In the Silicon Valley, the money resides with the investors or Venture Capitalists along Sand Hill Rd in Palo Alto... These guys aren't in their 40s. They love young CEOs because they know exactly what motivates them, which is the same thing that motivates the VCs: more money.
Young founders don't want to start a long term business with lots of employees, making a quality product and having loyal customers etc etc... I can't see today's founders following in the footsteps of Aaron Feurestein at Malden Mills who paid the salaries of his employees after their factory burned down...
So since young founders want to make piles of money/drive a fast car etc.. or also known as Instant Gratification, it's easy to move them in that direction. Remember that from the VC's perspective, the startup is an investment. VCs aren't looking for a 20year investment, they want to build a company with potential, that is purchased by a larger company. Once bought by the larger company, the VC is done, and they and their backers have made their money. Building a startup isn't about getting enough money to give the founder/employees a "better lifestyle", but to make them tons of money, fast.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The startup goals have changed dramatically out here in Silicon Valley. It used to be you built a solid company with employees/products etc and it was a long term process. Then in the 90s it evolved into "IPO or bust!". Then after the dot-com bubble burst, the goal of the startup transitioned into being bought out by an established company. Going public is too complex, expensive etc... but if you can get bought by someone else, the CEO/employees can cash out and be done.
VC's don't care about helping people with a better lifestyle, they're already millionaires and are looking to become billionaires, and will drive the founder and his/her company into the ground to do so. Remember, a startup is just an investment, nothing personal, it's an investment and people invest to make money.
I have used Apple and Windows products for over 20 years. I liked my Apple Macbook and use iPads in one of my businesses. We deliver using the iPad maps app and maintained a history using the previous app.
Imagine losing all that data? That's what Apple did to me with this unannounced change. They put their own selfish agenda above their customers. They could have easily brought back the old app.
Bastards. I'm tired of both Apple and Windows forcing me to use devices and applications only the way they decide I should use them.
Translation: I didn't do my due diligence by verifying that the upgrade would allow me to run my business in the way that I've been running it. While it is a mission critical application in my business, I decided to not follow solid business practices and take a leap of faith by assuming that everything would work exactly like it did before.
I also ignored all the online reports nor did any research into what the impact would be off switching to a new map application. I am now trying to blame apple for forcing me to upgrade, as I'm too proud to take the blame on myself.
Seems pretty small unless you're doing all your own labor or your own your own contracting company...
A kitchen remodel alone is going to run you between 10-20k... Since this is your inlaws house, why not ask them what they want in it? Do they want to play PS3 in any room of the house? Doubt it. Maybe they want a up to date kitchen with high end appliances? Or they want to rip out all the carpet and put in new hardwood floors with new molding and remove all the linoleum in favor of tile in the bathrooms and kitchen... and then paint the whole interior to refresh the walls/ceiling to go along with the new floors. Or install new 2xpane windows....
All sorts of things that add immediate and long lasting value to the house. If your inlaws sell it one day, telling someone "there's an dust free glass enclosed entertainment center" only appeals to a tiny percentage of buyers, however 2xpane windows and a up to date kitchen appeals to almost everyone.
Also, why are you asking/. what your inlaws want instead of them?
Right. But you forgot to mention that they have developed on their own and implemented a very custom software stack.
Not every enterprise out there has the development staff that google does to create such a software layer to be able to commoditize the hardware layers.
Take any established company. Kaiser Medical, Caterpillar, JPMC... while they may have solid IT staffs, the company's core competency is not IT. It's Healthcare, Industrial Machinery or Financial Services. So for them paying for EMC storage or IBM mainframes or Cisco routers and switches is worth their time and money. So they can focus on their core business.
Plant a tree in her honor. You can put a small plaque in front of it. Or as another poster suggested do something in the park like donate a bench. These tend to have an impact far beyond just the app itself, which is a pretty short timeframe.
What if you left the company or it got shut down? Or if you changed departments. If it's a larger project, someone else could take it over 5 years from now and decide to re-dedicate it to their grandmother...
However, the bench and the tree will still be standing.
I thought was one of the most greatest threads (especially the comments) and the follow on stories (Hope in the Hellmouth, Hellmouth Revisited etc...) that/. has done. It really showed a light on a delicate subject.
So slashdot was sold to Andover.net on n June 29, 1999 for $1.5 million in cash and $7 million in Andover stock at the IPO price (see ultra depressing GeekNet stock chart)
Winamp was sold to AOL on June 1999, for $80m.
With CmdrTaco's bitterness, I can't help but see this quote apply from Justin Frankel (founder of Winamp and later gnutella):
"For me, coding is a form of self-expression. The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have. This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leave." - from a blog posting announcing his resignation from AOL
Cmdr, you should sit down with Justin and compare notes...
