Listening to some UK Garage today. Altavista reference made me smile.
You won't find us on Alta Vista
Cult classic not bestseller, you're gonna need more power
Plug in the free phase and the generator, crank it up to gigawatts
I'm hopeful that the San Jose deployment has a halo effect throughout the Bay Area. Your move Comcast.
1 min read
I'm hopeful that the San Jose deployment has a halo effect throughout the Bay Area. Your move Comcast.
Originally shared by Google
Today we’ve invited 34 cities in nine metro areas around the U.S. to work with us to explore what it would take to bring them Google Fiber. In the coming months, we'll work with each city's leaders on a joint planning process to map out a Google Fiber network in detail and assess potential challenges to bringing 100x faster Internet to these communities. We aim to provide updates about which of these cities will be getting Google Fiber at the end of the year. Learn more:
Comcast just lobbies to outlaw partnerships like this.
Peter Peters that's true, but hopefully with what happened with the bill in Kansas will gain traction to other states to limit that behavior. Admittedly, unless new laws are passed invalidating the ones that were already passed, some (at least 20) states are SOL.
Actually, Paul Lindner, if you look at the smaller dots around San Jose, there are a few coming up the Oakland side of the Bay, though I'm not sure if they go as far north as Oakland.
Jeff Craig -- looks like that's just a little bit of Santa Clara heading my way..
Since Comcast operates a unified environment in the bay area it's likely many more people will benefit indirectly.
I sure hope fiber comes to Oakland. I've been to Verizon's web site requesting it.
Paul Lam I wouldn't hold your breath given the Oakland Planning Department's glacial speed and ancient computing infrastructure.
If you read the guide they mention that the host city should be able to approve thousands of Building Permits to allow crews to move fast...
And of course there's CEQA.. One person could file a lawsuit on environmental grounds and grind the whole thing to a halt for years... I'll be extremely surprised if San Jose makes the cut.
Are any of our politicians even trying to get inward investment of this type?
1 min read
Are any of our politicians even trying to get inward investment of this type? Twitter moved into a neighborhood (SF mid-market) that's worse than most areas of Oakland. It would only take a few companies to change hearts and minds...
They are, of course, but since the Oakland city government is largely incompetent, they aren't making much headway. And it WON'T help if Deanna Santana goes to Phoenix.
Interesting article, thanks for sharing. I've been hoping for this kind if shift for ages, as the increased tax base would make it possible for Oakland to afford social programs and great schools and enough police. I know, dream big. :)
Finally, from the article, funny/sad because it's true: Oakland " is already home to a few tech companies, including Pandora and whatever is left of Ask.com". Ouch!
Can we learn from the last Comcast Merger?
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Can we learn from the last Comcast Merger? I hope we can. This recent NPR interview with Susan Crawford goes into the details.
The big risk here is a larger Comcast can leverage Content to keep new entrants out of the market.
That new entrant has to enter on two levels. It has to build communications infrastructure. But it also has to get access to programming, because 91 percent of Americans have paid TV prescriptions, as well as high-speed Internet access subscriptions. They want both. So Comcast pays much less for programming - because it has so many subscribers, and because it owns one of the big players - than any new entrant would. This is yet another cudgel, another sledgehammer that Comcast can use to keep any potential alternative network competition at bay.
Finally some positive news for the stray dogs in Sochi.
1 min read
Finally some positive news for the stray dogs in Sochi.
If anyone can find a way to monetarily support their work please let me know. In the meantime I'm donating to the Detroit Dog Rescue, which is facing a similar stray dogs problem.
Daft Punk may have won some Grammys last night - but when I wanted retro electronic/synth I was pleasantly surprised...
1 min read
Daft Punk may have won some Grammys last night - but when I wanted retro electronic/synth I was pleasantly surprised to discover Psykosonik via Google Play
Cyberpunk themes, Nintendo SNES ties-ins and beats reminiscent of Crystal Method The make this some great coding music. They'll also be my soundtrack of choice if I ever make another ray-traced 3-D demo.
Anil Dash - I'm saddened that someone that I worked with and respect wrote something so out of touch with the...
4 min read
Anil Dash - I'm saddened that someone that I worked with and respect wrote something so out of touch with the situation that's going on here in the Bay Area. You seem to believe the media hype that the "techies" are elitist and out of touch and that better "marketing" will help win hearts and minds.
The reality is that tech companies and employees are already doing much of what you advocate for, and doing more of it, or marketing it, won't change the situation. Avatars, Logos, and signs won't help. Helping people afford housing will.
Specifically:
Using Voices
Employees and company leaders already advocate for better housing and infrastructure. Google has succeeded[1] and failed[2] to build housing in Mountain View near it's campus. Facebook too[3].
Volunteering and Civic Initiatives
Google (and other companies) match donations 1:1 and encourage their employees to give. There's also the following
- Google.org
- Google for Nonprofits
- Supporting local communities via GoogleServe[5]
- Google sponsored a huge push to fund Kiva loans last year via their own and employees giving.
I am very proud of what's been done here and how Google has made me a better donator and volunteer.
Community Involvement
Extending benefits like food and day care to people in the community is an interesting idea. There are problems however -- employee services are at the work places, not in the neighborhood where people's rent are going up.
Plus there are often better ways for employees to engage with the community. I've met and talked to plenty of people while picking up trash in West Oakland. Plenty of other people are already very active in their churches, schools and communities.
In Closing...
