Basically, Lumoback is KickStarter project, which monitors back bad posture, and help correct it. You can clearly see the medical application; a doctor could assign one to a patient to help them with back pans etc.
(Just to clarify, I am not saying it a *good* way to do so, merely that a medical aspect *exist*, which allows us to defines this tool as a "health" product)
So... Does (and Should?) the FDA have a problem with this? What about a Kickstarter project for hearing aids? That's also tech, at which point on the technological complexity gradient should intervene?
Similarly, clearly Kickstarter had no problem with this project, would Kickstarter allow a project for hearing aids, or would that defy their definition of "health" products? Again, when does the definition change?
Said law was enforced by the founder of our "royal" family, the very Secular Mr Bhutto, who sold us this law for some cheap votes from the Islamic Coalition...
People think all the evil was caused by his successor, the Islamic Hard-liner Military Dictator Zia, but you would surprised how many crazy laws originate from Bhutto's era. His own party now pretends those harsh laws were from the following era, because they can't be associated with them.
I mean, Bhutto caused the 1974 massacre in Bangladesh (of fellow muslims!) just because his *extremely* inflated ego wouldn't accept the fact that he had lost the election.
In other words, Religious or Secular, we are fucked either way. Nothing to do with the religion of peace.
It's called Alien Dalvik, and the video I remember seeing about it (a year or so ago, on Engadget, I think) showed it running Google apps like Google maps on N900.
Sadly it was proprietary, and not for sale to ordinary customers (more to OEMs, I think)
It's ~45 deg Celsius here, with ~50% humidity, no electricity 12+hrs out of 24, no AC, just fans when (if!) the light comes, else it's God's mercy.
Oh, and horribly built houses (building codes, what are those? What do you mean the back wall can't be at a 30 degree angle? Insulation? Airflow?)
Beat that!;p
Btw, out of sheer curiosity, how they hell did *you* guys end up in this mess, you are supposed to be a 1st world country, the land of milk and honey:)
I am an ACCA student, and I will try to explain this in simple, ELI5 terms.
*Disclaimer*; I am merely an ACCA *student*, NOT a professional qualified accountant, and especially not yours. Do NOT use my explanation as a basis for anything.
First to answer your question:
1-"Write off" means decreasing the value of an asset, and charging that decrease as an expense/loss to your profit.
2-The reason why aQuantive was worth more than number of the chairs it had for Steve to throw, is down to a magical term called "Goodwill"
---- Now the explanation (Warning, explanations maybe exceedingly simple and *not* strictly following accounting principles) :
1-To explain it, an asset is simply anything that helps you to earn revenue. ANYTHING. Not only the widget that your factory churns out by the millions, but also the chair you are sitting on at work, and the swipe to unlock patent your company has.
Assets often suffer a decrease in value, often due to things like wear and tear, but also, such accounting concepts as impairment (which is account-ese for "come down to earth"). So if its value decreases, you "write it off" and take "written-off" part away from your hard-earned profit as yet another darn expense.
2- How much do you think a company is worth? How do measure it anyway?
There are two-fold problems when valuing a company: How much each *individual* asset is worth, and how much are they worth, when put *together*.
For the first, it slightly simpler; call in the Valuer! He goes around valuing stuff, like how much would this creaky chair with a crack in the back left leg cost, if I were to tell the buyer it's an authentic "Thrown by Steve".
Problem comes for intangible stuff, like Google's search engine setup; now obviously it worth A LOT, since it earns them all the revenue they can fill up their caskets with, but...just how much, exactly?
If you can get a market value (Steve would buy it for *this* much, even if just to burn it up in spite) that's okay, other wise you get in a bit of a fix. But never despair, valuers are professionals, they can guesstimate pretty good.
But let's get to the other problem: How much is a company worth, *all* together? Basically, a company's worth is greater than the sum of its individual parts (you may have heard of this phrase before; ever heard of the word synergy?)
Basically, Microsoft's worth is not just the sum of Windows, Office, Hotmail, Xbox and Steve's authentic thrown chairs put together. Together, they earn A LOT more revenue, than if the code and the chairs were auctioned off. This extra bit is called Goodwill.
And since this "Goodwill" helps to earn that previously unexplainable extra revenue, it can now be categorised as an asset.
How do you measure this goodwill? Well, we call in the Valuer's big brother; Company Valuer. Again, using science and magic (everything from share price movement to dividend growth history to reading chicken entrails), he comes up with a value for this goodwill.
And all was well.
