sauravc

Totally agree.

Most of the html content will be pushed out by Varnish. PHP just generates the most popular pages once before Varnish takes over. As for pushing out videos, I doubt they're using PHP readfile(). They're probably serving it out of a CDN.

It turns out the author of the article used to work at Apple in customer service. (According to his Google+ page https://plus.google.com/112301869379652563135/about)

But he makes no mention of this in an article that speaks largely about the customer service of Apple and PayPal.

I find this pretty disingenuous, and regardless of whether his story was factual or not, it takes the wind out of anything he's saying.

So is Ubuntu a new OS since it has it's own window manager?

WRONG. That's like saying all software is proprietary. While some prominent genetically modified organisms sold by Monsanto are sterile and patented, it doesn't mean all GMO's are or have to be.

EBS volumes are analogous to hard drives. They're reliable... until they fail. So keep backups. This is easily done with EBS snapshots, (which are persisted to S3).

The main point is convenience. Limos are shared resources, but no one complains about not having access to their glove box when riding in one, because they're so awesomely convenient and the level of service is spectacular.

This is where car-sharing services of the past didn't go. They went with the cheapskate (why have a car payment?) enviro-friendly (share cars) route. I think of a driverless pod service as on-demand limo service, with the potential to be at a price that's cheaper than owning your car.

Still wanna hear the roar of your motor on the open freeway? Sure go ahead! There are plenty of people who enjoy riding horses too! I don't think either of these "hobbies" are going to go away and I wouldn't ever want them to either.