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Businesses

WhatsApp Founder Used Unchangable Airline Ticket To Pressure Facebook 144

McGruber writes "In a post on the Flyertalk website, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum provides another interesting detail about how he steered WhatsApp into a $16 billion deal with Facebook: 'we announced the deal with Facebook on wednesday after the market closed. during the process, we realized there was a chance we might not be able to get the deal wrapped up and signed on wednesday and it could delay. when the risk of the delay became real, i said: "if we don't get it done on wednesday, it probably wont get done. i have tickets on thursday to fly out to Barcelona which i bought with miles and they are not easily refundable or even possible to change. this has to be done by wednesday or else!!!"...and so one of the biggest deals in tech history had to be scheduled around my M&M award ticket."

Comment Re:no (Score 1) 479

Bell in canada is the worst for this. Most of their DLS customers in my area are still being served by untwisted pairs of telephone line that has been on the poles since the 1950's. Their network flopped so bad last week that ~10,000 people lost their home phone, internet and cell service for 24hrs. ISPs will always do the bare minimum to keep their service up while charging as much as they can because there is no accountability for crap service.

Education

Creationism In Texas Public Schools 770

An anonymous reader writes "Slate reports on new anti-science education coming out of Texas. The state has a charter school system called Responsive Education Solutions, which is publicly funded. Unfortunately, 'it has been connected from its inception to the creationist movement and to far-right fundamentalists who seek to undermine the separation of church and state.' The biology workbook used in these schools actually reads, "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth." It also brings up social Darwinism as if it's an aspect of evolutionary theory and introduces doubt that the Earth is billions of years old. The article continues, 'To get around court rulings, Responsive Ed and other creationists resort to rhetoric about teaching "all sides" of "competing theories" and claiming that this approach promotes "critical thinking." In response to a question about whether Responsive Ed teaches creationism, its vice president of academic affairs, Rosalinda Gonzalez, told me that the curriculum "teaches evolution, noting, but not exploring, the existence of competing theories."' Other so-called education texts being used by the Responsive Ed program teach Western superiority and how feminism forced women to 'turn to the state as a surrogate husband.'"

Comment Re:Lots of smoke, little fire? (Score 1) 209

And how much do you trust electronic storage? In my 15 years of computer use I have had a hell of a lot more hard drives fail than books. Put them in shipping crates and leave them some where dry. Even if they sit there for a thousand years they may still be useful to some one else after we are all gone. No one thinks about the REALLY long game.

Comment Re:My Personal Tip (Score 1) 310

Because MS will clearly release Windows 9 as a clone of XP and all the Windows 8 knowledge you have ignored wont matter. No wait, they will continue to update like usual and in a few releases you will be woefully behind the industry standard.

Comment Re:Insight? Beyond My Understanding (Score 1) 271

This leads to not just issues relating to another individual, but also to far greater things when you consider that they people might one day be enacting laws based on their personal experience, or lack there of.

You's seen how laws are working out now right? It's not like it could get much worse. At least these people will be familiar with the subject matter.

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