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Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

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Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#271

Post by angrycoder »

swies wrote: post #16

Y Combinator also funded our solution to crapware. http://ninite.com Basically we automate multiple installers and decline toolbars just like you would. Users range from the nontechnical to NASA. We even have a huge blind user base because these installers are frequently hell to navigate with a screenreader. We make money selling a Pro version with extra features to businesses and school IT departments. It works well…

So YC is like the crack dealer who also runs his own rehab clinic. Pretty smart.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#272

Post by newsmaster »

jbk wrote: post #250
newsmaster wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please please please create auto-subtitles functionality for VLC on the Mac. I switched from Windows recently and there's nothing compared to Media Player Classic for easy subtitles. Thanks thanks thanks.

What do you mean?

On Media Player Classic you can easily download subtitles for whatever movie you're watching by going to File>Subtitle Database>Download. It will search a DB online somewhere then let you choose and automatically load them into the player. This is something I've not found on any video players available on the Mac. It would be an awesome if it was coded into VLC.

http://tothepc.com/img/2010/02/movie-subtitles-media-player-...

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#273

Post by tikhonj »

mylittlepony wrote: post #55
kybernetyk wrote: post #24

The crapware situation on Windows is horrible. I'm a Mac/Linux user but from time to time I have to power up my Windows VM. A few days ago I wanted to install the Partition Magic trial on my Win XP VM. Having left Windows around 2005 I figured that typing "Partition Magic Win XP download" in Google would be helpful. I got a handful of "reputable" download sources like CNet and the like. I went there and was bombarded…

I'll take this chance to recommend the following linux distributions to those non-sysadmins who are wondering which one they can try out: - Fedora 17 with Gnome. Out of the box it offers all kinds of installation options, like the one I always wanted and only found in Fedora (in my words): "Use all this but only this free space, and also encrypt it". The only downside is that out of the box it lacks some things every…

I personally found Fedora 17 with KDE really awesome. It was both easy to install and configure, and is a pleasure to use. I would definitely recommend it as an alternative to Gnome.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#274

Post by jamieb »

josteink wrote: post #129
eli wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this what they're doing about it? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/apps

I was considering mentioning Windows RT/Windows 8 and it's "Metro" (Modern) app-store. but decided that I wouldn't. Not because I didn't think about it, not because I wasn't aware of it, but because I decided that so far it seems not to be a very effective means to the end of salvaging Windows' reputation. Especially given how the "Metro" platform so far seemingly have caused more negative user-feedback than positive…

Doesn't help that whenever I read/hear "Metro" I flashback to the police in my living room collecting a statement about being assaulted on the train or an early morning ride through paris after spending the night filling out police statements for the same.

Maybe they were going for the "I love inner city public transport and its positive, upbeat experience" demographic. I must be one of those outliers who finds the act of being crammed like sardines into the sweaty, infectious mess of sheep to be just like Microsoft's attitude towards its customers, especially with Metro.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#275

Post by jiggy2011 »

rsynnott wrote: post #239
veidr wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Installers are (rightfully) rare on OS X, but that doesn't preclude installing any random crapware you want. Your app can do it on first launch (or hey, tenth launch to make it less visible). Lots of apps have a first-launch screen where they confirm some options and maybe even ask for an admin password for housekeeping. Hmm, Monetizer.framework?

Users are trained to just accept whatever in installers, however, while popups on first launch demanding admin passwords will often be treated with a little more suspicion.

Yes, I changed my UAC settings under Windows to require the admin password before sudoing (or whatever MS calls it).

It was just too easy to me even as a relatively experienced user to knee-jerk click the "Allow" button.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#276

Post by tanzam75 »

edandersen wrote: post #109

It's even worse, according to http://www.installmonetizer.com/AT_aboutus.php one of the "advisors" - Arjun Bedi - works for Microsoft! Working to destroy his own platform. Classy.

According to his Linkedin profile, he works for Microsoft Singapore, doing some "Master Black Belt" six-sigma synergy "Global Process Solutions" MBA-buzzword bullshit. And only since December 2011.

