681–690 of 784 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A common antipattern here in HN comments is someone using an analogy (which is almost always bad), and then the responses devolving into arguing over how the analogy isn't correct. I honestly think a "no analogies" rule for commenting would do more to facilitate good discussion than the existing "no jokes" rule. Analogies are almost never useful. Even the ancient Greeks realized this.
Analogies are like the electricity of communication.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can download your data [1] and delete your account [2]. These are two things I always check for before trusting anyone with my data. [1] https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1133 [2] https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1285
but now that could change
Much better than the average tech company out there.
Garmin and Apple have the fitness market covered. Fitbit never had the hardcore fitness market Garmin executed into and Apple has always had a product that works well across the wearable and fitness. Between these two companies I can't imagine there's much of a niche Fitbit does better. On the extreme hardcore triathlon user even Garmin has taken a lot of market from Suunto and the like. I've owned a handful of Garmi…
My Garmin 935 is waterproof, has an always on display, shows smartphone notifications, charges once a week, and has worked for over a year. If apple or Fitbit had this, I’d go back. Had multiple fit bits and they all broke in 6 months. Had an Apple Watch, but it needed to be charged every day, wasn’t waterproof, and display turned off. Apple has improved on 2 of those but it still needs every day charging. I would pu…
The 3rd party app support is laughably poor, but the APIs are there. ConnectIQ apps are written in their own language (MonkeyC, which is kinda hard to use), which hinders adoption, and are generally slow and feature-poor.
But the good thing for Garmin is that the 1st party software more than makes up for the lack of 3rd party support. The music-enabled watches (eg FR645) have Spotify support, GPS, and Bluetooth music, last for an eon, and are hardy as all hell.
Changes of control typically trigger a suite of investor and creditor protections. I'm beginning to favor a similar set of rights for consumers. Right to deletion would be one. Heightened portability requirements another.
Changes of control typically trigger a suite of investor and creditor protections. I'm beginning to favor a similar set of rights for consumers. Right to deletion would be one. Heightened portability requirements another.
You already have right to delete in this instance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, dang has told me I can not speak negatively about Google and point to my personal reasons why. Nor point to a popular HN thread that clearly/flat out shows Google getting caught doing a bad thing.
That's not what I told you ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21332308 ). The issue is repeating the same thing over and over at any mention of a triggering topic, or even (as in this thread) with no mention of it. Repetition spoils curiosity. When users repeat the same thing so often that it starts to sound like an idée fixe, other users get upset and call it spamming, and eventually we have to ask the person to…
Since our last exchange I haven't posted anything about it or had planned to. Here in this hidden thread I saw another member pondered something I did after our last exchange. I fully didnt understand why anyone would care that much about what I have to say about Google or why I loathe Google to the point of being told no more.
Overall I still dont fully understand it, but will refrain from talking negatively about Google (unless extremely relevant or not say why) as it leads me to point to a reason that is upsetting to various HN members(whoever they may be).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “I actually agree with other commenters: Google just doesn't know what it's about anymore. It has no overriding vision.” it’s pretty apparent to me that after google finally got over wanting to be facebook, google now wants to be apple. and they’re desperately trying not to be microsoft, even though that’s what they mostly are. in the beginning, google had a unique identity (quirky & clever) and vision (organize th…
> and they’re desperately trying not to be microsoft, even though that’s what they mostly are. Mostly because Microsoft became more like Google in recent years. :P
They're doing some seriously good things in the dev space.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
GCP is the exception in that it’s the only Google business that does not rely on data aggregation and profiling.
That's not true. I think @ceejayoz below pointed out the situation well: they've made many attempts (waymo, for another still-unprofitable example). Just not many of them have turned into significant revenue -- particularly compared to the sustained ~24% YoY growth that Google managed for so long. That's a hard business to beat.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We live in fast times. In a little less than a decade the perception of Google went from 'Best search on the internet' and 'Do no evil' to 'Fuck Google' and 'Delete your accounts with them'; and 'their search has gotten exponentially worse' No skin in the game from me (I only use Gmail for non-essential shopping), just an observation. Personally, I think it's great. I'm proud to stand with the vocal minority against…
Same as Microsoft, really: first they were one of the plucky little companies* “sticking it” to the likes of Big Blue and AT&T, then they themselves fell victim to their own success and became embodied in Gates Of Borg on Slashdot, then they missed the boat on Mobile and failed to Embrace, Extend, Extinguish the Internet and ended up on the downward stroke, so now they’re cool again... while the Googles and Apples th…
It's Cloudflare.
edit: Just to be clear, the reason I'm so suspicious of Cloudflare is that they're inserting themselves between users and their destination. The service they provide is a great value, and their contribution to the public (free dns and vpn) is extremely admirable. But they only exist because the infrastructure maintained by the old corporate guards is so poor. Once they take over all network traffic, they'll be the next great Satan. Their story will probably turn out similar to Google.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, no. I find this whole "they're selling your data" trope to be trite and just annoying at this point. I actually expect this more a reaction to Apple's pivot into health with the Apple Watch (people seem to forget the ex-Burberry CEO positioned the Apple Watch 1 as a luxury product--anyone remember the Apple Watch Edition for $10k?--health came later).
> I find this whole "they're selling your data" trope to be trite and just annoying at this point. Do you believe it to be mistaken ? Or true, but not worth caring about?
Its core business is selling products whose entire value would be negated if it sold the data behind them, so it really wouldn't sell the data.
On top of that, I think it's a mistake to say that they are buying Fitbit for data anyway. They are buying Fitbit for a toehold in the wearables market; while this probably has some data value, it's pretty clearly part of their effort to build up direct sales of consumer products as a revenue stream.