Some Of These Layoffs Aren't Really Layoffs - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/17/some-of-these-layoffs-arent-really-layoffs/ <comment><USER2> Interesting that people are admitting it, but this has probably been true for longer than I've been paying attention (about a decade) -- it's generally recognized that the first cut is deadwood, especially if the number is low (like the quoted myspace 5%).

An often overlooked silver lining to this is that a person under-performing in a position often has as much to do with the position as the performer. The person will probably go on to find a better, happier, more productive, or higher paying job elsewhere. Failure of a person in a role has as much to do with the management that put them in the position as the guy who ended up there, _especially_ when the employer is in bulk-up mode.

</comment><comment><USER3> _"... A company that has made layoffs is branded a loser, and it becomes very hard to get positive press, recruit new talent and close new rounds of financing. Until now that is. Companies that have made layoffs in the last week are generally being given a pat on the back for being financially prudent ..."_

Think this will be the last round of layoffs?

Probably not. A salient point to remember about creating/joining companies with VC backing they become another layer of management dictating the terms when financial conditions are not in their favour. As for shedding the bottom 5% - trees do the same. Shed their leaves in a desperate bid to survive just before they die.

<comment><USER4> "...before they die." Or... just before they go dormant for the winter.... your metaphor is kinda confused there. Especially considering 5% sounds more like natural loss of leaves at any given time anyways, more so than a period of stress.

<comment><USER3> _"... your metaphor is kinda confused there. Especially considering 5% sounds more like natural loss of leaves at any given time anyways ..."_

I'm don't mean to suggest trees drop any sort of percentage of leaves. More the fact they do shed leaves (just like Startups shedding staff) in times of water stress.

 _"... Or... just before they go dormant for the winter... "_

Maybe from where you come from. Not where I come from, a land of non-deciduous trees. There is a big difference between deciduous leaves dropping in Autumn and trees under stress. Check the deciduous Oak here loosing leaves in Autumn ( _yes I keep a visual diary of 1 particular Oak through the seasons_ ) ~ [http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157607419227026...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157607419227026/)

Then compare this to a non-deciduous Eucalypt in stress ~ [http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/493280400/in/set-72157...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/493280400/in/set-72157607633560765/) ( _yes I also keep a visual diaries of dead trees_ ) ~ [http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157607633560765...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157607633560765/)

It's called die-back. We get a lot of it where the leaves are shed from the farthest limbs in order to help the core survive. The metaphor I use in this situation is apt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some of TC's news isn't really news.

</comment><comment><USER6> People need to stop taking TechCrunch seriously. Michael Arrington is fed by venture capital firms and their portfolio companies, and has far too many conflicts of interest to be credible. Most of his posts are extremely biased and tilted toward the current thinking of those feeding him information. You gain no competitive advantage from reading this nonsense.

<comment><USER7> It's probably the place I first hear about most new startups. Can you think of any other source that's better for that?

<comment><USER8> Just go directly to the VC's own webpages; that's all TechCrunch has become.

<comment><USER7> A lot of (probably most of) the startups covered by TechCrunch aren't funded by VCs.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ellen Pao Suit Against Kleiner Perkins Heads to Trial - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/technology/ellen-pao-suit-against-kleiner-perkins-heads-to-trial-with-big-potential-implications.html?partner=rss&emc=rss <comment><USER2> So KPCB is retaliating with a civil lawsuit, claiming:

>"lacked the ability to lead others, build consensus and be a team player, which is crucial to a successful career as a venture capital senior investing partner."

I won't pretend to know who did or said what, but language such as the above, is so broad as to mean nothing.

It's typical HR verbiage used when they want to pressure someone to quit, or get them outright fired. Whosoever presides over this, I hope they seek and drill for specifics, and demands comparison with other partners' specific performance, because on its surface, you can use this as an excuse to fire anyone. And it's a particularly maddening symptom, which may not have an easy solution. One person's "exceeds expectations", is the other person's, "failed to meet expectations", it's totally arbitrary. With that filter, I can see how one moment she's a star partner, the next she's accused of the above, as retaliation.

<comment><USER3> That's their claimed reason for (constructively) terminating her, right? It's not the basis of an actual claim against Pao, but a defense of their own actions.

It reads like standard HR speak for an exec termination.

<comment><USER2> Yes, that's correct, it's their defense. I think my claim is that this claim is so broad as to be meaningless. It can retroactively apply to anyone because it's very unspecific. My subtext is that because the language is so broad, it can be used to excuse any firing, with or without cause. And they may cite specifics, but in reality, they could come up with similar specifics and cause for people who have not been fired.

It's somewhat similar to when there are explicit rules one must live or work by, but then there are implicit rules to follow, which allow skirting of the explicit rules. This then allows the implicit rules to be used against a transgressor of choice, since they broke the explicit rules. And that aspect makes it arbitrary.

<comment><USER3> Reasons for termination usually are that broad. A broad explanation for a constructive termination isn't a strong signal in any direction. A person could be fired for gross incompetence, or for exploiting a conflict of interest, or for a grave personal indiscretion, and if the company was forced to announce that termination, they'd probably still be similarly broad.

Real companies are extremely cautious about publishing reasons for letting people go.

Remember as well the real goalposts: US companies are not required to document cause for terminating employees. The plaintiff in a discrimination suit bears the burden of proving that they were terminated for a legally prohibited reason. The defendant does not bear a burden of proving cause for termination. Employees are routinely terminated without legal cause, and (controversial but I think true) we're all better off for that.

<comment><USER2> Yes, but rightly or wrongly, the published reasons are broad so as to minimize exposure to lawsuits. Meaning that if they had to be specific, they would have less ability to fire people arbitrarily. They would have to have detailed records on why someone was not up to par, rather than the nebulous, reasons which are in common use these days and pass muster. Many times people are singled out retroactively, ie., in retaliation, or simply not being of same mind with new management or philosophy, irrespective of performance.

<comment><USER3> It is explicitly acceptable in the US to fire people for nebulous reasons. We have a "default allow" policy here for firing, which (among other things) makes it much easier to start new companies, by lowering the stakes on hiring people.

