What is stackoverflow.com?

Nothing, yet.

But here's the concept:

Programmers seem to have stopped reading books. The market for books on programming topics is miniscule compared to the number of working programmers.

Instead, they happily program away, using trial-and-error. When they can't figure something out, they type a question into Google.

And sometimes, the first result looks like it's going to have the answer to their exact question, and they are excited, until they click on the link, and discover that it's a pay site, and the answer is cloaked or hidden or behind a pay-wall, and you have to buy a membership.

And you won't even get an expert answer. You'll get a bunch of responses typed by other programmers like you. Some of the responses will be wrong, some will be right, some may be out of date, and it's hard to imagine that with the cooperative spirit of the internet this is the best thing we programmers have come up with.

Jeff Atwood and I decided to do something about it. We're starting to build a programming Q&A site that's free. Free to ask questions, free to answer questions, free to read, free to index, built with plain old HTML, no fake rot13 text on the home page, no scammy google-cloaking tactics, no salespeople, no JavaScript windows dropping down in front of the answer asking for $12.95 to go away. You can register if you want to collect karma and win valuable flair that will appear next to your name, but otherwise, it's just free.

When I'm building a new product, my policy has always been to keep quiet about it until I have something to ship. But this isn't really a product. This is a free new community site for programmers around the world and we need your help to design it, to program it, and to build it. We want to hear your suggestions, hear your ideas, and we're going to build it right in front of your eyes. Thus, the vaporware announcement.

Every week, Jeff and I talk by phone (he's in California, I'm in New York), and we're going to record those phone calls and throw them up on the web for you to listen in on, and call it a podcast. We have a lot of trouble keeping on topic, so the podcast may be interesting to you even if you don't want to hear about stackoverflow.com. The first episode is up right now. Eventually I imagine we'll figure out this newfangled "RSS" technology and you'll be able to actually subscribe and get fresh episodes delivered into your ears automatically. All in good time.

Jeff's Announcement

PS I'm still CEO of Fog Creek full time. StackOverflow.com is a joint venture between Fog Creek and Jeff Atwood. He's the full time CEO which means he's calling the shots. I'm sort of a consultant on this one.

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

答Jason：

如果你读我一九八一年写的（八二发表）《中国会走向资本主义的道路吗？》，你会知道二十七年前我就准确地推断了某些国企垄断的顽固性，是改革的最后难关。这样准确的推断天下间只我一个吧（一笑）。

如果你跟进我后来分析中国的文章，你会知道我不担心没有垄断权利的国企，因为没有政府维护的专利权，国企要亏蚀，北京不会那样傻，不断地资助要亏蚀的企业。又说中！这些国企从二千年起，因为地价上升，风雷急剧地卖出去，作为民营。到今天，没有垄断专利的国企近于不存在了。

有垄断专利、还能赚钱而无需政府资助的呢？我怎样看？这些国企发行股票，有朝一日，私人拥有的股权过半，就算是「私企」了。到那时，尤其是大部分的股权落在私人手上，政府不会再有大兴趣维护这些国企的专利。香港昔日的电话公司是个好例子。股权差不多全是私人的，政府出钱把这垄断专利买回来，即是以钱取缔电话公司的专利。此取缔也，导致我每月打到美国的长途电话费从约七千港元跌到二百。眼观六路，一听到政府要买回电话公司的专利，我立刻把母亲持有的全部「电话」股票出售，沽得精彩。

上述的经验说，可作投资的项目多的是，原则上不要买靠国家维护专利而赚钱的国企股票。

Our friend Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World book is available for pre-order. It’s already in the Top 40 books on Amazon. Here’s to hoping it cracks the Top 10! Go Gary!

Our friend Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World book is available for pre-order. It’s already in the Top 40 books on Amazon. Here’s to hoping it cracks the Top 10! Go Gary!

• New navigation - We've improved the zoom control so you can swoop down from outer space to street level in a single seamless motion. And with the addition of the "look" joystick, you can look up at buildings or across a mountain range.

