Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft by Paul Allen – review
Paul Allen's account of setting up Microsoft with his schoolmate Bill Gates is a riveting read
They say you can never be too thin, or too rich. After reading Paul Allen's memoir, I'm not so sure – especially about the rich bit. After founding Microsoft in 1975 with his friend and schoolmate Bill Gates,
Allen spent eight frenzied years building it into the corporate colossus that it is today. But then two things happened: he became ill with Hodgkin's lymphoma; and he decided that life was too short to endure the perpetual conflict that comes with working with Bill Gates. And so he quit in 1983 (having rebuffed Gates's offer to buy his Microsoft stock at a knockdown price), held on to his shares and has spent the rest of his life with his money (his net worth was $1bn in 1990 and was 13 times that in 1996). Read more...
PSN hackers wanted, reward may lead to arrest
According to a "source close to Sony," the company is considering offering a reward to anyone who can provide details that lead to the arrest of the PlayStation Network hackers.
Arik Hesseldahl, from New Enterprise, claims that Sony “hasn’t reached a final decision concerning whether it will offer a reward, and may decide not to do it at all, but the option is on the table.”
Apprehending the perpetrators who brought down Sony’s online PS3 service on April 18 and then caused Sony Online Entertainment network services to be taken offline on May 2 is a high priority for Sony, but offering a reward would suggest that it's no closer to tracking down the culprits, or that it needs stronger evidence from those in the know. A cash reward may well cause people close to the hackers to come forward.
Here’s How Facebook Wants to Keep Its Engineers Happy
Last week, Facebook formally announced “Hackamonth,” an internal initiative that allows some engineers to leave their team to work on a side project of their choosing. The goal is to prevent burnout among the staff and should result in some cool new products.
In fact, it already has. Over the past year, Facebook tested out Hackamonth with 35 engineers who were encouraged to submit project ideas requiring about a month’s worth of work. Each participating engineer then voted to join the project they found the most interesting. The three most popular projects became the first pilot Hackamonths. Read more...