palebluedot

I've stopped putting my public key on emails I send, because almost no one ever encrypted email to me, unless they were specifically sending something perceived to be sensitive.

"Pods 1 and 4 now online and thrusters engaged. Dragon transitioned from free drift to active control. Yes!!" https://twitter.com/elonmusk

Edit: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/307515784610058241

Edit 2: Follow-up tweet from him: "Holding on solar array deployment until at least two thruster pods are active"

Edit 3: Looking better! Latest tweet: "Thruster pod 3 tank pressure trending positive. Preparing to deploy solar arrays."

Edit 4: YES! "Solar array deployment successful"

It is a systemic customer support issue that, while perhaps understandable for a free product, is horrendous for a merchant or paid product. I don't think people would care nearly so much about launch hiccups, even major, if there was customer support to help resolve the issue. But as it is, whenever you order something it can feel a bit like Russian Roulette with Google. I hope this changes soon, because otherwise they are doing awesome stuff.

For instance, you still have legal liability risks, which may vary depending on the problems your startup / business is trying to solve. Especially in the early stage, even if you have a corporate entity wrapped around your startup, mounting a legal defense can be financially crushing. This is doubly true if you are augmenting your cash stream by consulting / contracting.

This may not be very likely, depending on the startup - but to say technical founders have nothing to lose seems a bit naive.

That is the madness of which I speak. Because they are afraid that if I don't use the Kindle Fire I won't buy videos, they therefore won't let me buy videos unless I use the Kindle Fire. It seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. That same logic would call for them to not have a Kindle app on the Nexus 7, would it not?

So if your goal is to maintain email-provider independence, then relying on provider-specific features like the '+' modifier works against that goal.

For me though, the main reason I don't use it is most sites that I want to use it on reject the '+' in the address as invalid. It happens enough that I don't bother trying anymore.

You could have shorted the stock or traded options.

Before you short any stock, it is wise to keep in mind the maxim "Markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent". This isn't really a problem on the long side (sans margin), but is a real problem on the short side.

I've had SLA models professionally made, and they came with a warning to handle them gently, because they were brittle and not very strong (and, they were expensive).

Does anyone know, if you were to use the Form 1 for something like hobby robotics (i.e., outside of just design prototyping, but as a printer for parts), would it hold up well?

With 105M shares currently outstanding, and Tesla planning to offer 4.34M shares, 4% of today's drop is likely just the market adjusting for upcoming dilution.

As a (very very minor) shareholder, I am glad they are doing this - relying on the current cash position and cash flow to get to profitability would have been cutting it too close for comfort, IMO. From an investor's perspective, I view Tesla as not much different than investing in a biotech - it is likely either going to be a huge hit, or a huge miss. The difference (for me) from a biotech is I feel I can understand and follow the tech in Tesla, and I believe in the company.

[1] http://ir.teslamotors.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=709221

It is difficult to think of something like this, where private emails are accidentally disclosed publicly en masse, happening with gmail (or any other email service).

Interesting - also, if it is as you suspect and voting is easier and thus part of the problem, perhaps adding more friction to the process of voting would be useful. Something like having to spend karma to vote, or having a limited number of votes per day to spend.

It is still unreasonable to send out legal threats because you did not receive a response from an email. You don't know if the email was read, or if it was even delivered to the user's inbox (it could have been flagged as spam, for instance). Or, as it appears to be in this case, it could have a poorly worded and misleading subject, causing it to be ignored.

Furthermore, did you read the email that was actually ignored? It is linked in the article, and located here: https://gist.github.com/1833289

Note that it specifically says that "if you agree to this arrangement" to implement the link back. There is actually nothing in that email that would suggest that any action was required; the next step sans link back was simply for Gigya to then send a price quote.

While I am not suggesting that the alternatives offered are or are not fair or reasonable, the follow up email did its job in getting the service consumer's attention and more importantly action in regards to the matter.

Well, naturally. I was not arguing that being unreasonable was not effective in forcing action on someone's part. I would argue, however, that it is unethical and counterproductive.

By ignoring (accidentally) the original email, the message sent back could be interpreted as: "We're not implementing your link back, and we're not paying for your service, but we're still going to use it anyway".

Wait, what? So - if I ignore an unsolicited email, that suddenly becomes actionable if I don't do what the email says? I have a hard time seeing how that is not totally unreasonable.

The only reasonable nuclear option for them that I see, would be to simply terminate the user account or service, if they did not respond.

If I were to start up a company again, I would issue each employee a nice pair of over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones as part of their office equipment. I think it would work wonders for their productivity.

Related - for some pink noise, here is a commandline (for those with sox installed) that I find soothing. Play with the last two variables some, to tune it to your tastes - it has somewhat the effect of noise from an empty beach:

  play -t sl -r48000 -c2 - synth -1 pinknoise tremolo .1 40 <  /dev/zero

  play -c2 -n synth whitenoise band -n 100 24 band -n 300 100 gain +20

That is not DRM. That is shoddy craftsmanship, poor quality, etc. But it is not DRM. DRM specifically limits your rights - Digital Rights Management - with regard to the content.

Plus by definition if you create software which supports new features you have lock-in.

Not necessarily, if it is an open standard - and if it is an open ePub 3 standard, then that is great. However, if it is DRM inhibited, then it is enforced lock-in. However, interoperability is key, so it needs to be both an open platform, and DRM-free. And it would be disingenuous to argue that the book format is an open standard, if it has non-open DRM locking it down. The DRM becomes part of the book, and cannot be separated from the standard, at that point.

I am not arguing that the college textbook industry does not need reform, or is not prohibitively expensive. It does, and it is. I am arguing against DRM in textbooks, and device lock-in.

It isn't a bash against Apple - I would have the same concerns if it was Amazon or Google, if there was DRM and/or device lock-in.

And I think ebooks could be very good for students - however, limiting it with DRM and device lock-in is not how it should be done.

But one article mentioned that students could not resell the books - which implies DRM.

Outside of high school and into college, the publishers obviously want to prevent reselling/sharing of the books.

If most/all schools adopt this and require it, and the books are DRM hindered to a proprietary platform, then that means that it will become a defacto requirement for every student to own an Apple device, in order to receive education.

It may work, and would certainly be good for Apple... but I don't like it.

A nice side affect (and the reason I played around with it originally) is that it helps mask tinnitus when it gets too annoying (I find that if tinnitus flares up too loud, it can make it more difficult to fall asleep).

The cmdline:

  play -t sl -r48000 -c2 - synth -1 pinknoise tremolo .1 40 <  /dev/zero