A Most Peculiar Test Drive | Blog | Tesla Motors: “When the facts didn’t suit his opinion, he simply changed the facts. Our request of The New York Times is simple and fair: please investigate this article and determine the truth. You are a news organization where that principle is of paramount importance and what is at stake for sustainable transport is simply too important to the world to ignore.”

(via teslamotors.com.)

This is not the first time I’ve seen Elon Musk refute false claims in the press. Handled wrong, this sort of thing would make you look overly defensive, a conspiracy theorist, a sore loser. Handled right, especially the third or fourth time, it paints a clear picture of certain elements in the media who are biased against the facts and out to get your company for no good reason.

It’s hard to argue with a computer log.

Time and again, Tesla’s stance has been to take these false claims head on. Maybe not everyone will read these refutations, but sooner or later, the more news organizations try to distort the story to make these cars look unfavorable, the more people will get the picture that any negative story about Tesla is probably trumped up nonsense. That would be unfortunate for the cause of truth, as I’m sure there are perfectly reasonable and honest negative things you could say about this company. But it’s better than the alternative, which is letting journalists get away with making up stories to paint a pre-defined picture.

It doesn’t matter if the New York Times investigates, retracts the story, or fires the writer. It may even be better for Tesla if it doesn’t.

Some are suggesting that this is all the doing of Detroit and the Big Oil companies. That the New York Times is in their pocket because of advertising revenue. I think it’s much simpler than that. As Elon suggests, I think some people just don’t like the idea of an electric car. And John Broder is one of them. He had a story in his head before he got into the car, and he wasn’t about to change it. But it’s very smart for Tesla not to simply let these stories slide. You have to react fast, with facts, and destroy the credibility of the offending writer as soon as possible.

Elon Musk is a billionaire who has dumped a great deal of time and a fair chunk of his personal fortune into a company he desperately wants to succeed. If any more journalists think they are going to pose a threat to that by making up false stories, I think it’s safe to say that would be unwise.

It’s not enough to make a great product; you have to execute in marketing, public relations, and media as well. Whether you are for or against electric cars, you have to admit that Tesla is doing a great job with that.

It was a privlige and a pleasure to chat with Dan and Philipe, organizers of the NSNorth conference last night on their podcast. We talked about the App Store business, how to take the long approach to success, including the need to work on your sales skills, and much more. All of my favorite topics, which will be the basis of my upcoming talk at NSNorth this April.

If you’ve never been to the lovely city of Ottawa in the Spring, I urge you to consider heading up there to hear not only me, but the many other amazing speakers Dan and Philipe have lined up for the two-day single track conference April 19–21st. It’ll be an intimate affair, just 100 slots for attendees, and lots of activities planned in addition to the talks. There are even 5-minute Blitz talks for which you can submit your own topic of choice.

I’m a huge believer in community when it comes to the App development business. Events like NSNorth help bring us together to talk about our individual experiences. If you’re sitting in your home office typing code or pushing pixels 300 days out of the year, you should really consider getting out and meeting some other people who are doing the same. You’d be amazed how much you learn from a simple conversation over lunch, let alone from the featured speakers.

You can hear my episode of the NSNorth Podcast here. Or just subscribe to the entire series and hear what many of the other speakers are plannning to say. It’s going to be a great event.

Learn more about NSNorth and get your ticket here.

I made a few small tweaks to x2y this week. Haven’t had time to work on any major new features lately, but there is always room for small improvements.

I realized that somehow one of the ratio separators (the colons between the numbers) was out of alignment on the iPad. Actually, the separator was in the right place, but the two number fields it separated weren’t. One of those tiny little details that was extremely embarrassing to me. You stare at a screen for weeks, trying to make every detail perfect, and then you go ahead and ship the thing and it’s flawed anyway.

I also limited the digits in each of the ratio fields to 7. Previously, you could just keep adding digits forever, and the numbers would just run off the screen. Only about 7 were ever showing, so I figured I should just set a maximum number. (Sorry to those of you who wanted to deal with images of 10 million pixels wide or more.)

Finally, I added common ratios to the list, including the old photographic 5 x 7, the latest MacBook Airs (13 and 11 inch, which have different aspect ratios), and the iMac. (Both the 21 and 27 inch iMacs sport 16:10 ratios, so I only needed one.) If you have suggestions for more common aspects that I’ve overlooked, let me know.

If you already have x2y, you can update via the App Store app on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Otherwise, you can purchase x2y on the App Store here.

