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Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

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Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#41

Post by api »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #34
api wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classier than starting a war for no discernible rational reason. Edit: just to make my position clear: this goes beyond Democrat/Republican ideologies or politics and into the realm of criminality. This is in a wholly different league from the Mozilla CEO gay rights controversy. Condoleeza Rice and the rest of the Bush administration cynically exploited 9/11 to launch a completely unrelated war for no discernible rea…

> Just so you know this isn't totally partisan I've never even been to America, and I know fellow hackers who have also cancelled their Dropbox account over this. The Iraq war and American surveillance are not partisan topics. I'll be advising against Dropbox (and their new acquisitions) wherever I have the chance/influence.

Iraq is far worse than mass surveillance, though the latter is definitely a problem. At least in the case of surveillance the supporters have made something like a rational case for why they think it's needed, and the topic is being debated as it should be. It also usually doesn't involve killing people, and the cost is far lower.

I'm honestly not familiar with anything in recent American history as flagrant as the Iraq fraud. Even Vietnam made sense from a certain point of view and its supporters made their case and it was debated. It ended up being a bad idea, but it was technically a lot more democratic and less fraudulent. Some of its supporters have even admitted they were wrong.

My darkest suspicion about Iraq is that the reasons are either too corrupt or insane to even discuss... either flat-out premeditated fraud or something in complete fruitcake territory like trying to initiate the millennial Christian eschaton. The fact that nobody has even tried to make a coherent well-articulated case that doesn't insult my intelligence makes me wonder.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#42

Post by aridiculous »

DenisM wrote: post #35
api wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classier than starting a war for no discernible rational reason. Edit: just to make my position clear: this goes beyond Democrat/Republican ideologies or politics and into the realm of criminality. This is in a wholly different league from the Mozilla CEO gay rights controversy. Condoleeza Rice and the rest of the Bush administration cynically exploited 9/11 to launch a completely unrelated war for no discernible rea…

Politicians aren't the source of power, they are conduits of power. Rice happened to be a very good conduit.

May I ask what/who you think is the source then?

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#43

Post by acjohnson55 »

api wrote: post #20
bendoernberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classy

Classier than starting a war for no discernible rational reason. Edit: just to make my position clear: this goes beyond Democrat/Republican ideologies or politics and into the realm of criminality. This is in a wholly different league from the Mozilla CEO gay rights controversy. Condoleeza Rice and the rest of the Bush administration cynically exploited 9/11 to launch a completely unrelated war for no discernible rea…

No need to debase yourself to make that point. Referring to her as a "bitch" does nothing to make your point more valid. I have deep distaste for Clarence Thomas, but I'd never refer to him by the n-word. Your elaboration here is far more interesting and appropriate than the original comment.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#44

Post by unhush »

xianshou wrote: post #9

Acquihires are pretty much the default hiring method these days, so "victory" now requires keeping the product active after acquisition. A toast, then, to Hackpad. Well done.

Agreed 110%, but I would back up my Hackpad documents now. Claims of being able to sustain a business after acquihire when the parent company has no stated interest in keeping it alive seem extremely fragile.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#45

Post by dang »

api wrote: post #41
gurkendoktor wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just so you know this isn't totally partisan I've never even been to America, and I know fellow hackers who have also cancelled their Dropbox account over this. The Iraq war and American surveillance are not partisan topics. I'll be advising against Dropbox (and their new acquisitions) wherever I have the chance/influence.

Iraq is far worse than mass surveillance, though the latter is definitely a problem. At least in the case of surveillance the supporters have made something like a rational case for why they think it's needed, and the topic is being debated as it should be. It also usually doesn't involve killing people, and the cost is far lower. I'm honestly not familiar with anything in recent American history as flagrant as the I…

This is off-topic and flamewar bait. Please stop.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#46

Post by tomhschmidt »

rattray wrote: post #36
UVB-76 wrote: post #32

This is how it was always going to go. Dropbox's core business is unsustainable, and they can't compete long-term with rivals like Google and Apple. They're flailing in all directions at the moment; pushing for the enterprise/government market with the appointment of Condoleezza Rice, now burning a load of money acquiring businesses offering tangential services, in the hope they can diversify their business model. It…

I agree and disagree; file sharing alone was never going to be "enough". But even Search wasn't enough for Google; it's not wrong for companies to expand their offerings. In the case of Dropbox, they need to go head-to-head with the Drive/Docs/Apps provision coming from Google. They're not as well-positioned to do that as they could be, and I'm not sure hackpad will be close to sufficient to get them there. But it's…

The difference is that Search was enough to sustain Google and still is its cash cow. They branched out due to interest, not out of necessity. Dropbox's current business will not sustain and they NEED these acquisitions to find viable business models for the long haul.

What I don't understand about these acquisitions is how tangential it is to Dropbox's original value prop of being a "dumb" folder that would magically sync all of your files and stay out of your way. Now, instead of Dropbox passively running in the background and letting me do my thing, they want me to start actively engaging with the software.

I agree that it's necessary and overall a smart move, but still a very large and difficult pivot to make.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#47

Post by shadbs »

UVB-76 wrote: post #32

This is how it was always going to go. Dropbox's core business is unsustainable, and they can't compete long-term with rivals like Google and Apple. They're flailing in all directions at the moment; pushing for the enterprise/government market with the appointment of Condoleezza Rice, now burning a load of money acquiring businesses offering tangential services, in the hope they can diversify their business model. It…

Countdown to ad-supported free accounts starts...now.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#48

Post by api »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #43
api wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classier than starting a war for no discernible rational reason. Edit: just to make my position clear: this goes beyond Democrat/Republican ideologies or politics and into the realm of criminality. This is in a wholly different league from the Mozilla CEO gay rights controversy. Condoleeza Rice and the rest of the Bush administration cynically exploited 9/11 to launch a completely unrelated war for no discernible rea…

No need to debase yourself to make that point. Referring to her as a "bitch" does nothing to make your point more valid. I have deep distaste for Clarence Thomas, but I'd never refer to him by the n-word. Your elaboration here is far more interesting and appropriate than the original comment.

Normally I'd agree. I just think this issue is kind of way out in a class by itself, outside the bounds of ordinary disagreement.

Sarah Palin is someone I pretty much disagree with on almost everything, but I would not use such language to refer to her and I would not advocate boycotting a company for appointing her to their board. I might roll my eyes or scratch my head but that's about it.

Re: Dropbox acquires Hackpad (YC W12)

#49

Post by jkelsey »

api wrote: post #31
nymph wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grow up, please. The b-word was completely uncalled for.

So was a trillion dollars in fraud. "NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said."

Most people here who don't have good opinion of Condoleezza Rice (myself included) because of the significant parts she played during the Bush Administration probably agree with the points you're making.

However, gender has nothing to do with it. Building your criticisms on top of misogyny throws your entire motivations into question. The foundation has already rotted out and the rest of your arguments fell through; it's doubtful that most here are taking you seriously at this point.

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