skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
All that "determines a vision and strategy" means is "deciding what the company should do next". Which isn't really nebulous at all, and its impact on the organization can be directly measured by success/failure.

E.g. Ben Horowitz "determined the vision and strategy" for Loudcloud when they moved away from managed services market and spun out Opsware, which led to a 1.6Bn exit. (http://voices.allthingsd.com/20100317/the-case-for-the-fat-s...) Its hard to argue that there was no value in that.
Play Starcraft II From Your iPhone
The sad thing is, it probably would have fit nicely in a free DropBox account, or up on Google Docs.
Freemium Vs. Premium
Patents cover both the distribution and use of an invention, so yes, you can be sued for using patented algorithms in-house.

Of course, they need to know (or at least suspect) that you're infringing on their patent before they'll sue you over it...
Boys Rules, Girls Lose – Women at Work
Social Entrepreneurial Success Questioned
I must admit, my experiences are rather the opposite. That is, men seem to collaborate more than women. At least with women I constantly see mobbing behavior, they can get really worked up about having people around they don't like. With men there seems to be more of a laissez faire attitude.

Purely anecdotal, of course...
"Women can be equally competitive if they desire. It’s not a question of competency. Or a skill only boys have. If they want to succeed by competing they can. They just have to learn the rules and practice them."

It is hard to imagine that someone who decides that play fighting with sticks is important for their career will be better at it than someone who has been play fighting with sticks for fun since they were 8 years old and it is misguided to tell that person that does not have the competitive instinct that they can "succeed" in an environment of play fighting enthusiasts.
It's almost like a common law marriage for companies.
Those are things the company does to a CEO, not what a CEO does.
"I also see plenty of ads for other "unique" products."

I guess that's the whole "build it and they won't come" argument. It requires good marketing to convince people to try a Guinness or buy an iPad or whatever (although the iPad is probably a bad example as it's not unique, Microsoft had the courier in 2003).
I agree. Sure, if we define "failure" as something as embarrassing as "bankruptcy", maybe Facebook won't "fail". But if we define failure as "starting to decline instead of inflate, after years of unchecked growth", well, maybe that's what Diaspora is actually after.

I think the article's other points are equally invalid... How can Facebook's "500 million user" base be the impediment to people adopting Diaspora? Surely, if his logic was correct, then no one would've ever moved to Facebook from MySpace. I would argue that the only reason Facebook has so many users is precisely because a strong competitor like Diaspora isn't here yet.

What's more, his idea that "Facebook gets more users every year, ergo Facebook users don't care about privacy" isn't too valid. How many of those users despise Facebook, but join anyway? How many of those users publish only what they would on a public service like Twitter, keeping their private lives off the web?

There is too much weaseling in this article for me to count it as valid.
I really think it's great that they've been able to make this a profitable venture, but I worry about the portability of the message. I've been at small companies that failed for lacking focus.. I'd be interested to hear more about how they juggled these projects and how much time and attention they took... especially at such a famously small company.
Most people are just average beer drinkers, they haven't really tried anything outside of the popular beers and that is why I can understand a statement like that.

I do however agree that all beer is not even close to equal I'm not big on alcohol but I do enjoy good beer and this is something that I can distinguish easily from the cheap beer.
I see your point (and kind of agree)... but isn't the fact that it's Brainf*ck part of the fun?
First of all, IANAL and I have no real-world experience with your scenario either. Below is all armchair reasoning. That said, my chair is pretty comfortable and I reason a lot from it.

Using patented technology without a license from the patent holder is illegal. On the other hand, you can't be sued unless people know you're doing something wrong. In-house technology that runs afoul of patents is therefore pretty safe, provided all the employees can be trusted... The moment you start exporting your technology, though, you're in trouble.

Making software open source does unfortunately not "avoid the hassle of patents". Whether your software is proprietary or open source, it can't use patents without permission. Conversely, you can hold patents on software distributed as open source -- although there would be precious little point to that, but maybe someone with an original licensing idea can correct me on that. In any case, a lot of licenses (most prominently the GPL) simply forbid this construction: if you release the software as "open", you implicitly grant everyone a license to use whatever patented technology you've included. Obviously, this can only apply to your own patents or patents you're allowed to re-license.

So: if you don't intend to publicize and you're worried about patents -- don't publicize. Conversely, if you do intend to go public, invest in good legal help first that specializes in IP. Checking your product for patents is hard, as is drawing up strategies for dealing with claimants. Nothing would be more disheartening than pouring a lot of effort in a product you will not be able to ship because a third party asks an exorbitant price for their patent use or refuses to license outright. They might buy your product from you, but that doesn't give you a startup.

