[Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
Hi Mailing list, a young startup company with a very interesting web 2.0 platform is seeking for a PHP programmer with knowledge in AJAX HTML or any other 3-4 letters combinations that has to do with web or open source! I dont want to put a long job description I know that who ever fits the job knows it already This programmer will eventually become the CTO of the company... not to mention partnership! for more info contact me by email [EMAIL PROTECTED] or old fashion way by phone 054-6838708 Have a wicked week Aviv
Re: vnc in window mode ?
On Jan 10, 2008 7:01 PM, Erez D <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Jan 10, 2008 1:29 PM, Arie Skliarouk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > i just want to open an X window from my server on my local machine, be > > > able to resize it, and > > > later be able to reboot my local machine and re-attach to the same > > > window later > > > > > > > apt-get install xmove > > > great app > if it would have worked > doesn't work on my computer, > i read somwhere that it crashes on amd64/nvidia (which is what i have) > and crush it does indeed > > thanks anyway, > erez. > > > > > -- > > Arie > > > > well, compiling as 32bit binary does the trick. but the feature i wanted the most was immunity to network being down temporarily in VNC if there is no network, or the viewer dies, the viewer can allways be restarted without any loss if i use xmove, and the xserver dies, then the app is killed so i didn't get a solution for what i was looking for. thanks anyway, erez.
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 11:11:20AM +0200, aviv sher wrote: > > a young startup company with a very interesting web 2.0 platform is seeking > for a > PHP programmer with knowledge in AJAX HTML or any other 3-4 letters > combinations that has to do with web or open source! > > This programmer will eventually become the CTO of the company... not to > mention partnership! IMHO probably not. If you have already decided the technologies, which is what you said in the begining of this post, then there really is no longer an opening for a CTO. What you are looking for is a programmer who will be given the title of CTO as an inducment to take less or no money, but will never be allowed to actually make any technology decisions. A real CTO would leave out of frustration, a "young" programmer will never sucessfully make the transition from doing it all themeselves to running a group. > I dont want to put a long job description I know that who ever fits the job > knows it already Yes, but as I said, IMHO, you have already scared them off. If you are looking for a programmer to join you, who will be paid in equity, you should say so and get a person who can do the job you want without any unreasonable expectations. If you really have those expectations, IMHO, you really need to have a professional take a good hard look at your business plan and advise you on staffing among other things. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
Hi, On Jan 13, 2008 12:41 PM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 11:11:20AM +0200, aviv sher wrote: > > > > a young startup company with a very interesting web 2.0 platform is seeking > > for a > > PHP programmer with knowledge in AJAX HTML or any other 3-4 letters > > combinations that has to do with web or open source! > > > > This programmer will eventually become the CTO of the company... not to > > mention partnership! > > IMHO probably not. If you have already decided the technologies, which > is what you said in the begining of this post, then there really is no > longer an opening for a CTO. Why? only because he decided to go with PHP? it's a stat-up, and I assume Aviv started to write the code with PHP prior deciding upon taking someone else to be a partner/worker and with a CTO title. Maybe when they'll grow, the CTO will decide what tech to use and what won't go in. I've seen so many start-ups that started with some LAMP and then "resized" to something bigger after doing some meetings with the staff and the CTO had the final word what to implement. > What you are looking for is a programmer who will be given the title > of CTO as an inducment to take less or no money, but will never be allowed > to actually make any technology decisions. A real CTO would leave out of > frustration, a "young" programmer will never sucessfully make the transition > from doing it all themeselves to running a group. I'm looking for a job these days, and one thing that I learned (the hard way, unfortunately) is to see if this start-up has any funds, angels/VC/investors that stands behind those startup prior to signing a contract. Any employee who is going to sign in startup should look for press-release from those angels/VC/investors, or do some serious Google search prior signing. I agree with Geoff regarding the CTO title. It's way there in the future and you don't know if the startup will be succeed to have any CTO, and any programmer who will take this job should not take this promise as a "bonus" or as something to work for less money. Thanks, Hetz -- Skepticism is the lazy person's default position. my blog (hebrew): http://benhamo.org = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On 1/13/08, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If you are looking for a programmer to join you, who will be paid in > equity, you should say so and get a person who can do the job you want > without any unreasonable expectations. But Aviv has not offered work-for-equity! You merely extrapolated his business plan. If you really cared deeply for him and his business, as appears from your eagerness to give him (unasked) business advice, it'd be fair to first ASK him about his business plan and give him a chance to explain it.
