SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

Post by BatFastard » Fri, Jul 28, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

vidarh wrote: post #211

Super_Jambo wrote: post #190

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The newer kindles are kinda shitty for the consumer, much better for Amazon no doubt. The switch to touch screen and adverts all over your library & store is really jarring. So much so that my tech friends now just buy second hand kindle 4s when their old ones break. It's possible that library lock in will stop them migrating away from kindles when the supply of kindle v4s runs out but not I think certain.

If so, point them to Calibre. While I currently use the Kindle app to read my books, I have made it my "policy" to on each purchase ensure that I am still able to break the DRM and store a backup copy in a non-DRM'd format. The moment that changes, I'll stop buying Kindle books. Some purists would prefer to avoid buying DRM'd products in the first place (and I do when I have an alternative), but this is "second best"…

Post by mahyarm » Fri, Jul 28, 2017, 5:18 PM UTC

Super_Jambo wrote: post #190

valuearb wrote: post #79

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The Kindle is good and Echo is great. Every other hardware product they've ever made has been complete dogshit, which is why the packaging for most of them advises buyers to set them on fire.

The newer kindles are kinda shitty for the consumer, much better for Amazon no doubt. The switch to touch screen and adverts all over your library & store is really jarring. So much so that my tech friends now just buy second hand kindle 4s when their old ones break. It's possible that library lock in will stop them migrating away from kindles when the supply of kindle v4s runs out but not I think certain.

Post by gozur88 » Fri, Jul 28, 2017, 6:06 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #172

nabla9 wrote: post #165

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What you describe is exactly how you come to dominate retail business and become monopoly power online. Amazon's reference point is Wal-Mart. They are in ever expanding price cutting small margin business. Another good comparison in Microsoft in 80's and 90's. MS dominated over IBM, Apple and others several decades with sup-par product everybody hated by attacking and destroying potential competitors, not by improvin…

> They are in ever expanding price cutting small margin business. If you sink all of your profits into expansion, then on the books you made zero profit. If you made zero profit, you pay zero taxes. This is a common tactic with farmers. They use this year's returns to buy next year's supplies. If amazon stopped growing and suddenly reaped their profits, there would be a big tax bill to go with it.

Post by gozur88 » Fri, Jul 28, 2017, 6:09 PM UTC

BatFastard wrote: post #280

justadeveloper2 wrote: post #209

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Amazon phone, lol.

So yes the phone failed, but how about the 50 services they offer on AWS? Failures on their part are heavily publicized, but successes move along silently.

Post by trevyn » Fri, Jul 28, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

EGreg wrote: post #263

trevyn wrote: post #225

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Possibly not able to carry enough chemical fuel to lift the fuel into space and return and do a controlled landing without refueling? That seems more plausible. Fuel is heavy, and most of it is spent on... lifting fuel.

But the way the rocket works is creating a continuous explosion behind it. The propellant explodes, pushing the rocket. It's not just the rocket equation, but the explosion from a central point BEHIND the rocket that pushes it further. Having a nuclear explosion for example behind the rocket would surely be enough to push it into space... even on Jupiter.