I don't know that I can speak for everyone my age, but I'm more or less the same guy I was at 25 -- better in a lot of ways, but the same person. If you asked me if my self-awareness has "improved" or "degraded", I'd be hard-pressed to answer. I can't say that it's changed a whole lot, except slightly for the better. I'm certainly less OCD than I was, and understand myself better. But I don't think the big answer you're looking for is actually there.
Leaves doubts in the mind of one guy. At least, that's all they could find.
Just being able to grow and remain profitable in times like this -- doesn't that show something?
And, uh, just because OpenTable is solely in the restaurant business in the U.S., does that automatically mean its business model is severely limited? There aren't other markets, other countries?
I have doubts like the next guy, but I have doubts based on logic, not FUD.
I'm 45 and spend all of my time (currently) consulting with startups. At one, the average age is maybe 28. At another, at probably about 48 (no kidding). At yet another, probably 40.
Summary: oh my god, this "cloud" thing might make us stop resting on our hardware "appliance" laurels! I will attack on every front I can think of, emphasize security to maximize hysterical potential, and nitpick terminology so I seem more credible.
In the world of encryption algorithms, you never, ever assume that some guy's new scheme is bullet proof. It takes years of testing before you can firmly say that an algorithm doesn't have weaknesses.
This guy, by announcing that his brand new algorithm just made bcrypt obsolete, is only showing his ignorance.
I didn't understand what the rant was truly all about, but it was a hoot. Extra props for linking to suck.com's posting from 1998. Oh, and the photo of a Kitler.
It's got some good stuff, but it's a bit out-dated. Its mindset is maybe 2001-2002 and comes from the point-of-view that the days of the 2-3 person startup being able to compete with large companies is over. It also assumes you're going to want large amounts of capital, immediately, from VCs, and is focused on that process.
I have also noticed the same trend -- companies are willing to spend money on worthwhile services and products. I'm consulting at two startups that sell products/services, and both of them have a nice collection of first customers. Better yet, interest is clearly growing. I keep pointing out that this is amazing considering the economy; I'm not always sure they completely understand how well they're doing.
The real point is: don't assume you can't get companies to buy things. They can, especially if it makes pain go away. Be aspirin, not a vitamin.
I'd agree, except for all the reasons people gave below. Also, Slicehost is the only other service that provides RAM > 2GB. And EC2 offers more variety of configuration (higher CPU performance versions, larger RAM versions) than anyone else.
I really wish Slicehost or Linode or SoftLayer or someone would do something a little closer to what Amazon's doing, and provide some enterprise-level competition. I have clients who would love to move to Slicehost but probably can't, because of the disk space limit and other similar restrictions.
1- thx for the ruby dsl link -- I hadn't heard of it, and I can't understand why
2- the problem with using EBS comes when you have a larger DB, like, oh, 80GB or so. It takes no less than 6-8 hours to produce a snapshot of that -- I just tried it. You can do a simple rsync to another instance in like 2-3 hours. I want to like EBS but it seems ... slow.
Dupe or not -- anyone know if this equally applies to Ruby 1.9? I've started using it full-time now for my Rails apps (2.3.2) and the speed boost is serious. Another 30% ... wow.
I've been in the security business for 15 years and have never heard of Thomas. I'm a CISSP, was a CISO of a financial institution for 6 years, and do professional security auditing.
I don't care what this Thomas guys says -- if you don't believe me, believe OWASP (http://owasp.org/) -- this is a serious and fundamental security problem.
I don't know that I can speak for everyone my age, but I'm more or less the same guy I was at 25 -- better in a lot of ways, but the same person. If you asked me if my self-awareness has "improved" or "degraded", I'd be hard-pressed to answer. I can't say that it's changed a whole lot, except slightly for the better. I'm certainly less OCD than I was, and understand myself better. But I don't think the big answer you're looking for is actually there.