My Google-fu has failed me; I was hoping to find some data on the demand elasticity for porno but apparently nobodys ever studied this in a quantitative manner.
Anyhow, even if the demand for porno was very high (i.e., an increase in prices would cause a sharp fall in demand), porno is a very, very high margin business.
More than likely the industry would just reprice the porno so the consumer would pay the same as the pre-taxed price.
on biz, and you really need Air Conditioners there. I don't think the folks living there really had much of a choice but, then again, I've never asked them. And where would they go?
I'm taking an Executive MBA (Friday-Sunday, once every six weeks), and in one of my classes last month we had to read an interesting paper which drew lots of parallels to the US IT Industry now, and the US Auto Industry in the 70's.
Of course no predictions are completely accurate, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.
(I posted the Google link so you can dl as pdf or read as html).
You're correct in that at this point it's only an unrealised or, as you put it, paper loss.
But there is also Opportunity Cost to consider; the benefit forgone as a result of pursuing one course of action rather than an alternative course of action.
They are planning to hold the securities, but we don't know their cost of capital (aka their borrowing rate, important as it's likely this is a leveraged positiion). Nor how much capital this particular trading desk has to play with; the amounts involved may in fact be a large percentage, in which case just by holding this position they won't be able to acquire other, perhaps more profitable trading positions.
We also don't know much about this particular trading desk, their style. Are they monentum traders? Was this particular position one leg of some complex arbitrage?
Their losses could potentially be much, much larger and the impact immediate. It's pretty bizzare that they are planning to hold a position 20 times the size of the one they originally planned to take on. That's gotta really unbalance their overall portfolio.
I've worked on trading desks and these mistakes happen a lot, far more often then most folks realise, and rule number one when you make a mistake like this:
Folks, you can argue the technical pros and cons back and forth until you're sick in the face, but one thing lept out at me from Steve Jobs' presentation:
"Mac OS X has been "leading a secret double life" for the past five years, said Jobs. "So today for the first time, I can confirm the rumors that every release of Mac OS X has been compiled for PowerPC and Intel. This has been going on for the last five years."
Damn. This is forward looking, hedge all your bets corporate Management. World class Management.
I don't know if this thing will succeed or fail, but just parsing that statement above shows me that Jobs and Apple Computer will continue to evaluate all possible options at all possible times.
Once kids get much past 10 or 12, it becomes increasingly difficult to change their eating habits.
And with the evidence mounting that junk food contributes to a wide range of diseases I don't see how parents keeping on watchful eye on their children could be a bad thing.
Earlier on/. I'd read the reason Google News still carried the Beta label was according to the TOS of most (if not all) news providers, distribution for commerical use was prohibited.
This clearly leverages off Google News, so somethings not making sense. There isn't a Beta label on Google Reviews even though it sources from their news feed. How can they use these reviews without a beta label, if the remainder of the newspaper requires it? How long before these reviews start to carry text ads? And does this mean the Beta label will be dropped off Google News as well?
In any case, this wouldn't be much use to me as I primarly use IMDB as a driver for selecting movies. I find critics working for the mainstream media are, well, just too mainstream for my tastes. I get more value from my peer's opinions than some overpaid critic.
Carbon Copy Cloner will clone an OS X installation from one machine to another.
It works Mac to Mac, across a Fireware cable. I've used it on everything from Clamshell iBooks to G3 iMacs to 1.25Ghz G4 PowerBooks, from 10.2.x to 10.3.8 - no problems at all.
Unless you format the destination drive it's sorta hit or miss, but they clearly point this out.
So yes, it's *technically* possible. Legal? Other folks have already posted about that aspect.
YMMV. Pick a degree that compliments what you are interested in. Not what the consensus on/. suggests.
After all, you're gonna be the one stuck with the job that it leads you to. The degree could be a marketing MBA, or in Biochemistry or Astronomy, etc, etc.
I'm EMEA (Europe, The Middle East and Africa) Manager for a multinational financial services institution. Either myself or someone from my team spend a lot of time on client site at banks in Africa, so we've got some insight.
We take a lot for granted in the developed world. Even at the better run banks in Africa things we could do in less than a day take two or more.
Part of the problem is infrastructure : for example, the power in Lagos goes out constantly. Even the banks with UPS' get caught out sometimes.
