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Random Generator Parodies Vapid Startup Websites

alphadogg writes: A pair of Georgia Tech computer science students have created a Random Startup Website Generator that spits out a different jargon-laden startup website every time you click on the URL. Mike Bradley and Tiffany Zhang's project "serves as a parody of startups that have websites full of vague praise and little information about their actual business, often because they have little to show in that regard."

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. What has happened to Silicon Valley? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What has happened to Silicon Valley? As recently as a few decades ago, it was a hotbed for innovation. I'm not talking about innovation like how to force advertisements on more unwilling victims. I'm talking about innovations like the creation of the microprocessor, the invention of computer networking, and real innovation like that. We saw companies that created products that truly revolutionized the world in ways that we couldn't have imagined just a few years earlier. Silicon Valley was a magnificent place, with magnificent people that did magnificent things. Now what is it? It's no longer about real innovation. It's a place that's rife with hipsters pushing hype. It's a place where being trendy matters more than really making the world a better place. It's just so astounding to see how Silicon Valley has gone from a historic center of scientific discovery and real technological innovation into a cesspit of marketing-driven shenanigans masquerading as innovation.

  2. Re:Are we sure these are parodies? by KermodeBear · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, it's pretty amazing. It reminds me of so many "Web 3.0 Hipster Startups" that bastardize a word and make some kind of vague hand-wavey promise by using a buzzowrd or two and adding "in the cloud".

    Ugh. The modern tech industry makes me want to puke. Maybe I'm getting too old for this...

    --
    Love sees no species.
  3. Re:And yet, data shows you're just wrong by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When people talk about 'innovation in aviation', I don't think they mean 'stuffing more people into smaller seats'.

    I'd imagine easy money is the big problem. Why spend time inventing something actually useful, when a VC will lend you millions of dollars to build some new hipster site that you can sell to pension funds for a billion dollars.

  4. Re:ROTFL! by popo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least now perhaps we can put to rest some of these awful trends in web design:

    - Oversized graphics that require excessive scrolling.

    - Parallax silliness (Because we can)

    - Round bio photos (Because Apple, that's why)

    - Giant "flat design" icons that add zero value

    - The full-screen expanded "hero" div which is basically this decade's "title screen". (Seriously, title screens suck. Why is one that requires slowly 'scrolling' past -

    - better than one that one clicks past?)

    - The giant quote. Does this need to fill up 1/3 of my screen? Why?

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  5. Re:ROTFL! by ericloewe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You forgot infinitely-scrolling websites that never destroy any of the shit that now lies the equivalent of 20 pages up.