Hacker News Reader

Comment by mhashim | Hacker News Reader

Yaaa....I think this flew over your head. You are saying that, for example, Wolfram Alpha is like Google. They are completely different: One gives you links that you still have to go through to reach what you need and one gives you a direct answer. Even Woz said in his interview on TC...we don't need search engines, we need answer engines. To say Siri is a search engine with voice to text is a great mistake. Voice recognition is just the outer layer that makes the experience a human experience.

I don't take the words of the author as a prophecy but I see where he is going; and isn't that what science fiction authors kinda did 20-30 years ago? They dreamt; and I wish more people can dream of greater possibilities.

View on HN

And I think that my post flew over your head. Wolfram Alpha and Google are different, sure, but at the end of the day they're simply algorithms that take requests, process the data to find the best answers they know how, and return results. That's it. To call those, Siri, or anything else more than that is intellectually dishonest.

Siri might be a great interface, and I bet it's really handy to be integrated into applications. I'm not hating on the concept or the product; it just annoys the hell out of me when people pretend it's something it's not. It shows a lack of understanding about how these things work.

Remember the hype about the Segway? "Walking is obsolete!" some people proclaimed. It turns out people didn't end up liking it because it made them look like lazy idiots. Do you really envision having a conversation with your phone, saying things like "I feel like Italian food today"? I don't. If I feel like Italian food, I'm going to ask my handy device where I can get some. And my phone does that without the "magic" of Siri.

The biggest problem with the Segway is that you look like a total dork using it.

Do people on motorcycles look like lazy idiots? You totally missed the reason why it failed.

Motorcycles tend to kill a nice proportion of its users so lazy is not the first association really. So it is: Too young or reckless to use a car.

With segways its more like: Too lazy to get on a bicycle.

Ok, what about skateboards? If you ride one downhill you barely need to use energy.

Yes but they are not generally seen as mere transportation. If you use it as that you kinda look like you are a overgrown teenager. If you use it as a platform for tricks and jumps it is again fairly dangerous. This time not in lives lost but in bones broken.

When I see Tony Hawks Segway Pro in the shelves because people want to do those tricks but are afraid to break their bones, then maybe then Segways will be cool. All I see on the horizon is "Ride your Segway like Woz" the iPhone App that really only plays 3 videos (But you know how hard it is to get a video into iTunes).

You use a reasonable amount of energy skateboarding. I would guess 300-500 cal/hr depending on what you are doing. You'll notice there are no fat skateboarders. The Segway didn't take off for a combination of factors. It looks lame, there's no place you can ride it legally, it costs the same as a motorcycle but you can't finance it, etc.

"The biggest problem with the Segway is that you look like a total dork using it."

And you'll look like a dork telling your phone that you like Italian food.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com