We all want the same good thing: the elimination of unfair employment actions. But we should take a long view on how we obtain that good. Considering a more Franco-European policy on employment, it's natural to think employment would be more "fair". But employer policy wouldn't be static given that change; they'd drastically alter both the way they accept new employees and the way they track performance to compensate for it.

All that is just to say once again: you can't read too much out of a vague explanation for why someone was terminated (or, in this case, "managed out").

<comment><USER2> I understand what's acceptable and normal. I just question why it's not questioned from time to time to see if it merits change.

I'm looking at this from two sides. I've been an employee all my working life, one day I would want to run a business, so I have that in mind too. And I understand that sometimes one might want to fire someone 'just because'. It's just that in principle, 'just because' rubs me wrong.

What I find ironic is that today's HR pretty much says "The reason we fired you is we have no reason" And it's totally acceptable. Do you see how perverse it's become. You can't state a reason for firing someone, because giving a reason exposes you to lawsuits, so, giving no reason, has become a good reason to fire people with.

PS. I've been fired once in my life, while working to put myself thru college. Driver and I were making deliveries, it was late, he decided to skip the last delivery. Upon arrival at the workplace "insubordination". Which was great, got a better part time job after that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> My favorite part is this: """ Ms. Pao says a married colleague pressured her into an affair and then retaliated against her when she broke it off. When she complained, she says she was discriminated against and got poor reviews, resulting ultimately in her dismissal. She accuses Kleiner of treating her "despicably, maliciously, fraudulently and oppressively" from "an improper and evil motive amounting to malice." """

Sounds like classic blame-shifting to me.

<comment><USER5> That tripped me up, too. A colleague "pressured her into an affair"? She might have a beef if it was someone with power over her, but a colleague? When women don't want to have affairs with colleagues they say "no".

Reads to me like she compromised her position at the firm and now she wants a big payday. If that's the case, I wouldn't settle with her either.

<comment><USER6> I was on her side until I read the part about being pressured into an affair. Sexual harassment is a real, horrible thing. But an affair with a married dude??? As an educated executive level woman??! That is some bs and poor judgment. And unfortunately it casts poor light on the rest of her claims.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I founded a KP backed company during those years. I'm not longer involved, so I don't have a stake in this. Likewise, I don't have any specific knowledge of the events.

At the partners' meeting and other interactions, Pao seemed uninterested and out of place. Their culture seemed to be intense, friendly, joking debate. I don't think it's a gender thing, as I remember Meeker and Lee being incredibly helpful.

This whole thing made more sense to me when I read [http://nypost.com/2012/06/11/of-love-and-lottsa- lawsuits/](http://nypost.com/2012/06/11/of-love-and-lottsa-lawsuits/) and [http://nypost.com/2015/02/18/case-builds-against-former- ny-h...](http://nypost.com/2015/02/18/case-builds-against-former-ny-hedgie- buddy-fletcher/).

(To be fair, the alternate hypothesis is that they had already hurt her so badly that she checked out b/c of their actions or that I just saw some off days.)

<comment><USER8> I've Ellen Pao her in other contexts and found her incredibly engaged and supportive, so it was probably specific to crap going on at KPCB.

She is one of the best VCs I've ever interacted with; it sounds like she had a negative situation at KPCB (which hopefully the trial will resolve), but it absolutely isn't about her competence and intelligence otherwise.

By all accounts she's also doing very well as an operator at Reddit.

<comment><USER9> > By all accounts she's also doing very well as an operator at Reddit.

That's _completely the opposite_ of what the linked article claims. It says that a reddit employee sent the defense a letter asking to subpena reddit employees regarding conflicts with Ellen Pao.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, I guess I meant "by every Reddit employee I've talked to, and by observing how much ass the site has been kicking since she joined, and especially since she took over as CEO". It's certainly not exhaustively researched, and I'd expect a company going through changes as massive as Yishan/Ellen wrought (moving everyone to SF from remote, operating more like a startup vs. a nonprofit, etc.), there'd be some discontent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm really surprised that neither KPCB or Pao has settled this out of court. It's going to be a nasty airing of dirty laundry across the board by the time this thing is over...

<comment><USER11> From the article it sounds like they tried to enter arbitration to settle the matter but it was described as being "less than productive".

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> VC firms are to technology businesses as Berkshire Hathaway is to journalism as owner of the The Buffalo News.

This is if anything an indictment of venture capital firms.

</comment><comment><USER13> I hope she wins, but this issue is a lot bigger than this one case, and what we also need is a new law that holds investors responsible for the conduct of the people they fund. Right now, they can fund frat boys and while the frat boys get sued for sexual harassment or domestic abuse, the investors are scot- free. Indeed, the appeal of Silicon Valley and VC is the disposable company. (As in... don't like what has attached itself to your creation? Shoot it in the head.) But this allows founder quality levels to reach an all-time low, and it's time to reverse course by holding investors responsible for the character of the people they fund.

<comment><USER14> Did something happen to you? This seems like an absurdly high bar.

<comment><USER15> The better question to ask of Michael Church would be what _hasn 't_ happened to him, from his perspective. (Then disregard his answer.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Which startups are breaking off with Kleiner Perkins over this? I want to know which founders value their principles more than money.

<comment><USER17> None of them if they have any sense. Would you expect them to act before a verdict is given? That seems profoundly naive and self defeating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > _An anonymous Reddit employee sent a letter to Kleiner's legal team, asking > them to subpoena Reddit employees "for information regarding conflicts with > Ellen Pao."_

Wow. I had heard about the case, but didn't know the drama had sprawled over to reddit. All things put aside, including my own biases, if I was reddit's board, I'd get rid of her immediately. It doesn't matter whether if her claims are justified, or even if she's 100% in the right (and Kliener was in the wrong) - she's obviously a toxic presence and brought some of that toxicity with her over to reddit.

<comment><USER18> Such strong language, and such vitriol.

If you really believe this, you need to recognize that sometimes the best people are fleeing a bad situation -- a situation that they were a victim of.

