 |
|
| FriendFeed is the easiest way to share online. Learn more » |
Kevin Scott › Likes
Catspaw's Guide to the Inevitably Insane - http://insanecats.com/cgi-bin...
Rob Shillingsburg, Vinod Marur, DeWitt Clinton and 10 other people liked this
“The first thing to happen is that all of the couples start fighting. It was amazing to watch, like a ripple across the crowd of couples finding some reason to blame each other, or to get impatient about something unrelated ("stop breathing so loud!").”
- Amit Patel
from Bookmarklet
What a great story!
- Amit Patel
Great story. I love the human mapreduce she ran to group the passengers by locale. She demonstrates that it's sometimes worth a high startup cost (the coffees) if it reduces overall execution time. (BTW, I'm surprised the passengers were willing to accept Starbucks from a stranger, given the swine flu hysteria).
- 253 other people
For those who are wondering, yes, Catspaw is this smart at work too. :-) It got me thinking -- wouldn't all rebooking go faster if it were batched in that way? That is, if people were called up 5 or 10 at a time by destination? And if so, why don't the airlines do it?
- Daniel Dulitz
Thing is, I don't think she actually saved that much time. In a situation like that, ticket agents (once they show up) can rebook people very quickly -- they have the defaults already set up -- and they already have to identify each passenger individually and print them a ticket, so having them sorted by destination is a small win at best. What she mainly accomplished was crowd...
more...
- ⓞnor
Dear Hamburglar, If you touch my Cheeseburger, I'll knock you the fuck out... Love, Johnny
Steven Perez, Patrick Jordan, Carmen and 31 other people liked this
Robble robble!
- Kevin Fox
This made me laugh out loud...
- Kevin Whalen
who do you think you are, Mayor McCheese?
- BEX
I'm the Big Kahuna Burger...
- Johnny Worthington
from IM
Ye-ah!
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
wait a minute. what kind of obfuscation is this? has anyone actually seen Hamburglar and Johnny together at the same time? Hmm?
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Shit, I've been found out... *flees*
- Johnny Worthington
from IM
Jorney - yOu can has yore cheezburger, butt, 4 lemeted tiem, betta knot has eny bakon. Eh??
- Ceiling Kat
haha I just *KNEW* it. The jig is up for you, but you might be able to cut a deal with the DA if you just tell us who Grimace is and where he's hiding...
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
You have nothing. Nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength... *spits a tooth*. But don't worry, I'm going to tell you where they are. Ronald and Grimace, and that's the point- you'll have to choose...
- Johnny Worthington
That's where we turned the tables on you, wise guy! We've got clown boy on ice down at the Ronald McDonald House and Big Mac and the Mayor say he's singing like a canary! Better enjoy that cheeseburger...
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Watch Google's Eric Schmidt get April Fooled with cars in his office: http://www.youtube.com/watch... Once in 1986, once in 2008.
  |
Ozberk Olcer, Joyce, Rachel Lea Fox and 13 other people liked this
"Hopefully we're done with cars in office." -- Next year, move his office into a car
- Ken Sheppardson
That is brilliant Ken.
- EricaJoy
do not fuck with chlorine trifluoride - http://pipeline.corante.com/archive...
Aaron Fowler, Alex Lomas, j1m and 31 other people liked this
"There’s a report from the early 1950s (in this PDF) of a one-ton spill of the stuff. It burned its way through a foot of concrete floor and chewed up another meter of sand and gravel beneath, completing a day that I'm sure no one involved ever forgot. That process, I should add, would necessarily have been accompanied by copious amounts of horribly toxic and corrosive by-products: it’s...
more...
- ⓞnor
"It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin...
more...
- ⓞnor
the whole category is awesome: http://pipeline.corante.com/archive...
- joshua schachter
Has it reached the center of the earth yet?
- Amit Patel
Wow, I love this "Things I won't work with" blog
- Ray Cromwell
I like the fact that Joshua is the inventor of del.icio.us and that he finds cool blogs like this.
- Robert Scoble
i rather think that finding good links is why i created delicious
- joshua schachter
This reminds me of my Inorganic Chemistry textbook by Partington that would laconically say thinsg like 'the discover of nitirgen trichloride lost 3 fingers and an eye'
- Kevin Marks
from twhirl
The complement of Atlas Shrugged - http://scottaaronson.com/blog...
fshamsi, Landon McDowell, Sanjay Ghemawat and 3 other people liked this
Goodbye Google | stopdesign (Douglas Bowman) - http://stopdesign.com/archive...
Mike Chelen, Nimaa, Kyle Weller and 116 other people liked this
"When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions. Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such miniscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Also, I was the first "real" engineer at Google ;) (not really, of course)
- Paul Buchheit
Has the decision making process been proven or is it simply an unquestioned assumption?
- Todd Hoff
Wow, interesting read - that would suck, no wonder he left.
- Susan Beebe
It sounds like a challenging environment for a designer, and it doesn't sound like it suited him, but don't those little details get magnified into significant effects when you are at Google's scale? Having said that, I don't love many of their designs anymore so perhaps there is something wrong.
- Robin Barooah
Would it be trollish for me to say that FriendFeed seems to have this design-skeptical culture as well? Thanks for the link, btw.
- Ethan Herdrick
great insight, enjoyed his website, IMO: Google's consistency across products increases usability over Yahoo, MSN....though ASK and Mahalo are very engaging now
- shayne catrett
I've always found that grouping designers, usability people and coder together is sort of like playing rock paper scissors.
