December 2009
25 posts
“According to the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult...”
– Why American consumers can’t add - The Red Tape Chronicles - msnbc.com (via tedr)
Sawickipedia:
1 in 5 could calculate mortgage interest?!?!? No way. I wouldn’t even lay odds on 1 in 100. Amortization calculations require calculus and some corporate finance understanding.
“Postscript on US red ink
The fiscal threat confronting the United States...”
– McKinsey: What Matters: Long-run prospects for the dollar
Sawickipedia: Though abstract, a good critique of ObamaCare.
marco:
Aaron Swartz:
Google gets a lot of criticism (often deserved), but it’s worth taking a moment to think of all the things they haven’t done. If Microsoft had Google’s market share in search, is there any doubt that they’d be systematically demoting or even banning their competitors in the search results? Demoting someone in Google is a virtual death sentence, and yet not only has Google...
My Take on Climategate
continuations:
For the past couple of days I have not posted for two reasons. First, I was in London and tried to sleep as late as I could before my meetings (still effectively getting up before 4 am). Second, I was reading up on “Climategate.” In case you have been completely offline and have not even watched my favorite fake news source, The Daily Show, here is a one sentence summary:...
“There is one other showstopper. I know the sports and technology enthusiasts...”
– Cable Freedom, Aided by a Mouse - NYTimes.com
Sawickipedia:
Live is one of the biggest reasons to stay hooked up to cable. There is no legal online equivalent. Cable (and Sat TV) are moving to offer the same programming over the web but it will cost you just the same as having cable.
This is...
“We just closed a new investment at Founders’ Co-op, and it’s an...”
– Crash Dev: Announcing our newest Founders’ Co-op investment: Appature
Sawickipedia:
I certainly hope this deal portends more deals for Founders Co-op outside of its normal seed deals to date. Seattle desparately needs investors more like Jeff Clavier at SoftTech, Dave McClure at...
“Some of the comments on the Freakonomics blog point to the large US subsidies as...”
– Chutzpah of Israeli Startups
Rafer sez: As Israeli government procurement isn’t biased unreasonably against startups (the way US procurement is), then it’s easy to see how US subsidies matter. I suspect that the Israeli system is more even-handed than ours directly as a result of more reasonable...
“One of the final 2010 Pontiac G6 sedans moves down the line at General Motors...”
– Pontiac hits end of the road - The Driver’s Seat- msnbc.com (via tedr)
Sawickipedia:
And what a forgettable car. The G6 and its predecessors tell you all you need to know about how shitty products can kill a company. Why we saved GM is beyond me. What a great lesson about moral hazard - not.
...
Worried About the Googlenet
continuations:
Yesterday, I tweeted “welcome to the googlenet” and was asked to explain what I meant by that. My tweet was about the announcement of Google DNS. With Google DNS, you can now run pretty much entirely on a Google stack. You fire up Chrome OS (or maybe just the Chrome browser), point DNS to Google, get your content from Google (e.g., music integrated into search results or...
“Some of the comments on the Freakonomics blog point to the large US subsidies as...”
– Chutzpah of Israeli Startups
Rafer sez: As Israeli government procurement isn’t biased unreasonably against startups (the way US procurement is), then it’s easy to see how US subsidies matter. I suspect that the Israeli system is more even-handed than ours directly as a result of more reasonable...
“Because they considered that recent decline to be spurious, Dr. Jones and his...”
– Findings - Fracas Over Hacked Climate E-Mail Shows Peril of Spinning Science - NYTimes.com
Sawickipedia: So the science isn’t incontrovertible after all.
The models don’t really work without lots of fudging after all.
Making multi-trillion bets based on scientific methodology that would have...
“Because they considered that recent decline to be spurious, Dr. Jones and his...”
– Findings - Fracas Over Hacked Climate E-Mail Shows Peril of Spinning Science - NYTimes.com
Sawickipedia: So the science isn’t incontrovertible after all.
The models don’t really work without lots of fudging after all.
Making multi-trillion bets based on scientific methodology that...
“Top tier Web publishers–already wary of ad networks and exchanges–are growing...”
– Web Publishers Fear Agencies’ Demand-Side Platforms (via everythingismedia
)
Silliness. People are worrying about the wrong thing. Your product works or it doesn’t. You offer value or you don’t.
(via mikehudack)
This drama is going to get interesting. See this related news on AOL from today:...
“After a meeting with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong earlier today, Khan came away...”
– JP Morgan: AOL Will Hold Back Its Ad Inventory From Advertising.com | paidContent
I’m really starting to like Tim Armstrong.
(via gross)
Once and for all can we agree online ad netowrks don’t make money for publishers. Here AOL can’t even make money off an ad network and they own the network.
...
“I think we have a pretty darn good one (better than most).
IMO, it boils down...”
– Guest Post: Is Seattle truly a good place to build new startups?
Sawickipedia: In all honesty, if I were raising money for a startup right now, then I would start in the Bay Area. FWIW, Tony raised his seed money from True Ventures, a bay area seed-stage fund. Seattle’s biggest startup...
“Which makes some sense, sorta. Social seems to be the future, and Facebook just...”
– Yahoo Outsources All That Social Nonsense To Facebook
The United States Of Wusses →
“Consider the following example. Suppose that I leave a box on the floor, and my...”
– Richard S. Lindzen: The Climate Science Isn’t Settled - WSJ.com
“We built server capacity for the day before Thanksgiving, then use only 50...”
– Image by spike55151 via Flickr
Butterballs or Cheese Balls, an Online Barometer - NYTimes.com Also: “How to” is the second-largest category on YouTube. (via jryu)
Rafer sez: This is “How Not To” provision server capacity in 2008, never mind 2009. Double the number of your instances in the cloud...
“UPDATE: Reached for comment (in response to Consumer Reports citing user survey...”
– Consumer Reports: AT&T Cellphone Service Last in Customer Satisfaction | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD
Sawickipedia: ATT Wireless’s service sucks moose balls in Seattle and as blackberry user it’s only gotten worse instead of better. Ask any ATT 3G user and they will...