
Facebook In Talks To Acquire Drone Maker Titan Aerospace - ssclafani
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/03/facebook-in-talks-to-acquire-drone-maker-titan-aerospace/
======
amaks
"A machine learning researcher, a crypto-currency expert, and an Erlang
programmer walk into a bar. Facebook buys the bar for $27 billion."

~~~
uniclaude
You could at least give credit to the author of the joke.

[https://twitter.com/ML_Hipster/status/438418306769244160](https://twitter.com/ML_Hipster/status/438418306769244160)

~~~
amaks
Sorry for that, I found it in livejournal.com without any reference to the
original author.

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primitivesuave
When I was in Tanzania, there were many places where people hadn't even
_heard_ of Facebook. Human interaction is entirely face-to-face, and the only
way to Snapchat someone would be to literally stick your face through their
window. Same goes for pokes.

Why they want to propagate the loneliness and technology-dependence of the
modern age onto the truly free societies of the world is beyond me.

~~~
archivator
Comments like this, full with a longing for a simpler time, amuse me.

No one's making anyone communicate in a "lonely" way. If you don't like it,
you are free to demand your preferred means of communication. What you'll
find, however, is that people generally like it. "I tweet in my dreams,"
someone I know one said.

The truth of the matter is, constant communication is _valuable_. Not in the
market cap type of way but as a type of human interaction. It matters to
people. It helps them organize parties, revolutions, their lives around a
stream of current data.

Is it distracting and addicting? Yes, it can be. But that's not a problem with
the technology. If you lack the self-discipline to live in this deluge of
information, guess what - help is one Google search away.

I guess my overall point is that the bandwidth of human communication has only
ever been growing. It's not gonna stop now, so there's no point in longing for
a long gone idyllic past.

P.S. I understand the hatred for dopamine triggers, wrapped in HTML.
Meditation helps.

P.P.S. I'm making an assumption that people willfully _choose_ a medium as a
basis for discourse. That's not the case most of the time. I believe everyone
should be made aware of how the medium they're using influences their thoughts
and actions. I'm all up for having more media, though.

~~~
primitivesuave
You make a very good argument, and I have to agree with you. In the end, it
comes down to self-discipline and an internal desire to maintain real human
contact.

> I understand the hatred for dopamine triggers, wrapped in HTML. Meditation
> helps.

You are quite the brilliant wordsmith, I can't wait for the next opportunity
to use the phrase "dopamine triggers wrapped in HTML".

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dotBen
Someone described Google's foray into driverless cars, robots etc as the
emergence of Google as a conglomerate. Those projects are just too many steps
away from advertising revenue to claim they're all part of a common vision.
The same is true for Amazon, Microsoft, etc as examples of successful
technology conglomerates.

With similar capital available to it, Facebook needs to stop thinking "one
trick pony" as a social network and start thinking conglomerate too.

Investing in drone technology is a good start for them.

~~~
kevando
Unlike those other companies, Facebook has a clear vision: Connect the world.
If you listen to Mark Zuckerberg talk about that vision, you see that
facebook.com is just a part of the over arching goal. It's really cool to see
such conviction.

Rather: Google, Amazon, Microsoft - those companies just print money and have
the luxury to think 10 steps ahead. Granted some of the most brilliant minds
work for them, so their view of 10 steps ahead is often spot on and extremely
innovative (gmail, aws, IE).

jk jk on IE. Honestly, I am not sure what Microsoft has done lately..

~~~
amaks
Google's (official) mission "is to organize the world’s information and make
it universally accessible and useful"
([https://www.google.com/about/company/](https://www.google.com/about/company/)).
Microsoft's is "to create a family of devices and services for individuals and
businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the
go, for the activities they value most."
([http://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar13/shareholder-l...](http://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar13/shareholder-
letter/index.html)).

How's Facebook different having a mission statement?

~~~
kevando
It's different in the sense their decisions that lead to becoming
a'conglomerate' adhere to their mission. 3bn for Nest doesn't really help
organize the world's data.