This is not a question of "manning up", really (it's not like you can study real hard and then you've worked it out), it's one of economics. I have no idea how expensive the patenting business is, but TANSTAAFL in any case.
I always love reading these types of stories. The NYT has taken the art of dancing around obvious vulgarity to another level.
"The two major points of differentiation between Diaspora and Facebook are
1) Diaspora gives you more intuitive and effective control of your data privacy settings and
2) Diaspora is self-hosted, so you ultimately control all your own data.

According to the blogosphere, these two points are precisely
what the public is crying for and the exact recipe
necessary to finally break Facebook’s nefarious deathgrip on
social networking. This, alas, is the social media/tech-blog
echo chamber once again confusing its own desires with what
the general public wants. "

This is the main point of the article. And, IMHO, the reason why projects like Diaspora are doomed to fail. For the general public, convenience will always trump privacy. If it's not easy to use, it's not used.

How many "normal" users encrypt their emails?

How many set an Administrator and User accounts on their windows machines?

Etc...
> Second, I’m not convinced the average user gives a damn about privacy.

When I see stories about teens using steganography to escape the eye of their parents[1], I'd say the average user cares a lot. I think the main problem lies in the way the general public sees Facebook itself. Either they trust the company too much, or they're not aware of the full extent of Facebook's abilities regarding personal data. If they listened to Eben Moglen[2], many would probably reconsider.

[1]: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/08/23/social-...

[2]: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-clou...
i know, tryed to implement it but it wasnt working "node.scrollTop = node.clientHeight" or something
thanks, its very rough but i think i got the general idea working
Clearly the author of the article must only get his beer from the grocery story. Even a cursory sampling at a decent liquor store should convince anyone that beer variety doesn't begin and end with Guinness.
I think scripting language here is more in reference to python/ruby/perl which are sometimes used for scripting and get grouped into that category
Sorry, I meant to downvote (not upvote) you.
His analogy is confusing. But the argument remains. It simply because you cannot beat the current product by building a better one. You have to build a destructive product in order to gain the critical mass. From the extensive coverage, I can only see a clone of Facebook as Diaspora. Like you cannot build a better search engine to kill Google, you cannot just build a better SNS service to kill Facebook.
"On the other hand, people who view the world purely through the team prism will very seldom use the words “I” or “me” even when answering questions about their accomplishments"

In various interview training sessions I've been told to use statements with "I" rather than "We". The purpose being to clearly articulate your direct contribution to the team or goal.

In fact, I've been rejected from a few roles in the past with the feedback that I was not specific enough about my own accomplishments [1].

Therefore, I'm not convinced about this specific aspect of Ben's screening process. People who use I/me rather then we may simply have been conditioned by other interview processes or might really not have contributed much to their teams.

Since this is only one aspect of the screening, I'd probably give it less weight than other factors.

[1] There may also have been other reasons but I never heard about them. :)
But Guinness isn't all that unique... for a Stout. It's unique compared to the other beers listed, just as if the comparison were done with Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, TechCrunch and Youtube. There are obvious differences in scope and purpose between the first three, but mainly, they're websites with mostly text, whereas Youtube is a website with mostly video. In a 'website' comparison, YouTube would be the standout, but if you did a more specific comparison between Break, YouTube, Vimeo and RedTube, you might find that RedTube is the standout, and YouTube fares on average with the others.
Reusable Apps, Part 3: Back-Seat Drivers
Rails just released 3 today as a final release, which means its the new official release supported by the Rails team, so you won't have to worry about lacking useful plugins. In fact, rails 3 has MORE plugins built-in to the ecosystem than its predecessors.
I have seen this problem all to often and unfortunately the onus is on you to cut people. Entrepreneur and gamblers have a lot in common, one of them is the feeling of the big hit around the corner. The problem with Entrepreneur is many times they have others that depend on their direction.

People who have no vesting in the company other than a pay check, receive nothing from the gamble and in many cases don't even know they have money in the race. So the person that decides to do this is gambling the employees money and giving them no up side. They are exposing them to the risk and keeping all of the reward if it pays off.

Worse yet the fear of unemployment puts them at a deep psychological disadvantage so any gravy coating or straw of hope becomes bloated in their mind. It is a human trait that helps shield us from traumatic events.

In the end, at the first sign on trouble it is up to the vested parties to trim the company to the capital available. Unfortunately, as happens far to often, the rats on the mast leave the ship first. In other words those at the top start bailing while the gravy coating is being dished to the bottom. When you see the COO, CFO, VP's leaving the company it is time to go. It means the money has run out and there are no real talks from investment sources.

The worst offenders by far are those principals that leave and give a pep talk, to the guys in the field, going out the door to secure their package of the last remaining scraps.

Never work for future funds from a company with money troubles, investors do not invest in companies that get themselves into money troubles and do nothing to correct the imbalance.

