Red1/TutorialHistory

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This Wiki is read-only for reference purposes to avoid broken links.

Preface

  • This is intended to be part of a talk about the early history of my red1 tutorials which i thought can be shared with other wannabes (OS setups wanting to make money included).
  • Anyone can invite me to come to give this talk if they agree to sponsor my expenses.
  • This is merely a suggested talk topic for any gathering or conference and can be mixed with my many other experiences.

In Brief

  • Wrote my first tutorial, POSred.pdf as a tribute to Jorg Janke. Personally brought to Bonn, Germany by my partner, Robin Hoo during that Compiere Training in 2004.
  • We were the first Malaysian Compiere Partner, fully paid for, costing us a hefty RM30,000 of our equity of which i have 25% shares. I was the CTO of this startup i named OpenfiX (PLC). I wrote the first tutorial on the job of our first client, a Futsal Cafetaria business.
  • Tutorial received attention from the floor and after class hours but no word from Jorg Janke.
  • Robin returned and remarked that my tutorial is better than the course.
  • Spurred by the reception, i continued writing and resulted in Callout.pdf. Couldnt upload to SourceForge due to the 1Mb limitation. Have to find a FTP site. Finally bought one and named it red1.org
  • Implementation of Compiere failed there and in another Construction client. The investor did not come through on his promised investment for me to do an HR module. I moved on. OpenfiX crashed.
  • Robin gave me another client, an international local based trading company. There i wrote my next tutorials - ImportPrice.pdf and MixMatch.pdf and ZeroPrice.pdf. Client didn't pay me on time. I moved on.
  • Hardest period, no income, stayed in farm, with a lone copper line, the struggle continues. I seek out a mentor - Andre Legendre and learnt something about France, French brands, and French temperaments. Wrote the RemoteDebug.pdf
  • Earlier Marco Lombardo was another mentor and i wrote him the CompiereSource101.pdf
  • During this period, got a local company to make me CTO again, but in the educational sector. Open Sourced their E-University software as http://www.sf.net/projects/university. CEO interfered, with bad strategies and i moved on.
  • Got a small budgeted NY job, worked with Trifon remotely from the farm. Real tough test, overrun on all timelines and learnt alot about BOLs and US Trading and XML from Trifon and Druid from Marco. Ran out of money. Stayed put in the farm. Wrote the Godfather Series.
  • Red1.org forums began to grow and spent lots of time trimming and trimming until a new client in the form of a Steel Factory, from Indonesia. Though complex, managed to learn more about BOMs and steel making process but coupled with limitations of a closed target in Compiere, and without a real community to share, gave up after 3 months.
  • Paid to link Asterisk PABX system to CRM, managed to learn more about Request Tables component of Compiere.
  • Suddenly it happened. A Mexican wrote to us in english. I suspect he was using GoogleTranslate.

Lessons Learnt

  • You got to be open
  • You got to he honest
  • You got to have faith
  • You got to have passion
  • You got to get your ass kicked a few times. Make that all the time
  • You got to enjoy it
  • You got to learn all the time

Questions

  • What if Jorg Janke accepted my tutorials and accepted me as ambassador of Compiere?
  • What if OpenfiX solved all challenges it took and floated like a butterfly?
  • What if the tutorials were not free and sold by amazon.com?
  • What if our mexican hero wrote in mexican and got intercepted by Open Bravo?
  • What if i got serious and start behaving like a real leader?

Importance

  • Tutorials form the basis of the beginning for many who wants to read first before proceeding.
    • Many projects die due not to lack of features, but lack of words to describe them.
    • Newbies often screamed for the manuals or readmes or else they won't touch what you got.
    • Oldies often screamed back when such already existed with RTFM acronym.
  • Writing is the hardest part of software development.
    • Sure, you designed the kernel, but if no one writes about it, did the kernel ever exist?
    • ok, can you please explain to me your kernel first? I cannot write unless i know something.
  • Words is the currency in cyberspace
    • and the more it circulates the healthier.
    • It circulates if there is both supplier (writers) and consumers (readers).
  • Many refuse to write thinking that writing is non-profitable.
    • Tell that to Stephen King.
    • Ok, i need to write a novel next.
    • I need to get in touch with those horror characters.


Let's Share

  • You can add to the learning points and questions and even answers but pls sign with your name so that we know who the idiot is. :-) - Red1 20:50, 28 August 2007 (EDT)