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  Open Source (Almost) Everything

When Chris and I first started working on GitHub in late 2007, we split the work into two parts. Chris worked on the Rails app and I worked on Grit, the first ever Git bindings for Ruby. After six months of development, Grit had become complete enough to power GitHub during our public launch of the site and we were faced with an interesting question:Should we open source Grit or keep it proprietary?Keeping it private would provide a higher hurdle for competing Ruby-based Git hosting sites, givin...

   Open source,Benefits,Popularity,Advertisement,Advantage     2011-11-23 07:58:15

  The Failure of Passive Recruiting: Recruiters

This is an actual conversation I had with a recruiter:Phone rings and I pick it upHim: Hi, is Paul there?Aaron: May I ask who is calling?Him: I have a technical question. Aaron: Ok, what is it?Him: Are you technical?Aaron: Yes. Who is this?Him: Who are you?Aaron: Are you a recruiter?Him: Yes and…Aaron: Great, send us your resumes, if we like what you send over, we’ll let you know if we want to meet with the candidates, other tha...

   Recruiter,HR,Recruitment,Failure,Hire     2011-10-26 06:59:33

  There are no free lunches on the internet

Hot data: An IT technician checks the network servers at a data farm. Alamy Photograph: Juice Images/AlamyPhysics has Newton's first law ("Every body persists in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed"). The equivalent forinternet services is simpler, though just as general in its applicability: it says that there is no such thing as a free lunch.The strange thing is that most use...

   Free lunch,Facebook,Google,Privacy information     2011-11-21 03:03:31

  Week 1 : Research - Elements of Successful iPhone Games.

This weekend I started work on my first full blown game for the iPhone. I’m not ready to share the details of what the game will be specifically as I’m sure these will change dramatically over the coming weeks. All I’m sure on is it will be a platform game built with Corona SDK. To get me started I’ve been downloading a bunch of games from the app store, jotting down some of the areas contributing to their addictiveness and success. Short levels I do most of my ...

   iPhone,Game design,Mobile,Facors     2012-01-16 09:47:53

  Location matters for your startup

18 months ago I relocated from my home town of Glasgow, to London, just 400 miles away. An important reason for the move was because I had just started working on my new startup, Teamly, and I know that location matters, even when running an internet business. Don’t kid yourself otherwise, your chance of success is seriously improved when you’re in a startup hub.18 months later and moving to London has proved to be a smart move, for all the expected reasons, as well as  t...

   Startup,Location,Company,Brand,Popular location     2011-10-22 13:01:39

  Today on history : Twitter cofounder Evan Williams was born

Evan Williams, born March 31, 1972. American entrepreneurs, has created a number of Internet companies, including Pyra Labs, (operational blog, Blogger) and Twitter. He was Twitter, CEO from October 2008 to October 2010. Twitter former CEO Evan WilliamsEvan Williams grew up on a farm in Nebraska Clark Village. At the University of Nebraska, he studied a year and a half, then he started to work. He did different technologies work in some tech start-ups in Key West, Dallas, Austin, Texas. In 1996...

   Twitter,Cofounder,Evan Williams,Introduction     2012-03-31 08:49:18

  Peter Thiel thinks tech innovation has 'stalled'

Peter Thiel says the United States no longer cares much about science or technology(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET)ASPEN, Colo.--One of the Internet's most influential investors and entrepreneurs is offering a dire prediction: the pace of technological change is stagnating.Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook, warned that--despite spectacular advances in computer-related fields over the last few decades--technological progress overall is actually "stalled out.""There...

   Peter Thiel,PayPal,Technology,Stack,Inno     2011-08-24 08:42:42

  A Few Lessons I Learned After Having Failed

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.- Michael JordanIt was mid 2008 and Younique was doing reasonably well. However, I had an itch that I needed to scratch. I wanted to build a mobile advertising platform – think DoubleClickmeets AdMob. At the time the mobile adverti...

   Lesson,Career,Success,Failure,Mobile advertising     2011-10-17 11:21:55

  Stop Making Apps

There are a bunch of iPhone apps I own though I have no clue what they do. These apps include but aren’t limited to; FLUD, Apptitude, Cartoonatic, Can’t Wait!, Punch, Pah, Prize Claw, Traveler, Concur, Jajah, Fast Customer, Pimple Popper and many more whose names I can’t even remember.Occupying my valuable homescreen real estate are also a bunch of apps whose purpose I remember only because they were built by people I know or am friends with, but that I sadly never use. And ...

   App,Apple,Android,Stop     2011-11-12 10:54:42

  Why would a developer invest time in your startup’s platform?

The notion of developing a platform is highly addictive for technology founders. It ticks every “this is awesome” box and its drawbacks do not become evident until after you’ve already overcommitted.When you’re sunk deep in your idea, you start seeing the infinite number of directions it might go. It could be used for creativity or education or advertising or television or personal productivity or anything.Possibilities are exciting.You soon realise you can’...

   Platform,Invest,Attraction,Sell point,Developer     2011-10-31 10:49:37