-- "How on earth did AT&T allow this ?" exclaimed an exasperated Lazaridis about the iPhone including a network challenging REAL browser
-- "Fortune 500 CIOs gathered...."
The one long running thread along all of this article is how clueless BBRY was as to who their REAL customers were. It was anybody but the people holding their handsets in the palms. The end users never mattered.
"I'm from Waterloo and I can tell you that the general impression from the town and the people working there is very positive"
If your definition of positive is the same condition that afflicts the posters & commenters on Crackberry.com, I think a more appropriate word would be "delusional." They've been positive & upbeat all along during BBRY's spiraling death march.
With all due respect, I've yet to read ONE story out of Canada about Blackberry that was not plagued by misplaced sentimentalism, or economic nationalism. Just a couple days ago, I was mesmerized to watch a very somber Peter Mansbridge interrogate his panel of journalists aboutwhat RIM's demise meant for Canadian identity....crazy stuff.
I'm referring specifically to the University and startup scene around here. If anything, it's the opposite – they've been absolutely cynical the last few years. I don't think you'll find a higher concentration of "rim job" jokes anywhere than UWaterloo.
Don't get me wrong, we are _rooting_ for them. A lot of us bought stock years ago and they're very generous with the city and University, but this is basically the first perceived "good news" about RIM in years.
The Canadian press has been beating Blackberry up since the first round of delays leading up to the BB10 release. The Globe and Mail, CBC, National Post and The Star have all turned on them, and continue to be pessimistic while covering today's news.
There is however some delusion among some Canadians that good vibes and loyal patronage can keep BB afloat.
No kidding, That's about the 6th time I've read about it these last two years. WHY doesn't NASA begin by establishing WHAT is it exactly that makes a solar system official "boundary" before producing press releases every time they find something interesting in the readings sent to them by Voyager.
ADDENDUM : Ahem, Thanks for the downvotes, but the inner workings of space discovery are not the subject of my comment. As an engineer, I'm more than mindful of the back & forth & general messiness of discovery, peer-reviews, control groups, & the like. I'm talking about press releases & headlines targeted towards the GENERAL PUBLIC. A public that has a lot less of an appetite, patience or time to follow NASA's inner deliberations or the intricacies of the scientific method. The fact that this is the 5th or sixth time that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system" might leave them a little bit confused.
Uhh ... that's exactly what they are doing: attempting to establish what the boundary even looks like. We thought we knew what the boundary would look like (even though we have never been there before). It turned out we were wrong. In science, that's good thing.
Some people may not want to hear anything until the science is over, but I think a lot of us actually enjoy being on the inside of the scientific process for a change.
Yes, NASA released research and related press releases in the past corresponding to new, unexpected data from Voyager that led to "[discovery of] a new region of the heliosphere that we had not realized was there" as well as "[leaving] researchers without a working model for the outer Solar System." [0]
Heaven forbid NASA do something as inconvenient as sending out a press release about its copious new discoveries in our solar system.
This is about confirming that their detection of the heliopause was in fact correct. Also, new data.
From the article:
Voyager 1 does not have a working plasma sensor, so scientists needed a different way to measure the spacecraft's plasma environment to make a definitive determination of its location. A coronal mass ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, that erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the data they needed. When this unexpected gift from the sun eventually arrived at Voyager 1's location 13 months later, in April 2013, the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate like a violin string. On April 9, Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument detected the movement. The pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the density of the plasma. The particular oscillations meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of the heliosphere. Density of this sort is to be expected in interstellar space.
> WHY doesn't NASA begin by establishing WHAT is it exactly that makes a solar system official "boundary" before producing press releases every time they find something interesting in the readings sent to them by Voyager.
Because discovering new things is actually more important than drawing arbitrary lines.
the inner workings of space discovery are not the subject being discussed here. As an engineer, I'm more than mindful of the back & forth & general messiness of discovery, peer-reviews, control groups, & the like.
I'm talking about press releases & headlines targeted towards the GENERAL PUBLIC. A public that has a lot less of an appetite, patience or time to follow NASA's inner deliberations. The fact that this is the 5th or sixth time that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system" might leave them a little bit confused.
The general public is footing the bill, there is nothing wrong with giving the general public some periodic status updates. This could really only get confusing if you read no further than the headlines.
People who read no further than headlines will have trouble regardless. The solution to that is not "release fewer press releases so that people have fewer opportunities to be confused".
Gen pop don't get smarter if you don't make them think. Confusion can be useful and in this case likely a good bit of medicine. Grade school education level of understanding on anything is pretty useless and implying that they cant do better insults pretty much everyone. Hence the d/v's.
Part of NASA's job is to generate excitement and interest in the sciences and exploration in general, as well as to Congress who can dictate NASA's budget on a whim. Unfortunately, when they talk to the media that Voyager appears to have "left" the solar system, the general media misinterpret things and ignore some of the scientific process behind it -- the same phenomenon leads to headlines about 'X cures cancer!'.
Through this semi-public process, NASA has given the public exposure to the amazing Voyager mission that's been running for longer than many Americans have even been alive, and opened public discussion and amazement for several successive years.
I only hope there are classrooms with students eagerly plotting the trajectory of Voyager or any other missions on graph paper, sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next set of data to be released by NASA. Every new bit of information can open an entirely new topic to their minds, a new topic for them to dig into every public resource, article, and book they can get their hands on. (That was me, some years ago, but I digress.)
What do you suggest? Should they have launched a probe to discover what features to expect at the edge of the solar system? I know you're entitled to 100% accurate info, dammit, but perhaps a refresher on how the scientific method works would be helpful.
Yours has to be the most dickish comment on a comment I've ever read on HN. Congratulations.
