Parents, send your children to computer science classes, preferably somewhere in Northern California. In Silicon Valley, the programmers have taken over, and they're gobbling up everything that's offered to them: fame, lucrative jobs, and venture capital cash to start their own businesses.
The coding life may be a glamorous one these days, but it's not easy. Competing job offers from Google and Facebook are available only to those who are willing to spend their Saturday nights hacking away on an app that can catch the world's attention. Like Feross Aboukhadijeh, the Stanford student who created YouTube Instant one night, and the next day had the Washington Post calling for an interview and Twitter offering him a job.
Valley people like to say that they are changing the world. Well, even if YouTube Instant and other hot apps aren't the modern-day equivalent of the polio vaccine, they at least are changing the lives of today's young technologists. Silicon Valley is America's economic opposite, New York Magazine writes, with real estate prices booming and recent college graduates having more job offers than they know what to do with. You don't need an expensive education to throw up a hack on the Web, but you will need to spend a lot of nights hunched over a keyboard. (New York Magazine)
The Fifth Beatle (The Next Web)
You've never heard of Ron Wayne? That's because he sold his stake in Apple 12 days after the company was created, giving up an investment that would be worth $35 billion today. Here's his story.
Larry vs. Larry (San Jose Mercury News)
Google CEO Larry Page and Oracle's Larry Ellison will be forced to meet face-to-face September 19 to try and settle their two companies' legal dispute. A federal judge ordered the powwow to help avoid a costly trial to determine whether Android developers violated Oracle patents.
Next On the Firing Line (WSJ)
Firing Carol Bartz may not be enough to save Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, who has come under fire from investors who question his leadership.
Big Semiconductor Takeover (DealBook)
Broadcom Corporation is buying Netlogic Microsystems Inc., which has 645 employees, for $3.7 billion in cash. Netlogic makes advanced chips for wireless devices and has assets of $804 million.
On to the Next One (NYT)
YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are trying to revitalize Delicious, a social bookmarking service. Delicious once held sway with the tech community, but since being acquired by Yahoo in 2005, it has floundered.
Lame Spaceship (LA Times)
If you've been feeling jealous of the Apple employees who get to move into the company's proposed new headquarters, here are some sour grapes. One architecture critic says that the design looks like the Pentagon in the 1940s or the suburban corporate architecture of the 1960s.
Cheapskate (WSJ)
ComputerLand Corp. founder William H. Millard spent 20 years traveling the world to avoid paying the U.S. government $100 million in taxes. Here is his incredible tale.
Server Innovation Needed (Bloomberg)
The trend these days is for big Internet companies like Facebook to build their own cloud data servers and reject traditional suppliers like Dell and H-P. In response, server makers are getting into the custom-design business.
E-Book Library In the Works? (WSJ)
Amazon's online book store has already disrupted the publishing industry once, and now it's looking to do it again. The company is said to be talking to publishers about opening a Netflix-like service for digital books.
Buzz Around the Office
"Nobody was hurt in the making of this video" is something you would say if you were a liar.
List of the Day: Communicating Your Way to Higher Employee Engagement
Tips for bosses on how to foster a more open and encouraging work environment.
1. Encourage employees to be vocal
2. Promote honesty and accountability
3. Utilize performance reviews
(Source: Glassdoor)
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