Want to attract top tech talent? Offer telecommuting - <AUTHOR> http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/19/want-to-attract-top-tech-talent-offer-telecommuting/ <comment><USER2> In the past 4 hours I have exchanged ones and zeros with people and computers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, California, Germany, Singapore, and India.

And got 3 "office days" worth of work done.

And I haven't even brushed my teeth yet. :-)

You know what telecommuters say, "Once you've deployed a killer app in your pajamas, you can never go back."

<comment><USER3> Don't you find it gets a bit lonely after a while?

I've been working as a full-time programmer from home for about a year and a half now, and it's beginning to get a bit weird. Aside from not having physical coworkers, I don't leave work, go home and do something else, because work is always all around me. There's this never-ending pattern of 9-5 quickly becoming 2 PM - 8 AM, until I finally pull an all nighter and it resets.

It doesn't help that I'm 100% passionate about what I do...!

<comment><USER4> > Don't you find it gets a bit lonely after a while?

At work we spend 80% of the day pairing over voip and SSH. It's ironic because I moved from California to Seattle because I got tired of telecommuting all by my lonesome from down there, but these days with pairing it doesn't bother me at all.

<comment><USER5> That sounds like an interesting pairing setup. Would you mind expounding on the details, both technical and logistical, if possible?

Specifically, are you sharing a screen session with VIM in a terminal or what?

Do you rotate pairs or is it always the same person? How would you compare your remote pairing setup with live, in-person pairing?

<comment><USER4> We are all Emacs users, and we share tmux sessions on Vagrant VMs over SSH. (It's like GNU Screen, but a lot more convenient for sharing.) We usually stick with the same pair for about a week and rotate among our 10-man team, though each person has areas they're more proficient in. We use Skype for VoIP (though Mumble works better in some cases) and IRC for chat.

I haven't done much in-person pairing, but I think the main difference is not having to share a keyboard. Each person can use a system they're comfortable with; no fuss about dvorak vs qwerty, Kinesis vs Natural 4000, standing desk vs sitting, or Ubuntu vs Macosecks. It does mean you need to use auditory cues to indicate who is in control of a given session. The biggest drawback is probably that you can't share a web browser over SSH, but since we are doing backend coding it doesn't affect us.

For me it's been a huge win. We do also have week-long meetings a few times a year to bring the whole team together in-person to promote the team's cohesion. But working from home is great; as long as I'm able to switch things up occasionally by working from a coffee shop a couple times a week, I'm happy.

<comment><USER5> That sounds like a really great setup. I'm going to have to try this out one day. I've never really considered the specific benefits remote pairing would have over in-person pairing...generally the only things considered are the downsides.

Obviously, some of the things you mentioned with in-person pairing can be alleviated. At my current client, our setup includes multiple keyboards and mice. A friend of mine uses his own keyboard with a hardware switch to go between dvorak and qwerty.

You mention not being able to share a browser which makes me think of the times where it would have been convenient to look something up for a moment while my pair experimented (two pronged problem solving approach... :).

Also, what kind of pairing patterns do you use in this setup? Ping Pong TDD, driver/navigator, etc... ?

<comment><USER4> > You mention not being able to share a browser which makes me think of the > times where it would have been convenient to look something up for a moment > while my pair experimented (two pronged problem solving approach... :).

Definitely. Occasionally we'll read docs in w3m, but often it's good to go async on looking up some boring details.

What we do is probably more driver/navigator since whomever is hosting usually has better latency. The remote guy can still get around just fine, but it's just barely noticeable enough to give an edge to the host. Since we work in a language that makes it easy to do strict FP, (Clojure) test-first is not as important as it would be in an imperative language, though we do have pretty good coverage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is sort of a no-brainer. I'm pitched by recruiters about once a week, and they're all for far away positions - typically SF area, but other areas too. I can't sell my house any time soon - the market just isn't moving - so I'm somewhat held hostage by geography. This doesn't mean that I can't travel onsite and visit your office regularly, nor does it mean skype and phone don't work out here in the sticks :)

Telecommuting requires the entire team or ideally the entire company be set up to work like that - just having one guy out in a different state or country on his own doesn't work very well in most cases. I understand that. What I don't get is why more companies aren't structuring themselves to take advantage of remote workers.

If you have strong procedures in place to deal with remote/offsite workers (fulltime or not), you can more easily integrate short term labor when you need it - you'll have the shared workspaces, file transfers, documentation, version control, etc, already set up and ready to let new people in as needed.

This seems like this would be a competitive advantage that more companies should be looking at. Maybe they will be in the coming years as the impact of underwater mortgages and geography-locked workers starts to impact the broader tech labor market.

<comment><USER7> Why can't you sell your house? Your house has already decreased in value, not accounting for the loss in your books doesn't make it more valuable.

<comment><USER8> No, but if you sell your house you need to come up with the difference between what you sell it for and the amount still owing on it in cash, don't you?

<comment><USER9> Or you're still on the hook for the balance of the mortgage, depending on your terms. Either way, you're in a very unpleasant situation.

<comment><USER7> Yes, but you're in the books for that anyway. No matter whether you still have the house or not.

Though I do see that it is a problem, if you have to come up with the margin call in cash when you sell the house.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've spent the bulk of the past 8 years telecommuting, even when I've had full time positions locally. It requires a strong commitment to communication and the experience to recognize when the communication is failing so you can get off your ass for a face to face meeting or phone call. I also ending up working a hell of a lot more hours than I would if I just had a desk job. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

I don't give a shit about your corporate culture or your ping pong table or your office politics or your ego battles, I only care about solving problems and producing solid solutions. Telecommuting lets focus on doing just that while leaving all the other nonsense behind.

<comment><USER11> Agreed. I haven't been in the market for a job in a very long time, but the quickest way to lose my interest in your position is to tell me I can't work from home. After almost fifteen years, I can think of no other way. (Especially in my case, where my colleagues are all spread across the globe, anyway).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Startups that demand relocation to NYC or SF are a total show stopper here. Many of us are held hostage by geography-- maybe you own a home, maybe you have kids in a school they're flourishing in, maybe your parents need help. If you're a family man you won't like spending your wife and children's time in Bay Area or Metro NYC traffic. But here's the thing: the technology most startups use means they can transcend geography to an extent.