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
Geoff thanks for the insight, The CTO title means he will handle the whole Technology part of the system (and the technology vision), and if he would like to change the technology in the future it will be his decision... we also want him to be a good programmer so he can support the current system we dont want anyone to work for free so if my message was not clear... The job is a payable job :) the partnership is only so he will feel some obligation (and may be make some big bucks in the future) Aviv On Jan 13, 2008 12:41 PM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 11:11:20AM +0200, aviv sher wrote: > > > > a young startup company with a very interesting web 2.0 platform is > seeking > > for a > > PHP programmer with knowledge in AJAX HTML or any other 3-4 letters > > combinations that has to do with web or open source! > > > > This programmer will eventually become the CTO of the company... not to > > mention partnership! > > IMHO probably not. If you have already decided the technologies, which > is what you said in the begining of this post, then there really is no > longer an opening for a CTO. > > What you are looking for is a programmer who will be given the title > of CTO as an inducment to take less or no money, but will never be allowed > to actually make any technology decisions. A real CTO would leave out of > frustration, a "young" programmer will never sucessfully make the > transition > from doing it all themeselves to running a group. > > > I dont want to put a long job description I know that who ever fits the > job > > knows it already > > Yes, but as I said, IMHO, you have already scared them off. > > If you are looking for a programmer to join you, who will be paid in > equity, you should say so and get a person who can do the job you want > without any unreasonable expectations. If you really have those > expectations, IMHO, you really need to have a professional take a good > hard look at your business plan and advise you on staffing among other > things. > > Geoff. > > -- > Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM > IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 > Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ >
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
Aviv, hi. I am somewhat less keen than Geoff to suspect you of trying/hoping to cheat a prospective CTO. In fact, I am sure you have every intention of paying the CTO. What I do fear is that you do not really understand the position and job of a CTO. The CTO's job is NOT to be a good programmer or support the current system. If the CTO is engaged in this kind of activity, his or her attention will be consumed by the minutiae of the work, leaving no free brain-cells to proselytize technology. A CTO is a priest, a hierophant - not a programmer. A CTO is a salesman of the IDEA, not a programmer. Marc - "aviv sher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Geoff thanks for the insight, > > The CTO title means he will handle the whole Technology part of the > system > (and the technology vision), and if he would like to change the > technology > in the future it will be his decision... we also want him to be a > good > programmer so he can support the current system we dont want > anyone to > work for free so if my message was not clear... > > The job is a payable job :) the partnership is only so he will feel > some > obligation (and may be make some big bucks in the future) > > Aviv > > On Jan 13, 2008 12:41 PM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 11:11:20AM +0200, aviv sher wrote: > > > > > > a young startup company with a very interesting web 2.0 platform > is > > seeking > > > for a > > > PHP programmer with knowledge in AJAX HTML or any other 3-4 > letters > > > combinations that has to do with web or open source! > > > > > > This programmer will eventually become the CTO of the company... > not to > > > mention partnership! > > > > IMHO probably not. If you have already decided the technologies, > which > > is what you said in the begining of this post, then there really is > no > > longer an opening for a CTO. > > > > What you are looking for is a programmer who will be given the > title > > of CTO as an inducment to take less or no money, but will never be > allowed > > to actually make any technology decisions. A real CTO would leave > out of > > frustration, a "young" programmer will never sucessfully make the > > transition > > from doing it all themeselves to running a group. > > > > > I dont want to put a long job description I know that who ever > fits the > > job > > > knows it already > > > > Yes, but as I said, IMHO, you have already scared them off. > > > > If you are looking for a programmer to join you, who will be paid > in > > equity, you