toni.org
Open in
urlscan Pro
192.0.78.24
Public Scan
Submitted URL: http://www.toni.org/
Effective URL: https://toni.org/
Submission: On November 02 via api from US — Scanned from DE
Effective URL: https://toni.org/
Submission: On November 02 via api from US — Scanned from DE
Form analysis 3 forms found in the DOM
POST https://subscribe.wordpress.com
<form action="https://subscribe.wordpress.com" method="post" accept-charset="utf-8" id="subscribe-blog">
<p id="subscribe-email">
<label id="subscribe-field-label" for="subscribe-field" class="screen-reader-text"> Email Address: </label>
<input type="email" name="email" style="width: 95%; padding: 1px 10px" placeholder="Email Address" value="" id="subscribe-field">
</p>
<p id="subscribe-submit">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="subscribe">
<input type="hidden" name="blog_id" value="145">
<input type="hidden" name="source" value="https://toni.org/">
<input type="hidden" name="sub-type" value="widget">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect_fragment" value="subscribe-blog">
<input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="9769410418"> <button type="submit" class="wp-block-button__link"> Subscribe </button>
</p>
</form>POST https://subscribe.wordpress.com
<form method="post" action="https://subscribe.wordpress.com" accept-charset="utf-8" style="display: none;">
<div class="actnbr-follow-count">Join 2,433 other followers</div>
<div>
<input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Enter your email address" class="actnbr-email-field" aria-label="Enter your email address">
</div>
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="subscribe">
<input type="hidden" name="blog_id" value="145">
<input type="hidden" name="source" value="https://toni.org/">
<input type="hidden" name="sub-type" value="actionbar-follow">
<input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="9769410418">
<div class="actnbr-button-wrap">
<button type="submit" value="Sign me up"> Sign me up </button>
</div>
</form><form id="jp-carousel-comment-form">
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" class="screen-reader-text">Write a Comment...</label>
<textarea name="comment" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-textarea" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" placeholder="Write a Comment..."></textarea>
<div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-submit-and-info-wrapper">
<div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-commenting-as">
<fieldset>
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">Email (Required)</label>
<input type="text" name="email" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">Name (Required)</label>
<input type="text" name="author" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">Website</label>
<input type="text" name="url" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">
</fieldset>
</div>
<input type="submit" name="submit" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-button" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-button-submit" value="Post Comment">
</div>
</form>Text Content
Skip to the content
TONI.ORG
Toni Schneider's blog
Menu
* Home
* About
* Extras
* Cars
* WordPress
* RABIUSLA
* Uplister
* A3D
* VR
Close Menu
* Home
* About
* ExtrasShow sub menu
* Cars
* WordPress
* RABIUSLA
* Uplister
* A3D
* VR
Categories
Random
WELCOME
* Post author By Toni
* Post date June 2020
* Sticky post
Hi. I’ve had this blog since 2005. Popular posts from over the years:
– Five Reasons Why Your Company Should Be Distributed: A pitch for why
distributed, or remote, teams are great.
– The Perfect Startup: Can a large company be as fun as a startup?
– When A Company Grows But The Office Shrinks: The story of how Automattic
decided to shutter its San Francisco headquarters.
– In Praise Of Continuous Deployment: A new way of making software (from the
early days of WordPress.com).
– A New CEO For Automattic: Notes on my transition from CEO to team lead at
Automattic.
– 8 Tips For A Great Company Meetup: Best practices learned from organizing 9
company meetups.
– Open Source vs Open APIs: How “openness” impacts both software development and
business development.
– On The Future Of Work: Another version of why distributed/remote teams make a
lot of sense.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
OLD CAR RACING PHOTOS
* Post author By Toni
* Post date January 2021
* 3 Comments on Old Car Racing Photos
My niece is scanning old family slides and discovered a stash of cool old car
racing photos that my dad must have taken sometime in the 1960s in Switzerland:
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
A CHILDHOOD MEMORY, REVISITED
* Post author By Toni
* Post date December 2020
* 3 Comments on A childhood memory, revisited
When I was a little boy in Switzerland, maybe 5 or 6 years old, my dad took me
to visit the studio of a well known local artist. Her name was Ursula Schneider
(no relation), and I remember being impressed and excited after meeting her. She
was a ceramic artist and her studio was called RABIUSLA. A couple of months ago,
over 40 years after that studio visit, I suddenly got the urge to follow up and
learn more. I found Ursula’s daughter, also named Ursula, on the web and reached
out. She was very nice and recommended that I talk to her brother Andreas. He
turned out to be charming and funny, and he told me the fascinating story behind
RABIUSLA. I wrote it down along with images of the work: RABIUSLA.