9 times out of 10 these companies are run by megalomaniacs who want to play big business on investor funds.

If you do secure a contract for hard asserts in the event of default. In other words you walk out with servers, hardware or transferable software licenses. Ensure that the execution of the contract becomes valid 6 mo before any bankruptcy filing. To keep it clear of claw-backs.
I think the key is that they've been in business for 11 years. You need 100% focus to build a profitable business, but once you get the recipe right (and for 37signals, when was that? 5 years ago?), it gets easier and easier to diversify.
It's not really picking apart his argument when you "guess" at what he answers in the review. He writes, "As...Tom Townsend (Edward Clements) tries fitting in with East Side debutantes, he discovers his toy cowboy pistol in his estranged father’s trash....evok[ing] childhood, lost innocence and Townsend’s longing for even imagined potency." That's very much what it is to grapple with "sentimental value over...childhood belongings." No where does White accuse that movie of celebrating consumerism. It also seems to me that a 3D movie is very much about "buy[ing] the new stuff."

That the movie 'endorses' toy recycling and passing on the toys to other people, does not mean that fundamentally it escapes its consumerist message. The want of more toys, even if recycled, is still a message of consumerism. Having one last play with the toys as they're passed on doesn't fix it. That the film isn't "consumerism at its worst" doesn't mean it's not fundamentally consumerist. The message isn't "Maybe I didn't need so many toys as a kid because I'll grow out of them," the message (as it relates to consumerism) is far more, "As long as I pass things along, I can buy as much as I want."

Whether or not a movie should talk about consumerism responsibly is certainly an open question. But "guessing" what White thinks when he gives you data, or saying that because TS3 isn't the WORST consumerism it's not consumerism, is disingenuous to the argument he makes. And Armond White's criticisms are useful as a reminder that films, even Dreamworks ones, can aspire to something higher. Does he sometimes go overboard? Probably sometimes. But the above is certainly not 'picking apart his argument'.

Ebert most often asks, "Will this film entertain?" White seems to ask, "Is this film good?" He concludes his TS3 review, "When a movie is this formulaic, it’s no longer a toy because it does all the work for you." I have to say I liked TS3 because it did all the work for me, and did so with excellence. But its excellence at delivering on fundamental plot arcs does not mean we shouldn't sometimes ask for more from what we watch. And White reminds us to keep asking.

(To see White displaying his talent more cleanly, check out his review of Eat, Pray, Love: http://www.nypress.com/article-21533-pretty-woman-with-an-ap...)
Really? Here in the Denver area every microbrew place has at least one stout.
Well - at least one fact can be confirmed now - Cray does scale :) (-down, mostly)
You are reading this as if it's a taste competition, but it's not. It's about companies that basically offer the same product, but differentiate based on brand awareness. Guinness is so radically different than these American macro brews so it provides useful context.

Tequila or vodka (not together, separate) would be very interesting studies, too. I'm not convinced that anyone but connoisseurs would rate blind vodka taste tests consistent with their preferred brand.
Some people never reach 20+ "friends" on FB... who's to say what's the right limit to the number of "friends"?
Hm. Growing up, I spent most of my time on collaborative play (building giant lego structures and creating intricate dioramas with action figures), not competitive play (though I certainly liked competitive games, and still do).

I'm not sure that men really spend any more time competing that collaborating, compared to women - is there any evidence to that effect that's not anecdotal?
Macintosh is an advanced personal productivity tool for knowledge workers (1984)
I think it's worth noting that most of those stories are random blog sites, which are kind of allowed (expected?) to post stupid, sensationalist stuff fairly regularly. The WIRED article was a cover story on a major technology publication, and went beyond opinion and used a totally misleading graph ( http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/17/is-the-web-really-de.ht... ). The WIRED article is a few levels above those links in terms of stupidity.
A CEO goes out and find the money to keep the executives happy so they go out and make the business work.
Arcade Fire meets HTML5
> didn't see a place to put my contact info...
> I'll find that and do it now.

Well, you've filled in your profile, but there're still no contact details.

> I've been in online marketing for years.

Do you have any work you can point us at to show what you've done and what you're capable of? If not, can you create something to show off your skills?

> I am serious, and have reached out to a few
> programmers I know to start discussing the idea.
> I just don't "speak" programmer ...

That's why you need to find a programmer type that you can trust, buy them a beverage and shoot the breeze, including talking about your idea.

If you're really good with words you should be able to find some way to tell us the problem you're solving without saying exactly what your idea is. Tell us the pain you're taking away - that will sell the idea and make real hacker types want to get involved.