- Dean Clark
Huge loss. I can feel his pain.
- Andrew Smith
Not sure where the _debate_ comes from if they have the data and the culture of following it. Just put 3,4,5 pixel versions out and look for the one that works best. Strange.
- xekc
Sounds like a very common experience for a designer (speaking as someone who was in a UX department at a megacorp-multinational financial institution). It's that kind of thinking that led me to kick corporate gigs to the curb.
- cecily
I understand the frustration, but am also fascinated by the minute details analyzed by google.
- RicardoSilva
Chris: There were several interaction and UI designers at Google prior to Doug's arrival, but he was the first person hired specifically to be a 'Visual Designer', with a focus on visual layout and style rather than the broader job of visual and interaction design. Lots of visual design was done before Doug's arrival, and continues to be done by the interaction designers, but Doug was...
more...
- Kevin Fox
"I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case."... Been there, still cringe at the thought. Nightmarish.
- dario
Yikes. Those endless philosophic discussions...I could only hang in for a little bit and keep a straight face. Fun to come up with the stories, but once I realized people took it seriously, it just got creepy. Guess I knew it going in, but had to check it out. But, RE Google: I've always appreciated the simple, utilitarian approach that appeared to be focused on function as a central design feature. Thematic consistency across products would be nice, too.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
I read somewhere that he's gone to Twitter. Given that FF already has a great UX/Visual designer from Google, I guess Twitter was the next logical choice.
- Bill Strathearn
Interesting juxtaposition of the above article with this http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Shakeel Mahate
If the 3,4 or 5 pixel line discussion is for a line on the Google home page. I would think it is justified. Small changes make a significant change to traffic/revenue. Also, data and experiments are the most reliable thing to go by if there are many different valid subjective views on a particular topic
- Bindu Reddy
Agreed, Bindu. And from an artist's perspective, 3 or 5 pixels can make a real difference. Though I can understand that it's frustrating when the decision is someone else's and their rationale is from another perspective. But doesn't that go with the territory of design? At least Google has a process, not just going by moods.
- Rebecca
There are so many projects at Google with really loose and creative design methodologies. Many of them would have been happy to have him on-board. I don't think Doug is being honest with us or himself when claiming that this was his only reason for moving to Twitter.
- Bill Strathearn
Similar, but more lucid: http://adamhowell.org/2009...
- j1m
I've been reading Donald Norman's "Emotional Design", and in it, he notes that where his previous book championed exhaustive usability testing and essentially design-by-committee (and he still stands by that), that is best for what he calls 'behavioral design'. By contrast, both 'visceral design' and 'reflective design' need something more in the line of a single designer with a vision. ... Also, thanks for that link, j1m.
- Andrew C
I love these Google "inside baseball' discussions on friendfeed.
- Zaki Manian
Obviously, there are crucial systems where every cycle counts, and very important pages where every shade of blue counts. What I'm saying is that engineering usually gets the autonomy to balance what needs to be measured and what just needs to get done. UI designers are always second-guessed, leading to frustration. Plus, UI design has a much higher emotional component, so everyone, managers included, think they understand it just because they feel strongly about it. And people revolt on Facebook.
- Joey Liaw
Not everybody is Apple ! which excel on technology and Design Both.
- KARR 4.0
Apple = Design Dictatorship, Google = Design Democracy, MySpace = Design Anarchy?
- Lasse Johnsen
Apple is a dictatorship because, as far as i know, the one who always has the final word on design is Steve. Google is a democracy because they seem to base most of of their design decisions on user testing, so indirectly the users are choosing the design in a sort of democratic way.
- Lasse Johnsen
Interesting input Chris, so its not as radical as i thought :)
- Lasse Johnsen
My teams run these kinds of experiments (link color, etc.) and with all respect to Doug, data is just a description of reality. He implies data is a "crutch" used by people who "can't make decisions." No, data describes the effects of your decisions. The constraints of reality make good designers great.
- Daniel Dulitz
This is sort of like watching McCoy argue with Spock. :-) If you guys are not familiar with Gerd Gigerenzer, I highly recommend the book "Gut Feelings." (http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Fee...) Malcolm Gladwell used some of Gigerenzer's research in the book "Blink." The gist of his research shows that two core beliefs held by our culture, and by...
more...
- Karim
Experts often make "gut decisions." The outfielder catching a pop fly does not solve a set of differential equations describing the trajectory of the ball. (Unless he works at Google?) The outfielder doesn't think much about it all. His brain *unconsciously* runs a simple heuristic (described in Gigerenzer's book) that allows him to be where the ball is going to land. If you asked the...
more...
- Karim
Data is a crutch in that if you're NOT an expert, you need to justify the decision; you have no idea which color to use. Depending on where you are on the autism scale (like Spock, or a lot of programmers), you might not be able to imagine what color OTHER people would like, so you depend on data even more. You end up making things that look like Android and saying "but it tested well...
more...
- Karim
The problem with experts is that 99% of them aren't any good. This is such a strange argument though that I don't know where to begin -- it's all straw-men. For one, I'm pretty sure there's no data showing that the Android interface is anything other than confusing :)
- Paul Buchheit
Maybe the Android interface is a result of trying to minimize the risk of being sued by Apple. :)
- Ray Cromwell
I hope I wasn't implying that there is something magical about the word "expert" -- experts can over-rely on data, too. Gigerenzer made that point by describing a contest in which the performance of stock portfolios picked by "experts" using massive amounts of data and complex criteria woefully underperformed a portfolio picked by a random hundred pedestrians in Berlin. The point is not...
more...