Why isn't Whole Foods (who btw doesn't only sell healthy foods) advertising at the same rate at the fast food companies trying to burn into our childrens' minds that broccoli and carrots are "extra yummy"...
Maybe if cauliflower and turnips were wrapped like a xmas present similar to a hamburger and put in a colorful Happy Meal box, kids would be clamoring for vegetables as well.
I've got lots of friends that won't hold a cell phone to their heads to use it, but will only use their cell phone with a lanyard/earbud, due to concerns about phone radiation.
Now we're supposed to convince them that it's ok to put a device on a charging pad?
ahahah let's all laugh at the ignorance of the masses... I'm sure there are plenty of lawyers/doctors/plumbers that laugh at the/. crowd for their lack of knowledge...
Most people in IT can't agree on the same definition of cloud, or what it is and what it is not. Is cloud an application, infrastructure, platform, API? It can be.
Does your company use an audio conferencing (phone) system? Either internally or from an external provider (like webex)? If so just have someone use that facility, plus those can usually record any slides/applications/desktops that are shared in the meeting as well.
Otherwise you'll have a solution that is unique to one room, which seems like nothing more than a glorified tape recorder, and if someone is dialed into the meeting, while everyone else is sitting in the room, that one person's voice won't be recorded.
so even on the hottest days my car will cool to room temp within 10-15 seconds of starting it.
What kind of A/C system do you have in your car that can take a 150+ degree internal temperature and bring it down to 72degrees in 10-15 seconds? When it's 110+ outside, it's going to be considerably hotter inside your car.
200km range... or about 124 miles. Doesn't even get you from San Francisco to LA. Even if it only takes you 30minutes to get there, you're only saving about an hour. And this would required dedicated infrastructure/roads. Not exactly easy given that our highways are already crowded.
Does it come with a spare? I realize that Greyhound buses have the same problem, but those buses a) carry many more people per trip and b) the company has a much better infrastructure for dealing with broken down buses. Plus the buses have no problems going over curbs, parking lot entrances etc..
Where do you store luggage? Do you hold your bags on your lap?
Looks like a stretch Ferrari. Interesting yes, practical no.
It gets worse when you quit FF, and then reopen the app and have it reload your last session. It will create the tabs, but it won't load the page until you activate the tab. Now this is something I'd be willing to tolerate for tabs that have been open for a few weeks. But not for tabs that I've created recently and/or activate frequently.
1. Go into Options, 2. On the Startup box, there's an option "Don't Load Tabs Until Selected"
Google is wanting to you to be technical and MS only cares about how well you can talk.
You do realize that the people the pay the bills are often not interested in the tiny highly technical details. This is also why very often Architects are higher up the food chain than operations personnel.
It's the architect's ability to communicate that separates them.
My father told me once, "You've got 40 years of working ahead of you, enjoy your youth. It's the one thing that we always wish we had more of."
My favorite summer was between high school and college, before everyone went off in different directions. Have some fun, travel, chase girls, go camping... whatever floats your boat. Spending your summer writing code, is not something that you'll look back at and say,
"Man... I wish I had spent July and August writing code instead of that time at the lake with my best friends and that blonde girl from two cabins away..."
Playing on a public server in D2 was downright treacherous. You could enter the game only to be instantly killed by some cheater. I'm glad they have the ban hammer. Also, there's not many times when i'm playing D3 and my computer is not connected to the internet given that I don't often shut off my home router nor does my internet connection go down.
Internet is becoming a new "always on" utility, just like power, water and phone.
I grew up in Cupertino, which when I grew up in the early 80s had the diversity of being white and hispanic. Now if you compare my elementary school class photos of those of the current children, you'll see the diversity is now illustrated by Indian and Chinese.
Same homes. Just now these people pay over $1m for the 1400sq ft house I grew up in.
Diversity is all about which races you need to have to be diverse. Can you be diverse without any african americans? Is it more diverse to have only Indian/Chinese vs. White/Mexican? Btw, in certain schools in Cupertino and parts of Sunnyvale, being white is a minority.
Slashdot Mirror
In the Silicon Valley, the money resides with the investors or Venture Capitalists along Sand Hill Rd in Palo Alto... These guys aren't in their 40s. They love young CEOs because they know exactly what motivates them, which is the same thing that motivates the VCs: more money.
Young founders don't want to start a long term business with lots of employees, making a quality product and having loyal customers etc etc... I can't see today's founders following in the footsteps of Aaron Feurestein at Malden Mills who paid the salaries of his employees after their factory burned down...