Or was it? -----
So now back to our scenario:
Microsoft wanted to buy aQuantive and called in the valuers. They did their magic and came up with a value: This much for the chairs, this much for the uber-secret advertisement formula, this much for the goodwill that makes aQuantive tick. Total: around 6 billion.
Steve wrote a check for 6 billion and that was that.
Note however the the last two items in the list were most likely heavily guesstimated. And now it turns out, the valuers were BAD guessers. Very bad guesser. 6 billion worth of bad guessing.
aQuantive is not worth the 6 billion that was spent on it, since it's not earning revenue like it would have, were that 6 billion had been spent to buy more chairs for steve to thrown and sell off.
So it's value has decreased. And when an asset's value decreases, we write off that decrease as a expense/loss against our profit.
And now you know.
----
If there is anything I could explain further, or any misconception, please let me know.
1- Don't presume before hand that the job market for CS is bad there, it's entirely possible the job market of Finance might be even worse. Get some concrete data.
2-Do outsourced programming work. If slashdot is any guide, the biggest problem with outsourcing is quality assurance. Since you are already an American, with American degrees and American experience, your repute will be much higher. Make some contacts in your place, and ask them to email their projects to HK.
3- Go the middle route; mix CS with Finance. XBRL [1] is a finance related computing language that is quite in demand nowadays. IIRC, tax and government authorities often mandate that information be provided in XBRL, so even financial organisations need CS talent for that. If not, combine that with the point above and do outsourced XBRL work for US based clients.
4-If you insist on Finance, get a certification, CFA or CMA might be best for you (*relatively* easier entry requirements, plus not locality bound like CPA). IIRC, CFA has three papers, CMA has two, so you might look at those.
Just my 0.02 Bitcoins, please let me know if my info is wrong.
Hint for curious, it involves taking a hair from each player on the field and burning them so that the oracle can divine a prophesy of how the match *would* have gone, and deciding the score accordingly.
(It actually uses detailed Databases of previous performances of teams and players, but for all effective purposes, you might as well burn the hair)
I am a Pakistani fan, and I remember one of our Coaches, Bob Woolmer (may he rest in peace!) who was know as Mr. Laptop, since he was always on the laptop, always calculating, to the ball, what the D/L score would be if it rained at that precise moment. If rain was expected, he would direct play so that D/L would be in their favour, which sometimes involved *slowing* down play. Yeah, D/L is *that* weird.
So yeah, Baseball, you got *nothing* on cricket when it comes to stats. Baseball uses it (AFAIK) for generic comparison purposes as to how the play *might* go, whilst cricket uses it to actually decide how the play *will* go.
I believe it's a cultural thing. In Finland, schools don't enforce competition, because *Parents* don't force it either.
In the US+, competition is everything, if Parents can't have a *tangible* acknowledgement that their kid is *better*, then they will simply move their kids to a school where the *can* know.
You what would be interesting? To see how *Asian* folks manage in the Nordics. Competition is in their blood:P
benefit by being situated in a country where (I presume is like the average European country) where good education and healthcare is quite accessible.
I don't know about healthcare in particular (although this being a Nordic Economic Model country, it's most likely good) but Finland's education is the best, even beating Fellow Nordics.[1]
It's level[2] is frequently top three, if not the first. And that's a country with NO private schools, and with system that does *not* urge absolute competition between students.
Got to admit, despite their other possible faults, Finns got this education shit covered.
Slashdot Mirror
Guess what he had for breakfast? A couple of fried eggs. It was completely retarded.
Then it's his fault for not having a proper breakfast, isn't it? Him fasting has nothing to do with it.
Um, first of all, that was a pun, so here is your free *whoosh*
Secondly, the Sitar is an *Indian* instrument, not limited to Hindus only, it's popular with classical musicians all over the subcontinent, Muslim included. (yes, there does exist such a thing as a Muslim Musician)
You are right!
That's why we break out the "Sitar" Hero! :p
IOW: Troll fail
http://xkcd.com/851/
Is there a topic for which there *isn't* a XKCD comic?
The Anti-monarchist/republicans/what-have-you have countered CGPGray's video with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2IO5ifWKdw
For example, Just before this post, I was reading this other post on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/12/exclusive-hands-on-with-the-lumoback-smart-posture-sensor-video/
Basically, Lumoback is KickStarter project, which monitors back bad posture, and help correct it. You can clearly see the medical application; a doctor could assign one to a patient to help them with back pans etc.
(Just to clarify, I am not saying it a *good* way to do so, merely that a medical aspect *exist*, which allows us to defines this tool as a "health" product)
So... Does (and Should?) the FDA have a problem with this? What about a Kickstarter project for hearing aids? That's also tech, at which point on the technological complexity gradient should intervene?