I do not underestimate the value of having a team in the same location. It does affect morale and company culture. But with the right people and the right technology those issues are quickly going to wind up in the rearview mirror. When I look at a company, I want to see if they are set up to do remote work, or are they landlocked?

<comment><USER13> _I want to see if they are set up to do remote work, or are they landlocked?_

I love this term. Maybe I'll use it on my resume.

<comment><USER12> Hi, Michael. I love Appleseed and give you guys mad props.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I routinely have people begging me to work for them, but probably 4 in 5 clam up when I specify that -- while I'm happy to spend as much time with them as necessary to get the specs and make everyone comfortable -- I will not sit in their office to do the programming.

I can not, for the life of me, understand why that is such a sticking point with so many people. Fortunately I have enough people who _are_ willing to work with me anyway that I can forget about the ones who don't, but it seems mind-numbingly obvious to me that if you're desperate for the skills I have, you should be willing to work with a requirement that doesn't cost you anything.

As near as I can fathom, it's a psychological thing. Remote people don't seem like they're part of your "empire" as you look out across the office and see all the busy beavers hunched over their computers.

<comment><USER15> also, they can't keep an eye on you to see that you're not slacking off on company time (the horror of it all!)

<comment><USER16> But they rarely are able to tell if I'm slacking off in the office either. They can't tell the difference between me working on their code or my own fun side projects.

<comment><USER17> That isn't how their minds work though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> My advice would be, talent /= experience.

I'm sick and tired of companies being super picky because I don't know their technology stack or maybe just one element, they don't even offer a technical test these days.

I wont learn Cassandra or Scala because they are popular on super-webscale sites, I did, though, learn Haskell, Node, MongoDB, Redis, Python, Ruby, not because they teach that in college. I think that tells you I can learn other technologies.

But I get a feeling - in many interviews I've had in the last couple of month - they get disappointed when I tell them I don't know Scala, Cassandra, Hadoop...

Most good programmers I know (they're not genius level, nor most of the people here) are willing to relocate wherever you are, but they might not know the super-awesome-webscale technologies you use because they work for actual businesses that charge customers and don't need a billion uniques a month to be profitable.

Instead of bitching about the lack of talent (and there are many programmers like me) be willing to train people on your weird-ass technology stack.

<comment><USER19> You say you _refuse_ to learn them. If you're not going to learn their technology what use can you possibly be?

<comment><USER20> I think he means that he's not going to learn it himself independently because he doesn't use it for work, and he's learning/using other technologies for his personal projects. And all technologies are more useful to him currently than the one's for building billion visitors/month sites.

<comment><USER18> Yes sir, you're right!

I love learning new things, but to be honest I don't find a good use case for e.g. Hadoop, at least not in my personal projects. Nor they are attractive to me. And it's not because I'm not into non-mainstream tech, because I am into R, Haskell, Redis (yes I know some of you might consider them mainstream).

Lets say you don't have a super-model-girlfriend but you want to know everything about them... Some people like to do that I don't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Posting another thought here.

I have a suspicion that there's enough people in the SF area (and a couple of the the other "big" markets) that will actively fight against telecommuting, specifically because it will lower wages in those areas.

As someone else posted, yes, I understand the value of a team being in the same room. But that value comes at a premium price, and it's one which may not always be worth paying. However, given the boom/busy/buyout cycle in the bay area (as an example), enough of the same workers can move from company to company as the companies are merged, bought out, or close, that this keeps the talent supply close enough to what is needed to make it harder to embrace telecommuting. You just need a few more people to fill in a few gaps, right? They need to be _on site_ , or they're not a 'team player', or just not serious about their career in tech if they don't want to move to _the valley_! (have heard this before).

If the majority of companies out in SF set themselves up to embrace telecommuting, that would mean it would be easier to fill that next position with someone from Idaho, Kansas or Utah. That would mean the company could pay a lower wage. Why would the culture of startup workers want to embrace something that will end up driving down their salaries?

<comment><USER15> how does that work? the people _paying_ the salaries would surely love to get someone who can do the same work for less, and the people receiving the salaries aren't the ones who make the decision as to whether a new hire can telecommute or not.

<comment><USER21> _the people receiving the salaries aren't the ones who make the decision as to whether a new hire can telecommute or not._

True, but they can whisper into the right ears every day, 9 - 5. And it's quite easy to negatively impact a coworker's productivity, if you so wish.

<comment><USER15> i think you're attributing far too much cunning and big-picture thinking to developers. specifically, the logic chain here would have to run "this dude is telecommuting, which means that he can live somewhere cheaper than sf, which means that he can accept a lower salary, which means that salaries across the board will tend to drop, which means that my salary will be affected, which means i'd better shaft him". i'm not saying that a malicious developer _can't_ whisper into the right ears and get someone into trouble, but it's usually because of some more directly personal dislike or jealousy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've been working a remote contract these last 6 month, and one thing that surprises me is how I bill a lot less hours than I would if I were on site.

If I boot up in the morning, spend 30 minutes trying to get into something, fail and end up back here on HN, I don't bill any time. If I did the same thing sitting in a cube, I'd get paid for it.

The end result is that the client gets a much better deal by having me off site. Works great for me too, since I can justify billing out at a higher rate that reflects the fact that they get essentially all my productive time for the week, and nothing else. Everybody wins.

As an added bonus, if I really can't get started in a morning, I can bail and go bouldering for the day and not feel guilty about it. The bizarro world salaried version of me would spend that same day sitting in a cubicle secretly playing video games on the clock.

<comment><USER23> _If I did the same thing sitting in a cube, I'd get paid for it._

Why? I bill for work done regardless of my location, I never thought it might be out of the ordinary.

<comment><USER24> I think he's attempting to explain that he hasn't actually done anything (maybe loading up some programs, getting reference material together, etc.) and then does something unrelated. I wouldn't bill for that either unless it took a significant portion of time AND I wouldn't have to do it again later.

<comment><USER22> And of course there's no real mechanism to _not_ get paid for time spent daydreaming if you're sitting in an office on salary.

