
Google I/O 2013 - palebluedot
https://developers.google.com/events/io/#
======
stephen
I/O used to be worthwhile, 2-3 years ago, there were tons of technical talks I
was interested in.

Now it's just a dog & pony consumer technology show, and Google has so many
irons in the fire that each technology only gets a few, if any, talks.

They should go back to having a true developer conference, and have some other
conference for the big wigs to play Steve Jobs.

...but of course I'll try and get a ticket this year.

~~~
saurik
I have now been to every Google I/O, and I will say that this last year was
exceptionally disappointing (by which I mean that I feel like it fell off a
cliff as opposed to continuing a gradual decline). It used to be that you
could go to the "office hours" areas, which were setup like rooms full of the
developers that work on various projects, and kind of "hang out" with
developers, talking about use cases and issues you had run into.

Last year, these were replaced with "help desks", and while the people there
were very friendly (and while I really appreciated the one guy who went pretty
far out of his way to obtain a stock image for a Nexus 7 when it seemed like I
might have needed to flash one), all of the people identified themselves as
"developer relations", not "developers", and none of the people I had gotten
to know as key members of their team from previous I/O events were present.

(I also, like others, find the situation of "it is economically incorrect to
not attempt to go to I/O due to handouts" ludicrous, and I wish they would
stop doing it, even though I know it would make some of my friends who often
attend with me sad. Google has tried to improve the situation by having
handouts be given as part of talks and having the timing of central ones
staggarred across the days, but it doesn't solve the core problem that there
is no entrance cost to attending this conference.)

~~~
kinlan
Developer relations are normally engineers also on the product, but with more
of a focus on Working with external developers.

~~~
saurik
That has not been my experience with other companies (such as Amazon), and did
not seem to be the case for these people at Google I/O (whom I actually had a
conversation with about this). Regardless, there is a big difference between
someone working on something somewhere in the product and the people in charge
of each of the major subsystems (whichb is the specific experience from
previous years).

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smackfu
If they don't want demand to be insane, maybe they should stop giving away so
much hardware.

2012 free hardware: Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($300?), Asus Nexus 7 ($200), Nexus Q
($300), Samsung Chromebox ($330)

That's for a ticket price of $900.

~~~
objclxt
Putting the pros and cons of the free hardware aside, I'm not sure getting rid
of it would solve the demand problems. Apple charges $700 more for WWDC
tickets, give away no hardware, and it _still_ sells out in under two hours.

~~~
smackfu
I agree that you can't do anything if your raw demand is too high. But I think
free hardware creates artificial demand, where some people are there just to
get the hardware, and other people are there because the hardware makes the
financials a bit easier to swallow.

Personally, I don't own an Android device, but I'd probably sign up if I lived
in the area. It would be fun and I'd probably break even so why not?

~~~
sethist
What further exasperates the issue is the free hardware is often be kept by an
individual while the ticket price is paid by their employer.

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dysoco
I really want to see more Go talks this year, the Panel with Rob Pike and Ken
Thompson was bad-ass.

~~~
jemeshsu
Hoping that Google announce support of developing Android app using Go.

~~~
dysoco
Holy crap, that would be AWESOME. I really want to develop for Android, but I
hate Java with passion, and Scala doesn't seem like an option.

~~~
happy_dino
> and Scala doesn't seem like an option

Care to explain why?

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HorizonXP
Unfortunate, looks like I won't be going this year like I planned. It's
overlapping with BlackBerry Live, that goes from May 14-16 in Orlando.
Would've liked to have gone to both, since I love both platforms. Looks like
I'll just have to catch the Web casts again.

~~~
eclipxe
BlackBerry Live, yeah I'm sure whatever happens there will be relevant in
12-18 months. /s

~~~
RobAtticus
Yeah! Just like Google Wave is still relevant! And Google TV!

(Keynotes from a few recent Google I/Os.)

~~~
toomuchtodo
<https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ABBRY> RIM: $13.18/share

<https://www.google.com/finance?q=GOOG> Google: $799.71/share

Relevance? Spend your valuable time at the conferences of companies that have
a viable future.

~~~
suresk
Granted, Google's future is much brighter than RIM's at this point, but raw
stock price is a pretty bad way to convey that - it contains 0 information
beyond what it costs to acquire one share in the company.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Disagree. A company's stock price directly correlates to what the market
values the future earnings of the company at.

Company doesn't have a future? Down to zero with you.

~~~
suresk
Right, but you listed Google and RIM's stock price as though comparing the two
prices by themselves is significant. It isn't. RIM could have substantially
more shares outstanding than Google.

Comparing their market caps? A little better. Comparing how their prices have
changed over time? Probably a lot better. Comparing the two prices by
themselves? Useless.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Market caps:

RIM: 6.79B Google: 263.63B

Chart comparing their stock prices:
[https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1...](https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1361590123407&chddm=832048&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NASDAQ:BBRY&cmptdms=0&q=NASDAQ:GOOG&ntsp=0&ei=GzcoUdD0CIG6qgGgbg)

I believe the data I've added reinforces my original argument.

~~~
OGinparadise
What is your original argument? Microsoft is also worth over $200 Billion but
that doesn't mean Windows Phone is doing good. Or in other words, Google makes
their money by selling ads, largely on _desktops_. Raw stock prices or market
caps mean nothing.

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rubyrescue
Can someone who has been explain the value of attending?

~~~
cryptoz
I have not been. But I would expect a very large part of the value to be in
networking - being surrounded by top industry experts, market leaders, etc
will go a long way.

~~~
objclxt
Networking is definitely one of the main reasons. It's why I'd encourage
anyone who doesn't get tickets (so, given the odds, probably me and most
people here!) to stop by one of the local satellite events the Google user
groups run. They're good fun, and the larger ones live stream many of the
sessions.

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diego
I hope no startups that I invested in bother trying to go to Google I/O.

~~~
stanleydrew
Your comment is very intriguing. Do you mean as attendees or as partners in
the Developer Sandbox Showcase Thing that Google always set up? And also, why?

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cryptoz
There's certainly a profitable startup idea somewhere that targets improving
ticket sales and purchases for hot items. Google itself is absolutely
miserable in this area, and I think most other large sites are as well.

~~~
untog
I'm not sure this problem is solvable. The capitalistic response to Google I/O
tickets selling out is to increase the price until they don't. But that would
be a PR distaster for Google and likely be contrary to what they actually want
for their event.

A lottery, maybe?

~~~
grimlck
One way to solve it is to make people pass a quick programming test before
they can buy a ticket

~~~
xxpor
CAPTCHA: FizzBuzz edition.

~~~
chadscira
<http://codepen.io/icodeforlove/full/eudqF>

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lnanek2
Wish they would rent all of Moscone center instead of just Moscone West. I
clicked to buy a ticket the second it opened last time and still didn't get
one through that means. I was lucky enough to win a coding contest for my
ticket the year before and work for an OEM the next year, who seemed to get
some pity tickets because they kicked all the OEMs out to make more room for
fake living room setups for the Q.

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jacquesc
Prediction: Google IO will be heavily focused on Google Glass and they give
everyone at the conference a free pair.

Hope they do this because I want to see some amazing Google Glass apps when
they launch this year.

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rdl
I wonder what the odds are for a free Pixel this year.

~~~
mtgx
Doubt it. But they might offer the next-gen ARM one and some other devices.

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donniezazen
How does Google verify Academic tickets?

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Shank
You present a transcript or student id at the door after ordering. You'll be
turned away if you show up empty handed, however.

~~~
donniezazen
2012 webpage says proof of enrollment which can only be verified with a
transcript. Student ID can be old.