- Karim
There are day traders who rely on intuition and they end up losing big too. A better example might be Poker. :)
- Ray Cromwell
Yeah, strange argument. Data is but a small influence on any but the most well-used interfaces; it's an optimization method, not an imagination method. I guess the real point is that Doug didn't feel that his imagination was valued or useful at Google, and that's sad. @Karim, the point of data is that it describes what other people like in ways that no intuition can determine, expert or no. It's like perspective in art. Good designers use the data they have or can easily get.
- Daniel Dulitz
Daniel, I don't think it's a question of "using the data" so much as whether the data has *primacy.* With technocrats, the data always has primacy -- even if the data is wrong, misleading, applicable to novice users but not expert users, inaccurate, imprecise, incomplete, or statistically insignificant. And I'm not sure how Douglas was supposed to feel "valued or useful at Google" by...
more...
- Karim
I just wanted to point out that Android was designed by these people: http://www.tat.se/site... Notice that they're designers not engineers.
- Adewale Oshineye
TAT came out of the Scandinavian "demo" scene. While it can be argued that demos involve at least as much as engineering (coding) as they do design, or that demo skills don't translate into interactive design skills, the point is not to criticize TAT. The point is to criticize the use of *data* (qualitative research) as the sole criterion on design decisions. Ignoring a chief designer's...
more...
- Karim
Karim, Doug never said _he_ was testing 41 shades of blue. I think primacy is a great way to look at it, and Doug's post takes aim at data's supporting role. Also, where did the "novices vs. expert" meme come from? Experts don't like it when their gut feelings end up being testable? The question is which gut feelings to test and which not to.
- Daniel Dulitz
Daniel, I didn't mean to imply that Douglas was upset because *he* was the one who had to do the testing. The "novices vs. expert" thing was my way of describing expertly mastered skills, or automaticity. When you are really good at something, you can do it quickly, with a low error rate, and without *thinking* about it. When you are learning to drive a car, you burn a lot of CPU...
more...
- Karim
I agree that "the question is which gut feelings to test and which not to." Douglas' complaint made it sound as if *too many* gut feelings were being tested ("each decision," "every decision"), and I can see how that could suck the fun out of things.
- Karim
I had a lot more to say than would fit in this comment box: http://fury.com/2009...
- Kevin Fox
there is an interesting example in the case of recently announced picasa face recognition http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2009... in comparing google's computational method for photo metdata with something like facebook where shared user entered data is the primary source
- Mike Chelen
Goodbye Google | stopdesign - http://stopdesign.com/archive...
John Spyers, TiTi, Anne Bouey and 31 other people liked this
"Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such miniscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
Wow.
- Kevin Fox
how are you going to tackle any exciting design problems if you can't tackle one that's 5 pixels wide?
- Chris Nguyen
How are you going to tackle any exciting design problems if you're constantly fighting about the trivial ones?
- Andrew C
The key is that experiments should replace endless debate, not complement it. And only promising experiments should be performed: they are a cost too. But what this the alternative: pick any shade of blue? Or let the Highest Pay Employee in the room make the decision?
- Antonio Piccolboni
Hire experts and trust their expertise. Otherwise why hire them?
- Scott Ludwig
I agree. I think a lot of companies are not putting design in the forefront. Maybe that is why Apple is doing so well?
- Tim Hoeck
Best Unix commands - http://www.commandlinefu.com/command...
Jennifer Taylor, ana, Jason Chen and 3 other people liked this
Peer-voted list of favourite bash commands
- Nelson Minar
Hey, some of these are actually good.
- ⓞnor
Is the Valley Too Expensive for Normal People to Launch Startups? - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
Thomas Tracey, Peter Spook, terry radford and 30 other people liked this
Come to Iowa! It's cheap!
- andy brudtkuhl
Andy you have to consider what the Valley has, in comparison to other areas. Notably Venture Capitalists ready to fund the venture, Access to people with Experience ready to help develop the product and Tech News Reporters who are highly unlikely to travel far to see your product.
- Nicholas James
@Chris, it already has!
- Jeff P. Henderson
lazy Tech News Reporters…
- Mistletoe Glen
The reason the valley *is* worth it is because its full of so many people that have been successful before. It's a chicken and the egg problem. To live there you have to be successful, but to be successful you have to find some way to connect with people that live there.
- Jesse Stay
Only if you're poor
- sofarsoShawn
Chris has a valid point. I don't think it matters where you startup its about the execution and being in Silicon Valley helps you to execute better due to the resources there (previously mentioned), although thats not to say you can't execute effectively anywhere else.
- Nicholas James
There's certainly a 'brain drain' going on, whether people are leaving because of a lack of capital or new opportunities. Last week I stumbled upon this stat; 'immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley's technology companies'. Apparently now, many are heading elsewhere because of tighter immigration rules & emerging markets providing more opportunities.
- Steven Cains
Penelope Trunk is the presenter I'd most like to see at sxsw. I hope you enjoyed it!
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Silicon Valley is pretty damned expensive, but to echo previous statements, it's impossible to start a company without the right people. If you know the right people to get going, and are somewhere where you have a reasonable chance of finding more good people, you'll be ok. Northern California just has a much higher density of such people than most other places.
