The best quotes, comments, tweets and random observations we heard this week …
“If anybody has been harboring doubts about the status of U.S. leadership in space, well, there’s a one-ton, automobile-size piece of American ingenuity, and it’s sitting on the surface of Mars right now.” — John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science adviser, at a news conference following the Curiosity landing on Mars.
“I’m very happy to hear this news, but I think we’ll be even happier when we all read my new article, ‘7 Lessons Your Startup Can Learn From the Mars Curiosity Rover Project.’ I’ll be publishing it as soon as I can find a good stock photo with the numeral 7 in it.” — GeekWire’s favorite anonymous commenter has some fun at our expense, commenting on the Curiosity landing.
“In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. … “But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s.” Wired’s Mat Honan explaining how he fell victim to an epic online attack.
“We have investigated the reported exploit, and can confirm that the exploit has been closed as of Monday afternoon,” — an Amazon spokesman talking about the customer-service practice that contributed to Honan’s hacking.
“We have said [to Microsoft] think it over. Think twice. It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice.” — Acer CEO JT Wang, speaking about the Microsoft Surface tablet in an interview with the Financial Times.
“Who exactly HAS been bringing innovation to the PC market? Dell? HP? Sony? Please.” — GeekWire reader commenting on Wang’s remarks.
“You know, I was at a conference recently where someone said, ‘Well, do you feel good about what you’re doing?’ I turned to this person, who is an entrepreneur at a prominent social networking website, and I said, “OK, fine. You’re about people sending little messages to each other and having fun on a social network. How big is your malaria project?” — former Microsoft tech chief Nathan Myhrvold, in an interview with GeekWire, defending his patent business and his quest to use technology for “Global Good.”
“[N]o amount of philanthropy can undo the incredible ruin his company has unleashed on innovation through unfettered patent trolling.” — GigaOm’s Jeff John Roberts, responding to Myhrvold’s criticism of an earlier GigaOm piece that was skeptical of Myhrvold’s “Global Good” effort.
“What I don’t understand is why people are so critical of the company with so little effort put into educating themselves about it. But this is the internet where everybody is free to pop off without any basis for their views.” — GeekWire reader PJ in the Myhrvold comment thread.
