April 2010
10 posts
“Denton and Crew, we learned in a much-retweeted post this morning, have been...”
– A “reader affection” formula: Gawker creates a metric for branded traffic » Nieman Journalism Lab
Rafer sez: The fact that Denton’s post has been “much retweeted” tells the whole story, which the NJL folks oddly missed.
His Branded Traffic is traffic without a referring URL, which means...
“Lest we forget — George W. Bush and the GOP Congress passed Medicare Part B, an...”
– David Brin (via azspot) (via apsies) (via mikehudack)
Sawickipedia: Calling this bill revenue neutral is the biggest farce since Colin Powell’s speech at the UN. What a load of crap.
And for the record: the Medicare B benefit was one of the things that told us fiscal conservatives that...
“I found myself wondering yesterday whether the Volcker Recession was, after all,...”
– The Volcker recession: Who beat inflation? | The Economist
This debate is the frame in which I first learned about Volcker. The big policy dispute in this case is whether the Fed should counter negative supply shocks by increasing rates the way Volcker did. If you say yes, then you’re also...
March 2010
29 posts
“VentureBeat: Are they existing advertisers? Brands? Or publishers?
Barry...”
– Facebook says new program to automatically share data ‘has nothing to do’ with ads | VentureBeat
Sawickipedia: Nothing to do with advertising…. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL - oh make it stop, make it stop, too.damn.funny.
Seriously I’ve always analogized dealing w/ Facebook like the US dealing w/...
“Judge Sweet, however, ruled that the patents were “improperly granted” because...”
– Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent - NYTimes.com
Sawickipedia: The USPTO is such a waste. The fact that they approve everything seemingly no matter how likely dubious like gene patents is absurd. I wait for the day that politicians from our generation - politicians who respect openness in IP and...
“Suppose the CBO estimate is correct. So? The $138 billion saving is about 1...”
– RealClearPolitics - Planting the Seeds of Disaster
Sawickipedia: Samuelson is no right wing economic writer.
(via sawickipedia)
Rafer sez: He’s also not an 8’ foot tall purple sparrow, but I don’t see how that would support his argument any worse or better. Let’s compare the spending to an...
“The fine print differs from the larger political message,” said William...”
– Nation & World | Coverage for all children? Check new health-care law’s fine print | Seattle Times Newspaper
Sawickipedia: OMG what a shock - the pols missed the fine print in a 2,000 page bill. What a shock.
“The law calls its mandate a tax. But if you comply, your money goes to the...”
– Editorials | AG Rob McKenna has a case to challenge the health-care law’s individual mandate | Seattle Times Newspaper
“So Obama is flirting with a future budget crisis. Moody’s emphasizes two...”
– RealClearPolitics - Planting the Seeds of Disaster
“Suppose the CBO estimate is correct. So? The $138 billion saving is about 1...”
– RealClearPolitics - Planting the Seeds of Disaster
Sawickipedia: Samuelson is no right wing economic writer.
The White House has just announced that President... →
tedr:
mikehudack:
ericmortensen:
By obstructing the votes on 217 nominees, Republicans have forced Obama into these recess appointments. By claiming he’s the anti-Christ, they’ve emboldened him to do what he needs to do without having to worry much about them. They’re going to wig out no mattter what he does, so he might well just get shit done.
Today’s appointments have have their votes...
“The leaked draft of ACTA belies the U.S. trade representative’s assertions that...”
– Jack Goldsmith and Lawrence Lessig - Anti-counterfeiting agreement raises constitutional concerns - washingtonpost.com
Rafer sez: It’s about time some leading US paper writes this up.
(via rafer)
Sawickipedia: @Rafer and I were talking on the phone about this - and despite everyone’s likely...
Four VC Firms Battle For Foursquare, Valuation... →
rafer:
gbattle:
tedr:
rafer:
Rafer sez: @denniscrowley Get the winner to give up their presumed pro rata rights, board seat, and preferences entirely, and cut them a break on valuation. You won’t regret it.
