How is today’s job market among teens and twenty-somethings? Many people and statistics say that it isn’t good. Many college graduates go into the real world, only to find few career opportunities. ?But apparently in Silicon Valley, ?some young adults succeed like it’s 1999.
According to this article called The Real Teens and Silicon Valley, some teens and early twenty-somethings are thriving in this tech paradise. And they’re risking everything to strike it big. There’s the 17-year-old high school dropout who is a lead engineer of message app Yo. There’s Ari Weinstein, the co-founder of DeskConnect. Pay Pal founder Peter Theil offers $100,000 to 20 people who skip or drop out of college. He does this annually because, “Some ideas can’t wait.”In 2014, 3,100 people applied. This is to shape young, entrepreneurial minds and maybe, even find the next Silicon Valley superstar. In fact, Conrad Kramer, 18, co-founder of DeskConnect, is one of Theil’s recipients. There’s the story of 18-year-old Ashu Desai. While still in high school, Desai made and sold an iPhone game that sold 50,000 copies. To appease his parents, he went to UCLA, but dropped out soon afterwards because of lack of interest in college. He moved to the San Francisco area. And they’re many teens coming to Silicon Valley with some experience in hopes of making it big in the tech industry, like many go to New York, LA or Las Vegas in hopes of making it big in the entertainment industry.
I am impressed and proud of these young adults who took the great risk. And now it’s paying off. Life is often about risk. And in an uncertain world, there’s no guarantee of anything. They took matters in their own hands, started their own businesses, and created jobs. That’s awesome. But for every Silicon Valley success story, I wonder how many failures and shattered dreams there are. I’m not being a pessimist, just a realist. It’s always good to have an impossible dream and do what it takes to make the dream a reality. Isn’t it even better to have a backup plan?
For years, Google has toiled to produce the perfect self-driving car. It’s been on road tests for a long time. Now, the Google car is almost ready to make it’s public debut.
This summer, the Google self-driving car will make it’s debut road trip in Silicon Valley. Google’s central headquarters are there, in Mountain Valley. These robot cars can only go up to 25 mph. In case of emergency or mishap, feature drivers will be available to intervene. They’re now testing how the driving community interacts with and thinks of such a vehicle. The self-driving panel wants to face challenges to a self-driving car, like destination points, construction and other stoppages, and traffic issues. In all the tests that have taken place between Nevada and California, there’s been only eleven accidents and no injuries to anyone. All the crashes were minor. And there was a small incident involving a cyclist, where a driver had to take the wheel. Google engineers quickly corrected the problem, then added it to a list of issues to be studied. Please remember, when Google cars have these road test drive, they’re just that: test drives on live roads. This isn’t the time to pre-order a Google self-driving car. They’re forecasting another five years will pass before that happens.
But I think the Google car is ready for this next step. Yes, there has been some accidents along the way, but those have been few and far between. The main thing is nobody has been injured. So that must mean the majority of these tests went very well. These cars are going to be maximum 25 mph. It often takes a lot more speed before a serious accident can occur. The question is: how well will these real life road tests do? Google car is laying a lot on the line. If they mess up on the road too much, they can kiss their self-car dreams goodbye. If Google car was on the lot and ready to sale today, would you buy one?
The year 2009 can seem like a lifetime ago. Twitter was in it’s infancy. Instagram wasn’t even heard of. The Black Berry was a hot item. Russia was expected to be the next big nation in the tech realm. Yep, lots have changed.
That year, then President Dmitry Medvedev started a campaign called Go Russia. It was to invest in technological advancements and make his nation competitive in the 21st century. This wasn’t just supposed to boost computer technology, but everything from space technology to nuclear technology. There were plans of IT innovation, increased technology curriculum in schools, and a national supercomputer grid. Russia invested four billion dollars in a Moscow suburb named?Skolkovo. This was supposed to be the next Silicon Valley and create 50,000 jobs. And Go Russia was bound for success…at first. They got financial backings from Silicon Valley. They partnered with US universities like MIT. Skolkovo was flooded with new tech businesses. By 2013, there were over a thousand of them. In 2011, Russia’s search engine rivaled Google in revenue and prestige. In 2009, Russia suffered greatly from the Great Recession, with near double digit GDP loss and unemployment, followed by an oil crisis. And it appeared the Go Russia revolution pulled them from such dark days.
Then the Medvedev era ended and Vladimir Putin got the Russian presidency back. In the summer of 2013, those Russian tech start up companies were the subject of corruption raids and scandals. Many of those companies were either driven out of business or driven outside of Russia. The economy never really recovered. While we celebrated low gas prices last year, it left Russia’s economy in shambles. And tech businesses took good, educated people out of Russia. In 2014, more Russians left there than at anytime so far in the 21st century. The number of Russians applying for immigration in the USA doubled in just one year. So who is to blame for these shattered Russian dreams?
Since the late 2000s, the social media gaming company Zynga has given us games like FarmVille, CityVille, and Words with Friends. But now, Zynga has fallen on difficult times. How difficult you ask?
