I have not used Xobni myself, but I think if I have implemented a plug in for Outlook, offered $20M by Microsoft for it, I will take the money and run as fast as I can.
Outlook is a Microsoft product, they have unlimited resources, they understand Outlook itself better than anyone outside. Hey this guys can replicate the plug in really fast time trust me.
I’m a consultant and done stuff for them I know some of the people there; a bunch of really smarts hackers.
Xobni - a waste of money
31–40 of 66 posts
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes they were foolish to turn down the offer, but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might think, IMO. (I can't believe they turned down the offer!)
"but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might think" I think I'll get another opinion about that from someone at Netscape, Lotus, or Corel. Oh, never mind.
Microsoft of the 80s and mid-90s is not the Microsoft of today, is it?
You don't think there's any particular systemtic reason why Apple shipped like 5 releases of OS X in the time it took to create Vista?
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you may have misunderstood my emphasis (my fault). I'm not interested in the grammatical mistakes as such; I'm interested in what happens when I go to read a web page from a source I'm unfamiliar with. Because URLs are pointers, I jump directly to content in medias res with very little context. In the absence of context, other indicators fill the vacuum. In this case, the sloppiness of the writing affected my…
Sorry if my reply came across a bit rough. Naturally, not being a native speaker, I felt a bit irked by it, because I would tend to fall victim to the "spelling mistakes filter" myself. Of course judging by the presentation in general is perfectly valid and natural. Otherwise there would be no web design.
Not at all. I've often thought of how irksome it must be to learn English to a very high level and have one's mistakes judged by unilingual native speakers. My greatest envy of Europeans is how much easier it is to acquire languages over there... almost like it's in the water. Whereas here (I'm in Canada, US even more so) it's like pulling teeth. I've studied a few languages, some of them damn hard, and pretty much every European I meet speaks English 50x better.
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
"but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might think" I think I'll get another opinion about that from someone at Netscape, Lotus, or Corel. Oh, never mind.
Microsoft of the 80s and mid-90s is not the Microsoft of today, is it? You don't think there's any particular systemtic reason why Apple shipped like 5 releases of OS X in the time it took to create Vista?
I wasn't referring to Microsoft's ability to compete with quality. No sane person would argue that.
But I can think of 34 billion reasons why I wouldn't want to be in their crosshairs. And those are 2008 Benjamins.
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry if my reply came across a bit rough. Naturally, not being a native speaker, I felt a bit irked by it, because I would tend to fall victim to the "spelling mistakes filter" myself. Of course judging by the presentation in general is perfectly valid and natural. Otherwise there would be no web design.
Not at all. I've often thought of how irksome it must be to learn English to a very high level and have one's mistakes judged by unilingual native speakers. My greatest envy of Europeans is how much easier it is to acquire languages over there... almost like it's in the water. Whereas here (I'm in Canada, US even more so) it's like pulling teeth. I've studied a few languages, some of them damn hard, and pretty much e…
It is much easier to learn English because most communication is English? Movies, the internet... I am confronted with English every day, whereas for another language (except my native language), I would have to make an effort.
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#36Dear All, as the originator of the blog post that has sparked this thread may I begin by apologising for my sloppy spelling errors on the post, which I've corrected and thanks for highlighting them. However, to correct some of the misunderstandings and prejudices of other contributors to this thread
- I was testing the add-in using BUSINESS email and sadly have too many attachments on incoming emails from people who don't use online collaboration services.
- I've never tended to use an email inbox to store documents, preferring windows file folders instead. Hence the attachments get saved off on receipt. Personally I always found Outlook quite flaky as a file storage system and would also hate to rely on remembering who sent which document.
- I had to test Xobni on a family desktop as I've migrated away from Outlook for all my work activities and Xobni only works in Outlook. Why pay licence fees when you can use identical services online for free and access them from anywhere? Hence, I simply downloaded business emails onto the home machine to test over a couple of weeks.
- Google desktop search is what I use to find anything on a PC, albeit most of my docs get stored in the "cloud" these days. Hence, Xobni "search", which is restricted to Outlook content, was superfluous.
- As for the photo comments, sadly it's the face I was born with and the photo was taken by Ian Forrestor of BBC Backstage fame at the London BBC Backstage & Geek party in 2006. That my opinion is diminished coz you don't like my picture...........wow, tough crowd
- Oddly enough, I was writing as a past Xobni user and of my experience of the product - my comments had nothing to do with being an investor.
- I'm delighted that some people could derive use from this product. Evidently we have considerably different needs or have settled on alternate solutions.
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#37I have not used Xobni myself, but I think if I have implemented a plug in for Outlook, offered $20M by Microsoft for it, I will take the money and run as fast as I can. Outlook is a Microsoft product, they have unlimited resources, they understand Outlook itself better than anyone outside. Hey this guys can replicate the plug in really fast time trust me. I’m a consultant and done stuff for them I know some of the pe…
Plus, Microsoft is dead, and hence Outlook is dead, too.
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#38This isn't actually a 'vc' in the UK who has any standing either
Sumon, thanks for your kind comment on my "standing". I look forward to seeing you again in London in person, perhaps at Open Coffee, and maybe we can compare our respective CVs. Meantime, perhaps you can elaborate on what relevance my employment has to my comments on my user experience of this Outlook add-in?
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
"but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might think" I think I'll get another opinion about that from someone at Netscape, Lotus, or Corel. Oh, never mind.
Microsoft of the 80s and mid-90s is not the Microsoft of today, is it? You don't think there's any particular systemtic reason why Apple shipped like 5 releases of OS X in the time it took to create Vista?
Henning, I think you have hit the point that will eventually bring Microsoft to its knees unless it changes directions.
Unrelated: I've been womdering for a while where you are from with that name? Can you tell us?
Re: Xobni - a waste of money
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> How many people here on HN will dare to criticize a YC startup? You said it. Doing so is grounds for ruthless downmodding on here. PG said there are 30 editors now. People are getting accounts marked dead at the drop of a hat, if they don't drink the kool-aid.
People are getting accounts marked dead at the drop of a hat, if they don't drink the kool-aid. That's false, as anyone can see by looking at the dead comments and submissions. There have always been people on here criticizing YC and YC-funded startups. And there have always been about 30 editors, for that matter.
I think it has to do with the substance of the criticism. I've been critical (not drastically so) and not been banned yet.