5 ms·

Planet Calacanis

76 points by blasdel 17y ago

ajg1977 17y ago
Is it just me or has Hacker News started to become an echo chamber for debating internet meme's that are largely pointless and contain nothing of substance?
- TomOfTTB 17y ago
  The problem is "Internet Memes" are basically opinion pieces and opinion pieces, by their nature, inspire an emotional response from the reader. That makes the reader more likely to vote and/or comment on an opinion piece. As opposed to what you'd call the "Content Posts" like...for example...a great tutorial. I hate to be a back seat webmaster but the time might be coming where HN has to split the Internet Memes and the Content Posts just to keep the later from being overrun completely (which is basically where we are now)
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    I think there are simpler ways to achieve that goal. A one line filter rule in the profile would do nicely.
- pg 17y ago
  We've gone to the dogs in just the 38 days you've had your account? Sundays are always the slowest news days.
  - ajg1977 17y ago
    new account, yes :(
- nudded 17y ago
  As of now this article has received 62 upvotes, so i guess some people liked it enough to upvote it. I actually liked this article just because it contains more truth than "The case against apple". I don't understand why everybody reacted to "The case against apple" with agreement and now they decide that a counterpost is pointless. If you didn't like the article, please just ignore it instead of posting a comment like that.
- Hexstream 17y ago
  "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." -Eleanor Roosevelt There's certainly too much discussing people lately...
jsz0 17y ago
The whole question of alternative web browsers on the iPhone is lacking in reality. FireFox's mobile project is in the alpha/beta stage at best. Google's browser is based on WebKit so not much point there. Microsoft can't even produce a decent version of Mobile IE on their own platform. What does that leave? Opera? When we see real mobile browser competition on open platforms this might be a valid argument but today WebKit is, by far, the best mobile browser out there.
- omouse 17y ago
  With over 120 million shipped installations since 2004, Opera Mobile is the proven solution for full Web browsing on mobile devices. http://www.opera.com/mobile/ http://www.opera.com/mobile/ It runs on multiple devices, like the Nintendo DS, and other non-smartphone mobile devices.
  - blasdel 17y ago
    Mobile Safari has shipped on over 40 million devices since mid-2007 It totally dominates all other mobile browsers in real-world stats -- people actually use it, and that's what's important. Opera's piddling marketshare in terms of actual usage (along with their historically odd JS engine, and mobile reformatting proxy) has meant that major players (like Google) totally ignored their browsers for years.
    - omouse 17y ago
      Apple halo is in full effect here obviously. The power of the Apple brand is quite awesome to behold, but it's also very sad to see people trying to tarnish the reputation of competitive products that are, objectively, good.
      - cakesy 17y ago
        Well, the fact is that Apples browser does show up in a significant portion of mobile sites. The stats have been posted all over the place, including here. Can look it up for you if you really don't believe this.
mrkurt 17y ago
I can't decide if the uber drama queens or the Apple apologistas are more annoying right now. I think I'm leaning towards apologistas, though.
- jsz0 17y ago
  That's an easy one. The apologists are saying they like their product just fine. No problem. They accept the limitations/restrictions. The drama queens are, mostly, unwilling to switch to another product that fits their requirements/political views better. I make this assumption based on the constant repeats of the same story over and over again. Someone who was truly upset would have switched to another platform long ago. What's that? None of the competition is as good? Welcome to the real world. You can rarely get exactly what you want. Accept it or man up, pay the $175 early termination fee, and get another product.
- alaskamiller 17y ago
  Yeah, people with opinions are just really annoying.
- blasdel 17y ago
  Marco is by no means an apologist for Apple -- he's written a bunch of posts about the hideously stupid shit they keep pulling with the app store: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amarco.org+app+store http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amarco.org+app+store
  - SirWart 17y ago
    The part that bothered me was this: "And which freedoms? The freedom to break Apple’s DRM? The freedom for Palm to violate the USB spec by identifying the Pre with a different vendor ID?" Palm wasn't actually breaking any DRM, and changing the vendor id was the only way they could make their software inter-operate well. I understand that Palm and Apple are huge competitors, but very rarely do people defend such blatant attempts at platform lock-in. I wouldn't call him a apologist, but it definitely feels reactionary to Calacanis's points.
pj 17y ago
Apple lost the personal computer war (EDIT: of the 1980's) because of its proprietary hardware created under the leadership of Steve Jobs. Not letting anyone else make a computer that would run MacOS was a big mistake for them. I don't see anything new or shocking in the behavior with the iPhone or ipod, either from Apple, or the user community who has purchased them. Same song, new day...
- jsz0 17y ago
  Apple only lost the personal computer war if you assume their goal was high volume/low margin market domination. I would argue it was not then and still is not Apple's goal. The iPhone will almost certainly remain only a small subset of the overall SmartPhone market however it will remain one of the best and make Apple more money than companies with larger market shares of the SmartPhone market. So I'd agree this is a repeat of what has happened in the past but I wouldn't call it a mistake. I think Jobs knows exactly what his company is good at doing.
  - m_eiman 17y ago
    This video of Jobs talking about NeXT's target customers is interesting here, and I'd say that the target demographic hasn't changed very much since then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dmcRbuTMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dmcRbuTMY
  - ZachPruckowski 17y ago
    If we're talking about the '80s and '90s, there can be no real question that Apple screwed up badly. How and why are still legitimate questions, but the only reason Apple lasted until OS X was because Microsoft needed them as a token competitor. They were constantly on Death's doorstep, and I don't doubt that if MS wasn't under anti-trust watch, they could have finished Apple off then. If we're talking 2000s, then that's a totally different story.
- rimantas 17y ago
  I would not call making record profits in the same quarter when others report loses the lost war. Unless you are talking about market share. Apple indeed does sing the same song, only it is: "we choose profits over market share".
socratees 17y ago
Right On. Nice article.
onreact-com 17y ago
Calacanis is an agent provocateur and the people fall each time for it. Just remember a few of the idiotic things he said in the past just to get attention and links: # SEO is bullshit # Blogging is dead # Mahalo is Web 3.0 etc. etc. etc.

