Disqus - Latest Comments for Devolver

Re: VentureBeat is looking for a Director of Sales

Devolver — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:54:27 -0000

That makes three. It's on.

Re: The Seasteading Institute encourages floating nations, hosts conference

Devolver — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:24:00 -0000

That is indeed the question. The idea, I believe, is that any seastead can try out any social arrangement it wants. It follows that those that fail to make a workable environment for their citizens will lose their populations to others that do.

Re: Crowdsourcing the future: Can alternate reality game Superstruct help save the world?

Devolver — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:36:48 -0000

Thanks Nicola. Fixed.

Re: Argumentation: it's not just for trolls | Mark.

Devolver — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:15:49 -0000

It's way too early to get discouraged, my friend.

Re: At TechStars, twelve teams show that Boulder, CO, can produce some fantastic tech

Devolver — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:27:05 -0000

Good call. In fact, Occipital does not have face recognition, which I should have pointed out. It can detect other objects. Don't know how well it does with faces.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Devolver — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:19:47 -0000

Andy, I referred only to the winners I saw, not the whole group of finalists. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to talk about what you're up to.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Devolver — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:21:26 -0000

Indeed, I must work with what I have.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Devolver — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:50:17 -0000

It would be helpful if you could point out how they are innovative. For the record, I was not particularly impressed with nearly the majority of tc50.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Devolver — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:49:05 -0000

Noted. Their website is still listed as Babuki. Kyko is looking at multi-player social games. FIxed.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Devolver — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:47:52 -0000

Competition is essential for spurring innovation. I'm just not sure it makes sense to devote resources in areas where the payoff is questionable to begin with.

Re: Dopplr lands on the radar of some of the internet’s bigger names, raises cash

Devolver — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:17:57 -0000

John, you are correct. Thanks!

Re: Search engine Cuil is valued at absurdly high level of $200M, despite flop

Devolver — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:12:13 -0000

To be fair Cuil, their indexing technology is still probably quite valuable. $200M valuable? Yeah, no.

Re: LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Devolver — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:15:30 -0000

Stephen, I think you're overreacting. It's not clear that LiveStub is encouraging the sale of "unverified, usually counterfeit tickets to unsuspecting buyers." Morten Lund is not an idiot.

It is true that there is an affiliate relationship with TicketWebs, which I think LiveStub should make clear, but it's not the site's core long term business model. I added an update to the site when I found this out and I made it clear that the site's interface is misleading. But the whole operation is not a scam.

Re: LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Devolver — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:01:42 -0000

It is more complicated. It's not an affiliate site, but it did seed its database with TicketsNow's listings. LiveStub hopes to build up its own ticket database, which will charge no commission.

Re: LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Devolver — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:13:23 -0000

Peter,

I do still think the model is solid and that it offers more transparency than its competitors. I am just put off by the labels suggesting the data comes from LiveStub, when it doesn't.

Re: LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Devolver — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:44:28 -0000

Martin, you are right. That is too harsh. There are some reasons for it, but I think the interface is somewhat misleading, since it labels LiveStub as the source when you do a search.

Re: LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Devolver — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:07:24 -0000

It seems you are right. This is not how the company presents itself at all. See above for correction.

Re: LiveStub hopes to nuke StubHub, others, with commission-free scalping

Devolver — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:44:26 -0000

John,

I checked myself and indeed you are right. I've reached out to the company for an explanation and will update when I get one.

Re: Fliqz and Kaltura bring video capability to the masses, make Brightcove’s prices look insane

Devolver — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:05:47 -0000

I'm not sure you read closely enough. I point out that Fliqz and Kaltura are going after markets "that Brightcove and its ilk have all but ignored,", but Fliqz and (especially) Kaltura represent a trend towards the commoditization of the space. I'd say this is a serious challenge, any way you look at it.

Re: Google-backed SeedFund injects $1 million into Lifeblob, but this start-up may be DOA

Devolver — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:11:58 -0000

If you can make the interface terrific, the concept becomes more interesting. I'll keep my eye on Lifeblob, and feel free to keep me posted on significant developments.

Re: Just a touchpad and a screen: A grand unified theory of Apple’s next big move

Devolver — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:40:29 -0000

Good point. It could be much more mundane. My forecast could be off by a few releases but, like you, I think Apple will change the PC game with something like I've described.

Re: Just a touchpad and a screen: A grand unified theory of Apple’s next big move

Devolver — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:07:37 -0000

Sounds plausible. It would certainly be a let down, though.

Re: Just a touchpad and a screen: A grand unified theory of Apple’s next big move

Devolver — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:04:55 -0000

Another interesting possibility. I'm not sure this would constitute a major product transition, though. I think an ultra-mobile may be in Apple's roadmap, but I think this change (whatever it is) will roll through the entire Macbook product line.

MG has suggested that Apple sell software (among other things) through the App store, and I think you are both on to something there.

Re: Just a touchpad and a screen: A grand unified theory of Apple’s next big move

Devolver — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:54:45 -0000

Mark: To me, the killer app is never having to move my hands from keyboard to mouse/trackpad every time I want to input a command. I use a lot of hotkeys, but those are not intuitive to most people and I don't like having to learn a new set of them for everything.

That said, your point about interactive media is quite interesting. It certainly would be a great use of multi-touch and I imagine we will see something like this in the future. As MG pointed out to me, Robert Cringley has a similar take as you do, and his argument is solid.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_...

Re: Just a touchpad and a screen: A grand unified theory of Apple’s next big move

Devolver — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:35:45 -0000

Tom, you raise an excellent point. Unless the multi-touch language is as simple, quick and fun to learn as the iPhone, it will face a problem of mainstream acceptance. I think if Apple does make a bold move like this, they will have to make it almost effortless to learn. A 20 minute tutorial might get the ball rolling, and I'd tolerate a short learning curve if I never had to learn another set of hotkeys.

So this raises a good argument against my theory. I do think that that the mouse's time approaches its end, but perhaps it might not happen as soon as I think. One way acclimate users to the new touch language may be to give them a stepping stone. This would give weight to the theory of an enlarged touchpad that supports a broad touch dictionary, but doesn't require you to use it alone.