So since young founders want to make piles of money/drive a fast car etc.. or also known as Instant Gratification, it's easy to move them in that direction. Remember that from the VC's perspective, the startup is an investment. VCs aren't looking for a 20year investment, they want to build a company with potential, that is purchased by a larger company. Once bought by the larger company, the VC is done, and they and their backers have made their money. Building a startup isn't about getting enough money to give the founder/employees a "better lifestyle", but to make them tons of money, fast.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The startup goals have changed dramatically out here in Silicon Valley. It used to be you built a solid company with employees/products etc and it was a long term process. Then in the 90s it evolved into "IPO or bust!". Then after the dot-com bubble burst, the goal of the startup transitioned into being bought out by an established company. Going public is too complex, expensive etc... but if you can get bought by someone else, the CEO/employees can cash out and be done.
VC's don't care about helping people with a better lifestyle, they're already millionaires and are looking to become billionaires, and will drive the founder and his/her company into the ground to do so. Remember, a startup is just an investment, nothing personal, it's an investment and people invest to make money.
I have used Apple and Windows products for over 20 years. I liked my Apple Macbook and use iPads in one of my businesses. We deliver using the iPad maps app and maintained a history using the previous app.
Imagine losing all that data? That's what Apple did to me with this unannounced change. They put their own selfish agenda above their customers. They could have easily brought back the old app.
Bastards. I'm tired of both Apple and Windows forcing me to use devices and applications only the way they decide I should use them.
Translation:
I didn't do my due diligence by verifying that the upgrade would allow me to run my business in the way that I've been running it. While it is a mission critical application in my business, I decided to not follow solid business practices and take a leap of faith by assuming that everything would work exactly like it did before.
I also ignored all the online reports nor did any research into what the impact would be off switching to a new map application. I am now trying to blame apple for forcing me to upgrade, as I'm too proud to take the blame on myself.
$10-20k is your budget?
Seems pretty small unless you're doing all your own labor or your own your own contracting company...
A kitchen remodel alone is going to run you between 10-20k... Since this is your inlaws house, why not ask them what they want in it? Do they want to play PS3 in any room of the house? Doubt it. Maybe they want a up to date kitchen with high end appliances? Or they want to rip out all the carpet and put in new hardwood floors with new molding and remove all the linoleum in favor of tile in the bathrooms and kitchen... and then paint the whole interior to refresh the walls/ceiling to go along with the new floors. Or install new 2xpane windows....
All sorts of things that add immediate and long lasting value to the house. If your inlaws sell it one day, telling someone "there's an dust free glass enclosed entertainment center" only appeals to a tiny percentage of buyers, however 2xpane windows and a up to date kitchen appeals to almost everyone.
Also, why are you asking /. what your inlaws want instead of them?
Right. But you forgot to mention that they have developed on their own and implemented a very custom software stack.
Not every enterprise out there has the development staff that google does to create such a software layer to be able to commoditize the hardware layers.
Take any established company. Kaiser Medical, Caterpillar, JPMC... while they may have solid IT staffs, the company's core competency is not IT. It's Healthcare, Industrial Machinery or Financial Services. So for them paying for EMC storage or IBM mainframes or Cisco routers and switches is worth their time and money. So they can focus on their core business.
At what point does pokes per minute turn into a tickle fight?
Plant a tree in her honor. You can put a small plaque in front of it. Or as another poster suggested do something in the park like donate a bench. These tend to have an impact far beyond just the app itself, which is a pretty short timeframe.
What if you left the company or it got shut down? Or if you changed departments. If it's a larger project, someone else could take it over 5 years from now and decide to re-dedicate it to their grandmother...
However, the bench and the tree will still be standing.
It's a book about management, but told through the eyes of a software development manager via tales and stories. Very good book.
http://books.google.com/books?isbn=1430243147C
Reminds me of how I can identify with the situations in the movie Office Space. I can easily identify with the stories in this book.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/99/04/25/1438249/voices-from-the-hellmouth
I thought was one of the most greatest threads (especially the comments) and the follow on stories (Hope in the Hellmouth, Hellmouth Revisited etc...) that /. has done. It really showed a light on a delicate subject.
So slashdot was sold to Andover.net on n June 29, 1999 for $1.5 million in cash and $7 million in Andover stock at the IPO price (see ultra depressing GeekNet stock chart)
Winamp was sold to AOL on June 1999, for $80m.
With CmdrTaco's bitterness, I can't help but see this quote apply from Justin Frankel (founder of Winamp and later gnutella):
"For me, coding is a form of self-expression. The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have. This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leave." - from a blog posting announcing his resignation from AOL
Cmdr, you should sit down with Justin and compare notes...
Why isn't Whole Foods (who btw doesn't only sell healthy foods) advertising at the same rate at the fast food companies trying to burn into our childrens' minds that broccoli and carrots are "extra yummy"...
Maybe if cauliflower and turnips were wrapped like a xmas present similar to a hamburger and put in a colorful Happy Meal box, kids would be clamoring for vegetables as well.