Part of it is education : the skills just aren't as widely available as compared to the developed countries. Lot's of times it's the blind helping the blind. Yep, they muddle through but it takes far longer.
The OP had more insight into this problem : after the Company Man leaves there definitely will be loads of these devices that are unusable. Efforts of the curious children asdie, we see it all the time in the banks - why would it be different in the remote villages?
Oh and I'm not knocking these folks; they're just doing the best they can and I actually enjoy going down there to help them, but things are a lot different in Africa.
I've got not only a one hour train commute, but also an Archos AV400.
I'm an American finance geek living in London, so every morning my handheld PVR records the overnite BBC Business News at 3:45AM. I watch the 45 news broadcast while I'm headed to work at 5:51AM damn early in the morning!
I get a lot of utility out of time shifting the BBC, and would dump my iPod(s) (3G 20GB, 1GB Shuffle) in a heartbeat if my Archos (it also plays MP3's with cover art) matched half my iPods battery life. At present I get three hours tops.
I own ten Mac's (two G3 iMacs, a ClamShell iBook, two SEs, a MacTV, a PowerMac 5500/275, a G4 TiBook, a 15" G4 PowerBook, a G4 Cube) and still use the OS X capable machines daily. Even though I grok Apple deeply, they'd better put together a PVR solution ASAP.
It's their market to lose. I only own two iPaqs because my Newtons were getting long in the tooth.
...Besides the problems with forcing the ads, how will they make sure the person sitting across the street can't read your email? That's a big issue, imo. With public access wifi, capturing the airbourne packets is probably gonna be very easy. And no-one notices you, because your notebook will simply function as a 'radio'...
At public access points I always use a Proxy Server, and I always use one at work also - added bonus - I can look at any pages I'd like to and not worry about hitting something NSFW.
All the Admins would see (if they were snooping) is an encrypted SSL session between by browser and a remote web site.
I'm currently using MegaProxy, but a Google search reveals a large list of both pay and free services.
I don't have a drivers license, as I spent thirteen years of living in Manhattan before I ve moved to London.
Also, New York was trying for a couple of years after I left to get me to continue to pay; all sorts of notices for "taxes due", etc, because I stopped filing state returns.
And yes, I neither had property nor any sort of income in New York.
KPMG, who does my US and UK taxes, had to write several letters to get them to cease and desist. Sort of a PIA , but most states will try whatever they can get collect tax money, even if they aren't entitled. It's similar to the same odds on SPAM - if just %0.01 pay up they're going to realise some positive return on their "investment".
I would hope so. I'm deathly afraid of any state trying to "claim me" so they can tax me.
I still pay Federal taxes even though I don't live in the US (no problem there), but would have an issue with a state trying to tax me simply because they are providing me with a federally mandated ID card.
I'm American and I've been living and working in London for about eight years. No intention to go back permanently, however I am in the US from time to time on biz.
A lot of the verification work seems to have been delegated to the issuing states, but since I'm not resident who would carry this out for me?
I'm a little concerned about possbily being denied access to domestic flights, etc.
3 types of email users - what are the others?
on
Google Tidbits
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I tried Google, Yahoo, Dogpile and A9 and all of them just liked back to Mayer's blog.
I was doing my Undergraduate degree (Math & Computer Science) and didn't have much money. A bunch of us bought these kits - and the cheapest options, just the etched board - then begged, borrowed and stole parts (well, I didn't really steal any but you get the idea).
We'd get together every Friday night for a soldering session - great excuse to drink beer! It took us almost three months to get them assembled, and another month or two of screwing about before they'd boot into CP/M.
I wanted a machine before that but waited for Z80's since they required substantially fewer support chips than 8080s. Some of my buddies built 8080 based systems, and it took them far, far longer.
Now that's building a computer!
I've integrated quite a few since, but don't really enjoy the experience as much as that first time.
Cattle costs $20K, a Cat cost $50K - why?
on
Re-Pet a Reality
·
· Score: 1
This article claims that "Commercial interests already are cloning prized cattle for about $20,000 each..." so could someone please tell me why a Cat would cost so much more?
Maybe I'm cynical, but is this a case of preying off someones emotions? After all, very few Cow owners are emotionally attached to their animals.