Ted says: @dens Pick the one that gets 4sq the most ;) (oh, and get rafer’s terms too ;) [Tea leave reading: if this is 4sq, then excellent choice!]
gbattle sez:
Pick the one who...
“It costs Pandora 2¢/hr to stream”
– Pandora By The Numbers - hypebot
That’s $20/CPH (cost per 1,000 hours) Traditional radio ads are sold at around a $5 cpm. So that’s 4 ads per hour to break even and 5 to make money. That’s one ad basically every 2 songs. That’s a LOT of ads.
“People won’t really care about costs until they are the customer. Right now,...”
– sds (via hilker) (via mikehudack)
Sawickipedia - This is what I’ve been saying for the last year and why I find the idea of calling ObamaCare “health care reform” so repugnant. ObamaCare hasn’t reformed jack. Until people are paying for their health care nothing will...
“On-the-ball readers may be thinking, “Wait a minute. Krugman was wrong in 2003....”
– Kinsley: Inflation vs. Hyperinflation Cont’d | The Atlantic Wire
Sawickipedia: As my friends know, I’m no fan of Krugman (he’s a keynesian-hack and political-apologist), and so I too wait for Krugman’s magic solution to our now public-debt and entitlement mess.
“In this very forthcoming review by a helicopter pilot training schools the...”
– The Achilles’ Heel of Gilt & Groupon: Long-Term Volume » Dogster Inc. Company Blog
“ON Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that, if enacted, the...”
– Op-Ed Contributor - The Real Arithmetic of Health Care Reform - NYTimes.com
To quote @npost: Get ready for all premiums to increase, quality to go down, and oh yea, more taxes.
“On the other hand, we probably priced this deal too low. A huge number of...”
– Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Groupon marketing results
Sawickipedia: In all my conversion marketing - discounting rarely works. Of all the cohorts, those acquired with discounts or free offers usually had the lowest LTV (lifetime value). My general experience is that the people who will...
“But the navigation system (which includes a rearview camera and parking sensors)...”
– Behind the Wheel - 2010 Audi S4 - Less Motor, More Grip, and It All Makes Sense - Review - NYTimes.com
Sawickipedia: LOL - I love the hyperbolic analogies common to auto reviews.
“We love HTML5 so much, that we want it to actually work. In IE9, it will,”...”
– Microsoft Pri0 | MIX10: More video coming in Internet Explorer 9 with HTML5 | Seattle Times Newspaper
Sawickipedia: Microsoft has no choice put to get behind HTML5 in a big way. It’s the only hedge against the hegemonies of Flash and Apple’s Apps for mobile. Much like the music labels...
“In her civil suit filed Monday in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas,...”
– Bank of America Padlocked Wrong House and Took Parrot - WSJ.com
Sawickipedia: BoA is going to settle this, but seriously WTF!?!? The populist anti-bank wave that hasn’t crested yet definitely has its roots in inane actions coupled with a proper sense of contrition for fuck ups like this.
“An unusual study done in 49 remote Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada...”
– Flu Shots in Children Can Help Community - NYTimes.com
1 tag
“Even before the lawsuit, handset makers were having second thoughts about...”
– Image via Wikipedia
Apple talks tough to handset makers - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech
Sawickipedia: <sigh> apple falling prey to siren song of over-protective *theoretical* IP is sad. To think multi-touch is somehow a new invention is nuts as it has obvioulys been around for a...
“But history suggests Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel had it right calling for more...”
– RealClearPolitics - The Health Care Jam
Sawickipedia: This is what is bizarre about the current politics around ObamaCare - the incremental approach is a slam dunk and would allow D’s to show the public whether the R’s are obstructionists or leaders. Boggles my mind that the D’s...
Undercover Boss (In Your Startup)
caterpillarcowboy:
continuations:
We took a quick look yesterday at the Closing Ceremony for the Winter Olympics, which was painful (Shatner, really?) but as we flipped to another channel, we ran across Undercover Boss on CBS. The premise of the series is simple: a boss from a large company works “undercover” at the frontlines of the business. The (first?) episode was one of the family...