DHH writes at 37signals Stop whining and start hiring remote workers. Automattic does the same, except we use P2 for our projects and virtual water coolers, IRC for our chat, Skype and Google+ Hangouts for calls and screensharing, and pretty much never email. When people read these things about 37signals their first criticism is always “does it scale?” For Automattic it has to a hundred people and growing.
Category Archives: Asides
One-click Restores
VaultPress now supports one-click database restores direct server-to-server so you don’t need to download or upload anything.
I ended up on the Forbes 30 under 30 for Social / Mobile this year, which is good because I only have two more years to make this sort of thing before being demoted to less exclusive “100 under 100” lists. For something more meaty check out this in-depth interview with Japanese devleloper magazine Gijutsu-Hyoron, by Bart Eisenberg, which included some pretty thoughtful questions.
Check out the new WordPress for Android 2.0, it’s a bottom-up redesign of how our mobile apps can work.
If I were going to start a gadget site, it’d look and work just like The Wirecutter from Brian Lam. Review sites like CNET review stuff when it comes out, and don’t update old reviews when new stuff comes out, so the best printer in March when they did the review might not be still the best printer in December when you want to buy one. Wirecutter picks one thing, and one thing only, and constantly updates their recommendations to keep the context of new products. And, of course, they’re powered by WordPress. 
Where are they now? The Vancouver riot Kissing Couple. Crazy story, and apparently not a hoax like I had heard before.
Dave Kashen on building a values-driven startup on GigaOM.
“But with the Zuccotti Park encampment removed, and the opera closing on Dec. 1, is that it for Gandhi in New York? Or is it worth asking, what would Gandhi do in the world today?” What Would Gandhi Do? in the New York Times.
The problem lies with the business schools which are at fault. What we’ve done in America is to define profitability in terms of percentages. So if you can get the percentage up, it feels like we are more profitable. It causes us to do things to manipulate the percentage. […] Christensen even suggests that in slavishly following such thinking, Wall Street analysts have outsourced their brains.
Clayton Christensen: How Pursuit of Profits Kills Innovation and the U.S. Economy in Forbes. Hat tip: Lane Becker.
Automattic just reached 100 people. On Monday we’ll be 102.
The three biggest myths about women in technology, by Allison Scott and Freada Kapor Klein. Hat tip: Mitch Kapor.
The Art of Right Now by Hiten Shah.
“Apple Lossless, also known as ALAC, is a lossless audio codec Apple developed some time ago for digital music. The codec compresses music files anywhere from 40-60 percent of their original size with no discernible loss in audio quality or fidelity.” — Apples ALAC codec is now open source. About a year and a half ago I started re-ripping all my music in ALAC, it’s fantastic, especially now that iTunes can down-convert when syncing to iPhones / iPods.
ReadWriteWeb covers the WordPress.com / Federated Media deal which will give high-end bloggers access to run advertising from FM, which is significantly higher quality than alternatives like Google Adsense, which has been declining in quality and is no longer a great choice for bloggers. Proud to be part of the empowerment of the Independent Web, which is the dark matter of the internet.
Liz Gannes breaks the story that Automattic has made its first investment, in newspaper toolmaker OwnLocal.
The other week in my hometown of Houston, Texas I ended up on stage in a joint conversation with Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal. The video of our chat is now on WordPress.tv, and worth checking out particularly if you’re curious about the early history of both projects. We’re more alike than different, and Dries is someone I respect a lot.
A great piece in the New York Times today: How do you parent without a future, knowing that you will lose your child, bit by bit?
This essay by Steve Yegge on Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook is pretty killer, I suggest giving it a read.
“We’ve seen WordPress do some amazing things, and almost every one of us has used Google Maps to explore the world around us. […] This website is a beautiful mashup of WordPress, Google Maps and photography.” — Brad McCarty at The Next Web.