Anyone who sees the current round of cryptocurrencies as an escape from fiat currency has very little understanding of just what fiat currencies ARE. So little understanding that you can probably assume that their grasp of even the most basic understanding of economics is non-existent. At some point in the future some cryptocurrencies may evolve to be able to be considered commodity currencies, and some people are working right now to accomplish that, but they are still very far away from turning any cryptocurrency into a commodity currency, and I'm not convinced that the shift is actually possible in a meaningful, large scale way. Time will tell, I guess.
I think you're completely right on the streaming service, and you only have to look at Hulu to see it. (Which will almost certainly be the basis for Disney's streaming service now that they own a controlling stake in it.) I refuse to touch Hulu with a 10 foot pole because I'm always told that my money is speech, and I refuse to endorse the crap that Hulu pulls. I'm sorry, but if you're going to charge me almost the same cost as Amazon Prime or Netflix for your 'plus' tier, then it had better not include commercials. The fact that I have to pay significantly more (more than half the cost of the 'plus' tier itself!) to rid myself of the commercials is just like rubbing salt in the wound. This doesn't even take into account the horrid interface and navigation options on Hulu, which are frankly just an embarrassment. Netflix's and Amazon Prime's aren't that great, but Hulu's make them look like the pinnacle of UI design. Overall... I do NOT think this is going to be a positive for streaming online in general...
Ummm, Susan Rice was National Security Advisor when this occurred. Considering the unmasking in question had to do with conversations between American citizens and Russian officials, and the unmasking is known to have happened only after those conversations were found to include possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, which is a possibly quite serious breach of national security... she was ENTIRELY qualified to make those requests.
This is the same Devin Nunes that was accused of bias in the Congressional investigation into the Russian hacking around the Presidential election. As a matter of fact, he is not acting as chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the moment (although he is still the named chairman) as he is currently under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics for disclosing classified information to the public.
Also, lets look at what happened with unmasking towards the end of the Obama administration: Certain individuals around Donald Trump, especially Michael Flynn and a few others with exceptionally close connections to him, were unmasked after the routine capture of communications between Russian officials and US citizens was discovered, communications which helped oust Flynn as National Security Advisor, as well as being central to the current expansion of official investigations into possible illegal collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 Presidential election.
Putting the above two facts together... until I have some outside, non-partisan source that is backing Nunes, then this looks like a blatantly transparent effort to probably paint the unmasking likely discredit whoever found and revealed the above mentioned conversations, in an effort to paint the entire Russia investigation as illegitimate. And, as a matter of fact, reading a number of sources, it becomes clear that is the EXACT intent of this move. They cover it up by claiming there was 'no justification' because the forms were mostly 'boilerplate'... Yeah, well, at LOT of forms are boilerplate, that's why boilerplate exists in the first place. Just because something is boilerplate doesn't mean that there was no justification. It just means that the justification is used enough that drawing up a standard filler for it is worthwhile. So until there's actual evidence of wrongdoing, Nunes is not exactly an unbiased person in this case, and he has proven before that he is willing to use his biases and act unethically against his political opponents in an effort to retain as much power as possible. If some non-partisan source can confirm what he claims, that's when I'll give these allegations any chance of actually being true, and the actions discussed as being illicit.
To play devil's advocate, legacy code and support has been a known issue for Microsoft for a long time, and one that they have been trying to seriously address since Vista. There have been several times that they have had to seriously delay or drop highly improved new technology because of their need to support legacy code and devices, and they've gotten a lot of criticism for being behind the technology curve due to that need. If they want to solve the legacy code/hardware support issue, then at some point it MUST require that they stop pushing updates to old hardware that is unsupported and thus may have issues running code that has been written without taking into account the lack of certain instructions and optimizations and such present in older hardware. Android does this. Apple does it. If Microsoft wants to solve their legacy issues, they will have to do something like it to.
