I'm not sure why people find the 401k changes confusing, here is how it works:
The employee defers up to 18K (IRS limit), MSFT matches 50% of it, which is up to 9K.
Previously they contributed 50% of the first 6% the employee deferred = a maximum of 3% of the salary. So for anyone who makes less than 300K (9K / 0.03), this means a higher match from MSFT.
I don't get the big deal with free OS X updates. Apple sells hardware at a premium and you get the software with it. You can't buy Apple software, so why should you be able to buy software upgrades? It should have always been free, just like iOS upgrades are free.
This is a great idea (assuming that the budget exist), because it takes care of retention, not just recruiting.
I'd split the bonus between the two employees, and have it stop if either leave the company. This way both employees (who might have some influence on one another) have an incentive to keep each other happy at that company. This can boost the retention effect of this strategy.
I'd argue that HN has a built-in mechanism for determining what's interesting to its users. If a Bitcoin related story gets voted up to appear in the top page every day, then maybe it should be there.
I agree, it's not necessarily a bad idea. I meant that most people (even most hackers) probably won't do it. I think the biggest issue is reliability, since if your SMTP server is down emails sent to you are rejected.
This happened to me once and it took a while until they reinstated my account. To date I have no idea why it happened. I thought about moving to another service, but unless you setup your own SMTP server (probably not a good idea), you never really have full control.
Here is what I recommend you do (before getting locked out):
2. Create a secondary email account and have your primary account forward all emails to it.
If you get locked out, your account still accepts emails. I believe that forwarding still works as well, though I haven't been able to verify it (need to get locked out again...).
Then either respond from your secondary account, or change your mx records to point to another service, or even to your own temporary SMTP server.
It's not a complete / ideal solution. You still don't have access to emails you sent (could be done using IMAP, but I didn't bother) and to other Google services. But it might be OK as a temporary solution until you get your account back.
The overheated market causes high valuation, which some argue, hurts investors. By saying bubble and discouraging unsophisticated investors from bidding, he probably stands to gain, not lose.
Everyone has a vested interest in what they deal with (or they're amateurs, hence I don't need their opinion). That doesn't mean they never say the truth.
"Most people who have a well developed understanding of an industry and basic financial sense easily recognize bubbles and have always done so in the past."
I try to listen to what people I trust from the industry say about the existence of a bubble. Pretty much all of them say that there is none. For example Ben Horowitz (of Andreesen Horowitz) consistently argues that there is absolutely no bubble (and he was around for the real bubble occurred). See 5:10 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xzcJnqcTP4
I think that often when markets become hot, people automatically think of a bubble, but that's not necessarily true. The internet has grown from 50 million users to over 2 billion and smartphones were non-existent in the 90s. So perhaps higher valuations for tech companies are justified due to higher potential.
As a gadget freak and a hacker, I love this product. But I wonder how many people use a watch these days. Of course this is no ordinary watch, but when you have a supercomputer (in the shape of a phone) in your pocket, is it really needed? I suppose it's great for sports, but I'm not sure whether it has mass market potential (selling ~10K in a few hours is amazing, but isn't mass market yet). I'm actually on the fence with this one...
In general I think that watches will make a comeback only if they become the phone. Maybe Pebble will be well positioned to do that in the future (remember iPod -> iPhone?).
BTW It's nice to see a hardware company coming out of YC. Also nice to know that Eric is from Vancouver. Good luck Pebble! I'll buy one as soon as I stop being a starving bootstrapper.
Here is something ironic. I bet you many of DDG's users are hackers who use it for privacy reasons. The same hackers who rely on Google Analytics in their own websites. If DuckDuckGo grows to become more than a niche search engine, the same hackers who use it will have to reinvent Analytics somehow. This is reason #1 why DDG will stay small. Reason #2 is that if necessary, a DuckDuckGoogle can be created in an afternoon's worth of effort in Mountain View.
I don't think we're in a bubble. How can the author compare the IPO of Facebook, a company with a billion users and billion dollar in revenue, to those IPOs of the late 90s of companies with no revenue and no viable plan to have any in the foreseeable future? In fact most IPOs since LinkedIn started the trend are of mature companies. That's not what happened in the bubble days.
It's true that more companies are being created and seed valuations are going up. But the selection process still occurs at the series A stage and crappy companies usually still can't pass that hurdle.
As for the JOBS act: if I'm not mistaken investment is capped at (the lowest of) $10K or 10% of the annual salary. I believe you even have to go through a course before you can invest though the JOBS act. Conversely, in the stock market you can invest as much as you want, without any training, and lose everything overnight.
The fact is that economy fluctuates. Whenever there's an upswing people scream bubble. It's a result of the traumatic effect of previous bubbles. But the irony is that real bubbles sneak on you. Hardly anyone sees them coming. So keep screaming bubble, it makes me feel safe.
"One of its main byproducts is the replacement of low-productivity workers with computers."
This is the main fallacy of this article.
It's actually "high-productivity workers", who build technology, which replaces "low-productivity workers". For that to happen, more "high-productivity workers" are required. Do they realize how hard it is to find talent in tech these days? The economy is ever evolving and becoming more efficient. There is really nothing new here, this has been happening for decades and centuries. With some adjustments, this article could be published 100 years ago and probably 100 years into the future.
One problem is that it's hard for people, especially at a certain age to adapt their skill set. So while some sectors are struggling to find employees, others have too many. It's the friction that is created by economy's evolution. But we have to look beyond the cold numbers. This is a social problem. With 8% unemployment rate, an unemployed person is not 8% unemployed, he is 100% unemployed. That's a person like you and me, with family and dreams.
However, I believe that in the future this friction will actually become lower. With technology and internet becoming prevalent, high quality, relevant education will become accessible and affordable. In other words, when education finally becomes part of that "second economy" (and it will), things will get better, not worse.
When this happens, then ironically this "second economy" could actually solve the problem the article says it creates.
Things are changing. Technology is cheaper, internet is prevalent and small organizations disrupt the ways of the dinosaurs. We've seen that with newspapers, we are seeing that with Hollywood and we'll soon see it in education. The dinosaurs are big and powerful, but we all know what happens to them eventually. Sooner or later technology wins. Always.
Having said that I hope Geocoder gets help with PR. I'm no PR expert but the fact that this post is not on their front page is the first bad sign. And the media, which always loves a David & Goliath story, apparently hasn't covered this; that's another bad sign. Swaying public opinion to your side is the way to win this, not litigation. If Geocoder lets Canada Post drag them to court they've already lost.
As a Canadian I'm one of the owners of Canada Post and I hope I lose.
Facebook should open a new savings account and deposit $1.37 million every day. In two years it will have the $1 billion they'll pay to acquire Everyme.
"Everyme uses your phone’s address book for sharing, and if people don’t have Everyme accounts, they can still see and post content through email and text messages."
This is a brilliant way to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem, which is probably the biggest problem a new social network is facing.
I don't want to share my kids' pictures with everyone on Facebook. And no, my mom is not going to join Google+ (nor should she), so having her receive the posts by emails for now is just brilliant.