- Joel Webber
Define normal person in the valley? :)
- Charlie Anzman
"None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me!"
tubefeeds, Melanie Jagolino, William Spaetzel and 21 other people liked this
Rorschach was pretty bad ass especially in the prison scenes. Although, I think my favorite character was Dr. Manhattan. So how does one become a Watchman? Is there some sort of audition process? Except for Dr. Manhattan, they all seem like typical humans, for the most part. Unlike the X-Men and superheroes like Superman where you have to be a mutant or an extraterrestrial being to qualify.
- April Buchheit
Some seemed to have superhuman strength and speed. Not naming names, as I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen the movie yet.
- Tudor Bosman
And the practical difference is?
- Morton Fox
I LOLed ;) Gonna watch it again this weekend ;)
- AJ Batac
nice twitter post. academics should be forced to describe everything in twitter! http://twitter.com/Werner...
Kevin Scott liked this
ACM Award Citation / Barbara H Liskov - http://awards.acm.org/citatio...
Kevin Scott liked this
Turing Award that is!
- Jeremy Hylton
I took two classes with Prof. Liskov, compilers and software engineering. I learned a surprising amount just from the CLU language, which was already old when I learned it.
- Jeremy Hylton
this is one of the funniest clips I've seen in awhile, sooo true: http://www.youtube.com/watch... (via @dlprager via @digg (+6,443)
 |
David Angier, Grant Gochnauer, Arnaud Fischer and 16 other people liked this
Everyone should take a few mins today to watch this. It's not just funny, it's a critical point.
- Stephen Mack
Why Googlers Are Leaving to Start Social Sites (And Invites to One of Them) - http://mashable.com/2009...
Space Cowboy, Alex Scrivener, Anne Bouey and 6 other people liked this
"Part of the reason Google Video failed miserably against You Tube was that the team couldn’t iterate rapidly and build some of the community and upload features as rapidly as they wanted. Youtube, at that time a small start-up was able to build and release a lot of features quickly."
- Hutch Carpenter
which for the most part stopped when Google bought them.
- Steven Hodson
Interesting article.
- Kevin Fox
Releasing a small system in a big company is always a huge PITA.
- Todd Hoff
Django, where have you been my entire life?
Kevin Scott, Alex Gawley, ௸ (k2g) and Benjamin Golub liked this
One candidate got a C in macroeconomics. “That’s troubling to me,” Ms. Mayer says. “Good students are good at all things. - http://fredwilson.vc/post...
Carolyn, iTod Pouch, Don MacAskill and 20 other people liked this
That quote bothers me. I got C's in certain subjects due to lack of interest in them and A's in some subjects because of super easy profs. Neither of those two outliers determines how "good" I am at one thing or another.
- EricaJoy
I thought this article was a bit bizarre, actually. I understand the format of a profile piece, but why are women engineers and business leaders not evaluated by the same milestones that their counter parts are? Why talk at such length about her lifestyle choices? Why oversimplify key aspects of her success, like her design choices, and write so little about her product development strategy, product's objectives and whether or not her management approach has lead the company in the right direction?
- Megan
It is interesting how different perceptions of Marissa Mayer are among Google employees and among outsiders.
- Kevin
Good students are good at all things? If that's the case, why do we have a major system in US universities? Why are physics students not always good at literature, or philosophy students not always good at chemistry? Jack hole...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
If I was hiring for a technical job and someone got a C in micro, I might think twice. But macro may as well be philosophy.
- LogEx
I always thought the grades and test scores obsession at Google was kind of dumb. Unfortunately, in the absence of good metrics, people latch on to poor ones (see Alexa stats for example).
- Paul Buchheit
Why does anybody at Google care about grades and test scores?
- Gabe
I can see why grades would be important. You can establish that someone is brilliant with tests and interviews, but you can't establish whether or not someone is diligent. Grades will tell you a lot about whether or not the very smart person in front of you is willing to use their abilities on a consistent basis.
- Andrew
I think if you put a lot of time an energy into getting perfect grades, you come to believe that it must be important. I think it's a sign of lack of creativity :).
- Paul Buchheit
Chris, as someone who got more than one C during my college career, I definitely agree that your grades don't show what you can do in your professional career. :)
- Andrew
Paul: I got C's and D's in high school but got a 1490 on the SAT, third highest in my class. Our counselor was mad at me for not doing better in class. Looking back at it I just hated learning out of a book.
- Robert Scoble
This is just plain wrong in so many ways. A focus solely on academic achievement completely ignores the other aptitudes and forms of intelligence (e.g., E.Q) needed to succeed in life. In my business we say: the A students make good law professors, the B students make good judges, and the C students make the most practical lawyers.
- V Mary Abraham
Paul's probably right here. But in all fairness, the article doesn't really say what position they were considering. It might be relevant for a more business-related position where a technical interview isn't useful.
- Gabe
Lindsey, it is a useful quote. But, based on the completely unscientific sample of my life, I've got to say that my grades were ok and I did have the benefit of some interesting experiences, but the things that have really proven useful in my professional life are the capabilities that weren't really trained or measured in school.
- V Mary Abraham
While I completely agree with the statements about overemphasizing academic achievement, especially several years after school, let's not use this as an excuse for children not to work hard in school. It's bad enough kids think education is not important anymore (especially in this country)
- Deepak Singh
I would assume Ms. Mayer is using personal criteria based on her own success to evaluate others. While not perfect, it is what she understands.
