[hackerspaces] Discuss Digest, Vol 42, Issue 4

[WebDawg]

> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:25:55 +0900
> From: Yves Quemener <quemener.yves at free.fr>
> To: discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] The Hacker Way
> Message-ID: <4F2B0D73.6070409 at free.fr>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I still hope this IPO will fail and make the social media bubble burst.
>
> I doubt Zuckberg obeys the definition of "idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world."
>
Sometimes when I think of Facebook I think of the good.  But then I
see the monopoly.  The reason the company still lives is because so
much money is put into it.  Advertising.  Profit.  It makes Facebook
able to kill off the other technologies and things in its way.

I can't stand it.  I hate blue, I hate the stuff people post.  I crave
information, not opinions.  I hate limits.  When I use Facebook to
access the internet I feel like I am in a dam cage.  But this is how
the internet works any more.  The Google 'Cage'...etc.  Some
technology telling me I have to do something to use it.  Or that I
have friended too many people that are not in my network.

I do not want location based or customized results.  I don't want
social results mixed in to my Google search.  The problem is that it
seems like people do.  The average user uses the internet for
entertainment.  Ever since the average user started using the internet
more average content pops up.  (OMG Joe bought a new dog leash too.
How awsome.)

Facebook is entertainment with commercials.  Facebook is a tool for
consumerism and targeted advertising.  Facebook is designed to sell
you things.  The Facebook IPO should go fine but what is going to
happen to this company when it stops focusing on the 'experience' and
starts focusing on money.

Look what the IPO has done and is doing to Google.  While it still may
be the best search engine on the market it now chases money instead of
impressing people.  So much spam in search results.  I actually used
to click some of its ads until the ads I started to click were crap
sites.  Google should focus on search results.  Not social networking,
etc.  They have enough money to revolutionize search technology and
they are dumping it into crap to compete.

Facebook is talking about being a destination for the entire internet.
 Are these people crazy?  AOL tried to do this.  Look what happened.
Lets see if/when this company loses focus.

Now, if this company takes it further.  Gives you control of your
data.  Starts using concepts and an actual implementation of
Homomorphic Encryption along with privacy practices that the world
will shift to eventually, then it really has a chance to last a long
time.  It always has to stay in the game (brand, etc) but with
emerging hardware technologies that bring the experience to you, soon
Facebook will be everywhere.  It could be keeping track of your
schedule, helping you control your life.

If concept and software patients keep getting approved like they are
then who is to say Facebook did not invent a social schedule or
whatever.  Who is to say that one even would even be able to try to
compete.

I do not know this dude, and neither do you but if Facebook succeeds
he just made the hacking concepts he describes basic business
practices for a while.  Just like Google influences other companies
methods Facebook will do the same.



>
>
> On 02/03/2012 12:59 AM, Jordan Miller wrote:
>> from Zuckerberg's open letter to investors about the impending Facebook IPO...
>>
>> jordan
>>
>>
>>
>> The Hacker Way
>>
>> As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook
>> the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and
>> learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and
>> management approach that we call the Hacker Way.
>>
>> The word "hacker" has an unfairly negative connotation from being
>> portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality,
>> hacking just means building something quickly or testing the
>> boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for
>> good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I've met tend to be
>> idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.
>>
>> The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous
>> improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always
>> be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix
>> it - often in the face of people who say it's impossible or are
>> content with the status quo.
>>
>> Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly
>> releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to
>> get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a
>> testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of
>> versions of Facebook. We have the words "Done is better than perfect"
>> painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.
>>
>> Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead
>> of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best
>> way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype
>> something and see what works. There's a hacker mantra that you'll hear
>> a lot around Facebook offices: "Code wins arguments."
>>
>> Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers
>> believe that the best idea and implementation should always win - not
>> the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who
>> manages the most people.
>>
>> To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon,
>> where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end,
>> the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been
>> built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons,
>> including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and
>> some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler.
>>
>> To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new
>> engineers - even managers whose primary job will not be to write code
>> - to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our
>> codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the
>> industry who manage engineers and don't want to code themselves, but
>> the type of hands-on people we're looking for are willing and able to
>> go through Bootcamp.
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