Xobni - a waste of money • Hacker News Board

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#61

Post by greatapps » Tue, Apr 22, 2008, 7:46 AM UTC

Prrometheus wrote: post #59

So, someone that doesn't usually use Outlook doesn't like Xobni's Outlook plug-in? How is this newsworthy? Many of the things he said he never did in Outlook were things I did when I used Outlook four dozen times a day. He could have saved time by writing "I am not in the target audience" and been done with it.

The observations I made about Xobni on my blog post were reflective of a) having formerly used Outlook for many years in large corporate settings b) my assessment of the functional usefulness of the add-in to me. I'm happy to hear about your personal experiences of the add-in in order to better understand the killer features/purposes I've apparently missed and the value it has given you.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#62

Post by jgrahamc » Tue, Apr 22, 2008, 9:48 AM UTC

greatapps wrote: post #38

sharpshoot wrote: post #4

This 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?

> I look forward to seeing you again in London in person,

> perhaps at Open Coffee, and maybe we can compare our

> respective CVs.

The CV of the commentator is irrelevant. He's not claiming to be more experienced/well known than you; he is claiming that you are not a well known UK VC.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#63

Post by aswanson » Tue, Apr 22, 2008, 11:22 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #60

aswanson wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dismissing comments because of spelling errors? Not sure where it would lie in PG's categories (ad hominen?)* hominen makes this hilariously recursive.

how so?

Because of the way it is spelled: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#64

Post by Tichy » Tue, Apr 22, 2008, 12:52 PM UTC

aswanson wrote: post #63

Tichy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how so?

Because of the way it is spelled: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

oh I see ;-)

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#65

Post by vlad » Tue, Apr 22, 2008, 6:09 PM UTC

The only person I can think of who is a level above anybody else is Patrick Collison. Everyone else is just in the game, and that's the most important thing. It's easy to think, why the hell did a startup get funded? However, VC's have to invest--it's their job--because the money will be lost due to inflation. And they can't invest in one company, they have to diversify. So if a group of young people with a revenge of the nerds attitude and no other commitments are willing to move to California and work harder than anybody else, and in the software field, no less, then what other choice do VC's have than to invest?

Young people (less commitments, more optimism) make up a small portion of the population. Good programmers make up a small portion as well. Those willing to relocate (California), also. Those who are willing to dedicate themselves to doing a startup for multiple years, tiny. So when you find an individual who has all of these qualities, and as part of a bigger group, you're now talking a very tiny, tiny portion of the country. And VC's have no choice but to invest in you.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#66

Post by wumi » Fri, May 02, 2008, 2:59 PM UTC

greatapps wrote: post #61

Prrometheus wrote: post #59

So, someone that doesn't usually use Outlook doesn't like Xobni's Outlook plug-in? How is this newsworthy? Many of the things he said he never did in Outlook were things I did when I used Outlook four dozen times a day. He could have saved time by writing "I am not in the target audience" and been done with it.

The observations I made about Xobni on my blog post were reflective of a) having formerly used Outlook for many years in large corporate settings b) my assessment of the functional usefulness of the add-in to me. I'm happy to hear about your personal experiences of the add-in in order to better understand the killer features/purposes I've apparently missed and the value it has given you.

this implies you consider the native Outlook search, message threading, and attachment handling better than Xobni's. i'd be surprised if you used Outlook for that long and really thought so.