A number of people have published lists of things that Marissa Mayer should fix as the new CEO of Yahoo. Several of these recommendations include firing a lot of people. And we can now also read Marissa's first memo to Yahoo employees, which clearly tries to alleviate fears of layoffs. My own theory of organizational change is a bit different and it is based on observations of several successful and failed turnarounds going back to my days as a management consultant. You can’t have chang...

A number of people have published lists of things that Marissa Mayer should fix as the new CEO of Yahoo. Several of these recommendations include firing a lot of people. And we can now also read Marissa's first memo to Yahoo employees, which clearly tries to alleviate fears of layoffs. My own theory of organizational change is a bit different and it is based on observations of several successful and failed turnarounds going back to my days as a management consultant. You can’t have chang...

Earlier this week Twilio announced that their SMS service is now available for delivery to 150 countries. That’s a big deal because many Internet companies have users around the globe with international audience often growing as quickly or faster than US. Not only can Twilio now deliver SMS to those international audiences but it can also do so in local language by providing unicode support. The SMS announcement follows on the heels of voice being made available in Italy and Germany going int...

Earlier this week Twilio announced that their SMS service is now available for delivery to 150 countries. That’s a big deal because many Internet companies have users around the globe with international audience often growing as quickly or faster than US. Not only can Twilio now deliver SMS to those international audiences but it can also do so in local language by providing unicode support. The SMS announcement follows on the heels of voice being made available in Italy and Germany going int...

Growing up in Germany I learned a lot about a legal system in which judges are only applying the law not also making it through their decisions. Precedent plays a very limited roll in the German system. It took me some time to come to grips with the US system. But now I have come to think that an independent judiciary that has the ability to influence the law through precedent is a wonderful balance to the executive and legislative branches. In this 4th of July week this is another independen...

Growing up in Germany I learned a lot about a legal system in which judges are only applying the law not also making it through their decisions. Precedent plays a very limited roll in the German system. It took me some time to come to grips with the US system. But now I have come to think that an independent judiciary that has the ability to influence the law through precedent is a wonderful balance to the executive and legislative branches. In this 4th of July week this is another independen...

I was originally planning to write today’s Tech Tuesday post about how we can define our own words in a programming language. But then I noticed an important omission in last week’s post on control structures. I didn’t really explain how we can have multiple statements in either a loop or in a branch of program execution. I just kind of snuck that into the following example:

I was originally planning to write today’s Tech Tuesday post about how we can define our own words in a programming language. But then I noticed an important omission in last week’s post on control structures. I didn’t really explain how we can have multiple statements in either a loop or in a branch of program execution. I just kind of snuck that into the following example:

It’s been about 3.5 years since I bought my current MacBook. That’s usually when I start thinking about what to buy next. I like to own the same machine for at least three and possibly four years and so historically I have spent a bit more money and then not a lot of time switching and fiddling. But as I think about the next laptop I am beginning to rethink my strategy for a number of reasons. First, I am using less and less “desktop” software on my laptop. Really the only thing that I run co...

It’s been about 3.5 years since I bought my current MacBook. That’s usually when I start thinking about what to buy next. I like to own the same machine for at least three and possibly four years and so historically I have spent a bit more money and then not a lot of time switching and fiddling. But as I think about the next laptop I am beginning to rethink my strategy for a number of reasons. First, I am using less and less “desktop” software on my laptop. Really the only thing that I run co...

I am excited about today’s launch of Brewster, despite it being iPhone only for the moment. Last week we spent time cleaning out the attic of our old house in the burbs (which my brother-in-law is taking over). In a box I discovered an old Palm Pilot. It was the most visible reminder that electronic address books have essentially not changed in almost 20 years. For instance, I find it stunning that when I add a contact to my Android address book and try to add an email address it doesn’t auto...

I am excited about today’s launch of Brewster, despite it being iPhone only for the moment. Last week we spent time cleaning out the attic of our old house in the burbs (which my brother-in-law is taking over). In a box I discovered an old Palm Pilot. It was the most visible reminder that electronic address books have essentially not changed in almost 20 years. For instance, I find it stunning that when I add a contact to my Android address book and try to add an email address it doesn’t auto...

Dalton Caldwell kicked up a fair bit of discussion with his post on paid-for services including a defense of free by my partner Fred. Here is a slightly different take on the issue at hand when looking at “media” style services (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc). Let’s start off by looking at advertising. At its core it is the routing of attention. You are looking at a newspaper, magazine, TV show, web site, web service (giving your attention to it) and one or more ads are trying to capture you...

Dalton Caldwell kicked up a fair bit of discussion with his post on paid-for services including a defense of free by my partner Fred. Here is a slightly different take on the issue at hand when looking at “media” style services (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc). Let’s start off by looking at advertising. At its core it is the routing of attention. You are looking at a newspaper, magazine, TV show, web site, web service (giving your attention to it) and one or more ads are trying to capture you...

Yesterday was the 4th of July but it also marked another independence day of sorts. The European parliament voted resoundingly against adopting ACTA (by 478 to 39 votes with 165 abstaining). ACTA you may recall was an attempt to create a new global intellectual property rights regime that would dramatically extend the rights of copyright holders everywhere. ACTA was conceived behind closed doors and kept secret for a long time, which isn’t surprising given its content. After the defeat of PIP...

Yesterday was the 4th of July but it also marked another independence day of sorts. The European parliament voted resoundingly against adopting ACTA (by 478 to 39 votes with 165 abstaining). ACTA you may recall was an attempt to create a new global intellectual property rights regime that would dramatically extend the rights of copyright holders everywhere. ACTA was conceived behind closed doors and kept secret for a long time, which isn’t surprising given its content. After the defeat of PIP...

A couple of weeks ago Gerhard Kallmann passed away. He was a most extraordinary man. You can read about his biography and influential work as an architect in the Boston Globe or the New York Times or one of several architecture sites. I had the privilege of getting to know him as he was Susan’s uncle (or, I guess, my uncle-in-law). When I was studying at MIT and living near Central Square, I would often hop on the T to Harvard to have dinner with him at his apartment just past the Cambridge C...

A couple of weeks ago Gerhard Kallmann passed away. He was a most extraordinary man. You can read about his biography and influential work as an architect in the Boston Globe or the New York Times or one of several architecture sites. I had the privilege of getting to know him as he was Susan’s uncle (or, I guess, my uncle-in-law). When I was studying at MIT and living near Central Square, I would often hop on the T to Harvard to have dinner with him at his apartment just past the Cambridge C...

Last time in the Tech Tuesday cycle on programming we saw that so-called reserved words have special meaning. They effectively constitute the built-in vocabulary of a programming language. Now let’s go all the way back to the basic analogy that I used for the overview post: programming is telling a computer what to do, which is very much like telling a person what to do. One of the expressive abilities that is required for that are conditionals, as in: if the front door is locked, then go aro...

Last time in the Tech Tuesday cycle on programming we saw that so-called reserved words have special meaning. They effectively constitute the built-in vocabulary of a programming language. Now let’s go all the way back to the basic analogy that I used for the overview post: programming is telling a computer what to do, which is very much like telling a person what to do. One of the expressive abilities that is required for that are conditionals, as in: if the front door is locked, then go aro...