sjsivak's comments

Looks awesome

Here is the demo we showed at PAX Prime back in August: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj4aa9dhKdo

The most important part of this post is the github repository: http://github.com/proletariatgames/HUGS

"This library includes Haxe externs for Unity and .NET frameworks, generated via the cslibgen utility. It also includes the HUGSWrapper "using" class, which includes various things to work around Haxe/C# translation issues, as well as make working with Unity easier."

The organic install part of this calculation seems pretty suspect. In order to get the organic lift mentioned in the article the app would need to be pretty highly ranked _and_ likely sustain that rank for a while before getting 65%-100% the additional installs.

Whenever running a burst campaign it is important to follow it up with sustained installs afterwards to try and maintain the rank for as long as possible to attempt to get some of the organic lift mentioned. It does not simply happen instantly.

This is so incredibly wrong in so many ways. Many developers were seduced into social games because people loved them and it seemed like a new frontier and a new market with shorter development cycles and interesting challenges. It is easy to have great hindsight but a few years ago the game industry looked very different. Zynga has had a few games be reviewed quite well, but nobody ever seems to remember them.[1][2]

As a former Zynga employee that came in through acquisition, I find it repulsive that people assume we are all responsible for the poor decisions of a few at the top. Most of us worked our asses off to try to make something awesome, but ended up having to compromise in the worst possible ways to satisfy the top brass or poorly understood metrics.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/31/zynga-channels-settlers-of-... [2] http://kotaku.com/5836588/adventure-world-is-zyngas-take-on-...

From the headline you would think this is about talent being drained away from VCs, but it is just an interview with Danielle Morrill about her Zombie VC post.

I recently ran into an issue with D&B misspelling our company name. This was a massive hassle and I made over 6 phone calls to them and they kept on saying there was one more thing that had to be updated and it would be another 7-14 days. Each time I only found out that the update was not complete because I would call Apple to figure out why the iTunes Connect account was locked.

I finally got fed up and sent this tweet: https://twitter.com/sjsivak/status/276826269377765376. They called me the next morning and fixed it that day.

It can be, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if you focus only on academics you foster students that are only good at one thing. I might be cynical, but getting good grades in a class does not mean you are good at the subject material or can apply it anywhere beyond the classroom.

How many people make 6 figures for studying for and taking standardized tests every day?

I think it is awesome that Cal Tech is so singularly focused on academics, it shows serious devotion.

However, I think most people would agree that academics are not the only thing that matters for success, either personally or professionally.

What is the "usual metric bar with which games are critiqued"? I am pretty sure that is your opinion because there is no metric bar that all games are measured against.

Game reviews do not use a good game checklist to explain why a game is good or bad, they give their opinion. You can say Zynga games are bad, but supposing that your opinion should apply to everyone is arrogant.

You are just not the target audience. If Zynga games were not fun to everyone, no one would play them. Just because you do not find them amusing does not make them bad games.

I don't like the My Little Pony games aimed at 6 year old girls, but I won't say they are bad because I know I am not a 6 year old girl.

I tried this, and I could only make it work when the phone was without a case. When I touched the metal directly I could make the signal go from 5 bars to 2 bars. With the case on I could not make it change at all.

EDIT: this was holding it with my left hand, I did not try it right handed.

There is a traveling exhibit about Jim Henson that has plenty of content like this. Recently there was a movie showing of his commercial work and other experimental films that were fascinating.

Check out the Smithsonian exhibit here: http://www.sites.si.edu/henson/

I suppose, but many of my friends completing their MBA's at the time had the exact same experience going into executive positions. I guess those people would still be "young executives", so they don't fit your argument either. Is this just applicable to a very small audience?

I think this really depends on your situation. I was able to get a job in Boston during my final semester at CMU, mostly because it was clear I planned to move by a deadline no matter what.

Is it just me or does that thing look like a headcrab: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Headcrab.jpg

To be fair, they are allowing customers to grandfather their pricing for a year: https://support.zendesk.com/entries/173169-new-grandfatherin...

However:

> "As a result, the new pricing reflects the added business value of each individual plan."

I read that entire post and I was unable to find the added business value, these features all seem like they should be part of the product not really premium stuff.

Cooking is probably my favorite hobby, I love doing something with my hands and really feeling accomplished when I make a great meal.

This may sound childish, but I also really enjoy building and playing with LEGOs. I just have a few sets but I constantly rebuild them and I find it is an interesting thing to do while listening to music.

I have been a longtime supporter of the EFF but I think they should stay out of this. The knee-jerk response related to journalistic privilege seems incorrect and as time goes on it is becoming very clear crimes were committed.

Maybe I misread the article, but it looks like the Fortune PR person never, ever states that TechCrunch is only supposed to post portions of the excerpts. This is the closest I could find:

> And if you don’t mind, once you’ve read the excerpts, please let me know if you choose not to post on one and not the other or both, which of course we would love.

Now, IANAL but nowhere in there does it say to not post the excerpts.