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The QA is really interesting. Most of the questions I felt he handled well and showed that he has knowledge of the domain. Two questions in particular stood out

The QA is really interesting. Most of the questions I felt he handled well and showed that he has knowledge of the domain. Two questions in particular stood out: Q: How can I, as a developer, get my hands on the expensive software suite? A: Come talk to us. We can accommodate developers who are willing. This may have been some early input for him to think about sdks and the philosophy of providing developers with tools early on. Q: What is your view of transactions on the web? A: We don't think it's a technology problem. It's more of a social/business problem He was clearly wrong on this one, with the advent of cutting edge technology companies like PayPal and Stripe that followed.

X-Istence 12y ago
I don't see how he was wrong. Transactions on the web exist, there are improvements to the UI but it is a social problem (I am afraid of my credit card being stolen) and business problem (Don't worry, trust us we won't let anything bad happen to your credit card).
- takahisah 12y ago
  He made it sound as though it is technologically trivial, as long as society and businesses would get behind the movement. I don't think that is the case from a security standpoint and also designing an api that would allow for widespread adoption.
  - threeseed 12y ago
    > He made it sound as though it is technologically trivial This is a guy who built three operating systems and countless revolutionary apps under his watch. Many of which given the constraints back in the day would've been incredibly complex. By comparison web transactions IS trivial.
Tycho 12y ago
Hmm I was more impressed by PayPal's business tenacity than with their technical ingenuity. Along with the entrenched credit card companies they had to deal with fraud and organized crime.
codeulike 12y ago
He was clearly wrong on this one No, he was right. In 1996 people were just scared of using their cards online. No one big was doing it yet, consumers didn't trust anything about the end-to-end process. There are more risks now than there were then, if anything (given how many trojans and hackers there are targeting cards now), but people are used to it now. Paypal didn't bring any particularly new technology, they just bought confidence and bigness.

X-Istence 12y ago

I don't see how he was wrong. Transactions on the web exist, there are improvements to the UI but it is a social problem (I am afraid of my credit card being stolen) and business problem (Don't worry, trust us we won't let anything bad happen to your credit card).

takahisah 12y ago
He made it sound as though it is technologically trivial, as long as society and businesses would get behind the movement. I don't think that is the case from a security standpoint and also designing an api that would allow for widespread adoption.
- threeseed 12y ago
  > He made it sound as though it is technologically trivial This is a guy who built three operating systems and countless revolutionary apps under his watch. Many of which given the constraints back in the day would've been incredibly complex. By comparison web transactions IS trivial.

Tycho 12y ago

Hmm I was more impressed by PayPal's business tenacity than with their technical ingenuity. Along with the entrenched credit card companies they had to deal with fraud and organized crime.

codeulike 12y ago

He was clearly wrong on this one No, he was right. In 1996 people were just scared of using their cards online. No one big was doing it yet, consumers didn't trust anything about the end-to-end process. There are more risks now than there were then, if anything (given how many trojans and hackers there are targeting cards now), but people are used to it now. Paypal didn't bring any particularly new technology, they just bought confidence and bigness.