timbowen

As a practical matter, no. Legal told me I have to implement it for all users because it covers EU citizens who might be accessing our site from or living in non EU countries.

We fixed one of the issues. I processed enough returns on refurbished units to know that there were still several bugs. One of the main complaints is that the wristband would be dead in the morning - I believe this was caused by a firmware defect that caused the bluetooth radio to blare at full strength all night. That being said this was almost a year ago so I might be misremembering specific issues. One thing is for sure though - there were bugs even after we revised the firmware.

As to fixing the firmware - that's absolutely possible although we made some non optimal decisions with the hardware itself that caused the WakeMate to waste a lot of power. That's one of the reasons why the WakeMate's battery is comically large for the amount of usage you get out of the device.

1.) LOL I dunno!

2.) I never talked to PG, I can't speak to that.

3.) The problems were absolutely cumulative over the course of development. Neither Greg nor Arun were engineers or technical in any way and the hardware developer had a full time job that was not WakeMate. I started ~1.5 months before launch and was told the hardware was functional. I managed to get the iOS version to work most of the time but the firmware was hosed in such a way that pretty much all units would fail over the course of a few months.

I used to work for WakeMate - feel free to ask me anything. This insane action from Greg doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

There is no way this product will ever ship. Greg, what are you even going to do with 150k or even 250k or 1mm? You already burned up almost a million bucks on this exact same idea when I was working for you and it was a huge waste because of your terrible execution and stubborn reluctance to seek or take any advice from anyone whatsoever.

The market has judged you and found you lacking. Cede your resources to a more efficient actor in the market and go home.

This is true, and a good point. One thing we do need, however, is to take the opinion of prominent economists with a little bit more salt. I remember when invoking the name Greenspan among those interested in economics was like invoking the Name of the Lord - there was no higher authority. Now good ol' Al is getting hung out to dry and, in my opinion, trying to shunt blame away from himself as much as possible.

There shouldn't be a cult of celebrity in any science, economics least of all. This is what the NYT author should have argued against rather than economics in general. Before Farve went to play for Minnesota, how many Packers fans do you think would have bet against his prediction in the Texas vs. Alabama game if it was a very public prediction? The line in Wisconsin would be outrageously off as bookies bumped it more and more away from Farve's prediction. Go to Vegas and it's probably a lot closer to the money. This decision distortion is a real problem that is wreaking real havoc on our system of exchange.

As in any genre there is a wide range of talent and musical ability among rap artists. The record industry is really good at printing one hit wonders and then burning them up. Those are probably the guys who are making the songs you are referring to. This is not unique to rap, it happens in pop, alternative, rock and roll, heavy metal and any other genre. I could easily say "metal is just screaming" or "alternative is all the same crappy guitar chords" and I would be kind of half right some of the time.

If you take a look at some of the more accomplished artists with staying power you will discover thoughtful lyrics and complicated music. Jay Z has been getting more and more musical over time. The American Gangster soundtrack was an explosion of funky horns and beats that really set the tone of the album to that of the film. Death of Autotune doesn't have an electronic note on the track. This is not to mention the vast pool of talent in the underground hip hop and rap scene, which is something you should really investigate if you are going to give the genre an honest examination.

If you don't care for rap music that's fine, but saying "it all sounds the same" just makes it obvious you don't ever listen to rap music. What would you think of me if I said all classical music sounds the same?

Sounds like a good opportunity for someone to undermine iTunes, or at least make a decent music synchronizing app for competing smart phones.

This doesn't seem like an outlandish bet to me. It seems to me that Facebook has, up to this point, spent much more time and energy on their core product rather than improving advertisements. Six months ago the ads were totally worthless, now I notice they are beginning to tailor their ads to my interests and my group of friends. If they continue optimizing the ads those revenues should increase.

There is also a virtually untapped market on Facebook for virtual objects. The gift system does exist, but I feel needs improvement. Social networking sites in Asia make the bulk of their money off of this feature, not ads. If FB beefs up this aspect of their business I think 2 billion by 2014 is a reasonable goal.

All that being said, the sentiment that "he is selling something" seems reasonable. They could be ramping up for an IPO or, more likely, going for another round of private investments to fuel growth.

It doesn't need to be legally enforceable, they can just kick you out of the iphone developer program, and you have little recourse.

The utility of computer labs is huge, there's no doubt about that.

What really surprises me is that only six out of over three thousand freshman ran Linux. Weak sauce! I guess coming from Carnegie Mellon University I'm used to a higher level of techno-centrism.

I have not seen a single instance of "the media" promoting these stereotypes at all. On the contrary, it seems like there is some covert Twitter media blitz going on all around me. From Comedy Central to C-SPAN there are mentions of people "twittering."

It's normal people who are "promoting myths" about Twitter, although the author does a pretty bad job dispelling those myths. I signed up for a Twitter account, but I find it totally irrelevant to me personally. It is kind of useful for publishing our updates at www.trailbehind.com, but other than that I just don't get it. Maybe, at 24, I'm just too old to tweet.