Similarly, clearly Kickstarter had no problem with this project, would Kickstarter allow a project for hearing aids, or would that defy their definition of "health" products? Again, when does the definition change?
Olfactory Smelling.
I am anosmic, you insensitive clod!
(btw, I really am anosmic, a smelling device would be awesome :p)
http://xkcd.com/484/
Frankly I have more fun playing a NDS game on an emulator than playing a PC game, and it was much easier to set them up too!
They should have released some of the Gameboy classics as re-figured as one-off emu+plus game combo .exe or something.
Said law was enforced by the founder of our "royal" family, the very Secular Mr Bhutto, who sold us this law for some cheap votes from the Islamic Coalition...
People think all the evil was caused by his successor, the Islamic Hard-liner Military Dictator Zia, but you would surprised how many crazy laws originate from Bhutto's era. His own party now pretends those harsh laws were from the following era, because they can't be associated with them.
I mean, Bhutto caused the 1974 massacre in Bangladesh (of fellow muslims!) just because his *extremely* inflated ego wouldn't accept the fact that he had lost the election.
In other words, Religious or Secular, we are fucked either way. Nothing to do with the religion of peace.
KickStarter Campaign for Jolla Mobile!
Makes perfect sense, and every slashdotter would buy one :P
It's called Alien Dalvik, and the video I remember seeing about it (a year or so ago, on Engadget, I think) showed it running Google apps like Google maps on N900.
Sadly it was proprietary, and not for sale to ordinary customers (more to OEMs, I think)
Pakistani poster here.
It's ~45 deg Celsius here, with ~50% humidity, no electricity 12+hrs out of 24, no AC, just fans when (if!) the light comes, else it's God's mercy.
Oh, and horribly built houses (building codes, what are those? What do you mean the back wall can't be at a 30 degree angle? Insulation? Airflow?)
Beat that! ;p
Btw, out of sheer curiosity, how they hell did *you* guys end up in this mess, you are supposed to be a 1st world country, the land of milk and honey :)
She is gal and she is kick ass. I am just a lame student. :)
But nevertheless, you are welcome
I am an ACCA student, and I will try to explain this in simple, ELI5 terms.
*Disclaimer*; I am merely an ACCA *student*, NOT a professional qualified accountant, and especially not yours. Do NOT use my explanation as a basis for anything.
First to answer your question:
1-"Write off" means decreasing the value of an asset, and charging that decrease as an expense/loss to your profit.
2-The reason why aQuantive was worth more than number of the chairs it had for Steve to throw, is down to a magical term called "Goodwill"
----
Now the explanation (Warning, explanations maybe exceedingly simple and *not* strictly following accounting principles) :
1-To explain it, an asset is simply anything that helps you to earn revenue. ANYTHING. Not only the widget that your factory churns out by the millions, but also the chair you are sitting on at work, and the swipe to unlock patent your company has.
Assets often suffer a decrease in value, often due to things like wear and tear, but also, such accounting concepts as impairment (which is account-ese for "come down to earth"). So if its value decreases, you "write it off" and take "written-off" part away from your hard-earned profit as yet another darn expense.
2- How much do you think a company is worth? How do measure it anyway?
There are two-fold problems when valuing a company: How much each *individual* asset is worth, and how much are they worth, when put *together*.
For the first, it slightly simpler; call in the Valuer! He goes around valuing stuff, like how much would this creaky chair with a crack in the back left leg cost, if I were to tell the buyer it's an authentic "Thrown by Steve".
Problem comes for intangible stuff, like Google's search engine setup; now obviously it worth A LOT, since it earns them all the revenue they can fill up their caskets with, but...just how much, exactly?
If you can get a market value (Steve would buy it for *this* much, even if just to burn it up in spite) that's okay, other wise you get in a bit of a fix. But never despair, valuers are professionals, they can guesstimate pretty good.
But let's get to the other problem: How much is a company worth, *all* together? Basically, a company's worth is greater than the sum of its individual parts (you may have heard of this phrase before; ever heard of the word synergy?)
Basically, Microsoft's worth is not just the sum of Windows, Office, Hotmail, Xbox and Steve's authentic thrown chairs put together. Together, they earn A LOT more revenue, than if the code and the chairs were auctioned off. This extra bit is called Goodwill.
And since this "Goodwill" helps to earn that previously unexplainable extra revenue, it can now be categorised as an asset.
How do you measure this goodwill? Well, we call in the Valuer's big brother; Company Valuer. Again, using science and magic (everything from share price movement to dividend growth history to reading chicken entrails), he comes up with a value for this goodwill.
