UCSB in the Top 10

i may be getting a little long in the tooth with a 3-year old and one on the way, but it still made this Gaucho proud to see we've retained our status as a Top 10 school according to Princeton Review.

I'm not sure why the author was so shocked at us finishing above UCLA (sorry, Greg) and USC ... As my fellow gauchos know, it's a proud tradition. I was a little shocked, however, that no other California school finished in the Top 10.

Go Gauchos.

"The 2008 Princeton Review released its annual list of the top party schools in the nation ... While many of the usual suspects are on the Top 20 list (Ole Miss, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Penn State) we’re more shocked at the University of New Hampshire which came in at No. 7, and UC Santa Barbara finishing above USC and UCLA. Here is the Top 10:

1. West Virginia University
2. University of Mississippi
3. University of Texas
4. University of Florida
5. University of Georgia
6. Penn State University
7. University of New Hampshire
8. Indiana University
9. Ohio University
10. University of California, Santa Barbara"

entertaining write-up of internal Y! Hack Day

Internal Yahoo! Hack Day ethos for Y! employees (check out public Y! Hack Day in London):

"It's the difference between practicing piano after school in a regimented way versus smoking pot and jamming with your friends in a garage," Horowitz said.

From August 5th Sunday SF Chronicle

For Yahoo's Hack Day last month, employees submitted 120 ideas that they showed off in a black tent set up on the lawn at Yahoo's headquarters. The preliminaries had the air of a science fair, with individual teams made up of everyone from Yahoo attorneys to product managers, touting their ideas and asking that fellow colleagues vote for them so that they would make it to the finals.

Because some of the products could ultimately be put into development, Yahoo asked that no specifics about them be publicized. Although some seemed pretty far-flung, or would have only niche appeal, several seemed to have potential, according to Horowitz and several of the day's judges, who included Yahoo co-founder David Filo.

During the finals, held in a vast meeting room, with a 90-second timer ticking down on a whiteboard, one presenter gave an impassioned appeal to elevate his idea to the big time, saying, "If you let me push this tonight, we'd be beating Google tomorrow morning."

However, nothing is that easy at a big company. Anything released must first be thoroughly vetted for privacy, security, patents, licensing and adequate infrastructure, even when innovation is a priority.