bobz

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+smoots+from+th...

Boston is, at its heart, a Puritan settlement. This has been used as a sleight against Boston, but I don't mean it that way. But it is a word that captures the essence of what I mean.

A superficial example shows itself to visitors immediately. Most people who visit Boston come away thinking the people are cold and unfriendly, especially if traveling from a very outgoing culture like you find in, say, California.

Having lived here, I can say, this is often true, Bostonians are not known for being welcoming of outsiders. But they are extremely loyal, honest, and dependable as a rule as well. If a Bostonian tells you they will be at your party next weekend, they probably will! I had some trouble adjusting to the fact that this isn't really assumed in other places (California...)

Another is the work ethic. Bostonians (as a rule) abhor flash and glamour. They prefer good old fashioned hard work. Leave the get rich quick schemes to New York, we will get rich slow.

I think that Boston needs to adjust to the pace that the tech world works at, and I think it will take some time. But, then again, the tech world will probably also benefit greatly when the deliberate wisdom of Boston again rises in the tech world.

And it will. Eventually.

To be fair, Cambridge, where I really live, has a culture of its own, and is often more reminiscent of Berkeley than Boston. But when you're talking about money, for the large part, you're also talking about Boston. Also, even in Cambridge, the focus is still definitely much more on academic achievement than entrepreneurial achievement.

And this isn't a fraud prevention measure, it's a legacy of the days when settlement included someone carting a stack of stock certificates from one bank's vault to another.

Lastly, most traders trade on a contractual basis, not a settlement basis, so their trades are considered binding as soon as the agreement is in place.

This is just one interpretation, but it's an example of a case where I'd be behind Google's actions.

1. ...to compromise the idea of openness at all...

The point is not to be open. Openness is a tool that Google uses to create the product and ecosystem that it wants. In sacrificing a little openness, it loses a little bit of the perks of being "open," but probably gains other things, so I can respect that.

2. ...to compromise the idea of openness entirely...

I don't think we can say that they've done this, at least not yet. I'm just look at it as an experimental branch of the code that isn't yet ready to be merged into the trunk. It makes a lot of sense to me that, if they rushed this code out for strategic reasons, that they would want to keep it a little close to the chest until it was more stable. Remember, while to you this is an abstract principle of openness, to them this is a product they ship, and they WILL be judged on its performance.

There's a difference between valuing openness, and promising openness at the expense of all other values. To me, Google has demonstrated the first consistently throughout the history of their company.

I'm sure there are good reasons to hold back the source. My guess would be, they don't want people trying to build tablets that can't run the OS properly. If Android gets a reputation for shitty tablets, that would be devastating to the platform.

If we still don't have up to date source in two years, we can start to worry that the Google we loved is dead.

I like Fred's example of people with similar music taste on last.fm. I like the idea of being connected with people who will attend the same event as me, or an event I wish I was at, or whose netflix ratings correlate highly with mine.

I would imagine that eventually, the explicit side of things will more be addressing the privacy issue you mention. But really, I want my graphs to be generated for me with the least work possible.

Instead of a social dating site, what about an implicit social graph approach: show me people in this coffee shop who are open to being approached for a brief chat. Show me people in this city who are willing to grab a beer with a stranger in town for the night who have similar interests.

Lots and lots of interesting stuff will become possible as we start to master all the information and implicit connections available out there even today.

I'd be very curious to hear anyone's stories or opinions as to how it was maturing, how close we are to a beta / RC, etc.

Basically, if something else did gain momentum, it could happen pretty fast. As opposed to an iPhone competitor, which Apple can see coming and make strategic moves to plug leaks.

Twitter can't reasonably act like Apple and get away with it. It's a very low cost-to-switch environment. If this trend continues, if they make things too hard for devs, the devs will leave, and won't be in a hurry to come back. Might be a perfect time for a lean, developer friendly startup with the right innovation to come in and claim a piece of that market.

I love seeing successful YC startups that are outside of the fairly insular "startups serving startups and other stuff startup people are interested in" space.

There's so many verticals out there that have passionate users that are being under-served by today's technology. It might be less sexy from a TechCrunch perspective, but I have the sense that's where a good amount of the lucrative business opportunities are going to be for this next era.

We don't need "a better Twitter", "the next Google", or to be "as big as Facebook". But we do need to bring the power of these products to more and more people and markets.

Seeing a man who actually DESERVES every ounce of his celebrity, clearly enjoying it so much.

Nice piece by Gruber capturing the event, and my favorite flavor of Apple worship.

Love this as a priority, and not just as a coder, but as anyone involved in building software. I've noticed an extremely high correlation with how enjoyable a code base is to work on, and how easily I get into The Zone on that project. Hopefully I don't need to elaborate on the correlation between The Zone and developing a kick ass product in record time.

As for the meaning of enjoyable, well... hire great developers, listen to them when they speak, and make having a great, well designed, low code debt code base a priority whenever possible.

I like this comparison more as a mitigating factor to closed-web alarmism. This is not the first time the open web has felt itself under attack. And if a big player DOES make moves to try to get in between the free flow of information we all know and love, there are historical examples of the free web fighting back, and winning!

I don't use Facebook, but I don't think it's evil... yet. But it's shown some scary tendencies. It's nice to know we've seen a company abuse it's massively dominant market share, and pay.

1. It is not Sebastian's duty to demonstrate his accomplishments to you.

2. Arrogant? If you hate yourself so much that you can't stand a person with ambition and grand intentions, that's your problem. I'll take Sebastian's "arrogance" over your condescending "objective criticism" any day.

3. On what basis can you say this?

4. I spend my entire LIFE working to build things to help fix the problems in the world. I enjoy reading Sebastian because he writes about doing the same. And from what I can tell, he is one of the hardest working and honestly self-critical writers on the internet.

> People with work to do, work they love, they don't need people like you.

Sebastian hasn't asked anything of you. He's a valued contributor around here for a great number of reasons, and has found a writing style that resonates with many around here. If it doesn't resonate with you, that's fine. We're all in a different place. But there's no cause or excuse for this type of attack. As Sebastian points out below, 17 posts? That is a bit scary. Remember, beneath the posts and karma there's real human beings around here, some of the smartest on the internet, and they all deserve a measure respect, regardless of your thoughts on the value they provide the world for free. What exactly are you trying to prove, and to whom?

If we wanted a metric of the value of the post, I would think up-votes would be a better metric. But personally, I agree with the others here saying that monetary compensation is not a good idea. Or, if you feel the desire to give back to the community financially for financial success you are having,perhaps a donation to PG or YC for maintaining this site.

(Yes, I know he doesn't need it, and I know he gets value from the site. Saying thank you is still a good idea, both because he does good things with money, and because it [the gesture, more than the money] will keep him interested and involved, even as his success and demands for his time continue to grow.)