Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stephen Wolfram: Something Very Big Is Coming

blog.wolframalpha.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 30 posts

Re: Stephen Wolfram: Something Very Big Is Coming

#23

Post by throwaway1979 »

happycube wrote: post #15
throwaway1979 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the biggest "product release" disappointment I've had in my life. I was a naive kid ... huge fan of Kamen (actually, I still am a big fan of the man). IT was going to change everything!!! Bezos and a bunch of other big wigs are investing in it!!! I grew up a bit after that ...

If only they had followed Amazon's business model (screw the margins, and scale up as fast as possible) it might actually have taken off...

I didn't have as big of an issue with the business model than I had with the product itself. Seriously ... what happens when it rains? How do you navigate pedestrian-dense sidewalks? I'm not George W. but I have managed to crash one.

Re: Stephen Wolfram: Something Very Big Is Coming

#25

Post by protomyth »

throwaway1979 wrote: post #23
happycube wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only they had followed Amazon's business model (screw the margins, and scale up as fast as possible) it might actually have taken off...

I didn't have as big of an issue with the business model than I had with the product itself. Seriously ... what happens when it rains? How do you navigate pedestrian-dense sidewalks? I'm not George W. but I have managed to crash one.

GWB wasn't told the important tip of turning the damn thing on which, for a demo, told me the company had no marketing sense. If you get POTUS with your product, you nail the damn demo or just close the company. GWB is a pretty athletic guy and they couldn't get the demo right.

It goes with the Tonight Show appearance that is probably the single best sales pitch except for the Segway rep trying to play nanny with Jay Leno, Russell Crowe, and Sting with Russell Crowe promoting Gladiator and yelling lines from the movie.

Re: Stephen Wolfram: Something Very Big Is Coming

#30

Post by kineticfocus »

agos wrote: post #29

Reminds me of Brett Victor's “The future of programming” ( http://vimeo.com/71278954 ), “Learnable Programming” ( http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/ ) and “Inventing on principle” ( http://vimeo.com/36579366 )

Reminds me of Wolfram's earlier book... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science
Post reply on HN