He's not working on real products.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#277

Post by darklajid »

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #211
darklajid wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh. Nice. "The ones I deem appropriate". No, actually I think every developer deserves compensation. But they should ask for it, set a price. The business model with ad-/crap-/bloatware is equivalent to these annoying people (I see more and more of them on the streets) that hand you a rose/card/small ~thing~ right away, shove it in your face and ask for 2/5/10 bucks after you accepted what was quite obviously a gift.…

I think it's cognitive dissonance ( maybe I'm thinking of the wrong phenomenom ) that you 'see more and more of [these people]' every day. It makes this seem like a big bad trend, when really it's been happening forever and it just happens to support your point. Lots of people release ad-supported free software, not because they want to turn a profit, but because they don't want a net loss. They aren't comfortable wi…

You're mixing things up.

I like software with ads (well, sorta. CAN you like software with ads?). I don't run AdBlock on all my machines. I have "free" ad-supported Android apps. Bundling ads in an application is not the same thing as installing utter, total bullshit.

Your point is still very weak in my books, because you haven't explained in half a sentence why someone would like to release software as 'free' and still make money off it. The notion that this certain someone is too shy to ask for donations is .. weird. Believing that it's a viable alternative to bundle software that the end user with almost 100% certainty DOES. NOT. WANT. - seems crazy to me.

So many solutions. Shareware. Donationware. Free/Premium models. Just .. not releasing a software for free and putting a price tag on it, even if just the 'app' style 99 cents.

Installing crapware, toolbars, switching browser search engines and homepages etc. is an attempt to cover cost that is absolutely demonic.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#278

Post by to3m »

brudgers wrote: post #270
kybernetyk wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In short, a person looking for Partition Magic in 2013 is likely to suffer from Dunning-Kruger syndrome. I'm asking myself where I could have insulted you to provoke such a reaction.

It's an assessment of your Windows expertise based upon the specifics the experience you relayed, not ad hominem . By your own admission your familiarity with the Windows landscape is based largely on experience gained more than seven years ago and with an obsolescent version of the OS. Dunning-Kruger effects are the result of one believing that they have more expertise than the do. With regards to the Windows ecosys…

I'm not convinced the conclusion is incorrect. The crapware situation on Windows IS horrible, whether you download any of it or not. Even if you manage to reliably avoid it, that still takes a non-zero amount of effort.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#279

Post by jlgreco »

klrr wrote: post #131
api wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people these days are bashing Apple and Google for creating walled gardens with their app stores, but this is really the primary reason such walled gardens have taken off. They offer a mostly crapware-free experience. If Linux on the desktop were to get popular, I'd hate to imagine what might happen to the open source Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu repositories.

I'm not sure about Fedora but Debian has a very strict policy for the packages in their repos. http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/

As I understand it, Fedora's packaging policy is more or less the same as Debian's. Free software only (stricter than Ubuntu), though there are some practical differences. They don't like packaging emulators that are primarily useful for non-Free ROMs. It is also my understanding, different than Debian, they don't like packaging software that no longer has a maintaining developer. Also no external kernel modules, no prebuilt libraries, etc.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Legal

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#280

Post by SyneRyder »

chii wrote: post #124
rpm4321 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be right about the industry as a whole, but I'm betting you're wrong about this particular instance based on what I know about PG and YC. When I was reading the original TC article, I was thinking that there is actually an incredible opportunity here to create a legitimate ad network that would allow desktop developers to monetize similarly to how it's done on the web - to basically become the DoubleClick of…

i agree - i wouldn't mind a text ad next to my unarchiving tool (which i don't use all that often so as to not justify payuing for one). But they need to be unobtrusive like google's text ads.

But therein lies the problem: a tool that you don't use often (hence a low number of ad impressions), and an unobtrusive ad that you might not even see, let alone click. That's unlikely to earn enough money to be worth it. The developer either has to drop the advertising revenue model and try another, or crank the ad model to questionable ethics. Sadly, some developers opt to do the latter.
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