
Google I/O 2012 - mikesaraf
https://developers.google.com/events/io/
======
rdl
I wish they'd take a small number of tickets (10? 100?) and auction them off,
with the surplus over retail price going to charity.

In general I think all sold out/exclusive events should do this kind of thing;
it raises hype, makes the people who get a ticket for normal price feel like
they got a deal, and helps the charity. Anyone willing to spend e.g. $10k of
their own or a company's money to attend is likely to have some value at the
event as well (investor? lawyer?).

You don't want to do this for all the tickets, or even a large number of
tickets, because having all 5k people be from Fortune 500 companies willing to
spend $5k/ticket makes it a lot less interesting than an event with mostly
independent developers, but 100 out of 5000 isn't going to change things much,
either.

~~~
rbanffy
The best way to make developers go is to lower prices and _not_ give away
fancy, unique, unavailable elsewhere hardware.

You can also make passing a small programming test a requirement.

~~~
elithrar
> You can also make passing a small programming test a requirement.

But you also want a few key journalists, and you want designers and other non-
programming types: you can't make exceptions for them re: this hypothetical
test, because then it calls into question the purpose of this test.

I think they should just sell the tickets, first-come, first-served. Keep the
price reasonable, but high enough to discourage people from buying them "just
because".

~~~
rdl
Journalists are almost always special cased to events in general -- it's
assumed they're not participating in the same way as everyone else, are
generally poor/without budget, but are key to the event. Taking care of
journalists (with a press room, a senior enough contact to help them with
things, etc.) is key to making your event a success. The hard part is
credentialing journalists -- it's a great hack to say "I'm a blogger" or "I
have a YouTube channel" and get into a conference for free and be treated as a
VIP. I've had great fun at an arms fair doing that :)

------
cr4zy
Looks like no preregistration for past attendees like previous years:

[https://plus.google.com/111395306401981598462/posts/Ty3M5UDd...](https://plus.google.com/111395306401981598462/posts/Ty3M5UDdtVZ)

 _Ruben Orduz - +Google Developers No pre-registration for past attendees?
Also confirmation about no test for registration would be much appreciated._

 _Google Developers - Just to confirm, registration will be first come, first
served on March 27th. We spent a lot of time thinking about this and decided
that first come, first served is the fastest and fairest way to give everyone
interested a chance to attend._

~~~
kelnos
I agree with this policy -- why should past attendees get preferential
treatment?

------
siculars
Academic price:

2010 $100

2011 $150

2012 $300

I mean, hey, I'm not complaining but wow. Take a look at that inflation. I
only mention it because when I was forced to sign up for Google Wallet they
presented me a list of my transaction history. And there it was staring me in
the face in all its inflationary glory. Maybe they will mandate that people
must wear only Googly colors or use their gmail emails to sign up... Oh,
right.

~~~
ben1040
$50 increase, every year, but it was a 2-day conference. So add 50% to account
for it being 50% longer, and you get $300. Seems to make sense.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
I think your math is a little wonky. From 2010 to 2011 was a 50% increase in
price with no corresponding duration increase; From 2011 to 2012 was a 50%
duration increase with a 100% price increase.

~~~
RobAtticus
He was suggesting that if price increased $50 per year, then this year it
would be a 2-day event for $200, or $100/day. Then, since this year is a 3-day
event, $100/day * 3 days = $300. Or, to look at it another way: the cost per
day went up $25 between 2010 and 2011. If we assume the same increase per day
this year, then $300 makes sense.

Percentage-wise it doesn't work out, but there is a (possible) method to the
madness.

------
mrpollo
might be nothing but i found traces of "vipcode" on the javascript of the
building game here:

<https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-output/>

code here:

<https://developers.google.com/js/script_foot.js>

search for "vipcode"

~~~
thekieran
digging through that stuff, if anyone does get to register at least we know he
or she will get a shirt

------
henryl
Anyone have a guess as to why they use a jpg sprite instead of an animated gif
for the bouncing orb? Is it just a color space thing?

