
Farewell GitHub, Hello Immersive Computing - Dorian-Marie
http://tom.preston-werner.com/2014/04/21/farewell-github-hello-immersive-computing.html
======
atonse
I really don't understand some of these responses:

1) GitHub doesn't owe us the details of the investigation - what difference
does it make to anyone apart from creating more fodder for gossip? This is an
internal company matter.

2) Regarding Tom's "threat" \- This is pretty much the largest "resolution"
that could've come out of this, right? Some of Horvath's allegations were true
and a high-profile founder has resigned. The way I read it was: What more is
there to do? I think that's what he means. "I've resigned, isn't that enough?
If you want to keep pursuing it, what's left to seek? At that point it's
personal and my wife and I will respond appropriately."

~~~
MarkTee
Regarding #1:

While I agree that the majority of the investigation isn't relevant to those
outside of the company, there is a major topic that hasn't been addressed: the
assertion that a non-employee was continuously present in the office and had
access to private info.

That's extremely relevant to customers, and makes one question GitHub's
security/privacy practices.

~~~
grrowl
> a non-employee was continuously present in the office and had access to
> private info.

It should be noted "private info" was simply github employee chat rooms (and
history), not unfettered access to any customer info.

------
n72
Jeez, so when does The Wives of Silicon Valley start? The whole tech scene in
SF has turned into such a little soap opera, cult of personality, wank fest.

~~~
taude
Hence the popularity of that Secret App.

------
xiaoma
Here's my one and only interaction with the author:

I met Tom a couple of years ago when I first got to SF. It was at a bar in the
mission that was holding an international get together for github users. I'll
never forget the impression he made on me. We talked for a good while, most
about drawing.

Since I was totally new to town (and had spent most my adult life outside the
US), I had no idea who he was. I'd used github but didn't know much about it
and certainly didn't know who he was. I love drawing and sketching and it was
actually via a flash game tutorial on Kongretate.com that I found my first
serious entry point into programming. Telling Tom about this, he started
talking about drawing octocats and the entire conversation was about artwork.
Until someone told me otherwise about half an hour later, I thought he was the
"octocat guy", an artist who happened to be at a nice company.

It's really rare in my life when I've been shocked by someone's humility and
congeniality, but meeting Tom was one of those times. I'll also say that in
the intervening two years, I've gotten to know the product quite well and
really hope the best both for Github and his upcoming venture.

Edit: I've been an HN user since almost the beginning and I have to say this
is saddening. It boggles the mind that sharing a brief story of meeting with
author of the piece and wishes for the success of both Github and the future
venture is something that warrants multiple down votes.

------
vowelless
As a fan of his technical work and leadership of Github, I wish him the best
of luck and am excited to see what he comes up with.

------
rdl
Tangentially, his wife's startup
[https://omakasecharity.org/](https://omakasecharity.org/) actually looks
pretty interesting; one of the most exciting things of the past year has been
how tech people (YC, etc.) have gotten involved in new kinds of charities,
rather than just donating to existing ones. I guess I'd argue Bill Gates was
the one who kicked this all off, with a strict program of accountability, but
the smaller startups actually use technology to accomplish their missions in a
new and more effective way.

~~~
judk
Founding new charities has been the hobby of wealthy society types since time
immemorial. It is much more ego-stroking than joining one of the many groups
already doing great work.

------
yukichan
> ...the results of GitHub's independent investigation unequivocally confirm
> this and we are prepared to fight any further false claims on this matter to
> the full extent of the law.

Seems like a legal threat to Horvath if she speaks up about this again.

~~~
tptacek
That's definitely the most dramatic possible interpretation, and is thus the
one the Internet will fixate on. Giant crowds of uninformed bystanders can be
counted on never to pick the most boring narrative.

~~~
acjohnson55
That being the case, perhaps he should have chosen the words of such a high
profile message more carefully.

~~~
r00fus
Sounds like legalese boilerplate that the GH legal team recommended. Nothing
more, nothing less.

Harassment allegations aside, the fact that the wife of the founder had the
access/freedom she did was a bit of a WTF for me. I can understand that
perhaps GH decided _that_ was the termination-triggering offense, not the
allegations.

------
shurcooL
> During my time away from GitHub I started experimenting with Go, OpenGL, and
> Unity with an eye towards the software side of immersive computing.

That is extremely exciting to me. It's no secret I'm a big fan of Go, and
seeing someone as influential as Tom pick it up is great to hear. I'm looking
forward to following what comes out of this.

~~~
humanrebar
Go is an odd choice for such a graphics-heavy domain. If it works out well,
I'll be very interested to hear more about that combination of technologies.

~~~
kyrra
It's just as odd as using OpenGL from Java, right? The main issue I've seen
people have with Go and using it for gaming or heavy graphics use is that it
is garbage collected. But compared to the Java Hotspot runtime, it's gc isn't
nearly as robust.

