Roku collects money two ways: by selling hardware, which it calls 'players'; and by selling advertising and taking a cut of revenues from the video publishers on its platform.
With bundled machines you can throw away the hardware and keep the software, and it's still a good buy.
People don't realize how much it means to your music to record on tape, whether it be for new music or old music. People don't realize how much or how imperative it is to use actual hardware when making drums because those are actual percussion samplers. They're hardware instruments that are made to have the drum hit.
I think people should be proud of the work they do, whatever it is. I have this other arty side that loves creating homes. I can be happy going to the hardware store.
People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
If I won the lottery I'd start a charity that helped little family hardware stores, cobblers and fruit shops open in city centres.
The hardware business is all about per-unit manufacturing cost and functionality. The services business is less asset-intensive and more dependent on people.
My next thing could be something in hardware. It's never been easier to turn bits into atoms.
General Atomics, the progenitor of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, started life in 1955 when a major military contractor, General Dynamics, feared that the military hardware market might dry up. It began exploring peacetime uses of atomic energy, but abandoned the effort when cold-war military spending took off.
I'm a mechanical engineer, and I grew up on a farm, so I like practical hardware - somebody's elegant solution that proves itself over the long term.
