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Top U.S. Tech Cities
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Jan 05, 2007 06:30 PM
from the very-scientific dept.
from the very-scientific dept.
srizah writes "Wired.com claims to have used a 'scientific methodology' to rate the top 10 tech towns in the US. They use some very reliable indexes, like 'Craigslist postings per capita' or 'Number of attendees at local meetings of dorkbot'. The usual suspects (Seattle, San Francisco) show up on the list, but some might surprise you. From the article: 'Raleigh-Duram - The jocks here may get worked up about college hoops, but the tech set is passionate about Linux distros and Mac-PC holy wars. North Carolina's Triangle is ground zero for Red Hat, SAS Institute, and an IBM center. Bonus: The area hosts two World Beer Festivals a year.'"
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Nothing about Provo/Orem? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Nothing about Provo/Orem? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Nothing about Provo/Orem? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Nothing about Provo/Orem? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Nothing about Provo/Orem? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe to a basement-bound geek who has somehow managed to never discover any pr0n, much less meet a girl in person.
Here's what Mark Twain had to say about mormon chicks:
Parent
"Scientific methodology"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Craigslist rocks (Score:3, Interesting)
I went on Craigslist and found someone in the neighborhood who was advertising free bird cages that he was throwing away. So I emailed the guy and he replied with his address, saying he was leaving for work, but the cages would be out front with the tras
+1 Geek Points (Score:5, Funny)
Well done! But you should have continued and called it the lovebird "handshake" protocol.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What's funny? I just saw a chance to tell my Craigslist lovebird story. Your got your Troll and Overrated [slashdot.org] mods from other people.
Methodology *hiccup* (Score:3, Funny)
Heh, filler (Score:5, Insightful)
They have icons in the article that don't appear in the legend. AUSTIN has a spot for an icon without an icon. Somehow, the Bay Area doesn't have a university rating, even though it has Stanford and Cal.
I could go on, but I wasted enough of my time, and yours.
Los Alamos (Score:5, Insightful)
If by tech they only mean CS related stuff, then sure, that list makes sense.
But Los Alamos has some of the smartest and best people and has a lot of "real" tech.
I mean, if particle accelerators, rocket science and weapons tech. don't constitute real technology while AJAX is counted as a technology, I must be missing something.
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Also, they would never name Los Alamos because they are "da war machine". You know how it goes...
"Circuit City sotres per capita"?! (Score:5, Insightful)
- chad
Copy and paste problems? (Score:5, Insightful)
But seriously, RDU shouldn't be a surprise. We have Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC State all within 30 minutes or so from each other, and we have Research Triangle Park [rtp.org] here. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill was a great, cheap place to enjoy the dot-com boom. We've got IBM (10,000+ employees), Cisco, a small MS office, whatever MCI is now (worldcom?), Nortel, Ericsson, Red Hat, and tons and tons of start ups.
Also, UNC-Chapel Hill is home to Sunsite, which became ibiblio [ibiblio.org]. So yeah, it's dork heaven, but without the SF prices.
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Not to mention Network Appliance, EMC, Cree Semiconductor, Glaxo-Smith Kline, BASF, LabCorp, Quintiles, Bayer CropScience, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, the US Environmental Protection Agency Supercomputer Center and the Sanrio Hello Kitty Store at Crabtree Mall.
New ranking method (Score:2)
As for the article, what's the deal with the legend? Are they just trying to create the most confusing display of all time?
RDU (Score:2)
Things I would use to measure techie density... (Score:5, Funny)
* PC boxes per capita
* Bittorrent activity
* Secured wifi networks per capita
* Wikipedia contributors
* Middle-aged men/women with same legal residence as parents
* Slashdot accounts
* Cowboyneal
*...others?
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* Slashdot accounts
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Iceland wins this category, hands down.
Sweden (Thepiratebay.Org!)
Holland (check out the global wireless mapping projects)
Iraq? Until they got blocked.
Italy or Spain. Seriosly.
Mars doesn't appear to have a high techie density but if water is found, all bets are off.
Let's save some time... (Score:4, Insightful)
Carl
Yay, Mad Libs! (Score:4, Funny)
Okay, who's next?
Parent
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Re:Yay, Mad Libs! (Score:4, Funny)
What about Orlando, Florida?! It has UCF!!! Because I live here or went to school here, it MUST be in this list!
Wait.... never mind...
Parent
Washington DC may have made the list... (Score:2)
Please save us?
