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Gibbon

717 karma · joined December 10, 2008

I'm a startup buccaneer!
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Gibbon··on Lessons from a year's worth of hiring data
Did you actually read the blog post? It's rife with blatant grammatical errors.

Awful use of conjuctions and a bizarre obsession with commas plus errors that a spellchecker will miss (eg. "roughly out 9 out of 10 applicants" under the method section.)

Apparently you wouldn't hire the author, and she wouldn't hire herself.

Gibbon··on Meteorite crash in Russia
A bunch of videos around town and some photos of damage etc.

http://oleg-kozyrev.livejournal.com/4468083.html

Examples of other meteorite strikes in the past:

http://oleg-kozyrev.livejournal.com/4468452.html

Damaged zinc plant? https://twitter.com/Dokhrimovich/statuses/302269134685757442

Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-russia-meteorit...

AP News Story: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_METEORITE?S...

Video close to epicenter.. Loud boom then broken windows and alarms.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0cFOIoITW4

Hashtag #Челябинск on twitter for more info.

Gibbon··on How 3D printed cars were created to spare the original while filming Skyfall
Blogspam.

Original english article with photos: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20121107-voxeljet-builds-aston...

Sourced from original german article:

http://www.voxeljet.de/news-und-events/news/james-bond-skyfa...

Gibbon··on Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
Yeah I got the numbers from a local newspaper article.

It was definitely the AC72 that we went to see.. it was launched in July and completely towered over all the over yachts and surrounding buildings.

The numbers, I guess, are from the AC45 that was launched months ago. Looks like the numbers weren't accurate, but that's the NZ Herald for you.

Gibbon··on Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
I'm also in Auckland.

We went down to the wharf to see it the day it was launched.

Staggering size...

It's a catamaran with a 13m (42.7 ft.) tall solid wing and is expected to be able to hit 50 knots (90+ km/h).

They have to anchor it to a tonne and a half of ballast just to keep it from taking off on it's own.

Gibbon··on First High-Resolution Color Mosaic of Curiosity's Mastcam Images
Photos from Viking Lander 1 and 2, 1976-1977

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/vikinglander...

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2012/07/vikin...

http://mars.spherix.com/spie2003/SPIE_2003_Paper_GVL_files/i...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Mars_Viki...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/First_Col...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Mars_Viki...

Gibbon··on Samsung: Apple wouldn’t have sold a single iPhone without stealing our tech
Do I really need to point out that Samsung are awarded nearly an order of magnitude more patents each year than Apple? (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/topo_11.htm)

In order the most patents were awarded to IBM, Samsung, Canon, Panasonic, Toshiba and Microsoft. So Samsung is no. 2, while Apple is all the way down in 38th place.

If anything, I'm willing to bet that Samsung and the other Asian manufacturers are the overzealous ones trying to use patents to muscle their way into the higher end of the technology market.

More patents are now awarded to foreign countries than the USA. Mostly Japan, Korea, Germany and Taiwan.

If you think Apple is on the wrong end of the argument, well I guess you don't want a domestic technology market?

Gibbon··on Rules From a User to Software Developers
the sms short code "twttr" was already taken by Teen People or something like that.
Gibbon··on 0.01% of Wikipedia as a printed book
Here is a twelve volume set consisting of the entire edit history of the "Iraq War" entry on Wikipedia.

http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/

Gibbon··on Jack Dorsey Takes Over Product Again at Twitter as Executive Chairman
I think he just loves the product. Based on some of his recent interviews, Twitter is something he's been thinking about a long time and is based on things he's worked on his whole life (dispatch, maps, cities, networks etc.)
Gibbon··on What It Feels Like to Be Rich
This is also relevant: Fears of the Super Rich: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/secret-f...
Gibbon··on The worst program I ever worked on
Which Hell would that be? The one in California, Michigan, the Cayman Islands or Norway?
Gibbon··on Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse
Polarization is a measure of the assertiveness of an artist.. the degree to which they have executed an opinionated concept for a specific audience.

A niche film should be as highly opinionated as possible, with the objective of both catering to your chosen market and excluding all others intentionally.

For example, the musical act Prodigy do not do TV performances. This is a mainstream marketing method that does not appeal to their audience. By avoiding it, they increase their appeal to their true fans, while ignoring uninterested listeners. Likewise, the singer Adele does not perform at music festivals for the same reason.

The ideal niche product would repel exactly half the critics and attract the other half. This would create a core of hardcore evangelists, a bigger group of fans, a big group of uninterested bystanders and a small group of haters. The haters and bystanders can mostly be ignored, making marketing super-efficient.

Lack of polarization is a measure of beauty and popularity. Beauty is a measure of average-ness and normality. The most beautiful person in a given society is the one that looks the most an average of all the people. The most popular movie is the one that everyone can relate to.. the most profoundly average.

Case in point.. the Shawshank Redemption. This is a movie that is consistently voted one of the best ever made, but it's highly rated because of its familiarity. It's a near flawless execution of common mythologies that everyone can relate to: fall from grace, redemption, justice, freedom and so on.