I don't really know the details of what happened at KP, but I am not surprised that discrimination (deliberate or otherwise) exists in venture capital. Did it happen to her? I don't know. Will the real truth ever come out? Probably not. Are there multiple versions of the real truth? Probably.

But you are calling for her termination. For something unrelated to her current job. Her resume and academic achievements place her in the exceptionally accomplished category, so to casually describe her as toxic, without first-hand experiences, seems antagonistic and trollish, at best.

She can't control what an anonymous Reddit employee might or might not do. That's no reason to fire her.

<comment><USER19> His comment history is filled with him being far more rude than is necessary. He's either a troll or an asshole. Sucks that he's here.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for stalking me instead of taking my comment at face value (I wonder if that's a new, evolving form of the ad hominem logical fallacy).

It's funny, actually. I've never seen so many downvotes flying on hackernews as I have in this thread. Not my comment, this is actually my first downvoted comment on this website in 2 years (which would contradict your claim of me being "a troll"), but watching this thread proves it's a hot button issue for many people.

I'm a "she" by the way. And no, my comment history isn't littered with rude comments. I may speak frankly and honestly which is often confused with being rude, especially to those who are extremely sensitive to such things, but the hard truth should never be considered "rude", it should be welcomed. Warts and all.

<comment><USER20> If you want your truths welcomed, don't make them hard.

Is that a hard enough truth for you to swallow?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Category theory for programmers [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8LbkfSSR58&list=PLbgaMIhjbmEnaH_LTkxLI7FMa2HsnawM_ <comment><AUTHOR> This is the best, most practical and easiest to understand lecture about category theory that I have found.</comment>


New Zealand Will Give You a Free Trip If You Agree to a Job Interview - <AUTHOR> http://time.com/money/4686430/new-zealand-jobs/ <comment><USER5> I lived in Wellington for two and a half years. It's the most beautiful city I've ever lived in.

That being said, most of the tech is centralized in just a few shops. Everything is contracted out to Datacom, Catalyst, Frondie, Solnet, etc. etc.

I mean companies do have their own IT staff, but just due to the shortage of talent, a lot gets contracted out, including tons of government stuff.

If you're under 30 and a US citizen, you can get a Holiday Work Visa and live/work there for a year. (This is how I started out, before switching to another visa). If you're a citizen of a commonwealth state, I think you can get a two year visa to most other commonwealth countries (including AU/NZ).

Oh and Wellington is the windiest city in the world. This is not an exaggeration. Oh and expect at least one earthquake a year too.

<comment><USER6> I lived in Auckland; aren't the winters worse in Wellington? Part of the reason I moved back(other than low wages and crazy housing prices) was to get away from those Auckland winters. Lucky for me I moved to CA right when they got over their drought... Yay.

New Zealand is really nice though. Laid back, safe(accept CBD on drinking nights), clean, etc.

<comment><USER7> What is CBD?

<comment><USER8> Central Business District.

It's what Aussies (like myself) and Kiwis call "downtown", or the city-centre.

<comment><USER9> "CBD" is used in some Asian and Middle-Eastern countries too. But I've never seen it used in Europe or the Americas.

<comment><USER10> I've heard the term used in London as well. But never in the US. I first ran across it when I lived in Australia, so I wonder if it's a British term.

<comment><USER11> It's possible it's an Australian term and you were just surrounded by Australians in London.

<comment><USER12> Yes. I've never heard anyone use it in the UK except Aussies and Kiwis.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Direct link to the actual program: [http://www.wellingtonnz.com/work/looksee- wellington/](http://www.wellingtonnz.com/work/looksee-wellington/)

<comment><USER14> The profile photo uploader appears broken

<comment><USER15> Same thing for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> One downside - you have to be able-bodied. NZ will not allow people with disabilities the opportunity to relocate there.

<comment><USER17> Do you have a citation for this?

<comment><USER18> New Zealand and Australia are well known for having point systems for migrants. They highly favor young, english-speaking, able-bodied, highly- educated people.

[https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply- for-...](https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a- visa/about-visa/skilled-migrant-category-resident-visa)

<comment><USER19> Or if you have money, you get all the points.

<comment><USER20> awesome to know since thats one of my primary goals

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Honestly, my only remaining fear in moving to NZ would be going from unmetered internet in the US to strictly metered internet in NZ. Would I be able to cope with a data cap?!

It could be a reality show. Have your people call my people!

<comment><USER22> At least NZ has fibre. Unlike the western island (Australia, aka the mainland ;) ) which has an absolute shitshow for Internet connectivity.

<comment><USER23> I live an hour north of Sydney and I have fibre to my house. (But I acknowledge I am one of a lucky minority - part of my reasons for choosing this suburb was the fibre.)

<comment><USER24> You sure are. My parents are well inside Sydney's suburban sea and are stuck on 3mbit ADSL2+ due to exchange distance.

New Zealand's national fibre plan is brilliant. If only Australia could come up with such ideas...

<comment><USER25> > New Zealand's national fibre plan is brilliant

I live 8km from Auckland CBD and haven't got fibre or an install date. Lines crap out when it rains. Every fibre install I have seen (and I keep an eye out for them) is terrible. Through driveway expansion joints, along fences etc. My view is quite the opposite on how good the roll out has been.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> According to this article you apply and they will select a 100 people from the pool. How is this different than a normal interview except the flight is a little longer.

<comment><USER27> Plus the flight is very expensive

<comment><USER28> The flight price is trivial compared with the 48 hours travel time plus jetlag.

(Source: doing the return trip right now)

<comment><USER29> People used to need weeks to travel across an ocean, toughen up.

<comment><USER30> Just because something else was more shit doesn't make it any less shit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'm very seriously thinking about relocating there with my family (we're in France). We're actually going there next week to visit the country and do a reality check about our expectations.

For those who made the move - how was your experience ? IT scene ? Machine Learning related stuff anyone ?

<comment><USER32> My wife and I moved to NZ (from Russia) 2+ years ago. I work in IT (Software Developer). We live in Auckland.

My impressions are:

PROS: \- very beautiful country. Really, nature here is amazing!

