Tuesday 24 March 2015

Revealed: Elon Musk's Plan to Build a Space Internet

Musk wants to wire the world—and one day, Mars—using satellites
Elon Musk
Because he doesn't have enough going on, Elon Musk—he of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, SolarCity, and the Hyperloop—is launching another project. Musk wants to build a second Internet in space and one day use it to connect people on Mars to the Web.
Musk is tonight hosting a SpaceX event in Seattle, where the company is opening a new office. The talk will mostly be about SpaceX’s plans for hiring aerospace and software engineers in the Pacific Northwest to boost the company’s rocket-building efforts. But he'll also use the talk to announce his newest idea, which would launch a vast network of communication satellites to orbit earth. The network would do two things: speed up the general flow of data on the Internet and deliver high-speed, low-cost Internet services to the three billion-plus people who still have poor access to the Web. “Our focus is on creating a global communications system that would be larger than anything that has been talked about to date,” Musk told Bloomberg Businessweek ahead of the announcement.
The Space Internet venture, to which Musk hasn’t yet given a name, would be hugely ambitious. Hundreds of satellites would orbit about 750 miles above earth, much closer than traditional communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit at altitudes of up to 22,000 miles. The lower satellites would make for a speedier Internet service, with less distance for electromagnetic signals to travel. The lag in current satellite systems makes applications such as Skype, online gaming, and other cloud-based services tough to use. Musk’s service would, in theory, rival fiber optic cables on land while also making the Internet available to remote and poor regions that don’t have access.
In Musk’s vision, Internet data packets going from, say, Los Angeles to Johannesburg would no longer have to go through dozens of routers and terrestrial networks. Instead, the packets would go to space, bouncing from satellite to satellite until they reach the one nearest their destination, then return to an antenna on earth. “The speed of light is 40 percent faster in the vacuum of space than it is for fiber,” Musk says. “The long-term potential is to be the primary means of long-distance Internet traffic and to serve people in sparsely populated areas.”
This project, he says, will be based in the Seattle office. (Musk has yet to determine the location of the satellite factory.) The office will start with about 60 people and may grow to 1,000 within three to four years. The employees will also work on SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, Dragon capsules, and additional vehicles to carry various supplies (and soon, people) into space. “We want the best engineers that either live in Seattle or that want to move to the Seattle area and work on electronics, software, structures, and power systems,” Musk says. “We want top engineering talent of all kinds.”
Earlier this week, the entrepreneur Greg Wyler announced a similar effort through a startup called OneWeb. Wyler has spent the last 15 years trying to bring Internet access to the so-called “other three billion.” He started a telecommunications company in Rwanda that set up Africa’s first 3G cell network. Later, he founded a company called O3b, which owns a satellite network that delivers fast, cheap Internet to hard-to-reach places along the equator. Through OneWeb, Wyler looks to expand this vision and fill the skies with hundreds of satellites that will beam their signals down to low-cost, solar-powered rooftop antennas.
OneWeb has announced that Qualcomm and the Virgin Group will invest in its effort, which is expected to cost around $2 billion. Wyler has also already secured the spectrum needed to deliver such a service from space and expects to be up and running by 2018. He has a team of more than 30 engineers developing the satellites, antennas, and software for OneWeb.
Musk and Wyler have known each other for years. Musk, in fact, used to crash at Wyler’s guest house in Atherton, Calif. While there are major similarities between the two ventures, Musk says he’ll have an edge through SpaceX’s smarts and manufacturing techniques. “Greg and I have a fundamental disagreement about the architecture,” Musk says. “We want a satellite that is an order of magnitude more sophisticated than what Greg wants. I think there should be two competing systems.”
Musk describes his system as “a giant global Internet service provider” for anyone. But he wants to go even bigger than that: He sees it as the basis for a system that will stretch all the way to Mars, where he plans to set up a colony in the coming decades. “It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well,” he says. “I think this needs to be done, and I don’t see anyone else doing it.”
The backers of OneWeb, including Virgin chief Richard Branson, contend that Musk doesn't have the rights to spectrum he’ll need to create such a network. “I don’t think Elon can do a competing thing,” Branson says. “Greg has the rights, and there isn’t space for another network—like there physically is not enough space. If Elon wants to get into this area, the logical thing for him would be to tie up with us, and if I were a betting man, I would say the chances of us working together rather than separately would be much higher.”
SpaceX will need to be careful with its ambitions: Satellite makers have a choice as to whose rockets carry their machines. According to Musk, SpaceX will focus on making satellites for itself for the time being, rather than competing with its customers, although that may change over time. “I think we would consider building satellites for ourselves and for other people,” he says. “We’ll start by building ones that address the specific application that we are working on, and then we will be more than happy to sell to other people.”
Musk said it will take many, many years to have his Internet service up and running. “People should not expect this to be active sooner than five years,” he said. And it’ll be expensive: Around $10 billion to build, he says. “But we see it as a long-term revenue source for SpaceX to be able to fund a city on Mars.”

