Disqus - Latest Comments for Jeffrey McManus

Re: A modest proposal

Jeffrey McManus — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:22:05 -0000

Joyce, I think you hit the nail on the head when you mention exposure to computers in childhood as a big factor that determines whether someone will have an engineering career in adulthood.

I set my daughter up with a hand-me-down Powerbook G4 which she now uses nearly every day. We also talk about science every day on our way to school. (She gets to pick the topic -- yesterday it was cavemen, today it was What Happens to Things We Drink.)

The fact that your interests are formed so early in life is, I think, one of the reasons why the problem of women in tech is so vexing -- we are accustomed to being able to knock out problems with careful thought, work, and discussion, but it's not possible to go back in time and re-raise our daughters. We have to do it right the first time.

Re: A modest proposal

Jeffrey McManus — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 01:07:57 -0000

Joyce, I am saying that it is very difficult to get a motivated adult woman into technology if she wasn't set up for it at a very young age. I am also saying that it is very difficult to get a motivated adult man into technology if he wasn't similarly set up by his parents (or a mentor, crazy uncle, etc.) at a pretty young age.

A lot of people our parents' generation blew it by thinking that women didn't need to consider science and technology. This wasn't totally our parents' fault -- an American society in which both husband and wife work outside the home is a very recent phenomenon.

But whatever our parents were thinking, how they raised us is a big part of what's going on here. Going back in time to fix it is not an option. We can only move forward. This is not some pernicious bear trap that's impossible to free ourselves from, but it's also not a problem that can get ironed out with six months of hard work by a dedicated team of engineering ninjas somewhere in a garage in Palo Alto. Changing the culture takes many years and hard work.

Re: Online games, your cup of tea? American Idol, ClubPenguin and more

Jeffrey McManus — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:45:44 -0000

I have a hard time buying the concept that bandwidth is the barrier to adoption of these kinds of games -- there are plenty of them around. Puzzle Pirates is a good example.

Re: Exit Stage Left, Fade to Yellow and Purple

Jeffrey McManus — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 17:14:44 -0000

Congratulations and welcome, Ian!

Re: WordCamp Countdown

Jeffrey McManus — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:00:33 -0000

As a resident, I vote that you bag Alcatraz. If you really want to take a boat ride on the bay, pack a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine and go to Angel Island; it's a much funner trip and the history (to me anyway) is far more meaningful -- Angel Island is the Ellis Island of the West.

Get some restaurant recommendations and eat out every night without fail. Have cocktails somewhere up high (either the Equinox in the Hyatt or Top of the Mark on Nob Hill).

Looking forward to meeting you!

Re: Om Malik Blows it

Jeffrey McManus — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:16:13 -0000

Well, Fox News isn't journalism either. That's why they call it "Faux News".

Aaron, I think that Om had a good point although I agree he could have put it more clearly. If I were in his shoes (living on the cusp between pro-blogging and traditional journalism), I might be a tad oblique as well. You gotta give the guy a break for that reason -- it's not like Katie Couric even knows what a blog is.

Having reported the news myself back in the day, one thing that Om said that rang true to me is that real reporters, you know, do actual reporting -- they pick up the phone and talk to sources. There are "walls" that prevent sources from talking to bloggers, but guess what? These same walls exist for "real" reporters too. Part of the craft of reporting is to figure out how to break down those walls, and you can do it if you figure out how to build relationships, identify a source's self-interest, etc. People don't become good reporters because they work for the New York Times; they work for the New York Times because they (usually) are good reporters.

Re: I get it now…

Jeffrey McManus — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 04:02:27 -0000

Cheers from our beach vacation on the north shore of Hawaii.

I'm not a huge fan of the heat or the outdoor tedium either...the way to make the beach fun is to bring along a few rounds of beer and a novel. And to keep your trip down to 2-3 hours max.

Re: Yahoo’s new pretty maps are doomed (and so are Microsoft’s)

Jeffrey McManus — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 10:47:04 -0000

Dare is right, this post doesn't make much sense.

Google doesn't release more or better products than we do, period. If you believe that, then you're not paying close enough attention. I have so many products in our pipeline that part of my job is to run air traffic control among the various Yahoo properties to ensure that two properties don't release a product on the same day. I am quite sure that nobody at Google has to do that.

As for bean counting, serving up Web Services APIs costs money, just like long distance phone service; you and Dave are being incredibly disingenuous when you attempt to link Web services being free-as-in-beer to "open standards". It looks like Dave would like Google to provide its APIs free of charge, in essence benefiting monetarily without having to make the investment. That's not how business works. If you want this kind of thing to be free and unlimited, why don't we start with the phone at your place? Can I declare your home telephone an 'open standard' and have all my friends come by and make calls at your expense? Can we order some pizzas on your credit card while we're at it?

