yalimgerger

Thanks. Could you tell me what they are please?

SEEKING FREELANCER, ISTANBUL, REMOTE OK. Hi,

We are Gerger (www.gerger.co), the creators of Formspider (www.theformspider.com), the Web 2.0 framework for Oracle PL/SQL developers. We are preparing a new version of our product and we would like to renew our product web site www.theformspider.com along with it.

Our product Formspider is for a specific group of developers namely, the Oracle PL/SQL developers. It's mainly used in mid to large size companies to build Budgeting, Accounting, Order Management, HR, ERP etc.. software.

Current Web site was done by us a year and a half ago. It's nice but building web sites is not our focus. The site is also showing its age.

Formspider impresses our users with its simple and elegant design. It is perceived as an unusually high quality, very innovative product built with care and attention to detail. We would like our new web site reflect these facts.

We want a simple yet beautiful design in our web site. Readable large fonts, excellent copyright, gorgeous pictures, icons and screen shots should provide a enjoyable experience to the visitor. We don't want run of the mill, stock photos, icons and text anywhere on the site. Each page needs to be individually crafted and be of excellent quality.

The entire goal of the web site is to reflect the high quality of our product.

Our favorite product, company web sites are www.apple.com (you should have seen this coming at this point :-) ) and http://www.fogcreek.com/fogbugz/

We've been struggling to find a freelancer or a team that can get this done. I thought of asking you on HN hoping that you can help.

Best, Yalim

I'd be interested in seeing them.

Did you do any startup/product web sites that are not in your portfolio on your web site?

Yes I noticed too. :-). Hope all is well with PlaceChallenge. I looked your work. Quite nice. Did you make any other product web sites other than PlaceChallenge web site?

Thanks. Will take a look at your site and get back to you.

Thanks Michal. I'll check out your web site and get back to you.

I'll check it out. Many thanks.

Thank you. We are not hiring. We are looking for a freelancer or a company to do the work. Would that still be the right place to post?

Hey the author again. :-). It is true that in the article, I did not explain why I think that the era of A.I. started on October 4th. The article starts with the assertion that it has begun and moves on from there. I guess more than anything, the article is a call for action. I wanted the discussion to start and it did.

If I can present my chain of thoughts leading up to my decision in an interesting way I may write another article called "Why I think Siri is the Next Big Thing".

But here is my chain of thought for the curious mind in a very crude way:

What I did was to observe the moves of Apple and try to figure out their strategy. I put together the information that is available on the Internet. I connected the dots.

I knew Apple bought Siri for about $200 mil. I knew about Siri's history. You don't buy voice recognition software for this price. I watched the Mossberg-Jobs interview where Mossberg keeps insisting that Siri is in the search area and Jobs keep correcting him saying no Siri is in the A.I. area. I watched how the critical question "What are you going to do with it?" got lost during the conversation. When Mossberg said that the iPad is great for consumption but not for creation, it was very clear that Jobs did not see it like that at all. I also watched some Apple videos from late 80's which depicts a professor talking to his computer and getting his daily business done. It seemed to me that they had this vision all along and now they were implementing it.

Then I realized how iCloud fits in to this all. With the introduction of Siri it was clear to me that the next frontier the competition is moving to is A.I. Apple is going all in. IBM is pushing hard. Apparently, Google is baking some stuff.

While I was thinking about all these and trying to find its meaning, the interview between Fred Wilson and Carlota Perez helped me to put it all in context.

I think this is the time to invest in A.I. If a VC expects huge returns from his investment in 5-7 years, I think A.I. is the right way to go. If an entrepreneur wants to do something amazing, I think A.I. is the right way to go. My speculation is in 1-2 years this is going to be all we talk about.

I think A.I. is where the puck is going now. I might be wrong, I might be right. We will know soon enough.

I have thoughts on the particular question you asked too. But I cannot cram every bit Of thought I have to one blog post. It would make a terrible article. This article makes a prediction baldly. It asserts a threshold in A.I. is crossed and it's implications will be big. Diverging into startup funding in this area would just not fit in well. That deserves its own post. :-)

It can work without special commands and gets context of a conversation.

