Inside Elon Musk's $1.4B Score
Fortune just put up an article that takes a good look at how Tesla's CEO Elon Musk convinced Nevada to pony up $1.4B in exchange for a massive battery plant. Check out all the wheelin' and dealin' that happened.
Still, the victory came at an eye-popping price, generating criticism in the press. Nevada is paying more than $200,000 for each of the 6,500 direct jobs the gigafactory is supposed to create. "I read Nevada's incentive package," says former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who negotiated with Tesla for its first assembly plant. "They literally handed over Reno and Las Vegas, lock, stock, and barrel." Richardson is quick to add, in a rueful comment that captures the bind that states find themselves in, "I probably would've done the same thing as Governor Sandoval. It's a lot of jobs in a recessionary period. You create a new kind of economy in your state."
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Microsoft Retiring Lync in Favor of Skype for Business
Calm down, it's more a brand switch than an actual technology change. However, knowing the track record of this kind of thing for MSFT, maybe you should be a bit more worried. Sysadmins for your Lync infrastrucutre better start reading up on the requirements since the launch will take place 1H 2015.
Here they are showing that they will listen to and learn from the market. Skype for Business will incorporate Skype's smart design, like keeping an active call visible in a small window when the user uses a different app at the same time. More importantly, video calling will be rolled out, which Lync lacked.
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We're Running Out of Chocolate
Not tech news per se but very relevant to all of us in some form: two of the largest chocolate makers say that the cocoa supply is running out. A combo of pod fungus and dry weather is causing supply issues and deficits are becoming the norm. There's also a slight demand problem.
China's growing love for the stuff is of particular concern. The Chinese are buying more and more chocolate each year. Still, they only consume per capita about 5 percent of what the average Western European eats. There's also the rising popularity of dark chocolate, which contains a good deal more cocoa by volume than traditional chocolate bars (the average chocolate bar contains about 10 percent, while dark chocolate often contains upwards of 70 percent).
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Bring Agile to the Whole Organization
Agile methodology is pretty much the de facto software development project management framework nowadays (you can go here to learn more about Agile if you're not familar with it). Harvard Business Review takes a look at extending Agile methods into more traditioanal towers, such as HR or Finance. It does sound odd to think of Iterations and Stories in a tax management context but what manager wouldn't want continuous improvement in their organization?
As the nature of software continues to shift towards continuous delivery, we are able to create a new type of conversation with the marketplace – a continuous one. We deploy products, observe, measure, interview, learn, and optimize in hours, not months. Decisions are made quickly. Directions shift overnight. To support this rapid, iterative optimization of our business the internal organizations that staff, fund, manage, and reward our people need to exhibit that same level of agility. "The way we've always done it" starts to put the management tier in direct conflict with the potential of the execution teams.
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The Empire Strikes Back Gets Modernized Trailer
While everyone falls for the fake Episode I trailers from 1998 being reused as fake Episode 7 trailers, we can watch this great fan-made Empire Strikes Back trailer that has been modernized with ominous voiceovers, copious quick cuts, and spoilers galore (though not THE spoiler).
Shared by Mark Hamill himself on his official Facebook page, a fan named Cameron Arrigioni created this new cut for Empire Strikes Back, presenting it the way trailers are produced today. Hamill called the trailer "fantastic" while sharing it, and it's hard to disagree with a Jedi (especially with the chill-inducing final line of the trailer).
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How a Russian Dark Web Drug Market Outlived Silk Road 1 and 2
Wired takes a look at the Russian Anonymous Marketplace (RAMP) and how it continues to thrive through the takedown of Silk Road and it's successor. Seems like the KISS principle is working for RAMP.
Using an avatar of Edward Norton's character from the film Fight Club, Darkside has laid down a strict series of rules for the site's users: RAMP allows no weapons, stolen credit cards, counterfeit documents, or even legal pornography to be sold on the site. That's far more restrictive than Agora (which sells weapons) and Evolution (which sells both weapons and stolen credit cards). Promoting "violence and nationalism," or even talking politics at all, can lead to being banned from RAMP.
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[H]ardware & Gaming [H]eadlines
New game releases for Nov. 17-23 @ ShackNews
Only 25% of Steam Early Access games since 2013 have been released as full games @ Gamespot
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor launch woes and Reddit response @ Joystiq
Video Cards: ASUS GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX OC @ TweakTown
Graphics card coil whine investigation @ HardwareCanucks
GTX 970/980 Linux benchmarks with 346.16 driver @ Phoronix
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HealthCare.gov Relaunched, Fewer Problems Reported
The Affordable Care Act on Saturday relaunched HealthCare.gov for its second enrollment cycle. According to Wall Street Journal sources, the relaunch had fewer errors and waits than last year's launch.
