ELEGA DR-631

If you go to see Silicon Valley, what you'll see are buildings. But it's the
people that make it Silicon Valley, not the buildings. I read occasionally
about attempts to set up "technology parks" in other places, as if the active
ingredient of Silicon Valley were the office space. An article about Sophia
Antipolis bragged that companies there included Cisco, Compaq, IBM, NCR, and
Nortel. Don't the French realize these aren't startups?

Building office buildings for technology companies won't get you a silicon
valley, because the key stage in the life of a startup happens before they
want that kind of space. The key stage is when they're three guys operating
out of an apartment. Wherever the startup is when it gets funded, it will
stay. The defining quality of Silicon Valley is not that Intel or Apple or
Google have offices there, but that they were started there.

So if you want to reproduce Silicon Valley, what you need to reproduce is
those two or three founders sitting around a kitchen table deciding to start a
company. And to reproduce that you need those people.

    -- Paul Graham
    -- How to Be Silicon Valley ( http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html )

          <rindolf>  dazjorz: I considered switching my default nick to
                     "shlomif", because that's how most people know me.
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: yeah, it's your alternative nick now right?
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: but then XChat2 reverted to the old nick and
                     I was too lazy.
           <unreal>  You seem to have many, well, stupid friends, rindolf
                     :P
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: yes, I have it registered.
          <rindolf>  unreal: stupid?
              <Zuu>  rindolf, noo! what to do about the tomato then? fish
                     dont have big tomato noses!
          <rindolf>  Zuu: fish?
          <rindolf>  Zuu: I'll give you a tomoato.
              <Zuu>  good question
          <rindolf>  I'll give you the tomato back.
              <Zuu>  where do i get fish from
              <Zuu>  no no, keep it :D
          <rindolf>  Zuu: my last name is Fish.
                  *  tommy_the-dragon slaps zuu with a fish
 <tommy_the-dragon>  there ya go
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: I just registered 'sjors'
                  *  rindolf gives a fish to Zuu
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: as a nick.
              <Zuu>  rindolf, thats just absurd, a reindeer with 'fish' as
                     surname...
              <Zuu>  your parents must have hated you
          <rindolf>  Open source: "everyone contributes a fish, and in
                     exchange everyone gets their own ocean."
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: ah, cool.
              <Zuu>  tommy_the-dragon, does dragons eat other animals,
                     like fish?
           <unreal>  Ocean == Big Momma's Bath?
          <rindolf>  Zuu: I'm not a reindeer - I just play one on T.V.
 <tommy_the-dragon>  not fish...
 <tommy_the-dragon>  just reindeers
              <Zuu>  tommy_the-dragon, what about fake TV reindeers ?
              <Zuu>  Nice :D
          <rindolf>  unreal: no, the whole enchilada.
          <rindolf>  tommy_the-dragon: LOL.
 <tommy_the-dragon>  and enchiladas
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: I know someone whose nick is Stonehead, he
                     made his three-letter acronym stn, but usually it's
                     letters from the first name
          <dazjorz>  uh
          <dazjorz>  the full name
          <dazjorz>  yours could be shf for example, and everybody would
                     know "hey, that's shlomi"
          <dazjorz>  but I'm at most sg, so I need to borrow another
                     letter somewhere, or make it daz or just sjors
                  *  dazjorz thinks
 <tommy_the-dragon>  my cat eats flies...
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: I hate these three letter acronyms.
              <Zuu>  shlomi really sounds like some dish made of reindeer
 <tommy_the-dragon>  but hes lucky because i dont eat cats
          <rindolf>  Zuu: heh.
           <unreal>  heh
          <rindolf>  tommy_the-dragon: I didn't know dragons had cats.
          <dazjorz>  what's the name of the red-nosed reindeer again?
              <Zuu>  it sounds edible at least
          <dazjorz>  oh rudolf :)
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: Randolph.
          <dazjorz>  oh
           <unreal>  I used to have a friend whos nick was "crap"
          <rindolf>  unreal: wow.
          <dazjorz>  <someguy> crap, someone stole my bicycle
          <dazjorz>  <crap> ok?
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: heh.
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: why don't you like the three-letter
                     acronyms?
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: often too confusing.
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: and two easy to mistype.
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: and not too memorable.
           <unreal>  LIS.
          <dazjorz>  three easy to mistype, I think
          <rindolf>  And often hard to pronounce.
          <dazjorz>  maybe I'll just go with sjors
          <rindolf>  too easy. Freudian.
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: yes, I think that's a good idea.
           <unreal>  (Lies, I say!)
          <dazjorz>  hehe, rindolf++ # freudian
              <Zuu>  or you could pick something girly and hope people