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who sponsored the study? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is Circuit City really sponsoring this? I'd have thought they'd have chosen Fry's, instead, for a techie store.
The Portland area actually has both, actually.
And wtf is dorkbot? This seems all about promoting pet projects (or sponsors).
Flabberghasted, Bay Area NOT proximate to schools? (Score:2)
And you have BOTH of them. That seems like a considerable oversight, especially for a tech oriented rag.
A measure of who reads /. might be better... (Score:4, Insightful)
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There are other technologies and sciences out there with far geekier folks (e.g. biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, various kinds of engineering etc.)
The thing about Austin (Score:5, Informative)
While it's clearly true that Austin is surrounded by Texas, that's not actually a downside. Texas has some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen, and the close proximity of many interesting geographical features (Hamilton Pool, Enchanted Rock) is a definite plus for Austin.
Having grown up there, I'd say the actual downside is that Austin is surrounded by Texans.
Re:The thing about Austin (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, Texans aren't worse than people anywhere else. In fact, as long as you're not killing anyone, they're probably more likely to leave you alone and not complain than "sophisticated" Easterners and Californians. Every place has its reputation, but everywhere you get cool people and sucky people. Try to find the cool ones and ignore the others. Life's too short to do otherwise.
-b.
Parent
Re:The thing about Austin (Score:5, Insightful)
In Texas is Houston. Which contains Compaq (HP, now), Woot.com and NASA. Come on, is NASA not techie enough for you? Rice U, medical center and UofH.
San Antonio has the river walk (Beer fest!) and a slew of military bases.
Dallas... well, it had a TV show.
And there ain't nothin' wrong with Texans. Your average Texas redneck will give you the shirt off his back (not that you'd want it), have you over for dinner and offer you a place to stay if you needed it. Who was it that took in all those Katrina evacuees? I'll give you a hint: I didn't see Georgia or even friggin Louisiana stepping up to help out!
Oh, and Texas girls are some of the hottest anywhere. They qualify as Texas as well! Maybe the author doesn't like girls!
Parent
What's wrong with Texas? (Score:3, Insightful)
Inspiration for Slacker, epicenter of the first EFF battle, home to Dell, Whole Foods, and South by Southwest. Not to mention host to the most dorkbot attendees in the country. Only downside: It's surrounded by Texas.
I'm going to have to chime in with the other people who are disagreeing. While it sure is popular to hate on Texas, I'd be willing to be that the vast majority of people who do so have never actually lived here. We've got beautiful landscapes, a low cost-of-living, plenty of space, and three of the top ten largest cities in the US. Yes, the majority of people here consider themselves Republicans, but if you're willing to get past somebody's political views, there are also lots of friendly people. About the only thing I don't like is that the summers get so dang hot.. but the mild winters (unless you live up in the panhandle) make up for it.
Portland OR Metro area (Score:3, Interesting)
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Frigid?? (Score:4, Funny)
Where's the "surprise"? (Score:4, Insightful)
I looked at the list, and in fact it was mostly the usual suspects. I mean everyone knows there is a big tech presence in Raleigh/Durham and Austin. About the only really surprising inclusion is Orlando, and it was the most poorly justified of all of them. Substitute Portland, OR for Orlando on their list and you have basically the conventional wisdom on what the major tech centers in the US are.
Re:Irvine (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Irvine (Score:4, Interesting)
The rule of thumb for me is: if you have to do a U-Turn to get to a business on the left side of the street, I don't want to live or work there.
Irvine does get bonus points for the UC-Irvine mascot being the Anteater, however.
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Too many "planned communities" around there.
Agreed. I'd have to get approval from the homeowners committee to put up an antenna for WiFi. I'd have to stop coding and go out a cut my lawn because the homeowners committee had a meeting last night and decided my grass was too long. The homeowners committee won't let me fly my model helicopter around because it makes too much noise. Forget doing my own car repairs in the driveway...
No way.
About the only advantage Irvine has is lots of bike trails.
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I mean, they talk about the top 10 Tech Towns, but then it is more about where to be a geek than where to find tech. Thus the inclusion of Circuit City Stores (which IMHO don't belong on a Geek list), because "geeks shop there". Also look at the inclusion of Comic book shops, personal ads, and Dorkbot.
Sorry, but I thought this was a list of top Tech towns. But it is a list of top geek towns, and as a resident of Austin, I am emba