Jaigus

>I just don't like people bashing something without valid reasons

That really doesn't seem to be the case here. Like you, the article's author(and several others here) have had issues with it for their particular use-case, and the reasons are clearly listed in a well organized paragraph by paragraph summary explanation in the article. Others here who've had a similar experience at least stated they had issues with it as well, even if they didn't go into much detail about it.

And speaking of the lack of valid reasons, to be fair, many relatively new technologies like these often get significant praise/hype without many valid reasons as well, other than [X]startup/company is using it, so it should be able to work for me, or it must be an awesome technology to use.

He is a relatively popular programmer so people will still comment on his presentation (even if it is a little redundant at this point). Unsung database veterans like Tony Marston have been saying things like this for years but few people took them seriously.

I agree with you. I took notice of how the backlash was disproportionate as you mentioned, and I believe its because of what I've heard people describe as "racial fatigue" (in this case it's gender). The media is constantly bombarding us with racial issues, and at times even finds ways to racially charge stories that have nothing to do with race. I'm sure the accused party (white people, or Men in general) gets tired of being portrayed as the proverbial villain, so when someone attempts to blow something out of proportion under the banner of sexism(and it turns out to be bullshit), you get this colossal shit storm.

lol, I thought the same thing when reading it. The article seems to imply they're improving their infrastructure for the sake of improving it, though all things considered, strengthening "big brother" might be more of a motivator here.

Yes, the (few) sponsored ads seem no different than any other tweet you wouldn't care about anyway. I for one am quite accustomed to sifting through things this way, the ads don't seem like much of an extra burden, at least to me.

I think this makes sense. Even besides the celebrities on twitter, there are many party promoters, news outlets, bloggers, merchandisers, etc. that use twitter to advertise to their followers, and it provides a far more efficient advertising medium than the alternatives. The service charge for having a huge following would probably be well worth it (perhaps even negligible) to certain major account holders.

For a little perspective: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2173145

They later pivoted into a web app where you submit images for online postcards.

It seems it is the only point in many cases. As an example, consider the vast amount of superfluous twitter-helper apps that were endlessly sprouting up a couple of years ago. I don't think many of them were seriously intending on starting a legitimate business out of a web application that helps twitter users keep track of the followers that didn't follow them back.

I think its just that in certain spheres/communities, certain events or stories have precedence. It should probably be expected for this story to be covered extensively in tech-spheres among some other niches.

An entire major dedicated to this seems pretty superfluous to me. Perhaps a certification, college course, or small specialization option at most (e.g. for journalism or business majors); but an entire major? I feel the students enrolling in this are terribly misled; caught up in the hype :/

Its a nice idea, I'm sure there are tons of people who go unrecognised for what they've done. However, I can't help but think it will make the pseudo celebrity nonsense going on in the tech-sphere an order of magnitude or more worse than its already become. Imagine the collusions that would ensue from certain "news bloggers" and others in the SV cespool with awards in the mix. I remember this little gem: http://www.realdanlyons.com/blog/2012/02/13/hit-men-click-wh...

I've seen showtime do the same thing with Spartacus and Dexter. They've both been on and off netflix multiple times, yet showtime did provide the season premiere for both of these series free of charge on their site. This practice definitely makes good sense, and I'm sure it will start catching on.

I'm not doubting what you say, but I'm interested in how the service went downhill?

>As far as I know, black-majority schools with black teachers (vs. white teachers) don't do any better. Even the ones with more funding than the white-majority schools.

I don't believe white teachers are somehow incapable of teaching black students, but what you state here just isn't true. Harlem Children Zone is a good example of a school that has successfully bridged the academic gap between their students and their more privileged counterparts(from any race).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di0-xN6xc_w

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/opinion/08brooks.html

Wow. I wish more "tech media companies" reported on real tech news like this, instead of all the hyperbole and media gossip of pseudo celebrities in the tech sphere. I feel happy for this woman.

The idea of twitter/facebook not appealing to their users enough may be a bit exaggerated. Yes, facebook/twitter must please their advertisers, however they only have those advertisers paying them because they have many users/subscribers. To keep advertisers coming to them, surely they must keep users happy so they can stay and even hope to attract more?

Now I'm sure having to cater to the advertisers certainly affects the decision making(even a bit adversely at times), however their massive following is essentially what makes them valuable.

I also notice that whenever this idea is challenged, I only see people simply parroting his belabored battle-cry of "catering to the users" without actually giving any concrete examples. I'm not against app.net's idea, I just believe the true novelty of this project is creating a micro-twitter(which can also be created on twitter by simply following certain people) for affluent tech people, and _keeping_ it that way via the subscription fee.

Besides that, I haven't read or heard of anything that they plan to do fundamentally different than twitter. Honestly, even if they do, and it actually proves to be a great feature that users love, I don't see why twitter can't simply copy it and perhaps even make it better.

>While I don't feel Facebook is doomed, this article really lacks meaningful content.

But look at the site its coming from. Most of what they pump out is hyperbole about ycombinator(or some other VC pal of theirs) companies, lacking meaningful content, and it seems they write about their every move, no matter how trivial, from the company's start to end. I remember an article published about Kevin Rose saying he'd "shoot" bad ideas in the head. An entire article, just to tell everyone he wouldn't waste time on bad ideas.

Yes, that type of "cool". Facebook the idea is also pretty cool, but to me, the "coolness" of an AI operated vehicle is simply on another order of magnitude.

I think the UI is cool but sending pictures around doesn't sound "amazing" to me. Besides the fact that you could have still traded pictures via the web without Facebook, a self-driving car AI is on the fringe and can be applied to society in some pretty cool (at least to me) ways that can still make your life easier even though you live in the city.(better trains for one)

Maybe I'm just starting to get old, and the idea of certain elements from all those cheesy movies about the future I watched as a young kid coming true just isn't as "cool" as it used to be.