Archive for December, 2009

The Traitorous Eight or Silicon Valley’s Trend Setters?

Its easy to focus on the current hot shots of Silicon Valley and their success stories.  But its also important to take a moment to remember those who paved the way for innovation and inspiration.  The men above were known as the “Traitorous Eight”, because they left William Shockley’s Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto, [ READ MORE ]

Book Review: The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

As an entrepreneur one of the biggest challenges is competing against large established corporations, because they possess more resources, capital, and have an established market segment.  However, one way of entering into the marketplace is by identifying non-existing value networks by creating a disruptive technology.  A disruptive technology is a new method or process of handling [ READ MORE ]

A Femgineer’s Adventures in Italia: Part V – Ischia

  • December 25th, 2009
  • Posted in Travel

Day 5: Up to this point we had only headed east toward Amalfi and Salerno.  Jason and I were curious what lie to the west of Positano.  I pulled out my guidebook and read up on an island called Ischia, which is more than twice the size of Capri and to its west, and southeast of [ READ MORE ]

A Femgineer’s Adventures in Italia: Part IV – Amalfi Coast

  • December 25th, 2009
  • Posted in Travel

Day 4: After our trip to Salerno we were jonesing for a boat and beach day.  The heat of the coast was too much to bear without air conditioning and escaping to the water would be our only way of cooling ourselves off. So we went to one of the small huts at the Spiagga Grande [ READ MORE ]

Ruby Bootcamp Basics

I’ve been putting myself through a Ruby bootcamp.  Here’s are the steps of my training: Install Ruby and Rails on Mac OS X Snow Leopard Ruby Primer introduction to Ruby basics Quick Reference Ruby on Rails Tutorial comprehensive tutorial that goes through the complete setup from db to web application While going through the tutorial I found a few issues [ READ MORE ]

Femgineer Goals for 2010

Every year I make the usual new year’s  resolutions to be healthier, friendlier, calmer, cheaper, smarter, and so forth.  But, I don’t actually set goals for how I want to become a better developer!  So I decided that I’d put together a list of skills I want to have, and goals I want to accomplish [ READ MORE ]

My Favorite 4-Letter Words

A few months ago a friend from France stayed with me.  English was her third language, and she identified nuances in my manner of speaking that I  hadn’t ever thought about it.  There are words that I use consistently that I hadn’t even realized I use. Here are the 4-letter words I use daily: Code Yoga Food Love F@c& I’ve also been [ READ MORE ]

Book Review: Made to Stick

I think this is a must read for anyone who is passionate about having their ideas heard whether they are large or small. It is especially crucial for entrepreneurs who are trying to cultivate a product, motivate employees, and grow a company. The premise of the book is how the “Curse of Knowledge” can impede [ READ MORE ]

My Startup Job Postings

I’m hiring for my own startup, which is currently in stealth mode.  I’m based out of down town Palo Alto, and the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View.  I have 2 clients lined up, and I want to put a prototype out in 6 months for them.  I will be bootstrapping until launch, so I’m only [ READ MORE ]

Duke Talk: From Duke to Mint: The Blue She-Devil and Successful Startup

  • December 10th, 2009
  • Posted in Talks

I will be speaking to MEM (Masters in Engineering Management) students at my alma mater, Duke University, on Friday January 22, 2009. I’ll talk about how I contributed to Mint.com’s success two years after I graduated from the Pratt School of Engineering. Tweet This Post[ READ MORE ]