mrfairladyz

I think this is an underlying strength of Elon's success and the success of innovators in general (there were a few pages on this in Salman Khan's The One World Schoolhouse) -- starting from first principles. When you have an old model, it's come about due to whatever the situation in the industry was like at the time, and it's evolved due to past forces acting on the old model. To take a basic idea that seems figured out and "fine" (education, or a car) and get rid of any preexisting notions or ideas of how it should work, and start from first principles and think from the very start how it should be given modern advancements, is a difficult and powerful thing.

"Google I/O is sold out."

As do I... And no verification of registration yet. This is an absolute mess.

Same here -- my payment window timed out, I was told to try again, and now I have two charges on my account with no verification of registration. Something is off with Google Wallet.

To find and release publicly personal information about someone -- name, address, phone number, and even SSN and credit card numbers -- in such away that they become identifiable to just about anyone online.

This was a hot topic a few months back when reddit had to deal with it: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/10/truth-lies-doxxing-inte...

Nice! I enjoyed this... Thanks!

>This is also starting to become true with the kindle for consumers.

I disagree. In my experience, buying books on Kindle has been almost a reassurance that it could be read on any other platform, either through a web browser or iPhone/Android app. Amazon has made it easy to switch platforms and still be hooked on their services, whereas Apple essentially locks you in to their ecosystem with only allowing their content (iBooks and movie rentals, but not music in some sense) to be enjoyed on Apple devices.

Services like Spotify and Rdio make it easier to switch platforms -- if I want my music library on another platform, all I need to do is download an app. That kind of flexibility and availability is more powerful and consumer-friendly in the long run, in my opinion.

Here's an interesting read from Paul Miller of The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/4/2669066/ecosystem-the-winne...

And remember, the tax advantage doesn't hold everywhere (certainly not in California anymore). Amazon has to offer something better other than price, and I think Prime is a large part of that.

Where are you currently working, out of ahem curiosity?

He didn't reference anything and he wasn't reading from any script or pre-prepared speech. This man just got up there and talked about what he felt. It's very genuine, all from the heart. It's easy to see why people love him and just how passionate he is about what he does.

On a related note to the off-topic point, visiting the website from a mobile device yields a surprisingly good mobile interface.

Disclaimer: This isn't my project, I saw it on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/o7t5u/what_if_yo...

As a 16-year-old who will be applying to these elite schools next year, I can vouch for the things you're saying. The competition is insane, and it puts the prospective applicants through a lot.

On the topic of race - It's no unusual occurrence to hear some HYPSM reject at my school (pretty average/ordinary California high school) say "I was rejected because I was Asian/White/Indian/whatever." It really bothers me because these kids never had a shot at those top schools anyway. They were above-average at an ordinary high school. They really had nothing to differentiate them from any other applicant. It was the same "Smart kid with good grades and an SAT score above 2000 who was loosely involved in a club or two."

The mentality is, if you get a 2000+ SAT score, then certainly you are some sort of genius who belongs at Harvard. You participated in two clubs?! Wow! You got A's in a few of your AP classes?! Look out Stanford!

They think there is some formula to admission, where it's just a stats competition. If you have the right stats, then you're in. But their goal numbers are weak, and they detract from what really matters, and that is being amazing and following your passion (see here - http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/esse-quam-videri).

And when they get rejected, their first reaction is to blame the black kid. It bothers me because there were other people of their race accepted, and they were accepted because they proved their worth to that college, just like the black kid did. The sore losers complaining don't see that they offered nothing unique or notable to the college that any one of the other thousands of Regular Genius Kids(TM) didn't. All things considered, and race not considered, it's the amazing and truly notable kids who get accepted. Whether white, black, Asian, or whatever, those amazing individuals proved that they themselves could offer something truly valuable to the college, and they were accepted as a result. There are no average Asians at MIT. There are no average black people at MIT. There are no average anyone at MIT, they're all amazing in some way.

EDIT: Disclaimer, I'm white.