\- people are very friendly

\- everything is quite simple and small, people know each other. It is more like a village, not a City

\- climate is fine (in Auckland). Humidity is high - that is why it feels hot in summer and cold in winter

\- no earthquakes (Auckland)

\- very safe country

\- coffee and beer and foods are amazing!

\- it is clean

\- lack of stress, slow pace of life

CONS:

\- NZ is unreasonably expensive country to live in

\- you can't really make money here. All salaries are pretty much the same. You'll get enough for living, but not much more.

\- job market is small and weird (hence, limited career opportunities)

\- rent is very high. You'll spend 40-60% of your salary on a rent.

\- house prices are unreasonably high. It will be very difficult to buy a good house/apartment here

\- quality of houses/apartments is very bad. They are tiny, old, ugly. Well, there are some nice houses, but they are far from CBD

\- it is far far away from the rest of the world, hence it is expensive to travel from NZ to other countries

\- it is boring here. Nothing is going on. About 4-5 good concerts/exhibitions/shows per year and that's it. The only ways to entertain yourself are: food (pubs, cafes, restaurants etc. But choice is very limited) and nature (hiking, camping, surfing, caving etc.)

\- almost all cafes and shops close at 4-6pm. Yes, not many places to go after work.

\- if you (or your wife) like shopping, then you'll be disappointed. Again, choice is very limited, quality is quite low, prices are unreasonably high.

\- IT: it is just my opinion, but I would say that average IT specialist in NZ doesn't know much. I see a lot of IT people here who, for example, don't know how to use Git. Who never heard about Rust. Who never heard about LISP. Who have 8 years of Java experience, but don't know basic Java stuff. And so on. Honestly, this is quite disappointing

\- companies don't hire you for your skills. They don't usually ask any technical question during interviews. Most probably they will just check if you are kind, polite, if you smile, if you can sell yourself

\- employers here often require mythical 'New Zealand Experience'. Which means that if you've never worked in NZ, then it will be difficult for you to find your first job here (because you don't have NZ experience yet)

\- people don't work hard here. They come to work slowly, relax, read news, drink coffee, work a little bit, then have lunch, then work a little bit again. When it's 5pm - they just go home.

\- public transport is bad

Overall, NZ is a very very nice country, but it has some REALLY annoying and weird stuff. If you _don't_ really want to make a Career and Money, just want to relax, want to have no stress and anxiety, if you enjoy nature, then it would be great for you.

If you are more a 'city guy', who wants things to happen all the time around, who wants to make a career, have opportunities, who wants to live in a big modern city, then honestly, I would recommend Australia (Melbourne/Sydney) over New Zealand.

My wife and I are planning to move to Australia in the future.

<comment><USER31> Thanks for a detailed reply !

I'm a bit surprised about the salary. I've seen than in IT it's pretty limited, but also that some other profession can make a very good living - <USER2> wife is a doctor and it looks like it's quite a good place to be for medical professionals.

Living costs, yes - that's something I expect. But coming from Paris, I don't think I will be shocked neither... Also, we already have 2 kids and will rather be looking at houses in the suburbs / outside of the main cities, so this should bring the costs down.

Again, thanks for great answer !

<comment><USER33> "will rather be looking at houses in the suburbs / outside of the main cities, so this should bring the costs down."

No, it doesn't work like that. Have a look at some RE websites and Google Maps. Prices are insane, even in places where you can't reasonably commute to places where there are jobs for educated people. Only places where prices aren't insane is in places people only go to get away from other people. Look, I loved living in NZ in some aspects, but it's not a place for someone with ambition. Even kiwis with ambition leave, even if they don't want really want to.

<comment><USER31> This is something that bothers me indeed. My best case scenario is to create a company in the machine learning field there. The idea is not yet mature enough, so I'm giving myself time for now (we're planning to move in a year or two).

As for houses, I've checked and it sure looks expensive, but again - I'm living in Paris area where the prices are insane in my opinion. In the suburbs where I live, it's ~5000e/m2 - with almost 1h commute to work.

<comment><USER33> First, let me make clear that I don't want to dissuade you from going to New Zealand. It's a lovely place, but many people in Europe have a (somewhat) wrong image of it. So I just want to make sure you know what you're getting in to.

Yes, compared with central Paris, prices aren't that insane. But if you want to bootstrap a company, you are looking for (one or more of):

\- cheap COL \- access to customers \- access to staff

In NZ, you have none of those. You'll be _much_ cheaper off living in northern France or somewhere else 'remote' and rural in France, or even the rest of Europe. You'll spend thousands a month renting somewhere that isn't even particularly nice (houses are of crap quality in general), money that you won't have when you're getting a business started.

There aren't many companies that need or are willing to pay for cutting edge software. Sure, you can sell to anywhere in the world through the internet nowadays, but then why would you live hours flying away from your customers, on (relatively) crappy internet lines, many timezones away?

Most Kiwis worth hiring have moved to Oz. That is not to say that all Kiwis left are idiots, of course, but in general they won't be the sort of high- flying, go-getter people you'll want in the initial stages of your company. And those that are left will be hard to find or to convince joining you. It will be easier to convince young people looking for adventure coming from abroad to join you, but they'll be gone just as easily, too (I've seen it happen several times).

NZ is a great place to live if you want to have an outdoorsy-oriented, good work/life balanced lifestyle, while still being in an English-speaking, originally Europe (British) oriented country. Your friends and family will love saying how they will come visit you and then won't once they realize how far away it actually is (exaggerating only slightly here). Until the 1970's, NZ was a very insular, inward-facing, closed economy, of which the effects are still felt today. People like to live very spread out, which makes 4mm people responsible for maintaining infrastructure in an area bigger than the UK. It's true that the majority lives in a few cities, but that also makes those cities expensive.

May I suggest you go live there for a few months first before you move - <USER3> treat it as 'living' there, not 'holiday'. So living in the same place, daily rhythm of Mon-Fri 9-5 and doing laundry on the weekends, not being able to go _anywhere_ without a car (this is the number one thing my daughter complained about, although she was only 4 at the time).

