flipper

I share the article's author's sense of confusion about this deal. If Oracle were keen to buy Sun why did they let IBM almost succeed in buying Sun first?

pg wrote about the risks of trying to consult and build a startup at the same time:

http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

Look at #18. It's what killed my startup.

Having sat on both sides of the recruiting table I can tell you that most companies will pay the market rate to get the right person. Trying to save a few dollars to get someone 'cheap' is usually disastrously expensive. On the other hand, often the correlation between what someone gets paid and how good a fit they are for a job is quite loose.

If this company thinks enough of you to offer you a job then unless they are mad they are prepared to pay market rates to get you on board. You have established that they're prepared to pay ~50% more to get your friend, and there's no obvious discrepancy in your attributes, so there must be room to negotiate.

Having said that (like others have said), whether you get more depends on whether you are prepared to walk away from the job. If they know you're desperate they probably won't offer you more.

"not that he should cultivate his unique potential as a pedestrian"

Ha, yes, that made me chuckle too.

"As your bank or hedge fund slides toward insolvency, just carry on barking at your secretary, snubbing waitresses, and blanking old friends who nod at you in the elevator. Everyone will assume you are still loaded -- and will hold off pulling the plug on you for a few more days at least."

I was starting to critically pull apart the article too, but when I read the quoted paragraph I started to laugh and realised my leg was being pulled.

Gee, the people from Sevenhourstartup.com are going to be pissed when they hear about this.

Six? Seven's the number, man!

Sorry, been reading reddit too much. Seriously, it sounds cool, and if I was anywhere near Seattle I'd go.

Like the article suggests, this award appears to have been invented to give the media something to write about, and to give Sun a plug.

A startup is supposed to be about building a successful business, no? Success for a startup could be defined in lots of ways, but I doubt that winning a media award would be one of them. Will the judges give preference to startups using Java or Sun kit? Can any startups afford to use Sun kit? What happens if one of the winners subsequently falls flat on its arse? I would bet that most YCers wouldn't give this award a second thought.

My sympathies, but this letter is reminscent of (and probably as effective as) a written complaint to a lion for eating too many gazelles. Steve Ballmer's competitive advantage is not technical; it is the flipping great wodge of cash that he possesses. He wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't use it. Microsoft's leader, like a lion, is amoral: if he can get away with something that benefits him, he will do it, in fact, he must do it.