- Floyd Davenport
Did not finish High School, went to collage as a mature student at 23, did not finish college (one English credit short). My yearly income is higher then anyone I know (less my accountant and lawyer). School and grades is not everything. I did learn a lot and will always tell people to stay in school as long as posable. When I look at people that want to work for me I look at the resume, job references, and there ability to engage and communicate with me.
- walterh
Google doesn't seem to understand that what someone did between the ages of 18-22 doesn't always equate to what they will accomplish later in life.
- Tom Wentworth
Interesting point, Deepak, although as we've discussed before, I believe, school does not equal education. A lot of people smarter than I have gotten worse grades than I simply because they weren't willing to do the busy work. When it comes to something they are interested in, though, they run laps around me and I can't keep up. In a stimulating environment, which Google is supposed to create, I imagine these types would be extremely productive.
- Chris Lasher
Chris, you hit the nail on the head though. It's not the grades. It is the hard work. Which is why I'd take you over them :)
- Deepak Singh
Oh, no, I'm sure my C in Epidemiology means I'm not the least bit qualified to be advising anyone on what PDA phone to purchase.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
That makes no sense personally to me ... especially when you consider entrepreneurial folks. Very much like your post
- Mrinal Desai
It seems likely to me that grades from an elite US/ European/ Indian university are an excellent proxy for productivity in an environment like google. Good grades tend to be the result of intelligence and the ability to internalize an institutional value system. Google does end up accessing different sorts of intellects when they hire developers of successful open source projects or other well established engineering track records.
- Zaki Manian
It is a rather telling comment: more about Ms. Mayer and her pedestrian viewpoint than the truth about Grades. Many of the brainiest and innovative thinkers in history were autodidacts. So much for chalkboard races and test deadlines. At least we are getting to the point were the American educational system has some idea of metrics for experiential learning with learning matrix and ePortifolios. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for an Erasmus methodology renaissance. :)
- Melanie Reed
It's troubling to me that Google screwed up JotSpot and Dodgeball. Good companies are good at all things.
- Bill Seitz
I'm troubled that YoYo Ma doesn't play the piano better.
- Bill Seitz
Sounds like baloney has a new first name.
- Bill Seitz
This really bugged me when I read it to. David Letterman got straight Cs in college. Einstein was a mess in school. Some of history's brightest minds were terrible students. What an incredibly moronic way to hire and promote people. Explains exactly why Google isn't very attractive as an employer to me.
- Kevin Goldsmith
from twhirl
I don't know anything about Google, but I imagine it really depends on what field you're going into. My grades continued to matter for a ridiculous amount of time. It's taken for granted that you'd been getting As and Bs and high test scores all your life, and everyone you're competing with is getting As and Bs, too. A C would require some explaining. From K-12, I can understand boredom, but in college, why would you take a class that you weren't interested in so that you ended up not doing well?
- Victor Ganata
Of course, I can see the angle that people who have always striven to get high grades tend to overvalue the importance of grades. But there's not much you can do when they're exclusively the people who interview you, except choose another field.
- Victor Ganata
And in a field where everyone did well in school, it becomes all too clear that grades and test scores don't necessarily measure intelligence. They're more a measure of your willingness to jump through hoops to reach a distant goal.
- Victor Ganata
@Victor In college the classes you weren't interested in were called Required and/or "core" classes.
- EricaJoy
@Erica I guess I was lucky. The college I went to for undergrad gave us huge leeway in what courses we could take to fulfill those requirements and I guess I never realized that other colleges aren't as flexible.
- Victor Ganata
@Bill very witty. very pretty. :) Thanks for the chuckle!
- Melanie Reed
@Victor I'm intrigued. What university, if I may ask, did you go to? I want to start my life over and go there!:)
- Melanie Reed
@Melanie I went to Berkeley. I think all the University of California schools are similarly flexible, though.
- Victor Ganata
I'm troubled by her comment too. In my view, if you get all As, then you aren't pushing yourself hard enough. There is a time to take the safe road, but I think taking the safe road is at odds with getting a good education. Sometimes taking a C is necessary so you can really devote yourself to something you are kicking-ass in.
- Erik S
xkcd - A Webcomic - Sandwich - http://xkcd.com/149/
Zaki Manian, Paul Gennai, Bret Taylor and 2 other people liked this
an oldy but goody
- j1m
The best steak was still Colorado - http://michaeltyang.typepad.com/monkey_...
Kevin Scott, Richard Chen, Sheila Taylor and 5 other people liked this
"Unbeknownst to my parents, masked by casual dinner chatter and quickly wiped away, a tear rolled down my cheek as I contemplated the course of their lives. These are the tears of guilt and gratitude shed by a generation of immigrant children whose American lives were born from upheaval and sacrifice. Guilt because what has been given is too enormous to ever be repaid, and gratitude because a gift given of love does not ask to be repaid. It can only be honored."
- Bret Taylor
You are such a wonderful writer, Mike
- Bret Taylor
Thanks for sharing - as a child of immigrants myself, your post resonated deeply with me.
- Jennie Lin
Lawrence Lessig and Why I’m Going on Strike - http://paulhaahr.com/blog...
Jeremy Hylton and Kevin Scott liked this
If you're going on strike, where's the ChangeCongress badge on your blog?
- Steve Baker
The Durbin-Specter bill that Paul mentions is discussed here: http://change-congress.org/about...
- Jeremy Hylton
@Steve - I became a facebook fan (you were listed as the last person to join before me), but am too lazy to badge the blog with anything
- Paul Haahr
Lieberman, Egg, Sausage and Lieberman - http://norvig.com/chart53...
