The article briefly mentions that Sweden reformed their pension system a few years ago.
Annika Sunden, a researcher at Boston College, has written a rundown of the Swedish Experience (I like the sound of that).
In 2000, the new center-right Swedish government passed a law that mandated private pension accounts. Under the law,Swedes pay an 18% pension tax, 16% goes to the pay-as-you-go system (same as in the US) and 2% goes to private individual accounts.
There are over 650 investment funds you can choose to invest in. You can own up to 5 funds. If you don't activly select a fund, your placed in a "default" fund, that's composed of about 75% stocks, and the rest bonds.
When the program was launched, 70% of people in year one made an active choice and picked their own funds. In subsequent years, only 10% activley select a fund. This can be explained by all the media attention the new law caused, and a government marketing campaign in 2000 urging people to pick a fund.
Most accounts have lost money since they began, and people are starting to question private accounts. Shitty timing to start this at the top of the bubble.
A big lesson here is that if you are going to create private accounts, the composition of the default fund is hugely important. It needs to be very low risk and well diversified. (And, I'd be happy to run it for a mere 0.00001% management fee)
Bill Gross's new startup Snap.com has a great new advertising model that solves the click fraud program.
They offer traditonal online advertising options such as charging for the number of times a listing is displayed, and a pay-per-click model (That Gross originally pioneered with Overture).
Snap's big contribution to online advertising is "Pay-Per-Action". They track a user's click-stream from their search engine, to the site, and track a user's movements there. So a bookseller can agree to pay 2% of sales for leads from Snap. Or Friendster could agree to pay $.25 per new subscriber.
This has two big advantages over PPC. It 100% eliminates click fraud. It also eliminates risk to the merchant, there's no more wondering what percentage of PPC visitors will convert to sales.
Our team at online travel startup TripInvite.com plan to start a "Pay per Action" campaign after we launch later this month. Other travel sites signed with Snap are paying about 2 to 3% right now.
Re:Asteroids, Volcanoes.... Climate Change?
on
A New Ice Age?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
thats interesting. have you got a reference on that I could check out?
I installed a9 when it debuted last week. For me, the privacy-utility trade off has fallen on the useful side.
A9 doesnt do anything that you couldnt do if you a. searched google b. searched Amazon's Inside the Book c. kept a running blog to document your thoughts on all the pages you visit used your history bar in your browser
Bringing all this functionality together in one app adds value to me. This has worked for me in the trial phase... will have to rethink the long-term privacy implications in a couple weeks.
Asteroids, Volcanoes.... Climate Change?
on
A New Ice Age?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Regardless of whether the film is completely accurate regarding the growth of ice sheets, it will be the first time that its possible that melting ice will shot down the thermo-haline circulation belt. Most of Europe would be a frozen wasteland without it operating.
There's ice-core evidence showing that the circulation belt does shut down periodically - and that it correlates with cold temperatures in Europe.
What I'm wondering is whether or not this film will freak the public out, and make them demand action on climate change. I've seen reports that after Deep Impact and Armageddon public perception of the risk of an asteroid strike went through the roof.
We all know that its hard to convey uncertain and complex scientific issues to the general public. Maybe it will take a Hollywood blockbuster to do what 1000 UN reports never could.
Most of these things - preventing roll overs, tracking traffic patterns for intelligent routing - don't require the IT system to know who's car is who's. It just has to know that Cars A, B,C, etc. are pulling of I95 now and adjust the system to do.... X.
Plain old vanilla sensors can do this fine. Why the additional privacy intrussion of RFID?
Some kind of general privacy principle will have to be applied to projects in the future. RFID type projects should have to answer:
Does this project require tracking individuals?
Are adequete privacy measures in place?
Some time of Presidential Mandate, or some such thing would help... require agencies to pass the privacy test before implementing any project that tracks us.
Writing your own home-grown app is a function of how hard and how expensive it is to do. With pretty simply WYSWYG tools like Dreamweaver that has good support for making data-driven apps, anyone willing to take a week to learn can do it.
But if research projects underway on allowing "programming for dummies" tools hits the mainstream -- Clay's observations will really come true. If you can use a combination of natural language, and drawing information diagrams with icons, then literally anyone can write applications. They won't be pretty - but they'll probably be good enough for home-grown 10 user applications.
TechPolicy
I've been noticing lately that a long day spent at a computer is really bad for my head. I leave work, and feel like I've just had another day sucked away... pretty empty from plodding along at a workstation.
