It's usually not that luck doesn't strike, because it generally does if you're doing something right. The problem is that you also tend to get struck by bad luck.

Based on the article I would guess that a random unexpected setback could easily have brought Tesla out of business in late 2008. Those sort of things happen all the time.

Chome for private use, Firefox for work, Opera for communicating with my wife, Safari for the girlfriend on the side, Explorer for the other girlfriend...

Okay, I'm over-exaggerating, but you get the point. There is probably a plug-in for Chrome or Firefox that achieves the same effect, but in practice I find it easier to just use a bunch of different browsers as sandboxes for different situations.

Oh, he's sighing at himself. That's fine then.

If you recall Thermodynamics 101 / Highschool physics, gaps function as insulators, which is helpful when you're trying to keep something cool or warm.

Sigh... back at you.

1. Don't let safety-critical decisions be based on unreliable time sources.
2. Let each device tag incoming messages with its own timestamps, which never leave the device. Due to the laws of nature messages can safely be assumed to have been transmitted no later than the time of reception.

I wonder if I should patent this...

Dual core should be fine for most day-to-day use. An SSD is almost a must-have. But most importantly: a good high-res display for looking at stuff.

This should be about right if you're going for a mac: http://store.apple.com/us/buy-...
This is more lightweight, but the CPU might be too slow: http://store.apple.com/us/buy-...
This should be OK if you can live without the apple: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-1...

Most of these people will not be able to get good enough fast enough to keep up with people who are already in the field.

In the long run we're all dead, so I wouldn't worry too much about the truly long-term prospects in any field of work unless I'm giving advice to kids.

Boss: What paradigm should we utilize to synergize our efficiencies and provide sustainability to the cloud?

Smart Programmer: We need to use the best paradigm for each sub-problem. I would recommend the Python programming language, because it has a large number of libraries that address the sustainability in the cloud.
Boss: That doesn't sound very innovative. We really need to think outside the box on this one and future-proof our social media content. Big data is a real value add here and I'm telling you it's a game changer. We should reach out and ping some subject matter experts on industry best practices.
Smart Programmer: Python really does allow you to think outside of the box. You can switch gears really quickly with all of the libraries that it has for things like social media content and big data. Many experts would say that using Python is currently a best practice when working with big data.
Boss: That's interesting, but I would prefer Java. We have to deep dive and figure out the most dynamic way to add value and monetize this opportunity.
Smart Programmer: Java is a great choice, but we could cut our development time in half if we use Python, which would save us a lot of money and let us address our big data potential faster.
Boss: Al right, I'm going to ask some other experts about whether we should go with Java or Python. Thanks for your input.

Yes, but in addition to that the trade-offs are inherently different for re-usable rockets. Embrittlement is probably a pretty big problem if you intend to re-use your fuel tank many times, like SpaceX intends to.

If SpaceX fails to make their second stage re-usable I would not be surprised to see them switch to hydrogen for that stage at some point down the line.

The government needs a frame in which it can legally operate. For instance you don't want the government to get into iron mining, steel making and knife making just so it can run hospitals. It's fine for a government-run hospital to buy surgical knives from private companies.

The horror example where this separation from government subsidies never happened is the airline industry, where you have two giant corporations, Boeing and Airbus, that leech billions off of various governments.

Steel cans in low Earth orbit. Things have not really change much since the 1975 in terms of scale.

If we're talking about the scale of space habitats, the two factors in the equation are:
1. Cost per unit of weight from Earth to orbit.
2. The ability to mine, refine and manufacture in space.

Increase one of those and things might get interesting.

Nuclear has a gigantic upfront capital cost. Here's the deal:

You start investing hundreds of millions of dollars per year in planning and construction, starting today. The plant comes online 15 years from now and starts to make money back at a fairly low rate. That is, unless gas, solar or some other technology has managed to cut costs in which case you make nothing.

Any takers?

Sounds like you should buy a MacBook Air before they discontinue it, then. Their margins are probably a lot higher on this new and less powerful product.

It's amazing that nobody has managed to make a decent clone if the Air. It's been what, 5-10 years since Apple released the first one.

I think it's basically this:

1) I don't know how something happened
2) Oh, but wouldn't it be exiting if there was a great over-arching story behind it all?
3) Therefore the government did it and is covering it up

Yeah, one day a company like Netflix may no longer ship physical discs, but instead rely on digital streaming over the Internet. Remember where you heard it first!