Ethereum becoming the value settlement layer of Web 3.0 [1]. Stablecoins have proven to be the killer dApp and there are ~$10B in circulation currently [2].
One of my last teams used gods from Greek mythology (e.g. Apollo [1], Ares [2]), and another nearby team used Pokemon names. Lots of folks started using similar naming conventions and eventually a clear naming manifesto was sent to all engineers to discourage this practice for new services.
It's much easier to discuss and reason about complex systems when the names are self-explanatory, especially when you get to 100s or 1000s of names.
I work at a very large tech company and my experience with names there leads me to disagree.
* It is often most critical to differentiate between things that have similar functions. The relevant distinctions will not be clear by the time of naming (i.e., this is the part that used to manage the whole X but now just responds to callers, this is the part that was separated out from the old X for scaling, this is the old X backend, this is the older backend that runs for the old platform Xes only...).
* The same name may seem to make sense to people for very, very different things. (Viz. how many technical meanings "migration" has) If you have to namespace your names to get over this, Org Product Name starts getting clunky enough it will be called something different in practice anyway.
In sum, I would say that it's much easier to discuss and reason about complex systems made up of parts with clear divisions of responsibility, and I'm sure that everything tends to be easier when those divisions have been static enough over time such that the names can still correspond to responsibilities. However, I will take every single Pokemon name in existence over the confusion caused by names that try to describe what services do and are inaccurate.
We used WWII-era warships. Keep in mind this was at a Navy contractor.
Total PITA by the way. App-Prod-DB-001, App-QA-007 or DB-Bak-003 tells me what the server does, and what sort of tier (Prod, Test/QA, Dev, misc.) and a couple of other details about just looking at it. Folks reading this post could probably make some guesses just by the names.
Meanwhile, what the hell do servers Leonidas and Hephaestus do? Both of em crashed -- how much should I be panicking about that?
Ben Thompson wrote an interesting article "What Is a Tech Company?" on Stratechery [1] recently where he discusses the trademark characteristics of tech companies and makes a convincing argument as to why Uber could be considered one:
> Note the centrality of software in all of these characteristics:
> - Software creates ecosystems.
> - Software has zero marginal costs.
> - Software improves over time.
> - Software offers infinite leverage.
> - Software enables zero transaction costs.
> The question of whether companies are tech companies, then, depends on how much of their business is governed by software’s unique characteristics, and how much is limited by real world factors.
...
> Uber, meanwhile, has long been mentioned in the same breath as Airbnb, and for good reason: it checks most of the same boxes:
> - There is a software-created ecosystem of drivers and riders.
> - Like Airbnb, Uber reports its revenue as if it has low marginal costs, but a holistic view of rides shows that the company pays drivers around 80 percent of total revenue; this isn’t a world of zero marginal costs.
> - Uber’s platform improves over time.
> - Uber is able to serve the entire world, giving it maximum leverage.
> - Uber can transact with anyone with a self-serve model.
> A major question about Uber concerns transaction costs: bringing and keeping drivers on the platform is very expensive. This doesn’t mean that Uber isn’t a tech company, but it does underscore the degree to which its model is dependent on factors that don’t have zero costs attached to them.
He walks through a few other examples as well (e.g. Netflix, Airbnb, WeWork, Peloton), would definitely recommend reading the whole article.
He also has an interesting follow-up [0] where he looks at it from the gross margin point-of-view. His main point is that when you look at it from the perspective of what the rider pays, their margins are much lower and implies that perhaps it should not be categorized as a tech company (in the zero marginal costs and massive gross margins).
"There is no widespread undetected community transmission in New Zealand. We have won that battle," Ardern said Monday. "But we must remain vigilant if we are to keep it that way."
Asked whether New Zealand had eliminated COVID-19, Ardern replied: "currently."
Happy to share Inverse, a Chrome extension that empowers teams to have conversations and share knowledge on any webpage. Unlike email or chat applications like Slack or Teams, where information is siloed inside each app, Inverse lives alongside you in the browser so you can view and take part in discussions without leaving your current tab. These discussions are tied to specific URLs, so you can create a common thread that connects related pages, like a document, ticket, design, or dashboard.
Ben Thompson wrote an interesting article "What Is a Tech Company?" on Stratechery [1] recently where he discusses the trademark characteristics of tech companies and makes a convincing argument as to why WeWork is not one:
So what about companies like WeWork and Peloton that interact with the real world? Note the centrality of software in all of these characteristics:
- Software creates ecosystems.
- Software has zero marginal costs.
- Software improves over time.
- Software offers infinite leverage.
- Software enables zero transaction costs.
...
- WeWork claims it has a software-created ecosystem that connect companies and employees across locations, but it is difficult to find evidence that this is a driving factor for WeWork’s business.
- WeWork pays a huge percentage of its revenue in rent.
- WeWork’s offering certainly has the potential to improve over time.
- WeWork is limited by the number of locations it builds out.
- WeWork requires a consultation for even a one-person rental, and relies heavily on brokers for larger businesses.
Frankly, it is hard to see how WeWork is a tech company in any way.
Please don't use indentation for quotes. The side-scrolling makes it completely impossible to read on mobile, and nearly impossible to read on desktop.
>So what about companies like WeWork and Peloton that interact with the real world? Note the centrality of software in all of these characteristics:
>
>- Software creates ecosystems.
>- Software has zero marginal costs.
>- Software improves over time.
>- Software offers infinite leverage.
>- Software enables zero transaction costs.
>
>...
>
>- WeWork claims it has a software-created ecosystem that connect companies and employees across locations, but it is difficult to find evidence that this is a driving factor for WeWork’s business.
>- WeWork pays a huge percentage of its revenue in rent.
>- WeWork’s offering certainly has the potential to improve over time.
>- WeWork is limited by the number of locations it builds out.
>- WeWork requires a consultation for even a one-person rental, and relies heavily on brokers for larger businesses.
>
>Frankly, it is hard to see how WeWork is a tech company in any way.
Eh, HN does have a solution for quotes; the way I formatted it. There's no technical solution for humans applying the wrong tool to the job. The mono-spaced non-wrapping style works well for code. I find it inexplicable that so many people persist in using it for quotes.
Square's now shuttered Order app [1] also used to offer just in time order preparation [2]:
> With the newest version of the app, Square will flip the model so that food will be prepared just in time for the customer arrive, thanks to a new arrival prediction feature. The technology is designed to track users as they approach a store they’ve ordered from and alert it when they’re nearby so an order can be made just in time.
> For the technology to work, sellers need to set preparation times for different items on their menu. The app then creates a sort of geofence around the business, and recognizes when a customer is nearby and someone should start on an order.
This worked particularly well for me every morning when I'd order a latte, it's great to see more businesses offer similar functionality.
[1] https://ethereum.org/
[2] https://stablecoinstats.com/