On the point in question though, no, I won't bill time warming up the dev environment unless I actually use it for productive work. You lose the odd fraction of an hour here and there, but really if you're trying to add up things like that to get yourself paid an extra 2 hours at the end of the week you're probably just not charging enough for your time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> At MetaOptimize, I am competing with Google and Facebook and LinkedIn and a host of other companies to recruit top ML + NLP talent.

But, the benefit of my recruiting model is that I hire people remote and part- time. A lot of strong strong people are in academia, but love their academic post and don't want to move. They just want build cool stuff on the side and make some extra money.

The fact that Google + Facebook + LinkedIn + friends _must_ own you full time, asses in seats, creates a unique hiring opportunity for me.

</comment><comment><USER13> I love Chicago, you just can't beat this city for the kind of value you get for the price. The closest competitor is New York in terms of food and culture, but the costs are astronomically higher.

When I'm contacted by a job recruiter for a position that pays more, but requires moving to somewhere like Mountain View, I will rarely entertain the idea. Sure, I'll fly into the office, I'll do it quite regularly actually, but there's no way I'm picking up and moving to a city with considerably less to offer, yet which costs substantially more.

I understand the value of social capital, and working with people face to face. But how often does that really need to happen? As developers, our job is ultimately to write code, and that can happen anywhere.

</comment><comment><USER26> I have telecommuted for several gigs and positions. The most difficult situation to deal with is when most of the rest of the company doesn't telecommute, so everyone is not in the habit of cluing you in to what's going on. You may have all the tools required to establish and maintain decent communications, but they often don't bother to adopt any of it for their end. I even remote-developed for a large networking company with enormous communications facilities designed to solve problems like that -- but they had me fly over to headquarters all the time instead.

<comment><USER27> Speaking from experience, this can be a problem even when you're not telecommuting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I liked the ending:

 _Maybe if we called it 'cloud commuting', CIOs would buy in._

<comment><USER29> Same, that was a nice touch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I see several comments saying more companies should be hiring remote workers, building their culture to support it, and why aren't they doing it?

It's interesting to see the numbers in this article.

 _What's remarkable is that, even after two years of flattish compensation, technology professionals are willing to sacrifice $7,800 on average to work from home_

The article speaks as if this is a huge amount, but as a chunk of total salary, it's probably 5-15% for most tech jobs. So the question for employers is, is it worth an extra 5-15% in salary to have your team work together in person?

In many cases it is.

<comment><USER31> That's not a huge amount. Say you have a mere half-hour commute = 1 hour a day x 250 working days a year, your $7800 turns into $31.20 an hour for the most boring work you'll ever do - even a truck driver usually gets to see different scenery from day to day.

And that's if you manage to live a mere half-hour from work, which in any major city is seriously unlikely.

If you're good at tech, why would you take a second job as an automobile driver for chump change?

<comment><USER32> Exactly. One of the few clear-cut results of happiness studies is that commuting really, really sucks. I can understand why telecommuting might not work for some companies, but there's rarely an excuse for not offering flexible hours, so you can at least dodge rush hour by coming in earlier or later.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I think I may be in the minority, but I don't think people are thinking of the consequences of this telecommuting push.

I like the fact that there is a place where I do work and where I live. I do not want these two places to be the same. Much for the same reason people don't put a television in the bedroom. The bedroom is for sleeping, the living room is for TV.

I find that with the remote people I need to work with, I'm working around their schedule of when they will be around. It is difficult to communicate over IM, IRC, telephone and Skype (doesn't feel a fluid as face-to-face interaction).

If everyone starts becoming remote, then what's the point of having an office? If enough companies come to the same conclusion, what's the point in owning a building (from the eyes of a real estate guy). And ultimately, what's the point of having big office parks and so on and on. That's a lot of land and lot of capital at stake if this ever actually took off.

If a company asked me to be remote, I'd tell them I'm going to start looking for other employment options.

<comment><USER34> > If everyone starts becoming remote, then what's the point of having an > office? If enough companies come to the same conclusion, what's the point in > owning a building (from the eyes of a real estate guy). And ultimately, > what's the point of having big office parks and so on and on. That's a lot > of land and lot of capital at stake if this ever actually took off.

It'll be put to other uses. That's how capitalism works my friend. What do you think happened to all those old factories and warehouses in big cities? People live in them now.

<comment><USER35> yes. And more to the point what happened to the people who used to _work_ in them? 'Cause those jobs are now being done outside the US by people prepared to work for far less. If decentralizing is an option then the US border certainly isn't a barrier.

Understand that a telecomuting job is the easiest job to offshore. At the end of the day if you never come in to the office you might as well be living in India. Cause then we'd have to pay you less. Oh wait, there's some super-keen, super bright chap in India who'll do your work for a tenth of the price? hmm let me think about that for a while.

<comment><USER34> If they're going to outsource you, they'll outsource you. Whether you come to the office or telecommute won't make a huge difference to the decision when you're looking at wage differences of 5x-20x.

In fact, a telecommuter is cheaper than onsite -- much lower overheads. Employees in the office mean renting office space, getting insurance, paying for utilities ... overhead which can add up to a lot of money quite quickly. If they're at home you can pay them more and still come out ahead.

<comment><USER35> "If they're going to outsource you, they'll outsource you. Whether you come to the office or telecommute won't make a huge difference to the decision when you're looking at wage differences of 5x-20x."

I disagree. Many companies wouldn't outsource because the shift from having workers-in-house to workers-remote is a big one.

I _know_ I can get staff in India or China much cheaper than here, but there are enormous benefits (perceived or real) to the employer for having people in the office.

The point I'm making is that when a worker presents such a terrific argument for tele-computing, they're also presenting a terrific argument for out- sourcing.

Now personally I'm not a big fan of tele-commuting. We've had some remote workers in the past, and it didn't work out. Communication is the key of course, but at the end of the day, for better or worse, it simply didn't work out. Now we operate far more like a flexitime system, people come in every day, but there's a lot of flexibility with regard to hours.

But my root point here is that the same arguments for and against telecommuting are the same arguments for and against outsourcing. The one begets the other. Outsourcing is just telecommuting with "cheaper" added.

