Last Tech Tuesday we got started on data types as port of the ongoing cycle on programming. This post will not make sense without reading Part 1, so if you haven’t you should go back and do that now. We encountered the problem of “adding” two variables where one holds a number and the other holds some text. Today we will dig a bit deeper into this problem. Let’s start by looking at the question what it even means for a variable to hold a value. As I explained in the post on literals, constant...

Last Tech Tuesday we got started on data types as port of the ongoing cycle on programming. This post will not make sense without reading Part 1, so if you haven’t you should go back and do that now. We encountered the problem of “adding” two variables where one holds a number and the other holds some text. Today we will dig a bit deeper into this problem. Let’s start by looking at the question what it even means for a variable to hold a value. As I explained in the post on literals, constant...

Velocity is a great O'Reilly conference on web performance and operations and many of the devops attend each year. The theme for 2012 is “A Faster, Stronger Web.” I am honored to be giving a keynote there and what will likely be one of only a few non-technical presentations. Instead of talking about software and servers, I will focus on political and commercial threats and opportunities for a faster and stronger web. What does that mean? On the political side, I will be covering threats ...

Velocity is a great O'Reilly conference on web performance and operations and many of the devops attend each year. The theme for 2012 is “A Faster, Stronger Web.” I am honored to be giving a keynote there and what will likely be one of only a few non-technical presentations. Instead of talking about software and servers, I will focus on political and commercial threats and opportunities for a faster and stronger web. What does that mean? On the political side, I will be covering threats ...

Foursquare’s new release was a big deal. I wrote yesterday about the courage it takes to make these kind of changes. Fred posted today about how he loves the “like” for check-ins. My personal favorite is the amazing new feed. I have already discovered several awesome lists and to-dos in the feed. I can now add those with a single click. Before the new release I might not even have seen them. All of this points to the importance of product and with it product management for the success of star...

Foursquare’s new release was a big deal. I wrote yesterday about the courage it takes to make these kind of changes. Fred posted today about how he loves the “like” for check-ins. My personal favorite is the amazing new feed. I have already discovered several awesome lists and to-dos in the feed. I can now add those with a single click. Before the new release I might not even have seen them. All of this points to the importance of product and with it product management for the success of star...

Huge kudos to the entire team at foursquare on today’s release. This is not just about the incredible amount of work that has gone into building the release (and for iOS and Android simultaneously to boot). It is primarily about what I have called the “courage of big changes.” This new foursquare release brings exactly the kind of big changes that take courage to make because inevitably there will be users who won’t like some or even all of them. It would be so much easier to get trapped in i...

Huge kudos to the entire team at foursquare on today’s release. This is not just about the incredible amount of work that has gone into building the release (and for iOS and Android simultaneously to boot). It is primarily about what I have called the “courage of big changes.” This new foursquare release brings exactly the kind of big changes that take courage to make because inevitably there will be users who won’t like some or even all of them. It would be so much easier to get trapped in i...

Today’s post is over on the USV blog about Wattpad’s amazing growth and new round of fundraising. I am excited about about how they are re-imagining the book!

Today’s post is over on the USV blog about Wattpad’s amazing growth and new round of fundraising. I am excited about about how they are re-imagining the book!

Since it’s been a couple of weeks first off a quick reminder that we are in the middle of a Tech Tuesday cycle on programming. We left off learning about literals, constants and variables. If you don’t remember, now is probably a good time to briefly look back at it. As you do, you will notice that the examples involve both numbers, e.g. 42, and text, e.g. “Bill Gates.” In the last post these appear as literals and as values of named constants or variables. As humans we bring a lot of knowled...

Since it’s been a couple of weeks first off a quick reminder that we are in the middle of a Tech Tuesday cycle on programming. We left off learning about literals, constants and variables. If you don’t remember, now is probably a good time to briefly look back at it. As you do, you will notice that the examples involve both numbers, e.g. 42, and text, e.g. “Bill Gates.” In the last post these appear as literals and as values of named constants or variables. As humans we bring a lot of knowled...

In December 2010 I wrote a post saying that Google shouldn’t buy Groupon but that it would be a good idea for Groupon to sell at the then rumored price of $5.3 billion with a $0.7 billion earn out. As of Friday’s close, Groupon’s market cap is $6.3 billion or 5% above what the full deal consideration would have been. So should they have sold back then? It is still far from clear, especially now that important details around the deal have emerged from an article in the WSJ. The key point from ...

In December 2010 I wrote a post saying that Google shouldn’t buy Groupon but that it would be a good idea for Groupon to sell at the then rumored price of $5.3 billion with a $0.7 billion earn out. As of Friday’s close, Groupon’s market cap is $6.3 billion or 5% above what the full deal consideration would have been. So should they have sold back then? It is still far from clear, especially now that important details around the deal have emerged from an article in the WSJ. The key point from ...

All of my China impressions are to be taken with a fairly big grain of salt as I only spent 12 days there and was mostly a tourist. I am sure people who have been living there for years and/or have started businesses will be more reliable sources of information. With that caveat out of the way here is one of my most important impressions. China has the opportunity to grow its Internet sector by leapfrogging development stages common in the US and other Western economies. This is particularly ...

All of my China impressions are to be taken with a fairly big grain of salt as I only spent 12 days there and was mostly a tourist. I am sure people who have been living there for years and/or have started businesses will be more reliable sources of information. With that caveat out of the way here is one of my most important impressions. China has the opportunity to grow its Internet sector by leapfrogging development stages common in the US and other Western economies. This is particularly ...

We just got back from spending 12 amazing days in China. Given the 12 hour time difference, I feel a bit like the Panda in the picture below and a more detailed set of impressions will have to wait. But one thing is for sure - it’s hard to look at the world in quite the same way once have seen China first hand. Just one example: we had flawless mobile phone coverage including data everywhere we went including a boat trip down the Li River and a visit to the rice terraces of Longsheng. Hence m...

We just got back from spending 12 amazing days in China. Given the 12 hour time difference, I feel a bit like the Panda in the picture below and a more detailed set of impressions will have to wait. But one thing is for sure - it’s hard to look at the world in quite the same way once have seen China first hand. Just one example: we had flawless mobile phone coverage including data everywhere we went including a boat trip down the Li River and a visit to the rice terraces of Longsheng. Hence m...

We are about to go on a trip to China and I couldn’t be more excited. I have never been to Asia before and am looking forward to the experience. China in particular has held my fascination since taking Roderick MacFarquhar’s amazing course on the Cultural Revolution in college. And now of course China has been seeing dramatic economic growth with a domestic Internet population that is approaching 500 million users. For a variety of reasons that include language and culture but of course also ...

We are about to go on a trip to China and I couldn’t be more excited. I have never been to Asia before and am looking forward to the experience. China in particular has held my fascination since taking Roderick MacFarquhar’s amazing course on the Cultural Revolution in college. And now of course China has been seeing dramatic economic growth with a domestic Internet population that is approaching 500 million users. For a variety of reasons that include language and culture but of course also ...