should say so and get a person who can do the job you > want > > without any unreasonable expectations. If you really have those > > expectations, IMHO, you really need to have a professional take a > good > > hard look at your business plan and advise you on staffing among > other > > things. > > > > Geoff. > > > > -- > > Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] > N3OWJ/4X1GM > > IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 > > Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ > > = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 01:21:57PM +0200, aviv sher wrote: > Geoff thanks for the insight, You're welcome, I hope it helps. > The CTO title means he will handle the whole Technology part of the system > (and the technology vision), and if he would like to change the technology > in the future it will be his decision... we also want him to be a good > programmer so he can support the current system we dont want anyone to > work for free so if my message was not clear... Again, IMHO, hiring a programmer to be a technologist is a bad move. Once you start the company going, you are stuck with the technology. You can do a demo, or proof of concept in almost anything, I've built prototype handheld devices that ran RedHat 9, but would not run anything like it "in the wild". There are lots of companies who have tried to change technologies mid stream and failed. HotMail is a good example, when M/S bought them they went over to IIS, but it took many years if they've actually done it yet and only the kind of money that M/S could afford. Ask your self seriously, would Google have grown to the size it is if after a year of running their open source systems, they went to Oracle and IIS? Both are certainly capble of doing the job with as much tailoring as Google had to apply to what they do use, but when did Google reach the point they could not have switched? So the question, which you don't have to answer to me, but will have to answer to any prospective CTO who actually knows what one is, is when is that point of no return? I'll answer Hetz's question (from another email) with a question. If they were to bring into their team a real CTO or not bring in anyone at all, and put together a demo/prototype to get first stage VC money, would they be better off hiring a contract programer or outsourcing shop to do it for them? Especially if the demo/prototype only shows what their technology would look like to the end user, and not actually give it away? Bear in mind the first publication of an invention gives you a limit of a year to file a real patent application, and the day that website goes on line the clock starts ticking. > The job is a payable job :) the partnership is only so he will feel some > obligation (and may be make some big bucks in the future) I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that's any awfully small maybe. How much equity are your really willing to give this stranger (i.e. not a founder) to be CTO? 5%? 10%? any more and you risk diluting your control and making your seed investor nervous. When the company gets to a "short exit", i.e. buyout in 2-3 years or IPO, the 10% will be about 2%. If you go for the long term exit, which someone is espousing in an article in Friday's Jerusalem Post (presented as an op-ed, but really a free ad for his "late stage" investment fund), that will be down to less than 1%. Each time you sell a share of stock, and each round of funding, the equity gets diluted. Conventional wisdom is that the CEO, when brought in before the angel/seed funding stage, starts out with 25% and ends up with 2.5%. A later stage CEO gets even less. Now that we know about who much of the equity that really will be, look at the likelyhood of it paying off. Across the world 95% of all startups fail. 75% of them in Israel, 85% elesehwere. Why do Israeli startups last longer? It's becuase they specialize in using private investors or zionist venture funds who would rather invest more in an Israeli startup than to see it fail and loose everything. They would rather keep Israelis working than cut their losses and run as it were. Small private investors hold on because they can't afford to loose their investments and keep pouring money in in the hope they can get sell it off instead of writing it off. Of course, the reality is that 1% of a $100m company is still a $1m, but the chance of it happening are less than taking the equivalent money in salary and buying lottery tickets. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer] Sys admin + Sugar CRM
