Friday, May 02, 2014

More quick links

More of what has caught my attention lately:
  • Excellent history of Google's love-hate relationship with management (hint: it's mostly hate) ([1])

  • Excellent BBC documentary on Amazon.com, plenty of fun historical tidbits, quite critical in parts, very well done ([1])

  • Excellent charts on the history of wealth concisely summarizing three centuries ([1])

  • Compelling example of virtual tourism ([1])

  • Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explain ([1])

  • "The most interesting things are happening at the intersection of two fields" ([1])

  • "The largest driver of Facebook’s mobile revenue is app-install ads ... largely purchased by free-to-play game publishers such as King (maker of Candy Crush Saga) and Big Fish Games (the Bejeweled series) ... to target the small percentage of players who will spend hundreds of dollars on in-app purchases." ([1] [2])

  • "When you subtract out the value of Yahoo's stake in Alibaba, the rest of Yahoo is worthless. Indeed, it has negative worth." ([1] [2] [3])

  • "Newspaper print ad revenue has declined 73% in 15 years" ([1])

  • "Microsoft is backtracking on practically every part of the Windows 8 interface that developers abhorred" ([1] [2] [3] [4])

  • Survivor bias in perceptions of startup life and what might be closer to reality: "It's a decision to throw away a large chunk of your precious youth at a venture which is almost certain to fail" ([1] [2])

  • "Many hospitals in the US still use Windows XP on workstations and healthcare devices" ([1])

  • "It's no longer realistic to think that routers, DVRs, or other Internet-connected home appliances aren't worth an attacker's time ... poorly designed 'Internet of Things' devices ... [are] particularly easy to hack" ([1])

  • Newegg exec on patent trolls: "Why those asshats continue to trade at ANY value, I do not know. The world would be a better place without them." ([1])

  • I still don't understand why more tech companies don't provide free food ([1] [2])

  • Humor: "The pain of being the only engineer in a business meeting" ([1])