Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
- Free the WSJ and the $ will come!
Kara Swisher advocates for a free WSJ. I predict it will happen very very soon. This year? Rupert Murdoch won’t let me down. WSJ will be free before the end of 2007 and that’s that.
[...] while a paid model might have been right in the past, having a larger, powerful and global owner changes the stakes considerably and allows the tremendous site to make bolder moves than ever before. Kara Swisher
- Amazon Architecture. Amazon’s Frugality
Amazon Architecture over at High Scalability. Of note a few items for team building and team dynamics as well as product management:
- If you have a new business idea or problem you want to solve you form a team. Limit the team to 8-10 people because communication hard. They are called two pizza teams. The number of people you can feed off two pizzas.
- Teams are small. They are assigned authority and empowered to solve a problem as a service in anyway they see fit.
- Work From the Customer Backwards to Verify a New Service is Worth Doing
- Force developers to focus on value delivered to the customer instead of building technology first and then figuring how to use it.
- Start with a press release of what features the user will see and work backwards to check that you are building something valuable (This is brilliant!).
- Create a frugal culture.
- Involve everyone in making dog food.
- Look for three things in interviews: enthusiasm, creativity, competence. The single biggest predictor of success at Amazon.com was enthusiasm.
- Hire a Bob. Someone who knows their stuff, has incredible debugging skills and system knowledge, and most importantly, has the stones to tackle the worst high pressure problems imaginable by just leaping in.
If you have time, a word on scalabilty from Werner Vogels is a great read too.
[...] scalability cannot be an after-thought. It requires applications and platforms to be designed with scaling in mind, such that adding resources actually results in improving the performance or that if redundancy is introduced the system performance is not adversely affected.
- Fair use fairy tale
A very silly report
on "fair use" gets caustic treatment over at Nick Carr’s blog Rough Type. No wonder.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobbying group for tech companies, has just issued a report called "Fair Use in the U.S. Economy." It purports to show that "the fair use economy" is larger than the "copyright economy." In 2006, the report declares, the fair use economy "accounted for $4.5 trillion in revenues and $2.2 billion in value added, roughly 16.2 percent of U.S. GDP. It employed more than 17 million people and supported a payroll of $1.2 trillion. It generated $194 billion in exports and rapid productivity growth."
…Even by the woeful standards of the bespoke research industry, this study is a crock.
but it brought a smile to my face. You should read it too!
- Richard Stallman at U of T
Via Greg Wilson:
World-renowned activist and free software developer Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, will speak on “Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks” in Matthews Auditorium, Room 137, Kaneff Center, University of Toronto, Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd. N., on Thursday, July 5th at 5 pm.Details here. Some folks from Idee will be in attendance. Say hello!
- Fixing Hyperbio
I am fixing all my feeds problems. Oh my God! What the hell is going on! Best way to spend time at the LA lounge on the way back to TO on a red eye flight. I am still hoping to get an upgrade on this flight so that I can sleep before getting to the office upon landing. LA is just so so so big!
- DemoCamp 11
DemoCamp 11 is happening this evening. Details and registration are below.
Date: Monday, November 20, 2006
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: MaRS, 101 College Street West.The demo schedule this week includes the much awaited Firestoker demo.
- Don’t spend a cent week
The first 3 days of my don’t spend a cent week have gone very well. No complaints. Have not spent a dime, not even for food. Chris Nolan would be proud! Now I thought it would be quite easy to do this but… I have a challenge: what to do about food this weekend? I mean this week was pretty ok. We usually have a weekly lunch in the office and I had a couple of business lunches/dinner which kind of took care of feeding me. But the weekend is coming up. Perhaps I am taking this "don’t spent a cent" too far. Chris, was it supposed to include not spending money on food as well?
Oh la la.
Now the worst part: I am dying for a coffee from Mercury Organic. I mean litteraly dying for it – understandable, they make the best espresso or americano in this town. This is nuts! This is what happens when you can’t have something. Perhaps someone will buy me a coffee? But that’s not right because they will be spending money. I should simply do without until next week. Voila.
See what you have done Chris!
- Ontario Ultra Series – March 11, 2006
The Ontario Ultra Series Spring Warm up is tomorrow. 28 KM for me please! Race details are below if you feel like joining.Location: High Park Curling Club, 100 Indian Road, Toronto
Date: Saturday March 11, 2006
Distance(s): 28k start at 8:00, 10k/20k start at 11:00
ie there are five distance options: 28k, 10k, 20k, 38k or 48k
Fee: Any combination of distance for $35.
Entry: Cash or cheque payable to the Ontario Ultra Series on the day of the event. If you are unable to attend on the 11th but would like a chance to win the grand prize simply mail your cheque to Sharon Zelinski, 516 Runnymede Rd, Toronto M6S 2Z7.
Reception/Facilities at the club: Snacks will be available at 12:00 and pizza will be provided at 1:00. The club has a fully stocked bar (that opens, by law, at 11:00), change rooms, showers, pool table, couches and cable TV.
Course/Aid: Two out and backs.
>>The 8:00 start will head west on the waterfront trail and up the Humber to the Hurricane Hazel memorial for a total of 28k. Water will be placed at Raymore Park (just south of the memorial).
>>The 11:00 start will head east on the waterfront trail to the steel bridge at Cherry Street and Lake Shore Blvd. Water will be placed at the washrooms in Coronation Park (SE of Strachan & Lake Shore Blvd). The total out-and-back distance to the water is 10k and to Cherry St. is 20k.
Proceeds: 100% of all proceeds will be directed to the Ontario Ultra Series (OUS).
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