Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development • Hacker News Board

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#71

Post by lukeschlather » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

robmcm wrote: post #28

davidb_ wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The page you linked seems to do a reasonable job of answering that: "Using on your phone’s built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, and gyroscope to determine distances and the orientation of walls, RoomScan can reliably estimate measurements to within about half a foot, which should be adequate if all you need is a rough floor plan. If, you need more precise measurements, you can opt for the $5 Pro version, which allows you to specify…

I was suggesting GPS wouldn't work with most rooms having ceilings. Wifi positioning I would imagine is highly inaccurate, which leaves the gyroscope. Judging by some screenshots and appstore comments I assume its only roughly accurate, and requires you to move your phone slowly between walls in straight lines (not via your pocket or around furniture for example). I think I would have immediately dismissed an idea li…

GPS is based on triangulating (well, trilateralating) between 3-6 fixed points in space located thousands of kilometers away.

Wifi positioning is based on triangulating (trilateralating) between 3-40 fixed points within 100 meters.

Assuming you can get access to the raw data, Wifi should be extremely accurate for calculating the distance between two points in space separated by less than 30 meters. (And probably pretty accurate up to 100 meters or so.)

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#72

Post by gedrap » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #48

tzz wrote: post #34

Does Google ever access your Google Analytics or other Google tools you are using to get more insight info about your website or app? Would they ever do such thing?

I wonder if they read your personal Gmail account to see if you're considering other offers? Or if you've corresponded with other people about their proposal?

I don't think anyone at Google can read anyone's emails willy nilly just like that.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#73

Post by graycat » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

api wrote: post #44

"It’s a ridiculous idea — touch your phone against each wall and get a floor plan." Uhh... no it's not. Make that actually work and show it to some architects, interior designers, and real estate people. Be sure to have a mop on hand for drool.

Do something with audio: The iPhone has speakers, right? And software can send a signal to the speakers? Or if not speakers, then a female plug can use to drive speakers? And the thing has a microphone, right? And might add on some tubes or some such to make the speaker and microphone directional? For the signal to make the signal to noise ratio better and to make the sound more directional, use high frequency. Or just build a little ultrasonic attachment that sends out the signal and get back the reflected signal.

Distance to the wall? Sure, the first and strongest part of the reflected signal will be from the line from the iPhone to the wall that is perpendicular to the wall (that's the shortest distance), and that's what is wanted.

But as I recall, there are laser distance measuring devices available for carpenters, surveyors, etc.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#74

Post by cromwellian » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

I think there's an either-or fallacy here, it could have been an attempt at an acqui-hire, but when the people talking to him tried to push it through, other people reviewed the situation and decided just to offer a generous employment package.

Consider, a single-engineer company with an interesting app and talented engineer, just how much do you expect to be acquired for? Recognize that a $1M-2M offer is about what you could make in 4 years at Google at the appropriate level and with the appropriate amount of restricted stock units.

So, if the amount of compensation would be approximately the same, but the one pathway (acquisition) requires a lot more legal groundwork and expense, and the other doesn't (just extend an offer of employment with generous signing bonus)

I think there's a little bit of ego involved here. It's easy to believe you have a winning app that's going to be huge, and be insulted when other people don't see the potential. ("A mere engineer!? Me?! I'm an entrepreneur who should have more respect!"), but the reality is, very few apps on the app store take off like rocketships, most fail, and so unless you have unique very valuable IP, or have built up a lot of valuable data, chances are, most companies are going to view it as an acqui-hire.

Paul Graham was right, you talk to Corp Dev if you're very successful, or nor very successful (probably going to die). As Kenny Rogers said you've got to know when to fold 'em, and this could have been a situation to negotiate a nice big fat signing bonus.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#75

Post by mathattack » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

Seems like a strange scam, in that the only outcome is an offer for employment which one can refuse if they want.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#76

Post by cromwellian » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:19 PM UTC

julien_c wrote: post #33

debacle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google initially was talking about an investment or purchase, but the discussion soon devolved into an acqui-hire situation. But in reality an acqui-hire was the intent all along, Google was just being deceptive.

Is 2M still an acqui-hire though? Even in Silicon Valley? Where's the threshold between acqui-hires and acquisitions these days?

$2M is basically a large signing bonus. I think for most companies, like Google, FB, et al, something like $2M doesn't even need board signoff, it's basically a restricted stock grant as a bonus with clawback provisions.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#77

Post by mojuba » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:20 PM UTC

voodoomagicman wrote: post #67

potatolicious wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The accelerometer and gyroscope. The double integral of acceleration is displacement. On iPhones/iOS it's extremely accurate to the point where you can integrate displacement from it and not be far off from the real result - over short timespans/distances anyways. One of the lesser-appreciated qualities of Apple hardware (more accurately, hardware and drivers) is the quality and accuracy of their sensors.

I have tried this as well - it was definitely not as simple as taking the double integral. In my experience moving and the stopping the phone would always end up with the two accelerations not exactly canceling out so that the calculated position would drift away from the true position at a constant rate. Even applying a floor to velocity to eliminate the drift, the distances calculated for simple linear motions were…

> off by ~50%

You should get different results on different phones, but I don't think it would ever be reasonably precise on any one device.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#78

Post by piqufoh » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:20 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #45

MCRed wrote: post #41

For a period I was heavily recruited by google. Their recruiters tried a great many variations of attempts to trick me into interviewing for a job. It seems weird that they would do this, because pretty soon, it would become obvious that it was a job interview and nothing more. Maybe there are a lot of talented engineers out there who are doing startups but aren't really committed to them and google manages via the f…

I don't see why it's a scam. Isn't an "aqui-hire" pretty standard practice these days?

It's a scam because the author didn't believe there was any 'acqui' part of the 'acqui-hire'. He believed the proposition of an acquisition was a fabrication intended to lure him in for an interview.

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#79

Post by mathattack » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:21 PM UTC

api wrote: post #44

"It’s a ridiculous idea — touch your phone against each wall and get a floor plan." Uhh... no it's not. Make that actually work and show it to some architects, interior designers, and real estate people. Be sure to have a mop on hand for drool.

Great for moving too.

I could have used this when apartment hunting to show floor plans to my spouse. (Much better than just pictures)

Re: Hi, It’s Google Corporate Development

#80

Post by wuliwong » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC

manifesto wrote: post #58

wuliwong wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how this still isn't two million dollars? I guess if you subtract the salary this person could be making if they paid him $2M up front and let him walk away?

Time value of money, which in short summarized as "money available at the present time is worth more than the same amount in the future due to its potential earning capacity." [0] [0] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/timevalueofmoney.asp

I see what you are saying. But the factor I mentioned I think is more of a loss than the time-value loss. Basically, would you take $2M up front but then no salary for 4 years or $2M spread over four years but you still can earn your salary (which in this case I would assume is at least $150K/year).