7 Myths About Making Money

7 Myths About Making Money
Last night, about two feet from me they were having sex. I know this because, using the scientific method, I cupped a glass against the wall, put my ear against it, and listened.

I moved the glass around the wall until the sound was the most clear.

One question: we spend $800 billion on killing children in Iraq but we can't figure out how to bottle the sound a woman makes when my glass is against the wall of her room.

A man sounds like a grunting animal. I don't know if this is sexist, but a woman is music.

They woke me up, but it's ok. They are always welcome to do that. I'm in an AirBnB and today is my last day. I like listening to music.

Music shows that after all the hard work of living, there is some time and energy for a little pleasure to be enjoyed.


---
Many years ago I got this guy's password, logged into his email and totally F-ed S up inside there. That would keep him busy.

He had been harassing people on a website I started. How should I describe "harass"?

With women, he was sending sexual messages and they were logging out. With men he was just arguing with them all the time and they also were logging out of my service.

I had written to him first. I said, "I'm trying to build something to support my family. Please back off."

And he wrote back and said, "No. Free speech."

I was storing everyone's password who ever logged into the site so I looked up his. I decided to check and see if he used the same password for his email.

He did.

I logged into his account and read all of his emails. He had a few girlfriends. They didn't know about each other. He had problems with his father, who was the CEO of a big company. They don't speak anymore but "one day I'm going to get that money".

Money is often a way to pay people to hate you.

After I took care of "business" he stopped logging into my site for awhile. He had to spend a long time fixing things.

Was this good or bad or against the law? I have no idea. But my site continued to run and help a lot of people. And I fed my family.

I forgot about the whole thing.

Many years later I saw in the news that he had confessed to killing and burying someone in 1992. It was a friend of his. They were teenagers and he had hit his friend with a rock in the head during a disagreement. Then he buried his friend.

The crime had remained unsolved. But, as he said in court, he felt so guilty about it 20 years later he had to confess.

Crime solved.

Sometimes people are just "off". Now ... 20 years ago ... 20 years from now. You can't let these people stop you from feeding your family.

Claudia said, "don't write this" because maybe this guy will get out of jail and track me down.

---
Here's 7 pieces of BAD advice about starting businesses: let's call them MYTHS

- Myth #1: Focus on one thing.

The average multi-millionaire has at least seven different sources of income. You can't have seven full time jobs. A "source of income" takes up much less time than a boss paying you to sit in a chair.

So, do the opposite of focus. Try to help people in many different ways. Then many different types of payment will come your way.

Be patient with yourself while this is happening. The path to calm starts with being gentle to yourself.

- Myth #2: Get a lawyer and an accountant.

You don't need those until you have ideas, customers, partners, money coming in. Once I started a company, built it up, and didn't hire a lawyer until the week before I sold the company.

- Myth #3: Don't try more than one business at a time (I guess this is "focus" but I'm not very focused). 

Try many ideas at the same time. And if you say, "but I don't have time" then take a step back and ask where you are being inefficient. 

Being an "entrepreneur" is a glorified version of this myth. Forget the word "entrepreneur". Instead, help people succeed at their businesses, make many connections, do many things, and see what brings in money.

I haven't been an entrepreneur since 2008 and I've had more financial success than ever. (I hate to say a good thing. Usually I write about bad things. But sometimes good things are ok).

- Myth #4: Develop a product.

Too many people have an idea for a product and assume the customer will be there. This never happens. Ever.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, Instagram, are all examples of companies that pivoted massively from their initial products.

First get a customer, then develop the product they need. It might just be a service. Or even better, it might just be an introduction. Or advice. Or something we haven't thought of yet.

- Myth #5: Hire a secretary. Hire anyone.