Igor Poltavskiy, Jim Norris, Kevin Scott and 2 other people liked this
A reply to Nate Silver's jungle primary post
- Peter Norvig
Interesting. I am curious if jungle primaries would help candidates with nonstandard positions, like libertarians, or just encourage moderates. Maybe that requires a space with different topology than a line segment....
- Kevin
MAKE: Blog: World's smallest spot-welding device - http://blog.makezine.com/archive...
Melinda Owens, Tracy, Amit Patel and 4 other people liked this
"During the Spielwarenmesse (German toy fair) the model company ROBBE showed the WELMA 2000: a tool supposed to be the World's smallest electronic spot-welding device. This electronic spot-welding device has been specially developed for producing assemblies from steel wire. The point where the wires meet is fixed together using a pair of pliers whose tips take the form of welding contacts; when the start switch is pressed, the joint is firmly welded together. During the welding process a current of up to 2500 A flows through the contacts for a few thousands of a second."
- Jason Wehmhoener
from Bookmarklet
nerds r us
- Jason Wehmhoener
Google LatLong: 1000 is the new 10 - http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009...
Cem Ozkaynak, Gaku, Andy Szybalski and 40 other people liked this
That is awesome. I have been wanting this feature for so long. Congrats on the launch!
- Bret Taylor
Seriously, this is huge. It's great to know that I'm actually seeing all the results, and not missing an important one just because there are 10 other good ones in the same view.
- Kevin Fox
very nice :). I just discovered an interesting restaurant I'm going to check out near home!
- Private Sanjeev
Thanks Bret, Kevin, Sanjeev! Still stressed out and watching the usage graphs tonight...
- ௸ (k2g)
"Et en plus ça se charge très rapidement !" -- http://www.zorgloob.com/2009...
- ta√i
This is fun for looking at the distribution of chain stores. Starbucks, for example: http://maps.google.com/maps...
- EricaJoy
Congratulations - a great accomplishment
- Howard Trickey
♥ kang (and tavi and bernie)
- Tobias Boonstoppel
and many many others, incl. rothfuss and (early on) you!
- ௸ (k2g)
Just in case you didn't know how I feel: patent trolls are a tax on innovation and are evil of the highest order
Kevin Scott, Atul Arora, Colby Olson and Bruce Lewis liked this
xkcd - A Webcomic - Security - http://xkcd.com/538/
Sung W. Lim, Brome, Jesper Lind and 71 other people liked this
This scenario works well in developing countries
- Reza.H
This is why I think techno libertarians are naive. They think they will survive in a government-less world because people will be queuing up to pay for their services as computer nerds. In reality, they will probably get beaten up and their wallet stolen.
- Thaths
I work with someone exactly like this, who shall remain nameless :)
- Joel Webber
Joel, just curious - is your co-worker the panel 1 type or the panel 2 type?
- Andrew C
Now, to be fair: 1. building a secure cryptosystem is an interesting theoretical challenge; 2. securing a large system (laptop, network, etc) is an interesting engineering challenge; 3. intercepting communications can be done surreptitiously, whereas hitting someone with a $5 wrench can't; and 4. VIPs (presidents, CEOs, etc) already have a physical security system in place and so it may be that for them, electronic security is the weakest link.
- Tudor Bosman
Another approach: create a top secret international intelligence system which monitors all telecommunications and computer network traffic worldwide and intercepts and collects the passwords of everyone on the planet, or which acquires secret legal authority to obtain those passwords from corporations and institutions, or which installs covert backdoors or keyloggers in susceptible software, etc. Thank God that's only spy novel and science fiction stuff.
- Sean McBride
Tudor, also: 5. intercepting communications can be done en masse, at a very low cost per affected individual, whereas the wrench technique is actually quite costly by comparison. This is why I like my bank's web site to use SSL, even though I will immediately reveal my PIN to anyone who threatens me physically.
- ⓞnor
... In a greater sense, civilization has developed for thousands of years with largely the express aim of preventing people from cudgeling each other with wrenches to take their stuff. By no means have we succeeded perfectly but most of us do not live in fear every day. The defenses against people sniffing packets and performing various kinds of electronically mediated fraud are much less well developed.
- ⓞnor
This is widely known as 'Rubber Hose Cryptanalysis': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Michael R. Bernstein
It turns out that in the real world the best way to break a criminal's encryption is to ask for their password. They'll often just give it to the authorities.
- Cyrus Lendvay
supposedly the best hacking technique Kevin Mitnick had was social engineering -- just ask someone for the password. the human being is very often the weakest point. now if you'll excuse me i have to "repair" a mysterious break in an undersea fiber optic cable in [checks watch] 3, 2, 1.... :-D
- Karim
Sudhakar: A government-less world would be run by the people who own the biggest guns. This is different from today's world because... oh wait.
- Tudor Bosman
Keylogger. Also, there's a lot more value in cracking someone's data if they don't know you cracked it. Just ask Churchill.
- Kevin Fox
@Tudor: I don't respect my government's authority because of the threat of physical violence. I respect its authority because to some extent I agree with its primary aims. The goal of people who have the strongest muscles and biggest guns is rarely the creation or maintenance of a functional society, while I live in a society where people assume that that's the case (and are outraged when it isn't.)