I'm also finding that the always-on, always-connected aspect of email, google, and IMs leave me in a weird, permanetly tense state.
My girlfriend well... ex-girlfriend, pointed out that Im much grumpier, less receptive to her after hours spent at a computer.
I recently got (XYZ) 970-0000 as my cell number. Used highly stealthy techniques to get it... I'd just moved into town... visited the local sprint.. and had a great time flirting with the large, friendly, southern black woman at the counter.
After choosing my phone.. she tells me" OHHH Sugar.. I'm gonna get you a Good number". I shrug "OK"
"I'm gonna open up the Da-Ta Base, for you suga-plum..."
"Oh yea, the database?" "Thats right hunny... Hot Darn.. How bout this here one... ohh.. the ladies will remember dat dere one."
"Yes Ma'am"
Anyone see an opening for charming large friendly southern women into Crackin into their number database, scooping Primo Numbers.. and Hawkin' them on Ebay?
I'm in.
Here's the site that pays MY bills
Adam
I started thinking about this problem, and think a mix of DRM and encryption could possibly be of use.
Once pictures are taken, use some hard-core DRM technology to make sure no Ordinary user can play with it. Also insert a couple of random pixels in random locations throughout the picture, with each picture having different locations. Keep the database of the position of the marker pixels seperate and encrypt the hell out of it. You can then certify the picture later as untouched if the random pixels are where they're supposed to be.
Poke some holes.
I'm going to need a serious Breakafter trying to hack all this!
Adding Lowers Value: Right, but how bout...
on
What The Internet Isn't
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I agree with Dave and Doc that in most cases mucking around with the physical and code layers of the internet is a Miserble idea.
Not only technically will it likely muck things up, but in the real world, some big gorilla of a firm will find a way to take advantage for them selves, at the expense of others.
But, as I once told my ex-crush, Never Say Never baby.
As I picked up from MIT's Tech ReviewPlanet Lab. Seems to me like a good idea, but not sure. Particularly after all the time's I've read Lessig pound the end-to-end point home. Here's a snippet from the Intel press release on Planet Lab. what do you think?
SANTA CLARA, Calif, June, 24, 2003 -- Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, HP, Intel Corporation, Princeton University, the University of Washington and more than 60 universities from around the world have joined together to form PlanetLab, a global test bed for inventing and testing prototype Internet applications and services. The researchers aim to spark a new era of innovation by using "overlay" networks to upgrade and expand the Internet's features and capabilities.
PlanetLab may lead to new ways of protecting the Internet from viruses and worms. It could also enable new capabilities, such as persistent storage, the idea of giving the Internet a "memory." For example, 100 years from now a piece of data could still be found, even though the original computer on which it was posted no longer exists. In addition, this research could influence the future design of servers and network processors.
Upgrading the Internet
The Internet has been based on a small set of software protocols that direct routers inside the network to forward data from source to destination, while applications run on computers connected to the edges of the network. The simplicity of the software model enabled the Internet to rapidly scale into a critical global service; however, this success now makes it difficult to create and test new ways of protecting it from abuses, or from implementing innovative applications and services.
The PlanetLab concept was born when Intel researchers gathered a group of leading network and distributed systems researchers to discuss the implications of a new, emerging class of global services and applications on the Internet. This new class of services is designed to operate as "overlay" networks, which have emerged as a way of adding new capabilities to the Internet. The concept of an overlay or "on top of" approach might be familiar from text books where additional details are added to an image by laying a transparent sheet containing new graphics on top of an existing page. An example of this is overlaying an image of human muscles on top of an illustration of bones to show how the body works.
These overlay networks incorporate the Internet for packet forwarding, but integrate their own intelligent routers and servers on top of the Internet to enable new capabilities without affecting its performance today. These applications are decentralized, with pieces running on many machines spread across the global Internet, they can self-organize to form their own networks, and include some form of application processing inside the network (instead of at the edges), adding new intelligence and capabilities to the Internet.
One example of an overlay network enabling a new kind of Internet application is robust video multicasting. Today, a standard Web site that receives too many requests for the same video clip can bog down or crash; however, if this site were supported by an overlay network of smart routers and globally distributed content storage sites, it could redirect requests on-the-fly, sending them across the Internet to the nearest available content site to ensure the best viewing experience while keeping the site up and running.
Actually, barely. When I started my spring break site I had no knowledge. Just an idea of how to make it easier to plan group travel.
Outsourcing to India via elance.com was a great way to get things done, and learn. I realize now that the usability/design is crap. The coding is, not stellar, but gets the job done.