~~~
jashkenas
No need to guess. Here's a very complete and detailed article about precisely
why and how this particular animation works the way it does:

[http://awardwinningfjords.com/2012/03/08/image-
sequences.htm...](http://awardwinningfjords.com/2012/03/08/image-
sequences.html)

~~~
vibrunazo
That only explains why use a sprite sheet. But not why use jpg instead of gif.
Neither it talks about the alternative of gif animation. Does the javascript
dom method really offers better performance than a simple gif animation? Or
were gif animations taken off the equation before that comparison for other
reasons?

~~~
robterrell
Animated GIFs max out at 8 bits of color (per frame, but still). The animation
cycle of GIFs starts when the image is loaded and can't be controlled via JS.
Yes, if you just wanted an 8-bit orb bouncing, it's a fine choice. For a game
sprite, it's less so.

------
moses1400
Think about this... Google charges you $900 to attend a conference that they
will "teach you" how to build apps that work on their systems which benefit
them way more than you.

I know Apple charges a developer fee as well.

Amazing how this hacker/developer world works - pay for access to their app
stores, pay for conferences to learn how to make apps for their app stores,
etc.

~~~
Achshar
this amount includes the gadgets that they give to people. last year there
were three if i remember correctly. one was for game devs only.

~~~
zer0her0
There were bunches of gadgets given out @ every IO, some to everyone, some to
attendees of specific talks.

Also, said developers are planning to make money with these new skills, in
addition to networking, I think most people find it well worth it or they
wouldn't attend.

------
vincentmac
Good to know I can fax them if I have any questions.
<https://developers.google.com/events/io/register>

~~~
fourstar
That's as techy as Sacramento gets.

------
alain94040
PS: if you are complaining about the price, it's time to show your
entreprenerial spirit and organize a free unconference at the same time and
nearby. Don't complain, do something!

------
samstave
Thats the thing that sucks about such events; $900 is very expensive.

If anyone wants to sponsor a fellow HNer, I'll give you a bunch of digital
Karma :)

~~~
stevejabs
Cheaper than WWDC and it's likely you'll get a bunch of free hardware.

~~~
SpiderX
Which means any healthcare related company isn't likely to attend, since this
"free hardware" is against gift restrictions relating to healthcare related
businesses.

~~~
rdl
I don't see why it would be -- couldn't you characterize it as development
kit? I assume it belongs to the employer not to the attendee, but that's just
a company rule. I thought the rule was you couldn't pay "kickbacks", not that
you couldn't receive them, and a phone is hardly a healthcare service itself
anyway.

------
moses1400
Double the price of last year.

~~~
elefont2
there is a bright side to it - the 'sold out in a hour' situation last year
was ridiculous. While i would have preferred a coding challenge to eliminate
that problem, a price increase is another method of fixing it.

~~~
guelo
Another way would have been to announce that they won't be giving away any
hardware, that would have kept away the "it pays for it self and I get some
cool goodies" crowd away so real developers could go.

~~~
ben1040
The last two years, Google has said "There are no plans for giveaways." And of
course, attendees actually got about $1000 worth in stuff in 2010 (Droid
phone, EVO, Google TV), and $1200 worth in freebies in 2011 (Galaxy Tab 10.1,
Chromebook, Verizon hotspot).

They could say there are no giveaways, but nobody's going to listen to the boy
who cried wolf anymore.

~~~
guelo
I do not remember any such announcements.

------
alanh
A bit annoying they force you to sign up for both Google+ and Google Wallet to
attend.

~~~
fourstar
Why? They'll probably give you a phone integrated with Google Wallet, so it'd
make sense to have you using it beforehand.

~~~
alanh
It’s obvious Google wants people to use Wallet, but I would argue it’s
indicative of weakness, not strength, to _require_ its usage (as opposed to
letting the strength of the product _draw_ people to use it).