64 CPU for only $50K
Clearly that wasn't a System P.
I'll see your pSeries and raise you a zSeries.
We just finished upgrading ours, not cheap, but it is fast and does run a ton of linux on it.
I've got lots of friends that won't hold a cell phone to their heads to use it, but will only use their cell phone with a lanyard/earbud, due to concerns about phone radiation.
Now we're supposed to convince them that it's ok to put a device on a charging pad?
ARM fan is pissed off that IBM zSeries won't be using ARM processors either.
ahahah let's all laugh at the ignorance of the masses... I'm sure there are plenty of lawyers/doctors/plumbers that laugh at the /. crowd for their lack of knowledge...
Most people in IT can't agree on the same definition of cloud, or what it is and what it is not. Is cloud an application, infrastructure, platform, API? It can be.
In other news...
Most Americans think RAID is a bug spray.
Does your company use an audio conferencing (phone) system? Either internally or from an external provider (like webex)? If so just have someone use that facility, plus those can usually record any slides/applications/desktops that are shared in the meeting as well.
Otherwise you'll have a solution that is unique to one room, which seems like nothing more than a glorified tape recorder, and if someone is dialed into the meeting, while everyone else is sitting in the room, that one person's voice won't be recorded.
Seems the Northern California chapter of the ACLU has some information if you plan on participating in a "sit in".
Even they tell you to understand the law. I can't imagine the ACLU advocating that "breaking out of your handcuffs" would further your cause.
So let's say you're illegally protesting (without a permit, disturbing bystanders, not disbursing..etc) and you get cuffed by the cops.
What's the increase in penalties vs. just staying cuffed? ... a bit of research later...
Seems that you can spend up to a year in jail for what is now a misdemeanor, as opposed to getting a ticket for the infraction.
so even on the hottest days my car will cool to room temp within 10-15 seconds of starting it.
What kind of A/C system do you have in your car that can take a 150+ degree internal temperature and bring it down to 72degrees in 10-15 seconds? When it's 110+ outside, it's going to be considerably hotter inside your car.
I found the limitations a bit much:
200km range... or about 124 miles. Doesn't even get you from San Francisco to LA. Even if it only takes you 30minutes to get there, you're only saving about an hour. And this would required dedicated infrastructure/roads. Not exactly easy given that our highways are already crowded.
Does it come with a spare? I realize that Greyhound buses have the same problem, but those buses a) carry many more people per trip and b) the company has a much better infrastructure for dealing with broken down buses. Plus the buses have no problems going over curbs, parking lot entrances etc..
Where do you store luggage? Do you hold your bags on your lap?
Looks like a stretch Ferrari. Interesting yes, practical no.
It gets worse when you quit FF, and then reopen the app and have it reload your last session. It will create the tabs, but it won't load the page until you activate the tab. Now this is something I'd be willing to tolerate for tabs that have been open for a few weeks. But not for tabs that I've created recently and/or activate frequently.
1. Go into Options,
2. On the Startup box, there's an option "Don't Load Tabs Until Selected"
3. Uncheck it.
Now it will load all the tabs at startup.
Google is wanting to you to be technical and MS only cares about how well you can talk.
You do realize that the people the pay the bills are often not interested in the tiny highly technical details. This is also why very often Architects are higher up the food chain than operations personnel.
It's the architect's ability to communicate that separates them.
My father told me once, "You've got 40 years of working ahead of you, enjoy your youth. It's the one thing that we always wish we had more of."
My favorite summer was between high school and college, before everyone went off in different directions. Have some fun, travel, chase girls, go camping... whatever floats your boat. Spending your summer writing code, is not something that you'll look back at and say,
"Man... I wish I had spent July and August writing code instead of that time at the lake with my best friends and that blonde girl from two cabins away..."
Check out his series that starts with The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree.
While it was written in 1952, it used to a in every single elementary school library, and is aimed at kids about your child's age.
Playing on a public server in D2 was downright treacherous. You could enter the game only to be instantly killed by some cheater. I'm glad they have the ban hammer. Also, there's not many times when i'm playing D3 and my computer is not connected to the internet given that I don't often shut off my home router nor does my internet connection go down.
Internet is becoming a new "always on" utility, just like power, water and phone.
I grew up in Cupertino, which when I grew up in the early 80s had the diversity of being white and hispanic. Now if you compare my elementary school class photos of those of the current children, you'll see the diversity is now illustrated by Indian and Chinese.
Same homes. Just now these people pay over $1m for the 1400sq ft house I grew up in.
Diversity is all about which races you need to have to be diverse. Can you be diverse without any african americans? Is it more diverse to have only Indian/Chinese vs. White/Mexican? Btw, in certain schools in Cupertino and parts of Sunnyvale, being white is a minority.
Accept the times, or move.