The last episode of a good TV series is almost never the best episode or even a particularly good one. At worst, you get a clip show, a rehash of all the “top” moments over the course of several seasons. Or the writers try to tie up every conceivable loose end for every character with a neat little bow to the point of making it completely contrived. At best, you get a resolution to the major storylines, but there’s just enough left open-ended for some of the characters to make you wish just a little that the show would continue. But even that practically guarantees the last episode won’t be the one you walk away remembering.

This is a very long way of saying that I had no idea how to spend my last night in San Francisco.

I could have gone on a whirlwind tour around the city, hitting every major neighborhood in which I’d ever lived or made a memory. I could have gone to one of my favorite restaurants and had a really great last meal. I could have gathered some friends to have a big party, stayed up too late and gone to the airport in the morning with a hangover. But my best memories of this place didn’t happen that way. They weren’t carefully orchestrated events. They happened organically, over time, when I was least expecting.

We don’t remember beginnings and endings so much as the little things that happen in between. Call it cliché, but it really is all about the journey.

There’s a reason Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film, and it’s not just because of Irvin Kershner. (On second thought, bad example. It is because of Irvin Kirshner.) It’s also because it’s the middle of the story. The part where everything gets messy and strange and you don’t quite know where it’s going yet. That’s what we like. That’s what we’re drawn to.

I’m greatful that I made the transition from high school English teacher to a graphic artist, to a designer, to the beginnings of an entrepreneur here. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to work for Apple, to meet Steve Jobs and get a few good stories of my own to tell before he passed. For all the music I made and performed, the few good friends I made that are still good friends and will continue to be, and even the people I just met in passing. For all the amazing places to which I had easy access, from San Diego, to Los Angeles, to Pismo, Carmel, Monterrey, Santa Cruz, Half-Moon Bay, Sonoma, Russian River, Mt. Tam, Mt. Shasta, the Avenue of the Giants, Tahoe, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver—just to name a few.

I wasn’t going to top any of that tonight. I wasn’t going to do anything I was going to remember ten years from now. So instead I wandered the streets a bit, with no particular direction, felt the city air, listened to its beautiful noise. And then I came home early, to the empty apartment, to write down a few thoughts and go to bed early.

I had made my peace. I had said my goodbyes.

This isn’t the time for reliving the past. It isn’t the time for a last-ditch effort to enjoy a place I’ve already enjoyed plenty. It’s the space between getting ready to go and going. A brief moment, a deliberate breath, before I open the door and start walking again.

Twelve and-a-half years, Bay Area. And particularly San Francisco. It’s been a great ride. What’s next?

Dear Blizzard Entertainment:

You make really cool games. I’ve enjoyed playing all three iterations of Diablo on my various Macs over the years.

But your account security nonsense is completely out of hand.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop on a rare slow morning, and I really feel like playing a little Diablo III right now, since I haven’t gotten much time to play in months, and I kinda want to blow off some steam after what’s been a pretty stressful few weeks of work and other various life activities. I’m not a huge gamer, or anything, but slashing monsters in dungeons sounds like a bit of fun right about now.

Instead of slashing monsters, though, I’m writing a blog post. Because you suck.

Simply logging into my account (with the correct password by the way) should not have been considered “suspicious activity.” That’s, in fact, expected behavior. I bought the game, and occasionally I might want to play it. Just because I’m on a different network than I was last time, that doesn’t mean I’m a malicious user, or some sort of bot out to destroy the server.

You see, Blizzard, a few years back, the laptop was invented. And people tend to take their laptops to coffee shops, relatives’ houses, foreign countries, etc. Laptops will be connected to different networks all the time. This is not suspect. It’s, again, expected behavior. It’s why we buy laptops.

I appreciate that you’re in a neverending battle with the assholes who make everything suck by hacking and creating havoc all over your servers. I know somewhere in your misguided mind you think you’re actually protecting me with these layers of security insanity.

But you’re not going to beat them by ruining my day. If you can’t figure out how to keep them out while keeping me in, well, then you’ve got to try harder. You’re failing.

Repeat after me: treating paying customers like criminals is never a good idea. Any idea your security experts bring to the table that involves making my life less convenient is an instant fail. Go back to the drawing board and start again.

Oh, and by the way, lest you think I’m just whining, that I shoud have just reset my password, unlocked my account, and got back to slashing and looting: I’ve tried resetting my password a dozen times now, and I keep getting the same error message.

The least you can do is make sure the process of unlocking my account actually, you know, works.