Similarly, shouldn’t they make us excited to try Google Wallet on these
phones, as opposed to forcing us to prepare ahead of time? I mean, if they are
still going for a non-evil not-just-another-BigCo vibe.

~~~
jrockway
What system does Google have for collecting money other than Wallet? They're
not forcing you to use it because they're trying to push a product -- Wallet
is simply the UI for typing in your credit card information.

------
ZenDan
This was going to be my first year at IO until I saw the ticket price. $900!!!

~~~
brh_jr
Same here I thought it was going to be free. Wishful, naive...

------
vibrunazo
I'm trying out the demo chrome experiment on the page. It seems there's a bug
that the "Keep trying" pop up just won't go away after the tutorial. Or is it
just me? I'm using Chrome 17.0.963.65.

~~~
breckinloggins
Some bugs I noticed (Chrome 17.0.963.79):

\- There seems to be several bounding box issues for collision detection.
Specifically, the track component affects the surrounding space in odd ways.

\- If you move a small component inside the radius of a larger component,
there appears to be no way to select the smaller component without moving the
larger component back out of the way. I was expecting a "click again to select
the next object in the z-order" functionality.

------
toonse
$900 is not that much, I'm actually surprised it's so low.

A GDC All Access pass is $1,950, and a GDC Main Conference pass (typical) is
$1,350.

~~~
portman
Agreed.

And Joel Spolsky's "Business of Software" conference is $1600 for two days,
and Microsoft's PDCs were $2200 for 3 days.

This is about 1/2 of the market rate for major multi-day tech conferences.

------
krosaen
MVP?

[https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmd...](https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmdvb2dsZS1kZXZlbG9wZXJzcg0LEgVCb2FyZBik8zUM)

edit: looks like you might need to open up in incognito to go straight to the
machine I built (2 parts)

~~~
justinsb
Nice idea. I built a one part device.

Sadly it looks like there's a bug in Google's saving code, so there's an extra
(completely unnecessary) wall.

[https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmd...](https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmdvb2dsZS1kZXZlbG9wZXJzcg0LEgVCb2FyZBirszMM)

If you're going to share your output, make sure that what you're sharing is
what you saved!

Edit: And on top of that, it depends on your screen size. Hopefully the
registration system doesn't have as many problems!

~~~
meta
It also appears to have a random? element with regards to ball behaviour. Each
run of this [https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmd...](https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmdvb2dsZS1kZXZlbG9wZXJzcg0LEgVCb2FyZBjm-DYM) ends up different.
Sometimes it hits the wall, sometimes goes over it and sometimes it makes in
into the output. (should be two items on your screen - resize until you see a
Track and a Wall)

Seems difficult to design and share if ball behaviour changes run to run.
Unless that is part of the point - simulating real world user input ;)

------
neilparikh
Does anyone know if high school students qualify for academic pricing? I'm
assuming they don't, as most places that offer a education discount only offer
it for university students, but maybe I'll get lucky.

~~~
ek
I attended I/O twice in high school and received the academic pricing without
incident. I do know that not having been 18 either time, I had to get my
parents to sign some sort of a waiver form, but it wasn't a big deal.

~~~
neilparikh
Okay, thanks! I might attended I/O in that case. Just have to make sure it
doesn't happen at the same time as my exams.

------
Kopion
[https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmd...](https://developers.google.com/events/io/input-
output/ahNzfmdvb2dsZS1kZXZlbG9wZXJzcg0LEgVCb2FyZBjsgC8M)

------
mattieuga
Anybody notice how the io machines are completely resolution based? i.e if you
don't run it at the same resolution it was created, it won't work?

------
alphamale3000
Google tax! Hail to our new Google overlords.

------
stevejabs
So much for a coding challenge to get tickets. "Registration will be first-
come, first-served so make sure you're online promptly at 7AM PDT on March
27."

~~~
Strom
Well, you could code a script that registers for you, before any human.

~~~
SpiderX
Right, sight unseen of the registration form...

~~~
ngokevin
A master scraper sees with his mind, not with his eyes.

