By Jessica Roy 3/04 8:07am

Linkages

(Photo: Daily Tech)

Booting Up: A Guilty Plea for Former Dotcom Millionaire

Quinn Norton speaks out on what life inside the Aaron Swartz investigation was like. “This will not be the final word on Aaron’s story, nor is it intended to be. Two years later, these are the events as I remember them, and the feelings as I knew them.” [The Atlantic]

Former dotcom millionaire Jennifer Sultan plead guilty to selling prescription drugs and conspiring to sell a firearm in exchange for four years in prison on Friday. Ms. Sultan, who sold her company Live Online during the first boom, burned through her fortune after becoming addicted to prescription pain killers. Let this be a cautionary tale for bubble 2.0. [New York Times]

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz took to Rap Genius this weekend to decode Andrew Mason’s goodbye letter. Swag? [TechCrunch]

If you got an email this weekend from Evernote that it had reset your password, that’s because the company suffered a major security breach. [The Verge]

SpaceX Dragon has successfully docked at the International Space Station, which is great because we don’t really need any more griping from Elon Musk right now. [Ars Technica]

By The Editors 2/08 4:49pm

shameless rumormongering

(Photo: Instagram)

Rumor Roundup: SpaceX Engineers Got Jokes and an Impassioned Cover Letter for a Job at Valleywag

Journalism 101 It looks like somebody is gunning for a spot at Nick Denton’s soon-to-relaunch Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag. TechCrunch co-editor Alexia Tsotsis wrote an impassioned post about why tech journalism needs another Valleywag, “a watchdog with enough independence and daring to call it as it is.” Writers at blogs like her own, Ms. Tsotsis argues, are simply too embedded in the ecosystem to properly perform their jobs, unwilling to report on certain unseemly aspects of Valley business and culture for fear of having to, get this, sit next to those she’s written about at a demo day. Read More

By Jessica Roy 1/10 1:55pm

The Final Frontier

(Screencap: Twitter)

Elon Musk Would Like You to Know ‘I Am Not the Kale Eating Overlord of Mars’

News has been swirling that PayPal vet and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is hellbent on creating a colony on Mars specifically targeting vegetarians. PETA, of course, immediately jumped on the idea, demanding that instead of making the colony vegetarian, it should obviously be vegan.

Now, Mr. Musk has spoken out on his Twitter account saying that, yes, he would like to get tech people to Mars, but no, he is not the red planet’s vegan-loving leader. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 12/06/12 5:30pm

Space the Final Frontier

Sick vacation spot. (Photo: NASA, via Wikimedia Commons)

Fly Me to the Moon? New Company Wants to Do Just That

Looking for a lift… to space? Today, after a week of Internet speculation, a new commercial aerospace startup called the Golden Spike Company made its official debut. Headed by former NASA administrators, the company wants to get regular missions to the moon going by 2020–and at a fraction of the current cost. The name is meant to evoke the transcontinental railway that opened up the American west for settlement.

Yeah, they basically want to build a train to space. NBD. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 11/30/12 3:27pm

Space the Final Frontier

Mr. Musk, please take my money. (Photo via flickr.com/jurvetson)

Perhaps We Could Just Kickstart the New Race to Space?

Yesterday, before venturing forth to the casting call for Bravo’s Start-ups: Silicon Valley spinoff, we made a rather wonkier stop, at this month’s meeting of the MIT Enterprise Forum. The topic of the panel? Space, the final frontier, and aerospace investing in particular.

As we arrived, a brief SpaceX video with a Top Gun-style soundtrack was wrapping up. Adam Harris, the company’s VP for Government Affairs, let slip a little, “Yay!” as it came to a close.  Read More

By Steve Huff 10/09/12 10:50am

15 Minutes Into the Future

Elon Musk (Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)

Old-School Car Dealers Whining That Tesla Dealerships are Illegal

Elon Musk‘s aerospace venture is off to a good start with the recent launch of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship, but his Tesla stores selling expensive electric Model S sedans are running into problems with fossil-fueled competitors.

Several state associations of auto dealers are invoking older laws protecting conventional methods of selling cars by claiming the way Tesla sells cars is unfair to other dealers and possibly even illegal. Here’s one example out of several cited by Automotive News: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 8/03/12 1:52pm

Space the Final Frontier

That does look a little cramped. (Photo: spacex.com)

SpaceX Lands $440M. NASA Contract to Develop Space Shuttle Replacement

Good news for anyone who dreams of retiring to a ranch on Mars: Elon Musk’s aerospace startup, SpaceX, just landed a $440 million NASA contract to develop the Space Shuttle’s successor and get some real, live American astronauts back into space. That would mean, for instance, no more hitching rides with the Russians.

According to a statement the company released earlier today: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 8/02/12 1:15pm

Space the Final Frontier

"Yes, this will be perfect for repairing the irrigation system on my massive Martian ranch." (Photo: a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5126137767/sizes/m/in/photostream/">flickr.com/jurvetson)

Elon Musk, Space Nerd Demigod, Is Still Totally Obsessed With Mars

The L.A. Times recently sat down with Paypal mafioso and SpaceX founder Elon Musk for a brief chat about his recent endeavors and goals for his commercial aerospace venture. In short: His ultimate goal is still Mars. (Always Mars. Never Not Mars.) Someone keeps a battered copy of Red Mars in a place of pride, we’d wager.

Naturally, the Times inquired as to whether Mr. Musk himself would be personally interested in a trip to the Red Planet, or if he’s merely interested in lobbing other people skyward. His answer was basically, duh: Read More

By Jessica Roy 6/06/12 2:10pm

Geeking Out

bill nye

One Hour With Bill Nye the Science Guy

Last week, we learned that we would have the lovely opportunity of interviewing Bill Nye–yes, the Science Guy, that bow-tie-wearing, zany engineer whose PBS show taught the majority of twenty-somethings much of what they know about magnetism, the circulatory system and electricity. Most kids who grew up in the 90′s were shown at least one of his videos in a Friday afternoon science class. Mr. Nye occupies a specific corner of our collective nostalgia, his kooky presence and love for science hearkening back to a simpler time when getting an A on a test was our biggest worry.

When this reporter woke up for the interview this morning, she found herself struggling to find something to wear. (“All my lab coats are in the wash,” we tweeted.) Turns out that we should’ve opted for a bow-tie, as Mr. Nye showed up to our interview in Bryant Park in that signature sartorial choice, a green paisley one tied around his neck. On the lapel of his jacket, a Planetary Society pin gleamed in the sun. Read More