Again, just playing devil's advocate. Personally, I believe that some amount of strong legacy support is one of the core strengths of the Microsoft environment that is difficult to find elsewhere, and this is a swing of the pendulum too far in the other direction as a reaction to their past issues with legacy support. They used to have an enormous tail, and now they're chopping it off to basically no tail at all... and that's a mistake. There's a happy medium in there somewhere where a decent tail of legacy support for old code and hardware is included, but they don't have to include the kitchen sink with it.
I love how we always talk about personal responsibility and corporate responsibility, but it's always the little guy that gets hit by it. Why is it the borrowers ethical responsibility to pay the loan back, but not the owner of the loan's responsibility to actually track what people owe them? Seems to me that ethically, if you can't prove someone owes you something, then they don't owe you jack.
For the door, make sure you are not using a hollow core door, and that you reinforce the frame, while also using an aftermarket strike/kickplate that has been developed for security, as that will make it much more difficult to just kick the door in. I would also looking at getting a core from a good company, not just some off the shelf part, because the better locks can be hard to find. Also, something that is more than just your normal pin and tumbler lock, like a dimple lock, can help. ABUS makes really good locks, and I would recommend looking at them. There's a few others too. You might want to look outside the residential core offerings they have into the commercial grade ones. (make sure to look for something as close to bump-proof and rake-proof as possible. Again, things like dimple locks will help here.) Same goes for the protection plates on the doors, so someone can't just card your door open or anything. No solution is going to stop a determined attacker forever, but doing these things will make it significantly harder to breach the door, and makes it more likely that someone maybe tries to kick it in once or twice and then leaves.
And is there any evidence of this? Ecuador has already stated they acted on their own, and they have compelling reasons for doing so. The only people I've seen saying that this was John Kerry are the people who either were effected by the shutoff directly, or those who support their political motivations. None of the claims have any proof behind them, they are just wild assertions or baseless claims at this point.
There's more every day. Netflix's library is actually halfway decent with new content already, relative to how new the standard is. And it's clear that content for 4k will be pushed out a lot harder than the HDTV content was when it first became available. So right now it may be a little sparse still, but in 6 months or a year or a year and a half? I'm quite sure we'll be swimming in it.
Heck, for Gigabit, I think even a 1TB is low. I know it is for my family... there's 5 of us in the house, usually watching different things at the same time, and the only thing keeping us from watching multiple 4k streams at the same time is our bandwidth. Assuming each of us watched 2 hours a night and did nothing else, we would be through the cap in about half a month.
Even more importantly, if you haven't burned through your cap for the month first. I haven't heard much recently about it, but a bit ago Comcast was still planning on instituting a 300GB a month cap, despite selling the service as unlimited. Gigabit won't do you much good with a 300GB cap...
You laugh, but I have five words for you: Pokemon MMO Game. You think Warcraft had an inbuilt fanbase? A decent Pokemon MMO would blow WoW's opening year out of the water, and a GOOD Pokemon MMO would dethrone WoW as the most successful MMO of all time, easily. And of the many many games out there, the Pokemon universe and game play translates the very best to an MMO.
Considering the insane amounts that companies go after individuals for where the power dynamic is reversed, then hell yes he should go after them for as much as he can. Whenever individuals do something wrong, no matter how minor, companies go after them for huge amounts way out of line with actual damages. They have the lawyers and the time and the money, and they use it to abuse those with none of those things. If the situation was reversed I have no doubt the company would be going after him for as much or more. But when the dynamic changes, and companies use things from individuals, they tend to abuse the shit out of it again, 'forgetting' to take things down, using without attribution or permission, or just straight up stealing work and IP. And then again, they have the time, money, and lawyers to get off easy, because most individuals they screw over can't afford to go toe to toe with them for as long as it takes to get results. I don't think this is right, by any means, by either the individual or the company. But while the company can and does do it, then what does the individual get by not acting the same way? The moral high ground is great, but in cases like this it doesn't make you a living. You just end up poor with your hard work being ripped off left and right. Screw that.
It's significant enough that I found the US version watchable, while I found the UK version enjoyable. (I may be biased in this in that I saw the UK version first, and then the US version.) The disjointedness is absolutely due to scenes that were included in the UK version and not the US version. I honestly don't know why they cut it, because the stuff the cut wasn't exceptionally vulgar or anything of the sort.