<comment><USER36> >I _know_ I can get staff in India or China much cheaper than here

No you can't. If you could more companies would be doing it. You get what you pay for. When you get cheap outsourced labor in India you're getting people with no experience and insanely high turn over rate. If you want people from India with more experience you'll find them out west somewhere making a better salary.

The market rate is the market rate. If you suddenly switched all programmers to being remote then the guys in India would initially be getting offered so many jobs that they'd have to push their prices up in response.

You're making the classic mistake of assuming cost = what it costs me + some profit %. It doesn't, it's about perceived value and nothing else.

<comment><USER35> It's interesting to see the knee-jerk reaction when someone talks about Indian or Chinese programmers. The hypothesis that "all smart Indian programmers are in the US" is, well, somewhat naive. Sure not _all_ Indian programmers are great, not all are even good, but that's true everywhere. Finding the good ones will take as much work there as it does here. There's an awful lot of chaff. But there are good ones, even great ones. And a _very_ tiny percentage of a billion is still a lot.

So let me make the argument less prone to misunderstanding. When you open the door to making a post "work remotely" you are competing with programmers in Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Holland, Germany, New Zealand and so on. All have excellent English language skills (ok, apart from the pesky Germans), excellent work ethics, and in many cases require a living wage below that found in the US.

When your job requires you go to the office, you're competing with say a million others who could do that job. You might even be the very best. But are you still the best if we expand the pool to include a billion people?

<comment><USER36> >The hypothesis that "all smart Indian programmers are in the US" is, well, somewhat naive.

It sure is, which is why no one is saying that. I said _the west_ (that's not just the US, you know?).

>you are competing with programmers in Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Holland, Germany, New Zealand and so on.

I already am. Every one of them that is willing to move where I live. The only difference is that neither they, nor I would have to move if we moved to telecommuting. This would depress the value of labor somewhat because commute hassles are figured into the current price, but I don't believe we would be looking at a long term 50% decrease.

>and in many cases require a living wage below that found in the US.

Irrelevant. Market prices are set based on perceived value of the good or service. Not what it costs to produce or anything like that.

> But are you still the best if we expand the pool to include a billion > people?

No of course not, but we're not all competing for one job. If all programming jobs became telecommuting jobs then I would be competing with everyone but for every job.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I would love to do more remote work, but then I hear horror stories about people having problems not being around people. Feelings of isolation set in after a couple of months, and people end up going to a gig where they are around people. To those doing remote work, is this common?

<comment><USER31> I've worked at home since 1996 and there is no way in hell you'd drag me back. I never had a problem with isolation, but then I have kids. Isolation for me is a goal, not a fear.

In this, as in all things, your mileage will certainly vary. If you're a type-A people person, you should probably stick with a social context. Although (as elsewhere noted) you'd be surprised how much social interaction you can have online at home these days.

<comment><USER31> Oh - the other variable - I grew up on a farm miles from anywhere, so I'm used to spending time by myself. That's probably also a factor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> In my experience, the number of people that actually have what it takes to telecommute effectively is extremely small, and most of those are self- employed already.

Of those that want to telecommute _and_ have a steady job, very few can actually handle the responsibility and the lack of stimulus from co-workers for longer periods of time. Flexible hours, working from home on a regular basis, sure, no problem, but actual full time telecommuting requires a lot of commitment, discipline and communication skills.

</comment><comment><USER39> I have failed to understand why someone in India can do my job, but telecommuting is still frowned upon.

<comment><USER40> I suppose for the premium amount you are being paid, as compared to the Indian worker, being physically present is a requisite. I cannot say, I disagree with the logic myself.

<comment><USER41> Paying a premium so we can play butts-in-seats and management can feel like they're tending properly to the cube farm...

<comment><USER40> I cant say anything for your management, but my management (actually my immediate boss), is very reasonable. Being a developer himself, he understands what programmers need to be productive. He allows remote work, time to time. In time is as late as 11:30 AM (which is also just because, we have standup that time). In all, a very reasonable person to work for/with/under, who believes in not micro-managing people.

However, co-locating has its own benefits, and I suppose thats why he does not hire remote workers (for permanent positions). We have hired remote contractors in the past, and they worked fine to good, but it required lot of effort on collaborating.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> _With an unemployment rate of just 4% among tech professionals, and shortages in specific fields, flexibility shouldn't be a last resort._

I would have guessed that tech unemployment would be lower than the national average, but 4% is _really_ low.

<comment><USER43> The unemployment rate for college graduates as a whole is under 5%. White collar workers are not the ones feeling the brunt of the recession.

<comment><USER44> Wow. That's a statistic that doesn't get reported nearly enough. It puts an entirely different spin on the unemployment rate.

<comment><USER8> It could probably afford to be aired in the "is college a waste of time and money?" threads which crop up here every day too.

<comment><USER43> I doubt it, the correlation does not imply causation. My hunch is that the people graduating from college are the kind of people that would find it easier to find a job anyway.

<comment><USER45> There was actually an interesting study about this which got mentioned recently on the Freakonomics podcast (you can see a transcription of the segment at [http://freakonomicsradio.com/does-college-still-matter- and-o...](http://freakonomicsradio.com/does-college-still-matter-and-other- freaky-questions-answered.html), the original study is at <http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/tlemieux/papers/unintended.pdf>).

Basically, it uses men who were eligible for the Vietnam draft (who enrolled in college in greater numbers than they otherwise would have, to avoid military service) to demonstrate that success from college graduates is more than a "these people are the ones who were already going to succeed" thing.

<comment><USER43> Thanks for the link, that is interesting. Of course, there were no startups willing to eschew traditional hiring practices back then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Want to attract top tech talent? Offer a high salary.

<comment><USER47> I think there's a difference between attracting and keeping (productive). High salaries can lead to a 'golden handcuffs' scenario where the company can flounder, do stupid things, mistreat employees.. and they'll stick around for the cash.

I think paying well is a good idea, but it's not a complete strategy and I don't think it actually is as likely to bring the lifestyle satisfaction that telecommuting can for many people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> I was reading a study a while back about how an absurdly high percentage of total jobs could be done via telecommute but aren't. It's crazy to think about how many millions upon millions of dollars in fuel costs and reduced emissions could be saved by having more telecommuters. Not only that, but companies could save so much money by having reduced or no office space/electricity/etc. Plus they'd get the added benefit of increased worker satisfaction in most cases.