Good luck. If you take the plunge, I'm sure you'll have a great time and it'll be a great adventure, but your chances of being the traditional definition of 'successful' will not improve with going there (nothing wrong with that, of course - everybody has to define for themselves what constitutes 'successful').

<comment><USER31> Thing is, we decided that we will choose the next country according to my wife job (doctor) and lifestyle - nature etc. So based on this, New Zealand seems like the perfect place. I'm well aware that it's not the best career choice I can make to say the least, but I don't consider the points you've made like blocking issues. Things will be harder for sure, but far from impossible.

I may be wrong, but money shouldn't be that much of issue based on what I've heard / read - it seems like doctors are making plenty of money there (as opposed to France, where they are very underpaid, compared to cost of living). Does this sound plausible to live on one income only (family with two kids) ?

We are actually going there next week for 15 days, to see how life is. We're only doing the northern island since it's most probably were we would like to live (and we will have plenty of time to visit the southern one once there). 15 days is short, but I hope we will get a fair idea about the country.

Thank you all guys for the opinions !

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I guess I'd have the same reservations about moving to NZ for a job that I would about moving to Small Town, USA for a job. It's very risky career-wise. If things go bad at that job, where else are you going to go? Are there enough jobs locally that would allow you to do, say 20 interviews and actually find a similar job? Or are you looking at another international relocation?

</comment><comment><USER35> As an fyi to the folks developing this website and those thinking about signing up, I refreshed the page while logged in under my account and it loaded a different account. I have screenshots and other information to pass along if you give an email.

<comment><USER15> Yep, there are some pretty significant bugs in the site. I've been trying to upload a profile picture for 10 minutes now, one try the tab stopped responding, the second time it redirected to a 502 page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I met a New Zealand network security specialist in Santa Monica recently. He and his mate moved here. When the general is calling forward the reserves, the reservist would do well to take heed of the front line that's coming toward them.

<comment><USER37> Can you expound on this warning?

<comment><USER38> I believe he's implying that this program may be a sign of a generally poor employment environment in New Zealand.

<comment><USER39> When people offers you free meat, it is because they have hidden a hook in it.

Honestly I can't really see why I should go to New Zeeland even if they had a great jobmarket: why relocate half-way around the world to a country that as far as I know has no interesting tech companies.

<comment><USER40> _why relocate half-way around the world to a country that as far as I know has no interesting tech companies._

If that's truly what's holding you back, I gather that New Zealand might not be the place for you. I have been told, however, that NZ has other fine qualities having little to do with tech. For instance, the fact that it's half-way around the world, and they talk like those musicians on that HBO show, might be reason enough for me personally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> So they have literally hundreds of tech jobs and they're looking to interview literally 100 people?

<comment><USER42> Yup, pretty standard marketing technique. Offer a special deal to a select few but by advertising that deal you get other interested/talking about it. Kind of like we are.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> > LookSee Wellington has gone viral! > > And unfortunately, due to the > increase in visits we've temporarily closed off the website to new > registrations. We're currently working on scaling up to handle theigh > volumes, so please check back in 24 hours. > > We'll still be accepting new > registrations up until March 20th so you haven't missed your chance! Once > we're back up and running, you'll be able to create and submit a profile > again. > > If you'd like to receive an email notification when registrations > are open again, you can submit your details here. > > If you've already > registered, you can still log in and access your account.

As of March 2nd 16:00 GMT

</comment><comment><USER44> For a brief period of time I was either able to edit someone else's profile or the information I entered was overwritten with that of someone with the same last name. Be careful with entering any personal information there.

</comment><comment><USER45> I used to work in Wellington -- pretty fun city, pretty slow internet. Furniture (and shoes for some reason) are hella expensive. If you move there from the states load up a shipping pod ahead of time.

<comment><USER46> We now have pretty fast internet. I'm on 100mbit with unlimited data for $79/month, and could have 1Gbit for $129/month.

International speeds can _occasionally_ be a bit slow, but the widespread use of caching and CDNs limits the impact of this. It's mostly pretty good.

<comment><USER45> That's great to hear! How is mobile data these days?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> There appears to be some serious security issues with the site. I was filling out my profile, but when I saved my bio, my session was some now that of a developer from Brazil...

</comment><comment><USER48> Cool, but.... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington#Climate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington#Climate)

Not for me.

<comment><USER49> 30 F to 88 F is not for you? While that's probably true, I'm greatly amused by people who can't survive outside, say, California.

Having no real winter must get really boring.

<comment><USER48> I'm ok with cold. Sort of. It's the rain and lack of _hot_ that would bother me. I actually live in Oregon's "high desert", which is more of a steppe, really.

My ideal summer includes a month or two of 30C, rather than that being the highest temperature ever recorded.

<comment><USER49> You may actually enjoy Minneapolis, then. It gets to be about 35 C in the height of summer. Winters are about -10 C, on average.

<comment><USER48> We have more mountains here in Oregon and it's dryer east of the Cascades.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> There are a few similar programmes coming out like this. If you're an entrepreneur interested in NZ and working on social impact, you should also check out the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. Gives you access to the Global Impact Visa, and residency after 3 years.

[http://ehf.org](http://ehf.org)

</comment><comment><USER8> So my hacker brain says anyone looking into this who's coming from somewhere far away (like the US, Europe) should maximise their opportunities by hopping over to Australia and doing some job interviews there too.

The long flight to NZ is covered. You're only paying for a short NZ/Aus return flight.

<comment><USER51> This seems kind of unethical. The government is doing something nice for you and offering to cover the cost of flight and accommodation. In exchange I would expect to focus my attention on the opportunities they are offering, and not treat it as a free plane ticket.

That just seems like the fair thing to do.

<comment><USER52> Australia: better pay, better hours, better conditions, better weather, and better career prospects.

New Zealand: free plane ticket. Rugby. But then, Australia has that, too. Umm.

Hmmm.

Honestly, being born in New Zealand, earned a Bachelor CS degree, unable to get a job there. Before I graduated, I had plenty of experience but no qualification so nobody would take me. After I graduated, the same places said I had a qualification but no experience so they wouldn't take me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Site is pretty buggy. I've registered and I keep seeing other people's profile data pop up

<comment><USER54> That's why they want to hire you to fix it :)

<comment><USER53> Looks like a caching error.

