There is a difference between building software for us (developers/hobbiests/etc) and building software for them (consumers). We will tinker, extend, reverse, tweak, hack and out will come something new for other people to build upon, possibly ground-shaking like the Basic interpreter. On the other hand, consumers will use it a few times, maybe click on an ad, and forget about it. I believe that frisco is lamenting the scopelessness of the project, which I do as well.
Wow, that's kind of petty. The author is never going to find the perfect laptop. There are always going to be some issues, so deal with it. While I am always in favor of throwing out apple products (apple sucks), this article is just stupid.
There is a sense of irony in that Trevor Blackwell along with the other YC partners are backing a company that essentially wants to put AnyBots out of business.
I don't know what they used, it probably was on the Hambands. On our balloon, we transmitted APRS mostly for tracking and retrieval. They could have set up ATV or some other custom protocol.