Hacker News Reader

Comment by teyc | Hacker News Reader

For hackers, this is how PR is done. The hook is Steve Balmer's flying chair, but the aim of the stsory is to position Cloud Foundry as what Microsoft isn't. Very well done. If anything it might convince people to take a closer look at it.

I had downloaded cloud foundry when it was announced but did little with it. I might have a closer look again.

View on HN

As I was reading that story I was imagining the pitch email that was sent by VMWare's PR team to this journalist.

Sometimes it is a little too artificial. You are right though, if you give most writers an interesting hook, they will use it and then recite the remainder of your pitch deck almost verbatim (as in this case)

Don't be so sure this started as a PR pitch...Cade has been covering Cloud Foundry and Appfog since they adopted Cloud Foundry, see all of his articles about it over at the Register, example: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/13/appfog_adds_ruby_and...

You haven't read Metz' past work if you think he's reciting a blind pitch. Don't talk out of your ass.

If you want to give it another try, email me at jeremy@appfog.com and I'll set you up with a private beta account. We're committed to making it as easy as possible to get started.

Any inside info on Python support? It seems a curious omission when they run node, ruby, and java.

Edit: Just saw that AppFog offers a wider range of technologies than the CloudFoundry page mentions.

Python support is forthcoming. Email me at jeremy@appfog.com if you'd like to discuss in more detail.

I highly recommend this 2005 PG essay on PR: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html Very enlightening.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com