'... It's not as if it's a new idea. Remember the 1999 movie EDtv ...'
Lets go way back to wearcomp [0] with steve mann [1] and cyberman [2] before we get all misty eyed. I'd really like to see something more than just a camera. Mann has gone a step beyond mere transmission with augmentation. Better still go look what students & mann are looking at now. [3] The tech details are here. [4]
Q. Does jtv have the ability for users to communicate? Or is it unicast?
'... Justin clearly proves you don't need an original idea to get buzz, sponsors, and funding ...'
Very true. I think the commercial worlds just seen a glimpse of Stephensons gargoyles [0] and blinked at the possibilities.
Reference
[0] Neil Stephenson, 'Snow Crash contained Gargoyles that where constantly wired for sound, images and other sensors selling the information to the highest bidder.'
I was a bit shocked to hear about Justin (yet another media outlet) on NPR - this is truly becoming a global phenomenon. The value of the PR they've received to date is unbelievable - I'm interested to see how they convert all this fame into a business model, which I'm sure they'll be able to do. Nice job believing in their radical idea PG.
I believe there have been a couple of others. This is probably the reason the application no longer requires an idea: YC figures if you're talented/persistent enough, you'll eventually hit on something good.
There was one other one where we invested as angels in the series A round. Ordinarily we wouldn't invest that late, but these guys seemed exceptionally smart and driven.
I hate the censoring of comments on reddit & news.yc. It seems contrary to the entrepreneurial mindset.
If Steve Jobs got on a board like this in the '70s, and announced that he was going to start a company building PCs when mainframes were sexy, he probably would've been downvoted too.
Ok, I might've over reacted there. I should've said I LOVE everything about News.YC except the censoring of down-voted comments :)
Regardless, it looks like other comments w/ negative karma are grayed out (like http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=13764 ). So I imagine this comment was probably deleted by the author...
Lets go way back to wearcomp [0] with steve mann [1] and cyberman [2] before we get all misty eyed. I'd really like to see something more than just a camera. Mann has gone a step beyond mere transmission with augmentation. Better still go look what students & mann are looking at now. [3] The tech details are here. [4]
Q. Does jtv have the ability for users to communicate? Or is it unicast?
Reference
[0] Wearcomp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann#Mann_as_Cyborg
[1] Steve Mann 'quick bio'
http://wearcam.org/bio.htm
[2] Steve Mann, Cyberman, film, 'Steve Mann is the world's first real cyborg, 2001, 87min'
http://wearcam.org/cyberman.htm
[3] eyetap.org, Seeing Eye People, 'Research on remote guidance for visually impaired'
http://eyetap.org/tpw/index.php
[4] eyetap.org, 'hardware list for eyetap users ~ /proc/wearcomp_hardware'
http://eyetap.org/tpw/wearcomp6.htm