Microsoft Band • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Band

#241

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:31 AM UTC

skc wrote: post #225

jacquesm wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Person scaling with Azure here. It's pretty awesome and easy. And it's pretty expensive. Now, if your competitor is on an open stack and on real computers they will eventually run rings around you because they get more control and lower costs. The initial boost you're experiencing will turn into a straightjacket with a hefty pricetag over the longer term.

> And it's pretty expensive. Nice blanket statement there. How can you claim it's expensive when you have no idea what or how he uses it?

Because I have fairly extensive insight into a very large number of companies and can see their license bills as well as their cloud bills if those are applicable. Compared to that doing a startup on an open source stack using dedicated machines eventually turns out much cheaper. It's like getting hooked on drugs.

The most cost effective way as far as I can see is to hire a sysadmin on a freelance basis until you need one full time, own your own hardware (or lease it by the month until you can afford your own hardware) and pay flat rate for bandwidth. Anything else will sooner or later come to haunt you and then you will need to migrate to some new platform. At that point in time you will learn the true value of the words 'lock-in'.

Re: Microsoft Band

#242

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:32 AM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #238

jacquesm wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Person scaling with Azure here. It's pretty awesome and easy. And it's pretty expensive. Now, if your competitor is on an open stack and on real computers they will eventually run rings around you because they get more control and lower costs. The initial boost you're experiencing will turn into a straightjacket with a hefty pricetag over the longer term.

Now, if your competitor is on an open stack and on real computers they will eventually run rings around you because they get more control and lower costs. Obviously it depends on what you're actually doing, but for a straightforward SaaS app (a few servers, a db server, a queue and a load balancer in a few datacentres around the world) one good sysadmin/devops guy costs far more than a set of AWS instances that essen…

You could of course simply hire freelance sysadmin/devops guys. Initially those are not full-time jobs anyway.

The choice is definitely not between going for a cloud platform versus hiring a bunch of people full time. There are other options.

Re: Microsoft Band

#243

Post by somberi » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:33 AM UTC

Quoting an article from The Economist.com:

"... Strikingly, one-third of users discard their devices after six months, according to research by Endeavour Partners, a consultancy. Some industry insiders speculate that the true number may be much higher than that. ...The novelty of being able to track your steps, calories or other metrics is appealing at first, but swiftly wears off. ..."

Full article - http://goo.gl/hR5LxJ

Re: Microsoft Band

#244

Post by Shivetya » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:35 AM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #117

While everyone is trying to make a watch that looks as traditional as possible, Microsoft is thinking radically different for how the future watch should look likes. That's some guts. At $200 this looks like great device with built-in sensors including GPS and UV that also talks to whatever phone you own. I also like the fact that heart rate monitor is always on. Addition of barometer could have been nicer, however.…

I am a bit shocked there are no color variations shown, this just begs for them. I really do appreciate they didn't hamper themselves by boxing themselves in with a typical watch face.

Now if they could figure out how to monitor blood sugar easily we would be all set. I am curious if with the built in GPS I could use it to monitor my bicycling? I know it can get my heart rate but I am also curious how well that performs while I sweat because I can get soaked on some rides.

Still, the price is great too. Just color it up

Re: Microsoft Band

#245

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:36 AM UTC

simi_ wrote: post #223

guylhem wrote: post #35

All the sensors + apparently a very lightweight OS + small form factor = I like it. The killing feature is the integrated GPS. As mentionned on the website, you can go without your phone. That alone could make it a buy if it supports wireless charging (I don't want to bother with wires in 2014) Also, it is multiplatform, which is a big plus. I do not want an android watch or an iwatch, but something that will work re…

It's ugly, but if I were in the market for a smartwatch/fitness tracker this might be the only one I'd bother with. As I find myself saying more and more, I love this new Microsoft. It's insane how much harm a single man can do.

Haha is that sarcasm? Do you mean harm ==== good, or harm === bad? And harm to who?

EDIT: No idea why I am getting downvoted - it's a serious question!

