Good for him.
Not for what he did, I have no opinion on it.
But for actually having some principles other than how to make more money.
Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
241–250 of 369 posts
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#242> "Facebook creeps me out." Whether or not you agree with his decision, having Notch pull away from talks with you creates an instant credibility "situation". It's also noteable that Notch had been meeting with the Oculus team just two weeks ago[0], was tweeting about them in rather gushing terms[1] and seemed incredibly inspired to work on VR ideas[2]. He is now the personification of the a near universal feeling of…
It feels like Notch is being given too much credibility here.
At the end of the day he's a billionaire because he had a viral hit and was ready with a monetization strategy (and had amazingly cheap running costs).
None of this really speaks to his business or technical acumen, and he hasn't exactly done very much lately.
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#243Good for him. Not for what he did, I have no opinion on it. But for actually having some principles other than how to make more money.
Couldn't really have been on how to make more money - as it wouldn't have been minecraft itself getting VR, but a freebie version.
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
> scaling crisis for VR. That's supposing Facebook knows how to scale production of electronic items... apart from the cash, they have no relevant experience about that. If it had been Google or Microsoft there would already be people who know how to make it scale to mass production.
The "scale" JC is referring to is not hardware production. It's the virtual reality. Millions of people interacting in real time in a virtual universe in which they are actually present . Think of it as similar to the scaling challenges of MMORPGs. Only much worse.
That's what I understood as well. But I thought OculusVR was making a VR headset, not VR content.
Since when was OculusVR supposed to build the metaverse? I thought they only wanted to build the tools to access it.
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#245> "Facebook creeps me out." Whether or not you agree with his decision, having Notch pull away from talks with you creates an instant credibility "situation". It's also noteable that Notch had been meeting with the Oculus team just two weeks ago[0], was tweeting about them in rather gushing terms[1] and seemed incredibly inspired to work on VR ideas[2]. He is now the personification of the a near universal feeling of…
Heh, from Carmack's twitter 1m ago: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/448629403740692481 For the record, I am coding right now, just like I was last week. I expect the FB deal will avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis for VR. Glad to see Carmack is still being Carmack. EDIT: By the way, if anyone is wondering why people are having a negative reaction to this Facebook deal, I think one way to understand it…
nah, all the angst is because far too many nerds like to think they "own" up and coming cool technology even if they are not even involved beyond having read about it. When it goes to company that the clique no longer favors, usually after incredible success or the unwashed masses show up, then they act as if the world collapses.
It happens so often many of us just laugh if not smirk the whole time we watch the familiar process play itself out. Eventually they learn they are not the center of the universe.
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#246> "Facebook creeps me out." Whether or not you agree with his decision, having Notch pull away from talks with you creates an instant credibility "situation". It's also noteable that Notch had been meeting with the Oculus team just two weeks ago[0], was tweeting about them in rather gushing terms[1] and seemed incredibly inspired to work on VR ideas[2]. He is now the personification of the a near universal feeling of…
It feels like Notch is being given too much credibility here. At the end of the day he's a billionaire because he had a viral hit and was ready with a monetization strategy (and had amazingly cheap running costs). None of this really speaks to his business or technical acumen, and he hasn't exactly done very much lately.
Nonsense. He has credibility because he's proven to be effectual, innovative and principled.
This is not the case of a guy getting lucky in the viral lottery and then running his mouth.
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
> scaling crisis for VR. That's supposing Facebook knows how to scale production of electronic items... apart from the cash, they have no relevant experience about that. If it had been Google or Microsoft there would already be people who know how to make it scale to mass production.
Facebook has the buying power to put together a solid hardware production team. I don't think Google has much internal hardware production knowledge right now, aside from the knowledge they bought when they acquired Motorola. Before that, they mostly made things through hardware partners like HTC, Samsung, and LG. I think they produce the Chromecast internally, but it's not much fancier than a USB stick. I'm sure the…
Facebook doesn't build their own servers. They outsource to Quanta and Sanmina. Quanta is the hardware OEM and Sanmina handles the racking, configuration and testing. Facebook provides rack specs and the Linux image. Facebook tried to design their own servers via the Open Compute Project but they ran into heat dissipation problems. Sanmina's Newisys division (which makes dense storage arrays using by places like Amazon & Shutterfly) helped solve their problems.
The point is that, while Facebook may be able to do hardware, servers is not a good example.
Disclosure: my team at Sanmina has been responsible for delivering the test automation & integration software for the rack assembly & test operation for Facebook.
For that matter, Google itself doesn't build anything at scale, either. Why would they? They outsource all their high-vol manufacturing to the same EMS companies everyone else uses (Quanta, Compal, Foxconn, Flextronics, Sanmina, Celestica, Jabil, Pegatron, Benchmark, Plexus and a handful of others).
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
> scaling crisis for VR. That's supposing Facebook knows how to scale production of electronic items... apart from the cash, they have no relevant experience about that. If it had been Google or Microsoft there would already be people who know how to make it scale to mass production.
The "scale" JC is referring to is not hardware production. It's the virtual reality. Millions of people interacting in real time in a virtual universe in which they are actually present . Think of it as similar to the scaling challenges of MMORPGs. Only much worse.
No one asked Oculus for Second Life 2.0. We asked them to make a good piece of hardware and SDK
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh, from Carmack's twitter 1m ago: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/448629403740692481 For the record, I am coding right now, just like I was last week. I expect the FB deal will avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis for VR. Glad to see Carmack is still being Carmack. EDIT: By the way, if anyone is wondering why people are having a negative reaction to this Facebook deal, I think one way to understand it…
nah, all the angst is because far too many nerds like to think they "own" up and coming cool technology even if they are not even involved beyond having read about it. When it goes to company that the clique no longer favors, usually after incredible success or the unwashed masses show up, then they act as if the world collapses. It happens so often many of us just laugh if not smirk the whole time we watch the famil…
Oculus was funded by a kickstarter. I think Notch personally contributed. Having given money to help a company develop their core technology is a little different to "not even involved beyond having read about it".
Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, nice to see Notch take a stand and provide some sliver of redemption today for the thousands of nerds (myself included) upset about the Oculus Facebook deal today. I can't imagine the Oculus team ever reaching their fundraising goal if backers knew the founders were going to sellout before ever reaching the vision they shared to get people to back it in the first place. EDIT: Notch seems to have just confirme…
Exactly. But this goes further and lays bare the sheer stupidity inherent in kickstarter or any other crowd-sourcing platform. Just like facebook's Frankensteinian monstrous mish-mash of consumer/content/advertiser/publisher crowd-funding in its current state is a mish-mash that ends up meaning nothing in the end. You are not an equity partner, you really have no say in how decisions are made, you are not a lender, y…
> But this goes further and lays bare the sheer stupidity inherent in kickstarter or any other crowd-sourcing platform.
Only if the projects backed aren't Free and Open-Source.