If every shuttle was banned the problem would still remain. In the past 10 years San Francisco has built 17k new units of housing while adding 75k residents[6]. This is a complex issue that's not going away soon. Marketing isn't going to change it. Getting more housing and helping people worried about paying rent will, even while many are directly benefitting[7].
I'll leave you with the conclusions from Elias Levy's in-depth data based analysis[8] of the situation:
In the end, tech workers are simply a convenient straw man for folks to direct their anger at high rents, which are simply the result of a strong economy, the anti-development history of San Francisco, the city’s limited geography, and market forces. In a slightly different scenario, the vilified workers could have been in biotech, aerospace, or finance. So long as the local economy is strong, San Francisco is a desirable place to live in, and the population increases, rents, like real estate, will go up in San Francisco. At best, we can slow down these market forces and provide a helping hand to those less fortunate to ensure they have some support dealing with these changes.
Full disclosure: I work at Google. I wrote part of this on a Shuttle from the East Bay, and would still be driving if it wasn't available.
Mr Dash doesn't understand that envy and resentment are emotions immune to reason and persuasion
I don't get Anil's continued involvement in tech. He seems so clearly burned out and bitter. Is he trapped by his own success? All I can think is that it is time for a long vacation or a new thing to get passionate about. Apologies if this is a little off-topic.
I think Mr. Dash just hurt his future employment opportunities for himself. I hope he uses that money of his to start his own business cause I would not hire him.
The thing is I do like what Anil is doing with Thinkup and I hope that it can prove a successful model for more community based companies.
He's entitled to his opinions (and he has an opinion on lots of things). Given the volume he's bound to miss the mark now and again. That's why I called him on it.
In any case you can always take a break and read his thoughts on Prince instead :)
Michael Durwin -- The stats at
http://elias-levy.tumblr.com/post/74103701680/san-francisco-eviction-protests
show that the problem is more perception than reality.
That said the people in the middle are getting squeezed, and that includes people working in technology. None of my coworkers could pay cash for property like you mention.
The people paying cash are the speculators and investors looking to cash in on the growing economy.
Michael Durwin -- agreed, affordability is a huge problem. I was focused on the Eviction rates, which is the basis for many of the complaints.
If we got rid of the shuttles that would maybe remove
Michael Durwin - rent control as currently enacted creates lots of perverse economic incentives: for landlords to stop maintaining their buildings (because the collected rent doesn't cover it). For tenants never to move, even if it makes sense for them to do so otherwise. For landlords to try an evict tenants who pay far below market. For new residents and residents forced to move to pay way higher rents than more stable residents. For residents to play arbitrage on the system by subsidizing their rent with AirBnB or newer roommates.
I've seen firsthand some of the evils of rent control and it is a crude instrument of social policy. If we think that the elderly, sick and/or artists to be able to stay in a neighborhood, why "charge" the landlord? Why not subsidize their rent directly with a gov't program? For the rest of us, rent increases can be spread out over the entire house stock, which means that not just the new or moving around kids get stuck with the bill - and any given rent increase is likely to be quite modest.
I'm with Paul Lindner - it is more about increasing capacity than protecting existing and ever diminishing rent-controlled rental stock.
LOL smh #facepalm
TM Yi the problem is WHERE to build it. And you won't find developers lining up to build $1000 a month apartments with zero space for margins. More taxes is not the answer.
When every newly proposed housing development is not picketed by the SF NIMBY crowd, we can have a conversation about more housing.
It's a supply issue. If you want cheaper, there needs to be more. Pushing tech workers out of the city might solve one problem but causes many others.
The most important aspect is the 75k people a year moving in the area (me included).
This whole situation would no happen if the internet kept one of its promises, successful remote work.
If all these jobs were spread out over a much larger area, say all of California, or all of US or more, then
a) you wouldn't have a bubble in one small area like SF
b) you'd have benefits from high salaries in many places
The irony of course is that these internet companies don't believe in the power of the tools they build ;) and they insist in local-prevailing wages, therefore pushing everyone to move to the bay area.
Give me a bay area salary with Mexico's cost of living and we have a deal!
That author apparently didn't Google hard enough.
1. They do invest in affordable housing. The argument that it needs to be a Google X project is a red herring.
2. They tried to build housing in Mountain View. It was killed by NIMBYists.
http://www.mv-voice.com/print/story/2012/07/13/google-housing-axed-in-citys-general-plan
Could change be in the air?
By that I mean that I see that many people care and are getting involved.
The "middle class" in San Francisco are a little out of touch themselves. Living in any city, particularly a desirable one like SF, is expensive. This is playing out across the country to some extent or another, but because SF has a high density of tech workers there is a perceived central "enemy", when in reality no socioeconomic group has any claim to affordable housing. One person's affordable is another's mansion.
All future postmortems will now contain animations. Seriously though -- this is pretty detailed.. and a bit scary.
1 min read
All future postmortems will now contain animations. Seriously though -- this is pretty detailed.. and a bit scary.
Originally shared by Ihab Awad
Entertaining failure chain. :)
background:
LETSDANCE.TO is an app that syncs new songs with old video clips of dancers.
The suggested tracks are automatically generated using the excellent Echonest API and are matched on their BPM (beats-per-minute) and a number of other factors.
N.B. The list of songs were NOT manually selected - therefore some combinations work well, some not so well.
C'mon San Jose!
M PottyMouth , Feb 19 2014 on known.dev.inuus.com