Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by zaidf on Saturday June 25, 2011 @07:56PM (#2696979)

Neither is San Francisco or Mountain View technically Silicon Valley. I always thought that SV is used more as a metaphor for the tech startup scene than the specific location.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by true_religion on Saturday June 25, 2011 @10:09PM (#2697190)

Mountain View is directly adjacent to Silicon Valley. Like Silicon Valley it is a suburb of San Francisco.

I'm not sure how you can say developing in a county adjacent to silicon valley is the same thing as developing in a country more than 3000 miles away.

If Silicon Valley is a metaphor then the term is meaningless. New York is Silicon Valley. So is Chicago. So is Vancover, and London.

If it isn't---because of the unique legal structure, cultural consciousness, and developer concentration in and around Silicon Valley---then its unfair to say that a Luxumburg company operating under EU rules is a silicon valley company.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by yid on Sunday June 26, 2011 @05:36AM (#2697735)

That makes no sense. Mountain View is a real place. Silicon Valley is a nickname for the region, so saying "MV is directly adjacent to SV" makes no sense to me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by true_religion on Sunday June 26, 2011 @03:02PM (#2698753)

I thought Silicon Valley was a nickname for Sunnyvale, CA.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by yid on Monday June 27, 2011 @03:43AM (#2700501)

Nope. It refers to the region roughly south of South SF and north of San Jose.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by rdl on Saturday June 25, 2011 @09:55PM (#2697163)

Mountain View is pretty solidly in Silicon Valley (as is Palo Alto and Stanford); a lot of people draw the line at the Santa Clara/San Mateo county line (so Menlo Park isn't in), although one might consider San Mateo, Foster City, Redwood City, and Menlo Park in, too.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by r00fus on Saturday June 25, 2011 @11:37PM (#2697311)

When I worked in Pleasanton, I found it amusing that my coworkers considered it part of Silicon Valley.

Also San Jose has called itself in the past "the capitol of Silicon Valley".

Perhaps they felt Silicon Valley was a SF bay area mindset rather than a specific geographic location.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by Aloisius on Sunday June 26, 2011 @01:36AM (#2697464)

Why would you think it was a metaphor? It is a physical place and when you see in it mentioned in the press, they quite literally mean this particular location. Also, having grown up in Silicon Valley, I can tell you that Mountain View is in SV.

When I was a kid, San Jose was the "gateway to Silicon Valley" which basically was anywhere in Santa Clara county (at that time, mostly the 415 area code).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by brudgers on Saturday June 25, 2011 @10:10PM (#2697191)

Skype isn't part of the tech startup scene either. They have not been since 2005 when ebay acquired them for two billion dollars - and now they have been resold twice. The erroneous Silicon Valley references just facilitates the misinterpretation of Skype as a startup to support the linkbait article title.

Frankly it would seem that analysis of the stock vesting expectations of hackers in Tallinn is more relevant to the story and the structure of the Silverlake partner agreement than the expectations of Silicon Valley programmers when it comes to attracting and retaining technical talent at Skype and among the people mentioned in the techpress, it has been difficult to find any in key technical roles.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ by borism on Sunday June 26, 2011 @04:49AM (#2697690)

analysis of the stock vesting expectations of hackers in Tallinn is more relevant to the story

Stock vesting expectations of hackers in Tallinn is not any different than in any other part of the world.

[ Parent | on HN ]