Starting Up

Source link here.

Infuriatingly inane, trivial, and reeking of bullshit. I’m ashamed I deigned to link to it.

Techcrunch reported yesterday that evidence shows real-name commenting systems (as in, not anonymous) don’t make a difference.

I’m not sure the article was necessary. If you’ve ever read the real-name comments on Techcrunch, you know what I’m talking about. Commenters on the site still sling huge amounts of shit at each other, despite the fact that it all shows up on their facebook pages.

So: stop commenting. React from your own space. You give yourself a chance to re-frame any topic and determine the context without being included with the trolls and neckbeards. Most importantly, you’re forced to think about your response. That in itself is good enough reason to dismantle all commenting systems worldwide.

It’s been a time of great upheaval and change for me in the last few weeks. Without going into details, I’m moving on. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what I want to do with my time, and so now I’m going for it.

For those who know me, you know that I’m a Product person with a QA background and just enough programming knowledge to be dangerous. For those who don’t, I’m also a highly motivated individual who is tuned into the tech scene with a laser focus, so that’s where I plan to spend my time.

The most important fact I learned about myself is that I don’t want to take a job that I have to force myself to fit into. Like in a good relationship, there should be some give-and-take, but the job and I should be intrinsically interested in each other.

So, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Contract QA work for small startups: Most early-stage startups don’t have the resources to hire QA engineers full-time. That doesn’t exempt them from needing to release a product with a high level of quality, though, so I would love to help. I have experience with manual testing, UI automation, API automation, and building full regression test suites. I am also a usability/UI/UX guru, so you can expect quite a bit of extra peace of mind. You need to focus on coding, and I’d love to help. Email me at blog@samgimbel.com with inquiries.
• Product Management: This is second-nature to me. I’ve been a Product person at Hashable for over a year now, and I’ve released Hagar as a side-project. I know how to write a good user story and get the whole team on the same page. You can also expect me to say “no” to new features almost obsessively until the right feature comes along. Even then, expect iteration and refinement before implementing the darn thing. You have a product you care about, and I know how to maintain it and help it grow. Email me at blog@samgimbel.com with inquiries.
• QA-to-Live-Code: I’m a great QA Engineer. I’m also a budding programmer. I have experience writing Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and Objective C (iOS). I’d love to start by automating your QA process and diving into your codebase in the process. By the end of that cycle you can expect me to be able to write live code for your product, and I won’t let you down. You need QA people who can code, and I can be one of them. Email me at blog@samgimbel.com with inquiries.

It feels good to be making moves. Have a great idea you’d like to collaborate on? Definitely email me at blog@samgimbel.com. I’d love to help.

Here’s an interesting article from Read Write Web, posted yesterday: Millennials: they aren’t so tech savvy anymore.

TL;DR: kids aren’t living up to the expectation that being immersed in technology from a young age should prepare them for college and the professional world.

I’m sure it’s true. The assertion that kids really only have mastery of social media by the time they graduate high school is believable. But it’s also pretty silly to assume that a largely broken education system is going to prepare students more in the realm of technology than in any other way.

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These are free ideas. On the off-chance you sell your company based on my idea for billions of dollars you can take me out for coffee. Really, really good coffee:

1. An API that tells you if someone is reachable on any device. Takes Skype, Gchat, Facebook, AIM, Google Talk, etc. and returns “YES” or “NO.”
2. A box for landlords/owners with a switch for every apartment they own/manage. Each switch has two positions: “rented” and “free.” Has a wireless connection to write to an online database with contact information.
3. A mobile app that pings you as you near a crowded subway station. You can curate a list of stations you care about.

Simple ideas are great. Simple ideas that fulfill a real physical need are better. Simple ideas that fulfill a real physical need AND can be easily prototyped and demonstrated are better. Owning an existing product based on one of these ideas is best.

Here’s an awesome post by opensignalmaps on their experience as developers with Android fragmentation: http://opensignalmaps.com/reports/fragmentation.php.

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Here’s the article in question: Warren Buffett Is A Punk

Pure drivel. I don’t understand why this was allowed past the editor’s desk, and it has nothing to do with the position Altucher is taking. Read the rest of this post »

…no, that’s the end of that statement [with two or three exceptional exceptions].

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Link to Article: “Gangbang Interviews” And “Bikini Shots”: Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem 

“‘Brogrammer’ isn’t an exclusionary term,” wrote a commenter identifying himself as “Toronto Brogrammer” on a recent Businessweek story. “The female equivalent is called a ‘hogrammer’ and I have big respect for women that wear that badge proudly.” “Proglamming” and “brogramette” have also been tossed out…

Mother Jones has published a nice exposé on specific instances of the rampant sexism in the tech industry. I’ve addressed it once on this blog here. I think what’s especially illuminating is that these male programmers frequently use the “You’d realize he’s not sexist at all if you just got to know him” defense. This is the best evidence that they don’t understand what sexism means.

Well here you have it, folks.  Hagar The Harfowl has been updated and extended.  We’ve added two diverging story lines, hidden (and not so hidden) animations, a mini-game, and fully updated artwork.

Click here to download: Hagar The Harfowl