Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system • Hacker News Board

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#201

Post by dwighttk » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #81

zucked wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a tiny screen overlaid in an accessible field of vision, not totally obscuring your perception of reality, NOT "augmenting reality"? I agree it barely meets the threshold, but I don't write it off as not AR full stop.

It wasn't an overlay and wasn't powerful enough to do much with the camera in any realtime way. It was closer to a low powered smart watch that's mostly always in view.

This is a better description than I’ve been using… since it was so underpowered it was more like a smartwatch than a phone.

But it wasn’t even mostly always in view… when you weren’t focused on it I guess it could kinda flash and make you focus on it, but it had no overlay ability.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#202

Post by jlarocco » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 12:58 AM UTC

lancesells wrote: post #58

jlarocco wrote: post #40

Augmented reality from an advertiser? No thanks. Sounds like something straight out of a dystpoian sci-fi story.

I totally agree but VR from an advertiser that's about as moral as a cigarette company seems to be doing ok and a market leader.

Sure, but I don't use that one, either.

Everybody else can do as they please, but I'm fine without it.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#203

Post by taneq » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 1:55 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #25

Andrex wrote: post #14

Whenever I transpose my comments to HN, I usually do some light editing. The following comment is unedited because this headline kinda fired me up. Considering how Google’s treated AR and VR in the last 10 years, hyping people up then quietly pulling back support and finally cancellation after just 2-3 years, I don’t see this going well. They had a toehold 6-10 years ago which they could have easily kept iterating on…

Google seems unfocused - AR is an example of this, their messaging platforms and failure to leverage Google voice for 10yrs after the acquisition are too. I’d bet on Apple, FB, or some new entry (harder without the underlying OS). DeepMind is the most interesting thing coming out of Google imo.

Google isn't one entity any more, it sounds like it's more like some kind of unofficial in-house version of YC except with more politics because the startups are more closely coupled.

Also DeepMind didn't come out of Google, it came out of some British boffins that got acquired for squillions (comparatively, I mean it's only a serious and arguably somewhat successful attempt at building general AI, it's not like it's adtech or finance or something else really important...) and as far as I can see the number one thing Google has done to help them, other than throwing money at them, is to otherwise leave them the hell alone.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#204

Post by comp_throw7 » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 4:00 AM UTC

sombremesa wrote: post #195

comp_throw7 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook, Amazon (mostly cash bonus first two years, but still "vests" monthly with no cliff), Uber, Lyft (every 3 months), Snapchat, etc. It's not all of them but it's an increasing number. Also, even with a 1-year cliff, for most people it'll still basically be indistinguishable from cash? Leaving (or getting fired) before you hit the 1 year mark is pretty rare, and after the first cliff it usually transitions to s…

The cliff is irrelevant, if you leave before you fully vest your pay rate does not actually match what you claim. The reason I brought up taxes (which might seem odd to people since compensation usually ignores them) is because they will significantly change the equation for various reasons. (AMT, RSUs taxed as short term gains and not long term, state tax affecting comp regardless of cost of living, etc.) Ultimately…

One of your original claims was this:

> You can leave a job (by choice or otherwise) where you worked for a year and were making "1 million a year" with less than $300k in total compensation.

For the purposes of discussing compensation at FAANG & similar, this is basically untrue. If you work at those companies for a year you'll take home (short of a massive movement in stock price) something approximately resembling what was promised to you. Taxes do not change the equation on this, since vested RSUs are taxed as income (_not_ short-term gains; them being the same rate is irrelevant - they are in fact just reported as income on your W2, without being broken out from your salary, it's literally one number). AMT applies regardless of whether your income is derived from vested RSUs or base salary - if you work at Netflix you're probably getting hit too. I don't see how state income taxes are relevant, since, again, those apply exactly the same way to RSUs as they do to salary.

> Ultimately, any compensation number that rolls all of this up into one number is mostly useless for actually knowing how much money you’ll have in N years

Uh, no? You can straightforwardly project your take-home pay over time; if you want to be really precise you can do it as a probability density function to take into account the potential movement of the stock price over time based on the volatility.

This is all a bit of a distraction from your main point:

> I'm sure some people actually enjoy the full benefits of what they're promised, but I'd be surprised if that's a majority.

Untrue! Obviously, trivially untrue, as demonstrated above.

Re: Google is building a new augmented reality device and operating system

#205

Post by what_ever » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 8:38 PM UTC

sombremesa wrote: post #198

what_ever wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RSUs taxed as short term gains and not long term That's not correct. RSUs get taxed as normal income. So whether you get $600k cash or $300k cash + $300k of RSUs, your tax bill is the same. The gain on the RSUs get taxed as short or long term capital gain. That comes into picture when you sell. If you auto-sell, there is no/very little gain, so no additional tax there and for intents and purpose, it's as if getting…

How is it incorrect? Short term gains are taxed the same as income, which is exactly what both of us are saying. This is setup to favor people who don’t understand taxes, so they don’t screw themselves over. It ends up screwing people who do understand taxes.

If you read my comment again, if you sell your stocks immediately after vesting, there is little to no gain. You can even do this automatically at Google using autosale program. Yes, this is short term gain, but it's negligible compared to how much you are getting paid. e.g. Let's say the stock was at $1000 when vested and by the time you got around to sell it 5 days after it's at $1050 - 5% gain which is not so common in usual scenarios. You will pay short term capital gain tax only on $50. This is the only additional tax you will pay compared to getting $1000 in cash as part of your base salary. The $1000 stock itself will be taxed as normal income.

The gain you get on the stock from vest till you sell is a bonus anyway compared to if you were just given straight cash.

I would advise you to run some actual numbers to get this. I don't need to as I have been getting paid this for last 5 years at Google.