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Tech Industry & Business

The most popular blog posts about tech industry & business on Hacker News. 941 posts.

2013
152

Cisco to release BSD-licensed H.264 stack

As I noted last year , one of the biggest challenges to open source software has been the patent status of video codecs. The most popular codec, H.264 , is patent-encumbered and licensed by MPEG LA , under terms that prevent distributing it with open source products including Firefox. Cisco has announced today that…

154

Fertile Ground

One of my favorite patterns in our industry is when the old and established are wiped out by disruption, irrelevance, or changing fashions. Like a forest fire, clearing out the old is very destructive and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But what’s left behind is a clean slate and immense opportunity.

157

No more remote work at Yahoo

Employees at Yahoo have had a rough decade. The company has been drifting aimlessly with little vision, an endless parade of CEOs, and a flatlined stock price. That’s not exactly a conducive environment to be inspired and motivated within, let alone do the stellar work that Yahoo needs to pul…

163

How to make $100k in Open Source by working hard

My Sidekiq project isn’t just about building the best background processing framework for Ruby, it’s also a venue for me to experiment with ways to make open source software financially sustainable for the developers who work on it hundreds of hours each year (e.g. me). Let’s review.

176

Why Mozilla Matters

[This is an extended essay on the news out of Norway yesterday. See the closing for encouragement toward Opera and its fans, whatever the open source projects they choose to join, from me on behalf of Mozilla. /be]

178

Amazon Staff Meetings: “No Powerpoint”

"We have study hall at the beginning of our meetings." says Jeff Bezos. Staff meetings at Amazon begin with 30 minutes of silent reading. Powerpoint is easy for presenter, hard for audience "The traditional kind of corporate meeting starts with a presentation. Somebody gets up in front of the room and presents with a…