Toy Story is another example. Pixar's entire methodology is to distill the world's archetypes and mythologies down into the "perfect" movie with every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed. The result is profoundly familiar, yet kept fresh with just enough plot twists and humour to keep it interesting.

Niche movies are just popular movies for specific groups instead of a general audience. Polarization is a measure of how effectively they achieved the goal.

Gibbon··on Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse
I never found Apollo 13 to be a compelling movie. It's so true to life that you could just watch the documentaries and get the exact same experience.
Gibbon··on Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse
It has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the universal appeal of comic book/superhero/fantasy mythologies.

Major studio economics have changed in recent years and it is now critical that movies have a global, universal appeal.

Their major profit centres are evaporating before their eyes (back catalog tv licencing and dvd sales), along with declining domestic audiences.

In order to turn a profit the movies must be as generic and acceptable as possible: lots of children, the hero's journey and other myths, no sex or swearing, "fake" comic book violence or none at all.

Any kind of NC-17/Restricted rating is the kiss of death. Anything controversial will be a flop.

The problem is the death spiral of risk-aversion, unoriginality, and plot refinement to the point where the "movie" will be perfected and there will be nothing left to film.

Lord or the Rings is the new mythology.. the archetype of the Hero's Journey. Once you print it to film.. what's the point of retelling the story?

Gibbon··on The Cognitive Style of Unix
Or Autocad, Maya, Logic and Protools... Those are the types of tools where professionals will dismiss simpler UIs out of hand.
Gibbon··on Apple is actually asking for 100% of SaaS mobile revenue
Saas does not sound like a subscription service to me, not in the traditional sense.

Content subscriptions are timed releases of packaged, curated content pushed to you on a regular schedule.

Saas is a portal that lets you access data, information and tools on an ad hoc basis.

Gibbon··on Pervasive myths about older software developers
Outside the echo chamber of Silicon Valley and the web, the average age of a startup founder IS 38.
Gibbon··on Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it
It's not really that clever.. it's the search equivalent of a trap street in cartography.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street

Gibbon··on Get rich quick ads from 1909
"SEND FOR FREE BOOK telling why so many patents are worthless as protection!"

Now that one is poignant.

Gibbon··on My biggest frustration with Google AdWords
Don't be evil?

"Being less bad is not being good." - William McDonough in Cradle to Cradle.

Gibbon··on Why Some Elite Colleges Give Away Courses Online
Or a more generalized version is "Give away your ideas, sell the system."
Gibbon··on Horizons - What Is Reality? The Best 60 Minutes of TV I've ever Watched
It's on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr5nWRE-LAE

My favourite Horizons episode so far is "How long is a piece of string?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQU1AcWUnpo

Gibbon··on Techies don't understand what business Apple is in
There's a book I read long ago, whose title I've forgotten, that argued all companies compete along five axes: Price, Quality, Experience, Access and Service.

Every company dominates one axis, excels at another and is at par with the rest.

One might argue that Apple dominates in the experience category and is above average in service with everything else more or less at par with the competition.

But they certainly don't sell experience.. they sell computers, mmkay?

Gibbon··on Blackhat SEO Numbers for 2010 Part 1
Part 2 is also here: http://research.zscaler.com/2011/01/blackhat-seo-numbers-for...
Gibbon··on "You are 6 times more likely to be killed by a pig than by a shark"
In all likelihood, the stats are referring to wild boars and feral pigs, which can be extremely aggressive and have been know to attack and gore humans from time to time.

Here's a normal pig that attacked a number of people: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410319/Nurse-savaged...

Gibbon··on National Opt-Out Day Called Against Invasive Body Scanners
I'm emigrating from Canada to New Zealand and we're flying on Nov. 25.

Since I'm near the border, we're flying from Detroit to Fort Worth and then LA.. I am not looking forward to this flight.

I've already had dozens of medical x-rays in the past few months, and don't particularly want to get another dose, however low it may be.

On the other hand, opting out sounds really unpleasant. I especially don't want my wife potentially suffering that indignity at the hands of a male TSA agent (as some people have reported).

I don't think I have the balls to opt-out this time around.. I just want to survive the 48 hour trip intact, with all my luggage.. but this will likely be the last time I fly through the US.

Gibbon··on Facebook’s Gmail Killer, Project Titan, Is Coming On Monday
Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are also more than twice as big as Gmail.
Gibbon··on Ask HN: best seats on a plane
I prefer sitting near the center of gravity of the plane, if at all possible.
Gibbon··on Ask HN: How much did it cost to setup the legal foundations for your startup?
I have no affiliation with this site, or any experience with their services, but Pinsky Law in Toronto is offering several promotions for startups right now: http://www.pinskylaw.ca/News/startup_legal_package.htm there are several more promotions for trademarks, IP etc.

Also take a look through their site, lots of information there for you.

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