I've always wanted to start a pirate radio station just for shits and giggles, and doubly so after watching 'The Boat That Rocked" (watch this one, the UK release, not the US version "Pirate Radio", imo.) The fact that it is apparently infuriating to certain members of congress would just be icing on the the cake...
True story. A recall like this will NEVER be bad publicity when it's made as soon as the manufacturer realizes a problem exists and before anyone in the field has even seen anything. I've wanted a Tesla for awhile now, and if my current car can make it long enough, my next new car is going to be a Model 3... exactly BECAUSE of recalls like this. Tesla not only makes the safest cars on the road, but they have the safest organization as well. Clearly their management is more interested in making a safe car than turning a quick buck, and that's the kind of company that I want to do business with.
The story I read said that there were unconfirmed whispers that it was 18nm. It still IS impressive, like you said, but that 10nm-CLASS shit is so misleading. Just tell it like it is, it's already impressive enough.
I started reading the story wanting to hate him and disagree with him, and while I still dislike him, he's right. A lot of traders and companies and agencies are getting away with murder because the regulations are vague, and they use that to their advantage, keeping others out by interpreting regulations one way for some people, and raking in the dough by interpreting them more favorably for themselves and their friends. The SEC DOES 100% need to tighten up their regulations and enforcement. Someone brought up the FDA regulations, and while there is still some level of regulatory capture, etc with the FDA, it is nowhere NEAR as bad as the SEC. SEC emulation of FDA regulation sounds like a good thing to me. Now, I feel like this is not what Cuban is meaning to say, but it's completely in line with what he did say, so he can suck it.
And honestly, I don't want this. I have unlimited data already, and I would prefer to watch in HD, or at least at 720p at the very least. I don't want to watch stuff at 480 again. The fact that this can force me to watch in lower def (at least according to reports from when this was announced, don't actually know if it's true) pisses me off more than anything, and that would still be true even if I didn't have unlimited data.
This same argument was debunked right after the attacks. Repeating it again and again doesn't make it true. Here's a link to a post that lays out several of the totally incorrect conclusions that they've been pushing: http://www.washingtonsblog.com... (It also includes debunking some points unrelated to encryption and mass surveillance that can be ignored in respect to this specific article.)
That's actually a good idea, cause the batteries size could be changed based on the trailer and maximum load sizes. It could also allow for motors to be placed on some of the rear axles, which I could see possibly being useful.
I'm not sure about that. The range for long range hauling semis might not be there, but there's a ton of semis that get used in limited geographic areas. Lots of places have a central depot or two in a city, that services all their stores/outlets/etc. Many of those semis don't really need huge range, they're just bigger moving/freight trucks. Heck, if you designed it right you could include easily swap-able battery packs with quick charge capability. The truck comes back to the depot, as it's getting refilled or getting a new trailer, the battery pack gets swapped for a new one, and bam, away you go, while your other battery pack charges up again for your next go round. Hell... I don't know why you couldn't do the same type of thing with large highway truck stops, which could certainly make long haul electric trucking a reality. And with the amount of gas that gets spent on these trucks, even with the high cost of batteries there's probably a substantial savings to be had.
I'm going to be honest... I have no problem with someone doing that that is really working to advance and better the human race. Most people like that like to talk about how amazing they are, or to brag about how great something they've done is. I don't really see or hear about Musk acting like that. He's always looking for the next project and trying something new. Some of the new projects he talks about are flat out ridiculous. Some of them seem ridiculous, but are actually far more doable than anyone is willing to admit until he goes and does them. Some of them are just pretty run of the mill improvements. So if Musk wants to stay in the public eye by talking about wild shit, I've got less than no problem with it as long as he also keeps acting in the way he has in the past. The state of cars, space travel, and battery storage are all objectively better off for Musk's desire to stay in the public eye. If only every narcissist acted that way.
