Naval Patel’s Comments

• Jan 6th, 2010 @ 4:00am

  One of these is not like the other...

  on Guy Buys $3 Billion CD-ROM
  Computer monitor: $200. Computer monitor after a pricing error: $1.
  
  Flight to Europe: $1500. Flight to Europe after a pricing error: $10. [location randomly chosen]
  
  Cost of a CD after pricing error: $3 BILLION. Cost of a CD:
• Oct 6th, 2009 @ 3:48pm

  Re: Re: Modern vs. Traditional

  on Creative Web Destruction: Sites Go Away
  Whether they do or don't, a Terms of Service agreement is a contract and issues of detrimental reliance and good faith come into play as well.
  
  Even if a company owns data I upload to its servers, it should be aware that one its users would rely on the company retaining that data for a reasonable period to that individual's detriment.
  
  Also, I find it hard to believe that a court is likely to allow companies to shut down without some sort of reasonable notice to the users of their services/products.
  
  The First Tech Bubble didn't result in the finding of a reasonable practice regarding customer notice and data retention; perhaps the second one will.
• Oct 5th, 2009 @ 11:26pm

  Re: Xoom? Remember Xoom? Come on guys, it was XOOM!

  on Creative Web Destruction: Sites Go Away
  It's a money transfer service now and I see commercials for it all the time. ... and I always think of the old Xoom and turn away.
• Oct 5th, 2009 @ 11:24pm

  Modern vs. Traditional

  on Creative Web Destruction: Sites Go Away
  The big picture comes down to: How are mergers, acquisitions, and failures going to affect our data?
  
  Our "data" isn't just composed of old reports, notes, and MP3s. For most, the most important part of their digital life is their pictures. In addition, blogs are the new journal entries (with a more public take on it)...
  
  So if tomorrow Gmail, Flickr, Twitter, or GoDaddy were to fail - permanently, how would users cope? ...
  
  I think it's going to come down to a need for legislation to mandate data retention - or at least users will need to demand it for a certain period before their data gets erased.