It was about 10 years ago that I first said I wanted to start my own business. By the ripe old age of 15, I got my first client for a website and have been freelancing ever since. Today I made it official in New York State by filing a “Doing Business As” (DBA) form. As a sole proprietor, you claim all income on your your standard tax form, doing business as yourself (accepting payments, opening bank accounts, etc.) A DBA allows you to be a sole proprietor under a business name. There, of course, are many other reasons for a DBA, but that was my main focus. Here I am going to tell you how go through this fairly simple (and low cost) process in the state of New York (but I will assume it’s similar in other states).

First, you need a business certificate (the DBA form). I got mine at a local office supplies store (which apparently carry them), but if you are in the Tri-State area, you can go to Blumberg Legal Forms, where you will find a number of legal forms that might come in handy, including your DBA Form, in PDF format, which you can purchase it from the site. It looks like according to the site, it’s $9.00. I got mine for $2.60 from the office supplies store.

After filling it in (you can see an ‘example’ here), take it to your local government building to file it. You will first have to get it notarized, which they did for me for free. You might need a photo ID. After that, file it with the county clerk. That costs $25 + $5 if you want a certified copy, which you do. And that’s it! Fairly easy for a government process I’d say. They will give you a nice little packet that talks all about your federal tax duties, which I suppose are pretty important.

If I could offer some tips:

• Pick a unique name. You can’t incorporate if another corporation with the same name exists in your state. So in the interest of keeping your name if you ever do decide to incorporate, make sure it’s not taken.
• Talk to an accountant. It’s a little different as a small business/self-employed person filing taxes. Crunch some numbers, figure out how often to pay taxes to the state and fed, and SAVE MONEY to do so. It looks like I’ll be paying about 15.3% on all income. I know to put that away in a bank account. Speaking off…
• This one should be a no-brainer, but open up a bank account under your new business name. To do so, you should only need the business certificate and your SSN. Also, shop around for a good account based on your needs. I know my bank offers free business checking. This will also help keep all of your income and expenses a little easier to manage. Use checks or a check card for that account when you can. And remember, you can write off a lot more than you think.

So today I officially fulfilled my goal of becoming a business owner by filling out a DBA. It will be a little more work now on my end because I’d like to make this my full time shtick right out of college, but I think I’m up for the challenge.

I point out freelancers in the subject of this post because I feel, at least starting out, it’s not something freelance programmers (or designers for that matter) think to do. I know my concerns were more getting those jobs so I could code, not the process of coding. But whether it be a list of objects you can use on each site, or a HTML/CSS template with variables for the title, key words, headers, etc., you can save a lot of time in the long run by taking the extra time to abstract out the details and come up with something general you can use over a number of different sites. I, for example, have general code for: XHTML/CSS templates (NOT the design, just the general tags that should be applied to every site), [basic] contact forms, [basic] google maps, database objects, image uploading objects and XML parsing objects. Right now I am taking the time to look at other code I’ve done to see how I can generalize it.

This doesn’t only save time in writing the code either, but in testing. If you have core code that you know works, you don’t need to test for the general cases, or debug that code; just what you’ve added to customize it for that site or app. It’s stuff like this that will increase your productivity and your profits in the long run.

So generalizing code helps- and not just with time, but productivity and profits. And just about anything can be generalized to some extent. So the next time you code, take an extra moment to think how you can abstract away the details of that project (the variables if you will), and how much of what you are doing is reusable.

For the last couple of months I decided to try out Google’s solution to online photo albums, Picasa. I had originally been using Flickr. I found that with Picasa, strangely enough, I didn’t have as much freedom as I did with Flickr and when it came down to it, Flickr was a much better web app.

The transfer (from Flickr->Picasa and vise versa) was easy enough using iPhoto and RSS feeds. But once I got into Picasa, the interface wasn’t as good, nor was the organization of photos. With Flickr, you have a little more freedom with how you organize your photos because they aren’t automatically associated with an album like they are in Picasa. You tag them and can add the to ‘Sets’ or ‘Collections’ if you choose. Because of this, you have a little more wiggle room with what you do with the photos.

When it came time for me to import the photos from Picasa onto my blog, I realized that I could only do it by album, which I wasn’t a huge fan of because adding my newest photos wasn’t automated. With Flickr, I used their RSS feeds to bring in the 10 most recently upload photos and then 10 Random photos.

Flickr also does social networking better. On the homepage, you view pics from your photo stream, as well as your friends’ and then random people. You can also more readily find friends, and create groups for pictures that anyone can add to.

Those who know me know I’m a huge fan (re: whore) of Google, but when it comes to a great photos web app, I doubt anything can top Flickr.

Recently a couple of my friends got macs and have been asking me for tips. Another one is getting his soon and will undoubtedly also be calling me. I’ve had mine since January (actually six months this week) and I’m very happy with it. I also had some guidance from friends who’ve been around the block Mac-wise and were willing to offer some tips. I’m going to break this post down into four sections- the Dock, Finder, Apps, and Widgets.