<comment><USER49> What you said, plus the employee commute time - I have actually turned down a (nominally) better paid job offer to accept a (nominally) lower one. The pay is lower, but the almost instant commute means I actually earn more per (work + commute) hour. On top of that I also save on fuel, car wear and tear and road jam frustration.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> I worked from home for the past couple of years and now work in an office and have to communte everyday. But i have to say i like working in a space with other engineers to discuss ideas and concepts and energy more as sitting alone at home.

</comment><comment><USER51> Anecdote: I've been traveling for the last three months, but most of my network is in Chicago. I hear from recruiters and hiring managers every couple days and, despite the consensus that Chicago has a "developer crisis" (to use the words of an Obtiva blog post), every single job has onsite only.

<comment><USER52> I read "Anecdote" as "HNecdote", not sure what that says about anything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> Thinking back to the recent post about Performable paying a $12,000 referral bonus: I consider myself a perfect candidate for the Performable job, with the exception of location and willingness to pick up my family and move them across the country. For a competitive salary (by midwest standards, which would be a lot less than what you'd pay in Boston) I'd tell them to keep that $12,000 and use it to fly me out to boston twice a month for a few days at a time, and let me work from home the rest of the time. I work hard when I'm at home. Shoot, I built AppRabbit from the ground up evenings and weekends from the recliner in my home office. Plus, I spend more than an hour a day commuting right now, so you can have that time too :-)

</comment><comment><USER54> I recently _quit_ my job because they wanted me to telecommute.

<comment><USER55> Care to share the reason why?

<comment><USER54> I figured working from home would be great for the first month, and then I would start going mad. And when I asked who was going to pay for my chair, desk and computer, and who would pay the heating, lighting, ADSL and air- conditioning ... it looked like I was going to be out of pocket too.

<comment><USER56> You don't already have a chair, desk, computer, and internet access at home? Air conditioning may cost more, but you'd no longer be paying high gas prices to drive to and from work (which I'm assuming your company doesn't pay for now?).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> I agree. We need to see more of that. I would suggest to offer a few trips a year to the "office" though for morale.

</comment><comment><USER58> <shameless plug for a job>

I know im a bit late to the game.

I have been looking for a telecommuting job for the past 6 months with no such luck. I am a solid programmer and I get the job done. I hobby code at home and have an awesome work ethic. I have several years experience and have been everything for GIS software to coding directly on the GPU.

I have worked on all three types of mobile devices for my current job, and have a pretty intense background of C#.

If anyone has a job that they would love to fill with a telecommuter. Please look my direction.

my blog at spoiledtechie.com my email spoiledtechie with gmail.

Thanks for the look see!

<comment><USER35> Not to pick on you, but let me ask this question;

Since you want to be a remote worker, what do you bring to the table that a remote worker in say Mexico doesn't? Or India? Or China? 'Cause sure as hell they'd be a lot cheaper...

And while quantity doesn't equal quality, I'm certainly not so egotistic as to suppose there isn't a single Indian smart enough and keen enough to do whatever I can do for a fraction of the cost.

So why doesn't my boss hire him? Cause I'm in the office when something needs to get done. Because I'm the one who has a relationship with the customers. Because I make the people around me more productive as I pass on my knowledge. Oh, and perhaps because I am the boss.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> I think it is also important for in-office workers be allowed to telecommute when needed. Having that flexibility offers a lot of freedom as there are times where you need to be out of the office but can still work. I currently have a family situation where I try and be at my parents' home a week a month and having the option to work from there has been a huge help. It is definitely a big factor in why I would stick around in my current job for a while at least.

<comment><USER60> I actually would prefer that to an all-telecommute gig. Be in the office 16-18 days a month out of 20, but those 2 or 4 days a month you want to work from home you can.

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> As with many things, working from home entails tradeoffs whose [dis]advantages will be weighted differently.

For me, it's great when I need to concentrate and bang out the code. No distractions, and I can poll IMs instead of needing a context switch when someone drops by. If I'm stuck on a problem I'll go for a walk, cook food, or take the laptop out to a coffee shop to work. I enjoy the flexibility.

Downsides for me: I do miss some of the random office chatter -- finding out cool problems coworkers have solved and generally learning by osmosis. And I have yet to find a great replacement for 3-4 people standing at a wall of whiteboards. IMs, skype and meeting highlights solve some problems. Our group is 2/3 remote spanning 8 time zones, so we're used to working a bit harder on communication.

As for social factors, it was hard at first. I'd find myself not leaving the apartment for weeks, which was less than good... I'm making an effort to get out of the house daily, whether hitting the gym, buying groceries, or just strolling around. This is getting easier, especially as spring seems to finally be hitting Boston.

The biggest non-technical advantage for me is not needing a car. I detested commuting. Instead of spending an extra hour or two driving I can take breaks (or even naps) in the day and have the same "door-to-door" time. Financially, it's also a winner. I don't even know how much gas costs here. There are 4 zipcars within a few blocks if I need them.

Work-life separation is trickier. I'd love to have an apartment with an extra room for an office, but that would likely cancel out any vehicle savings. Getting a separate desk to split work and personal computing helped a ton here.

</comment><comment><USER62> I have never earned a dollar in IT, but in other fields I got a lot of success, so I consider IT a hobby. Perhaps I could be a top tech talent if enough money and flexible conditions were around, anyway I think programmers are mere pawns in game of business, so it seems better to devote time and energy to develop better strategies.

</comment><comment><USER63> I used to work in NYC but I've been working from home for a couple years now for an agency based in NYC (I live in CT now). I make good money but I've been offered a 20k+ raise and other bonuses to work in the city. Barely considered it.

</comment><comment><USER64> Timely article, comsidering 37Signals is relocating their entire team to Chicago. Apparently they are freaked out, not about their employees, but about people in their homes who might break in to their stuff. Aka ex spouses et al. So David H said they will all work from the Chicago office, with iMacs Chained to their desks and wear uniforms. No more working from home or laptops unless it's on open source projects. I'd link to the post on 37Signals blog, but I'm in bed and on an iPhone.

Just cruise to their corporate blog. They posted the details a few days ago.

<comment><USER65> I'm on an iPhone but I did anyways.

Here's the link - [http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2838-were-relocating- everyone...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2838-were-relocating-everyone-to- chicago)

Look at the date - April 1st.

Context.Context. Context.

<comment><USER64> Thanks for the context Joel. April fools is what I get for reading that on April 15th!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> Quite offtopic. But still I wanted to share this. ;)

Why working at home is both awesome and horrible - <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home>

</comment><comment><USER67> I've never had a proper job in an office - I started working an online gig in uni, and I've been working for them ever since. It's great not needing to be in one place. I've started taking round-the-world trips - live cheap in hostels, work in coffee shops using their WiFi. Hanging out in Singapore and Tokyo sure motivates me to work a lot more than my apartment at home.

</comment><comment><USER68> I've telecommuted for 8 years now and I'm looking for a new gig. I'm really surprised how difficult it is to to find good companies who are really in to telecommuting and are looking for my skill set (web, cms, mobile). While it can be isolating if you don't force yourself to get out once in a while the flexibility and productivity sure can't be beat.

</comment><comment><USER69> Like hell I would! Nothing beats face-to-face communication, and the wonderful things that can arise from spontaneous interactions.

</comment><comment><USER70> I live in Missoula, MT and I'm not willing to move because my family is here, and I love the city. Programmers here are willing to take a pay cut to stay, and I know several that telecommute to out of state jobs that pay better than most local companies. I telecommute too, but my employer is local.

</comment><comment><USER71> I started an interesting thread awhile back about this very topic:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2202187>

Had some interesting comments...

</comment><comment><USER72> I like hiring people that are available to meet locally, and then let them work remotely for most things.

<comment><USER73> I think this is the best of both worlds, and probably the right way to go for startups in cities with a huge urban sprawl.

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> <http://remote-jobs.com/>

</comment><comment><USER75> sane people like to work for other sane people and work should be about what you produce unless you have necessary human interactions

</comment><comment><USER76> If you're "top tech talent", compromising on salary will likely not be part of your telecommuting scenario.

</comment><comment><USER77> Haha, cloud computing!

</comment><comment><USER78> I've previously worked for a pair of bosses who telecommuted. Never again. At least for the types of algorithmic / machine learning software I work on, frequent in person collaboration is really helpful and none of the remote collaboration software came close to standing in front of the same piece of paper / monitor / whiteboard.</comment>


Statistics for Hackers [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5GVOFAYi8k <comment><USER2> Similar in spirit to John Rauser's 2014 Strata Conference + Hadoop World keynote "Statistics Without the Agonizing Pain" ([https://youtu.be/5Dnw46eC-0o](https://youtu.be/5Dnw46eC-0o)).

<comment><USER3> I am very glad that he referenced it, that talk was amazing and needs to be duplicated/replicated/spread 10x over.

<comment><USER4> :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Previous discussion based on an earlier 2015 version of the slide deck: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10244950](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10244950)

Back then, I wrote a small tutorial on how to implement and animate the bootstrap technique in R/ggplot2 based on the talk: [http://minimaxir.com/2015/09/bootstrap- resample/](http://minimaxir.com/2015/09/bootstrap-resample/)

</comment><comment><USER6> I actually watched the majority of this, it's a very interesting talk. I'd imagine that all of us are going to need to use at least some statistics one day, so I consider it time well spent.

</comment><comment><USER7> Really nice. Is there a similar video in R?

<comment><USER8> Is python matters here?

<comment><USER7> No. Does your comment answer my own question?

<comment><USER8> Is that code answers your question? No offense but the main message of that talk is if you can do a for loop than you can do statistics simulation in any programming environment. Like in R.

m <\- 0 nexp <\- 100000

for (i in 1:nexp) { if (sum(rnorm(30, mean=0, sd=1) < 0) >= 22) { m <\- m + 1 } }

print(m / nexp)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> i wish there was a way to 'force mono' on youtube so i could get the same audio from two sides of my headphones.

sounds like a really interesting talk, but it's painful to listen to from only 1 ear.

<comment><USER10> Plug your headphones only halfway into the jack.

<comment><USER11> Yet another brilliant argument for still using the 3.5mm jack

<comment><USER12> Yeah, because people don't know how to mix audio plug your jack only half way in and risk it getting loose.

This is like if some guy was punching people on the street, instead of removing the guy you'd just tell people to duck.

<comment><USER11> It was a cross between sarcasm and a reference to a previous HN discussion on phones looking to phase out the 3.5mm

<comment><USER12> Yes, I am aware, but I'm very much in favor of removing the useless jack. I have already transitioned into using bluetooth earpuds and headphones with my mobile devices and laptops, and I will never go back to cables.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Nice one!</comment>


New Android 2.2 Froyo API: Log.wtf() - <AUTHOR> http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/Log.html#wtf(java.lang.String,%20java.lang.String)

<comment><USER2> I love how it apparently stands for "What a terrible failure".

<comment><USER3> Talk about reverse engineering an acronym :)

<comment><USER4> Wikipedia calls it a Backronym: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym>

<comment><USER5> "Backronym"? That's obviously a postmanteau :-)

<comment><USER6> Portmanteau _

<comment><USER5> I know, see the ":-)" ?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's also worth noting that the Wave API supports direct lolcat insertion: [http://code.google.com/p/google-wave- resources/issues/detail...](http://code.google.com/p/google-wave- resources/issues/detail?id=714)

<comment><USER8> Reminds me of the logcat command.

<http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html>

As the presenter at my first android user group meeting said, it sounds an awful lot like "lolcat".

<comment><USER9> You should try issuing "adb lolcat" sometime...

<comment><USER10> Woah! Impressive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> And where is the BBQ extension to that function?

</comment><comment><USER11> When called in reverse it indicates a SUCCESS!

FTW!

<comment><USER12> It's not that simple. Some people say that in the reverse acronym the W was originally expanded to World.

      Question: W to F?
      Answer: F the W(orld)!
      Chorus: W the F! ... (repeat)
      Hero: For the win!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I came across this last night, PURE AWESOME!

