Here's a thread that discusses the reason for the logo.

While it's true iPad cannot doesn't allow me to do everything my laptop does, I find that for most of the things I do with a laptop the iPad excels. Especially consuming content. Creating content is getting better (I'm more used to the keyboard and use an external BT keyboard for long writing sessions), iSSH makes it bearable to manage my servers remotely (the only servers I use anymore are "remote"), and when off work the iPad is a fantastic movie and gaming platform.

So, I am finding myself using my iPad more and my laptop less. (Ironically, I'm writing this from my MacBookPro :)

See this comment and follow-up discussion regarding the icon

So, ever since family and friends found out I could help with arcane errors and problems with their Apple ][+ computers (did I mention I'm old? That was back in the early 80s) I've been standing between computers and users and trying to reconcile both to each other.

Eventually, this turned in to a great opportunity for me to help people with their use of current technology. Are computers and software packages irritating? You bet! But being in the middle position between the user and CPU has been something I've enjoyed for more than a decade.

Sure, I've been a developer and struggled directly with computers on one hand and produced software that unintentionally frustrated users on the other. But it's standing in the gap between the technology and humanity that I find myself the most valuable.

As long as computers and software suck there will be a need for people like me. And, as it turns out, people prefer to turn their problems over to other people -- not wizards, FAQs, etc. -- for assistance.

The trick is not considering users as the problem but oneself as a key to the solution.

Maybe I wasn't clear - it didn't expose the contractor to Apple, but to others outside Apple. I didn't like that, either.

Not an advert (we do run ads on Slashdot, of course) but a badge indicating I'm one of a few Rackspace employees here on Slashdot and willing to be helpful if someone has questions, etc. If you check my bio you'll notice I'm a Linux Sr Sys Engineer, not sales (though "There's nothing wrong with that" if someone is in sales :) ).

I do the same thing for Rackspace elsewhere. We're able to do this due to our relationship with Slashdot.

:) Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. :)

Kidding!

I use GMail for a lot of my personal (i.e., non-essential) accounts. I still use Hotmail, AOL mail and Yahoo Mail for other things, too. Of course, my business mail is running at Rackspace.

It's my company's logo - I work for Rackspace Hosting.

My thoughts exactly.

Still, it would be quite embarrassing to be publicly named so that others besides Apple knew who was to blame for the mistake.

For the line party :)

Really hoping this rumor is true - not that I need to buy another "pad" device (yes, I stood in line for an iPad) - but I'd really like to see how the Closed vs. Open platform models play out. Best case: Apple revises its Closed stance in response to a thriving gPad ecosystem.

I really like my iProducts, but having been a proponent of open platforms for so long I am uneasy at the tight hold Apple holds over developers and users.

For example, why hasn't Apple approved the Opera Mini yet? I'd welcome a choice in browsers, personally.

I too offer my congratulations to PJ and the hard working Groklaw community. When I started reading her blog in the Spring of 2003 there was a lot of confusion as to the future of Linux and even the GPL. How a company that owed it's existence to Linux and the GPL (I'm referring to Caldera which became The SCO Group) could turn on the whole community as it did was a dark time in business.

Of course nearly every claim was proven false (with the possible exception of errno.h and some drivers submitted by SGI, IIRC) due to the unrelenting research by PJ and so many others in the Groklaw community. She and they proved that an open community can be more powerful than elite lawyers and companies funded by deep pockets.

This work truly belongs in the LOC and should be studied and emulated.

I watch Social Media mentions of things I care about very closely. I've explained to others how I've come to realize there is a definite "canary effect" with the mass sentiment seen via real-time opinion/view venues such as Twitter.

In fact, for items related to "down time" of sites people are routinely faster at registering their dismay at a service being unavailable than expensive site monitoring tools. This isn't exactly predicting future outcomes, but it is an "early warning" indicator that businesses should tap into.

Personally, I use simple scripts that hit the Twitter Search API and send alerts to me and others via IM, email, etc. Not as pretty as $2000/mo monitoring systems, but quite effective.

Since the mid 90's I've been a user of FOSS projects and products for business use - contributing where and when I can - and I've been a long time customer of Rackspace since 2001 and an employee since Jan 2007... I must say I'm thrilled by the moves my company has been making to not only be a major consumer of Open Source products but also now a major contributor to such projects. From open Cloud architecture APIs and API specifications (enabling anyone to build their own Cloud hosting systems) to big-data focused projects like Cassandra and, of course, Drizzle.

Sorry to gush here...it's just that so many companies tend to nominally use Open Source to gain market share and free development help initially and then begin to restrict documentation, support and even access to new features in a dual licensing scheme. The list of names of those that "SCO-ify" their Open Source strategy is too long and sad to mention. So, please cut me some slack as I revel in the direction we're heading at Rackspace -- I hope more companies will jump on this trend to raise the sea level for us all.

To the Drizzle team: welcome! Very happy to have you onboard and look forward to your continued contributions to the community.

Note: my comments and gushing are my own!