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
ARE YOUR REMOTE TEAM MEMBERS GOOFING OFF?
* Post author By Toni
* Post date July 2020
* 1 Comment on Are your remote team members goofing off?
I worked for a distributed company with hundreds of remote workers around the
world for 10 years. The question I was consistently asked the most from people
outside the company, especially in the beginning: “How do you make sure people
are working instead of goofing off at home?” The question was misaligned with my
actual experience. The team wasn’t goofing off – they were working. Remote team
members are always at “work” due to the nature of most remote work environments
and, if anything, have to be encouraged to set boundaries and take time off. In
my opinion, what people were really asking about boils down to this: trust.
Continue reading “Are your remote team members goofing off?”
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
MAKING THE INTERNET WEIRD AGAIN
* Post author By Toni
* Post date March 2020
* 2 Comments on Making the internet weird again
Some of these quarantine home videos are delightful and remind me of the early
days of the internet when people didn’t care so much about looking professional
or monetizing their content:
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
BOSE FRAMES
* Post author By Toni
* Post date January 2019
* 1 Comment on Bose Frames
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten excited by a gadget, but I’m really enjoying
these Bose Frames I got a few days ago.
They look and feel like regular sunglasses, same weight, nice enough materials,
and the feeling of using headphones by simply slipping glasses on and off is
surprisingly fun. I find it nicer than dealing with putting headphones in and
out of my ears, carrying them in my pockets, etc. The audio quality is good even
though nothing touches your ears and the microphones are OK. Plus it’s nice to
be listening to something while also being able to hear the world around you and
having conversations without any awkward headphone fumbling. I’ve not found any
apps yet that support the AR features (orientation sensors) so those might be a
cool bonus.
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
THE PERFECT STARTUP
* Post author By Toni
* Post date May 2018
* 3 Comments on The Perfect Startup
People in startups often talk about how much fun it was during the early days,
when everyone was on the same page and things moved quickly. Can the speed and
simplicity of that early, perfect-startup moment be retained as companies grow?
Early days at Automattic
During those early days, a startup team is usually around a dozen people in
size. Most team members are engineers and designers, at work on the first
product. There are usually also one or two generalists, taking care of early
marketing and operational needs. It’s when startups grow beyond that stage that
they often hit one or more of these growing pains:
Continue reading “The Perfect Startup”
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
MAGICAL STREETS IN SAN FRANCISCO
* Post author By Toni
* Post date April 2018
* No Comments on Magical streets in San Francisco
I was recently asked for neighborhood tips by someone who is moving to SF. Here
are some of my favorite spots – beautiful, livable streets near parks and good
restaurants:
Cole Valley, Belvedere St:
Telegraph Hill, Filbert Steps:
Continue reading “Magical streets in San Francisco”
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
WHEN A COMPANY GROWS, BUT THE OFFICE SHRINKS
* Post author By Toni
* Post date May 2017
* 7 Comments on When a company grows, but the office shrinks
Automattic, a distributed company with over 500 people, is moving out of our San
Francisco offices. Why?
The story begins in late 2011. Automattic had about 100 employees with 15 of us
in the San Francisco Bay Area and the rest spread around the world. We had a
small office in San Francisco’s Pier 38 that we used for Bay Area employees,
various visitors, and WordPress events. Then we, along with dozens of other
startups, got evicted by the San Francisco Port Authority and started looking
for a new space. Since 15% of our company was Bay Area based and we were
planning to grow to 500+ people over the next 5 years, we decided we needed
space for about 75-100 people. We ended up leasing a 14k square foot warehouse
in the SOMA area of San Francisco and renovated it into a fantastic space for
both co-working and events.
Then something unexpected happened.
Automattic did indeed grow to over 500 employees, but the number of Bay Area
based employees never got above the 20-30 range. The company scaled beautifully,
yet we never needed all that new headquarter office space. We did use it for
many events, including a week long all-company get-together in 2013, but in
terms of co-working we never came close to growing into it. So when the time
came to renew our lease, we opted out and will move out soon. We might try a
co-working space next or find a much smaller office, more like our old Pier 38
space.
Continue reading “When a company grows, but the office shrinks”
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
WHY I THINK “MARKETPLACES” ARE NOT JUST SOFTWARE, BUT A HUMAN OPPORTUNITY
* Post author By Toni
* Post date February 2017
* 7 Comments on Why I think “Marketplaces” are not just software, but a
human opportunity
Many people are worried that software automates human jobs out of existence. But
not all software is like that. There are software businesses that have created
many thousands of new jobs, and not just jobs at software companies, but new,
independent jobs for people all over the world. These businesses use software to
create marketplaces, and on those marketplaces sellers of goods and services can
thrive: Hundreds of thousands of small businesses who sell on eBay or Etsy, tens
of thousands of bands who sell music and merchandise on Bandcamp, tens of
thousands of designers who sell web site designs on WordPress, to name a few.
