There's a lot wrong with this posting.

First, the premise - it should be titled: "Let's stir up people about Pixel phones!"

Second, I love how "Google itself has an alarmingly long track record of losing interest in things, including hardware projects -- and especially when they finally appear to have courted a large following" appears to indicate that Google WANTS to kill successful hardware products. Never mind that the product with a large following was a free software service that offered little room for revenue growth.

Third, Richard Windsor doesn't appear to have a particularly solid case for his skills as an analyst. He refers to the acquisition of Motorola Mobility as a waste of shareholder money, but his numbers are wrong and his presentation of the circumstances is woefully lacking. What ACTUALLY happend was that Google purchased a patent portfolio that would keep it from being sued out of the smartphone market for $4.2 billion, but it had to handle a few other transactions to make it happen. (Here's how it worked: Google put up $12.5 billion to purchase MM. It then took all of MM's cash on hand ($3), which offsets the cost by that amount. Google then recouped ~$2.4b by selling off MM's cable modem division (which Mr. Windsor completely forgets about), and then later sold the remaining parts of MM to Lenovo for ~$2.9b.) That leaves ~$4.2b as the cost to Google for MM's fairly extensive patent portfolio.
(If you ever thought that the "free market" was free or a level playing field, please consider that owning thousands of patents is the only way to keep yourself from being sued out of the smartphone market, and possibly existence.)

And finally, my FAVORITE part: Google has "engineering disease"... Please picture my eyes rolling. Google is one of the most wildly successful companies in the history of commerce, and was built around the idea that engineers should run the company. They KNOW that things don't always work out, but they are willing to try things that have a chance of working out. They're willing to play a much longer game than the MBA types who are fixated on shareholder value. For example: Google Fiber was created to scare other Broadband companies into upgrading their infrastructure and expanding their coverage, which makes more customers for Google...

Maybe if we gave it a more realistic name, the answer to this post would even more clear.

Something like..."Preynet"

1. Check out Cloudmark (https://csi.cloudmark.com/en/reset/) - see if you are on their list.
2. Make sure that your website (yes, website) has not been hacked. If someone is sending out spam that contains a link to your website, then services may mark you as spam. I had a customer who's wordpress install was hacked, and the 404 page was set up as a redirect to a shady pharmacy site. Once the problem was identified and corrected, the blacklist problems went away.

You mean like this: http://openfabpdx.com/fffiddle...

Consider that box checked!

Now that I've got my flip answer out of the way, it's probably best that I don't leave your little talking points unaddressed.
(UPDATE: Comboman's response is probably wittier and more concise - someone send 'em a gold star please. But I went to the trouble to type all this, so I'm going to post it anyways. It's the internet way.)

Yup. Years of neglect have left our infrastructure in a sorry state, inherited wars cost money(!), and let's not even talk about the shitpile that was the economy. When Bush II handed over the reins. (A resounding win for Financial deregulation, wouldn't you say?)

This is really the same as the last one, but hey, it's still better than inventing evidence and starting a war that result in the deaths of ~4,500 of our kids, and maiming or otherwise injuring ~32,000 more (and totally ignoring the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens as a result of said war).

Last I checked, we'd rather reduce our dependence on oil altogether (By jump-starting the wind and solar industries in the US), but big oil and coal has been lobbying like there's no tomorrow to prevent that.

No worries, the conservatives engage in plenty of this too, especially in cases involving the 2nd ammendment and abortion rights (Hobby lobby decision was decided by 5 men who were conservative Catholics).

Dude, you are crazy. No company should be able to avoid paying taxes through financial sleight of hand, but really, you think GE is paying too much tax for the benefits of being an american corporation? Apple?

As opposed to that other party, who preaches the sanctity of life, but is giddy to kill inmates.

Guess what? Most humans don't think that anyone should either engage in torture, or send drones to kill other humans. Shocking! One of two is a reasonable start, and we're working on the other one. At least we don't have Bush/Cheny in charge any more, they were fine with both.

You do know the difference between climatology and meteorology, right? It's like the difference between socialism and communism (or patriotism and fascism, if you swing that way.) The later is a tiny subset of the former.

Aw, here you're just trying to stir things up. I'm pretty sure the courts have a well-used system in place for determining what is protected speech (however offensive), and what is not. Most judges aren't elected, last I checked.

Hmm, the federal gas tax has been 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. Gas is about $3.80 per gallon where I currently am, which the tax at just under 5%. Oil company profits vary, but that "free market" thing keeps them down to a reasonable level - the government doesn't limit profit, unless you collude with others to circumvent that "free market" thing.

Last I checked, the US government never required a prayer at the beginning of every school day. Also, if your parents are too gutless to tell you how your body works/reproduces, someone should do it before your hormones lead you into a situation that may dramatically change your life plans.

Hmm. Last I checked, democrats wanted to be cautious with respect to the environment (we've only got one), and pornography is acceptible for adults, promisciity is a personal freedom question, and family dissolution is unfortunate (We try to offer helpful services, but then the conservatives accuse us of wasting money. (is it just me, or are they playing both ends of that game?))

Yep. One vote per person. You have another system you'd like to propose?