The two hardest things in programming are naming things, caching things, and off-by-one errors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> I've looked at possibly seeking employment in NZ, but most of the shops (at least the one posting on the sites I've searched), are .Net or MS shops, which I'm not too terribly interested in. Hopefully this job fair will have a bit more diversity.

</comment><comment><USER56> OMG Welly? The most beautiful country in the world and the most awesome people - seriously excellent people. I'd move there in a heartbeat. If you can - <USER4> and no - one week is not long enough, try a month or two.

</comment><comment><USER57> New Zealand is pretty great (actually sounds interesting)but the 12 Hour time difference is horrible.

I would need a week just to adjust, and then talking english all the time is a major drain that to.

</comment><comment><USER58> Nice PR stunt! I think the wrong incentive tells me that the quality of the submissions and the outcome of this (hiring the right people) won't be very good.

</comment><comment><USER59> Site is still buggy.. Contact us will redirect to "Global Page Error" page

</comment><comment><USER60> I think most professional tech worker they are trying to hire would be able to afford a round trip ticket and travel expenses to New Zealand.

<comment><USER17> I can afford it as a vacation, though it would be a pretty big dent.

But I can't afford it just to hear "sorry, we've decided to go with someone else."

<comment><USER18> Flew to Auckland from SFO for our honeymoon for ~$950 roundtrip per ticket, so it's not horrendously expensive, but of course I'd hardly call that the kind of sum you'd want to throw away jut for an interview.

<comment><USER61> $950 from SFO isn't a bad deal. It can be considerably more expensive around peak season if you don't catch a sale (easily $1.6k to $2k).

<comment><USER62> Prices have dropped massively in the last year or so as there are more flights and airlines doing AKL<->SFO now

<comment><USER61> Even over the summer months? Google is telling me about $1,400 for late March.

United entered the market within the last two years and that does seem to have driven the prices down a bit.

I fly to Auckland or Christchurch at least once a year with a family of 4 so welcome cheaper prices!

<comment><USER18> Ours was April on Air NZ but its been a couple years and 1400 doesn't sound out of the question.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> What if I do it for the trip then say no and go back home?

I'd love to visit New Zealand, not sure I wanna stay. It's nice there but it's really far from everything.

<comment><USER64> What if you went into a bakery and ate all the free samples?

</comment></comment><comment><USER65> What if you fly this person (who is great on paper) to Wellington, and they turn out to be the most toxic person you've ever met. What if your luck is truly awful and you fly out 100 of these people?

<comment><USER66> If you find from a group of 100 people, that each one has a personalty that is so "toxic" they are impossible to deal with. I assure you it is you that is "toxic".

<comment><USER65> We've all met developers that were so lacking in the intangibles that (hindsight being 20/20) they probably we not worth the hire/interview. Imagine that with a couple grand flight tacked on. Don't take a rhetorical question so personally.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't see the parent's comment as taking the question personally -- it's just taking it a step further.

Yes, we've all met (or been, at occasion) such people; and yes, it's theoretically possible to interview 100 of such people at the same time. But in reality, the probability of that happening is astronomically lower compared to the probability that the problem was in the interviewer in the first place.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Critique my app: JotBot, a desktop time-tracking tool - <AUTHOR> http://www.getjotbot.com

<comment><USER2> I love the idea behind this, and the site/implementation feel solid-- but it's a productivity nightmare.

I dunno if you've read Harrison Burgeron (by Vonnegut): <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron>

It's a dystopian future where everyone is equal by bringing exceptional people of any kind down to the lowest common denominator. To make smart people less smart, they put buzzers in their ears that went off at random intervals to disrupt concentration. That's pretty much what you're doing.

There are a lot of productivity studies that support this... Showing that ANYTHING that takes people out of the "zone" (when they are in it) makes it likelier that they'll shift to something else than if the distraction didn't occur. This includes IM, phone calls, knocks at the door, email dings, whatever.

Would be interesting to run RescueTime at a business before and after-- you might actually be doing less damage than you cause (i.e. time saved reconstructing time, nagging people to do time entry, etc., might outweigh the distraction/derailing that you're causing).

<comment><USER3> [whoops, commented on the wrong reply, sorry :-) ]

You have to remember that there are actually a lot of companies out there that are doing contracting work and working on the hour for various clients. For those clients you need to show what you're billing them for.

On top of that, it could be for any kind of work - not just programming - design, engineering work, contractor work (builders etc), electricians, you name it...

<comment><AUTHOR> "You have to remember that there are actually a lot of companies out there that are doing contracting work and working on the hour for various clients. For those clients you need to show what you're billing them for."

This was a real win for us with JotBot. HCS has some clients who, while generally pretty easy-going about invoice details, sometimes want to know just how time was spent for this or that bill. So we can now go back and see not just the time spent on a project, and the specific project categories, but read the various notes added to flesh out those time records.

Often _I_ want to know just why something took me so long, so it's nice to have notes written at the time of the activity. The reporting features really help there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> My company, Happy Camper Studios, recently released our first app. JotBot is a cross-platform time-tracking tool that runs on the desktop.

htttp://www.getjotbot

We started out writing it for ourselves since we hated tracking our time, but needed to do it, and didn't like the available tools. It's written in JRuby using the Monkeybars library and Swing, and is, as best I know, the first commercial desktop app written in JRuby.

All feedback welcome. Thanks.

<comment><USER4> Based on the screencast, I'd suggest replacing the category field's "are you sure" dialog with autocompletion and fuzzy matching, like Firefox's address bar. This would still prevent the accidental creation of new categories by typos, but with the advantage of not breaking the user's flow.

Also, I was annoyed by the need to request a trial key by email before I could even get a whiff of the app. I'm willing to endure this kind of bureaucracy when I'm evaluating something like an IDE, but for a $25 time-tracking app it feels excessive.

<comment><AUTHOR> We had looked into some autocomplete features, but decided to release first rather than get caught up in that. It is something we want to add, though.

Your point about needing to wait for the E-mail with the key is well taken. I'll see if we can think up an alternative to make it less onerous to just try it out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been asking RescueTime to incorporate something like this into their application for about a year now. Unfortunately, they haven't quite yet. I think it would be interesting if you could somehow integrate this into RescueTime, the two of these products together would make for a really useful combination, and finally allow me to track my time accurately, and know my productivity and programs I was using during that time period.

<comment><USER2> This is higher on our list than you can imagine... Unfortunately, we painted ourselves into a corner a bit by using .NET and had to rebuild our foundation to do this (and other cool things) on the client side in a light/reliable way. Should be out in early 2009 (but not like this guy is doing it-- see other comment).

edit: if you drop me a line (tony@rescuetime dot com), I'd love to run by how we're hoping to implement this to get your thoughts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great design and nice idea!

Only one thing I will not use this application because of its disruptive functionality. I understand it is part of the tool; I just don't handle interruption very well especially when I'm working. Keep it up and good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Only one thing I will not use this application because of its disruptive functionality. "

Naturally, I would hope you would try the app in earnest before dismissing it, but I understand that this approach just doesn't sit well with everyone. Either way, I appreciate your comment. FWIW though, I'm not a big fan of disruption, and have been surprised at how well JotBot has worked for me.

We'll certainly keep looking into how to make it less disruptive while still having it do what it's meant to do: get accurate information on how you've spent your time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have beta tested it and it is a nice program. I even LIKE the "disruptive" way it goes about tracking time.

However, I've found a free one that does much the same. Personal Time Manager (look for it on sourceforge). It's kinda-sorta not as slick, but it's free.

Also, as I was beta testing, the support email address kept bouncing mails back to me.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Also, as I was beta testing, the support email address kept bouncing mails back to me."

Really? That's no good. :( I apologize; we thought we had that all in place for the beta.

Was it firstname.lastname@example.com, by any chance?

<comment><USER7> No, support@. The only one I could find on the beta web page, although I could have missed others.

And yes, PTM is a windows app, but it is .net so conceivably mono could help/work with other platforms. I'm not a .net coder by trade, so I don't know of the difficulty of cross development issues with mono.

PTM also tracks use of applications by CPU time (or some such), along the lines of RescueTime, so you can see what apps you've actually used during whatever task. I don't use nor need that feature, and that might also be something that can't be reliably ported to other platforms.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nice application, wrong workflow. You shouldn't be bugged every x-minutes polling your state constantly.

It's better to track just state changes.

I use a tiny free application that does exactly this, with minimum clicks needed.

<http://cratchit.org/TimeTool/index.htm>

</comment><comment><USER9> Where does it save the data too? What if I'm on multiple computers (ie, work from home and work), do I have to have it installed on each?

It looks nice, but I'll stick with <http://slimtimer.com> which is web based, so you can track your time from any computer.

Best of luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> "Where does it save the data too? What if I'm on multiple computers (ie, work from home and work), do I have to have it installed on each?"

Yes, for now. It uses a local database to store info.

We're working on, for lack of a better term, the "enterprise" version, which posts data to a remote server.

"It looks nice, but I'll stick with <http://slimtimer.com> which is web based, so you can track your time from any computer."

I'll have to give that a try. It doesn't look as though it will remind me to enter information, though, which is my main issue. (And I don't really want to keep a browser open all the time. Or have to remember not to close it.)

"Best of luck!"

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It doesn't look _right_ on Mac OS X.

</comment><comment><USER11> Is it better than RescueTime especially since it's not free?</comment>


Ask HN: What are the best JavaScript libraries for data visualization - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> No other js plugin can touch d3. If you have the time to figure it out, it is heads above anything else.

The only exceptions are webgl plugins, of which I think three.js is the best, and leaflet for making maps.

Having worked with nearly all the well known plugins out there, I see very few reasons for using any except those three.

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://d3js.org](http://d3js.org) [http://www.anychart.com](http://www.anychart.com) [http://www.highcharts.com](http://www.highcharts.com)

</comment><comment><USER4> I really like dygraphs (fast) and dimple (charting layer over d3). Both on github.</comment>


IOS devs put out a call to unite against Lodsys, other patent trolls - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/08/ios-devs-put-out-a-call-to-unite-against-lodsys-other-patent-trolls.ars <comment><USER2> I guess I wasn't following the Lodsys thing but I had not heard that they bought the patent in question from Intellectual Ventures? I guess Intellectual Ventures is using 3rd parties to troll.

<comment><USER3> Is Lodsys a "shell company" of Intellectual Ventures?

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/441/w...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack)

<comment><USER4> I guess the specific points to note to those who haven't seen the episode:

a. IV uses shell companies to sue others, by selling their patents to these companies, get a cut of the eventual payout in any lawsuits, but I guess in the process have some amount of immunity against countersuits since the suing party is a shell company.

b. Lodsys is based out of the same building and suite in Marshall, Harrison County, TX, where, according to the episode several "patent troll" companies were incorporated with no visible indication on-site of actual employees or a business.

<comment><USER5> Planet Money did a piece using lots of clips from the This American Life episode, where someone 'doubts' that it's IV, but that they're still an interested party.

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when- pat...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-patents- attack)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't know who renowned iOS developer Mike Lee is, but I think this is fantastic. The only way small timers can effect this legal change is to band together like a union. And we've seen how powerful a union can be.

Trolls are going down, man.

<comment><USER7> You may not have heard of this, but a union of _companies_ is called a "trust", and there's an entire division of the Department of Justice devoted to preventing them from forming, and destroying them when they do arise: <http://www.justice.gov/atr/>

<comment><USER8> Which is precisely why MPAA, RIAA, BSA, and other industry associations simply do not exist, right? :)

<comment><USER7> Congress has actually enacted specific legislation to exempt the MPAA and RIAA from some aspects of antitrust law. I don't know about the BSA.

To be more specific, though, there are some ways that companies can legally cooperate under current antitrust law — for example, standardizing screw threads and grades of steel. But boycotting the "products" of certain "vendors" is probably not among them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> _"Imagine a law that allows small software companies to opt out of the patent system."_

That's a _very_ interesting idea - startups opting out of the patent system, and then they won't be sued by other companies claiming patent infringement, but it will also mean they don't get to sue others for patent infringement either, even when they get to become a big company. It seems like a fair idea.