~~~
amaks
Unless you view Nest as the source of data (which many believe it is)

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malandrew
I wouldn't be surprised if there were national security issues involved as
well. Putting Facebook anywhere in the world provides solid communications
data on a broad cross-section of any society in the world. The data is likely
to be so good that you can very effectively monitor that nation.

TBH, I don't know why companies like Facebook and Google don't manage their
own hedgefunds based on aggregate data that they know before anyone else.
Currency markets would be an obvious one to participate in.

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eieio
I thought the article's title was a joke when I first read it! Facebook
acquiring a drone maker seemed absolutely bizarre to me, as it made me think
of military drones.

After reading the article, this doesn't seem any sillier than Google's Loon
program. I don't have the technical knowledge to know which will likely prove
to be more effective.

~~~
amaks
It actually becomes obvious after realizing that all Facebook does is copying
Google.

~~~
oscargrouch
"When you just dont know what to do, follow the leader".. facebook is sitting
in a pile of bad decisions.. i wonder when their karma will start to hunt them
down..

Google can make a LOT of mistakes right now (and weird bets) without hurting
them much.. but this is not the reality to the majority of other players..
Trying to play Google's game will make them feel dizzy very soon

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bedhead
Maybe I'm crazy, but this has a surprisingly high ick-factor to it. I dunno,
it just strikes me as so pathetic and misguided and almost exploitative. These
places that are so poor there is no internet connection need...Facebook? (Btw,
you can spare me the altruistic angle, because I aint buying it.)

~~~
fit2rule
I agree with you on the ick factor, but on the other hand I think there is
much to be said for the idea of getting disparate and non-communicative
cultures to try to understand each other, and if thats going to happen through
the mechanism of kids growing up and using social networking, then I'm all for
it.

Of course, I'd much prefer to see someone go to places like Tanzania and so
on, with the goal to teach these people how to make their own drones and
networks out of the scrap pollution fobbed off on them by the Western world,
and who knows .. maybe we'll see that happening now that the idea is out
there.

From my perspective, it's damned easy to make a drone out of an old DVD
player, some pieces of foamboard, and so on - whats not so easy is to find an
application for it that will truly help people. Put an old cell phone in the
fuselage and use it to transmit bitcoin between the villages? Great f'n idea..

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outside1234
$60m seems so quaint, so frugal these days.

~~~
trhway
if the drones could really stay airborne for 24h at about the same altitude it
would be at least 1-2 orders of magnitude more expensive. The 24h is holy
grail of this industry because above clouds it is the same basically as 5
years. Once somebody develops it, it will be a game changer for many
industries.

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andyjohnson0
I'm wondering how this would work in practice.

Does anyone know what kind of receiver/transmitter would be needed to
communicate with a drone 20km or more away? Is it feasible, in terms of device
size and power consumption, to embed such a radio in a like a laptop? How
about a smartphone?

Or is the idea that the drone would communicate with base stations that would
use conventional wireless signalling to talk to user devices? And if so, how
does using a drone improve upon the current approach linking base stations
using microwave links?

Thoughts, anyone?

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jpkeisala
Access to Facebook, that's only thing they really needed in Africa.

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lmg643
Interesting to contrast national business strategies in Africa.

China is pursuing something like neo-neo-colonialism. See these recent China-
Zimbabwe deals:

[http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/africanbusiness/2014/01/30/zi...](http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/africanbusiness/2014/01/30/zimbabwe-
adopts-chinese-yuan-as-legal-currency)

[http://www.thezimbabwean.co/news/zimbabwe/70687/china-
plans-...](http://www.thezimbabwean.co/news/zimbabwe/70687/china-plans-
airbase-in-zim.html)

Zuck which wants to fly drones so they can setup facebook accounts and see
advertising.

Somehow I think it will take more development on the ground to make the ultra
long ball work for facebook, unless they are hoping someone else will figure
that part out. Like Gates.

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joe_the_user
This also could be nice if Comcast is intent on being the One Big Internet
Chokepoint.

Once they have their fleet of Internet drones working, they could move them to
other underserved areas, like California!

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Tossrock
I guess the drone's not vaporware after all (as posited in the previous
discussion
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6528598](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6528598))

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shittyanalogy
Facebook needs to pivot.

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maaku
Is it April 1st already?

