Don't most users associate periodic software updates to be a sign of a good thing? Wouldn't that be one very good, solid argument against use of IE (i.e. dead application that hasn't seen any improvements other than security patches in last.... 1-2-3 years)?
The references page does not mention Coral Plantation, but that is the first thing that came to mind when I read how this works.
Isn't this easy-to-assemble system now going to be used for Coral Plantations? I'm not sure what I think about that yet, but it's probably better than to have people kill coral reefs.
How about something more meaningful than 'the biggest marketing company'? How about taking all that money and being the leader among big companies with loads of money by showing that being big and powerful does not need to turn you into a monster. How about that?
I wonder if Google, but virtue of leaving certain portions of their systems open and accessible in a variety of ways, is really creating a large legion of creative and technical individuals who, without maybe even realizing, are working for Google for free, creating software like GMail notifier.
Even if Google cannot directly adopt somebody else's work, they certainly get a pile of high-quality ideas from 'the Lazy Web', which they can then use to direct their internal development.
Google is really playing this game so so so well, and it goes far beyong their technical PhDs.
If you think about it, this is much like the openness of Linux - does any OS out there have so many developers working on it 24/7? Nope.
Disk space is cheap. When you give users 2GB of disk space, they don't really use it all up. The disk space is not pre-allocated and immediately consumed. Thus, 2GB is really more about users' perception of Hotmail's offering, and this positive perception comes at a low price (again: disk space is cheap)
On the other hand, it costs a lot to pay a few dozen developers to add valuable, innovative new features, such as GMail's labels. It also costs a lot of money to market Hotmail, to evangelize and to hype it, which is what people are doing with/for GMail for 'free'.
In conclusion, it's easy and not that expensive to just throw 'we offer 2GB' on the site, but it is expensive to add features and market the service.
Of course they wanted to see green next to GOOG at the end of the day, and not red. Imagine where they would go in the days to come, had they ended in red! Google definitely plays their business, financial, and engineering games with human psychology in mind, and they play it so well, they are always taken as 'the good guys'.
Here I am refusing plastic bags in stores, refusing to buy milk in plastic bottles, minimizing air conditioner use, hating myself for using a gas-powered outboard motor, trying to be nice to the environment in every way I can, and here we have businesses mass-producing disposable digital cameras.
I thought everyone already knew that disposable stuff is baaaaad.
I wonder what Wi-fi will do to us, since all of us are going to be surrounded by it more and more. Here is what Google thinks about +wi-fi +cancer. And then there is Bluetooth...
Are we also going to start lower-casing acronyms? It seems that everything that requires a bit more thinking or complexity, even if it's trivial, gets simplified. That is why we no longer have beautiful architecture, furniture, et cetera with ornaments, but rather super-simple, utilitarian everything. Lame.
I thought Flash memory suffered from a limited/short life time, that you could read/write to it only so many times, after which you can pretty much say bye-bye to your memory. How are these disks going to work then?
I think this is a prime example of 'The Return of the Bubble'. Yahoo buying Outpost, Microsoft buying Lookout, EBay getting 25% of a 14-people, $25M/year business... where do yo uwant to go today? Your trading account site, I suggest.
So if you leave the front door of your house open (by mistake or on purpose), it is okay for anyone to come in, check out what you have in the fridge, use your bathroom, etc.?
Incidentally, this is similar to what happened to me yesterday. After hearing the noise coming from the other end of the apartment, I went to check it out and found a stranger in my bathroom. She followed some woman's directions and came to my bathroom, thinking it's a public bathroom, simply because I didn't lock my front door. I was polite, but I showed her the way out. I certainly couldn't just ignore her and let her be, could I?
Ignoring them and allowing them to continue poking systems around them is like letting people attempt robbing banks, shop lift, etc.
Even if you don't manage to rob a bank, but you get caught, you go to jail. Why would syber laws have to be different? Don't touch my server! Don't scan my ports!
Note one cool Simpy tool that not many sites have (certainly no bookmarking sites that I know of) - Mozilla search plugin - here (requires login). It's got a handy side panel, too, but that is more common. Of course, browser integration is done with bookmarlets, so pretty much all browsers should work.
If it does, then Simpy is definitely a superior online replacement for bookmarks (really more than bookmarks, but let's keep it at that). Here is a demo and some screen shots.
Who says Python is not good for getting jobs? I know at least 2 places in New York City where you should send your resume, if you are a good Python hacker: http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/ and http://www.divmod.org/ (also.com).
Re:World domination - not a joke, really
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Do they also make virtual boyfriends? I wonder which one would sell better...
What are you guys talking about.... what spam?
Don't most users associate periodic software updates to be a sign of a good thing? Wouldn't that be one very good, solid argument against use of IE (i.e. dead application that hasn't seen any improvements other than security patches in last.... 1-2-3 years)?
Does your little sister still use AltaVista, Excite, WebCrawler, or Hotbot or Lycos or Northern Light or WebTop for her web searches?