<comment><USER10> If anyone get's to ignore patents then the whole idea of patents as a safe means of discloser becomes somewhat meaningless. I have no problems abolishing software / business process patents, but if a small company can manufacture any patented drug you greatly undermine the value of new drugs.

<comment><USER11> I'm not going to argue for or against the usefulness of drug patents, but I think the article was referring to opting out of the _software_ patent system.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Just make patents non transferrable, but licensable. Is that not what they were intended to be, with the oversight that let them be transferrable the root of all the dysfunction?

<comment><USER13> How is that the root of all dysfunction? If trolls can't buy patents, they will cut some other deal with inventors that has the same effect. Or they will just "invent" things themselves[1].

[1] [http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/patent- reform...](http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/patent-reform- needed-more-than-ever.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Not to sound too cynical, but if companies like MS, Apple, IBM, Google, etc. have spent the last 20 years amassing billion-dollar patent war-chests and are still giving in to patent trolls, and they haven't managed to get the system changed yet--what chance do a handful of game developers have?

<comment><USER15> Because those companies also benefit from patents. It takes people who are willing to give up the patent system all together to fix it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I own trollsys.com. Happy to donate it to the cause.

</comment><comment><USER8> So, where do we sign up?

<comment><AUTHOR> Stay tuned. Soon announcements to sign up will be made on Appsterdam website at <http://appsterdam.rs> and on Mike's blog at <http://mur.mu.rs>

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Fantastic Idea!

</comment><comment><USER18> I hope they don't forget to unite against Apple.

<comment><USER19> What do you mean?

<comment><USER18> That Apple is also a patent troll. They threaten Android, which is a haven for indie developers.</comment></comment></comment>


Paul Graham Creates New Secret Handshake - <AUTHOR> http://ycuniverse.com/paul-graham-creates-secret-handshake

<comment><USER2> Check out hdplist.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Send me an email if the site gets traction. I will write a blog post about it.</comment></comment>


Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better - <AUTHOR> https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/shopping-i-can-t-really-remember-what-that-is/ <comment><USER2> I doubt this could happen on any grand scale in a city. This does sound like the temporary autonomous zones you find in Burning Man, or the _sustained exaltation_ you find at dinner parties and get-togethers. The key word here is sustained, because something always breaks exaltation. Someone makes a rude remark, or the wine goes to everyone's head and they make cynical remarks which dampen the mood of the dinner. Multiply this concept to cities and it's clear you're going to have bad apples ruining it for everyone. The bikes casually parked outside shops will be stolen even if they're freely given out to tourists to explore the city. The bum drinking cheap Olde English liquor will start begging for change.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yuck.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree. I love this article because it sounds nice at first. The horror kind of sneaks up on you.

At the very least, it's definitely food for thought.

<comment><USER3> Not the "yuck" I meant, but fair enough!</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Recommendation for remote conferencing equipments - <AUTHOR> Hi all,<p>I am looking for remote video conferencing solution for the team. We need a separate standalone physical device that can be plugged into a monitor so we can call in anytime we want. Any recommendations? <comment><USER2> Why do you need a separate standalone device? Do your workers not have laptops? Just buy everyone who needs to video conference a decent USB headset ($20 - $60) and be done with it.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's what we started with and we often ran into issues where one or two of the clients will stop working for unknown reason. Plus if some of the team is already in the same office room, it would weird for them to still go through the video chat from their own device.

<comment><USER3> For a teleconference room, check the usual suspects Polycom, Cisco, Vidyo, etc. You usually can have a room wired for that specifically or buy a cart and move it everywhere. Maybe have a decent room with many microphones, two HD cameras and a touchscreen interface. And a cart with less capabilities. That's what we have and it works well when the main room is occupied, we just put the cart in the middle of somewhere and people gather around.

I'd spent a good time making sure the softphone client that goes along with that solution plays well with your target systems. Sometimes the quality between Linux, OSX and Windows clients can vary a lot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Polycom's been decent for the lower end of the spectrum but Cisco's telepresence connectivity has been incredible. Wish there was something on the lower end scale with the same quality.

Any reason why you need a physical device? Could you use an older/spare machine, connect to Zoom/Skype to the monitor and use that instead?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the suggestion! I tried zoom, hangout, slack and Skype before on my laptop, the experience wasn't good enough for us. It's not very stable. Sometimes the mic will just stop working on the other end for unknown reason :( It can become frustrating very soon. I was hoping a dedicated device can help with this.

<comment><USER4> Sorry to hear that. I've had numerous issues with Skype connectivity but Webex on both Windows/Mac seems fine for me.

From which locations are you calling from and to? Wonder if it's a laptop issue or connectivity issue.

<comment><AUTHOR> We are calling within south bay, so mostly like issues from the laptop. We have different OSes running on different hardwares :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> AFAIK Polycom is the industry standard. I installed lots of these during the dot-com boom long ago. Things might have changed, but a quick Google search returns similar offerings as what I was used to then.

Best of luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I will check that out!

<comment><USER6> Polycom Video Conferencing. We use one at one conference room to video chat with another conference room 30 miles away. Works okay. A bit complicated for me.

General advice: always go wired on both ends when possible. This will optimize the connection so any lag will not be due to wireless transfer of data.</comment></comment></comment>


Zynga Employee Calls Working at Farmville Maker "Devastating" in Quora Q&A - <AUTHOR> http://kotaku.com/5933418/zynga-employee-calls-working-at-farmville-maker-devastating-in-quora-qa <comment><USER2> _Page could not be found

The page you're looking for doesn't exist or has moved._</comment>


Which GPU(s) to Get: My Experience and Advice for Using GPUs in Deep Learning - <AUTHOR> http://timdettmers.com/2018/11/05/which-gpu-for-deep-learning/ <comment><USER2> Fantastic writeup. I especially enjoy the explanation of how speeding up training makes you a more effective researcher- because it exploits your memory better.</comment>