I don't use my iPhone as a computer
I bought my iPhone on June 29 last year, the first day they were available. A couple of months later, I realized I wasn't using my Blackberry and a couple of months after that, I turned it off. I don't miss it, even though I loved it when I was using it because it meant I didn't have to lug around my laptop to be in…
Bootstrappers Beware
A lot of people are damn religious about bootrapping businesses. Especially nowadays when it’s so easy to start a software business– you just need a few hackers, Ruby on Rails, a cheap virtual server and you’re ready to roll, right?
An Engineer's View of Venture Capitalists
I first encountered venture capitalists (VCs) in 1987. Despite a bad start, I caught the start-up bug
Donald Knuth's letter about teaching O notation in calculus classes
Continuing the theme of alternative approaches to teaching calculus, I take the liberty of posting a letter sent by Donald Knuth to to the Notices of the American Mathematical Society in March, 199…
I'm Joining Craigslist in July (by Jeremy Zawodny)
I wasn't really looking for a new job a few months ago when I received an email from Eric Scheide (see Team Bios ), the CTO at craigslist . He mentioned that they were looking for someone with MySQL experience and asked if I knew anyone. This sort of thing happens all the time.
If you need the approval of the platform vendor to ship an app, then it isn't a platform
I wouldn't invest in or develop an iPhone app because Apple could decide not to approve it, and if they don't approve it you can't sell it. You can't even give it away. You don't find out if you've been approved until the last step, after you've fully invested, so you could lose, totally, if Apple says no.
Top 10 Reasons to Avoid the SimpleDB Hype
The personal home page of Ryan Park of San Francisco, California, USA.
Yahoo loses key mysql developer
It seems that word has started to leak out, so I might as well remove any speculation or ambiguity. In the next few weeks, I'll walk the halls at Yahoo! as an employee one last time and turn in my purple badge. After 8.5 years of service and a better experience than I could have possibly imaged back in 1999, the time…
TripIt is awesome
You know what I really like? TripIt.com. It’s amazingly simple. You take all those travel confirmation emails that you get from your travel agent, hotels, car rental agencies, etc, and you ju…
Debunking Daniel Tammet
Lately I've been encouraged to make more of my posts unlocked. I only do that under certain circumstances, but I feel this is an important occasion because I believe I have spotted a hoax and that I am unusually qualified to unmask it. I just watched The Boy With the Incredible Brain , a video that…
Basic MySQL Performance Tuning Practices that Everyone Should Know About
In this post I'll cover a lecture on MySQL performance tuning. This lecture is given by Jay Pipes. Jay works at MySQL and has written a book on MySQL. It's called Pro MySQL and it covers intermediate and advanced features of the database. He also has an interesting blog, which I am long subscribed to - Jay Pipes blog.
Understanding Ruby Blocks, Procs and Lambdas
Robert leads large and complex firms through mission-critical Digital Transformations with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Engineering. As a Presidential Innovation Fellow at Barack Obama's White House , Robert reformed digital services across the Federal Government, resulting in millions of veterans…
On Python packaging
So currently there's a bit of a to-do involving Debian's Ruby packaging team and the Ruby "gem" system. [This document](http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/rubygems.html) …
HTTP Conversation Codes
I mapped HTTP status codes to workplace conversation snippets. "404: I have no idea what you're talking about." "502: Bob is refusing to work with me on this." Now available as a poster. Note how the spec reveals programmers always blame the client.
The Perils of JavaSchools
Lazy kids. Whatever happened to hard work? A sure sign of my descent into senility is bitchin’ and moanin’ about “kids these days,” and how they won’t or can’t d…
gorilla arm
The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early 1980s. It seems the designers of all those spiffy touch-menu systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than a very…