Aside from questions of longevity, I honestly much prefer the availability of light color options that LEDs provide. After getting several LEDs that are substantially cooler in color than normally available incandescents/CFLs, I never want to go back. Add to that the fact that I can GET warmer colored LEDs if I desire, and the fact that I can use LED lights that package other abilities into their package (like wireless speakers), and I just don't see the consumer draw other than some rose colored glasses. (Maybe for dimmable bulbs, which I know LEDs struggled with for awhile but they seem to have overcome that also... This also ignores the brightness of the lightbulb, as LEDs have just generally been brighter [a good thing imo] than comparable incandescents and CFLs in my experience. Maybe the new tech solves that, but still probably not worth it as a consumer is my feeling.)
I would argue that in the agile world, it matters just as much if not more, especially with their desire to charge a flat fee. From the article: " A sales engineer discusses proposals with clients, and using the AI engine, comes back with a price quote and production schedule in about 10 minutes. Then Gigster manages the entire development process through delivery of the fully-functional app." This implies to me that they are coming up with this fee and the full schedule at the start, from someone who isn't going to be that closely invested in the actual development of the app (and who likely is going to miss a LOT of what's going to go in that development. I know some very good sales engineers, but they are almost all behind the development curve just due to the fact that they don't DO development regularly, if at all.) That's not agile. That's the antithesis of agile. The entire point of agile is that you can't know right from the start how exactly a project is going to turn out, and what kinds of roadblocks you'll encounter. And especially with the development of original apps, unexpected events are going to crop up. The agile method is built to zero in on requirements during the process of development, and to actually allow an estimate to be just that, an estimate of time and cost. And yes yes, I know that agile can't be completely open ended, but the entire point is to be flexible in your development so you can easily adjust when problems arise, which, again, is NOT what this company seems to be doing. This company is not doing that at all, they're like the epitome of waterfall style development. Which means they have to be nearly perfect at requirements and estimating, which is nearly impossible. And I think you're right that it will almost certainly come back and bite them in the ass. (And that's ignoring the bullshit sharing economy/labor issues involved.)
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Anyone who sees the current round of cryptocurrencies as an escape from fiat currency has very little understanding of just what fiat currencies ARE. So little understanding that you can probably assume that their grasp of even the most basic understanding of economics is non-existent. At some point in the future some cryptocurrencies may evolve to be able to be considered commodity currencies, and some people are working right now to accomplish that, but they are still very far away from turning any cryptocurrency into a commodity currency, and I'm not convinced that the shift is actually possible in a meaningful, large scale way. Time will tell, I guess.
I think you're completely right on the streaming service, and you only have to look at Hulu to see it. (Which will almost certainly be the basis for Disney's streaming service now that they own a controlling stake in it.) I refuse to touch Hulu with a 10 foot pole because I'm always told that my money is speech, and I refuse to endorse the crap that Hulu pulls. I'm sorry, but if you're going to charge me almost the same cost as Amazon Prime or Netflix for your 'plus' tier, then it had better not include commercials. The fact that I have to pay significantly more (more than half the cost of the 'plus' tier itself!) to rid myself of the commercials is just like rubbing salt in the wound. This doesn't even take into account the horrid interface and navigation options on Hulu, which are frankly just an embarrassment. Netflix's and Amazon Prime's aren't that great, but Hulu's make them look like the pinnacle of UI design. Overall... I do NOT think this is going to be a positive for streaming online in general...
Ummm, Susan Rice was National Security Advisor when this occurred. Considering the unmasking in question had to do with conversations between American citizens and Russian officials, and the unmasking is known to have happened only after those conversations were found to include possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, which is a possibly quite serious breach of national security... she was ENTIRELY qualified to make those requests.
This is the same Devin Nunes that was accused of bias in the Congressional investigation into the Russian hacking around the Presidential election. As a matter of fact, he is not acting as chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the moment (although he is still the named chairman) as he is currently under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics for disclosing classified information to the public.