This is software used for a great purpose, to attract a large group of buyers
and then open up that aggregated buying power to third party vendors instead of
keeping it all to yourself. It’s the digital equivalent of using the town center
to open a farmers market instead of a box store.
Let me dig into WordPress as an example because I know it well. WordPress helps
people create and run web sites and currently powers over 27% of all sites on
the internet. The design, building, and hosting of all those millions of sites
has created tens of thousands of jobs for WordPress consultants and businesses –
good jobs that pay well and can be held anywhere. Those jobs exist because
WordPress is an open platform designed to let anyone participate and offer their
services. The software itself is not that different from other web site tools –
Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, they all offer features similar to WordPress – but
none of them have created so many jobs. Some have tried. Blogger gives site
owners a cut when showing Google Ads. Wix has some third party plugins. But
those are not true marketplaces, they are just add-ons designed to boost the
host’s core revenues – a digital share cropping arrangement that does not lead
to independent jobs and businesses.
There is nothing inherent in all software that automates and kills jobs, it’s
the business model that we choose to sell that software that dictates how the
money flows and which services get valued and paid for. In my capacity as an
investor at True Ventures, I love meeting entrepreneurs who want to pursue
building marketplace businesses. If you have a seed stage startup with an open,
marketplace-based business model, I’d love to talk to you to learn more about
it.
Photo credit: CC by SMcGarnigle
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
360 PHOTOS
* Post author By Toni
* Post date December 2016
* 2 Comments on 360 Photos
Now that WordPress.com supports VR content, I can show you some of the 360
snapshots I’ve taken with my Ricoh Theta camera:
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
COMPARING THE VIVE TO THE RIFT
* Post author By Toni
* Post date June 2016
* 9 Comments on Comparing the Vive to the Rift
I’m a big Virtual Reality fan and have had the opportunity to try out many VR
systems, including the two best ones currently on the market, the HTC
Vive and the Oculus Rift. Here’s my review:
tl;dr: They’re both great and deliver a compelling experience far ahead of
everyone else. Graphics are strong on both devices, the Rift has better sound
and ergonomics, the Vive has better tracking and controllers. In the end, the
Vive is slightly more exciting because tracking your body’s motion is the key to
VR, but you can’t go wrong with either device.
Continue reading “Comparing the Vive to the Rift”
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
TINKER IN SEATTLE
* Post author By Toni
* Post date May 2016
* No Comments on Tinker in Seattle
Joen made a fun Mesh of the Tinker meetup in Seattle:
https://me.sh/19vdob3v
Update: Marcus made one too!
https://me.sh/x3m9vd6
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
TO MY SOPHIE
* Post author By Toni
* Post date May 2016
* 1 Comment on To my Sophie
Today was a big day. My daughter Sophie is all grown up and has moved out of our
home and on to great new adventures in London and NYC. Sophie – it was so hard
to see you leave through that airport gate, so many memories of your childhood
and of becoming a parent came rushing in, yet I’m also so very proud and excited
to see what you do next! Love always, Dad.
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
.BLOG IS HAPPENING
* Post author By Toni
* Post date May 2016
* 2 Comments on .blog is happening
Big news today from Automattic: .blog domains will soon be available to the
world. This project has been years in the making – congratulations to the whole
team behind it! More background info on WordPress.com News.
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Categories
Random
REAL TIME 3D AUDIO IS BACK
* Post author By Toni
* Post date May 2016
* No Comments on Real time 3D audio is back
It’s been exciting to see/hear new 3D audio technologies as part of the surge of
interest on VR. This one sounds great and for me brings back great memories – I
got to work on similar systems early in my career:
LIKE THIS:
Like Loading...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POSTS NAVIGATION
← Newer Posts1 2 … 24 Older Posts →
Older posts
FOLLOW ME
Email Address:
Subscribe
Join 2,433 other followers
© 2022 Toni.org
Blog at WordPress.com.
To the top ↑ Up ↑
* Follow Following
* Toni.org
Join 2,433 other followers
Sign me up
* Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
* * Toni.org
* Customize
* Follow Following
* Sign up
* Log in
* Report this content
* View site in Reader
* Manage subscriptions
* Collapse this bar
Loading Comments...
Write a Comment...
Email (Required) Name (Required) Website
%d bloggers like this: