Elon Musk Be Crazy
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| Elon Musk Be Crazy | |
| Number | 2866 |
| Broadcast Date | SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 42:11 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
| Guests | Patrick Beja |
SpaceX’s plan for Mars, Google’s data saving plans for India. Plus Patrick Beja thinks he’s vindicated that modular phones like Project Ara will never catch on.
Guest
Top Stories
- DJI's new Mavic Pro drone folds up and fits in the palm of your hand
- Amazon Echo smart speaker goes on sale in the UK - and Apple's already planning a rival
- Facebook At Work is launching next month
- DJI announced a foldable drone called the Mavic Pro which sells for $999 or $799 without a remote, Amazon announced the Echo will go on sale in the UK September 28. The Information says Facebook will launch its enterprise product for workplace social networking in the next few weeks. Now here are some more top stories.
- Google announced a number of new products in India Tuesday. The YouTube Go app allows offline viewing along with options to control quality and download time. And downloads will now pause if connectivity is lost rather than fail. You can share videos over Bluetooth as well. No launch date was announced. The new Chrome for Android update will let users download webpages and some video and music for offline access. Google says Chrome's data saver feature is being improved and already saves 337TB of data every week in India. Google also announced that Allo and Google Assistant will support Hindi by the end of the year. And Google is expanding its free wifi in train stations. Google Station will expand to 100 locations beyond public transport buildings in partnership private companies like cafes and malls. Some of these may be monetized with ads or access fees.
- Twitter has decided not to comply with an order from a court in Turkey to block an account for “instigating terrorism.” The account belongs to Washington DC-based Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov. Twitter notified Zeynalov of the request and noting the company may file a petition of objection.
- Germany's Hamburg data protection agency ruled that WhatsApp sharing user data with Facebook constitutes "an infringement of national data protection law." Facebook is ordered to stop the practice and delete all data previously transferred from WhatsApp. The sharing announced in August allowed some user data including phone numbers to be shared with Facebook to deliver more targeted ads and friend suggestions as well as combat spam. Facebook said it will work with the Hamburg DPA to resolve the issue.
- The Philadelphia 76ers purchased pro e-sports competitor Dignitas and League of Legends team Apex. Dignitas has a roster of roughly 2 dozen gamers competing in Counter Strike, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Smite. As part of the deal Apex will merge into Dignitas. In related news Team Liquid has sold a controlling interest to Peter Guber and Ted Leonsis and formed the eSports ownership group aXiomatic. Leonsis is the majority owner of the Washington Capitals NHL team, the Washington Wizards NBA team and the Washington Mystics WNBA team.
- Elon Musk announced plans to send a ship to Mars. Part of the plan involves launching the ship to orbit and separating the booster rocket which would return to Earth for refilling and reuse. The booster then relaunches and refuels the ship for its trip to Mars. The ship would also use solar energy as well. Flights are hoped to begin in 2023.
- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) filed a lawsuit against YouTube-mp3.org, the first attempt by the music industry to prosecute stream ripping services. The suit, filed in California federal court, alleged that YouTube-mp3 accounts for "upwards of 40% of all unlawful stream ripping that takes place in the world." The complaint seeks a judgement for statutory damages and to prevent web hosts, domain-name registrars and other third parties from facilitating access to the site.
Discussion
Messages
- The procedure at my school is that parents are given a card with their child's name and grade. The card can be given to an authorized person to pick up the child.
If you don't have this card, you have to show your driver's license. If you are on the authorized pick up list you are allowed take the child home. - Sent by Kimberly the Texas Teacher
- The procedure at my school is that parents are given a card with their child's name and grade. The card can be given to an authorized person to pick up the child.
- Both companies (Uber and Lyft) actually prohibit anyone under 18 from having an account or taking a ride without the account holder present. This rule is not enforced at all though, since practically no one is aware of it, and neither company has done anything to even discourage teenagers from creating accounts. Refusing to pick up a kid from school quite frankly is a bigger hassle than it should be, and I'm really tired of trying to explain the rules to screaming parents over the phone. Every other driver does it, why do I have to be difficult.
- Sent by Sekani
- Hi Tom,
Big fan since the BOL days and Patreon supporter here...I'm a helicopter pilot in the Bay area and wanted to comment on the Uber VTOL story presented yesterday.
Veronica was right, there are frequent helicopter flights over the city, but currently there is a city ordinance preventing ANY helicopter landings within the city and county of San Francisco. This includes emergency responders, (Police and air ambulances like Calstar and Lifeflight). In fact when they were designing the new hospital by the ballpark they wanted a heliport to bring injured children in for treatment... the local citizens mobilized and prevented a heliport from being part of the development.
The reason I mention all this is that to make their vision a reality, Uber would not only have to surmount the difficulties with the extreme cost of VTOL passenger aircraft, but also, and nearly impossibly in my opinion, the extreme NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude Bay Area residents have toward Helicopters and by extension VTOL aircraft.
Uber might have better luck elsewhere, but in my experience this attitude pervades the US in general. Maybe they could do it overseas. When I was flying in New Zealand, you could pretty much land anywhere without too much trouble getting permission.
I could go on and on with examples of how the helicopter industry is unwelcome in the Bay Area as it is a passionate area for me, but you get the idea.
Thanks for an awesome show. - Sent by Jonathan
- Hi Tom,
- Roger's take: issues with Uber's plans for city to city VTOL operations.
1) Noise. VTOL HLA (heavier than air) aircraft are loud. Very loud. Helicopters, autogyros, tilt-rotors are very loud machines. There is a reason why airports are located away from the core of a city.
2) Safety. Heavy VTOL traffic could mean than even one crash could have catastrophic consequences leading to increase public scrutiny. Especially if the tops of buildings downtown are used as heliports.
3) Cost. VTOL aircraft like Helicopters, Tilt-rotors, and even planes like the Harrier have traditionally had a much higher $/hr operations cost compared to a traditional fixed wing aircraft. From higher fuel burn and higher maintenance costs to take care of all the extra moving parts planes don't have. - Sent by Roger Chang
- Roger's take: issues with Uber's plans for city to city VTOL operations.
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Elon Musk Be Crazy |
Followed by: "Remotely Explode Your Document" |