Today: Google, Etsy, Apple + all sold out

1. 7 user research myths and mistakes An engineer might say, "We don't have to do user testing. We have metrics!" Designers, on the other hand, say, "Why would we A/B test this design? We know it's better." In the debate over whether to use qualitative or quantitative research methods, there is plenty of wrong to go around. Laura Klein examines some of the myths surrounding qualitative and quantitative research, and the most common mistakes people make when trying to use them. 2. The haves and have-nots More than half of the world's population still doesn't have Internet access, and for those who do, there's still a long way to go to make it cheap, fast, and useful. Ily Grigorik reminds us of the challenges of getting people online and shares Internet.org's annual State of Connectivity report. 3. Sold out...and some good news That's all, folks. The first batch of lowest-priced tickets for Velocity is completely sold out. And now for the good news... the demand has been so great, we've set aside just 75 more tickets at our lowest price, good until Monday, March 9 at midnight PT. Get the lowest price → 4. System stats as a JSON REST API It's mostly a toy at this point, says Erick Rafaloff, a work in progress: a simple API for querying a server about the stats you're interested in. No more, no less. What you do with that data is up to you. 5. Culture eats strategy for lunch Strategy is important. But not as important as culture, says Terry Jones, Travelocity.com founder and digital disruptor. He expounds on a few of the ways that Travelocity supports innovation through culture, including breeding conflict in their culture and remembering the team in the weeds. Apparently it's an important strategy for them. 6. Making users awesome Kathy Sierra is back and her new book, Badass, is teaching you how to shift your focus from making an awesome product to making an awesome user of that product. Using techniques typically overlooked by even the most well-funded, well-staffed product teams, everyone on your team—product development, engineering, marketing, user experience, customer support—can contribute to making your users awesome. Read a free excerpt → 7. Apple's web Apple simply does not play well with other vendors when it comes to standardization, writes Tim Kadlec. Nor do they play well with developers. According to Kadlec: we need something to change here. And he's not optimistic. 8. Gender bias, gender quotas JennyDevOps recently asked some questions about gender quotas in the workplace. Are they a good way to encourage more women in IT or not? 86% of her readers thought one way, leaving all of us to ask, what is the answer? 9. Work with us Ever wonder what it's like to write a book for O'Reilly, star in an O'Reilly video, or speak at an O'Reilly conference? No one says it better than the people who are already doing it. Tim O'Reilly has some good things to say about the subject, too. Watch the video → 10. Etsy goes public Etsy filed its form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 6, kicking off the process for raising $100 million in an initial public offering and a debut on the Nasdaq. 11. Mobile-friendliness as a Google ranking signal Google has been experimenting with mobile-friendly factors, pushing mobile-friendly labels in their search results, and releasing tools and reports aimed at encouraging web developers to go mobile-friendly. It comes as no surprise then that mobile-friendly will be a ranking factor in the near future. 12. Developing CareerOps The ShipShow team talks about career development in a DevOps context. Joined by Katherine Daniels (aka @beerops), they look at all things related to leveling up your career.