Not having the chance to try Google Checkout as a Canadian merchant (it wasn't available to Canadian merchants at the time we made our payment solution decision), I'm reminded of a very early quote from Max Levchin when he discusses one of the first years after Paypal launched.
The quote attributed almost the entire first year of Paypal to fraud. Running and managing 3 CPA campaigns I can now understand why, it seems like everyone with a (stolen) credit card tries to extract the money through online scams.
It should have been clearly visible at the time that choosing Google Checkout would have been a risky decision as a merchant because Google was going to inevitably go through some of the same growing pains. Luckily for us, we dodged that bullet - but by no means is payment integration and fraud detection easy.
At the risk of being a shameless karma whore, let me note that Levchin's interview in Founders At Work is great and includes a lot of discussion of this issue. Here's a quote that leaps out at me today:
LEVCHIN: It's one of those things where, in the end, fraud is so nondeterministic that you need a human or a quantum computer to look at it and sort of make a final decision, because, in the end, it's people's money. You don't really want some computer saying "$2.00 for you, nothing for you." You need a human with a brain to say, "Hmm. This looks like fraud, but I really don't think it is."
... and here I thought a health related topic got to #2 on Hacker News based on the merit of maintaning a healthy lifestyle in addition to being a successful worker.
FWIW, if anyone has yet to discover the joy of swimming (and the potential impact it will have on your abs), I recommend you try it.
I will exercise the day I can check my body into a version control system. Until that day exercise is a waste of time since you must do it over and over again.
Just got back from Melbourne, (Toronto, ON), loved it and will return, and I just kept thinking 'If there was a start-up culture in Melbourne, I'd move there in 2 seconds!' - and now there are 6 responding to the thread, :)
Melbourne / Geelong here too! I was impressed when I put the SB blog post above together too. There is a nice range of events happening, and a good amount of code happening too :)
This bug has been around for at least 6 months, ever since just after the last major Facebook Profile redesign that moved profiles towards the 'Boxed' design.
For me, the bug lasted for at least an hour, or at least enough time for me to notice the bug, re-create a few friends lists, and browse a couple profiles. The next day when I logged on things were completely back to normal - AND my old friend lists had been restored.
One of the first things I noticed was that my friends lists had been deleted - and subsequently they no longer applied to photos privacy settings. Unfortunately I don't remember how or why I noticed this, maybe it was part of the exploratory feeling you get when something gets deactivated for a week and you want to make sure everything is OK.
The situatation also applied to my friends whose friends lists I was on. For example, if my friends didn't allow anyone to see tagged photos, I couldn't see their photos. But if my friend had just not allowed their 'Work friends' list to see their photos, and I was a Work friend, I could see their photos because my account no longer appeared under their friends lists entitled 'Work friends' - at least that's what I presume to have happened.
I do not recall if this affected the Networks as well. I don't recall if I was able to see normally private photos from strangers in other regional, high school or University networks. If it did, I probably would have a recollection of it because I did do some experimenting to see how far the bug extended.
Did I find any steamy secrets? Yes, in the form of insights into the nature of the human spirit and desire for privacy. And no, in regards to the underwhelming nature of photos. I should probably hang around in more exciting circles.
Would you consider a pageview decrease a downside? Even though they may lose some ad revenue (I don't know the details), their bandwidth costs may dip a bit, and ads aren't their real path to monetization anyway. I'm not sure it really matters as much to their long-term vision as apps.
We paid $420/mo. for shared office space at the heart of Toronto's tech centre, courtesy the great guys at Lyricfind Inc. We had more than enough amenities wise. In fact all we needed was wireless Internet, 2 desks and 2 chairs and a bathroom.
It was VERY nice to have access to a meeting room and kitchen, and great location. I didn't even think of having a communal printer or fax. I just did all the printing from home. We also used a very 1.0 key system that was fine.
With regards to this turning a profit, the same idea was tried a couple of years ago in Toronto and it was actually making a profit. I believe it was called something like 'Indoor playground' or 'Digital Playground' but I can't find a website or link. The last I heard was that it was closed down due to a problem with the landlord being a dick, not running out of money. The founder also went on to do greater things.
