killyp

This. I have had a Facebook account since the days of needing to be invited and yet I have posted a status update on the site less than 10 times. I barely even check on my newsfeed.

But there is hardly a messaging platform as ubiquitous as Facebook messenger. Not everyone uses it as their main messaging client but almost everyone has one. Having an active Facebook page and group has also done more for my online business than any ad marketing. And Facebook marketplace is like Craigslist but better in almost every way.

I don't care if people make a Facebook account or not but there is certainly value in one, even if you don't care about the "News Feed".

Not all blockchains are created equal. It is the proof of work algorithms that accompany most blockchains that are extremely energy hungry

Well that is orders of magnitude faster than I expected. Didn't they just get FCC approval?

Not that I completely disagree with you, but lets not pretend that leaking SSN is equivalent to possibly leaking emails and passwords. One of those is far more important than the others. There was also tons of evidence of insider trading by Equifax execs. If anything the Equifax stuff proved to me that the American public doesn't care about privacy and so neither should investors.

Are you getting against the market? Cause of not then you probably want it to keep going up.

ie MoviePass. As soon as a unprofitable company loses its investor backing it doesn't matter if they control the majority of the market, they are still doomed.

I just bought a ton of outdoor gear and consistently found other websites such as Backcountry, Moosejaw and REI to be significantly cheaper. Was usually 2-3 day shipping which isn't much worse than Prime's 2 day.

10 years ago I certainly would have purchased Google Search, Google Maps, Chrome and Gmail. I currently pay for Android. Nowadays there are a lot more alternatives that have caught and surpassed some of these products. I have switched back to Firefox and am currently switching to ProtonMail but yes Google has made quite a few amazing products that for years had no competition.

I don't think Amazon would invest almost $1b into a company just to pressure Tesla. I know there are a lot of EV vaporware companies out there but I don't think Rivian is one of them.

You are right but Amazon has invested almost $1b into Rivian and Amazon has almost as much cash ($42b) as Tesla's market cap ($50b). With GM jumping in too these two companies combined could flex and crush Tesla. Not saying this will happen (I don't think it will) but it could.

Amazon no doubt wants in on the self driving electric vehicle market to compete with Tesla, Apple and Google and heavily investing in the best EV startup other than Tesla is the easiest way into this field. But because of this I would put Rivian as only slightly behind Tesla.

Now you are right, forcing your way into a field by throwing money at the problem doesn't always ensure success, just as Windows Phone. But as with Windows Phone it does usually ensure a decent product gets to market. And that is all I am saying will happen. The likelihood of a Rivian product getting to market is just as likely as a Model Y getting to market. Both extremely high.

I think a lot of people forget that Rivian has the backing of Amazon and GM though. I am not saying that Rivian is a proven car company but I would give them a much higher chance at success than I would have given Tesla 9 years ago. I fully believe that Rivian will deliver and that Tesla will also deliver so I think the comparison between the two is valid.

Buffer overflows will be an issue as long as code is written in languages that allow memory mismanagement. C, C++ and even Fortran are still here and aren't going away any time soon so this isn't going to change anytime in the near future.

I would say that this depends on your perspective. While Trump likes to talk bad about the EU, NATO and FVEY members, our military, intelligence and economic cooperation is still VERY strong. And I see no indication of this changing, outside of the rhetoric coming out of the White House. Our Allies know that pulling out of Syria via Twitter was not a decision that came from the Pentagon.

Or wait for the RSA conference in March and go crazy with Ghidra.

Firefox my dude. Has plugin support (uBlock) on mobile.

I completely forgot they added the video game store. That would kill them as a consideration for any kind of corporate environment.

The tie-ins with work flow management tools I get (even though most of this can be set up in Discord as well) but I think the look and tenure of the application is not really that big of a deal. If you want professional looking from a company that has been around forever then pick Microsoft Teams, otherwise pick the best one. And I have a hard time seeing Slack as better than Discord.

I wouldn't say they compete directly as one is obviously targeted at corporate and the other is targeted at gamers. But they are extremely similar and even the UI, while themed completely different, is extremely similar.

Serious question...

What are the benefits of using Slack over Discord? I know Slack has been around longer, looks more professional and has more tie-ins with work flow management tools but those seem like small advantages compared to how feature rich Discord is. Just genuinely curious as I prefer Discord for communicating with my coworkers about non-sensitive information but it doesn't seem to get any love outside of video game and internet communities.

No offense taken. I only included it because Amazon had been including it in their discussion of an East Coast HQ2.

I wouldn't say that at all. NYC is definitely large for tech on the East Coast but so is Boston in tech R&D, DC for government related tech companies, and Research Triangle in NC and Austin TX (if this counts as East Coast) are both hotbeds for tech startups. There really is no Bay Area equivalent on the East Coast.

Wouldn't even take that long. I could throw together a flashy "antivirus" that looks really good and does nothing more than a simple file signature lookup in a month. I could probably also get some sales of it to small companies that don't know any better. But to be ground breaking in the cyber security world and build something that is the foundation of a new company is just not feasible in 3 years without massive help from VCs, which isn't going to happen without a PoC or connections.