Translation From VC-Backed PR Jargon To English of Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz's Statement That He's 'Stepping Down' (daringfireball.net) 32
From a company-wide memo sent by Rony Abovitz, the founder of Magic Leap, which has raised nearly $3 billion from high-profile investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Google, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, JP Morgan, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers: As we've shared over the last several weeks, in order to set Magic Leap on a course for success, we have pivoted to focus on delivering a spatial computing platform for enterprise. Technology columnist John Gruber, translates: As nearly everyone has finally realized, our actual technology is nothing at all like what we promised, lied about for years, and sold gullible deep-pocketed investors on. Our con is falling apart at the seams, so we'll milk the last few dollars out of the only investors dumb enough to give us even more money, by repeating the word "enterprise" and doing that thing with our fingers like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Magic Leap's memo adds: We have closed significant new funding and have very positive momentum towards closing key strategic enterprise partnerships. Gruber, continues translation: You're not going to believe this but we somehow raised another $350 million. I know, right? Magic Leap: As the board and I planned the changes we made and what Magic Leap needs for this next focused phase, it became clear to us that a change in my role was a natural next step. Gruber: Everyone agrees the jig is up. Magic Leap: I discussed this with the board and we have agreed that now is the time to bring in a new CEO who can help us to commercialize our focused plan for spatial computing in enterprise. We have been actively recruiting candidates for this role and I look forward to sharing more soon. Gruber: Our Craigslist ad: "Florida company seeks Bernie Madoff type." Magic Leap: I have been leading Magic Leap since 2011 (starting in my garage). We have created a new field. A new medium. And together we have defined the future of computing. Gruber: No one will remember us or anything we've doneâ--âunless Netflix makes one of those documentaries like the Fyre Festival one. I love that movie. Which makes me think maybe we should change our Craigslist ad to "Billy McFarland type." Actually, when does he get out of prison?
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If it is libel - and it probably is - then the tweet will be removed - unlike Trump's, who enjoys special Twitter treatment.
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It's in everyone's interest to hear what politicians say - even better when they're on some less-than-serious platform and we might get a glimpse into what they actually think. Accurate information about politicians is, after all, the heart of democracy.
If a politician makes an ass of himself on social media, that's actually great, and the consequences should be electoral not hiding his true beliefs by removing the evidence.
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Good thing nobody is hiding anything Trump says then, right?
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No one is hiding anything he says on Twitter, which is the whole point. You want politicians on platforms that don't hide what the politicians say! You don't want the crazy shit politicians say filtered through gatekeeper media.
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Good to know that you don't have any problem with Twitter flagging his comments then, as that is them exercising their own 1st amendment rights, and not in any way "censorship." It is meeting free speech with free speech, which is how that whole "free speech" thing works.
I'm sure you strongly disagree with Trump's efforts to censor Twitter. Right?
Re: Libel (Score:1)
No, you barking dumbass, those of us opposed to banning Trump from Twitter are not generally opposed to corrective or clarifying annotations added to call out his bullshit.
The important thing is that Trump is allowed to show the rest of us who he is, over and over. If people had paid more attention to his deranged tweets prior to 2016, we wouldn't have this problem to begin with.
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Why are you agreeing with me in such an angry tone?
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Because of your not-so-implicit assumption that only Trump supporters are opposed to banning or censoring him.
There is a widespread assumption among the left that if you don't want him banned from Twitter, you must be a supporter. This assumption is ridiculously stupid.
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Twitter has no first amendment rights, as corporations are not people. I am OK with Twitter decorating Trump's tweets with their own commentary, as long as the reader cannot confuse the two, and as long as Twitter doesn't hinder the ability of the reader to read his tweets. No harm done there.
I'm sure you strongly disagree with Trump's efforts to censor Twitter. Right?
Since he's not doing that, I don't have a problem with what he's not doing.
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It's not a tweet; it's a blog entry.
Making fun. Libel is a false statement of fact (Score:1, Troll)
I believe this called called "making fun of him".
Libel is false statements of fact, stated as true facts, which damage someone's reputation. So something like this would be libel:
"Barak Obama's son was paid millions of dollars by a corrupt oligarch in Ukraine and Barak bragged about having the prosecutor investigating the corruption fired"
That states specific facts which are not true about Barak Obama. That's Biden, not Obama, that did that.
Here someone was making fun of the CEO, not claiming specific fac
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> Even if it does contain gross exaggerations, satire has very strong protection
Precisely BECAUSE it contains gross exaggeration and other elements that make readers aware that it is not pretending to be true.
See
New Times v. Isaacks and Hustler Magazine v. Falwell.
Other factors which allow readers / listeners to know it's not true would include if the person talking is a comedian doing stand-up or something like the Daily Show, tone of voice, and quoting experts like Professor Butt Hol and Mayor Bigg Wh
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I believe this called called "making fun of him".
Wait- you're allowed to make fun of Dear Leader??
what?? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Yeah, since the release of the iPhone, John Gruber has basically been an Apple shill. He doesn't understand that most people have to use computers for more than writing opinions on a blog. I don't know why anyone pays attention to him any more.
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I think it's funnier than hell, really :-)
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What do you expect. (Score:3)
Does anyone who got fired said it was because they Sucked at their job.
Back in 2008 I got laid off from my job. I didn't say the reason was because I was the more expendable than the other employees, however that was the truth, as the other employees have been working for the company longer, and they had laid off all the new employees they had hired in the past year, as they had the least amount of experience and are still learning the ropes.
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The British have the term "Gardening Leave" [wikipedia.org] if you really screw up.
In America, if your being forced out, then the reason is to "spend time with family". Spending time with family is such an excuse in business and political circles, that if you actually quit to spend time with your family, a bunch of surrogates go around saying "he has xxx and really needs to be with family", where xxx is young kids, ill family member, etc.
Spam bot reads better than Magic Leap memo. (Score:3)
Re: Spam bot reads better than Magic Leap memo. (Score:2)
Probably more likely to get what you pay for from him than Magic Leap too.
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This was really difficult technology (Score:4, Insightful)
There are a lot of deep technical challenges in the development of reliable and effective versions of both.
In both cases, it will probably be the second or third generation of company that tries it that succeeds commercially with a viable, cost-effective product.
The VC world is brutal to long-term plays like these.
Probably should have been kept in university labs for quite a while longer.
I guess it will be a while before we can start ignoring the elephant in the room.
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This is exactly what you get when you steal other people's ideas and claim them as you own with no understanding of them. They all deserved to loose and the solution, well, they will never get it because they are all just liars, cheats and thieves and not creative inventors beyond inventing lies to gain wealth.