We have no problem with people responsibly owning guns for accepted purposes (hunting, sport, etc). We do have a problem with owning guns that are designed to kill people as quickly as possible (For reference, RPGs are "arms" too, but no one is arguing that people should be able to get those without a background check.)

You may be confusing correlation and causation. Care to clarify?

The alternative is paying for long incarcerations of minor offences, Mr. Big Govt

Yeah, needing an ID to buy beer is pretty stupid.

Well, on one hand, I don't think the government should be limiting interpersonal contracts to definitions developed by the clergy, and on the other hand, we should be fair; I can't justifiably recognize one religion's definition and ignore anothers.

Nah, we all know that it's dirty dicks and needles. But condoms, meds, needle exchanges, and education sure slow things down.

I rarely see these in conflict, except when someone says he deserves the freedom to treat someone unfairly.

You mixed that up a bit, we want equal opportunity, even for those who have some disadvantages (like poverty or race). As for equal outcomes, I think the old saw applies: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

WTF? Bush II had a cushy post in the Texas Air National Guard while Kerry's PT boat was being shot at.

What can I say, except whoever came up with the idea for the Dept. of homeland security was a jackass and a moron.

Would you belive that I didn't know this was an issue?

You are, of course, free to move to Somalia, where there are no government programs to interfere with your freedoms. I'll even contribute towards your plane ticket.

Also, I'm totally shocked that you didn't mention immigration. Please let me know what democrats want here, and I'll be happy to swing right back at'cha.

I vote democrat to (among other reasons) piss people like you off.

Yeah, aren't we talking about the same house that voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act some 2,527 times now? (No wait, this just in: we're up to 2,528!)

Wrong. This was decided solely based on precedent. If you RTFA, the issue is that Lavabit attempted to raise arguments in the appeal that were not raised in the initial case (and in some cases, were directly counter to some of Lavabit's statements). ANY other decision would have broken with precedents, some of them long established. So, there's no precedent worth noting here. The judge explicitly said that the potential ramifications of the case are still unclear and need further litigation (which Lavabit has the option to do) before longstanding rules are ignored on Lavabit's behalf.

This is Yet Another Example Of Why You Should Hire a Good Lawyer When Dealing With The Feds In Court. If Lavabit had good advice at the earlier hearings, this appeal could have been much more interesting, and might well have gone the other way.

And for your other comments:
1) Bullshit. It's no more your SSL key than the IP used in your cell phone is yours. In fact it was Lavabit's SSL key, (Pay attention to this next part) AND THEY USED THE SAME KEY TO ENCRYPT TRAFFIC FROM ALL USERS OF THE MAIL SERVICE - not the brightest idea, hmmmmm? And as a general note: Your ignorance of the details does not mean that the world works the way you wish it would.
2) Contempt orders serve a valid purpose. You do not appear to know what that is. We can discuss your opinions on Contempt orders when you demonstrate otherwise.
3) RTFA. The Gov't is not required to do more, and if they did, you'd be bitching and moaning about their use of your tax dollars, the breed of puppy used, or inflation, respectively.
4) RTFA. The government requested the key because Lavabit was sending them encrypted data. They had the statutory authority to require Lavabit to provide all necessary help to retrieve unencrypted data, and since Lavabit was not providing it unencrypted, they asked for the appropriate key.

For the record: Lavabit could have avoided a lot of this posturing, and risked compromising fewer people, if it had used different encryption keys for different users - but they didn't . . .

I use an accountant. Thankfully, I was ahead of the game this year and got everything filed a month ago.

But the worst part is getting the letter from the IRS saying that they'd adjusted my refund by $30 due to some minor error.

My feelings on the matter:
"If you knew how much money I was supposed to send in, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IN THE &@#$ING FIRST PLACE! It could have saved everyone time, money and trouble."

Particle Physicists would probably be SOL.
Hedge fund managers and investment bankers too (bless their hearts).
Lawyers will probably survive longer than anyone really wants.

As for most useful: it's pretty clear that anyone who already lives off the grid is going to be way better off than the rest of us. The Amish, subsistence fishermen/hunters, and pretty much anyone who lives in Small-Town Alaska or Northern Canada will probably be fine.

Let's be honest: if there ever is a nightmare scenario, what's really going to matter is your ability to stay protected during the adjustment period:
People who have no skills and no protection will starve. (Culls)
People with no skills and sufficient ammunition will attempt to take whatever they can. (Bandits)
People with skills and no protection will be exploited or killed (Golden goose syndrome).
People with skills and sufficient protection will be a the seeds of the next civilization.

Keep that in mind. Your skill set is necessary, but not sufficient for surviving long enough to rebuild a civilization. The community you belong to is absolutely critical.

I second this.

If you read the proposal, the tubes are made of steel (that would be opaque) so I don't think lensing is going to be an issue . . .

Read the whitepaper. Musk explicitly states that airline-style security will be used.

Humans have always had arms. (Aside: that may one of the first things that distinguished us from other apes - our remarkable ability to turn anything into a weapon, despite our lack of sharp teeth, claws or other "natural" equipment to be used for attack or defense.)

But I digress - It wasn't until we developed more powerful arms that could not be easily copied using found materials that we started to see restrictions on people having arms. The goal of the second amendment was to ensure that the population could not be disarmed through legal methods, then easily subjugated by force.

Hah. Tell it to the second amendment folks.