~~~
Crito
For whatever it is worth, Notch has said that when Oculus initially approached
him for Minecraft on the Oculus, he identified performance being an issue as
the Oculus would require a steady 90fps, which Minecraft would struggle to
provide on some hardware. He identified using Java as one of the reasons that
this was the case.

Before the Mojang/Oculus connection was severed in the Facebook/Oculus
fallout, the plan was apparently to make a stripped down version of Minecraft,
similar to Pocket or Pi, for the Oculus.

 _([http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-
change-...](http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-
world/\)*)

------
jusben1369
I thought it strange he dedicated real estate on this posting to his wife's
new project. Seems a bit tone deaf given the thrust of the incident appeared
to be the fact that his wife had oversized influence at GitHub.

~~~
gdubs
It's his personal site...

------
facepalm
All the other crap aside, I kind of envy him for getting into VR now. The
recent news about Oculus, and reading "Masters Of Doom", have somehow given me
a renewed excitement for the field again. What if those snow crash visions
could become a reality after all? (Sans the sword fighting, I think it is not
possible because of the speed of light?).

I'd be excited to work in that area, but I have no idea how to go about it in
a sensible way. I mean how could I contribute as a single individual, without
having a company on my hands?

~~~
general_failure
Totally agree here. I have not seen any major innovations come out from github
recently. It's a great product already and something phenomenal has to happen
to make me take notice. In VR, I imagine the barriers to making an impression
are lot lesser.

~~~
issaria
Oh, you must have forgotten Atom

------
tptacek
Best of luck to you both.

------
simondlr
Please tell me he is going to work on VR coding! This can't come soon enough.
Multiple screens (more than the usual 2), more visualizations. Epic.

~~~
lsaferite
Once I realized how a VR headset working in AR mode could do away with my
multiple monitor setup, I was overjoyed. Now the tech needs to catch up with
the possibility.

------
oldgun
Too sad about this. Wish him a good start somewhere else and build equally
amazing products.

------
jw2013
Can anybody tell me what company he is starting? From the article it seems
vague and probably he does not even have a specific idea yet. Would love to
join if the plan is more specific.

~~~
arfliw
It's obviously not a "company" yet. Shoot him an email and ask what his plans
are.

------
itazula
I know that complaining about tone is low on Paul Graham's hierarchy of
disagreement, but "I'm telling you this because I think stealth mode is
bullshit" doesn't exactly win me over. I'm glad my dog doesn't talk that way
to me.

~~~
nkohari
I'm no expert, but if your dog is talking to you, you may have bigger problems
than the tone in an open letter from Tom Preston-Werner.

~~~
itazula
I'll play it safe, and make sure he doesn't read that letter. ;-)

------
calibraxis
> _we are prepared to fight any further false claims on this matter to the
> full extent of the law._

You'll "strive to do better"? Maybe cut down on the legal threats against
subordinates who speak out against you...

> _The results of GitHub 's independent investigation unequivocally confirm
> this_

Do bosses know how employees with critical-thinking skills perceive such
claims? (In my experience: with contempt.)

> _I 'm also insanely excited about the future._

Like Tom Cruise? Pathologically happy in situations where sane people would be
rather bummed, perhaps self-critical or contemplative?

------
awnird
Will his wife also have access to private servers at his new company?

~~~
imbriaco
She didn't have access to private servers at his old company. Please stop
making up things like this that have no basis in reality.

------
rrggrr
"I tried to treat people better than they expected"

Is it me or does this sound horribly arrogant?

~~~
swombat
Doesn't sound arrogant to me either. It's a bit like saying "I tried to exceed
my customers' expectations"... in fact, it means exactly that...

------
mundanevoice
If you haven't read already, check this:
[https://medium.com/p/d96f431f4e8e](https://medium.com/p/d96f431f4e8e)

She did a lot of wrong things:

\- Dating a coworker is not one of the best practise.

\- gossiping around about your co-workers/founders character is the also not
the best thing to do.

\- If you write shit code, your code will be removed. She is definitely not
known for her coding abilities. She is just a melodrama queen who is bad at
heart, opportunist, blackmailed founder to poison the company atmosphere.

\- You can create a healthy workspace shouting "Women Women" every time. We
work with women too. Our behaviour and respect is based on compassion and
professionalism. They are just like any other person in the company.

\- The real story must have been that she is a bad/mediocre developer who was
being reviewed which didn't turned out pretty well (Obv since she was busy
bitching against coworkers). The only good way she had to abuse and insult the
company publically , get sympathy and then a Job. She seems to have good PR
skills. (Pun intended)

Again, here are some of her recent tweets:

[https://twitter.com/nrrrdcore/status/458347574672388096](https://twitter.com/nrrrdcore/status/458347574672388096)
[https://twitter.com/nrrrdcore/status/458345005866696704](https://twitter.com/nrrrdcore/status/458345005866696704)