We're now working on a reincarnation of the site - now with an MIT CS grad as the architect, and will only outsource discrete bits of work, later down the road.
Its not as simple as, yes it will, or no it won't happen. From my experience, it was a mixed bag.
Used elance.com to find Sidharth over in Bangalore. Sid was cool, spents lots of time with us, hours of Q and A on our online spring break site. He did a good job on the coding, but when it came to getting the ever important cultural aspects of the project, it was a disaster.
Our launch day promoted our Discount Trips to Cancum.
Ummm. Sid, no, Cancun...
Oh. Very Sorry Sirs...
next Day.
Diskount trips to Cancum... you get the icture
Computer use is a substanicial and growing percentage of household electricity use. Since most of our electricity comes from coal & nukes, this is a blow to our health and ecosystems.
To balance this though is the lesser amount of driving we do as we purchase more and work from home more online.
Slashdot Mirror
I've had this question asked when I went to Costa Rica and Morrocco.
just figured it was an outdated, overblown 3rd world bureatic thing.
The article briefly mentions that Sweden reformed their pension system a few years ago. Annika Sunden, a researcher at Boston College, has written a rundown of the Swedish Experience (I like the sound of that).
In 2000, the new center-right Swedish government passed a law that mandated private pension accounts. Under the law,Swedes pay an 18% pension tax, 16% goes to the pay-as-you-go system (same as in the US) and 2% goes to private individual accounts.
There are over 650 investment funds you can choose to invest in. You can own up to 5 funds. If you don't activly select a fund, your placed in a "default" fund, that's composed of about 75% stocks, and the rest bonds.
When the program was launched, 70% of people in year one made an active choice and picked their own funds. In subsequent years, only 10% activley select a fund. This can be explained by all the media attention the new law caused, and a government marketing campaign in 2000 urging people to pick a fund.
Most accounts have lost money since they began, and people are starting to question private accounts. Shitty timing to start this at the top of the bubble.
A big lesson here is that if you are going to create private accounts, the composition of the default fund is hugely important. It needs to be very low risk and well diversified. (And, I'd be happy to run it for a mere 0.00001% management fee)
Bill Gross's new startup Snap.com has a great new advertising model that solves the click fraud program.
They offer traditonal online advertising options such as charging for the number of times a listing is displayed, and a pay-per-click model (That Gross originally pioneered with Overture).
Snap's big contribution to online advertising is "Pay-Per-Action". They track a user's click-stream from their search engine, to the site, and track a user's movements there. So a bookseller can agree to pay 2% of sales for leads from Snap. Or Friendster could agree to pay $.25 per new subscriber.
This has two big advantages over PPC. It 100% eliminates click fraud. It also eliminates risk to the merchant, there's no more wondering what percentage of PPC visitors will convert to sales.
More on Snap.com at my blog IAmAdamSmith
Our team at online travel startup TripInvite.com plan to start a "Pay per Action" campaign after we launch later this month. Other travel sites signed with Snap are paying about 2 to 3% right now.
thats interesting. have you got a reference on that I could check out?
I installed a9 when it debuted last week. For me, the privacy-utility trade off has fallen on the useful side. A9 doesnt do anything that you couldnt do if you
a. searched google
b. searched Amazon's Inside the Book
c. kept a running blog to document your thoughts on all the pages you visit
used your history bar in your browser
Bringing all this functionality together in one app adds value to me.
This has worked for me in the trial phase... will have to rethink the long-term privacy implications in a couple weeks.
Regardless of whether the film is completely accurate regarding the growth of ice sheets, it will be the first time that its possible that melting ice will shot down the thermo-haline circulation belt. Most of Europe would be a frozen wasteland without it operating.
There's ice-core evidence showing that the circulation belt does shut down periodically - and that it correlates with cold temperatures in Europe.
What I'm wondering is whether or not this film will freak the public out, and make them demand action on climate change. I've seen reports that after Deep Impact and Armageddon public perception of the risk of an asteroid strike went through the roof.
We all know that its hard to convey uncertain and complex scientific issues to the general public. Maybe it will take a Hollywood blockbuster to do what 1000 UN reports never could.
And I thought the message was to stay home and smoke weed wit Jack Valenti instead of going to the theater.
hmm
Most of these things - preventing roll overs, tracking traffic patterns for intelligent routing - don't require the IT system to know who's car is who's. It just has to know that Cars A, B,C, etc. are pulling of I95 now and adjust the system to do .... X.
Plain old vanilla sensors can do this fine. Why the additional privacy intrussion of RFID?
