Albright

"Sealed" implies the record is reasonably inaccessible to the general public, but still easily accessible to law enforcement. When you are arrested, law enforcement, and especially prosecutors, will be very interested in what you have been convicted before previously, especially if your state has a "three strikes" law (where you can end up with life in prison for your third felony conviction, regardless of the seriousness of the felonies) or something similar.

No, it is entirely true.

Trump is hardly a Tea Party favorite. If you're thinking Trump supporters and Tea Partiers are one in the same, you misunderstand the goals of one, if not both, groups.

How much would I have to pay you guys to keep Tina Fey and Amy Poehler the hell away from me?

I've been a T-Mobile customer for about two years, and they've been doing it for at least that long as far as I can recall. It hasn't bothered me that much since it's not very often that I mistype a URL while using my phone without wi-fi, so I've only seen that stupid search page a handful of times, but yeah… they do it.

> the content reaches the customer faster.

Does it? Is it really slower for your customers to download a server-generated page than for them to download a static page, (probably) download a JavaScript file embedded in the page, execute the JavaScript, then download and process server-generated JSON?

Using JS to present data moves the work of generating the display of that data from the build process, as with "pure" static site generation, or from server-side code, as with a standard CMS, to the client, where it is most likely to fail in unpredictable ways due to variances in browser JS or CSS engines, network performance, browser extensions, etc, etc.

But given that the concept of progressive enhancement seems to have been completely lost on the latest generation of web developers, who cares, right?

There can certainly be value if you think that teaching others what you know is more valuable to you than making a (larger) profit. Altruism is a thing.

Another way to give it away would be to play a long game of sorts by requiring people to sign up to the mailing list to get the free book. That way, you're still building up a list of interested people to spa--… market to when you write your follow-up books (and sell those for a profit).

A standard self-published e-book model, which sort of combines many of the options you mention above, is along these lines.

First, put the e-book up on Gumroad and/or Amazon or the like, or set up an e-commerce site to sell it yourself (better margins; more work). Also set up a mailing list through MailChimp or the like.

Set up a site about the book, with a blog. Publish a few articles in the blog on the same content that your book is about (but not articles directly from the book itself; you don't want people who buy the book to feel ripped off). In the site's sidebar and at the end of each article, prompt people for their email address to receive a sample chapter of the book and sign up for a mailing list to receive new articles about the topic directly to their inbox for free. Now, as you continue to add new blog posts to the site - twice every month or so - publish them to the mailing list as well.

Finally, end each blog post/mailing list article with a call to action to buy the book. The article will establish your expertise on the subject, and as they're added to your site, will build up your SEO and start driving traffic from search terms related to your topic.

Eventually, if people are interested in your book, write another one. Hey, now you've got a voluntary mailing list full of people interested in your topic to advertise your new book to - it should have much better sales initially than your first one.

Wash, rinse, repeat. I haven't actually done this myself, but it seems to work for a lot of people.

Interesting, but I would still try my best to just keep sensitive data out of the repo rather than commit an encrypted version of it.

This. It's sort of like the "The Apple Watch is a failure!" articles when the Apple Watch has outsold every other smartwatch combined.

Sometimes it kind of feels like the dinosaur press is really trying its damnedest to bring back the "beleaguered" days.

There is no such thing as an unbiased scientist. They are human, after all. Whenever you read about scientists reporting on X or discovering Y, you should absolutely consider their motives, especially in contentious subjects such as this one.

And your analogy is only comparable if Hawking already had a history of reporting about seeing Jesus in black holes.

My thoughts exactly. If someone were to phonily offer Hawking a cartoonish sack of money to write a report about black holes, should we be shocked when he shows interest in the offer?

Nakamoto has made a huge splash in the world of finance, at least in certain circles. That he remains anonymous even after doing so adds quite an air of mystery. Is it really any wonder people are curious about who might have started all this, especially when he waves his anonymity in everyone's faces?