Also, lets look at what happened with unmasking towards the end of the Obama administration: Certain individuals around Donald Trump, especially Michael Flynn and a few others with exceptionally close connections to him, were unmasked after the routine capture of communications between Russian officials and US citizens was discovered, communications which helped oust Flynn as National Security Advisor, as well as being central to the current expansion of official investigations into possible illegal collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 Presidential election.
Putting the above two facts together... until I have some outside, non-partisan source that is backing Nunes, then this looks like a blatantly transparent effort to probably paint the unmasking likely discredit whoever found and revealed the above mentioned conversations, in an effort to paint the entire Russia investigation as illegitimate. And, as a matter of fact, reading a number of sources, it becomes clear that is the EXACT intent of this move. They cover it up by claiming there was 'no justification' because the forms were mostly 'boilerplate'... Yeah, well, at LOT of forms are boilerplate, that's why boilerplate exists in the first place. Just because something is boilerplate doesn't mean that there was no justification. It just means that the justification is used enough that drawing up a standard filler for it is worthwhile. So until there's actual evidence of wrongdoing, Nunes is not exactly an unbiased person in this case, and he has proven before that he is willing to use his biases and act unethically against his political opponents in an effort to retain as much power as possible. If some non-partisan source can confirm what he claims, that's when I'll give these allegations any chance of actually being true, and the actions discussed as being illicit.
To play devil's advocate, legacy code and support has been a known issue for Microsoft for a long time, and one that they have been trying to seriously address since Vista. There have been several times that they have had to seriously delay or drop highly improved new technology because of their need to support legacy code and devices, and they've gotten a lot of criticism for being behind the technology curve due to that need. If they want to solve the legacy code/hardware support issue, then at some point it MUST require that they stop pushing updates to old hardware that is unsupported and thus may have issues running code that has been written without taking into account the lack of certain instructions and optimizations and such present in older hardware. Android does this. Apple does it. If Microsoft wants to solve their legacy issues, they will have to do something like it to.
Again, just playing devil's advocate. Personally, I believe that some amount of strong legacy support is one of the core strengths of the Microsoft environment that is difficult to find elsewhere, and this is a swing of the pendulum too far in the other direction as a reaction to their past issues with legacy support. They used to have an enormous tail, and now they're chopping it off to basically no tail at all... and that's a mistake. There's a happy medium in there somewhere where a decent tail of legacy support for old code and hardware is included, but they don't have to include the kitchen sink with it.
I love how we always talk about personal responsibility and corporate responsibility, but it's always the little guy that gets hit by it. Why is it the borrowers ethical responsibility to pay the loan back, but not the owner of the loan's responsibility to actually track what people owe them? Seems to me that ethically, if you can't prove someone owes you something, then they don't owe you jack.
For the door, make sure you are not using a hollow core door, and that you reinforce the frame, while also using an aftermarket strike/kickplate that has been developed for security, as that will make it much more difficult to just kick the door in. I would also looking at getting a core from a good company, not just some off the shelf part, because the better locks can be hard to find. Also, something that is more than just your normal pin and tumbler lock, like a dimple lock, can help. ABUS makes really good locks, and I would recommend looking at them. There's a few others too. You might want to look outside the residential core offerings they have into the commercial grade ones. (make sure to look for something as close to bump-proof and rake-proof as possible. Again, things like dimple locks will help here.) Same goes for the protection plates on the doors, so someone can't just card your door open or anything. No solution is going to stop a determined attacker forever, but doing these things will make it significantly harder to breach the door, and makes it more likely that someone maybe tries to kick it in once or twice and then leaves.
And is there any evidence of this? Ecuador has already stated they acted on their own, and they have compelling reasons for doing so. The only people I've seen saying that this was John Kerry are the people who either were effected by the shutoff directly, or those who support their political motivations. None of the claims have any proof behind them, they are just wild assertions or baseless claims at this point.
There's more every day. Netflix's library is actually halfway decent with new content already, relative to how new the standard is. And it's clear that content for 4k will be pushed out a lot harder than the HDTV content was when it first became available. So right now it may be a little sparse still, but in 6 months or a year or a year and a half? I'm quite sure we'll be swimming in it.
