While we're on the subject of ice and architecture
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VL5e2gdh9dg/3d-printed-chains-of-ice-and-the-robot-assisted-igloos-14588612932013 has been a good year for Tesla, as the pool of Model S owners has grown considerably -- 19,000 of the cars are currently on the road, and the company's building 550 more every week. While this has led to Tesla turning a profit for the first time and paying off its governmental loans, Elon Musk isn't satisfied to sit back and watch his balance sheet gradually shift from red to black. Expansion, always, and in all ways (albeit carefully and deliberately) is how he goes about his business, and the automaker's most recent letter to shareholders and Musk's statements on its most recent earnings call bear that philosophy out.
While sales in the US and Europe continue to do well, with demand outstripping supply, Tesla's still working to spread its EVs across the globe. We've detailed Musk's plans to get Model S's in the hands of Norwegian and UK citizens, and in fact, Tesla delivered 1,000 cars to Europeans in the last three months. The company has also started taking reservations in China. Eventually, Musk sees the company selling 60 percent of its vehicles in places outside the United States. However, Tesla's not making a big marketing push to sell its cars in Asia or Europe just yet because "it doesn't make sense to amplify demand if we can't deliver to meet it," according to Musk.
What's the holdup on building the cars needed to sate the worldwide thirst for EVs? Battery cell production. But, the auto maker has signed a new deal with Panasonic to increase said production to three times what it is currently. And, Tesla is looking at building its own batteries "some day" in a plant with capacity equal to the current total global production of lithium-ion cells, according to Musk. Of course, that would be a massive investment and construction project, and it's only an idea under consideration, not a concrete plan... for now. Regardless, help is on the way to remove the production bottleneck, even if it won't arrive as soon as would-be Tesla owners would like.
In the meantime, Tesla's got big plans for foreign expansion of its Supercharger networks -- because folks will need to charge all those newly manufactured batteries, after all. Six such stations were opened in Norway in August, and Tesla's plan is to cover half of Germany by March of 2014 -- with full coverage of Deutscheland by the end of the summer. So, in spite of the company posting a loss during its most recent financial quarter, its plans for worldwide domination continue unabated, and you're likely to see more Teslas on the road in the coming year, no matter what part of the world you call home.
Officials wearing tactical gear walk outside of Garden State Plaza Mall following reports of a shooter, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Paramus, N.J. Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the mall Monday night after witnesses said multiple shots were fired there. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Officials wearing tactical gear walk outside of Garden State Plaza Mall following reports of a shooter, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Paramus, N.J. Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the mall Monday night after witnesses said multiple shots were fired there. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Officials wearing tactical gear walk outside of Garden State Plaza Mall following reports of a shooter, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Paramus, N.J. Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the mall Monday night after witnesses said multiple shots were fired there. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A woman, right, is reunited with a man in the parking lot of Garden State Plaza Mall following reports of a shooter, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, in Paramus, N.J. Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the mall Monday night after witnesses said multiple shots were fired there. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A man and woman leave the Garden State Plaza Mall with officials standing guard behind them following reports of a shooter, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Paramus, N.J. Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the mall Monday night after witnesses said multiple shots were fired there. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Map locates Paramus, N.J.; 1c x 2 inches; 46.5 mm x 50 mm;
PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — A 20-year-old gunman intent on dying fired multiple shots inside New Jersey's largest shopping mall, trapping hundreds of customers and employees for hours as police scoured stores for the shooter, who was found dead early Tuesday of a self-inflicted wound, authorities said. There were no other injuries.
Investigators don't believe the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Richard Shoop of Teaneck, intended to shoot anyone when he began firing at the ceiling and elsewhere at the Garden State Plaza on Monday night shortly before the mall's closing time, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.
"We think he went in with the intent that he was not going to come out alive," Molinelli said.
He said Shoop was known to authorities and had had a problem with drugs, but he did not elaborate.
The prosecutor said Shoop left an ambiguous note with his family. While Molinelli would not call it a suicide note, he said it did "express that an end is coming. It could have been prison. ... It could have been what he did last night. It gave his family reason to reach out to us."
The suspect's brother, Kevin Shoop told reporters outside their home on a quiet suburban block in Teaneck that he had no advance warning about what Richard intended to do.
"He just sadly decided to make an act of — an act of, I guess, self-indulgence — by taking his own life publicly," Kevin Shoop said. "And it's a tragedy to us all. And we're going to now handle matters and deal with them."
The shooting has left him devastated, he said, calling his brother a great person who was liked by his friends and family.
Kevin Shoop said his brother used a weapon that did not belong to him.
"As far as anything goes into the drugs or any of the other rumors out there, no comment," Kevin Shoop said.