I've got both a third gen 20GB iPod, and an Archos AV400 PVR.
I use the iPod solely for music, and the Archos solely for video. If Archos ever got their act together and shrunk the device even a little, integrated a remote and smartened up the sw then I'd drop the iPod in a hearbeat.
I've got a one hour long commute each way. For me that is nothing more productive then watching the overnite market news instead of listening to music. I haven't messed about much with movies and such, but for catching up on the news the Archos can't be beat!
There is an active on-line community at DegreeInfo.com who research and discuss the merits of each institution.
Here in the UK The Open University has been providing fully accredited distance learning since the early 70's.
I went to a brick and mortar Uni myself, but have worked with several graduates of such institutions, both in the banking and academic worlds (I'm a banker and part time visiting lecturer at a local Uni), and they were fine; like most things, you get out of it what you put into it.
IBM got slapped down by San Francisco for sidewalk graffiti spam; it seems reasonable to me that anti spam laws should focus on the folks paying for marketing services.
This would incentivize firms to require companies that being retained for marketing purpose to affirm that they won't spam.
Marketing firms that do spam would quickly be driven out of business.
I've been there before, and there seems to be some kind of official attention now to the 419 problem.
I saw several billboards talking about it, mentioning '419' and saying something along the lines of "Don't take that route".
I grabbed lots of pix with a crappy camera phone (Sony Ericsson P900)
http://www.you-suck.com/Pix/Lagos/
mostly just to let Maw know I was alive (I could hit my server to post, but the phone lines are pretty crappy for voice). No pix of the 419 billboards though, but seems like they are trying to address the issue.
Slashdot Mirror
it's called the World Wide Web for a reason.
Let them buy all the "dark fiber" they want in the Continental US; this ain't 1990 - that don't mean squat no 'mo.
The Internet is much, much larger than just America, and this is coming from an ExPat American.
My Google-fu has failed me; I was hoping to find some data on the demand elasticity for porno but apparently nobodys ever studied this in a quantitative manner.
Anyhow, even if the demand for porno was very high (i.e., an increase in prices would cause a sharp fall in demand), porno is a very, very high margin business.
More than likely the industry would just reprice the porno so the consumer would pay the same as the pre-taxed price.
on biz, and you really need Air Conditioners there. I don't think the folks living there really had much of a choice but, then again, I've never asked them. And where would they go?
I'm taking an Executive MBA (Friday-Sunday, once every six weeks), and in one of my classes last month we had to read an interesting paper which drew lots of parallels to the US IT Industry now, and the US Auto Industry in the 70's.
Of course no predictions are completely accurate, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.
(I posted the Google link so you can dl as pdf or read as html).
You're correct in that at this point it's only an unrealised or, as you put it, paper loss.
But there is also Opportunity Cost to consider; the benefit forgone as a result of pursuing one course of action rather than an alternative course of action.
They are planning to hold the securities, but we don't know their cost of capital (aka their borrowing rate, important as it's likely this is a leveraged positiion). Nor how much capital this particular trading desk has to play with; the amounts involved may in fact be a large percentage, in which case just by holding this position they won't be able to acquire other, perhaps more profitable trading positions.
We also don't know much about this particular trading desk, their style. Are they monentum traders? Was this particular position one leg of some complex arbitrage?
Their losses could potentially be much, much larger and the impact immediate. It's pretty bizzare that they are planning to hold a position 20 times the size of the one they originally planned to take on. That's gotta really unbalance their overall portfolio.
I've worked on trading desks and these mistakes happen a lot, far more often then most folks realise, and rule number one when you make a mistake like this:
Unwind the position immediately!
Folks, you can argue the technical pros and cons back and forth until you're sick in the face, but one thing lept out at me from Steve Jobs' presentation :
"Mac OS X has been "leading a secret double life" for the past five years, said Jobs. "So today for the first time, I can confirm the rumors that every release of Mac OS X has been compiled for PowerPC and Intel. This has been going on for the last five years."
Damn. This is forward looking, hedge all your bets corporate Management. World class Management.
I don't know if this thing will succeed or fail, but just parsing that statement above shows me that Jobs and Apple Computer will continue to evaluate all possible options at all possible times.
This is one well run company.
but I don't have a problem with this.
Once kids get much past 10 or 12, it becomes increasingly difficult to change their eating habits.