And all was well.
Or was it?
-----
So now back to our scenario:
Microsoft wanted to buy aQuantive and called in the valuers. They did their magic and came up with a value: This much for the chairs, this much for the uber-secret advertisement formula, this much for the goodwill that makes aQuantive tick. Total: around 6 billion.
Steve wrote a check for 6 billion and that was that.
Note however the the last two items in the list were most likely heavily guesstimated. And now it turns out, the valuers were BAD guessers. Very bad guesser. 6 billion worth of bad guessing.
aQuantive is not worth the 6 billion that was spent on it, since it's not earning revenue like it would have, were that 6 billion had been spent to buy more chairs for steve to thrown and sell off.
So it's value has decreased. And when an asset's value decreases, we write off that decrease as a expense/loss against our profit.
And now you know.
----
If there is anything I could explain further, or any misconception, please let me know.
excoriate
I learnt a new word today. Thank you!
I also agree with most of your point, but I wonder, just how much of a premium are those people you mention willing to pay? 10%? 20%?
P.S.
For those wondering what it means...
https://www.google.com/search?q=excoriate
There are some combo CS+Fin certifications, Like CISA [1], look into those too.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_Information_Systems_Auditor
1- Don't presume before hand that the job market for CS is bad there, it's entirely possible the job market of Finance might be even worse. Get some concrete data.
2-Do outsourced programming work. If slashdot is any guide, the biggest problem with outsourcing is quality assurance. Since you are already an American, with American degrees and American experience, your repute will be much higher. Make some contacts in your place, and ask them to email their projects to HK.
3- Go the middle route; mix CS with Finance. XBRL [1] is a finance related computing language that is quite in demand nowadays. IIRC, tax and government authorities often mandate that information be provided in XBRL, so even financial organisations need CS talent for that. If not, combine that with the point above and do outsourced XBRL work for US based clients.
4-If you insist on Finance, get a certification, CFA or CMA might be best for you (*relatively* easier entry requirements, plus not locality bound like CPA). IIRC, CFA has three papers, CMA has two, so you might look at those.
Just my 0.02 Bitcoins, please let me know if my info is wrong.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBRL
As if there wasn't already one statisticians' wet dream on the form of D/L, here comes another stats-gasm inducing system, which called the VJD.
India tried to enforce it internationally, but it was turned down in the recent meeting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VJD_System
Hint for curious, it involves taking a hair from each player on the field and burning them so that the oracle can divine a prophesy of how the match *would* have gone, and deciding the score accordingly.
(It actually uses detailed Databases of previous performances of teams and players, but for all effective purposes, you might as well burn the hair)
I am a Pakistani fan, and I remember one of our Coaches, Bob Woolmer (may he rest in peace!) who was know as Mr. Laptop, since he was always on the laptop, always calculating, to the ball, what the D/L score would be if it rained at that precise moment. If rain was expected, he would direct play so that D/L would be in their favour, which sometimes involved *slowing* down play. Yeah, D/L is *that* weird.
So yeah, Baseball, you got *nothing* on cricket when it comes to stats. Baseball uses it (AFAIK) for generic comparison purposes as to how the play *might* go, whilst cricket uses it to actually decide how the play *will* go.
Wiki Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckworth–Lewis_method
Because a stitch in time saves nine?
*ducks*
It's called Tizen, and Samsung and Intel are running it.
I believe it's a cultural thing. In Finland, schools don't enforce competition, because *Parents* don't force it either.
In the US+, competition is everything, if Parents can't have a *tangible* acknowledgement that their kid is *better*, then they will simply move their kids to a school where the *can* know.
You what would be interesting? To see how *Asian* folks manage in the Nordics. Competition is in their blood :P
It's APPLE, for cryin' out loud
Apples keep doctors and their evil medicine away!
Ponder about Apple, and your medical problems will solve themselves! /s
IIRC, Chile also enshrined Net Neutrality in to Law.
Any other countries, besides Chile and Netherlands? I would expect Sweden to be the first...
benefit by being situated in a country where (I presume is like the average European country) where good education and healthcare is quite accessible.
I don't know about healthcare in particular (although this being a Nordic Economic Model country, it's most likely good) but Finland's education is the best, even beating Fellow Nordics.[1]
It's level[2] is frequently top three, if not the first. And that's a country with NO private schools, and with system that does *not* urge absolute competition between students.
Got to admit, despite their other possible faults, Finns got this education shit covered.
Links:
[1]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm
[2]: http://stats.oecd.org/PISA2009Profiles/