F_J_H

I think you've missed the point of the article. It's not completely about AI per se, but about the broader issue of technology in general bringing us to new territory with respect to the ability to control and/or manipulate society, which could have disastrous unintended consequences.

Therefore, we need to be proactive about policies that would protect against unfettered influence by those controlling the technology.

You've said the equivalent of "guns don't kill people. People kill people".

I just use Evernote. Search is not great, but with the combination of notebooks and tags, you can keep things organized fairly well.

And, with the browser plugin, any google search also returns results from Evernote, which is good because if I thought it worthwhile to clip the page in the past, it was probably a good one.

Oracle is not just the DB though, they have a lot of applications across several industries, such as utilities, health care, etc. And, there is also Oracle E-Business suite, which is a big competitor to SAP in the financial management system space.

So, they have other sources of revenue as well, and can likely build a large revenue stream of subscription services for business applications. (i.e. running PeopleSoft, EBS, etc. in the cloud).

Looks like Oracle is starting to "lose the hearts and minds" even of the faithful:

http://www.vesterli.com/2017/02/14/losing-hearts-and-minds/

key quote: "If you are an Oracle developer with more than 10 years until retirement, I advise you to start planning for your time after Oracle."

It's too bad, I really like Oracle APEX, (the rapid web and mobile development framework that is included with the DB) since you can build and deploy highly functional/rich apps very quickly, which is the big thing end users care about. (i.e. the same reason foxpro and MS Access were so popular).

Anecdotally, I've been hearing from my consulting peers that companies are actively looking to move off Oracle as they don't like being "bullied onto the cloud", and are starting to look at the migration tools in EDB Postgres. That might be a good source of consulting revenues going forward...

Yes, that's the rub for sure. The same question is also asked by non-technical people when trying to find a developer - how do you find a good one? So, I think you can follow some of the same principles: What projects have they done in the past? What results have they produced? Can you show some examples of your work? Can we speak to your references? etc.

Although it's not "turnkey" as the OP was asking about, you can do a lot of it on your own, or at least put together an overall plan, and then use agencies to fill the gaps. Just as with starting a start-up, there is a lot of great material and thought leadership out there on how to do it, along with a lot of practical advice.

Other than a few courses as part of my business degree, and working with marketing agencies in the past, I don't have a marketing background. However, I took a deep dive into marketing over the past 18 months, and we achieved some solid results. I spent a bit of time doing some research, came up with a strategy and overall plan, and then executed. Specifically, we put a content marketing program in place, along with some lead tracking tools, spoke at a few conferences, did some webinars, etc., all of which led to deals in the six figures. (In the B2B space.)

PM me if you'd like more detail re: resources.

Yes, for the most part. This is what marketing agencies do.

You still need to provide them with the talking points and value proposition so they have the background for drafting copy for the Marketing collateral, but once they have that they can do a great job at putting together a marketing plan and executing on it, assuming you found a good agency.

All of the largest corporations in the world run on financial or ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle financials, Microsoft Dynamics etc., which sit on top of relational databases.

While in the SV start-up world it may seem like NoSQL is taking over, the Enterprise database market is massive, and replacing the relational databases behind corporate ERP systems with NoSQL based solutions, (to the extent that is even possible/wise), will be a long time coming.

Oracle has a giant footprint in a huge number of organizations across multiple industries. Love them or hate them, (and right now there is good reason to hate then), they are not going away anytime soon, and calling them "irrelevant in the tech landscape" seems premature/myopic given their massive install base and influence in the corporate/enterprise IT space.

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action - start with Why

https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...

15℅

Can't be too quick to attribute the "halt" as there have also been changes in currency control policies in China that came into effect in the new year. There likely are a few different contributing factors.

Give it time...

But by the time you matched them, they likely would have moved way beyond, with all kinds of new features...

Came here to say this. Have the XPS 13, and have been very happy with it. However, wishing I would have go the 15 as a small footprint is less of a concern than I thought it would be, and I'd appreciate more screen RE.

What is the product/service?

Not sure if it's dead, but there are sooo many of them, and they typically encapsulate someone else's idea of what leads to productivity. So, it's hard to find one that fits exactly how you'd like to work, and of the several I tried, there is always ONE big thing that keeps me from adopting it fully.