And with the evidence mounting that junk food contributes to a wide range of diseases I don't see how parents keeping on watchful eye on their children could be a bad thing.
Earlier on /. I'd read the reason Google News still carried the Beta label was according to the TOS of most (if not all) news providers, distribution for commerical use was prohibited.
This clearly leverages off Google News, so somethings not making sense. There isn't a Beta label on Google Reviews even though it sources from their news feed. How can they use these reviews without a beta label, if the remainder of the newspaper requires it? How long before these reviews start to carry text ads? And does this mean the Beta label will be dropped off Google News as well?
In any case, this wouldn't be much use to me as I primarly use IMDB as a driver for selecting movies. I find critics working for the mainstream media are, well, just too mainstream for my tastes. I get more value from my peer's opinions than some overpaid critic.
Carbon Copy Cloner will clone an OS X installation from one machine to another.
It works Mac to Mac, across a Fireware cable. I've used it on everything from Clamshell iBooks to G3 iMacs to 1.25Ghz G4 PowerBooks, from 10.2.x to 10.3.8 - no problems at all.
Unless you format the destination drive it's sorta hit or miss, but they clearly point this out.
So yes, it's *technically* possible. Legal? Other folks have already posted about that aspect.
A Masters degree in Quantitative Finance.
/. suggests.
YMMV. Pick a degree that compliments what you are interested in. Not what the consensus on
After all, you're gonna be the one stuck with the job that it leads you to. The degree could be a marketing MBA, or in Biochemistry or Astronomy, etc, etc.
But you've gotta be happy with it.
I'm EMEA (Europe, The Middle East and Africa) Manager for a multinational financial services institution. Either myself or someone from my team spend a lot of time on client site at banks in Africa, so we've got some insight.
:
We take a lot for granted in the developed world. Even at the better run banks in Africa things we could do in less than a day take two or more.
Part of the problem is infrastructure : for example, the power in Lagos goes out constantly. Even the banks with UPS' get caught out sometimes.
Part of it is education : the skills just aren't as widely available as compared to the developed countries. Lot's of times it's the blind helping the blind. Yep, they muddle through but it takes far longer.
The OP had more insight into this problem : after the Company Man leaves there definitely will be loads of these devices that are unusable. Efforts of the curious children asdie, we see it all the time in the banks - why would it be different in the remote villages?
Oh and I'm not knocking these folks; they're just doing the best they can and I actually enjoy going down there to help them, but things are a lot different in Africa.
In case you're curious I've got few pix from my last visit/a
I've got not only a one hour train commute, but also an Archos AV400.
I'm an American finance geek living in London, so every morning my handheld PVR records the overnite BBC Business News at 3:45AM. I watch the 45 news broadcast while I'm headed to work at 5:51AM damn early in the morning!
I get a lot of utility out of time shifting the BBC, and would dump my iPod(s) (3G 20GB, 1GB Shuffle) in a heartbeat if my Archos (it also plays MP3's with cover art) matched half my iPods battery life. At present I get three hours tops.
I own ten Mac's (two G3 iMacs, a ClamShell iBook, two SEs, a MacTV, a PowerMac 5500/275, a G4 TiBook, a 15" G4 PowerBook, a G4 Cube) and still use the OS X capable machines daily. Even though I grok Apple deeply, they'd better put together a PVR solution ASAP.
It's their market to lose. I only own two iPaqs because my Newtons were getting long in the tooth.
Megaproxy is a simple web page.
You access this web page, and from there access other web pages.
As far as they know, you're accessing a web page. They don't know that this web page displays other web pages.
I admit the banners would still be present, but I only put forth a solution to the snoooping problem, not the annoying banner ads.
...Besides the problems with forcing the ads, how will they make sure the person sitting across the street can't read your email? That's a big issue, imo.
With public access wifi, capturing the airbourne packets is probably gonna be very easy. And no-one notices you, because your notebook will simply function as a 'radio'...
At public access points I always use a Proxy Server, and I always use one at work also - added bonus - I can look at any pages I'd like to and not worry about hitting something NSFW.
All the Admins would see (if they were snooping) is an encrypted SSL session between by browser and a remote web site.
I'm currently using MegaProxy, but a Google search reveals a large list of both pay and free services.