Chaos erupted shortly before the mall's 9:30 p.m. closing time when authorities said a man dressed in black and wearing a motorcycle helmet fired six shots. Molinelli said the gun, which was modified to look like an AK-47 assault rifle, belonged to Richard Shoop's brother, who owned it legally and did not give the shooter permission to take it.
Shoop's body was discovered around 3:20 a.m. Tuesday in a back corridor of the mall, deep within a lower level, in an area that is not accessible to the public, Paramus police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said. Shoop did not work at the mall, he said, and investigators were still trying to determine why he went there.
Madison Barbarini, a close friend of Shoop's since kindergarten, said he was popular and "would never hurt a fly."
Barbarini said Shoop told her last week he had found a new job.
"He told me that he was going to get a new job at this TV place and he was going to make good money," she said.
At Victor's Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant in Teaneck, where Shoop worked for several years, owner Dod Geges said Shoop texted him on Friday to say he was running late, then never showed.
Geges said in an email Tuesday that he couldn't imagine Shoop carrying a gun into a mall. "He was always sad if he heard something like that on TV," Geges said.
Barbarini, who graduated from Teaneck High School in 2011 with Shoop, said he was involved in theater and fencing, then attended Bergen Community College.
She said he quit college to work full-time at the pizzeria and recently purchased a motorcycle.
"He just wanted to be a successful businessman. He wanted to succeed in life," she said.
At the mall Monday night, witnesses said the sound of gunfire sent customers and employees rushing hysterically for the exits and hiding places at the mall, which remained closed Tuesday.
Jessica Stigliano, 21, of Ridgefield, who'd been in the food court, said she had thought, "Not many people run for their life, but that's what I'm doing right now."
Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the 2.2 million-square-foot mall, which was put on lockdown. New Jersey State Police landed a helicopter in the parking lot and SWAT teams with K-9 units initially went through the mall and started evacuating people.
Nick Woods was working in the Lego store when a woman ran by shouting that there was a shooting.
Woods said his supervisor locked them in a back room, along with a man and a child who ran into the store. When they finally peeked out two hours later, he said they saw police officers standing outside and Woods called 911 to ask that the officers be told they were coming out.
He said the emergency operator told him she couldn't contact individual police officers and that he should walk out with his hands in the air.
"I had to go out of the store shouting at the officers with my hands up, and they turned and pointed their guns at me," Woods said. "It was one of the scariest experiences of my life."
Joel Castaneda, 18, of Englewood, who was working at the Ann Taylor Loft store, also spent time locked in a back room. He said he heard several loud bangs and thought they were from construction at the mall until he saw people running.
He said people rushed into his store and locked themselves in a back room — employees and customers alike — where they pulled out cellphones to try to get news or reach loved ones.
Early Tuesday, families were being escorted by police to a Chili's restaurant on the outskirts of the mall area to be reunited with others who had been in the mall for hours.
The mall, which has more than 270 stores, is located about 15 miles northwest of Manhattan.
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Associated Press writers Meghan Barr in Teaneck, N.J., Denise Lavoie in Boston and Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pa., and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-11-05-Mall-Shots%20Fired/id-2c7d8ffa008d47d2a45bf3d917d3ddf5Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is sacked by Chicago Bears' Shea McClellin (99) and Isaiah Frey (31) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis. Rodgers left the game after the play. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is sacked by Chicago Bears' Shea McClellin (99) and Isaiah Frey (31) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis. Rodgers left the game after the play. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers, right, talks to Chicago Bears' Jay Cutler after an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis. The Bears won the game 27-20. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers gives a thumbs up to fans as he walks back onto the field during the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis. Rodgers left the game in the first half after being sacked by Shea McClellin. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is sacked by Chicago Bears' Shea McClellin (99) and Isaiah Frey (31) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers shakes hands with Chicago Bears' Tim Jennings (26) after an NFL football game Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis. Rodgers was injured in the first half of the game and did not return. The Bears won 27-20. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Mr. Reliable is taking a seat.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Tuesday he has a fractured left collarbone and has no idea yet how long he will be out.
The 2011 NFL MVP offered details of the injury on his weekly radio show on 540-AM ESPN. He got hurt after getting sacked by Shea McClellin on a third-down play during the Packers' first series while he was scrambling outside the pocket. He hurt his left, non-throwing shoulder.
"I do have a fractured collarbone. That's a significant injury," Rodgers said. "We'll know more about the severity and the timetable later this week."
Rodgers said he was holding out hope he would heal quickly. "In this case, it was considerably more pain than I've felt in a long time," he added.
That collective groan you heard came from the state of Wisconsin.
On a team rocked all season by injuries, Rodgers had been the constant and the Packers had reeled off four straight wins despite being without top players like linebacker Clay Matthews (thumb), Randall Cobb (leg) and Jermichael Finley (neck).
Losing Rodgers might be the most devastating blow of all.