This becomes a fixed cost. Fixed costs are stresses. Why add to the stresses in life?

Delegate but don't hire.

- IMPORTANT MYTH #6: Under-promise and over deliver.

People can tell when you are under-promising (i.e. lying). Don't do that.

Better to over-promise and over-deliver. Then you beat out all the people who under-promised and over-delivered.

Over-promise to get the sale. Over-deliver to keep the customer for life.

This might seem hard. It is. It's really hard. Just do it.

- Oh. MORE IMPORTANT: MYTH #7: Have a personal brand.

"Personal brands" have been the latest fashion. "Branding" used to be ok with corporations. A Coca-Cola bottle really does have sexy curves. That's a brand.

Real branding is when a farmer buys a cow.

He then puts an iron rod in fire until the metal shape at the end of the iron rod is orange hot. He then sticks it onto the side of the cow while the cow is chained down until the metal shape is permanently in the side of the cow.

Everyone seems so eager to brand themselves. Instead, here's a better idea: You be the iron rod. Get red hot. Leave your mark on the planet.

---
You can tell if something is luck if it's equally hard to lose as it is to win.

Business is not luck. It's very easy to lose. It's pretty hard to win. If you avoid the above myths, you increase your chances.

Winning is not about making money for luxuries.

You simply want to purchase your freedom from the regimented society all too eager to stick a hot iron rod into your side.

Maybe I should've just taken one of these topics and made a smaller post. But the brain doesn't work that way.

And I was thinking about the room next door last night. 

Eventually I couldn't hear anything anymore. I put the glass down and went to sleep.

But here's what's amazing: maybe I listened to a baby being made last night.

Monday 23 March 2015

Here Are 17 Things You Can Put A Sweater On

1. Your cat

(Source: Etsy / RamonaStore)

2. Your mugs

(Source: Etsy / Penelopskint)

3. Your puppy

(Source: ModMint)


4. Your ponies

(Source: Express - O)

5. Your bed

(Source: Ravelry)

6. Your baby

(Source: Baby Knitting Patterns)

7. Your keys

(Source: Knit Freedom)

8. Your plants

(Source: Saved By Love Creations)

9. Your pillow

(Source: Pinterest / Annie Laurie)

10. Your snail

(Source: Tumblr)

11. Your wine

(Source: Etsy / Claire Kiehle)

12. Your purse

(Source: Flickr / Nicole Barr)

13. Your tree ornaments

(Source: Art And Obsession)

14. Your turtles

(Source: HugeLOL)

15. Your entire chair

(Source: Apartment Therapy)

16. Your candles

(Source: HGTV)

17. Your to-go cups

(Source: Pocket Cup Cozy)

Sunday 1 March 2015

Windows 10 will have a new browser that's not Internet Explorer

Windows-10-event
Importantly, Nigro notes that the new browser would be the default. Longtime Microsoft observer Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet expanded on the tweet, citing unnamed sources who said Internet Explorer 11, the default browser in Windows 8.1, would still be present for backward compatibility.

The new browser is codenamed "Spartan," according to Foley.
Spartan will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox, however, and it will support extensions, according to Foley's report. The "lightweight" browser will be available on both desktop and mobile devices in Windows 10.
The switch from IE to Spartan appears to be more an exercise in rebranding rather than a big technical change. The new browser will still use Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine as well as its Trident rendering engine, Foley says, rather than a nonproprietary engine such as WebKit. (Apple's Safari uses WebKit and Google Chrome is based on a "fork" of the open-source software called Blink.)

Microsoft is due to reveal many of the new features in Windows 10 at a Jan. 21 event in the company's hometown of Redmond, Washington. Spartan may make its formal debut there, but the general release of Windows 10 isn't expected until the fall, so it may come at a later date.
Rebranding the official Windows browser makes a great deal of sense. Internet Explorer has a poor reputation among developers and users, much of it rooted in Microsoft's traditional preference for proprietary tools over open standards. Although that stance has changed considerably since the early days of IE, the stigma is so great that Microsoft recently made an ad explaining that the browser's poor reputation isn't deserved.

          

Still, IE took some time to adopt certain standards (such as WebGL) and it suffers from a non-intuitive split experience in Windows 8 and 8.1, with one browser for the desktop and another for the "Modern" UI. In addition, the longtime head of IE, Dean Hachamovitch, left Microsoft earlier in December.