DecisionStudio Professional (DSP) is an advanced graphical data mining, reporting, modeling, and analysis environment built on top of the best-of-breed open source projects. Some of these include:
— Optimized MySQL database as data warehouse platform
— SQL Workbench (MySQL Query Browser and DBDesigner) for Data Analysts
— R environment for statistical analysis and modeling
— iReport Reporting GUI and JasperReport reporting library
— Python with Boa Constructor IDE for application and GUI development

DecisionStudio Professional is the only end-to-end open source analytics platform that provides comprehensive capabilities to each role. Data Analysts get to store, process, and publish data on a standard MySQL platform; Reporting Analysts would like iReport and the integration with Office tools; and Modelers would love the excellent R Environment. It also includes Python along with a drag-n-drop GUI building environment for analytics Application Developers.

You can find out more about DecisionStudio Professional at decisionstudio.com, and can download your copy at Sourceforge.net. Click here to download the product brochure (PDF).

Go ahead, it’s completely free and will always stay so.

Down. But not out.

Tomorrow IS another day. Catch you then.

“I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much money. I will succeed because my efforts
and my focus will defeat bigger and better-funded competitors. I am fearless. I keep my focus on growing the business—
not on politics, career advancement, or other wasteful distractions.” — Seth Godin’s The Bootstrapper’s Bible.

A few months back I quit my comfy job doing Analytics for GE to promote open source analytics. I soon had a freelance engagement, and then started a small open source anaytics products and services business. Five months later, I can proudly say that I am glad I did that. That the business is already profitable (negligibly so, but it’s just been 5 months) is something that confirms it was a good decision.

As a first time entrepreneur, there wasn’t much of an experience to go by, and I spent a lot of time exploring the net for stuff I could learn from. One absolute gem of a text that I came across is available below for anyone to download.

The Bootstrapper's Bible by Seth Godin is a marvellous manifesto for starting small and growing big with your own money. Mandatory reading if you ever want to become an entrepreneur, or already are one.

In case you haven’t heard of Mr Godin, you should probably do that as a top priority, specially if the words “marketing” and/or “internet” appear anywhere in your plans.

Click here to visit Seth Godin’s website and don’t forget to click his bald head (top left corner of the page) to visit Seth Godin’s blog.

I have had a tough time explaining this. And it’s a pleasant surprise to see today that the guys at 37signals.com do get it.

Times have changed. All other people’s money gets you these days is into debt. And that’s not a great place to start anything from. You don’t need money for hardware — hardware is cheap. You don’t need money for software — software is free. You don’t need money for marketing — there are a variety of ways get your message out online to a huge audience for next to free. Money doesn’t buy you time and money doesn’t buy you passion (and passion is something you need a boatload of).

Four months back when I quit GE to bootstrap a startup, some people thought I had lost it completely. Luckily there were a lot many more who offerred their (extremely valuable) advice, and wished me luck. Some of them offerred their personal money, and some others have regularly kept checking to put me in touch with some VC they know. Every time I have been grateful to them for this, and have politely declined the offer.

No, I am not a filthy rich bugger. Neither am I a zen-master well on his way to nirvana. I just have had this simple rule of not taking extra money when I simply don’t have the need for it.

That also explains why all those Citibank sales agents have never managed to sell a cross-sell offer they made to me. I simply don’t need that sexy car, that elegant apartment, and those so-hip-they-hurt designer jackets. (By the way, do you think I should do them a favor by letting them know that I became immune to all those ‘incredible offers’ a long time back when I was employed with Citi? )

Do read on to see
Why is Less a Competitive Advantage?

Ummm… Not so simple really.

Actually there are two opposite ways you can go about handling these initial projects. Either you could be doing complete custom development for the client, and thus frittering away precious time for a few extra bucks, with no value addition to your shrink-wrap software dreams. Or else you could be pushing your shrink-wrapped standard software features and doing only very minor implementation adjustments (if at all) to make sure that the project has some features that you can reuse in the shrink-wrapped product.

While you may want to stick to the latter approach, the client puts continuous and credible pressure for the former.

In such circumstances, the typical middle path that people fall into is Consultingware, where you pretend to be doing shrinkwrap while really doing custom development. Now, That’s a death trap you have to watch out for.

Here is an excellent article by Joel Spolsky on how to set your priorities and avoid this oh-so-common pitfall.

Its far too easy to get caught in developing and maintaining custom requirements that fit only that particular client, and are often counter-productive towards the bigger vision.