maximusprime

Do you really need training to say "I'm pushing the stick backwards now", "what are you doing over there?" etc

Surely that sort of basic communication about what you're doing should be one of the first things you learn...

Would you also like to cut off your legs and replace them with computer controlled wheels?

Once again HN and techies in general are a ridiculously small percentage of the population. Normal people do not see things the same way.

You're assuming that having driverless cars is more desirable than having human controlled cars. I doubt most people see it that way.

Seriously doubt it, and I don't want to live in that world...

In any event, it's as likely as seeing people riding segways all over the place.

Driverless cars will never go mainstream. It's not something the masses want or need. Just a project for techies to have fun doing for the sake of doing it.

Where the hell do you get that idea?

Most traffic in the US is caused by the lack of roundabouts.

scary how incompetent they seem

I don't think that's the explanation. Reddit is also heavily anti-corporation, anti-advertising, anti-mainstream. It's just the culture on HN and Reddit.

I've always been a hacker, tweaker etc. But I can't imagine how anything would work without advertising. And it's not something I find annoying or have trouble filtering out. It's like if you're walking down a street, and you see all the shop signs... If you're not interested, just keep walking.

Thanks for clarifying... my bad.

Still, it's not really a cause I value.

Trying to speak reason to HN on this is a lost cause. Look at the results of the poll so far:

About 65% of HN use an adblocker. The general online population, only about 1% use an adblocker.

HN is heavily heavily biased away from advertising. HN also mistakenly probably thinks it's because they're "early adopters" or more "technical". The truth is more like HN is in a bubble, anti-mainstream etc. If you did a poll on here to find out how many people watched American Idol, you'd probably find similar results - but that wouldn't mean HNers were 'ahead of the curve', it'd just mean HNers aren't "mainstream".

Get out of your bubble HN. Do what your potential users do - view ads. Maybe even buy a TV as well!

> The technique isn't quite there yet.

Ads generate $billions online. They work.

1% of the online population block ads. It's not really a problem outside places like HN where the majority detest ads.

Amongst the general online population it's about 1%.

Judging from the results here so far, it's pretty clear that a large amount of HNers are in that minority.

It's PR. And it worked - got to the top of HN and probably sent around other places. It's just an advert for mint.

OK, I guess I'm a completely different use case. Why multiple credit cards for purchases? Why don't you buy things using a debit card?

Is Reddit profitable yet?

I guess possibly, but I still don't understand the need. I have quite a few accounts, but they're all for different purposes. Seeing them "all together" would make little sense for me, since they are different entities.

It's a step up. I think they used to use silverlight to show code snippets.

Same with wikipedia. It's ironic that the current "Please donate to wikipedia" banners actually annoy me FAR more than little relevant adverts would.

Maybe scanning books in or archiving live concerts or saving some geocities pages is something you're interested in, but I'm skeptical it's really preserving history for the good of mankind.

An HSBC security device is absolutely useless unless you know all the other details needed to login. That's kinda the whole point of it...

I personally don't see the need for mint.

The fact that the OP is signed "The collections team", seems to imply they also spend a fair amount of money to raise more money.

Archiving things on the internet undoubtedly is useful/interesting. But really there's no reason they couldn't generate revenue for themselves.

But it's not for example saving lives. So personally, I think there are far more deserving charities in need of donations.

There's people dying out there...

160 employees? that seems like a lot to me. So no, sorry, I'm not going to donate. I'd rather donate to charities that really need money.

Mint wouldn't work in the UK. Our online banking is secure. It seems that in the US most online banking is just secured with a password! :o

BS. Advertising is useful and informative, and I choose which interest me and which don't. If you can't ignore things that don't interest you, then you have problems.

Walk down a city street. It's full of adverts for shops you might want to go in.

Apologies yes you're right.

Often in terms of websites that exist on the internet.

Rarely in terms of ones that are mentioned on hackernews.

The terminology is not good.

"Free website" often means "hugely profitable website"

> No one is ignoring advertising revenue, harvesting millions of users in order to bring in said advertising revenue is the problem.

Why is it a problem? So they show me a few adverts... big whoop. I can just ignore them.

The issue is, the vast majority of people will never pay for access to online websites/apps (Me included). If you restrict yourself to the business model "charge users", then you've just got rid of 99% of the online population.

Advertising means that everyone gets what they want (Apart from the very very small but overly vocal minority that don't like adverts or have privacy concerns).

That's a false choice.

Using google to search doesn't make me a "product". They just happen to be able to make a ton of money showing adverts, which are useful for me also.

Ignore advertising revenue at your own cost.

But OTOH, this is hackernews, so continue hating advertising lead business models as usual...

Doesn't really mention the fact you can make far more from showing your users a few adverts. (Disclaimer: I do).

It's 37signals. If you haven't heard of them before, you're incredibly lucky to be even allowed to view the webpage of the hipster gods. Let alone get a beta invite.