</comment><comment><USER14> It would be practical to use as well. Neat.</comment>


How to Pass a Silicon Valley Software Engineering Interview [PDF slides] - <AUTHOR> http://www.verifiedidentity.com/tymaPaulInterviewing.pdf <comment><USER2> I just went through a three week gauntlet of interviews (~10 companies who each do at least 3 1-hour interviews). This slide set is pretty accurate in terms of what to expect but I'd weight the API's/language/philosophy sections down a bit. I only got a few language questions and absolutely none about development philosophies (except for maybe "emacs or vim?"). Algorithms & data structures are what you should be studying. Puzzles too but that's more about doing a lot -- you can't really study per se.

<comment><USER3> I am wondering what it takes to be a qualified web start-up programmer.

I have less formal computer science training than most candidates for Silicon Valley jobs. However, I gamble I have more programming experience than many CS graduates. So, I am hopeful that I don't need to go back to school for chemistry straightaway.

I am familiar with algorithms and data structures, but I am certain that many properly educated developers would put me to shame. What is the best way to accumulate this core theoretical knowledge? Are there preferred books on the subjects or will any do? Or do you recommend simply taking few courses before I graduate?

Thanks for your input.

<comment><USER4> Most engineers never implement any of those classic CS algorithms or data structures manually since everything is in the libraries these days. Therefore they're in the same boat as you: general knowledge and a couple of books under a hand to look things up. All they (and you) have to do is to refresh their knowledge since college years.

I've never implemented a linked list since graduation, nor I sorted anything manually using quick sort. Moreover, I never had to generate permutations of anything, nevertheless those are the same damn questions they keep asking on interviews. I wonder why: it only makes sense for fresh graduates, because it's the only reliable way to compare then against each other.

<comment><USER5> I have used the Aho-Corasick and Boyer-Moore algorithms the Google presenter guy mentioned many times, at least a dozen, in 10 months of employment.

I have also implemented a fulltext indexing system because we have total NIH syndrome, which involved working with suffix trees, inverted indexes, and other classic undergrad information retrieval material.

You don't have to know everything; you need to know enough to know what you _don't_ know, and where to look to get what you need to get the job done. Like, I just start with Wikipedia, usually.

What you need when you actually get the job is a separate concern from what you need to get the job in the first place, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I usually review my data structures and algorithms book before interviews. In particular, you need to be familiar with recusion and tree traversal. Interviewers love these questions.

For me, the only time I write tree traversals is during interviews, so I am a little surprised that it's such a big point for interviewers. I suppose it is a pretty good sign that someone knows how to program, but I do think that it would lead to many "false negatives" (ie., someone who can program well but doesn't have it front and center).

My advice: don't become a false negative. Just make sure you bust out the old textbook and get it fresh in your mind.

If you've never taken data structures and algorithms, then you'll probably get a lot out of this exercise. I use container classes for most of this, but it is valuable to study and learn it well once.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> No slides give the full picture of a presentation but this is still worth reading. It's written by Google engineer and Mailinator creator Paul Tyma.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, definitely worth a read.

"Its quite easy to write software that doesn't need to scale." Amen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yeah, I've just been through the interview cycle as well, and I'd definitely focus on knowing as much as you can about: 1) data structures 2) algorithms 3) big picture: how would you build X? 4) math - be a good puzzle solver. the more puzzles you do, the better you get at them.

</comment><comment><USER8> Is Java really as popular as these slides imply? I had no idea. Or is that only for Google? (or Sun, I guess maybe?)

<comment><USER9> I've seen some statistics (I forget where) indicating it's now about twice as popular as C++. My (East coast) company recently decided it was a "Java shop."

<comment><USER8> Crazy. My first job was Java for about a year (in 1996-97) and after that I ignored it and hoped it would go away and not overtly hurt me.

The bizarre thing is that I don't know of any software that I use other than (I believe) gmail that's actually written in Java (and I don't think gmail qualifies as a "normal" Java deployment).

<comment><USER10> as much as people rave about rails, python or any other language, the web actually runs mostly on java (and some .net). Most financial sites, brokerage houses, banks and many more websites run with java.

Just b.c you hear about rails or django all the damn time, doesn't mean they are widely used. They are just trendy frameworks.

(Php is the other language that run the rest of the web.).

<comment><USER11> I tend to think of it more as "php runs the internet", "java runs the intranet".

Neither of these are the darlings of most hackers. All hackers should know how to code them, though (IMHO).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Sorry, Elizabeth Warren, Women Already Have Equal Pay - <AUTHOR> http://economics21.org/html/sorry-elizabeth-warren-women-already-have-equal-pay-1979.html <comment><USER2> The myth of the pay gap has been perpetuated by the Obama administration, the Clinton campaign, and the Trump campaign.

There are 10 million more female voters than male voters, so everyone is taking part in the demagoguery

</comment><comment><USER3> No surprises, but the source is a right-wing think tank: [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Manhattan_Institute_for...](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Manhattan_Institute_for_Policy_Research)

</comment><comment><USER4> Head hits desk. The crux of the article, if you take away all the factors causing women to not have equal pay then women have equal pay. No shit.

<comment><USER5> What so it doesn't make sense to adjust for hours worked or skills? The point here is to eliminate everything except for prejudice by employers. It doesn't address why women are less likely to work in some industries or take higher skill qualifications.

<comment><USER4> No, it doesn't make sense. I seriously doubt anyone who can't see why that is the case though would ever see or acknowledge the problem. I am not going to tell you the reason, you need to work it out yourself.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sorry, I Despise This Headline Construction Cliché.</comment>


Using Hashicorp Vault on Kubernetes - <AUTHOR> https://caylent.com/using-hashicorp-vault-on-kubernetes <comment><USER2> You could also just fetch and configure the Vault operator ([https://github.com/coreos/vault-operator](https://github.com/coreos/vault- operator)) and be done with it.</comment>


Kayak Files for $50 million IPO - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/17/travel-search-engine-kayak-files-for-50-million-ipo

<comment><USER2> Does anyone know of any other solutions for this kind of data other than ITA? Are there any open/cheap APIs for getting at scheduling/price data? I hear Hipmunk is using Orbitz currently to power their results (or so someone said on that recent TechCrunch article in the comments). Does Orbitz have some API? Would be a fun data set to play with if one is openly available, though I love what Hipmunk is already doing.