Heck, for Gigabit, I think even a 1TB is low. I know it is for my family... there's 5 of us in the house, usually watching different things at the same time, and the only thing keeping us from watching multiple 4k streams at the same time is our bandwidth. Assuming each of us watched 2 hours a night and did nothing else, we would be through the cap in about half a month.
Even more importantly, if you haven't burned through your cap for the month first. I haven't heard much recently about it, but a bit ago Comcast was still planning on instituting a 300GB a month cap, despite selling the service as unlimited. Gigabit won't do you much good with a 300GB cap...
You laugh, but I have five words for you: Pokemon MMO Game. You think Warcraft had an inbuilt fanbase? A decent Pokemon MMO would blow WoW's opening year out of the water, and a GOOD Pokemon MMO would dethrone WoW as the most successful MMO of all time, easily. And of the many many games out there, the Pokemon universe and game play translates the very best to an MMO.
Considering the insane amounts that companies go after individuals for where the power dynamic is reversed, then hell yes he should go after them for as much as he can. Whenever individuals do something wrong, no matter how minor, companies go after them for huge amounts way out of line with actual damages. They have the lawyers and the time and the money, and they use it to abuse those with none of those things. If the situation was reversed I have no doubt the company would be going after him for as much or more. But when the dynamic changes, and companies use things from individuals, they tend to abuse the shit out of it again, 'forgetting' to take things down, using without attribution or permission, or just straight up stealing work and IP. And then again, they have the time, money, and lawyers to get off easy, because most individuals they screw over can't afford to go toe to toe with them for as long as it takes to get results. I don't think this is right, by any means, by either the individual or the company. But while the company can and does do it, then what does the individual get by not acting the same way? The moral high ground is great, but in cases like this it doesn't make you a living. You just end up poor with your hard work being ripped off left and right. Screw that.
It's significant enough that I found the US version watchable, while I found the UK version enjoyable. (I may be biased in this in that I saw the UK version first, and then the US version.) The disjointedness is absolutely due to scenes that were included in the UK version and not the US version. I honestly don't know why they cut it, because the stuff the cut wasn't exceptionally vulgar or anything of the sort.
I've always wanted to start a pirate radio station just for shits and giggles, and doubly so after watching 'The Boat That Rocked" (watch this one, the UK release, not the US version "Pirate Radio", imo.) The fact that it is apparently infuriating to certain members of congress would just be icing on the the cake...
True story. A recall like this will NEVER be bad publicity when it's made as soon as the manufacturer realizes a problem exists and before anyone in the field has even seen anything. I've wanted a Tesla for awhile now, and if my current car can make it long enough, my next new car is going to be a Model 3... exactly BECAUSE of recalls like this. Tesla not only makes the safest cars on the road, but they have the safest organization as well. Clearly their management is more interested in making a safe car than turning a quick buck, and that's the kind of company that I want to do business with.
The story I read said that there were unconfirmed whispers that it was 18nm. It still IS impressive, like you said, but that 10nm-CLASS shit is so misleading. Just tell it like it is, it's already impressive enough.
I started reading the story wanting to hate him and disagree with him, and while I still dislike him, he's right. A lot of traders and companies and agencies are getting away with murder because the regulations are vague, and they use that to their advantage, keeping others out by interpreting regulations one way for some people, and raking in the dough by interpreting them more favorably for themselves and their friends. The SEC DOES 100% need to tighten up their regulations and enforcement. Someone brought up the FDA regulations, and while there is still some level of regulatory capture, etc with the FDA, it is nowhere NEAR as bad as the SEC. SEC emulation of FDA regulation sounds like a good thing to me. Now, I feel like this is not what Cuban is meaning to say, but it's completely in line with what he did say, so he can suck it.
And honestly, I don't want this. I have unlimited data already, and I would prefer to watch in HD, or at least at 720p at the very least. I don't want to watch stuff at 480 again. The fact that this can force me to watch in lower def (at least according to reports from when this was announced, don't actually know if it's true) pisses me off more than anything, and that would still be true even if I didn't have unlimited data.