The old CEO, Don Mattrick is gone and company founder Mark Pincus is serving as CEO now. One order of business: lay off 18 percent of the entire company. That means over 360 people will face unemployment when these cuts become reality. Instead of branching out, they’re going to focus on the games and categories they already have. The cuts are expected to take place over nine months. The cuts are to save Zynga $45 million, and they’re cutting $55 million more dollars well into 2016. In March 2015, they reported a net loss of $6.7 million. They were expecting a lot worse. They’re even abandoning hopes and dreams of ending the sports gaming arena and closed down their Orlando based studio, which was in the works of creating a NFL fantasy football based game. Pincus believes Zynga needs to be ‘de-layered’ and -‘de-cluttered’. Don’t worry: Your classic games like FarmVille and CityVille are going nowhere. They’re recognized as Zynga’s bread and butter. They’re now looking at casino style games, like Hit It Rich. Pincus seems confident that will attract new game enthusiasts.
I know they’re in a bind, but when this many jobs have to be lost, it’s never a good thing. I hope whatever lessons Zynga learned were learned so they’ll never have to take this kind of hit again. It’s a shame because I like FarmVille. I hope Pincus and his top associates are writing good references, giving good packages, and doing right by the people they had to let go. I think Zynga will make a comeback. Not only that, I think they’ll do better than ever. Do you think Zynga will ever get that Fantasy Football game going?
Listen, we all like to party. Heck, yesterday was May the 4th and we here at Computer Geeks went nuts. But today is Cinco De Mayo, a day littered with Corona’s and many many drunk encounters. So we’ve decided to hand out some advice to those of you really looking to go nuts today. Your electronics are EXPENSIVE, and one day of partying shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. So before you decide to pop open that first cerveza, and smoosh your little lime wedge to the bottom, take our advice: Hide your electronics! Here are a list of potential drunk disasters that await those who do not heed our advice…
1. Beer Spill on your $1800 MacBook
I wish I could tell you that this is not common, but it is all too common. People drink near their laptops, people drink near their VERY EXPENSIVE laptops. All it takes is a spill of 1oz of beer on the keyboard of a MAC and your computer is toast. If you find yourself in this situation (because you didn’t listen) you will need to do a few things to save it.
1. Flip it upside-down
2. Power it off immediately
3. Wait 48 hours to let it dry
4. Call a professional to clean it out (800) 433-5435
2. Cell Phone Disaster
There are few things that drunk people do really well, but one of them is dropping their phone. Whether it is in the toilet or on the pavement, you’re in trouble. iPhone 6 plus broken screen is $450 to fix, and if you drop it in the toilet the phone replacement will be double that. Don’t use your phone in the bathroom, and don’t play with it outside, it is your best bet to keep that expensive little toy in your pocket safe. If you wreck your phone, check out our repair page
3. Go Party at someone else’s house
I mean it, you don’t need to host this gathering. Host Thanksgiving dinner, or Christmas, but for God’s sake, don’t host a party for a day full of drinking Corona’s. You know that 60 inch TV you love so much? It only takes 1 moron to crash into it, to ruin it FOREVER. Your tablets that are lying around become frisbees, or just unfortunate objects people sit on and crush. Go destroy a friend’s house, and take away the risk.
So go out, have fun, drink a few cervezas for us, but keep your electronics at home where they are safe. And if you do happen to have an accident, give us a call or send us a message and we will come to the rescue!
We know Jeff Bezos as the CEO of Amazon. We know him for innovations like Kindle, and his lavish, exclusive retreats. But do you know Jeff Bezos as a space man?
He owns a rocket company called Blue Origin. Never heard of it? Most people haven’t. Yesterday, they launched a rocket called Blue Shepard from Blue Origin headquarters in Texas. This company is in the business of private space flight, as in sending regular people into space. Though Bezos talked about the launch earlier this month, not many expected it this soon. The flight must have been a huge success. Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson assures operations are ready for commercial use. From the looks of things, the debut date might be closer than anyone expects. Jeff Bezos himself boasted passengers will have a great journey and smooth return on a space flight. He does admit there were hydraulic issues during decent, and revisions are already being made. The spaceship tested can fly 62 miles above land. It can hold three people. It can’t make a full orbit around the planet, but will do more tests like this before putting humans on board.
That’s a smart move itself. Before you send people into space, make sure your ship is perfect. There is little if any room for error. Neither Blue Origin nor Bezos want tragedy on their hands. My advice to them is test, test, and test some more. Hydraulics ?is just one stumbling block. There’s competition. Virgin Galactic is the first to launch private space airline service. From what I‘m reading, Virgin Galactic seems more organized than Blue Origin. Zero Gravity Corporation offers space flights for as little as $5,000 (Virgin Galactic flights cost $200,000). There’s talk of NASA building colonies on the moon and Mars. So after safety concerns are answered, that’s just the beginning. How will Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin fly in the private spaceship race?
