Archive for the 'smart people' Category

Welcome Home Jon!

Friday, December 8th, 2006

[via Jeff] Jon Udell is joining our team at Microsoft.  I’m surprised that none of the people I told about this leaked it before now
It’s a shame that he felt the need to defend against appearances of “selling out”.  Let’s hope that’s the last time he feels that way.  Anyone who’s followed him over [...]

Can Microsoft Innovate?

Friday, December 1st, 2006

WSJ is running a debate between two of my favorite people, Dave Winer and Robert Scoble.  We gave Dave “firewood as a function of distance and price” before he even asked for it, but I actually don’t disagree with much of what he or Scoble say.
On the other hand, I agree with Dave’s assertion that the [...]

AaronSw Sellout?

Sunday, November 5th, 2006

Reddit, the one company that would never sell out, has sold out.  Aaron was the guy who gave them their “indie cred”, and he’s trying hard to maintain that cred.  Right now, he’s experiencing the angst of realizing that money doesn’t buy happiness.  But that will pass when Wired bids up Reddit’s attention to pull 10x [...]

E.O. Wilson at Microsoft

Thursday, October 26th, 2006

I recently read Ridley’s The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, as a follow-on to Dunbar’s Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language.  Between the two books, E.O. Wilson came to visit Microsoft campus and talk about one of his many works, The Creation : a Meeting of science and Religion.
It turns [...]

Hammering Thumbs

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

Blake Ross talks about how the old Netscape Browser was one big WTF.  His post led me to one of the old Netscape devs (everyone knows jwz) claiming that, “to a database person, every nail looks like a thumb.”
It’s lovely, because it’s in the same post claiming that you would be crazy to use anything [...]