The Dock- Like the Windows Start Bar, it’s where there most important stuff will go. As well as all of your running programs being there, you can keep program icons there for quick and easy access. To do that just open up your Applications folder and drag the apps you want onto the dock. I have ten there at all times, the big ones being Firefox, iTunes, Adium, Finder, and Quicksilver. You can also hide your dock by clicking on the Apple icon in the top left, and going to Dock>Turn Hiding On. Then it will only appear when you mouse over the bottom part of your screen. I did this for more screen real estate.

Finder- The file system of sorts for your Mac. From Finder you’ll be able to access all of the files on your computer. One thing to note is you start in your user folder (username that is, mine is joe). Directly from there, you can get to Applications, Music, Pictures, Movies, Documents and a bunch of other things. You can also customize the “Places” section of Finder to include the folders you frequent most. Just drag that folder and drop it under “Places.” Mine contains Desktop, joe, Documents, Applications, iTunes Music, Widgets, and Fonts. The last three I added myself because I found myself copy and pasting or dragging and dropping to those folders the most.

Apps- The biggest question I get is, “What Apps should I download?” It really depends on what you’re into, but a few (either built-in or free) that I have found useful are:

• Adium- This multi-protocol IM client lets you connect to all of your screen names in one app. I can use it for AIM, Yahoo!, GTalk, and rumor has it Facebook support is coming. The only thing native IM client iChat has on it is support for video chat.
• Quick Sliver- This robust little app is the quick-launcher to end all quick-launchers. Run the program, which will run in the background, press control+spacebar and type in the name of the App you want to run, document you want to open, or even song you want to play in iTunes. Lifehacker is also quite the fan.
• Transmission- For all your Bit Torrent needs.
• Dictionary- a built-in app that will search for definitions, synonyms and Wikipedia for whatever word you put in.
• Preview- a built-in app that natively converts to PDF, and reads PDFs and all sorts of other image files. Much faster than Adobe Reader.

Widgets- The final feature I want to talk about is the Widgets. On newer Macs, by default press F4 and you will be presented with your ‘Dashboard,’ with all of your widgets. Ones like weather, calc, etc. come pre-installed, but there are literally hundreds of widgets out there to download for free. The only one I really recommend is Maintidget, which will run clean up and maintenance scripts on your Mac weekly. I am personally a fan or the PHP, Movies, and Lyrics widgets.

Besides my short rambling, Lifehacker writes quite frequently on how to make your mac-using life easier, including a guide to switching. MacUpdate is also a great site for free Mac software.

First, pick up a book. I usually go with the for the Absolute Beginner series. It taught me PHP/MySQL and did it in a very effective, modular way. The authors don’t assume you know how to program, but the books aren’t so slow that if you have, you’re bored. They also provide the tools you need to set up your environment, resources, and all of the book’s sample code on a CD. Each chapter takes you through 2 or 3 smaller programs, and builds a full one at the end. In my opinion, they have the perfect combo of code and text.

Then, build one program. Just one- and continue to expand it as you learn new syntax. I build a “Guess the number” game. It’s a simple problem with an easy solution that you can expand on. My plan of action for this program goes like this, following along with the book I’m using.

• Basic print statement. Something like "I'm thinking of a number..."
• Variable assignment. Hard code the first number you want the user to guess. That way you know the right number and can check your logic for the next step. x= 3.
• Get input from the user/store it in a variable. guess= get_input("What's your guess").
• If statements. If guess == x: print something, else: print something else.
• While loop. Do something like prompt to user to see if they want to guess again, accepting yes or no. while keepGoing != no: doing it again

These five basic steps show you the important basics- input, output, and flow of control. The next few steps could be language dependent, but you can also take some liberties and get creative.

• Change x to a random value. If the user wants to guess again, the number will now change. x= rand(0, 10).
• Allow the user to enter five guesses at a time. This will do a couple of things for you- make use of an array, and use a for loop.

while i <= 5:
   guesses[i]= get_input("What's one of your guesses?")
   i= i+1

for guess as guesses:
   if guess == x: print something,
   else: print something else

• Write a function/method to check if the guess is correct. It might be a trivial thing to do here, but you’re really just doing it to learn the syntax.
• Create a ‘Guesser’ class. This of course assumes you’re using an object oriented language. Write one class with functions to prompt the user, store the input and make the guess, etc.
• Finally, try storing the results in a file. Keep a counter for how many times the user, plays, and for each time, store each guess, the actual answer, and if they got it right or not.

With these steps, you’re learning a new control structure, how to use arrays, write to files, and most importantly how to modularize your code through functions and classes. I think with that, you will know enough basic stuff about the language to go off and write some other less trivial programs.

After that, it’s really up to you to dig deeper into the particular language you are learning to really make use of its power. The Absolute Beginner books take you beyond the above exercises and do some language specific things. With PHP, it was creating a web app and connecting to a MySQL database. With Python, it looks like you build a basic game. With Java, you should probably explore Generics or threads. Either way, once you learn the basic syntax, it’s time to harness the true power of the language.