                     will treat you nicer :)
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: have you played with the farnsworth bot yet?
          <rindolf>  Zuu: RinGirl
          <rindolf>  Though nicks with "Girl " in them tend to draw too
                     much attention.
              <Zuu>  nah, it cant contain 'girl' that just seems fake
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: I have
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: remind me to fix knotify, khtml, and quassel
                     :(
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: nice.
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: using MemoServ?
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: the bugs annoy me, a lot, but I never get
                     around to actually trying to fix them
          <rindolf>  Zuu: maybe I should call myself "shlomi". Americans
                     will think I'm a girl.
              <Zuu>  yeah, it kinda have a girlish sound to it
          <dazjorz>  rindolf: call yourself shloma, dutch people will
                     think you're over sixty and female
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: heh.
          <dazjorz>  let me rephase that
          <dazjorz>  dutch people will think you're female... and over
                     sixty
          <dazjorz>  (oma = grandma)
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: ah.
           <unreal>  kloot.
          <rindolf>  In Hebrew nouns that end with "ah" tend to be
                     feminine.
          <dazjorz>  shlomah?
          <rindolf>  Seriously now, if I change my nick it will be to
                     shlomif.
          <dazjorz>  let's change our nicks at the same time
          <rindolf>  Well, in Shlomi's case it would be Shlomith.
          <dazjorz>  I will be sjors, you will be shlomif
          <rindolf>  dazjorz: OK.
                  *  rindolf is now known as shlomif
          <dazjorz>  shit, now I have to
              <Zuu>  what does shlimif even mean ?
                  *  dazjorz is now known as sjors
            <sjors>  Zuu: shlomi = his first name, f = the first letter of
                     his last name
          <shlomif>  sjors: hi.
          <shlomif>  Zuu: shlomi fish.
            <sjors>  hi shlomif
          <shlomif>  Hi sjors
 <tommy_the-dragon>  where does rindolf come into it?
          <shlomif>  sjors: my nick is longer than yours.
              <Zuu>  oh lol, and i just said his name sound girly :P
                  *  Zuu pat pats shlomif ^^
          <shlomif>  tommy_the-dragon: Rindolf was a dwarven warrior I
                     played in AD&D.
 <tommy_the-dragon>  ahh ok
                  *  shlomif gives Zuu his tomato back.
              <Zuu>  :<
          <shlomif>  Since I'm no longer a reindeer.
            <sjors>  shlomif: that's just to compensate against something
                     you have that's way shorter than mine
          <shlomif>  sjors: LOL.
          <shlomif>  sjors++
              <Zuu>  Erhmm.. shlomif! how come there's this big hole in
                     it?
 <tommy_the-dragon>  sorry...
 <tommy_the-dragon>  my bad
              <Zuu>  Hehe
                  *  shlomif doesn't like raw tomatoes.
          <shlomif>  But I eat them with pasta, etc.
          <shlomif>  Or as meat sauce.
              <Zuu>  or in sandwiches
          <shlomif>  sjors: anyway, welcome to ##programming
              <Zuu>  or on reindeer nose
          <shlomif>  sjors: I'll probably revert to "rindolf" after next
                     disconnect.
          <shlomif>  Zuu: after you cook the entire reindeer.
                  *  shlomif is a reindeer cannibal.
          <shlomif>  Well, rindolf is.
              <Zuu>  yes, but he ran away
          <shlomif>  I also like dried and olive oiled tomatoes.
            <sjors>  shlomif: I just changed my clients' settings to
                     reconnect as sjors, too
          <shlomif>  Well, I think I'll go to sleep.
          <shlomif>  sjors: ah.
            <sjors>  shlomif: it'll probably take a while to "adapt" to
                     sjors instead of dazjorz
          <shlomif>  sjors: well, enjoy your new nick.
            <sjors>  and I still have dazjorz.com, and not sjors.anything
                  *  Zuu tugs shlomif in
            <sjors>  thanks ;)
          <shlomif>  Zuu: thanks.
                  *  Zuu quicly squeeses a fresh tomato onto shlomif's
                     nose
            <sjors>  shlomif: sjors.biz and sjors.mobi at most
                  *  shlomif doesn't have rindolf.{com,org,net} etc.
          <shlomif>  sjors: maybe sjors.in
          <shlomif>  I got a shlom.in
            <sjors>  sjors.indahou.se
          <shlomif>  sjors: heh.
            <sjors>  sjors.ac, sjors.ag, sjors.am, sjors.at
            <sjors>  hehe sjors.me
            <sjors>  sjors.pl, too bad i don't really do perl anymore
          <shlomif>  sjors: there's also .sh
            <sjors>  sjors.sh, too bad I don't really do shell script a
                     lot
          <shlomif>  Or .im
            <sjors>  sjors.tv, too bad I don't really watch..
 <tommy_the-dragon>  do you own a mobile?
          <shlomif>  .tv are pretty costly.
            <sjors>  meh I don't like sjors. anyway, so I'll just keep
                     dazjorz for everything
 <tommy_the-dragon>  yeah whats with that (the price of .tv)?
          <shlomif>  tommy_the-dragon: it's the foundation of the economy
                     of Tuvaly.

    -- Reindeers, Tomatoes and Normalising Nicks
    -- ##programming, Freenode