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Main Area and Open Discussion => Living Room => Topic started by: kyrathaba on March 26, 2013, 07:09 AM

Title: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: kyrathaba on March 26, 2013, 07:09 AM

Kudos to Nick D'Aloisio (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/business/media/nick-daloisio-17-sells-summly-app-to-yahoo.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0), the 17-year old entrepreneur!

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/business/media/nick-daloisio-17-sells-summly-app-to-yahoo.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0)

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: mouser on March 26, 2013, 07:16 AM

Read the article and what it says he is being paid millions for.
Makes no sense to me.  Must be something more to what he is being paid for.
Then again, very little in this world regarding money makes sense to me so..

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: kyrathaba on March 26, 2013, 07:24 AM

Apparently he was financed since age 15 to create a startup to work on his Summly idea, backed by the likes of Ashton Kutchner, Yoko Ono, and some Hong Kong billionaire. I'd love to know the nitty-gritty backstory...

I'm sure this is just Yahoo's way of co-opting him, and being able to capitalize on the future of his tech innovations.

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: mouser on March 26, 2013, 07:36 AM

Yeah I'm not questioning the value of his company or his worth as an Entrepreneur.  Or rather, I think the value assigned to such things are ridiculously offensively out of line for everyone in this game, no reason he shouldn't get the same overinflated payouts as all of the other winners in this non-nonsensical lottery game we call capitalism.

I was mainly reacting to the focus of the article that the central value of his work is an algorithm that summarizes long form text.  Such algorithms have been an active area of reasearch in automated text processing systems for decades and it's inconceivable that he made anything but a token contribution to that field.

There may be many reasons why they are paying him so much and publicizing the fact so loudly -- but access to his algorithm for summarizing articles cannot have played a significant role, imho.

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: 40hz on March 26, 2013, 07:41 AM

Read the article and what it says he is being paid millions for.
Makes no sense to me.  Must be something more to what he is being paid for.
Then again, very little in this world regarding money makes sense to me so..

-mouser (March 26, 2013, 07:16 AM)

My exact feelings about most of what passes for "business" when it comes to the Internet.

From what I've seen, the clothes have no emperor more often than not. :-\

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: kyrathaba on March 26, 2013, 08:53 AM

no reason he shouldn't get the same overinflated payouts as all of the other winners in this non-nonsensical lottery game we call capitalism.

+1000!

We speak the same financial politics, it would seem.

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: AndyM on March 26, 2013, 09:23 AM

Or rather, I think the value assigned to such things are ridiculously offensively out of line for everyone in this game

-mouser (March 26, 2013, 07:36 AM)

right, we need to spend that money on football and baseball players  ;D

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: app103 on March 26, 2013, 09:59 AM

Or rather, I think the value assigned to such things are ridiculously offensively out of line for everyone in this game

-mouser (March 26, 2013, 07:36 AM)

right, we need to spend that money on football and baseball players  ;D

-AndyM (March 26, 2013, 09:23 AM)

Or.....

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: xtabber on March 26, 2013, 10:11 AM

Read the article and what it says he is being paid millions for.
Makes no sense to me.  Must be something more to what he is being paid for.
Then again, very little in this world regarding money makes sense to me so..

-mouser (March 26, 2013, 07:16 AM)

You are not alone: The NY Times reporter also clearly had no clue as to what D'Aloisio was being paid for, even though the article links to Kara Swisher's article in All Things D (http://allthingsd.com/20130325/yahoo-paid-30-million-in-cash-for-18-months-of-young-summly-entrepreneurs-time/) which has more to say on the matter.

As this Business Insider article (http://www.businessinsider.com/so--marissa-mayer-is-paying-a-17-year-old-30-million-to-be-yahoos-spokesman-for-18-months-2013-3) explains more fully, it's essentially a PR stunt, and it appears to be working. I have to give Marissa Mayer more credit than I had previously for knowing how to manipulate the mainstream media and dig herself out of a self-made hole.  Unfortunately, the NY Times reporting on tech matters is superficial, when it is not incompetent . Nothing new there -- it's been that way for at least 30 years and is not likely to change any time soon.

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: mouser on March 26, 2013, 10:16 AM

it's essentially a PR stunt,

Sounds right to me.  my radar went up when i saw Salon.com had an article about this (http://www.salon.com/2013/03/26/british_teen_hits_jackpot_sells_app_to_yahoo_ap/).. written by... Marissa Mayer.  So essentially salon.com is now just a stenographer of press releases masquerading as journalism?  Give me a break.
[edit: correction - see comment below by xtabber]

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: rgdot on March 26, 2013, 11:38 AM

What does Yahoo even have now? Search is not their product anymore, hasn't been for ages. Email and Instant messenger? I sure hope they do stuff I don't know about.
Marissa Mayer seemed at least a bit capable until she came up with the telecommuting restriction. For a company best known for email and IM that was funny, to me any way.

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: xtabber on March 26, 2013, 12:22 PM

it's essentially a PR stunt,

Sounds right to me.  my radar went up when i saw Salon.com had an article about this (http://www.salon.com/2013/03/26/british_teen_hits_jackpot_sells_app_to_yahoo_ap/).. written by... Marissa Mayer.  So essentially salon.com is now just a stenographer of press releases masquerading as journalism?  Give me a break.

-mouser (March 26, 2013, 10:16 AM)

That Salon article was NOT written by Marissa Mayer - it's an AP story that mentions her.  My guess is that someone at Salon meant to tag the article and stuck her name in the byline slot by mistake.

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: 40hz on March 26, 2013, 03:03 PM

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Then the Wizard turned to Dick D'Aloisio and said, "So you had an idea, and possibly came up with a minor technical innovation or two, but still haven't received the respect you feel due you? Why my geeky young friend, that's hardly surprising! Unrecognized innovation is almost proverbial.

Now where I come from, we have men called 'entreprenuers.' That's a french word meaning 'opportunist.'

These men posses all the wealth and adulation that were once reserved for those who actually created or discovered great things. And they had no more cleverness or innovative ability than you have. But what they did have was something called 'buzz' - and an entourage..."

 :-\

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: Renegade on March 26, 2013, 03:22 PM

@40hz - HAHHAAHA~! ;D  :Thmbsup:

When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular — and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.

Well, that tells me he's got to be one of the good guys! :D

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: Tinman57 on March 26, 2013, 08:17 PM

  I saw the story on Headline News this morning and was shaking my head in disbelief.  There has to be more to it than one little app that shortens articles.

kyrathaba, nice to see another supporting EFF member....

Title: Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!
Post by: kyrathaba on March 27, 2013, 06:41 AM

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kyrathaba, nice to see another supporting EFF member....

@Tinman57: Indeed, let us forge ahead :)