Most likely not - she has switched to either Google or AlltheWeb or Teoma or WiseNut. Why wouldn't she switch to a better IM network/client then?
Remember, the only constant is change.
The references page does not mention Coral Plantation, but that is the first thing that came to mind when I read how this works.
Isn't this easy-to-assemble system now going to be used for Coral Plantations? I'm not sure what I think about that yet, but it's probably better than to have people kill coral reefs.
But who says that shareholders can get value only if they are being evil. That is precisely my point. That does not always have to go together.
How about something more meaningful than 'the biggest marketing company'? How about taking all that money and being the leader among big companies with loads of money by showing that being big and powerful does not need to turn you into a monster.
How about that?
I wonder if Google, but virtue of leaving certain portions of their systems open and accessible in a variety of ways, is really creating a large legion of creative and technical individuals who, without maybe even realizing, are working for Google for free, creating software like GMail notifier.
Even if Google cannot directly adopt somebody else's work, they certainly get a pile of high-quality ideas from 'the Lazy Web', which they can then use to direct their internal development.
Google is really playing this game so so so well, and it goes far beyong their technical PhDs.
If you think about it, this is much like the openness of Linux - does any OS out there have so many developers working on it 24/7? Nope.
If there's something strange, in your neighbourhood - who're you gonna call?
Ghostbusters, of course!
Precisely. You can think about it like this:
Disk space is cheap. When you give users 2GB of disk space, they don't really use it all up. The disk space is not pre-allocated and immediately consumed. Thus, 2GB is really more about users' perception of Hotmail's offering, and this positive perception comes at a low price (again: disk space is cheap)
On the other hand, it costs a lot to pay a few dozen developers to add valuable, innovative new features, such as GMail's labels.
It also costs a lot of money to market Hotmail, to evangelize and to hype it, which is what people are doing with/for GMail for 'free'.
In conclusion, it's easy and not that expensive to just throw 'we offer 2GB' on the site, but it is expensive to add features and market the service.
Of course they wanted to see green next to GOOG at the end of the day, and not red. Imagine where they would go in the days to come, had they ended in red! Google definitely plays their business, financial, and engineering games with human psychology in mind, and they play it so well, they are always taken as 'the good guys'.
Here I am refusing plastic bags in stores, refusing to buy milk in plastic bottles, minimizing air conditioner use, hating myself for using a gas-powered outboard motor, trying to be nice to the environment in every way I can, and here we have businesses mass-producing disposable digital cameras.
I thought everyone already knew that disposable stuff is baaaaad.
This site will interest most(all?) of Slashdot readers:
http://www.everythingusb.com/
.
I wonder what Wi-fi will do to us, since all of us are going to be surrounded by it more and more. Here is what Google thinks about +wi-fi +cancer. And then there is Bluetooth...
Are we also going to start lower-casing acronyms?
It seems that everything that requires a bit more thinking or complexity, even if it's trivial, gets simplified. That is why we no longer have beautiful architecture, furniture, et cetera with ornaments, but rather super-simple, utilitarian everything.
Lame.
The Cost of Computer Naivete: Priceless
I thought Flash memory suffered from a limited/short life time, that you could read/write to it only so many times, after which you can pretty much say bye-bye to your memory. How are these disks going to work then?
I think this is a prime example of 'The Return of the Bubble'. Yahoo buying Outpost, Microsoft buying Lookout, EBay getting 25% of a 14-people, $25M/year business... where do yo uwant to go today? Your trading account site, I suggest.
So if you leave the front door of your house open (by mistake or on purpose), it is okay for anyone to come in, check out what you have in the fridge, use your bathroom, etc.?
Incidentally, this is similar to what happened to me yesterday. After hearing the noise coming from the other end of the apartment, I went to check it out and found a stranger in my bathroom. She followed some woman's directions and came to my bathroom, thinking it's a public bathroom, simply because I didn't lock my front door. I was polite, but I showed her the way out. I certainly couldn't just ignore her and let her be, could I?
Ignoring them and allowing them to continue poking systems around them is like letting people attempt robbing banks, shop lift, etc.
Even if you don't manage to rob a bank, but you get caught, you go to jail. Why would syber laws have to be different? Don't touch my server! Don't scan my ports!
Note that this interview was done in April - before they filed for IPO.... maybe that makes it a little less difficult for them.
Note one cool Simpy tool that not many sites have (certainly no bookmarking sites that I know of) - Mozilla search plugin - here (requires login). It's got a handy side panel, too, but that is more common. Of course, browser integration is done with bookmarlets, so pretty much all browsers should work.
Does a browser count as a desktop app?
If it does, then Simpy is definitely a superior online replacement for bookmarks (really more than bookmarks, but let's keep it at that). Here is a demo and some screen shots.
Who says Python is not good for getting jobs? I know at least 2 places in New York City where you should send your resume, if you are a good Python hacker: http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/ and http://www.divmod.org/ (also .com).
Can't log into Slashdot? Slashdot must have switched to Windows!