abbasmehdi

Oops, sorry, read that as 1MW for some reason.

Why not East Bay or South Bay, or anywhere but the peninsula?

Terrorism is too real in that part of the world unfortunately as you already know. A 1KW windmill will turn into a 3 ton pile of smoldering scrap metal if the right mouths aren't continuously fed. Also the idea is de-centralizing power generation to skip the transmission step where all the leakage exists.

Hey good luck. I am from the same part of the world and agree 100%. I should point out though that there is widespread use of UPS and generators. Not sure if people will go completely off the grid, but initially you are definitely a 'cheaper generator', if cheaper. Like you said its a cash-based economy, and people don't like to put a lot of money up front even if it means savings in the long run, so how will you combat the high initial investment? I do think this is the viable solution. Also you should look into transmission losses. I have heard power lines there are between 30% and 50% lossy.

Absolutely. Unfortunately I know many, many who have a few tens of millions; unfortunately^2 I am not one of them. People say it's the Chinese buyers with the all cash offers, but I see locals do it left, right, and center with money made in SV within the last few years.

These are list prices, we are finding list and sale prices are quite different in the Bay Area. Folks list low on their realtor's advice to ignite bidding wars. And bid buyers do. On the plus side now we are hearing from our realtor and others that prices are stabilizing (i.e. not going up as fast, but definitely not coming down). Still hugely unaffordable for most.

Garry is a hero. He is extremely nice, very kind, and has more empathy for the founder than anyone I know. Whatever he does next, I wish him happiness and success.

"to Randall Bennett for being such a nice guy."

Not surprised. The guy is a really that nice.

All of the photos in the article show consumer electronic devices. Could I use it with, say, furniture manufacturing / aftermarket car parts / leather goods manufacturing?

This could go on. :) Congrats guys!!

Heck yes! Alas not a filmmaker but I have wanted something very nearly like this forever. I go horseback riding regularly, mostly through relatively open areas (county parks / regional preserves / city trails etc). I have wanted a drone that can carry a GoPro (or something) to capture footage of our rides (sometimes we go through some gorgeous country that we really wish we could capture on video).

However, here is the kicker, because we ride at a fast trot or canter, I can't actively control the quad. Instead, I must be able to passively control it. It must perform specific, pre-defined actions based on my position, speed, and heading while flying, steering, and maneuvering without receiving any input directly from me. It should continually adjust its position and flight path based on my speed according to the rules I pre-define. For example, after takeoff with the camera turned on, the drone ought to stay ahead of me, say 30 feet ahead and 20 feet off the ground. Then if I start moving faster than 10 mph it should come to my side about 30° (10 o'clock). If I continue at this speed for more than a minute it should do a slow semi circle around me and come to the 2 o'clock point for a minute. If I keep going it should... etc etc. I don't care if I have to program the drone in code or through a UI, I just want to be able to define lots and lots of rules (based on the terrain of the day). Of course it would need to protect itself from running into trees and walls, or any other objects while trying to follow my rules as closely as possible.

You have my attention.

This is exactly right. "Westerners" has less to do with the exact geography and more with economic indicators including standards living/income. I was traveling with Singaporeans who kept being referred to as "westerners"; it was odd initially, but to the locals it was about the group's purchasing power, expectations of luxury/comfort, and nothing else. It was their way of identifying big spenders from the rest.

>>has not exactly told the team what it is that the heads want preserved

How do you gather?

I beg to differ. As an example, Hacker News has a culture, as laid out by Paul Graham [1]. It is not only shaped by his and moderators' personal demonstration, but also by decree [1]. Those who violate it are chided (publicly and/or systematically). Granted this is an anonymous internet forum [2] not a company, but the general principal is the same - clearly defining expectations and punishing [3] unacceptable behavior. This could perhaps go to explain the HN culture versus another online forum or the comments section of a public site.

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[2] Considering which it should be even harder quality control.

[3] I use the term loosely.

A few years ago I saw a story on BBC suggesting a despairing outlook for people of the Indian subcontinent origin (Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi - IPB); it was titled "Asian heart disease gene found". It reported that a significant percentage of IPBs have a gene that regardless of lifestyle and/or dietary choices, will kill them rather early [1]. I have not read the actual, grim study.

For non UK audience: Asian == UK term for people of the Indian subcontinent origin

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7833753.stm

"when I please and on whatever article I please"

I don't think the grandparent was asking you to stay within a time or quantity constraint. His/her point was about the quality of your comment, which this forum has pretty hard-defined guidelines for [1].