- Melinda Owens
Melinda: I agree with you; I was just being flippant and snarky :)
- Tudor Bosman
The four most effective kind of cryptanalysis: checkbook, rubber hose, black bag, dumbshit. I've heard the same four clever names, along with a fifth (which I forget) as a label for sending a Mata Hari to seduce the horniest, geekiest person with access to the key. http://nielsenhayden.com/makingl...
- Mitch Wagner
I once had to call a guy from the office to get the password for his windows machine. He gave me the password, and I tried it but it didn't work. I called him again, and asked him if he was sure - he said "Yes, but I haven't used it for a couple of months.". This seemed odd, since I had seen him using it in the office the day before. My next question was "who is this?". It turned out that I had dialed a wrong number.
- Robin Barooah
I wonder if processing power will ever catch up to cryptography to the point that cryptography is useless.
- Robert Peña
that's so correct
- Manila Envelope
Wrench power (a.k.a. The Jack Bauer Method) ... Wrench > 4096-bit RSA
- Clarence Chiang
That's no crypto nerd. A crypto nerd would have an encyrpted hidden volume for which it is impossible to even prove it's there and just give the wrong passphrase in the wrench scenario: http://www.truecrypt.org/docs...
- Goran Zec
You guys should check out the rubberhose encryption system: http://iq.org/~proff...
- Adewale Oshineye
Gmail Folders AND Labels: the best of both worlds - http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009...
Michael Leggett and Kevin Scott liked this
iPhone app solves Rubik's cubes - CubeCheater - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
 |
OnuRC, Landon McDowell, Alex Gawley and 5 other people liked this
That definitely took longer than the fastest rubix cube masters can do it themselves, but I wonder if the masters usually find the optimal solution. Six moves is pretty impressive. Also, the image processing was pretty cool too. I wonder if it could size particles? Clare?
- Robert Felty
Starter is thriving after two days with no seed. I wonder if it is the SF influence.
Kevin Scott liked this
I’m thinking of going blond. What do you think? Via: horklog — (° ﻌ °) - http://www.horkulated.com/
 |
Kevin Scott, Live4Emma (L4S) and Chris Luckhardt liked this
HAH!
- Nicholas Kreidberg
DO EET
- Live4Emma (L4S)
I don't understand the media's stance toward Steve Jobs. Medical privacy is our strongest privacy. When did Bloomberg become Star Magazine?
Vishy, Kevin Pedraja, Mustafa K. Isik and 22 other people liked this
I mean seriously: If the media 'has a right to know' about employee medical conditions, does that only apply to CEOs? Any C-level employee? Anyone Bloomberg, Newseeek, or CNBC decide is 'sufficiently popular'? The whole thing is absolutely absurd. If you complain that Jobs's health makes Apple's future too volatile then pick another security.
- Kevin Fox
Investors have a right to know the health of top execs and other key personnel in a company that they are investing in. When someone takes a position like that, they have no reasonable expectation to privacy in matters that can affect shareholder's investments.
- Alex Scoble
The fact that AAPL and Jobs were not more forthcoming about his health is not good for investors and shouldn't be tolerated.
- Alex Scoble
I'd feel the same way if it was Disney or GM or Ford or Toyota...A CEO in a publicly held company isn't a private citizen and shouldn't be afforded the same rights as a normal citizen...there's too much at stake. And lack of transparency is one of the main reasons why I'd never invest in AAPL.
- Alex Scoble
Alex: Do they really have a *right* to know, or do you think they just very much *would like* to know? The CIA would very much like to know what people are saying in private telephone conversations, but that doesn't translate to a 'right'. If investors had a right to know what was going in with Steve's health they'd be subpoenaing his medical records, but they're not because they don't.
- Kevin Fox
Yes, I do believe that investors have a right to know things going on within a publicly held company that would negatively impact their investment. The health of the CEO is one of those things.
- Alex Scoble
Where would you draw the line, Alex? Should investors be able to sue 'key personell' for missing their annual checkups? Should it be mandated that they have their genes analyzed by 23andme so they can present risk profiles for Parkinson's and heart disease? The truth is that medical records of an employee are strictly protected by HIPAA regulations so that even the CEO of a company...
more...
- Kevin Fox
We aren't talking about possible long term health risks...we are talking about definitive short term health risks that can, and in this case are, negatively impact the success of a company. Investors have a right to know this stuff. And when they don't know about it and find out after the fact, expect the shares of the company to suffer as a result. If it's not a legally required reportable item, companies should be up front about it or suffer the consequences as AAPL has in this case.
- Alex Scoble
Alex, again I say that there is a difference between 'would like to know' and 'have a right to know'. When we're talking about medical privacy we're talking about a robust set of laws that protect privacy. The phrase 'have a right to know' can mean 'morally should be told' or it can mean 'has a legal right'. Which do you mean? We can debate the former all day, but if you mean the latter then I think you're mistaken. Can you provide any regulation supporting this position?
- Kevin Fox
It is just like everything else, only fools expect the whole truth.
- Geoff Schultz
Since I'm not up to date on all the things the SEC requires a company to disclose to the public, we are talking more about "morally should be told". I look at it similar to the president or any politician. These people aren't living private lives and don't have the same expectations to privacy as private individuals. For instance, if the CEO of GE developed a gambling problem, investors damn sure better know about that.
- Alex Scoble
If we're not talking about law then I would say that everyone gets to make their own choices about what they share about their health status. I'd think less of someone if they hid cancer from their spouse, but I think it's way over the top to complain in the national press that Jobs's statement that he's taking 6 months off for health reasons is an immoral act. While they're at it why don't they insist on webcams in board rooms (and bedrooms, for that matter)?