Hello Dotan, I can do the job. Actually I have a lot of experience in "Sugar CRM" fork called "Vtiger" For more info take a look: http://www.active.co.il/crm.html Regards, Rami Addady Dotan Shavit wrote: Hi List, A good friend is looking for someone to install a linux machine and set up Sugar CRM and possibly mail server etc... If you are interested - let me know. All the best, Dotan = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 01:25:12PM +0200, Hetz Ben Hamo wrote: > Why? only because he decided to go with PHP? it's a stat-up, and I > assume Aviv started to write the code with PHP prior deciding upon > taking someone else to be a partner/worker and with a CTO title. Maybe > when they'll grow, the CTO will decide what tech to use and what won't > go in. I've seen so many start-ups that started with some LAMP and > then "resized" to something bigger after doing some meetings with the > staff and the CTO had the final word what to implement. Sorry, I got lazy and included the answer to this in my reply to another email, it made more sense to put it there. > I'm looking for a job these days, and one thing that I learned (the > hard way, unfortunately) is to see if this start-up has any funds, > angels/VC/investors that stands behind those startup prior to signing > a contract. Any employee who is going to sign in startup should look > for press-release from those angels/VC/investors, or do some serious > Google search prior signing. Good thing to do. See my other email about dilution of equity. You also need to be careful about their contract with their seed/angel investor. If they are not a professional fund, which has milestones and audits of progress, they are probably a rich uncle, or a parent mortgaging their home or retirement funds. People like that also want to see progress and without a formal contract, get scared, bored or invest their money elsewhere and stop paying. In California, a VC fund must raise the entire amount of the fund before they can invest the first penny, other places, including here, there are no such rules. Also with the dropping dollar, a company comitted to pay $1m in investment may have found that they need to come up with 4.25m NIS and they only have 3.8m in funds. :-( > > I agree with Geoff regarding the CTO title. It's way there in the > future and you don't know if the startup will be succeed to have any > CTO, and any programmer who will take this job should not take this > promise as a "bonus" or as something to work for less money. Even in this country, which has some of the most lax employment laws. it is illegal to show that as real income in a job offer, but it is done all the time. No prospective employer will tell you that the equity they are giving you has a 5% chance of having any value in two years or a realistic potential value. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: DosEmu printing problem
On Sun, 2008-01-13 at 09:26 +0200, David Suna wrote: > I have DosEmu running on Ubuntu 6.06 to run an old accounting package. > Everything is working fine except that since I installed a new printer I > have not been able to print from the accounting package. I am able to > print from the DosEmu box. If I type dir > LPT1: I get the directory > listing printed on my Samba attached printer. It is only from the > accounting package itself that printing doesn't work. It used to work > on the old printer. Any suggestions as to how I could track down the > problem? > What printer emulation does you software support? - Gilboa = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 01:43:11PM +0200, Marc Volovic wrote: > I am somewhat less keen than Geoff to suspect you of trying/hoping to > cheat a prospective CTO. In fact, I am sure you have every intention of > paying the CTO. What I do fear is that you do not really understand the > position and job of a CTO. I'm sorry if I came off that way. I have no suspicion that he is trying to cheat anyone. What I do suspect, is that he is not aware of the chance of his equity being of any value and that the value of his promise is very small, although it is made with the best of intentions. I did not say anything before, but also noticed the "young" company which is a code word for inexperienced entrepreneurs with little or no experience beyond an IDF unit here, or an MBA in the U.S.. It works fine for an inexperienced or related angel investor, but any professional fund will demand someone with a track record to be in charge. Besides your wonderful definition of a CTO (I avoided giving one), going to a VC saying "last week I was a LAMP programmer, today I am a CTO*" simply does not work. If they really like the idea and the team, the first thing they do is make you hire a real CEO who will hire a real management team. BTW, if you think your equity dilutes going with the VC, wait till the "hired gun" CEO gets done with it. Geoff. * or the old joke from the 1960's "Last munth I cudnut spel prugramur, now I are wun". -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gnu make or replacement?
