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I've always wanted to build a cutting edge recommender system for Drupal as good as what Amazon offers. Google Summer of Code 2009 gave me the first chance to attack this task, and I developed the Recommender API module and helper modules that provides recommendation service based on users browsing history, fivestar ratings, product purchasing history, etc. After 2 years of application in the real world, I received many users feedback concerning performance/scalability issue of the modules, which cannot be fixed under the current PHP implementation -see why here-.

To solve the performance issue, I think the best option is to outsource the complex recommendation computation to Apache Mahout instead of using my own PHP implementation. I have submitted another GSoC application for 2011 to work on this. Hope it will get accepted so that I can get this done.

The second part of my GSoC 2011 application is to build a framework so that 3rd party programs, such as Apache Mahout, can easily exchange data with Drupal for data-intensive computing, such as computing recommendations. More details is discussed in my GSoC 2011 application. I hope this would facilitate more innovations on data-intensive computation with Drupal using 3rd party script/programs.

If you like these ideas, please support my application at http://groups.drupal.org/node/137054.

Drupal rocks, and let's make it rock more :D

注册前，先要想好是做small business还是big business, 如果完全是自己投资做small business, "sole proprietary"类型的公司最合适，好处是：注册步骤最简单，税收政策最优惠，政府监管的最少。坏处是，一旦公司赔钱，自己个人存款也要搭进去，而且也不能同人合伙(可以雇人，不过关系是employer-employee, 而不是partner或invester-investee)。

其他类型的公司有"LLC", 同sole proprietary相比，税收同样优惠(不很确定)，政府监管、报税等杂项要麻烦一些，不过好处是一旦赔钱，最多是公司倒闭，不会把自己个人积蓄卷进去(limited liability)。其他类型的公司有"S Corporation", "C Corporation"等，规模就更大，杂事更多，而且要交双倍的税（公司交，客户还要再交），这里不予考虑。

不同类型的公司，就是在交税和法律政策上有所不同，不会对你要做的核心业务有影响，而且需要的话可以随时转换类型。所以，想创业的同学们，这里建议先注册sole proprietary, 以后一旦越做越大，需要投资上市的话，再转成LLC, Corporation等也不迟。

下面是我2010年12月在Michigan注册公司的过程：

这几天在读"Zorba the Greek"电子书(4HWW推荐)，提到了一个小故事：

"One day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. 'What, granddad!' I exclaimed. 'Planting an almond tree?' And he, bent as he was, turned round and said: "My son, I carry on as if I should never die." I replied: "And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute." Which of us was right, boss?"
He looked at me triumphantly and said:
"That's where I've got you!"
I kept silent. Two equally steep and bold paths may lead to the same peak. To act as if death did not exist, or to act thinking every minute of death, is perhaps the same thing. But when Zorba asked me the question, I did not know.

不管是"act as if death did not exist"，还是"act thinking every minute of death", 都是一个信息：永远做自己喜欢的事情，而不要让生活的繁杂和压力蒙住了心灵，每一天都要追随自己的心，大口的呼吸，而不要为了害怕危险而畏首畏脚，或疲于琐碎无意义的事情，等到临死才发现从来没有活过。

这几年有些迷茫，以此文自勉。

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish!!