What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client • Hacker News Board

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#41

Post by forgotusername » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:47 AM UTC

nknight wrote: post #38

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #10

Wait, wait, wait. Because a platform is near-native performance, is cross platform and may run in a virtual machine, they are becoming Microsoft and locking people in? WHAT? (Beyond the absurdity of leaping to that conclusion, it's an open spec and the main implementation is open source. I understand that alternative implementations are needed for "open spec" to have significant meaning, but still). That and the last…

> RE this whole conspiracy (not mocking it by calling it that...) Then I will. It's a conspiracy theory, worthy of all the mocking typically associated with such a thing. Anyone who's been watching Google long enough, closely enough, knows how out of character this would be. Such efforts, not to mention the purported motivation, is not in their nature. Google employees start hundreds (thousands?) of new projects ever…

Conspiracies usually involve some kind of illegal or immoral activity, on the other hand what is described seems a perfectly natural growth strategy for a company of Google's size, wishing to grow larger (as dictated by its very existence), and to root itself more firmly in the areas it's most interested in (data interchange).

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#42

Post by joshu » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:47 AM UTC

what's the unicode symbol for bong hits?

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#43

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:50 AM UTC

jff wrote: post #9

rsanchez1 wrote: post #5

Careful, people might accuse you of being a right-wing conspiracy theorist, even if you do present evidence that Google is becoming the new Microsoft.

http://standupforamerica.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/conspir...

[deleted]

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#44

Post by azakai » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:50 AM UTC

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #10

Wait, wait, wait. Because a platform is near-native performance, is cross platform and may run in a virtual machine, they are becoming Microsoft and locking people in? WHAT? (Beyond the absurdity of leaping to that conclusion, it's an open spec and the main implementation is open source. I understand that alternative implementations are needed for "open spec" to have significant meaning, but still). That and the last…

The article goes too far in my opinion in speculation and attribution of ill will. (Unless the author has inside information there, but without any substantial reason to believe that, I won't.)

However, there are very serious and likely unaddressable concerns about Native Client, even if this article is a bit much (we have already debated this at length here on HN several times in the past).

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#45

Post by nknight » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:54 AM UTC

ootachi wrote: post #40

nknight wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RE this whole conspiracy (not mocking it by calling it that...) Then I will. It's a conspiracy theory, worthy of all the mocking typically associated with such a thing. Anyone who's been watching Google long enough, closely enough, knows how out of character this would be. Such efforts, not to mention the purported motivation, is not in their nature. Google employees start hundreds (thousands?) of new projects ever…

There is not a single company in history that failed to get away with malicious behavior due to being "full of hackers that would instantly revolt". Engineers do not have executive power within companies. Executives do. Engineers "revolt" by quitting, and at Google they are easy to replace.

You're right, they do revolt by quitting. I don't see a big exodus. I have several friends there I know would be out the door in a heartbeat, and 5 years ago I knew one of the guys who is now one of the most senior on the Chrome team. Unless his character has been very fundamentally altered, there's not a snowball's chance in hell he would aid such an effort.

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#46

Post by prawn » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:55 AM UTC

peterwwillis wrote: post #39

I didn't even read past the third paragraph. It's not even the creepy, conspiratorial way he talks... who the hell puts up a single domain, with a single plain-text page of content, with a font big enough for my grandmother to read it, just to complain about Google? It's weird.

Until I read the comments on here, I was reasonably confident from a skim of the article that it was a parody of Hacker News discussions. Oops.

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#47

Post by nl » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:55 AM UTC

I think people who claim "Google is planning xxxx" miss the fact that Google isn't exactly some monolithic entity.

There are plenty of people within Google who'd love NaCI to take over the world. But equally there are lots who think it is a downright bad idea.

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#48

Post by nl » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:57 AM UTC

ootachi wrote: post #40

nknight wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RE this whole conspiracy (not mocking it by calling it that...) Then I will. It's a conspiracy theory, worthy of all the mocking typically associated with such a thing. Anyone who's been watching Google long enough, closely enough, knows how out of character this would be. Such efforts, not to mention the purported motivation, is not in their nature. Google employees start hundreds (thousands?) of new projects ever…

There is not a single company in history that failed to get away with malicious behavior due to being "full of hackers that would instantly revolt". Engineers do not have executive power within companies. Executives do. Engineers "revolt" by quitting, and at Google they are easy to replace.

at Google they are easy to replace

Must be why they are paying those huge retention bonuses...

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#49

Post by nl » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:59 AM UTC

nknight wrote: post #38

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #10

Wait, wait, wait. Because a platform is near-native performance, is cross platform and may run in a virtual machine, they are becoming Microsoft and locking people in? WHAT? (Beyond the absurdity of leaping to that conclusion, it's an open spec and the main implementation is open source. I understand that alternative implementations are needed for "open spec" to have significant meaning, but still). That and the last…

> RE this whole conspiracy (not mocking it by calling it that...) Then I will. It's a conspiracy theory, worthy of all the mocking typically associated with such a thing. Anyone who's been watching Google long enough, closely enough, knows how out of character this would be. Such efforts, not to mention the purported motivation, is not in their nature. Google employees start hundreds (thousands?) of new projects ever…

Speaking of conspiracy theories, from the footnotes:

I'm strongly of the belief that Google's internal strategy has long surpassed "organising the world's information", and is now something like "become the world's biggest private intelligence agency.", but that's a paranoid side-note.. ask me more on this at your peril. ;)

http://www.hackerspews.com/

Re: What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client

#50

Post by EmilENewton » Wed, Dec 07, 2011, 5:59 AM UTC

New Rule: Whoever mentions Microsoft first, loses the debate and the thread is closed.[1]

[1] Obvious References: [1.1] Reductio ad Hitlerum ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum ) [1.2] Godwin's law ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law )