• More, faster 3D buildings - It's more fun to navigate through a lot of new 3D content. Besides adding thousands of buildings contributed by people around the world, we've added dozens of photo-textured cities and towns in the U.S. and elsewhere.

• Street View - The popular Google Maps feature makes its Google Earth debut.

• Sunlight feature - Never seen the sunrise over the Alps? Now you can.

• New languages - There are 12 new languages, including Danish, English (UK), Spanish (Latin American), Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese (PT), Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish.

The Newseum displays over 600 daily newspaper front pages from around the world in their original, unedited form (they also have a map version). Pretty cool.

Dave Bednarski, a Signal vs. Noise reader, sent over a really cool Mac OS X Automator script (download the script) to pull the front pages from the papers you like and combine them into a single PDF. It’s a great way to build your own front-page-only headline newspaper!

Download the Automator Script (original updated by Karim)

The Newseum displays over 600 daily newspaper front pages from around the world in their original, unedited form (they also have a map version). Pretty cool.

Dave Bednarski, a Signal vs. Noise reader, sent over a really cool Mac OS X Automator script (download the script) to pull the front pages from the papers you like and combine them into a single PDF. It’s a great way to build your own front-page-only headline newspaper!

Download the Automator Script (original updated by Karim)

A few weeks ago I spoke at the WebApp Summit in San Diego. This was a UIE (User Interface Engineering) event. It was the first one I’ve spoken at, and the first time I met the folks in charge of UIE, but they made me feel as if I’ve known them for years.

Jared Spool, the guy in charge, and Christine Perfetti, the VP & Managing Director, are solid people. Engaged, interesting, kind, friendly, down-to-earth, and curious. They took great care of the speakers, put on a nice show, and Jared broke the ice with his magic (literally — he’s an aspiring magician and did tricks on stage between presenters).

But the one thing that really sold me on these folks is why they invited me to speak in the first place.

UIE professes a user testing and research driven methodology. We have a different point of view on how to build usable and useful products. Most folks who make their living on testing and research would not invite someone with a significantly different approach to speak directly to their customers. But UIE knows that different perspectives are ultimately good things for their customers.

Just like how Amazon lets their competitors sell against them on Amazon’s product pages, or how Progressive Insurance gives you the quotes for their competitors, UIE is a purveyor of valuable information, not just their information. I think that shows the mark of confidence and a genuine interest in helping people make good decisions. Shielding people from opinion because it’s not your opinion is petty and shallow. UIE is smart to avoid that tack. They know well rounded customers, a.k.a. informed shoppers, are ultimately better customers.

So big thanks to Jared and Christine for being good people. We wish you continued success.

A few weeks ago I spoke at the WebApp Summit in San Diego. This was a UIE (User Interface Engineering) event. It was the first one I’ve spoken at, and the first time I met the folks in charge of UIE, but they made me feel as if I’ve known them for years.

Jared Spool, the guy in charge, and Christine Perfetti, the VP & Managing Director, are solid people. Engaged, interesting, kind, friendly, down-to-earth, and curious. They took great care of the speakers, put on a nice show, and Jared broke the ice with his magic (literally — he’s an aspiring magician and did tricks on stage between presenters).

But the one thing that really sold me on these folks is why they invited me to speak in the first place.

UIE professes a user testing and research driven methodology. We have a different point of view on how to build usable and useful products. Most folks who make their living on testing and research would not invite someone with a significantly different approach to speak directly to their customers. But UIE knows that different perspectives are ultimately good things for their customers.

Just like how Amazon lets their competitors sell against them on Amazon’s product pages, or how Progressive Insurance gives you the quotes for their competitors, UIE is a purveyor of valuable information, not just their information. I think that shows the mark of confidence and a genuine interest in helping people make good decisions. Shielding people from opinion because it’s not your opinion is petty and shallow. UIE is smart to avoid that tack. They know well rounded customers, a.k.a. informed shoppers, are ultimately better customers.

