Late last night, word began to spread around the tech community that one of Diaspora ‘s four co-founders, Ilya Zhitomirskiy , had passed away. With much sadness, we’ve now confirmed this terrible news with the Diaspora team. The news is incredibly jarring, to the point that much else I could say escapes me.

I got to sit down with Steve Hallock , the North American president of MB&F and driving force behind the Swiss watch brand’s western expansion. The watch he brought for us is the LM1 aka the Legacy Machine #1, a new piece we wrote about earlier last month and that is just now shipping to oligarchs and captains of industry around the world. First, a bit about the piece: In fidelity to high-quality 19th century pocket watches, LM1 features a sedately oscillating (2.5 Hz), large diameter balance with traditional Breguet overcoil suspended from majestic twin arches; its enigmatic regulating mechanism in full view, but without apparent connection to the movement.

Online holiday shopping reached record levels in 2010. And e-commerce spending is up this year. All signs point to consumers spending even more online this holiday season

Even though plants need only a few things to grow – water, air, light and minerals – maintaining the right proportions can make gardening feel like a high-maintenance hobby. Estonian company Click & Grow creates soilless, electronic flowerpots that do the work for you, providing the correct water and nutrient balance for indoor plants. For some, this may seem like a superfluous product since many varieties of houseplants don’t require an excessive amount of care

Startups and entrepreneurs are far from lacking when it comes to resources that help guide them through the pain-staking yet always rewarding process of building a business.