What Happens Next Will Amaze You • Hacker News Board

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#81

Post by iyn » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:31 PM UTC

hliyan wrote: post #29

This seemed a bit uncalled for: "Here's Elon Musk. In a television interview this week, Musk said: "I'm trying to do useful things." Then he outlined his plan to detonate nuclear weapons on Mars . These people are the face of our industry." Italics mine.

I think this is the source of Musk's "claim": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV6hP9wpMW8

Musk just said that there are 2 options how to warm up Mars: the fast way and the slow way, Colbert asked about the fast way so Musk mentioned Thermonuclear weapons. IMO the quote in the presentation is not honest.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#82

Post by zeeZ » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:34 PM UTC

pja wrote: post #22

rplnt wrote: post #14

I know HN is pedantic about original titles, but shitty ones like this are better to be edited.

In this case, the URL alone is enough to tell you that it’s probably worth reading.

Personally, the title just told me that it's probably one of those "you won't believe what happens next" YouTube videos.

The URL told me that it's probably a talk (maybe about that category of videos?) using words that don't do anything.

Skimming the first screen worth of text led me to the conclusion that it must be about privacy or hacking.

And here I see comments about advertising?! Two or three words, one being "Talk", the other being whatever this is actually about, would have helped tremendously here.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#83

Post by AndrewKemendo » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:37 PM UTC

mtbcoder wrote: post #66

Fiahil wrote: post #63

The company I work for is going to pivot towards re-targeting (we're making recommendation engines, now). So, I've come to explore a bit this new industry, and I am under the impression that it's completely rotten to the core. The reason? I have been in meetings where no one would blinked an eye (even, sometimes, applaud the idea) when people would ask if we could turn on a laptop's webcam, and read if a visitor have…

Just out of curiosity, how would turning on a web cam determine if a visitor saw an ad or not? I'm missing the logic.

You can very easily implement eye tracking to determine where they are looking.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#84

Post by benihana » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:43 PM UTC

mozumder wrote: post #2

The correct answer is to never use programmatic ads. Ever. If you own a site, just curate a set of ads on your site that actually enhances your sites appeal. A fashion site should have matching fashion ads. A tech site should have matching tech ads. A local site should have matching local ads. Reach out to advertisers to get these ads. Never use an algorithm. You, as an editor, should be better than the algorithms. A…

>The correct answer is to never

Ah sweet, it's that one commenter who can prescribe the absolute correct answer to very complex situations with a couple of simple platitudes! Since you seem to be in a mood to drop the correct answer, maybe you can help me with some difficult decisions I'm facing:

what programming language should I use?

what should the next move of my business be?

is she really the one, or should I move on?

Regardless of how good your advice is, proscribing a thing for every possible complex situation with the wave of a hand is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#85

Post by mdpopescu » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:50 PM UTC

soneca wrote: post #37

Very interesting analogy between VC and communist central planners. Makes a lot of sense.

Followed by a conclusion that communism would be the solution, which makes a lot less sense...

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#86

Post by Intermernet » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:54 PM UTC

So we're now at the point where Douglas Adams' Electric Monk[1], [2] idea becomes viable, except for watching ads, not for believing in things for you...

Someone should start an "advertising consumption as a service" company where we can pay a subscription to a 3rd party to provide software to consume all of the ads that would otherwise be targeted at the user! Some of that fee can then be sent to the original advertisers as a return on otherwise-lost advertising revenue!

Please note, that this in no way resembles a protection racket.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Gently%27s_Holistic_Detec...

[2]: http://theelectricmonk.com/ElectricMonk.html

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#87

Post by happyscrappy » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:55 PM UTC

renlo wrote: post #16

When websites become regulated web developers will be like the general contractors of today. Only licensed web developers will be able to legally build websites, keeping everything up to the regulatory code. There will be inspectors and red tape. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Well, in the US at least, there is a homeowner exemption, meaning that you can do the work unlicensed as the homeowner, it still has to be inspected though.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#88

Post by cpr » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:56 PM UTC

Oh, and these idealistic socialists you want to take over and transform San Francisco? Good luck dealing with them once they're in power. Oh, wait, doesn't SF already have a fairly socialistic city government? It's done so well for the quality of life...

The real problem is crony capitalism, where large corporations have captured government regulatory processes, and effectively work hand-in-glove to maintain control of world processes that only benefit the "elite".

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#89

Post by krisdol » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 12:59 PM UTC

mozumder wrote: post #2

The correct answer is to never use programmatic ads. Ever. If you own a site, just curate a set of ads on your site that actually enhances your sites appeal. A fashion site should have matching fashion ads. A tech site should have matching tech ads. A local site should have matching local ads. Reach out to advertisers to get these ads. Never use an algorithm. You, as an editor, should be better than the algorithms. A…

Intent-driven ads are far more relevant to a site's audience than hand-picked, static ones. They have much higher CTR and conversion rates, when done right. You're asking sites to remove sources of income that people find relevant in exchange for ads that some higher up in marketing thinks relates to its users.

Not all publishers subscribe to the low quality Google AdExchange. In fact, they typically have a variety of ad bids, and the highest bidding ads are chosen for placement programmatically.

Edit: I just visited vogue.com. Guess who served me my ad? doubleclick. It was relevant and I bet it was programmatic. Programmatic does not mean random. Ad placement programs have a lot more data to work with than any individual at the publisher. There's a lot more sense to it than manual prediction

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#90

Post by fjarlq » Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 1:01 PM UTC

kaybe wrote: post #53

mozumder wrote: post #2

The correct answer is to never use programmatic ads. Ever. If you own a site, just curate a set of ads on your site that actually enhances your sites appeal. A fashion site should have matching fashion ads. A tech site should have matching tech ads. A local site should have matching local ads. Reach out to advertisers to get these ads. Never use an algorithm. You, as an editor, should be better than the algorithms. A…

My current setup blocks almost all ads by simply blocking trackers. It's ridiculous, really, since there is no targeted adblocking going on. The only ads I see are native ones like you describe, and they're usually actually useful.

What blocker are you using, and what config?