So big thanks to Jared and Christine for being good people. We wish you continued success.

http://www.seeisee.com/index.php/2008/04/16/p518

By Carrie

在中国的互联网上，有一批年轻的妈妈和准妈妈们热情地参与着网络讨论，她们是中国网络口碑（IWOM）的一股中坚力量。

新一代的妈妈通常受过良好的教育，立志通过自己的知识和力量抚养宝宝健康成长。当宝宝还在妈妈肚子里孕育的时候，准妈妈就开始了自我学习和知识累积的旅程，因特网为她们提供了方便的信息来源。在宝宝逐渐成长的过程之中，妈妈们更是积极的去汲取网友们的经验，希望减少一切不利于宝宝健康的因素，呵护宝宝快乐每一天。

广阔的互联网信息浩如烟海，妈妈们是如何参与其中并贡献自己的声音呢？本文即想从资源分享的角度，为大家简单介绍一下育儿IWOM目前的概况：

育儿BBS论坛是妈妈们学习育儿知识和参与育儿话题讨论的传统网络场所，在这里可以翻阅之前妈妈留下的育儿心经，例如如何预防和治愈宝宝的奶藓啊，怎么通过便便的颜色辨别宝宝是否健康啊，宝宝每天早上干咳几声是不是正常啊，等等；如果找不到自己所想要的答案，那么发一条提问帖啊，BBS里的资深网友妈妈肯定都会热心的给予回答，都是生活中得到的宝贵经验哟；不仅如此，有些BBS，如好孩子育儿网里还有专职医生能够给你专业的回复呢，是不是好像有了一个私人医生一样让您高枕无忧了呢？

除了门户网站的育儿亲子论坛，例如搜狐母婴，越来越多的宝宝电子商务网站下属的论坛也越来越得到妈妈们的青睐，毕竟为宝宝购买实惠可靠的用品对于妈妈来说是至关重要的事情呀。以红孩子为例，其论坛现在已经不仅仅是提供产品信息了，妈妈们在这儿会交流产品的价格打折优惠信息，还会介绍产品使用经验和评价产品的性价比。朋友们的介绍和口碑相传当然是可信的，对广告和促销劝说不动声色的妈妈们因此动了心，也在采购育儿产品时信心百倍游刃有余了。

宝宝SNS的出现和发展，使得妈妈的网络口碑参与不再局限与BBS论坛和Blog了，在SNS里面不仅可以实现BBS和Blog的功能，还可以让妈妈建立自己的圈圈认识同城的妈妈，这就把虚拟和现实社会结合起来了。面对面的交流不仅促进了妈妈们的感情，同样也促使大家的交流话题更加深入，这样具有互动的环境真是让妈妈们喜不自禁啊。宝宝树就是一个典型的例子，在其建立的短短一年之中就凭借其生动的web工具，新颖的圈子概念获得了妈妈们的认可。丫丫网近期也在改版，也在建设圈圈来促进妈妈的互相交流，并且有专门的编辑来精选BBS内容以让妈妈们可以第一时间阅读到有价值的育儿宝典。

育儿品牌网站也是育儿IWOM中不可不提的一份子，育儿品牌非常小心谨慎的为妈妈们提供了许多专业咨讯，并且开展了一系列让妈妈宝宝可以参与的活动。其中秀宝宝的活动被广大妈妈所了解并积极的参与，当然这体现了品牌的精明和妈妈秀宝宝的热情。在这些活动中，妈妈希望和别人分享宝宝的每一个表情，每一个微笑，对于别人的赞场她们欣然接受。这些美丽的语言给于了妈妈们无比的勇气和鼓舞去面对育儿过程遇到的和将要面对的一系列挫折和困难。

在BBS里交流育儿经验，在Blog里记录育儿日记，在SNS圈圈里认识同城的妈妈，在网站里秀宝宝的照片和生活，这一系列的网络参与不仅让她们充满自信的养育宝宝，也让她们建立了自己的朋友圈子使得其生活更加充实；不仅让她们获得了有用的信息，也让她们在心理上欢心鼓舞。

其实妈妈纵然是网络口碑IWOM的参与者，其也是网络口碑IWOM的受益者，或许这样一个IWOM双赢定律是放四海皆准吧。