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Facebook acquires Oculus VR

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Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#771

Post by 72deluxe »

mschuster91 wrote: post #726
72deluxe wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me out of touch, but why do Facebook employ so many people? After the main structure of the site that permits you to have a wall and a feed, what else needs writing? I don't get it.

Scaling that infrastructure to literally billions of simultaneous users, spread over the whole planet, is something that needs constant innovation and maintenance. Just one example for "what needs writing".

But they just employ two DB administrators, as they outsource the rest of the MySQL maintenance to Oracle, as far as I knew? Do they really keep adding vast swathes of site content that needs an army of developers?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#772

Post by thenomad »

ChrisClark wrote: post #165
evo_9 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtually anyone else with the pockets to buy them would have been better. Microsoft for example have to be kicking themselves right now. After last weeks PS4 VR headset announcement I honestly expect them to buy Oculus immediately. I'm shocked they didn't or got out bid. I wonder if Carmack was in on the talks... he couldn't have possible left ID to cash in like this... he's got to be pissed off.

Carmack has always wanted to build a full VR world/universe, if that's Zuckberberg's vision, they actually might fit. Crazy though.

That's a very good point.

And that might well be Zuckerberg's vision. He probably read "Snowcrash" when he was about 10, after all.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#773

Post by axx »

I'm so disappointed, and it feels a little like Oculus sold their early investors (including Kickstarter folks) to Facebook.

I mean, in the end it's theis (Oculus) decision what to do with their company, but i don't think Facebook is a good fit.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#774

Post by thenomad »

72deluxe wrote: post #732
olouv wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, I've already sent an email regarding a refund. I had big dreams for this company, it just feels wrong. I'm not happy to see theses conglomerates grow uncontrolled, sucking up the spirit of innovation and openness that are so critical to our future.

Not trying to be argumentative, but is a VR helmet really critical to our future? Is it on the same level as food and poverty and peace?

Technological advancements have a funny way of producing important side-benefits.

A change as massive as VR - we simply don't know how big a deal it is.

For example, as one of the smaller potential side-effects, imagine VR became good enough that there was no practical reason to have people travel for face-to-face meetings. That would have a significant knock-on effect (closing on single-digit percentile worldwide) on carbon emissions, global warming, and potentially catastrophic climate change.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#775

Post by s3r3nity »

selmnoo wrote: post #146
lawl wrote: post #48

Damn! I don't like this. I had hoped they jump in bed with valve. Yes, I just really dislike facebook, so I hate to see them aquiring something i was really excited about. Also from the article: > After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor fa…

I am shattered right now. I was so happy for Oculus VR, I wanted it to become big, I wanted it to become something truly special. And now this happens. I'm horrified and speechless. This is the day I stop cheering for Oculus VR and get behind Sony's Morpheus: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/tech/gaming-gadgets/sony-morph... Notch on this deal: "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I j…

>"Facebook creeps me out"

While he says this on Twitter - many of whom are ex-FB employees doing essentially the same things.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#776

Post by s3r3nity »

sentenza wrote: post #713
xerophtye wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>FB has experience with stuffing LOLCat pics in your FB feed Seriously? Are you really saying that it's FB's evil plan to stuff cat pictures in your pictures? And not the fualt of those with whom you connect on FB? It's rather sad how so many people just think of FB as a "website" and not realize the truly innovative efforts they must go through to keep it running as such a massive scale. Not to mention, they built t…

It's also weird how many don't see the big white elephant in the room: People hate Facebook. For about 3-4 months now, whenever I talk to a non-techie and Facebook comes up _they_ start complaining and telling me how they're trying to get away from it. They even mention other services that are connected with Facebook (Instagram, What's App)! Is this happening only here in Germany? I was definitely surprised to be bac…

There could be multiple interpretations:

1) People hate Facebook in the same way I hate cheesecake: Facebook does such a good job at hooking me in and spending so much time reading content that it's a delicious evil. I hate how cheesecake makes it so irresistible and would like to eat less of it, but that doesn't make cheesecake bad per se. =)

2) Not everyone does hate Facebook, it's just the Yelp effect: you're more likely to hear about how someone hating on something MUCH MORE than you are likely to hear about someone loving (hell, even just _liking_) a product/service/etc. My buddies and I connect on FB messenger all the time and find it convenient, but we're not going to rave about it on all comment boards, Reddit, etc.

(Sidebar: I find that it's more of the exception, rather than the rule, when the Yelp effect is broken. For example, Evernote made a killing off primarily word of mouth in its early development, and people rave about it everywhere.)

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#777

Post by mercer »

zanny wrote: post #447
kamkazemoose wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home. > This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and expe…

> Basically they want to have everyone share virtual experiences together within your network. Over proprietary facebook-only protocols, on their proprietary software, using proprietary device drivers, with systemic data collection, and virtual reality advertising. Yeah, no thanks. Occulus was poised to be revolutionary because it was going to be bigger than one headset, it was going to be an open platform for an ent…

What's to prevent more open initiatives to also benefit from a possibly huge uptick in development on VR now that Facebook put it's weight behind it?

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as upset about this news as most people here seem to be, I'm just trying to see different perspectives, as I'm not quite cynical enough to think that Oculus VR only did this for the money...

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#779

Post by stefan_kendall3 »

beedogs wrote: post #600
wavefunction wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@ hack_edu Contracts can be broken. I really doubt John Carmack has to do anything he doesn't want to do. It will be the canary in the coalmine as far as whether I purchase an Oculus HMD when they release. I do hate this "winner-take-all" situation where a few tech companies in the US acquire every single cutting edge company.

An effective FTC and more widespread use of the Sherman act would be nice in the US.

This would destroy most of the business models of most of the companies on this website.

I fail to see how a social media company buying a headset manufacturer would even hint at anti-trust.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#780

Post by thinkersilver »

I commented on impusle. I'm going to be echoing the sentiment here. I was seconds away from buying the development kit when I heard the news. It's with a heavy sigh that I contemplate this news. I may just buy the devkit, get comfortable with the platform and then switch once the market has caught up.
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