My last piece of advice is to pick up the O’Reilly cookbook for that particular language. They’re usually for a more advanced user of the language, but are extremely helpful in doing specific things. The PHP and Java Cookbooks have helped me immensely.

This is a continuation post from Google I/O Day 1.

With a fresh perspective after the Day 1 sessions, I reworked my schedule to try and make the most of what Google I/O had to offer. The keynote for Day 2 was given by Marissa Mayer, which admittedly made me a little star struck. I read about her in The Google Story- she was the first female employee and part of the first handful hired at Google. I thought it was pretty cool that she was addressing us. Of the advice she had to offer, she mentioned something also mentioned in The Google Story; have a healthy disrespect for the impossible. It was this thought that constantly lead Larry, Sergey, and the rest of Google to do the things they do. It’s what made Larry and Sergey start Google. So with that phrase in mind, I went on to Day 2 of the conference.

I did two things I didn’t get to do on Day 1: A Code Lab and a Fireside Chat. For the code lab, I worked with the Google Maps API. The lab was incredibly helpful. There was a website with about 24 slides showing different things you can do with the API, some of them being demonstrated by the Google developer running the lab. Then we were given a link to instructions and got to work at our own pace making different API calls. Developers, of course, were there to answer any questions we had.

Then there was the Fireside Chat I attended, which was on the topic of Android. Eight engineers from the Android team were there to informally answer questions as long as we could come up with them. I didn’t ask any, but plenty I had [or should have had] got answered.

All in all, this was a pretty great learning experience that gave me a lot of new insight not only on Android, GAE, or other Google products, but Software Development in general. Just hearing some of the engineers speak was truly inspiring. It was also eye opening to the fact that there is so much I need to learn (not that I didn’t know that already, but this made it a little more concrete). And not only did I learn about software development, but also about running a business, how to treat users, and some new ways of thinking and problem solving. I feel they took the “Cura Personalis” approach the University of Scranton takes (translates to ‘Care for the whole person’). The people at Google know what it takes to teach and to get people to learn.

So will I do it again next year? You better believe it.

When I first got to Google I/O I made note of a few things. “It’s like 85% male,” “Wow there are a lot of smart phones,” and “There are a lot more Macs here than I thought there would be.” Of course, once I was all checked in, settled and the keynote started, I was nothing less than blown away by what they had to show us. I can’t really recap everything covered, however I was really struck by the Google Web Toolkit. The GWT allows you to write programs in Java and then convert them to AJAX (Javascript, etc.). To be honest, I didn’t even think that was possible. The app they demonstrated was incredibly powerful, seamless and fairly quick. You’d never think it was a web app. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Google I/O Day 1 showed me the raw and very real innovation going on at Google.

Aside from GWT they wowed us with a working Android prototype, which you can check out here. What really got me was the compass mode, which gives you a live street view that moves based on what compass direction you’re facing. The android talks I attended gave us a quick intro to and the basics of creating an android app. Those talks helped me get my own environment up and running, which I was able to do in no time flat. While I didn’t look that much into it today, I also gained an appreciation for Google Apps Engine and am going to learn Python so I can develop on it. But it wasn’t all work at Google I/O today.

Aside from the numerous breakout sessions and coding labs, Google offered it’s attendees colorful beanbag chairs, pool tables, a candy bar, and fully stocked cooler. From 6-10pm there was also “Google After Hours,” which was a mixer with a DJ and live band, food, open bar, a few Wii consoles with the games projected on giant TVs, and arcade games and pool tables scattered all around the room. In short, Google can throw a party.

What I got out of today’s session was learn Python, and get better at Java. On tomorrow’s agenda is GWT, more Android, and AJAX design patterns. As nerdy as it sounds, I’m pretty excited. I’ll be posting pics and a follow up to this post tomorrow night.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

I read the abridged version as an undergrad for a class, so I didn’t really read it.

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Heard of it but never read it. Sounds a lot like me though.

Faucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

I’ve never actually heard of this one, but it sounds like a really good read.

The Are of Warfare by Sun Tzu

I started reading this one a couple of years ago but never finished.

If I have time, I’d also like to revisit The Great Gatsby, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I liked it in high school but I feel like I didn’t understand as well as I would now.

Meant to post this a few days ago. Can you guess why I found it interesting?

• I finished A Confederacy of Dunces. It was very good. I am now reading Bringing Down the House, the book the movie 21 is based on.
• Iron Man was an awesome movie. Go see it. Take me with you.
• I am using a new system to keep track of invoices and expenses for my business. That will be my next big post.
• Google Reader integrated Notes and the ability to share websites not in your feed reader, as I requested in my last post. It’s like they are listening directly to me!

I frequently have random thoughts that I will post on Twitter, if you’d like to follow me.