bazbamduck
On the other hand, I don't really feel like there's an actual "evilness" behind the words to match up with the "evil" sound of the words. Someone truly interested in leveraging the potential evil would hardly going around making gawk-inducing statements like this. It's almost cartoon villain-ish (and thus gets headlines).
I've tended to think that it's the "well-meaning but poorly-worded summary of what the engineers are saying that contains poorly glossed, uncomfortable truths" explanation that's behind these statements. But that seems a little weak; shouldn't the CEO be better at that than Schmidt is? (Or if he truly isn't, why is he still CEO?)
So it occurred to me reading this one, that what if it is that Schmidt is deliberately "bungling" to try to warn us to caution, in his positive-spin, pro-company, CEO kind of way? Maybe the "foot in mouth" is precise and intentional, designed to get press and shake people up on the topic?
To sidestep the (valid but long and out of scope) discussion of "well, why doesn't he fix the problem?", from a business perspective, he could hardly full-stop the company on data aggregation. Even if he did, Google isn't alone in its data aggregation and more companies are jumping in on the game all the time.
Maybe Schmidt is actually risking the flak to make the point. Maybe he's not as culturally different from "the Good Google" as many seem to think he is. Or maybe he really does have an anti-gravity ray with which he will steal the moon and Miss Penelope Pureheart, bwahaha.
1. Keep the very short notification period but also try to reach the site owner via phone or IM
2. Lengthen the notification period if using email only
(Note that I have no problem with short notice and email only if the customer was given the option of providing an emergency contact method but chose not to, and that I otherwise generally agree with the response.)
It seems like the real flaw here is the combination of lack of communication and lack of warning.
Do you happen to have the part # for the international keyboard? (I just poked around Dell's site for it unsuccessfully.)
Both he and she could have substantial reasons making it worth being accommodated by the other. I wouldn't assume that only the boy is worth accommodating - especially since he's in tech, where there's a lot more flexibility than usual for working remotely, etc.
I'm hesitant to rely on the "iTunes under WINE" method for fear of future updates breaking compatibility. I could dual boot, but that pushes the hassle to reward ratio a little too far for me personally.
I guess I'll take a wait and see on the iPad. Oh, well.
Unless someone on HN happens to know whether it's possible to use the iPad's WiFi to move data or eBooks in particular?
I thought the iPad's web browser might work, but if Apple decides to restrict its download mechanism or not have the downloaded books show up in the eBook reader, that might be a problem.
I'm probably worrying too much, but I'd hate to end up with a ~$800 device (3G) I can't really use much for the primary purpose for which I wanted it in the first place.