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John Carmack Comments On Facebook's Oculus Rift Acquisition
Ever since the surprise announcement of Facebook's Oculus Rift acquisition, opinions have been divided in regard to whether or not it is a good thing. Oculus Rift's CTO, John Carmack, recently offered a pair of comments on a blog offering his optomistic thoughts on the situation.
It's a strange avenue of discussion, but Carmack's recent comments appear on a Tumblr blog posting written by Anamanaguchi guitarist Peter Berkman. In his comments, Carmack explained his limited involvement writing, "I wasn't personally involved in any of the negotiations – I spent an afternoon talking technology with Mark Zuckerberg, and the next week I find out that he bought Oculus." Carmack continued by writing he was surprised by the acquisition and could think of companies with "more obvious synergies," but continued writing, "I do have reasons to believe that they get the Big Picture as I see it, and will be a powerful force towards making it happen. You don't make a commitment like they just did on a whim."
In response to follow-up comments to his original posting, Carmack also addressed what is a large concern for many regarding Facebook, which are issues related to privacy and data mining. Carmack wrote, "I'm not a 'privacy is gone, get over it' sort of person, and I fully support people that want remain unobserved, but that means disengaging from many opportunities. The idea that companies are supposed to interact with you and not pay attention has never seemed sane to me." Carmack asked others to educate him about the dangers of data mining and wrote it has never bothered him, personally. Carmack wrote, "I have never felt harmed by data mining, and I rather like the recommendations that Amazon gives me on each visit."
[Source: Peter Berkman tumblr, (2), @ID_AA_Carmack, via Joystiq]
Our Take
In regard to my personal feelings about the Facebook acquisition, I am optomisitic. Without being privy to the actual conversations that occurred surrounding the sale and going off of comments like Carmack's above, or comments from other members of Oculus Rift's leadership, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's intentions for VR appear to be in line with those of Oculus Rift. Of course, only time will tell if the acquisition was a good or bad thing. Carmack seems to think it is a good thing.
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