<comment><USER3> Kayak has an api (limited to 1000 searches / day): <http://www.kayak.com/labs/api/search/>

I believe that Orbitz will require you talk to someone in order to get access to their api.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for that info. That's a great start for what I'm looking for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> TC article keeps referring to revenue and net income as compared to a year ago which was a notoriously bad year for the travel industry. So these growth numbers don't really mean anything. Would be really interesting to see where Kayak stands in comparison to 2007 & 08.

<comment><USER5> Kayak's S1 filing has a lot of interesting nuggets of information. The data you're after is on page 29:

2007 Revenues / Net Income: $48M / ($4.36M) 2008 Revenues / Net Income: $112M / $5.1M

Keep in mind they acquired SideStep at the end of 07.

[http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1312928/0001193125102...](http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1312928/000119312510262521/ds1.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I didn't realize that the Kayak founders have a member from basically every other major competitor. I would love to hear that story.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think if you look at any large website in the travel space, that holds true, it seems to be an especially incestuous industry. When I worked at Tripadvisor (owned by Expedia) we had significant numbers of people in our group from Travelocity.

<comment><USER7> Odd. I wonder why that is. I suppose it has to do with gaining the knowledge to work in the space. Once you do, it's probably easier to find a job with other companies in the same space.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Luckily for them, flight search is such a small [1] industry.

[1] orbitz, chapoair, hipmunk, expedia, travelocity, farecompare, cheaptickets, hotwire, priceline, kinkaa, zoombu, cheapflights, etc

<comment><USER9> Funny enough, these sites (including Kayak) are pushing users away from flight booking and towards hotel booking because the margins are much larger.

kayak.com defaults to hotel search now, for example.

<comment><USER10> Careful, they default to whatever search you ran last :)

<comment><USER9> Well, then the default default is hotels.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The article implies that Kayak may have had privileged information about the Justice Department's investigation of the Google-ITA deal, or else they would have held off on the IPO. Now there's a story I'd like to read.

</comment><comment><USER12> Interesting. I've played around with Kayak's API, but has anyone used it for any projects? I'm curious what others think.

As for the IPO... good luck to them!

</comment><comment><USER13> Interesting how much money they get from other travel booking agencies. These are basically referrals of referrals.

</comment><comment><USER14> Revenue? What's the profit?

<comment><USER15> "Net Income was actually down for the first three quarters to $6.2 million from $10.4 million in 2009."

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm surprised it's valued that low. We constantly hear about all kinds of shitty sites getting millions in funding.

<comment><USER17> 50m is not the valuation; it's the amount of stock they're selling.

<comment><USER16> How is that different from the valuation?

<comment><USER18> If they have 100 shares of stock and are selling 2 at the IPO for 50M then the valuation is much higher than 50M. Just because it is the IPO doesn't mean 100% of the stock is for sell. If they are putting out 20% of their stock then their valuation is 250M.

<comment><USER19> so what is kayak's actual valuation?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Looks like a flop.</comment>


Amazon Is Working with Lawmakers to Counter Trump's Immigration Order - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-is-working-with-lawmakers-to-counter-trumps-immigration-order-1485814300?mod=trending_now_3 <comment><AUTHOR> I have seen many comments on HN and Twitter criticizing Amazon (and Bezos) for not speaking out. It is possible that the company (and Bezos) is taking action that is not yet in the public eye.</comment>


Flappy Bird Creator's Next Game Has Already Been Created By Someone Else - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2014/03/19/flappy-bird-returning-to-destroy-all-productivity-eventually/

<comment><USER2> Trailer: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucChJITomFI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucChJITomFI) App store: [https://itunes.apple.com/app/jetpack- kitty/id567551748?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/app/jetpack- kitty/id567551748?mt=8)</comment>


App Store Pricing: Worth at Least as Much as a Cup of Coffee - <AUTHOR> http://www.entrelife.com/2013/09/app-store-pricing-worth-as-much-as-cup.html

<comment><USER2> Solid defense of the business, and I tend to agree with you. At the same though, you have to admit that with 5C and a bigger, broader apple, the apps that will win big will be apps that profit off volume and not individual sales.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think you are right that the apps that "win big" are going to be the volume free apps. That being said, people are still spending a lot of money those games, it's just not up front.

Also, as an indie, I'm honestly not aiming for Candy Crush success. It might be possible to get in that vicinity like Tiny Wings, but it seems absurdly unlikely. I'm perfectly content to make a good living selling niche apps, and there is a big market available for it. Candy Crush and Clash of Clans aren't making all 5 billion Apple paid out last year.</comment></comment>


Branded.Me – Anyone Used It? - <AUTHOR> https://branded.me/ <comment><USER2> I got an invite to it. It is nice, but doing anything extra beside a very basic portfolio costs money.

As a developer you would be better of to start a blog on blogger or wordpress. Or just buy a cheap domain name with web hosting and make your own website and promote it on linkedin, facebook or whatever social media you use.</comment>


Moller Skycar to finally crash and burn? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/23/moller_on_the_ropes/

<comment><USER2> Finally! Finally? I'm getting tired of hearing "news" about the Moller Skycar.

Also, I used to be excited about flying cars until I noticed all the bad drivers of non-flying cars.</comment>


One Australian political blog targeted by activists -- but several suffer - <AUTHOR> http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/oversensitivity-can-only-compromise-debate/story-e6frg6zo-1226000416817

<comment><AUTHOR> Disclosure: I run the Ozblogistan network which hosts several of the blogs affected by this spat.

Related links:

[http://clubtroppo.com.au/2011/02/06/troppo-bullied-by- corpor...](http://clubtroppo.com.au/2011/02/06/troppo-bullied-by-corporarte- thugs/)

[http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2011/02/05/of-secondary- boycotts...](http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2011/02/05/of-secondary-boycotts- free-speech-and-revenue/)

[http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11583&p...](http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11583&page=0)</comment>