I'm helping a client here to start a project from almost scratch. it involves java servelets for Tomcat, building with MAVEN, a few external GPL tarballs that are downloaded from the web, unzipped and compiled (or maybe we'll check them into the CVS) and some glue scripts in bash. Make is the standard, I just wodered how many of you tried rake and other tools that compete against it, and have an opinion... Thanks, Ira. -- The cream in your coffee Ira Abramov http://ira.abramov.org/email/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote about "Re: [Job Offer and a
byte more] PHP programmer and CTO":
> There are lots of companies who have tried to change technologies mid
> stream and failed. HotMail is a good example, when M/S bought them they
> went over to IIS, but it took many years if they've actually done it yet
> and only the kind of money that M/S could afford.
>
> Ask your self seriously, would Google have grown to the size it is if
> after a year of running their open source systems, they went to Oracle
> and IIS?
Actually, your example proves you wrong! Do you think that Google would have
grown to the size they are if they kept the same technology they had 10 years
ago? In those 10 years, Google adopted completely new technologies that they
didn't have before - they devised new ways to manage clusters (which they
didn't need when their cluster was just 50 machines), new filesystems, new
ways to show interactive pages ("ajax"), new concepts for email (like the
whopping 1 GB mail quota), new ideas and software for advertising, and much
much more. Someobody had to direct the company to go in that direction, and
not - say - to the Orace/IIS direction you mentioned.
So it's silly to think that a company only decides technology issues when
it is formed. Maybe what you are thinking about are these "dot com" startups,
which were formed with some technology and indeed never lived long enough to
switch or update their technlogy.
> Both are certainly capble of doing the job with as much tailoring as Google
> had to apply to what they do use, but when did Google reach the point they
> could not have switched?
Never. If Google were convinced today that Oracle/IIS had some clear benefits
to them, they could switch to them, at least in new installations (which in
an exponentially growing business, is almost the same as switching everything).
Obviously, they didn't find Oracle or IIS of any benefit to them, because
they could do the same - or more - with free software without having to pay
royalties (paying royalties for hundreds of thousands of copies for a piece
of software is damn expensive).
> So the question, which you don't have to answer to me, but will have to
> answer to any prospective CTO who actually knows what one is, is when
> is that point of no return?
I work in a company that has existed for over a hundred years. It still
hasn't reached that point. We are still always on the lookout on how to
change, what are the new technology trends, and how we can leverage new
technlogy to become more efficient, before all our competition does it.
If a company stops doing this, it will go out of business quickly.
> How much equity are your really willing to give this stranger (i.e.
> not a founder) to be CTO? 5%? 10%? any more and you risk diluting
> your control and making your seed investor nervous.
>
> When the company gets to a "short exit", i.e. buyout in 2-3 years or
> IPO, the 10% will be about 2%. If you go for the long term exit, which
> someone is espousing in an article in Friday's Jerusalem Post (presented
> as an op-ed, but really a free ad for his "late stage" investment fund),
> that will be down to less than 1%.
In 1999, when I was looking for a job, the "jive" from prospective employers
I interviewed ( :-) ) was always the same - I would get a percentage of the
company (usually at the order of 1%), and since it is public knowledge that
every IPO is at least 1 billion dollars, even after dilution I was sitting
on several million dollars, almost guranteed. Yeah, right...
Reminds me of that circa 1999 joke:
How To Form Your Very Own Silicon Valley Startup
1. Go to Menlo Park. Find a tree.
2. Shake the tree. A venture capitalist will fall out.
3. Before the venture capitalist regains its wits, recite the following
incantation: Internet! Electronic Commerce! Distributed Enterprise-
Enabled Applications! Java
4. The venture capitalist will give you four million dollars.
5. In 18 (12? 6? 3?) months, go public.
6. After you receive your check, go back to Menlo Park. Find a tree.
7. Climb it. Wait.
--
Nadav Har'El| Sunday, Jan 13 2008, 6 Shevat 5768
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |The meek shall inherit the Earth, for
http://nadav.harel.org.il |they are too timid to refuse it.