True. Thank you for pointing that out. I missed it.

Hi Author here. Thank your for the harsh words. I guess I gotto take it to the chin.

Please allow me explain my point in another way. I think Siri is to A.I. what Apple II is to computers. Does this analogy explain what I am trying to tell better?

No, no and god no. Siri is not voice recognition. It is not even in the same universe as the voice control in Android.

And yes of course A.I. will use one or more search engines to look information up. But Google might not necessarily be one of them and consumers will not care two cents as long A.I. gets the job done. My point it that A.I. will fly over Google's moat unless it is Google's A.I.

I think it is. I view Siri as Apple II of personal computers. Siri crosses the threshold and I believe the race is on.

Hi, Author here. I think you make an excellent point. I think the revolution will start from small things where it is OK to make an error. Stuff like Siri does. Then it will move on to productivity tools or the like...where it is still OK to make a mistake. And A.I. will improve really fast, like the PC has improved. I think in 5-10 years we won't believe what we have accomplished. I think Siri crosses an important threshold.

Didn't know about Google. They might be working on something but I don't know of any production use of their A.I. software.

Yes, seriously. Siri is not voice recognition. Siri is not restaurant recommendation. Siri is A.I. I speculate that Apple is on the verge of making A.I. commonly available. I am sure you can imagine the possibilities. I speculate that this will change our lives as much as Internet has. In a not so distant future, we will look at the day Siri was announced as the moment in history it all began.

I speculate that this is the tipping point. This is going to be as big as...Internet.

Sure. Here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...

I am aware of Siri's history. Tablets, phones, personal computers are other peoples creation as well. Steve Jobs did...whatever he did to them. The same will happen with A.I. Sadly, he won't be with us when it all happens. But you should see the YouTube video where Mossberg and Jobs talk about Siri. Mossberg keeps saying that Siri is search. Steve keeps correcting him. No, Siri is A.I. Siri is A.I. You should see the look on his face.

I think you are spot on. I think this is the problem Siri has solved or will solve. People tend to underestimate Siri as a voice recognition system. Siri is A.I. . Given Apple's recent history I wager that they would never released Siri if they didn't believe that they are onto something. This is not some knock off voice recognition nonsense. This is A.I.

This goes far beyond searching for restaurants or wheather. Screw that noise. I am sure all of you can imagine the doors this opens in scientific research and analysis of data.

This will open a new era just like the Internet.

Tablets were a disaster before iPad. Smartphones were ridiculous prior to iPhone. Siri will have the same effect on A.I.

Tonara does this.

I worry that you are loading too much meaning to a suit and might be undercutting yourself subconsciously. What does a suit represent to you?

Not wearing proper attire to weddings and especially to funerals might also hurt people's feeling who are close to the deceased or the happy couple. I don't mean that you have to wear a suit for these occasions at all but during these events a proper attire is a sign of care and compassion.

I have also never seen anybody receive a negative remark for wearing a suit to a business meeting but I've seen the opposite often.

Hi, the author here. I think the last sentence you wrote sums it all up in a nutshell. However, most people just take the risk and show up like cowboys in first time meetings.

There is no correlation between wearing a suit and one's lack of self-esteem, trust to his company or whatever. Dressing up does not make you less confident (or more confident for that matter). By that logic, homeless people with shabby clothes must have the highest self esteem among all of us. There is a proper attire for every social event. For example, if you go to the beach you are expected to wear a swimsuit while you are swimming. Wearing a suit while swimming would be ridiculous. Doctors are expected to wear a white apron in the presence of patients. It would be weird if they still wear the apron in bed. Similarly, if you are having a first time business meeting with anyone, the safest way to play it is to wear a suit. It is the universally accepted dress code for meetings. Then, depending on the personality of the people you are meeting with, you can dress down in the next meetings.

It is best to play it safe. You can never go wrong with a suit. But if you are underdressed, it may work against you. These meetings are not the place to make a statement about life style. They are just meetings. As the saying goes: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

I just sent an actual email to an email address from Facebook messages. GMail treated as spam, which is kind of funny. :-)