Some kind of general privacy principle will have to be applied to projects in the future. RFID type projects should have to answer:
Does this project require tracking individuals?
Are adequete privacy measures in place?
Some time of Presidential Mandate, or some such thing would help... require agencies to pass the privacy test before implementing any project that tracks us.
Echoed. Crypto really drew you into the charachters, while making it scientifically interesting. Quicksilver can be summed up in one word: flat.
I've always been told that you also can't chug a gallon of milk in an hour.
Anyone actually tried this one?
I like my coffee light and sweet, would 100 cups of coffee contain a gallon of milk?
Two Birds, one...
Writing your own home-grown app is a function of how hard and how expensive it is to do. With pretty simply WYSWYG tools like Dreamweaver that has good support for making data-driven apps, anyone willing to take a week to learn can do it. But if research projects underway on allowing "programming for dummies" tools hits the mainstream -- Clay's observations will really come true. If you can use a combination of natural language, and drawing information diagrams with icons, then literally anyone can write applications. They won't be pretty - but they'll probably be good enough for home-grown 10 user applications. TechPolicy
I've been noticing lately that a long day spent at a computer is really bad for my head. I leave work, and feel like I've just had another day sucked away... pretty empty from plodding along at a workstation.
I'm also finding that the always-on, always-connected aspect of email, google, and IMs leave me in a weird, permanetly tense state.
My girlfriend well... ex-girlfriend, pointed out that Im much grumpier, less receptive to her after hours spent at a computer.
I recently got (XYZ) 970-0000 as my cell number. Used highly stealthy techniques to get it... I'd just moved into town... visited the local sprint.. and had a great time flirting with the large, friendly, southern black woman at the counter.
After choosing my phone.. she tells me" OHHH Sugar.. I'm gonna get you a Good number". I shrug "OK"
"I'm gonna open up the Da-Ta Base, for you suga-plum..."
"Oh yea, the database?" "Thats right hunny... Hot Darn.. How bout this here one... ohh.. the ladies will remember dat dere one."
"Yes Ma'am"
Anyone see an opening for charming large friendly southern women into Crackin into their number database, scooping Primo Numbers.. and Hawkin' them on Ebay? I'm in.
Here's the site that pays MY bills Adam
I started thinking about this problem, and think a mix of DRM and encryption could possibly be of use.
Once pictures are taken, use some hard-core DRM technology to make sure no Ordinary user can play with it. Also insert a couple of random pixels in random locations throughout the picture, with each picture having different locations. Keep the database of the position of the marker pixels seperate and encrypt the hell out of it. You can then certify the picture later as untouched if the random pixels are where they're supposed to be.
Poke some holes. I'm going to need a serious Breakafter trying to hack all this!
Not only technically will it likely muck things up, but in the real world, some big gorilla of a firm will find a way to take advantage for them selves, at the expense of others.
But, as I once told my ex-crush, Never Say Never baby.
As I picked up from MIT's Tech Review Planet Lab. Seems to me like a good idea, but not sure. Particularly after all the time's I've read Lessig pound the end-to-end point home. Here's a snippet from the Intel press release on Planet Lab. what do you think?
Sometimes you just have to say screw it, w
Actually, barely. When I started my spring break site I had no knowledge. Just an idea of how to make it easier to plan group travel.
Outsourcing to India via elance.com was a great way to get things done, and learn. I realize now that the usability/design is crap. The coding is, not stellar, but gets the job done.
We're now working on a reincarnation of the site - now with an MIT CS grad as the architect, and will only outsource discrete bits of work, later down the road.
Its not as simple as, yes it will, or no it won't happen. From my experience, it was a mixed bag.
... you get the icture
Used elance.com to find Sidharth over in Bangalore. Sid was cool, spents lots of time with us, hours of Q and A on our online spring break site. He did a good job on the coding, but when it came to getting the ever important cultural aspects of the project, it was a disaster.
Our launch day promoted our Discount Trips to Cancum.
Ummm. Sid, no, Cancun...
Oh. Very Sorry Sirs... next Day. Diskount trips to Cancum
The article says that the battery would have to be pressurised periodically.
What a Groovy Bird baby... Yeah baby... yea
Sounds like a killer way to annoy some spam kings.... Might Ralksy need a few good workers?
Computer use is a substanicial and growing percentage of household electricity use. Since most of our electricity comes from coal & nukes, this is a blow to our health and ecosystems. To balance this though is the lesser amount of driving we do as we purchase more and work from home more online.