His timing, accuracy and footwork have been typically top-notch. Protected by an improved offensive line, and complemented by a rejuvenated running game, the Packers looked to be serious NFC contenders again considering guys like Matthews and Cobb were expected to return.
Rodgers entered Monday night having completed 67 percent of his 249 pass attempts for 2,191 yards and a 108.0 quarterback rating. He has 15 touchdown passes and four interceptions.
And since taking over for the equally dependable Brett Favre in 2008, Rodgers has only missed a game due to injury once — on Dec. 19, 2010, for a concussion.
Now he's out and the offense is in the hands of backup Seneca Wallace, who finished 11 for 19 for 114 yards and an interception against the Bears. The 27-20 loss left Green Bay in a three-way tie atop the NFC North with Chicago and the Detroit Lions, who were idle last week. The Packers host the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
Rodgers got emotional at one point during his 15-minute radio appearance when he described the reception he got from fans as he walked back to sideline in green warmups in the third quarter.
"We put our bodies on the line. We do it because we love this game. But when I walked back out on that field — I'm getting a little choked up here just thinking about it," Rodgers said, "that was one of the top five moments of my career there."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-11-05-Packers-Rodgers/id-fc85c70d707041bbaf478f3fcfed7e95Tech correspondents Laura Sydell and Steve Henn recording the first episode of our tech team podcast in a garage in Silicon Valley. (Naturally.)
Tech correspondents Laura Sydell and Steve Henn recording the first episode of our tech team podcast in a garage in Silicon Valley. (Naturally.)
As loyal readers and listeners know, your NPR tech reporters are organizing our enterprise reporting by exploring a single theme in technology over the course of a week. Our first theme week was on kids and technology and it aired last week. We featured stories about babies and screen time, teens and social media, the science behind video games and more.
If you missed the individual stories on the air, you can go back and read them on our series aggregation page, or, take a listen to our podcast posted here. Our Bay Area correspondents Steve Henn and Laura Sydell will take you through the week of stories on kids and tech in one delightful 23 minute recording. You can download it from Soundcloud or play it here.
This is soft-launching on the All Tech blog first, but we hope to tweak it over the next couple of weeks with your input. Take a listen and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy.
EMC will give users of its Syncplicity file-sharing and synchronization service more control over how their data can be accessed and used, including the ability to make files “time out” on a certain date wherever they may be stored.
Syncplicity, which competes with services such as Box and Dropbox, is designed to help enterprises make content easily available while controlling how and where it’s used. The “time out” capability is one of a series of features, announced in a blog post on Tuesday, which should strengthen users’ ability to manage data based on policies.
Stronger rights management tools will allow users to share files with others through Syncplicity but place strict controls on how they can use those files. Among other things, they can block the ability to print the file or copy content from it, said Jeetu Patel, general manager of the Syncplicity business. In addition, a timer in the file can make it unavailable after a certain date, such as when the content goes out of date. To do this, Syncplicity encrypts the file and revokes the key to it, Patel said.
The key can also be revoked if the file has been offline from the Internet for a given period of time. This feature is designed to prevent users from storing files on thumb drives and other offline locations that may not be secure, Patel said. Syncplicity can also make a file unavailable if the user arrives in a place where that file wouldn’t be safe, such as a country where it would be considered sensitive data. These features will be generally available in the first half of next year, Patel said.
Syncplicity also plans to update its mobile apps for accessing files while on the road. Users will now be able to edit documents within the app. That saves users from having to download the file, and in some cases from having to install an application to a phone or tablet, such as software for word processing, Patel said. The editing capabilities aren’t comprehensive but cover what users want to do with files most of the time, he said.
The apps for Android and for the Apple iPad will be updated in December, and the iPhone version will follow in January. The version for Windows 8 doesn’t need the new feature because the integration of Microsoft Office on that OS already allows users to edit files without downloading them, Patel said.
The company has enhanced several other parts of the service as well. In the Syncplicity StorageVault feature, administrators can set and later modify policies for where various types of data should be stored. Those locations can include public cloud platforms such as Amazon.com S3 and EMC Atmos as well as private clouds located on-premise, Patel said.
This will allow enterprises to use a combination of internal and external resources for their Syncplicity data and keep each file where it best belongs. Organizations may choose different types of clouds based on factors such as the cost of storage, the need for performance and the need for users to access it in different parts of the world, he said. That feature will be available next month.
The company has also given IT shops more granular control over use of a file, such as whether it can be read, opened, downloaded or shared. Rather than setting a global policy that applies to all users in an organization, they can write policies for specific groups, Patel said. If a user belongs to more than one group, such as an executive team and a functional department, Syncplicity can grant that person the highest privileges available among those groups, he said. The group-based policies feature is available now.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for the IDG News Service.
