<story><title>Facebook acquires Oculus VR</title><url>https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>s3r3nity</author><text>&amp;gt; bottom-of-the-ethical-barrel&lt;p&gt;Again, this is silly sensationalist thinking -- companies aren&amp;#x27;t people capable of &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot; choices. If they were, I&amp;#x27;d note that Facebook was one of the only companies NOT conspiring to deflate the wages of half of the people that visit this site.&lt;p&gt;(Note: I don&amp;#x27;t work for FB -- I just rail against silly hyperbolic thinking.)</text></item><item><author>pfraze</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not ridiculous - at all. Facebook is the kind of company that wants to control their market and their platform. The Oculus Rift was an exciting piece of tech that was untied to any platform,  giving an open opportunity for software developers to explore VRUI. Now, it gives Facebook the opportunity to explore VRUI.&lt;p&gt;Of course, I&amp;#x27;m afraid they&amp;#x27;re going to tie the hardware to their awful, invasive Web platform. I&amp;#x27;d be upset if it were Google, but Facebook is about as bottom-of-the-ethical-barrel as it gets.</text></item><item><author>s3r3nity</author><text>&amp;gt;I am shattered right now.&lt;p&gt;Oh come on -- this is just ridiculous. They (Oculus) now have many many more times the resources at their disposal than before to make countless imaginative projects.&lt;p&gt;I know i&amp;#x27;ll get down votes for saying this, but if Google was the buyer, there would be much more positive comments here. Use some rational analysis here, folks.</text></item><item><author>selmnoo</author><text>I am shattered right now. I was &lt;i&gt;so&lt;/i&gt; happy for Oculus VR, I wanted it to become big, I wanted it to become something truly special.&lt;p&gt;And now this happens. I&amp;#x27;m horrified and speechless.&lt;p&gt;This is the day I stop cheering for Oculus VR and get behind Sony&amp;#x27;s Morpheus: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/tech/gaming-gadgets/sony-morpheus-virtual-reality/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnn.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;tech&amp;#x2F;gaming-gadgets&amp;#x2F;sony-morph...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Notch on this deal: &amp;quot;We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out.&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;notch&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;448586381565390848&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;Oh God why did this have to happen</text></item><item><author>lawl</author><text>Damn! I don&amp;#x27;t like this.&lt;p&gt;I had hoped they jump in bed with valve.&lt;p&gt;Yes, I just really dislike facebook, so I hate to see them aquiring something i was really excited about.&lt;p&gt;Also from the article:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;After games, we&amp;#x27;re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nah, I&amp;#x27;d rather not, thank you. I prefer to actually visit my doctor where facebook doesn&amp;#x27;t get all the data about it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vacri</author><text>&lt;i&gt;companies aren&amp;#x27;t people capable of &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot; choices&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their directors certainly are. A friend&amp;#x27;s mother works in a high-level consultancy that is known for turning down lucrative-but-unethical projects. I&amp;#x27;ve worked in a company where the CEO would always try to find a win-win, even if it cost the company financially. I&amp;#x27;ve also worked in a company where the CEO&amp;#x2F;majority owner vociferously abused the directors when he wasn&amp;#x27;t allowed a vote when they were voting on his own payrise (the directors saying that it was &lt;i&gt;illegal&lt;/i&gt; to do so). That company also played a lot of three-card monte with FDA auditors.&lt;p&gt;Companies can behave ethically; just because they&amp;#x27;re not an organism doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that they&amp;#x27;re not under the control of something that can make those decisions. A car is just a lump of matter. Can&amp;#x27;t do anything by itself. But stick a human into it, and it can do all sorts of things, from the mundane (collecting groceries) to the charitable (distributing meals) to the unethical (hit-and-run). A company is the same.&lt;p&gt;Add into this that Facebook has been shown to be openly selling fraudulent products, and it doesn&amp;#x27;t make it sound like Facebook is the innocent you&amp;#x27;re implying. Crack open youtube and search for &amp;#x27;veritasium facebook&amp;#x27;, there are a couple of videos - Facebook is essentially selling advertising with fake impressions.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook acquires Oculus VR</title><url>https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>s3r3nity</author><text>&amp;gt; bottom-of-the-ethical-barrel&lt;p&gt;Again, this is silly sensationalist thinking -- companies aren&amp;#x27;t people capable of &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot; choices. If they were, I&amp;#x27;d note that Facebook was one of the only companies NOT conspiring to deflate the wages of half of the people that visit this site.&lt;p&gt;(Note: I don&amp;#x27;t work for FB -- I just rail against silly hyperbolic thinking.)</text></item><item><author>pfraze</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not ridiculous - at all. Facebook is the kind of company that wants to control their market and their platform. The Oculus Rift was an exciting piece of tech that was untied to any platform,  giving an open opportunity for software developers to explore VRUI. Now, it gives Facebook the opportunity to explore VRUI.&lt;p&gt;Of course, I&amp;#x27;m afraid they&amp;#x27;re going to tie the hardware to their awful, invasive Web platform. I&amp;#x27;d be upset if it were Google, but Facebook is about as bottom-of-the-ethical-barrel as it gets.</text></item><item><author>s3r3nity</author><text>&amp;gt;I am shattered right now.&lt;p&gt;Oh come on -- this is just ridiculous. They (Oculus) now have many many more times the resources at their disposal than before to make countless imaginative projects.&lt;p&gt;I know i&amp;#x27;ll get down votes for saying this, but if Google was the buyer, there would be much more positive comments here. Use some rational analysis here, folks.</text></item><item><author>selmnoo</author><text>I am shattered right now. I was &lt;i&gt;so&lt;/i&gt; happy for Oculus VR, I wanted it to become big, I wanted it to become something truly special.&lt;p&gt;And now this happens. I&amp;#x27;m horrified and speechless.&lt;p&gt;This is the day I stop cheering for Oculus VR and get behind Sony&amp;#x27;s Morpheus: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/tech/gaming-gadgets/sony-morpheus-virtual-reality/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnn.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;tech&amp;#x2F;gaming-gadgets&amp;#x2F;sony-morph...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Notch on this deal: &amp;quot;We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out.&amp;quot; (&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;notch&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;448586381565390848&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;Oh God why did this have to happen</text></item><item><author>lawl</author><text>Damn! I don&amp;#x27;t like this.&lt;p&gt;I had hoped they jump in bed with valve.&lt;p&gt;Yes, I just really dislike facebook, so I hate to see them aquiring something i was really excited about.&lt;p&gt;Also from the article:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;After games, we&amp;#x27;re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nah, I&amp;#x27;d rather not, thank you. I prefer to actually visit my doctor where facebook doesn&amp;#x27;t get all the data about it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DerpDerpDerp</author><text>Groups of people are capable of collectively &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot; choices, and we often regard collective decisions in moral terms.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d argue that Facebook has made a lot of decisions that exploit users in pursuit of making more money and acquiring more personal data -- and that we don&amp;#x27;t have to be happy a technology platform with a lot of promise is now tied to a company with a record of making such decisions.&lt;p&gt;I won&amp;#x27;t welcome a Facebook platform in to my life the same way I would a standalone piece of technology, precisely because of the kind of decisions made by Facebook.</text></comment>