What is it that you've added to the conversation again ? Nothing.
The problem was that the comment starts out with that comment about being a paid shill, and then goes on to treat the comment it replies to as if it was a series of firm claims made to mislead, when it starts out with a bunch of questions, and draws some very limited conclusions on the belief that we know too little.
MostAwesomeDude could have started out answering the questions on the assumption they are honestly meant, without the attitude, and it would have come across a lot better.
Blackberry used to be the crown jewel of the Canadian tech sector. There is always a hint of sentimentalism & cheering attached to their coverage by local media.
I'm starting to think the freakout we've seen in the media up to now is for much more than the Prism disclosure. This guy is the real thing, he's got serious insurance to bargain for his life & he's taken all precautions to safeguard it. No wonder they're scared shitless.
The "freakout" in the "media" outside of the HN/reddit/internet bubble is mostly obsessed with "Where in the World is Carmen, I mean Edward, Snowden?" and not so much in the whole PRISM, constant universal wiretapping scandal.
I'm in two minds about this. Focussing on this issue is obviously important but I think the general public gets bored of it after a few days. They are much more interested in the human story. Keeping them hooked on that with the obvious regular explanation of who Snowden is and why he's in the news might get people to want to look into the actual story more. And if there is a big 'break' in the story (Snowden captured, makes it to Ecuador, etc.) people will be hooked and then the story of the spying will hold their attention. People (and I include myself) are much more interested in a story about other humans than a computer hacking/spying story that doesn't really involve many specific people directly.
Not sure if you're using sarcasm[1] or not, but Echelon is accepted fact and has been for many years.
The European Parliament held reports on the capabilities of Echelon. Industrial espionage has been linked to Echelon.
The purpose of Echelon (intercept communications data) is the stated purpose of GCHQ. Really, it's on their website and in their recruiting material. They monitor all communications, anywhere in the world, from DC to light.
Echelon isn't fantastic weird conspiracy theory.
[1] Sarcasm is not useful in text and it's especially not useful on a forum like HN, where there tends to be a higher number of users who are more literal than the regular population.
For the majority of the population, they have either never heard of echelon, never took it seriously or have outright dismissed it as a crazy conspiracy irrespective of the previous proof.
I think of all these things are coming out now as an opportunity to have a serious discussion about wtf the US (and humanity) is doing.
It's time to work as a global civilization. Our resources are squandered on creating truly a prison planet (no reference or credit to Alex jones).
I really really don't get the part where some early kickstarter backers still haven't seen their consoles shipped...all the while it's selling on Amazon on other retail channels. I just don't get it.
"Backers, I am pissed. Some of you have not yet received your OUYA -- and, to you, I apologize." -- Julie (who usually writes OUYA backer emails)
"Unfortunately, the vast majority of those who haven’t yet received OUYA are international backers. It just takes a lot longer to ship to some countries.... Please accept my personal apology for not yet delivering on our promise." -- Ken, Head of Operations at OUYA
I received the "Your OUYA is on the move" email (with a tracking number) 20 days ago, but here's the thing: my shipping address is in Singapore. Things arrive from Hong Kong via regular airmail within days, not weeks.
They explained that their shipping fulfiller is at fault. They sent the required number of units to the warehouse, they just haven't left the warehouse yet.
The thing that made me think this way is that they claim everything's in order on their end, but they still only sent me the bare package, without the extra controler I've ordered. In a customer service ticket reply, they, however, claim they had to send the console without the extra controler in order to send at least something, and that I'll get the controler in a future shipment.
Bottom line - they can be pissed all they want. They still didn't deliver on their promises.
That's not an excuse. If you're selling thousands of units you need to do test shipments and figure out how long things actually take. And they already delayed retail a month at the last minute, that should be enough time to get shipping worked out.
It's really hard for me to think of a valid excuse for shipments to be significantly delayed for something that was ordered a year in advance. I can think of many valid reasons for production delays; production is hard and unpredictable. Shipping not so much. Maybe a natural disaster.
It was funded a year in advance. "Ordered" a year in advance makes it sound like they had the thing ready and complete and have just been sitting on their asses instead of getting the things built. This was early access--in some cases customized--hardware.
I got mine, I'm not too happy with it, but it was $100. Maybe 6 months from now I can crack it open and fix the major problems with it. But I helped get a company started that is doing something unique. That was worth the $100 alone.
When it comes to shipping delays, and only shipping delays, it does not matter in the slightest when the product was made. What matters is figuring out how to get devices shipped efficiently and legally. Which they utterly failed to do.
And I wish you would have helped a competent android game device company instead of Ouya, but what's done is done.
Who would that be? I'm actually not seeing much difference between Ouya and basically every other company in the world right now. Their customer support sucks? Yeah, so does the majority of companies from people posting on these boards.
Sorry, it would take me far too long to go into the ways Ouya has barely managed to deliver a half-functional product. But as an example, as far as I know gamestick has done a better job and been far more honest about it.
The graphs they were posting should have been 'delivered' not just 'shipped'. Shipping really means delivered to backers. So backers made retail ship possible but will get their consoles well after.
I am within the first #15000 and in the US and still have yet to receive. I had to contact them when they said everything was shipped 100%. Granted at least they acknowledged it in the last update but it does suck.
See the other comment in this thread. It's basically down to the fulfillment company failing. OUYA sent the last of the backer units shipping weeks ago.
-- "How on earth did AT&T allow this ?" exclaimed an exasperated Lazaridis about the iPhone including a network challenging REAL browser
-- "Fortune 500 CIOs gathered...."
The one long running thread along all of this article is how clueless BBRY was as to who their REAL customers were. It was anybody but the people holding their handsets in the palms. The end users never mattered.