I think you made a valid point in your first comment here (and I thought your feedback was valuable), but you added some unnecessary rudeness. Imagine if you met Grace at a party and she excitedly tells you what she does. Then she whips out her phone and shows you the posted page. You catch the issue you pointed out (which in my mind is a legitimate point of concern), how would you bring it to her attention? If you imagine that scenario and compare it to your original comment then it might make more sense. At least that is how I try to think about it. I hope you find it helpful and thanks for adding yourself to the list of monthly donors [2].

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[2] I am not affiliated with Watsi in any way except I am starting to donate very small amounts.

Late to the game, sorry Watsi, #108 here. Thank you for doing this.

Thanks for offering an alternative, Dan. Not sure if it's worth the hassle. I do appreciate your effort.

I would like to point out that the baity video is satirized commentary on many enterprise cultures. Though the presentation layer is light, the content is heavy; thus spawning discourse.

It's a common problem among external facing engineers. A source of great stress also. I think it is critical for engineers to discuss this topic and re-shape our view of working with the external world. We don't operate on an island and we cannot keep going for long with a condescending view of the business types without developing issues. Figuring out a mutually beneficial / acceptable operating procedure is key. The default is too negative and helps no one. With some skill, we can leverage our position, really solve big problems, and have a better working relationship. Just my 2 cents coming from b2b where my projects have 100% external impact (i.e. if we fuck up, they will have egg all over their faces - brings out the control freak in the business types).

I have been in a lot of meetings where business-types suggest all sorts of ideas. I used to get really frustrated and would take the easy way out, i.e. think to myself that these guys are clueless, why am I even in this business, and just go in a really shitty place mentally.

Then something changed. About the tens of sales books I read, a nugget from one of them struck me. The idea was to re-focus / re-frame any conversation to "what are the business objectives we are trying to achieve here?". Instead of having them propose solutions, have them dig deep into the problem and where they are trying to get as a final destination. An easy way to do this is look them in the eye, smile like John Wayne and say "I have seen this many times, it's not a problem, in fact, there are hundreds of ways we can slice this, let me ask you, what are the key business objectives here? How will we be measuring the success and failure of the project from a business point of view?" Then they really go into what their problem is, and where they are trying to go. The idea is to not propose any solutions on the spot (guess what, they don't like to hear your smarty-pants / clever solutions anyway), they would like 1) for you to play therapist in the meeting and hear every last problem, 2) come back to them at a later day and tell them that every one of their problems will be solved and the cost will be low, 3) be prepared to explain how it would work (keep high level and leave the clever bits out, but don't forget to address the impact on other resources like marketing / legal / etc.) and 4) present to them a timeline of execution mixed with approvals needed at each stage.

I have fucked up 100 times, and gotten it right about 3, thats how I know. Hope it helps some wise guy (like I was) out there.

It's clearly positioned as an alternative to a tool that prevents copyright infringement. I don't think it is obvious that their intention here is not to present an alternative that facilitates infringement [0]. It seems like they are even proud of that [1].

[0] I am not saying it is good or bad, right or wrong.

[1] Observing, not judging.

Any evidence to back up the claim "No they can't."?

Their opinions seem to carry weight in courts. I'm not saying that is evidence, but that could be an indicator that psychiatrists might know what they're talking about (and its not just voodoo science).

A psychiatrist cannot differentiate between "any regular person" and "significant degree of sociopathic behavior"?

Bill Gates' first act could qualify as intense to say the least [1] [2], and second act is indeed saintly.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Management_style

[2] No judgement on him because not everyone can pull off a Microsoft.

"It might seem crazy to entertain, but having seen first-hand that these folks can consistently climb and succeed while being what most decent people would consider scumbags..."

One of my best friends is a psychiatrist at a large academic hospital. He works with "corporate leaders" and top athletes (college level and above). He says in his 5 years of practice, he has not yet seen a "successful" person who does not exhibit a significant degree of sociopathic behavior. He goes as far as saying that being sociopathic is an asset if you are trying to be successful in any hyper competitive human endeavor (politics, business, sports etc).

He does not have to hope, he can simply sell that stock ahead of time.

Then why make the claim in the first place? Does he assume Google will stop doing meaningful things once he dies?

Why wait until death? I'm sure Elon could use the money sooner, putting it towards a cause LP would be pleased about.

If, along with FB access, they are bringing internet access to a region previously without it, then it's a good thing; because internet access is a net positive (unless you feel you are worse off with internet than you'd be without). I don't have a FB account anymore and find the internet valuable on a daily basis. Just my 2 cents.

My 50 year old yoga instructor told me this morning that she needed me to help her set up Helpouts (after I introduced her to it yesterday). I'll ask her to get in touch with Google and post back how helpful she found them. She isn't totally up and up on tech things so this should be a good experiment.