76 points by blasdel 17y ago

ajg1977 17y ago

Is it just me or has Hacker News started to become an echo chamber for debating internet meme's that are largely pointless and contain nothing of substance?

TomOfTTB 17y ago
The problem is "Internet Memes" are basically opinion pieces and opinion pieces, by their nature, inspire an emotional response from the reader. That makes the reader more likely to vote and/or comment on an opinion piece. As opposed to what you'd call the "Content Posts" like...for example...a great tutorial. I hate to be a back seat webmaster but the time might be coming where HN has to split the Internet Memes and the Content Posts just to keep the later from being overrun completely (which is basically where we are now)
- jacquesm 17y ago
  I think there are simpler ways to achieve that goal. A one line filter rule in the profile would do nicely.
pg 17y ago
We've gone to the dogs in just the 38 days you've had your account? Sundays are always the slowest news days.
- ajg1977 17y ago
  new account, yes :(
nudded 17y ago
As of now this article has received 62 upvotes, so i guess some people liked it enough to upvote it. I actually liked this article just because it contains more truth than "The case against apple". I don't understand why everybody reacted to "The case against apple" with agreement and now they decide that a counterpost is pointless. If you didn't like the article, please just ignore it instead of posting a comment like that.
Hexstream 17y ago
"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." -Eleanor Roosevelt There's certainly too much discussing people lately...

jsz0 17y ago

The whole question of alternative web browsers on the iPhone is lacking in reality. FireFox's mobile project is in the alpha/beta stage at best. Google's browser is based on WebKit so not much point there. Microsoft can't even produce a decent version of Mobile IE on their own platform. What does that leave? Opera? When we see real mobile browser competition on open platforms this might be a valid argument but today WebKit is, by far, the best mobile browser out there.