Just my $0.02.
I've seen this, but haven't looked into it. Can anyone recommend this project?
how many members of the general public even know what encrypted emails or admin/user accounts do for them? or even know that those things exist?

i think i'd make the argument that it could be successful because of the publicity of the product educating the public.

edit: really? downvoted? i had to talk someone through the concept of a "password" the other day. average people just don't know about granular privacy/security concepts.
So? Diaspora (as I understand it) isn't supposed to topple Facebook. It's a solution for the people who want to opt out of FB badly enough that they will install the tools to do so.

The average user may not think about security, but the average user isn't likely to go to even moderate lengths to install social-networking software.
That's a pretty cool app; upvoted and purchased!
My daughter was raised similarly to the girls in the article -- we bought gender-neutral toys, painted her room in neutral colors, and deliberately avoided buying any toys that swayed particularly one way or the other.

By the age of three, she had all but insisted that we buy her pink clothes and girlier toys, to which we of course caved (I mean, if she wants it, so be it -- we just weren't trying to influence.)

She's a smart kid, and she's into plenty of non-girl things (She's currently training mixed martial arts at the age of 8, and loves playing in the mud) -- but her school wardrobe almost entirely consists of decidedly non-boy attire, and her field hockey and lacrosse sticks are pink.

We weren't exactly TRYING to steer her away from it, and it was by no means an experiment on our part, we just didn't want to predispose her to girlie things without provocation, so it's in no way scientific -- but we definitely didn't steer her.
Keeping busy makes you too busy to remember things
AMD kills ATI brand
You don't need a college degree to get started, but I do advice to start in the iphone platform right away.
Considering your friend is into multimedia design already, I would advice her to start by creating simple iphone games in order to learn programming.
Just take a look at the open-source cocos2D for the Iphone:

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/about
I'm using it myself as well, and it's completely free.

I don't know if she's is into game making already, but I do know from my own experience (I'm a Game Designer & programmer btw.) that creating a game IS the best way to learn how to program, also the most rewarding.

Here's how I would advice her to start:

0. run all the examples from the cocos2D engine on your iphone/simulator

1. learn how to create a calculator with it (using self-made buttons)

2. display an image(arrow) that moves+rotates where you tap it to go

3. re-create pong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPkUvfL8T1I

4. re-create frogger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VcS77kFRSk

5. re-create tetris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keeSEJG4XzU

6. learn how to integrate menu's + transitions on top of your game

7. expand your knowledge with SqlLite and create your OWN simple game,

and show the source to your friends and collect feedback on how to make it better.

Recreating tetris is the hardest part, but after that she'll have a solid knowledge of how programs work - and she can use this knowledge to go any direction she wants.

PS. If you need some help with getting started, just reply to my post.
From what my sister (still in highschool) has to say about the girls in her class, girls are ridiculously competitive. Far more than I ever was.
How to make complex decisions using Starcraft, a university course
Meh, less of a true ring than the other one. Plenty of top sites use Ruby. A "big rewrite" is always a bad idea, no matter what the source or destination languages. Finally, scaling is not a magical property of a language or framework. You can write horrible, slow, shit PHP applications and elegant, fast, large-scale ruby applications. It's down to the competence of the programmers, not the language.
Thorium nuclear fuel is by its very nature small-scale, decentralized. Thorium reactions are only efficient if self-regulating. Not particularly appealing to any administration whose modus operandi is top-down control.
Thanks for your comment. I think you nailed it in the end, it is very common in this industry for the big guys to just sue and buy out startups. I have seen it happening before. In practice, it just makes innovation very, very difficult (this is part of the reason I am investing in custom-solutions).
So you were starting a business with someone, and you don't even have an address or phone number for them?

Sounds like you should just move on, and set aside some money for lawyers in case your company does well.
I hadn't heard of oDesk - thanks for the reference:

http://www.odesk.com/

I might point a few people I know at that.
The message isn't portable if you think the message is "use your office to do workshops".

I don't think that's the message here.
I'm an avid reader of Bruce Schneier's blog, and not even I gave a crap about Facebook's privacy. Then one day, my Dad added me as a friend. September 15th can't get here soon enough.
"In many places it is illegal for a restaurant to use the leftover food in a meaningful way" that really is ridiculous. If there's a law like that where I live, I would deliberately flout it. The developed world has massive problems dealing with waste and I'm sure there's far bigger threats to public health than feeding your dog leftovers.

There's some great business opportunities around waste. I've read about entrepreneurs using methane from rubbish dumps to fuel heating systems. Some great fortunes are made in the waste business (turning trash into cash to use a cliche). I remember reading a great article about one guy who converted his Hummer to run on leftovers that he collected from local restaurants. Not only did his "mpg" increase, but his cost of running the Hummer decreased enormously (he even brought food sometimes, put it in a blender, and used the chopped up food as fuel - still cheaper than a tank of traditional petrol/gasoline). It was the "Green Hummer" or some similarly named project if you wish to Google around.