=
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Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 05:31:04PM +0200, Nadav Har'El wrote:
>
> Actually, your example proves you wrong! Do you think that Google would have
> grown to the size they are if they kept the same technology they had 10 years
> ago? In those 10 years, Google adopted completely new technologies that they
> didn't have before - they devised new ways to manage clusters (which they
> didn't need when their cluster was just 50 machines), new filesystems, new
> ways to show interactive pages ("ajax"), new concepts for email (like the
> whopping 1 GB mail quota), new ideas and software for advertising, and much
> much more. Someobody had to direct the company to go in that direction, and
> not - say - to the Orace/IIS direction you mentioned.
Thank you, you just made my point. :-) Google succeded because they chose
a technology that could be expanded to do what they want. If they had chosen
Windows NT server, or VMS clusters they would have failed miserably.
If they had a second rate CTO, or were stuck in another technology, they
would never have grown to the size they are. How many "new idea" email
programs and companies have failed in the last 30 yeas?
> So it's silly to think that a company only decides technology issues when
> it is formed. Maybe what you are thinking about are these "dot com" startups,
> which were formed with some technology and indeed never lived long enough to
> switch or update their technlogy.
Lots of them were much older too, for example, IBM which nearly died when they
tried to drop their mainframe computers and get everyone to buy an AS400.
DEC when they tried to push the Alpha over the VAX. Silicon Graphics when
they tried to switch to Windows NT over UNIX, and Apple which joined with
IBM and switched to the PPC chip.
IBM had enough business to keep going and eventually recovered and a third
procduct, the RS/6000 took over while they still sell mainframes (Z/390)
and the AS400 is long gone.
DEC lost the battle of the MIPS. Silicon Graphics just faded and Apple
eventually became bankrupt and the board gave the company to Steve Jobs
and Next, before they crashed, and so on.
> > Both are certainly capble of doing the job with as much tailoring as Google
> > had to apply to what they do use, but when did Google reach the point they
> > could not have switched?
>
> Never. If Google were convinced today that Oracle/IIS had some clear benefits
> to them, they could switch to them, at least in new installations (which in
> an exponentially growing business, is almost the same as switching
> everything).
> Obviously, they didn't find Oracle or IIS of any benefit to them, because
> they could do the same - or more - with free software without having to pay
> royalties (paying royalties for hundreds of thousands of copies for a piece
> of software is damn expensive).
Again proves my point.
> I work in a company that has existed for over a hundred years. It still
> hasn't reached that point. We are still always on the lookout on how to
> change, what are the new technology trends, and how we can leverage new
> technlogy to become more efficient, before all our competition does it.
> If a company stops doing this, it will go out of business quickly.
What company is that?
> > How much equity are your really willing to give this stranger (i.e.
> > not a founder) to be CTO? 5%? 10%? any more and you risk diluting
> > your control and making your seed investor nervous.
> >
> > When the company gets to a "short exit", i.e. buyout in 2-3 years or
> > IPO, the 10% will be about 2%. If you go for the long term exit, which
> > someone is espousing in an article in Friday's Jerusalem Post (presented
> > as an op-ed, but really a free ad for his "late stage" investment fund),
> > that will be down to less than 1%.
>
> In 1999, when I was looking for a job, the "jive" from prospective employers
> I interviewed ( :-) ) was always the same - I would get a percentage of the
> company (usually at the order of 1%), and since it is public knowledge that
> every IPO is at least 1 billion dollars, even after dilution I was sitting
> on several million dollars, almost guranteed. Yeah, right...
Yes, I keep telling people who ask for business advice NOT to include a
stock option plan as anything but a speculative gift. People will no longer
fall for that "jive" as you put it.
Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/
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Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote about "Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO": > Thank you, you just made my point. :-) Google succeded because they chose > a technology that could be expanded to do what they want. If they had chosen > Windows NT server, or VMS clusters they would have failed miserably. I don't understand what you mean. Imagine that Google initially had some Sun Solaris servers in their university rack. At some point, they decided that PCs, and Linux, was more effective so they switched. What makes you think that Google only "expanded", and never switched technology? My guess (not founded on anything, since Google don't like to publish the technology they use) is that if you looked at Google today, almost nothing would look like the Google of 10 years ago. It's like that old philosophy question of, "if you take a red cloth, and start switching threads one by one with blue threads, you end up with a blue cloth. At what point did it become a blue cloth?". > If they had a second rate CTO, or were stuck in another technology, they Yes, this is obviously true. Which means they should choose a good CTO - not that a good CTO is useless once the initial decisions were made (which I thought is what you meant, but if I misunderstood, sorry). -- Nadav Har'El| Sunday, Jan 13 2008, 7 Shevat 5768 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |- Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Support bacteria - they're the only http://nadav.harel.org.il |culture some people have! = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [Job Offer and a byte more] PHP programmer and CTO
On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 06:34:42PM +0200, Nadav Har'El wrote: > I don't understand what you mean. Imagine that Google initially had some > Sun Solaris servers in their university rack. At some point, they decided > that PCs, and Linux, was more effective so they switched. What makes you > think that Google only "expanded", and never switched technology? My guess > (not founded on anything, since Google don't like to publish the technology > they use) is that if you looked at Google today, almost nothing would look > like the Google of 10 years ago. It's like that old philosophy question of, > "if you take a red cloth, and start switching threads one by one with blue > threads, you end up with a blue cloth. At what point did it become a blue > cloth?". However Solaris and Linux are significantly close to each other that the switch was almost painless. I think you would find that once you got beyond the Kernel, the "userland" programs were very much the same when they were using Solaris as when they switched to Linux. That's one of the nice things about Linux as an operating system and IMHO a very bad thing for running "classic" hardware, is that it makes almost everything the same from a userland point of view. Except for the "word size" and "endian" differences, any computer made today that fits the minimum requirements for Linux can run it and any program that fits. If you can squeeze it into the available RAM or somehow create a swap file, you can run the same webserver on your router as on your mainframe. If that is not scalability, I don't know what is. BTW, Solaris was probably a good choice to start out at, in the late 1990's Linux was not as robust as it is now, and if you wanted something out of the box that worked well and was highly scalable, Solaris was it. To hazard a guess, if Sun had "open sourced" Solaris in 1999, or Google had asked for and obtained a source license (they were available to universities, HUJI had one), they may have gone on to enhance Solaris as opposed to Linux. To use your cloth analogy, yes it would now be blue instead of red, but it would still be a blanket and not a cushion :-) > > Yes, this is obviously true. Which means they should choose a good CTO - > not that a good CTO is useless once the initial decisions were made > (which I thought is what you meant, but if I misunderstood, sorry). I was addressing the issues with a startup hiring someone and saying, someday you will be CTO, but we are hiring you because you can do what we want done, the way we want it. If the technology decisions are made by that time, it is a rare management team that will accept another direction, unless it is fixed by outside forces. A company that makes an add-on to Internet Explorer (all the rage about 5 years ago), is not suddenly going to port their product to to the Playstation, but they might move to similar markets and embrace FireFox, Safari, or Opera. However a CTO or board of directors who knows nothing about those products might resist the change. I once (ca 1989) had the privilege of meeting Pres Eckert, the engineer behind the ENIAC and later the CTO of Univac, long after he retired and UNIVAC was on it's way out. He told me that he made far more money from real estate than from his UNIVAC stock. One reason was that they had refused to listen to him about making PC's in the early 1980's. By the time they got involved with them it was too late. It's especially bad in Israel, where they "my stick is twice as big as your stick" mentality is very common, and once a decision is made it is followed. I don't like the idea of getting political here, but it comes from people whose only large project experience is in the IDF, which has IMHO become an army run by middle management. If you read the Jerusalem Post article I mentioned, and go beyond the obvious commercial for a late stage investment fund, you see that investors are more looking for experienced entrepreneurs, and less for "young" ones. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517337859&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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