omouse 17y ago
With over 120 million shipped installations since 2004, Opera Mobile is the proven solution for full Web browsing on mobile devices. http://www.opera.com/mobile/ http://www.opera.com/mobile/ It runs on multiple devices, like the Nintendo DS, and other non-smartphone mobile devices.
- blasdel 17y ago
  Mobile Safari has shipped on over 40 million devices since mid-2007 It totally dominates all other mobile browsers in real-world stats -- people actually use it, and that's what's important. Opera's piddling marketshare in terms of actual usage (along with their historically odd JS engine, and mobile reformatting proxy) has meant that major players (like Google) totally ignored their browsers for years.
  - omouse 17y ago
    Apple halo is in full effect here obviously. The power of the Apple brand is quite awesome to behold, but it's also very sad to see people trying to tarnish the reputation of competitive products that are, objectively, good.
    - cakesy 17y ago
      Well, the fact is that Apples browser does show up in a significant portion of mobile sites. The stats have been posted all over the place, including here. Can look it up for you if you really don't believe this.

mrkurt 17y ago

I can't decide if the uber drama queens or the Apple apologistas are more annoying right now. I think I'm leaning towards apologistas, though.

jsz0 17y ago
That's an easy one. The apologists are saying they like their product just fine. No problem. They accept the limitations/restrictions. The drama queens are, mostly, unwilling to switch to another product that fits their requirements/political views better. I make this assumption based on the constant repeats of the same story over and over again. Someone who was truly upset would have switched to another platform long ago. What's that? None of the competition is as good? Welcome to the real world. You can rarely get exactly what you want. Accept it or man up, pay the $175 early termination fee, and get another product.
alaskamiller 17y ago
Yeah, people with opinions are just really annoying.
blasdel 17y ago
Marco is by no means an apologist for Apple -- he's written a bunch of posts about the hideously stupid shit they keep pulling with the app store: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amarco.org+app+store http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amarco.org+app+store
- SirWart 17y ago
  The part that bothered me was this: "And which freedoms? The freedom to break Apple’s DRM? The freedom for Palm to violate the USB spec by identifying the Pre with a different vendor ID?" Palm wasn't actually breaking any DRM, and changing the vendor id was the only way they could make their software inter-operate well. I understand that Palm and Apple are huge competitors, but very rarely do people defend such blatant attempts at platform lock-in. I wouldn't call him a apologist, but it definitely feels reactionary to Calacanis's points.

pj 17y ago

Apple lost the personal computer war (EDIT: of the 1980's) because of its proprietary hardware created under the leadership of Steve Jobs. Not letting anyone else make a computer that would run MacOS was a big mistake for them. I don't see anything new or shocking in the behavior with the iPhone or ipod, either from Apple, or the user community who has purchased them. Same song, new day...

jsz0 17y ago
Apple only lost the personal computer war if you assume their goal was high volume/low margin market domination. I would argue it was not then and still is not Apple's goal. The iPhone will almost certainly remain only a small subset of the overall SmartPhone market however it will remain one of the best and make Apple more money than companies with larger market shares of the SmartPhone market. So I'd agree this is a repeat of what has happened in the past but I wouldn't call it a mistake. I think Jobs knows exactly what his company is good at doing.
- m_eiman 17y ago
  This video of Jobs talking about NeXT's target customers is interesting here, and I'd say that the target demographic hasn't changed very much since then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dmcRbuTMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dmcRbuTMY
- ZachPruckowski 17y ago
  If we're talking about the '80s and '90s, there can be no real question that Apple screwed up badly. How and why are still legitimate questions, but the only reason Apple lasted until OS X was because Microsoft needed them as a token competitor. They were constantly on Death's doorstep, and I don't doubt that if MS wasn't under anti-trust watch, they could have finished Apple off then. If we're talking 2000s, then that's a totally different story.
rimantas 17y ago
I would not call making record profits in the same quarter when others report loses the lost war. Unless you are talking about market share. Apple indeed does sing the same song, only it is: "we choose profits over market share".

socratees 17y ago

Right On. Nice article.

onreact-com 17y ago

Calacanis is an agent provocateur and the people fall each time for it. Just remember a few of the idiotic things he said in the past just to get attention and links: # SEO is bullshit # Blogging is dead # Mahalo is Web 3.0 etc. etc. etc.