The smoother opening came as a relief to the Obama administration, which has poured resources into upgrading HealthCare.gov. Republicans have been poised to seize on any problems in their continuing efforts to limit or repeal the 2010 health law. "For day one, this year is a thousand times better than last year," said Dave Chandra, who was volunteering at Northern Virginia Family Services in Falls Church to help sign up consumers on the federal website. "It's a lot easier."
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SEO Simplified
If you're learning about online marketing or have wondered what all the fuss is about regarding SEO, this article does a decent job in simplifying the concept in a short read. Search Engine Optimization is a big deal for anyone that owns or runs a website or is concerned about protecting a brand's online presence.
Search engine optimization. It's a clunky term for sure. You can't optimize search engines. In fact, you can't even learn exactly how they work. These are well-guarded secrets. What can you do? You can do the right thing to your website's pages—optimize them—to increase the likelihood Google and the other search engines know where they are and what they contain, so it will present them as a recommended resource when they match a search.
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Are You Able to Enjoy the Silence?
This column introduces the reader to the concept of Digital Natives (those born after 1985) and Digital Immigrants (those born before 1985) through a book called The End of Absence by Michael Harris. We "Digital Immigrants" are the last generation to remember the world before the Internet. I think I have a new book to add to my Kindle list.
He writes: "We have in this brief historical moment… a very rare opportunity… These are the few days when we can still notice the difference between Before and After… There's a single difference that we feel most keenly; and it's also the difference that future generations will find hardest to grasp. That is the end of absence – the loss of lack. The daydreaming silences in our lives are filled; the burning solitudes are extinguished."
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Call of Duty eSports Pro 'Nadeshot' Profiled
The NYTimes takes a look at Matt Haag, better known as 'Nadeshot', how he and his team train for Call of Duty, and why he's one of the faces of eSports. Before you scoff, be aware that he makes almost a million per year and is sponsored by the likes of Red Bull, which treats him like they treat the rest of their stable of motorsports and adrenaline sports stars.
"I think about my future probably at least 10 times a day," [Haag] said. "I think about what if this all goes away one day? What if for some reason people just aren't in your live stream tomorrow? What if people aren't clicking on your YouTube videos tomorrow? What if your team doesn't work out and you're not performing that well and you have to quit competitively? What happens when you can't compete anymore and you want to retire because you're going insane?"
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Guide to Lumia Devices and Denim Details
Lest we neglect our readers that prefer Nokia Lumia phones running Windows, I give you two things to read for your platform: a guide to every Lumia Windows phone ever launched and details on the upcoming Lumia Denim update. Combined with the BB, iPhone, and Android articles yesterday, we hit every major phone OS. No news on Symbian or Palm OS. Sorry!
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Man Implants NFC Chips into Hands
A Dutch Bitcoin enthusiast implanted a pair of NFC chips into his hands. One is writable but the other is cold storage containing the private key for his Bitcoin wallet. He'd like to install NFC-enabled locks on his house so he can just wave his hand and open the door. Use the Force, Martijn!
Specifically, he has an "NFC Type 2 compliant NTAG216 RFID chipset" embedded in a tiny glass capsule (2 millimeters by 12 millimeters) that was injected into the fleshy part of his hand between his thumb and index finger. Each capsule can hold just 880 bytes of data, which is more than enough for a cold storage wallet.
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Eight Free Online Courses to Grow Your Tech Skills
If you've already burned through Khan Academy's library, why not take advantage of the offerings from some of these sites offering free tech classes, such as Intro to Linux by the Linux Foundation or Harvard's Intro to Computer Science? Some will even give you a printable certificate after completion.
If money was the only thing holding you back from learning more about technology, we've got good news for you. There are many places offering free online tech training that while may not be degree/certificate driven can still give you a leg up on the competition. While many of the courses listed here offer either a certificate or credit for a fee, they also all are free for those who just want to learn about technology or add a new skill to their "toolbox."
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Lander Philae on Comet 67P has Gone Dark
The ESA has announced that the Philae lander on comet 67P has run out of juice and put itself to sleep until it can gather enough solar energy to resume operation. Since the lander is nestled against a cliff in the shadows, it's unknown when it will reactivate. ESA calls the misison a "scientific successs."
Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser to the ESA, told BBC Radio 5 live they were "hugely happy". He said: "All of the science instruments on board have done all the work they were supposed to do so we have huge amounts of data back on the ground now, which is really exciting. Philae could come back later as we move closer to the sun, and we get more light onto the solar panels up against the cliff we're at here in the shadows."
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ASUS Rampage V Extreme LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard
The Rampage V Extreme needs no introduction. It is the flagship of the ASUS Republic of Gamers aka ROG product line. If the pattern of previous Rampage motherboards holds it should be one of the best motherboards money can buy. Is the new ROG crown jewel still worthy of the crown at its $475 price point?
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