Hacker News Reader

memnipson FTC Approves Instagram Acquisition

I was the "now worth $747 million" commenter! I mean - at closing today - it's worth that. As in, if they could sell their newly owned stock today that's what they would have.

The original deal was "valued" at $1bn. It closed at a value closer to $747 million.

Instagram is doing just fine either way.

memnipson Stop Fooling Around, Jump Into Search, And Triple Your Stock Price

I've been assuming they'd do this for years, and they haven't, which makes me think they actually won't be doing this at all. Perhaps their stock performance will change that.

Additional thought: This could really help them monetize mobile which may actually push it to be a possibility. They have tons of trouble monetizing mobile users (and see the shift as more users access the service that way), so if they could nail local search it could be a huge win for them.

memnipson Show HN: Get an email when press, investors, or competitors use your app

Just curious, but do you think this gets creepy at any point? Is this your expectation if you sign up with your company's email for a service you're reviewing?

memnipson FTC Approves Instagram Acquisition

The deal is now worth $747 million. Congrats, Instagram. :)

memnipson Will Foursquare Be Marissa Mayer’s First Big Acquisition At Yahoo?

I hope not! Mayer needs to work on fixing Yahoo from the inside-out. I want to see Yahoo start launching some interesting products on their own.

memnipson How we open sourced Instagram

I think that's what is commonly picked up on, but I think Instagram's magic actually comes from how frictionless it is to share a photo and use the service. The photo filters are a part of that - the fun and quirky part - but its actually not what makes it special imo.

memnipson How we open sourced Instagram

The title feels a bit sensationalist. Yes, some open sourced iOS live filters are totally cool, but this really has nothing to do with Instagram.

Instagram is more than some photo filters.

memnipson Why I’m uninstalling Windows 8

There is no "old school mode" left. There are third party utilities to bring back things like the classic start menu, to disable booting into Metro, etc., but it cannot simply be disabled.

memnipson Why I’m uninstalling Windows 8

Having extensively used Windows 8, I completely agree with every point raised in this article. Using Windows 8 on the desktop might actually be migraine inducing. All of these little pain points build-and-build to utter frustration.

What I find disappointing is that Microsoft has essentially stopped trying to innovate on the desktop. They built a tablet OS, slapped it on top of their desktop OS, and are forcing desktop users into it to ensure they get the eye balls they require build a new app ecosystem.

memnipson How Instagram Could Have Cut a Better Deal

Why do you think this will end up being a shitty deal for Instagram?

memnipson How Instagram Could Have Cut a Better Deal

Instagram "no longer" a $1 billion sale would perhaps be more accurate. Still quite impressive for a zero-revenue service.

memnipson Why isn’t Twitter charging for their API?

I think they are strategically working towards that end. If they simply turned them off they'd be alienating Twitter users who use those apps and it would lead to lots of bad press.

Instead they're stunting their growth and signaling the beginning of the end.

memnipson Former OnLive Employee Describes 'Bizarre All-Hands Meeting'

'…and under this variation of bankruptcy which is valid in California the company as of this moment does not exist and portions of it are being acquired by a brand new entity but what that means is all of your options are gone.'

I would love to understand what this variation is and if it's actually legal from any lawyer types out there.

memnipson Why isn’t Twitter charging for their API?

It's because they want to build an advertising business and they don't want to compete with their developers. Twitter as a service is not the business they're in. They want direct access to their audience to increase their chances at monetization.

It makes perfect business sense, it just sucks.

memnipson I'm Pirating the Next Version of Windows

Microsoft Bizspark (http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/) gives startups that are less than 3 years old and earn less than $1M in annual revenue free MSDN Ultimate access.

That means free access to all of MS software. It's actually a really amazing program.

memnipson Open Source Visitor.js

It is now apparently Session.js https://github.com/codejoust/session.js

memnipson HTML5 Game Contest for Pokki - Win $30k + GDC trip

Thanks for the feedback. I would love to know if others agree with you.

memnipson HTML5 Game Contest for Pokki - Win $30k + GDC trip

Disclaimer: I am one of the founders of SweetLabs (the company behind Pokki).

There are no revenue sharing requirements for the use of third-party ad services and third-party payment providers at this time (though the providers must be approved - list forthcoming). We're still very much focused on developer and user adoption right now.

That said we will be offering our own monetization options next year and there will be very favorable rev-share requirements tied to those for developers.

You are essentially giving up very little beyond time to participate in this contest!

memnipson Winner of 2011 Google AI Challenge Describes Released Code

Unfortunately the link appears to be temporarily dead. Luckily before you read about his bot you should watch it play anyways!

Here are two replays of the same map. The first is played by average players and the second is played by xathis (and other top bots).

Avg: http://aichallenge.org/visualizer.php?game=335973&user=8... Top: http://aichallenge.org/visualizer.php?game=329760&user=4...