It turns out I announced Tech Tuesday just over two years ago and wrote the first actual post on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, titled “Computing’s Building Blocks.” Today I am recapping some of the major themes that I have covered so far as preparation for thinking about what to write about next. The Building Blocks sequence started with the Binary System. It then took a look at the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and contrasted Main Memory with other Storage. Next up was Networking for connecting...

It turns out I announced Tech Tuesday just over two years ago and wrote the first actual post on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, titled “Computing’s Building Blocks.” Today I am recapping some of the major themes that I have covered so far as preparation for thinking about what to write about next. The Building Blocks sequence started with the Binary System. It then took a look at the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and contrasted Main Memory with other Storage. Next up was Networking for connecting...

So yesterday the Feds busted the guy behind Silk Road, the marketplace for drugs and other illegal things paid in bitcoin. The indictment reads like a screenplay for a movie or Breaking Bad style television series (not that I watched Breaking Bad, just basing this on the inevitable flurry of tweets about it that I had in my stream). There should be one key takeaway here: law enforcement is easier online, not harder as government would generally have us believe. It is basically impossible to o...

So yesterday the Feds busted the guy behind Silk Road, the marketplace for drugs and other illegal things paid in bitcoin. The indictment reads like a screenplay for a movie or Breaking Bad style television series (not that I watched Breaking Bad, just basing this on the inevitable flurry of tweets about it that I had in my stream). There should be one key takeaway here: law enforcement is easier online, not harder as government would generally have us believe. It is basically impossible to o...

Later today I am giving a talk titled the “ABC of Startup Recruiting” as part of a speaker series that Susan is putting together for Ziggeo. This is the first time I am giving this talk and I am quite excited about it as this is such a critical topic for startups. The opening slide is a picture of Alec Baldwin from Glengarry Glenn Ross in the famous “Always Be Closing” scene. For startups and hiring the ABC instead stands for “Always Be Collecting Candidates.” I have found that the best entre...

Later today I am giving a talk titled the “ABC of Startup Recruiting” as part of a speaker series that Susan is putting together for Ziggeo. This is the first time I am giving this talk and I am quite excited about it as this is such a critical topic for startups. The opening slide is a picture of Alec Baldwin from Glengarry Glenn Ross in the famous “Always Be Closing” scene. For startups and hiring the ABC instead stands for “Always Be Collecting Candidates.” I have found that the best entre...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about common blindspots for all engineering founding teams (marketing, sales) and ditto for all business founding teams (technology). In the comments Brandon asked “how many designer led companies have these problems”? The short answer is “it depends”! What does it depend on? What you mean by “designer.” If by designer you mean someone who is in love with a pretty surface (UI) then I have actually seen both failure modes – failure to deliver the actual product ...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about common blindspots for all engineering founding teams (marketing, sales) and ditto for all business founding teams (technology). In the comments Brandon asked “how many designer led companies have these problems”? The short answer is “it depends”! What does it depend on? What you mean by “designer.” If by designer you mean someone who is in love with a pretty surface (UI) then I have actually seen both failure modes – failure to deliver the actual product ...

Last week in Homeschool Wednesdays I wrote about the New York State requirement for an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP). One of the sections that I have been thinking a fair bit about is science. So I have started to put together a Hackpad with what I think everyone should know in science. I literally mean everyone here. I have a strong believe that the world would be a better place if more people knew more about science. If you want to contribute head over to the Hackpad. It is cu...

Last week in Homeschool Wednesdays I wrote about the New York State requirement for an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP). One of the sections that I have been thinking a fair bit about is science. So I have started to put together a Hackpad with what I think everyone should know in science. I literally mean everyone here. I have a strong believe that the world would be a better place if more people knew more about science. If you want to contribute head over to the Hackpad. It is cu...

Thanks to an early copy (full disclosure: provided by Alexis – thanks!) I just had the pleasure of reading Alexis Ohanian’s “Without Their Permission” on my flight back from SF to New York. The book will come out on October 1st, but you can pre-order it now and I highly recommend that you do. It is really a three for one deal: first, a brief and entertaining history of both Reddit and Hipmunk; second, a wonderful two chapter Startup MBA that contains advice that I wholeheartedly endorse; and ...

Thanks to an early copy (full disclosure: provided by Alexis – thanks!) I just had the pleasure of reading Alexis Ohanian’s “Without Their Permission” on my flight back from SF to New York. The book will come out on October 1st, but you can pre-order it now and I highly recommend that you do. It is really a three for one deal: first, a brief and entertaining history of both Reddit and Hipmunk; second, a wonderful two chapter Startup MBA that contains advice that I wholeheartedly endorse; and ...

Germany elected its national parliament yesterday and the results are quite interesting. Angela Merkel’s party the CDU/CSU added substantial gains going from 33.8% in 2009 to 41.5% of the public vote now. That is almost the largest majority for any German chancellor (since Konrad Adenauer). These gains were aided by the collapse of Germany’s historic third party, the FDP which went from 14.6% in 2009 to 4.8% now which, if confirmed, means the party will no longer be represented in the German ...

Germany elected its national parliament yesterday and the results are quite interesting. Angela Merkel’s party the CDU/CSU added substantial gains going from 33.8% in 2009 to 41.5% of the public vote now. That is almost the largest majority for any German chancellor (since Konrad Adenauer). These gains were aided by the collapse of Germany’s historic third party, the FDP which went from 14.6% in 2009 to 4.8% now which, if confirmed, means the party will no longer be represented in the German ...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote about how engineering led companies sometimes underrate the importance of marketing and sales. One of the comments on Twitter pointed out that the converse is also often true and I replied that I will write a post about that, so here it goes. Many companies founded by a pure business team tend to struggle with technology and fail to deliver the products or services they envision. There are at least three distinct failure modes that I have seen here over time. The fir...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote about how engineering led companies sometimes underrate the importance of marketing and sales. One of the comments on Twitter pointed out that the converse is also often true and I replied that I will write a post about that, so here it goes. Many companies founded by a pure business team tend to struggle with technology and fail to deliver the products or services they envision. There are at least three distinct failure modes that I have seen here over time. The fir...

A few days ago I wrote about my support of the defense fund for Barrett Brown. One of the reasons regulators and legislators seem to think we need such over the top draconian sentences is because we have the wrong security model for payments in particular and authentication more generally. Information will continue to leak – that is it’s nature. It should not be possible for me to transact in your account simply by having information on your account. Instead we need to broadly embrace two fac...

A few days ago I wrote about my support of the defense fund for Barrett Brown. One of the reasons regulators and legislators seem to think we need such over the top draconian sentences is because we have the wrong security model for payments in particular and authentication more generally. Information will continue to leak – that is it’s nature. It should not be possible for me to transact in your account simply by having information on your account. Instead we need to broadly embrace two fac...

I was hoping not to write about the Government Shutdown and the looming debt ceiling. But with us entering the second week of this madness it is becoming hard to ignore and my European friends are beginning to send concerned or enraged emails. So here are my current views. 1. I may be in the minority here but I believe the financial markets would not completely seize up on a technical default by the government. It wouldn’t be pretty but I think enough folks understand the difference between t...

I was hoping not to write about the Government Shutdown and the looming debt ceiling. But with us entering the second week of this madness it is becoming hard to ignore and my European friends are beginning to send concerned or enraged emails. So here are my current views. 1. I may be in the minority here but I believe the financial markets would not completely seize up on a technical default by the government. It wouldn’t be pretty but I think enough folks understand the difference between t...