More by Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
One of the persistent themes in pre-IPO Twitter’s S-1 filings is that the company has more users outside of the U.S., but when it comes to making money, that shifts drastically — an issue problematic enough that Twitter spells it out in the prospectus as a warning about its business. Today, however, the company launched a new India blog — a sign of how Twitter hopes to address that disparity in one market in particular — perhaps hoping that this huge market, where English is often the common denominator, could be an engine for Twitter’s international growth.
To be clear, Twitter is not opening its first official Twitter account or presence in the country. It’s actually been tweeting there since February 2010 (first tweet: “What’s up?” in Hindi), first as @twi and then @twitterindia.
But it’s been, at best, not a full-throttle effort, with only 700 tweets over the last 3 years and 9 months, almost all in English, and many simply spreading information about updates at the wider company. Not super local, and definitely not a power user.
The launch of the India blog, however, could be the company’s way of showing that it’s looking to ramp up its focus in the country with more localized attention.
As Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s country director for India, notes, the new India blog is kicking off with a promotional campaign, #ThankYouSachin, tweeted to India’s cricket board, @BCCI, to get a signed picture of sporting legend Sachin Tendulkar as he enters retirement (that picture is illustrated here). In other words, initially Twitter India is using a tried and tested Twitter forumula: the combination of sports, a recognised celebrity/icon, and hashtagging for a little viral buzz.
The upcoming elections in the country could prove to be a strong turning point, too, with Twitter focusing on closer relations with media organizations and political parties to leverage the platform.
It will be interesting to see whether this additional focus — presumably with more campaigns, and a redoubled effort to promote them — can translate into additional users, engagement, and advertising rupees.
Twitter’s S-1 paints a clear challenge ahead for the company. ”If we fail to expand effectively in international markets, our revenue and our business will be harmed,” Twitter notes in the S-1.
But as we have pointed out before, there are some definite positive signs for revenue growth internationally. The company’s international revenue was $53 million in 2012, but for the nine months ending September 30, 2013, that went up to $106.7 million, working out respectively to 17% and then growing to 25% of total revenue for those periods.
However, for now, there is little in the way of standout performers internationally for Twitter. “No individual country from the international markets contributed in excess of 10% of the total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the nine months ended September 30, 2012,” Twitter writes. The UK was the first to make the cut in 2013, with $43 million of revenue, or 10% of the total, in the nine months that ended September 30, 2013.
Yes, the UK is an English language market and therefore perhaps more inclined as a result to follow U.S. patterns. But at the same time, it’s also a market where Twitter has directed a lot of effort in terms of staffing and focusing on localised content. This is something that Twitter has been building on, deploying several of its top people to run different aspects of its international businesses.
More specifically, Twitter’s UK growth is an instructive strategy when you think about India — one of the biggest countries in Asia, with a huge English-speaking population, and relatively free from competitive threats and politically motivated service blocks that Twitter faces in other markets like China.
Today, India doesn’t even get a call-out among fast-growing international markets for Twitter. “In the future we expect our user growth rate in certain international markets, such as Argentina, France, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, to continue to be higher than our user growth rate in the United States,” the company writes.
Part of the reason is down to the fact that, like many other markets, India is shaping up to be mobile-first when it comes to data connectivity. But although India is ramping up fast in smartphone usage (see: iPhone sales) it’s still a country largely dominated by less-expensive feature phones, and that has impeded just how much Twitter can do there.
While India doesn’t get a name-check for fast-growing markets, it does here: “In certain emerging markets, such as India, many users access our products and services through feature phones with limited functionality, rather than through smartphones, our website or desktop applications,” Twitter writes. “This limits our ability to deliver certain features to those users and may limit the ability of advertisers to deliver compelling advertisements to users in these markets which may result in reduced ad engagements which would adversely affect our business and operating results.”
Twitter makes clear that it will be spending more money in the future to change this. “We intend to invest in our international operations in order to expand our user base and advertiser base and increase user engagement and monetization internationally,” the company writes.
This is, perhaps, long overdue. As of September 30, 2013, Twitter already had more than three times the number of monthly active users outside of the U.S. — 179 million — than it has in the U.S., at 52.7 million. In contrast, revenues are the opposite: in the three months ended September 30, Twitter made $2.58 per user in the U.S., versus just $0.36 per user abroad. It’s a disparity that other social networks like Facebook have also found a challenge. Interestingly, we’ve heard that Twitter has been looking to establish a sales support back office in Hyderabad, folloowing the route Facebook has taken.
Still, it looks like whatever Twitter may have planned for India for now may still be baby steps: Twitter specifically notes four countries where it will be hiring more sales and marketing people — Australia, Brazil, Ireland and the Netherlands. Not India. Whether Twitter looks to invest in another way — with acquisitions that can help it better tackle users on different devices, as Facebook did with acquisitions like Snaptu — remains to be seen.