This same argument was debunked right after the attacks. Repeating it again and again doesn't make it true. Here's a link to a post that lays out several of the totally incorrect conclusions that they've been pushing: http://www.washingtonsblog.com...
(It also includes debunking some points unrelated to encryption and mass surveillance that can be ignored in respect to this specific article.)
That's actually a good idea, cause the batteries size could be changed based on the trailer and maximum load sizes. It could also allow for motors to be placed on some of the rear axles, which I could see possibly being useful.
I'm not sure about that. The range for long range hauling semis might not be there, but there's a ton of semis that get used in limited geographic areas. Lots of places have a central depot or two in a city, that services all their stores/outlets/etc. Many of those semis don't really need huge range, they're just bigger moving/freight trucks. Heck, if you designed it right you could include easily swap-able battery packs with quick charge capability. The truck comes back to the depot, as it's getting refilled or getting a new trailer, the battery pack gets swapped for a new one, and bam, away you go, while your other battery pack charges up again for your next go round. Hell... I don't know why you couldn't do the same type of thing with large highway truck stops, which could certainly make long haul electric trucking a reality. And with the amount of gas that gets spent on these trucks, even with the high cost of batteries there's probably a substantial savings to be had.
I'm going to be honest... I have no problem with someone doing that that is really working to advance and better the human race. Most people like that like to talk about how amazing they are, or to brag about how great something they've done is. I don't really see or hear about Musk acting like that. He's always looking for the next project and trying something new. Some of the new projects he talks about are flat out ridiculous. Some of them seem ridiculous, but are actually far more doable than anyone is willing to admit until he goes and does them. Some of them are just pretty run of the mill improvements. So if Musk wants to stay in the public eye by talking about wild shit, I've got less than no problem with it as long as he also keeps acting in the way he has in the past. The state of cars, space travel, and battery storage are all objectively better off for Musk's desire to stay in the public eye. If only every narcissist acted that way.
Aside from questions of longevity, I honestly much prefer the availability of light color options that LEDs provide. After getting several LEDs that are substantially cooler in color than normally available incandescents/CFLs, I never want to go back. Add to that the fact that I can GET warmer colored LEDs if I desire, and the fact that I can use LED lights that package other abilities into their package (like wireless speakers), and I just don't see the consumer draw other than some rose colored glasses. (Maybe for dimmable bulbs, which I know LEDs struggled with for awhile but they seem to have overcome that also... This also ignores the brightness of the lightbulb, as LEDs have just generally been brighter [a good thing imo] than comparable incandescents and CFLs in my experience. Maybe the new tech solves that, but still probably not worth it as a consumer is my feeling.)
I would argue that in the agile world, it matters just as much if not more, especially with their desire to charge a flat fee. From the article: " A sales engineer discusses proposals with clients, and using the AI engine, comes back with a price quote and production schedule in about 10 minutes. Then Gigster manages the entire development process through delivery of the fully-functional app." This implies to me that they are coming up with this fee and the full schedule at the start, from someone who isn't going to be that closely invested in the actual development of the app (and who likely is going to miss a LOT of what's going to go in that development. I know some very good sales engineers, but they are almost all behind the development curve just due to the fact that they don't DO development regularly, if at all.) That's not agile. That's the antithesis of agile. The entire point of agile is that you can't know right from the start how exactly a project is going to turn out, and what kinds of roadblocks you'll encounter. And especially with the development of original apps, unexpected events are going to crop up. The agile method is built to zero in on requirements during the process of development, and to actually allow an estimate to be just that, an estimate of time and cost. And yes yes, I know that agile can't be completely open ended, but the entire point is to be flexible in your development so you can easily adjust when problems arise, which, again, is NOT what this company seems to be doing. This company is not doing that at all, they're like the epitome of waterfall style development. Which means they have to be nearly perfect at requirements and estimating, which is nearly impossible. And I think you're right that it will almost certainly come back and bite them in the ass. (And that's ignoring the bullshit sharing economy/labor issues involved.)