- Kevin Fox
I don't think him taking off for 6 months is unethical, I think the fact that they waited so long to be forthcoming about the fact that he was having real health issues is unethical.
- Alex Scoble
To clarify, it seems that people think the terseness of his statement is unethical, not the leave itself. As for the timing, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. 'Experts' with no direct knowledge of the matter are being paid to guess that he's having his pancreas removed one day, and the next they claim he's probably having his liver removed. They say it might be something he knew...
more...
- Kevin Fox
I have to agree with Kevin. I contend every single human, no matter what their role -- up to and including President of the United States -- should have the right to keep their health matters private. Just because Jobs is CEO of Apple, he still has a right to choose what to disclose. As Kevin correctly argues, where do you draw the line?
- Stephen Mack
Part of the issue is that Steve Jobs has surpassed the tech world and is a bona fide celebrity, no part due to the secrecy and showmanship. If Bill Gates were as secretively ill during his time at MSFT, I believe you would see a similar reaction. Larry Ellison or Scott McNealy or John Chambers? Not so much. No star power.
- Louis Gray
@Kevin, yeah, as a moral matter of the contract between stockholder owners and company management, I don't see an inch of daylight between your position and what's right. There is great precedent for Jobs' secrecy: companies keep all sorts of things secret, and many of them are things stockholders would love to know. Of course, there are also all sorts of regulations about what companies have to disclose, and those sorts of things Jobs must follow, because they're law.
- j1m
I agree 100% with Kevin. Investors need to get over themselves. They have rights granted to them explicitly by law. Not rights they'd like to have. Not the right to know everything they want to know about a company or its employees. If an investor feels he or she either 1) lacks sufficient information to determine the appropriateness of investing in or maintaining an investment in a company and/or 2) is so scared that an entire company is dependent upon the employment of one person...
- Adam Lasnik
...then they should re-evaluate their investment or potential investment.
- Adam Lasnik
Well guess what...the SEC agrees with me http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Alex Scoble
Whether it's Steve Jobs or John Smith, the question is whether the private issue would have a material effect on the company's operations. For example, if John Smith has organized WidgetCo so that it depends upon his daily presence, and if Smith is spending all his time in Monaco wooing a supermodel, then you can bet that's "material."
- Ontario Emperor
Re Jobs - as long as Jobs was directly involved in the day to day operations of Apple, then I maintain that any inability to perform his daily duties is a material issue. Conversely, now that Jobs is out of the day to day operations, his medical issues are a private matter. (Any investor who is relying on the "fact" that Jobs will be back on the job on July 1 is a fool.)
- Ontario Emperor
Regardless of whether you're in the public eye or just a "faceless majority" you should always have the human right to privacy. In this case, where does the company end and the human begin? Comments like "as an investor I have a right to know" suggests that as long as we are involved with a company, the company is us.
- alphaxion
Your medical privacy is guaranteed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law whose breach is a felony. That seems to me to signal that, no, you *don't* have the right to know.
- Victor Ganata
Alex, it's misleading to say that the SEC agrees with you. If they find that Apple gave shareholders misleading information that may be the basis for the suit, but that has nothing to do with whether the company is obligated to disclose health information. They're investigating whether Apple lied about health issues, not whether they were obligated to say.
- Kevin Fox
If someone wants to stay on at work despite illness, it would be illegal to fire them unless you can demonstrate that they're technically lacking capacity. From what I remember, that requires at least a physician and probably also a judge to say so. Jobs doesn't seem like he's even close to that level of incapacity.
- Victor Ganata
alphaxion - re "as long as we are involved with a company, the company is us" - technically, it is. I am not an Apple stockholder, but those who are Apple stockholders ARE the company. Not the Board of Directors, not Steve Jobs. One can quibble about disclosure, or release of private information to thousands or millions of people, but the basic truth (which gets glossed over) is that Apple is not controlled by Steve Jobs or by the board, but by Ms. Jane Investor (or by Pension Fund 8675309).
- Ontario Emperor
but does it give them the right to trample on someone elses privacy just because they have bought a share in a company? "off because of health reasons" is the only thing they need to know, they don't need to know the fine details.
- alphaxion
Even if you were a person's boss, that doesn't grant you any rights to a person's protected health information. So whether or not you own stock in Apple is immaterial.
- Victor Ganata
They agree with me enough to investigate...that's what I call vindication. The problem is this: Apple's stock price is tied in no small amount to the presence and health of Jobs. If the board and Jobs hid the real health problems with Jobs in order to keep the stock price from falling, then yeah, we have a huge problem in ethics and yeah the SEC should investigate that sort of thing.
- Alex Scoble
Alex, I'll say it again and then I'm done with this back-and-forth: Nothing the SEC has done supports your contention that companies are obligated to keep shareholders informed about the medical issues of 'key personnel'. However if they (along with explicit employee permission) *do* choose to issue statements about an employee's health, those statements must be true. This is the basis of the SEC inquiry, and is irrelevant to the difference of opinion you and I share.
- Kevin Fox
Yes, it becomes an entirely different issue if you volunteer information. But no ordinary citizen can compel anyone to divulge protected health information.
- Victor Ganata
Pure Mathematics - http://abstrusegoose.com/105
Vishwajith, Srinath, Mitch and 5 other people liked this
hyperlike!
- Rob Schonberger
???
- Jim Norris
Other ways to read this feed:
