Users shouldn't have to pay by typing in long strings of digits either, but here we are. If programmers focused on payment systems one tenth the amount of effort they put into masturbatory timewasters like twitter, the Real World might not suck so much.
My new advice to new college grads: Don't go straight into ycombinator and try to build a Hot New Social Startup right out of school. Go to work for a bank or a big retailer or a real estate company or even the freaking DMV, and learn a bit about problem domains other than what will get you laid at SXSW. Maybe then you'll make something the world actually wants, and even make a few bucks besides. Jeff On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 12:42 PM, Kaan Soral <[email protected]> wrote: > Users should be able to pay without logging in to 3rd party services. > It seems no one provides such a system, I will probably use old Social > Gold system. > > Amazon also lacks this. > And: > To sign up you will need to have: > > * Your business name, contact information, and credit card > * US billing address > > US billing address is a problem too > > On Mar 18, 9:24 pm, Jeff Schnitzer <[email protected]> wrote: >> Thanks for this - Amazon does indeed look good. At least, the >> notification architecture seems to be robust. I will drop Paypal for >> now and integrate Amazon. >> >> I'm totally amazed at how janky payments infrastructure is. Frivolous >> sites like twitter have serviceable apis, why not the people taking my >> money? >> >> Jeff >> >> On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 7:06 AM, Joshua Smith <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > I don't have a ton of use experience with it yet, but so far Amazon Simple >> > Pay looks very good. As with the EC2 and S3 stuff, the API is clearly >> > designed by very, very smart people who really understand security and >> > distributed systems. >> >> > Also, I'd bet that in a lot of demographics, already having an Amazon "1 >> > click" account set up is nearly universal. So that would seem to reduce >> > friction at checkout. >> >> > -Joshua >> >> > On Mar 18, 2011, at 4:49 AM, Jeff Schnitzer wrote: >> >> >> On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 4:44 PM, Jeff Schnitzer <[email protected]> >> >> wrote: >> >> >>> Say what you will about Paypal's evil eye and their confusing product >> >>> line, at least the integration is going fairly smoothly. It feels >> >>> like 1990s technology but it works. The most helpful advice I can >> >>> offer: Forget everything else on their stupid overmarketed website >> >>> and go straight for "Web Payments Standard". >> >> >> I retract everything I said here. >> >> >> PayPal's API is a horrorshow. It makes the Facebook API look rational. >> >> >> I won't get into the fact that their documentation is confusing and >> >> grossly inadequate. The API is actually broken by design - I can't >> >> believe people use this stuff to handle money. >> >> >> IPN (the "reliable" messaging system) combines message verification >> >> with message acknowledgement. You can't verify a message without >> >> accepting it - which means you either a) commit a bunch of >> >> unauthenticated data and figure out how to roll it back on failure or >> >> b) accept the message and then HOPE that nothing goes wrong during >> >> processing. Paypal's sample code all suggests strategy b), which is >> >> just grossly negligent. >> >> >> I could rant at length about how defective the messaging system is too >> >> (what uniquely identifies a message? NOTHING!) but really this should >> >> go into a blog entry. I've built porn-serving infrastructure that was >> >> 100 times more robust. >> >> >> I am deeply, deeply disappointed. Even as abandonware, Google >> >> Checkout is better thought out. >> >> >> Jeff >> >> >> -- >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> >> "Google App Engine" group. >> >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> >> [email protected]. >> >> For more options, visit this group >> >> athttp://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. >> >> > -- >> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> > "Google App Engine" group. >> > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > [email protected]. >> > For more options, visit this group >> > athttp://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en.