Re: Zvents to announce they are going with Yahoo

Jeffrey McManus — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 11:34:09 -0000

"Competition" is different than "disruption."

Before you accuse anybody of disrupting anybody, you should read (or re-read) "The Innovator's Dilemma" which the bible on how business disruption works and why businesses need to disrupt themselves to survive. Nowhere in that book does it say anything about anybody's stock price.

Instead of focusing on stock price and press releases, instead not focus on what Google and Yahoo are actually doing? You and many others have been dazzled by the Google stock price and you've let that translate into thinking that they're infallible geniuses. And they may very well be geniuses, but the stock price isn't a measure of that.

Re: Mozilla and IE, sitting in a tree…

Jeffrey McManus — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 23:13:51 -0000

Sorry, this matters...why?

Re: I’m a Six Apart customer and I think they are getting a raw deal

Jeffrey McManus — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 14:46:48 -0000

>> Because who else has a professionally-run data center?

Glad you asked. Yahoo Hosting is now offering Movable Type hosting. See http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/yahoo.

Re: Google expands its ad network

Jeffrey McManus — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 17:26:39 -0000

Was gonna say, they derive 99% of their revenues from ads. They've never not been an advertising company.

Re: Search done? These two say “hell no”

Jeffrey McManus — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:25:27 -0000

www.rollyo.com

Re: Why do search engines lie?

Jeffrey McManus — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 20:37:56 -0000

yahoo aer teh winnar!!!1!!

Re: Surprise: Slashdot misrepresents facts

Jeffrey McManus — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 13:02:22 -0000

Stop reading slashdot. Stop referring to slashdot. Stop linking to slashdot. Simple.

Re: Scott Isaacs gives the skinny behind the naming of AJAX

Jeffrey McManus — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:22:29 -0000

AJAX is a superset of DHTML. It's not the same thing.

If you're bored with the term, just be patient. As with "DHTML," in a few years "AJAX" will simply be known as "web development".

Re: Uninstall this! Open source team at Microsoft powers installers

Jeffrey McManus — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 01:10:11 -0000

Robert, why doesn't Microsoft open-source more tools, like the terrific Log Parser? This seems like it should be a no-brainer.

Re: Halfway through my blog vacation (change in comment policy)

Jeffrey McManus — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:31:13 -0000

Congratulations, Robert, this sounds like a terrific deal for you. I'd love to buy you and Miryam a beer once you get settled down here in July.

Re: Yahoo recruiter wants my resume

Jeffrey McManus — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:33:37 -0000

Dude, a resume is part of a conversation. Why would you be reticent about giving yours to someone?

Re: The long goodbye

Jeffrey McManus — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:24:14 -0000

What you're experiencing isn't true of California real estate in general (which is basically holding steady) -- I suspect it's particular to Half Moon Bay. That area is somewhat economically depressed at the moment because of the Devil's Slide closure (the road from HMB to San Francisco is going to be closed for like the next six months which I'm sure you knew). So it's bad for the people who live there, but good for people like you who are moving in there, if that makes any sense.

Would love to have you guys up at our place for brunch or whatever the next time you're in the city!

Re: ScobleizerTV progress

Jeffrey McManus — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:38:58 -0000

Friend me on Dodgeball, yo! I signed up for it the day they got bought but didn't get addicted to it since I went indy and started doing half my work from wi-fi cafes. Join the SF wi-fi cafe posse!

Re: Why conferences don’t allow kids…

Jeffrey McManus — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:01:26 -0000

I'm glad you brought up that kid at VBITS, Robert -- he bought a copy of my book and I signed it for him; I got a big charge out of talking to him.

Re: Listening to Shelley Powers about women in tech

Jeffrey McManus — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 21:02:23 -0000

Shelley, do you know a woman who has developed an Office 2.0 site? If the answer is yes, then why don't you suggest that that woman speak at the conference, as Ismael Ghamini suggested you do? If the answer is no, then why are you blaming a conference organizer for a much larger social problem that he has very little control over?

Look at the keynote speaker list for Oracle Open World 2006. All men. Did you decry Larry Ellison on your blog? If not, why not? Don't you feel some sense of entitlement to speak at Oracle Open World as well? Oracle Open World needs more women speakers, darn it, whether they know anything about Oracle or not.

When my five-year-old daughter grows up and becomes an Oracle sysadmin (fingers crossed!), it'll be because I started teaching her how to write stored procedures in the womb, not because some conference organizer was pressured into using his conference to "promote diversity". Jeez.