Re: Microsoft Band

#246

Post by radmuzom » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:38 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #218

jmsdnns wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "the msft dude for YC" mean?

It means: try to get companies that otherwise would not go for Microsoft products to give it a try through free product samples, and talking down companies not microsoft. I really wished that companies like Microsoft, Google and so on would not have a 'HN guy' (and would not have non-disclosed HN guys either, Felix is at least above board on that), it can make it a lot harder to figure out what is a genuine user expe…

The "much" better off is an assumption. If I remember correctly, Fogcreek primarily uses a Microsoft stack; so did lot of people who used to hang around in the Business of Software forum run by Joel Spolsky. Most of them had bootstrapped companies rather than use a lot of VC money to buy expensive tools. Most of them did quite well making money with their business. Using open tools is not a criterion for both technical or business success.

Re: Microsoft Band

#247

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:38 AM UTC

piotrkaminski wrote: post #123

sytelus wrote: post #117

While everyone is trying to make a watch that looks as traditional as possible, Microsoft is thinking radically different for how the future watch should look likes. That's some guts. At $200 this looks like great device with built-in sensors including GPS and UV that also talks to whatever phone you own. I also like the fact that heart rate monitor is always on. Addition of barometer could have been nicer, however.…

They claim a battery life of 48 hours under "normal usage" (read: no GPS), with a charging time of 1.5 hours. Though if it's supposed to be used as a sleep tracker, I kinda wonder when we're supposed to charge it.

I wonder if they'll sell a giant charging pad you can slip under your mattress?

I wouldn't buy one, but at least you could have all your devices on you as you sleep!

Re: Microsoft Band

#248

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:39 AM UTC

radmuzom wrote: post #246

jacquesm wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means: try to get companies that otherwise would not go for Microsoft products to give it a try through free product samples, and talking down companies not microsoft. I really wished that companies like Microsoft, Google and so on would not have a 'HN guy' (and would not have non-disclosed HN guys either, Felix is at least above board on that), it can make it a lot harder to figure out what is a genuine user expe…

The "much" better off is an assumption. If I remember correctly, Fogcreek primarily uses a Microsoft stack; so did lot of people who used to hang around in the Business of Software forum run by Joel Spolsky. Most of them had bootstrapped companies rather than use a lot of VC money to buy expensive tools. Most of them did quite well making money with their business. Using open tools is not a criterion for both technic…

Fogcreek is run by ex microsoft people that had extensive experience with the stack before starting fogcreek, it made excellent sense for them to use what they already knew how to use.

Re: Microsoft Band

#249

Post by 72deluxe » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:41 AM UTC

zamalek wrote: post #199

thescrewdriver wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visual Studio doesn't seem to install correctly on my Ubuntu box.

Visual Studio has been using COM since COM was new. That 21 years of code that's been written against an API that Linux doesn't provide. COM is not only proprietary but also a horrible thing. I don't see it ever being on any Linux list of things to do. It will never install on Linux. If you want something as good as Visual Studio on Linux, write it.

COM is horrible to write code for (although not THAT bad), and is tricky to troubleshoot (hurray for TLBs and massive hex registry strings) but it is a very handy feature of the system!

Does anything exist on other platforms like Mac OSX and Linux? CORBA was written all over the place GNOME1 / 2 time as I recall but I don't actually know if anything like COM exists anywhere?

Re: Microsoft Band

#250

Post by k-mcgrady » Thu, Oct 30, 2014, 9:41 AM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #117

While everyone is trying to make a watch that looks as traditional as possible, Microsoft is thinking radically different for how the future watch should look likes. That's some guts. At $200 this looks like great device with built-in sensors including GPS and UV that also talks to whatever phone you own. I also like the fact that heart rate monitor is always on. Addition of barometer could have been nicer, however.…

>> "While everyone is trying to make a watch that looks as traditional as possible, Microsoft is thinking radically different for how the future watch should look likes. That's some guts."

It will be interesting to see which approach consumers prefer. Techies were going nuts of the Moto 360 because it looked like a real watch and to me it seems the most likely for a normal person to wear.