I don't have a drivers license, as I spent thirteen years of living in Manhattan before I ve moved to London.
Also, New York was trying for a couple of years after I left to get me to continue to pay; all sorts of notices for "taxes due", etc, because I stopped filing state returns.
And yes, I neither had property nor any sort of income in New York.
KPMG, who does my US and UK taxes, had to write several letters to get them to cease and desist. Sort of a PIA , but most states will try whatever they can get collect tax money, even if they aren't entitled. It's similar to the same odds on SPAM - if just %0.01 pay up they're going to realise some positive return on their "investment".
I would hope so. I'm deathly afraid of any state trying to "claim me" so they can tax me.
I still pay Federal taxes even though I don't live in the US (no problem there), but would have an issue with a state trying to tax me simply because they are providing me with a federally mandated ID card.
I'm American and I've been living and working in London for about eight years. No intention to go back permanently, however I am in the US from time to time on biz.
A lot of the verification work seems to have been delegated to the issuing states, but since I'm not resident who would carry this out for me?
I'm a little concerned about possbily being denied access to domestic flights, etc.
I tried Google, Yahoo, Dogpile and A9 and all of them just liked back to Mayer's blog.
:
Google's Scholar found two papers citing THREE types of email users
1) Users who don't file at all
2) Users who file frequently
3) Users who file infrequently
This paper cited a paper by Whittaker and Sidner, titled Email overload: exploring personal information management of email
It seems filing is the primary category, but I'm foxed about the other three. Any ideas?
It always amuses me when folks these days talk about building a computer.
My first machine was a Ferguson Big Board, a Z80 based kit.
I was doing my Undergraduate degree (Math & Computer Science) and didn't have much money. A bunch of us bought these kits - and the cheapest options, just the etched board - then begged, borrowed and stole parts (well, I didn't really steal any but you get the idea).
We'd get together every Friday night for a soldering session - great excuse to drink beer! It took us almost three months to get them assembled, and another month or two of screwing about before they'd boot into CP/M.
I wanted a machine before that but waited for Z80's since they required substantially fewer support chips than 8080s. Some of my buddies built 8080 based systems, and it took them far, far longer.
Now that's building a computer!
I've integrated quite a few since, but don't really enjoy the experience as much as that first time.
Apparently, no fewer than 47 piglets.
Now that's a lot of pork!
This article claims that "Commercial interests already are cloning prized cattle for about $20,000 each..." so could someone please tell me why a Cat would cost so much more?
Maybe I'm cynical, but is this a case of preying off someones emotions? After all, very few Cow owners are emotionally attached to their animals.
I've got both a third gen 20GB iPod, and an Archos AV400 PVR.
I use the iPod solely for music, and the Archos solely for video. If Archos ever got their act together and shrunk the device even a little, integrated a remote and smartened up the sw then I'd drop the iPod in a hearbeat.
I've got a one hour long commute each way. For me that is nothing more productive then watching the overnite market news instead of listening to music. I haven't messed about much with movies and such, but for catching up on the news the Archos can't be beat!
At least until Apple enters that market.
There is an active on-line community at DegreeInfo.com who research and discuss the merits of each institution.
Here in the UK The Open University has been providing fully accredited distance learning since the early 70's.
I went to a brick and mortar Uni myself, but have worked with several graduates of such institutions, both in the banking and academic worlds (I'm a banker and part time visiting lecturer at a local Uni), and they were fine; like most things, you get out of it what you put into it.
IBM got slapped down by San Francisco for sidewalk graffiti spam; it seems reasonable to me that anti spam laws should focus on the folks paying for marketing services.
This would incentivize firms to require companies that being retained for marketing purpose to affirm that they won't spam.
Marketing firms that do spam would quickly be driven out of business.
Seems pretty simple. Or am I missing something?
I've been there before, and there seems to be some kind of official attention now to the 419 problem.
I saw several billboards talking about it, mentioning '419' and saying something along the lines of "Don't take that route".
I grabbed lots of pix with a crappy camera phone (Sony Ericsson P900)
http://www.you-suck.com/Pix/Lagos/
mostly just to let Maw know I was alive (I could hit my server to post, but the phone lines are pretty crappy for voice). No pix of the 419 billboards though, but seems like they are trying to address the issue.