So, it's not dead, but it's a very crowded space, and discovery is a challenge. It's the classic red ocean. If you're going to build something, I'd spend the time elsewhere.

Work to increase your luck surface area. Network, meet new people, get involved in OSS, go to meetups, volunteer.

When you are just starting out, get good at a tangible skill that people will pay you for, and which will let you play in the arena where you ultimately want to be. For me, it was IT development, even though I had a business background.

If you are in technology, or work as a developer, work in a non-tech firm that leverages technology, rather than in a technology firm. It will be easier to stand out, and your contributions will be held in much higher regard. This point was actually made by Zed Shaw in one of his books, and although he took some flack for it, it's actually very good advice. I've seen it play out a number of times.

But they can also build a lot of really useful things too, and many do, and create a ton of value.

The same can be said for any programming language/tool. Reminds me of this quote attributed to Doug Gwyn:

"Unix was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things."

No, but will look into it. I'm guessing it's not web/browser based?

Early in my IT career, I did a lot of MS Access development, and MS Access gave me a huge advantage (at the start) of the company my cofounders and I started and sold. Although it certainly had it's limitations, MS Access did meet a lot of needs for SMBs, much as how you describe FoxPro did/does.

If you want something similar with respect to ease of development and deployment, check out Oracle Application Express, or APEX, which comes with the database as a no-cost option. A good quick summary of APEX can be found here: https://insum.ca/about-apex/ (Disclaimer - I work with Insum.)

Most on HN seem to really dislike Oracle, which is not completely unwarranted. However, a framework like APEX can enable you to stand up CRUD apps very quickly, and Oracle has a free version of the database (Oracle XE, which includes APEX), that will easily meet the needs of many SMBs. I've gone through a few different "Build an X clone" type tutorials online to learn both python and JavaScript frameworks, and in each case, building the same thing with Oracle APEX takes a much less time, and is way easier given the declarative interface.

APEX is not for everyone and won't solve all your problems, but for those looking to modernize MS Access and FoxPro apps, it's worth checking out.

I imagine the major car accident he describes in the article contributed...

I've had really positive experiences with APEX. If you already have an Oracle DB, it's hard to beat for quickly standing up data centric business apps.

I'm curious - what made your experience negative?

Interesting - it's not an area that I know a lot about. I had just come across a Vancouver company called Copypants (https://www.copypants.com/) that is targeting this issue, (I have no affiliation), and so your comment made me curious.

Can you explain your last sentence?

Yes, that is true - the prices make no sense from a local perspective. However, I heard a keynote by an economist/urban planner, who suggested Vancouver needs to be considered within a global context rather than a local one since it is a very desirable city internationally, and draws buyers from all over the world.

My thoughts exactly. If someone is looking to make decent returns with real estate, farms and rural properties are not where they'd likely be focusing. I live in Vancouver,Canada where real estate returns have been substantial. It completely depends on market dynamics.

Was pg born into a wealthy family?

This is all explained very well in the book E-Myth by Michael Gerber written over 20 year ago and summarized here: http://bit.ly/29nSHeZ

Key take away: Just because a person knows the "technology" of the business, (mechanic, plumber, baker, etc.), does not mean they know the "business" of the technology.

You hear this same sort of argument with the adoption of any new technology.

I imagine that when Flight Navigators started disappearing from flight crews in the 1970s with the advent of GPS and other related electronic navigation systems, there were those saying "I'd never leave the ground without a flight navigator - what if the GPS stops working?!?" Should we keep an old school Flight Navigator on standby "just in case"?

I remember talking to an retired mechanic about 20 years ago, who told me he never did a road trip without taking all his tools with him so he'd be ready to fix anything on the side of the road if need be. I wonder if he is still doing that....I doubt it.

As technology gets better and better, the "Number Needed to Harm"[1] needs to be considered.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_needed_to_harm

edit: missing word

Using bind variables?

You're right - this could lead to a lot of new innovation as a bunch of developers who wouldn't have bothered before can now start hacking away to see what they can do.

I've been thinking a lot lately about where the next major areas of technology-driven disruption might be in terms of employment impact, and things like this make me wonder how long it will be before call centers stacked wall to wall with customer service reps become a relic of the past...