karpodiem

This is a well honed Apple bullshit technique called 'clouding' - http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/06/there-is-no-spoon.html

Thank you, I've wanted to make a point similar to the one you've made but already tied it all together.

This is a perfect slice of Americana here.

I can't find a number through Google but the number of Ford Hourly/Salaried employees has to be over 125,000. As a guess.

Tesla has 30,000 hourly/salary employees.

Despite being valued 'less' Ford has a huge economic impact for many peoples lives. This may decline, over time, but don't be surprised if Ford/GM/Chrysler combine forces for a huge battery factory of their own. Their ability to tap capital markets with lower interest rates than Tesla is a competitive advantage. They also move many more vehicles than Tesla and get better prices from suppliers, which is a competitive advantage.

Tesla's gambit with batteries is either going to work or will offer a fantastic opportunity to pickup a battery factory at a good price.

At the of the day, when all major automotive companies have EV vehicles, what's going to differentiate them? The accuracy of the self driving software? Entertainment options within the vehicle? Serious question.

"Grant money used for GPON is never a good idea"

Uh, false. It's the only worthwhile idea. Long term OpEx for copper is meaningfully higher than FTTH.

I would argue that 100% coverage isn't nearly as important as 90% coverage. People will coalesce around areas that have FTTH, and wiring that last 10% would probably cost almost as much as the first 90%.

GM's partnership with LG Chem seems to match the market demand today more closely than Tesla'a expectations for tomorrow.

People are buying CUVs due to low gas prices. The electric buzz is already wearing off.

I'd like to know what vehicle programs you were on at DMX during that time, because other than WK1, L cars were a mess, and now that I think about it, nearly every other DMX B/C segment program I was involved with was a mess with respect to quality too.

fyi, I cut my teeth on WK1 and WK2. I love JNAP, and Jeep - I found a home there.

Precisely.

"But I know for a fact that the CIA does have a committee of elected officials that oversee it."

And they let their own inflated egos delude themselves in believing that the overall threat posed by the Russians/Chinese (which in comparison to the US, are much weaker) is greater than that of a government that surveys/records/interferes with the lives of its own citizens.

there is no oversight because it relies on the character of humans, who are weak and prone to folly.

There is no paper trail for this abuse. This is a system that should not exist.

"their role in domestic affairs is severely restricted"

You're delusional if you still believe this.

and this is exactly why I'm getting one.

Cheap, power efficient, eight cores. It may not win everything, but it works for me.

random question - do those older machines support a UEFI OS install?

I'm a bit wary from a security standpoint of going back to MBR.

That 'testing' is taking place on the University of Michigan's M City track. I'm looking forward to testing during these conditions, in the real world, with someone behind the wheel acting as backup.

I'll revise my 5-7 year comment then - I think it will this amount of time (if not more) for these autonomous vehicles to move beyond testing (prod) in winter climates.

Driving on the interstate in a snow storm with semi trucks is no joke - there might actually be a threshold in which pulling over is the best option.

I agree with you. Even if he smuggled out out a fraction of the data cited, this makes the internal security at the NSA look grossly incompetent.

Until I see autonomous vehicles testing in blizzard conditions, or even a moderate snowfall, it's relegated to the West coast. This eliminates nearly 2/3 of the US population (who live in areas where snowfall occurs).

We're at least 5-7 years away from them testing in these conditions.

.CN is why BTC is doing well

Snapchat is the next Twitter (wrt financial performance)

This model they're referring to won't be using DDRL4.

It's not the sexiest laptop in the world, but my work Dell Latitude 7470 with an I7 6600U, 16GB DDR4 RAM, NVMe drive with a 1920x1080 screen is the best PC laptop I've used. Works great with the Dell dock, where I have two Ultrasharp 21.5 inch monitors in 1080p, with the laptop screen flipped open; three usable screens.

I still (slightly) prefer my Mid-2014 13 inch Macbook Pro though, but it's very close.

agree - I'm ready to let go of the chime and lit logo.

But the rest of the points the OP/article made are spot on; this isn't a Pro machine.

'I'm not particularly ashamed to say I turn to unlicensed torrents for this purpose, but I would prefer if it weren't necessary.'

No studios will collectively give a tech company the majority of the licenses to make this possible - so torrents it is.

Sounds like is being made the fall guy for this.

Precisely. Manufacturing is hard/messy - the cavalier attitude that Apple/Google have with quality doesn't fly here.

I'll believe that Tesla is a real player if they're able to scale to 500K/units a year.

It's 2016 - Russia is not the enemy in a world of extremism.

Granted you can legitimately harp on Russia for free speech/human rights abuses, but America is no shining example here either. America is fraying, because it's largely ruled by its own set of oligarchs and the marginalized populations are lashing out.

'It would also like to take a bite out of Russia if Putin didn't have thousands of nukes. Let's hope they sway back to a secular, moderate nation.'

Yeah, no. Russian weapon systems are far more advanced than the stuff Turkey has, and they outnumber Turkey.

Their best equipment is some F-16 stuff that would be vastly overwhelmed by the number of MiG-29/31BM's that Russia has.

They are well on their well to caliphate that will be a hotbed for anti-western sentiment/anti-secular sentiment, so I fail to see how they are a strategic partner.

The Americans/Russians/Iranians should send him a cruise missle present.

This is like Afghanistan in the 80s, all over again. We should have let the Russians keep them in check, and here we are, arming the wrong side the entire time.

Good times.

Recently quit twitter other than to @ at people directly. Was never a heavy user a Facebook, but came to conclusion that checking it once a day was sufficient. No more RSS - just typing in HN, The Register, and TheVerge a few times a week to catch up. I listen to music instead of podcasts; Apple's Beats 1 station and some local jazz/classical stations.

This has worked wonders for my latent anxiety. I finally feel free.

I very much recommend it, if you feel overwhelmed.

while there's a number of engineers at Google A2, it would constitute less than 10% of the headcount at that office (this is guess based on the LinkedIn research I've done. If someone has a more precise number, would very much like to hear it)

Does anyone know what percentage of urban dwellers remain in the city for their lifetime? I would imagine this number tracks inversely to the decreasing birth rate YoY decline (among this same demographic group) in the US. Specifically, I'm interested in the birthrates for the 50-75th income percentile for living in major cities (not metropolitan areas).

A couple cursory Google searches hasn't yielded any hard data, but hopefully someone has come across data on this.

tldr; I don't disagree with your assumption for decreased ownership for personal transportation, but I don't see this changing for families that live outside the Urban core until decades from now.