design the flow of information, and map out where it goes, and how it is consumed.

Then, I think of our hackers. In a large company, they would be junior programmers, churning out line after line of code according to a specification they don’t even get to see in its entirety. Here at Vesess, they conceputalise, design and put together entire applications.

Lies, you say? Nay.

In fact, one such application is currently in private beta. Something which Lakshan, our resident RoR guru, wrote from the ground up, CurdBee is a great example of a pet project going prime time. While all the initial planning and hacking took place in his head, the entire team eventually pitched in to make it ready for the world at large.

CurdBee, a result of rapid Vesessination.

This, in essence, is what we call Vesessination – a single idea brought to fruition by everyone, working together. At Vesess, that’s essentially what’s we’re about. Small teams, big ideas, and a lot of experimentation. Well, that’s all for now, folks. Tune in next week for some quality time with Lakshan’s new baby.

Hello and welcome to another iteration of Vesess.com. We know we’ve been silent for a while, and we’re sorry, we really are. However, no posts does not necessarily mean no work. Behind the scenes, our crack team of code monkeys have been working overtime. So, as Vesess v5 launches, we’re also readying ourselves to release a brand spanking new project that’ll roxor your soxors (or boxors, depending on your persuasion).

What is it? Well, we’re not ready to reveal all just yet, but here is a wee hint to base your speculations on.

Now, on to the design. At Vesess, we’ve been through five redesigns, and think that we’ve finally found one we’ll be sticking with for a while. Simple, elegant, and easy on the eyes, Vesess V5 draws your attention to the content, which is after all, what we really want you to see. Indeed, at a time when websites are getting bigger, bulkier, and definitely more complicated, we’re proud to be going in the other direction.

According to tradition, a website should be static, and only redesigned once or twice a decade. Well, this is a myth, and an annoying one at that. We believe that a website is a dynamic entity, and that it should live, and breath and grow, just like an organisation. One year ago, we launched Vesess v4, and today we’re proud to have you with us as we take another step in to the world wild web.

Listen, create, evolve. This is what we continue to do, and as we launch v5, we’re really hyped about all new things we have planned for this next phase of Vesessination. Till we post again, the Vesess crew wishes you good speeds, and safe browsing!

During my formative years, I read a lot. From Enid Blyton books to short stories, and longer novels, I always had something made of dead trees in my hand. I had an active imagination, and books appealed to me because they allowed me to create a and inhabit a world of my own, even if it was just for an afternoon.

I would form parallel lives for myself, existences in which I would be a cop, a pirate, a skydiver. Books were not just entertainment to me. They were a far bigger part of my life.

Then, as I came in to contact with the Internet, I began to look at reading in a different manner. Did I read? Of course. I mean, find me a web junkie who doesn’t read. I read, and I read a lot. A lot of crap, it turns out. One of the biggest drawbacks of having a strong online life is that you constantly have to be up to date on the latest trends, memes, and lulz (epic or otherwise) to stay in the game.

You can’t, for example, have someone send you a lolcat, and not know what it is. That is Internet geek suicide. So, we, the geeks, obsessively refresh our feed readers throughout the day, looking for that bit of new information. In the real world, knowledge is power. On the Intarweb, having seen the latest youtube video first is enough to put you ahead of the rest.

Anyway, I digress. Today, I cleaned out my room. It was the first real cleanup it had received since I finished my secondary education, and believe me, it showed. After wiping away layer upon layer of dust, I stacked everything in to marginally neat piles, and began to sort through them one by one. What did I discover?

I had a lot of books. In fact, well over fifty percent of my room was literature. From Sue Townsend to Romesh Gunasekara, my room was full of books. Now, I would love to say that I had read most of them, and a few years back this would have been the truth. Looking at my stack of books now, however, I say with shame that I’ve read less than a quarter of them.
Is this because I’m a slow reader? Far from it. When I get started, it’s hard to stop me. Why, then? Why did I have so many unread books. Did I not like reading? No, I loved reading, and going through every one of them was on my todo list. After Slashdot of course.

And there lay my problem. Looking back at my five or so odd years of spending a lot of time online, I realized that I had wasted hours, days, and perhaps even weeks and months, reading some moron’s sarcastic comments about the latest linux distro. I had wasted time listening, and arguing with my fellow netizens about issues that would have never concerned me in the real world. Who cares if vim is better than emacs (which it is, make no mistake about that)? What does it matter if that dude on IRC just doesn’t get the difference between your and you’re? To be honest, who cares? Not me. At least not now.

After much thought and internal debate, I’ve come to the conclusion that the series of tubes killed my reading habit, and I’m going to do my best to recultivate it. Starting now, I’m going to read less tech news, and devour more literature. I’m going to read less blogs, and read more of the books that have shaped humanity in general. Now don’t get me wrong, I love geeky cat macros as much as the next net junkie. I’m just going to try and have more epic lulz while reading Bill Bryson.

Starting now, I’m going to make a conscious effort to spend less time online, and read more text straight from them good old dead trees. What about you? Think you can close that feed reader and go pick up a dead tree book right now? Try it, I dare you.