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bstadil

70 karma · joined January 14, 2008

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bstadil··on AIG Implodes: The Two Cows Version
There is no mystery here. If your asset base consist of two cows worth around $200 and the price fall to $4, your are in bad shape regardless of how you structured it.
bstadil··on [dead]
This is pure drivel.
bstadil··on A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python
The Yale courseware is much better. Look at this Game theory lecture series that I recently "took" http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/game-theory/contents/downloads

You get the videos or mp3 , transcript of the talk, pdf of the blackboard. The tests and the answers to the test. This is just excellent.

bstadil··on 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
I kind of suspected that but not sure plus most of the HN readers unlikely to know this somewhat obscure piece of information. Hence the comment.
bstadil··on 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
"Chairman of the Federal Reserve had heard of Objectivism!"

FYI Greenspan was a friend of Ayn Rand and was part of her inner circles.

http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/greenspan-time.html

bstadil··on Ask YC: Do you guys think a think tank startup would work?
Yes, if the ThinkTank mostly outsources its efforts. Meaning build a network of domain expertize that it could bring to bear on the problem. This probably should include an initial assessment of the problem itself by experts in various aspects of the problem as defined. Problem definition is often the weak link in the chain toward creating something new.

That service alone might be valuable.

bstadil··on Ask HN: How do you invoice - especially you freelancers out there?
We use Blinksale http://www.blinksale.com/home for invoices and TikTrac http://tiktrac.com/ for time sheets. Very cheap and easy to work with. You can try both for free.
bstadil··on Apple 'Netbooks', Eh?
"Linux isn't working out" Why do you say that. Linux has the highest share of this market than any other place. More than 50% and Ubuntu is making a special Vendor only distribution just for Netbooks. Only recently is XP being offered and this as a direct response to Linux.
bstadil··on How Madoff Made People Look Dumb
The number 1 as in 1 percent is the least suspicious number, so Benford's law is unlikely to help.
bstadil··on Why thinking in the shower may be an ideal model for "creative pause"
Same here. If I am stuck on something I hop on my bike and ride for a while. I have a nature path less than 1 mile away. I try deliberately not to commit anything to memory while I think. I find that if I try to remember stuff too hard it stops the flow. Sometime I have problems "recreating" what I came up with but on balance I have found this way of solving problems best.
bstadil··on [Nature] Economics needs a scientific revolution
I can't read the article. Did you pay?
bstadil··on Microsoft launches Windows Azure, its "cloud OS"
Amazon currently have 3 separate data centers and additional S3 storage in Europe. This trend will continue as SLAs become more of a selling point for all Cloud purveyors.

Second why do people think that your own data center will be better? It is like putting your money under the bed rather than in the bank. So people do that but not a good idea.

Lastly we will see a common API emerge that will allow us to move with little impertinent. The emergence of Eucalyptus is an early indication of this.

bstadil··on Philip Greenspun: Race prejudice versus age prejudice in the election
This is silly. McCain is 72 years old, 7 years past normal retirement. Not voting for him because of age is not prejudice it is sound judgement. This is a hard job.
bstadil··on Ask HN: My host has me over a barrel. I've placed myself in a pickle. How to handle?
Host if on Amazon Web services. Will cost you $72 / month and you can scale up from there at peak times if you need. You get 1.7GB of memory and roughtly a 2.5GHz processor. If you need help setting this up use Scalr.net or we (cloudincode.com can help you for free) Drop a line if you are interested bjorn At Stadil.com
bstadil··on Why Erlang
The name is in honor of a Danish mathematician that invented Queue theory. A key component earlier in the life of telephony. How to man switchboards and the like.

The telecom connection is via Erickson that invented the language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._K._Erlang

bstadil··on Good religion needs good science
Good religion? As distinct from what? The other guys nonsense?
bstadil··on Ask HN: What traps to avoid when dealing with offshore partners?
First off why do you think a US hacker would be more honest? In US the first line of defense is always legal measures as your comment clearly confirms. This is not the case in Europe. There is a stigma attached to having to resort to legal means and as such things gets settled most of the time amicably.

If I were the Eu hacker I would be somewhat reluctant to work with you. If this is important to you hop on a plane and visit the guy. Your can get a cheap ticket for a few hundred $.

bstadil··on Ask HN: What do you think about this Entrepreneurship program?
If you need to take a course to learn how to use a CRM program you are in real trouble.

This is crock.

bstadil··on Top 10 things that annoy programmers
That's $667 / hour / person. I could put up with a lot of crap for that kind of enumeration, assume 25% overhead that is still $1M per year. I think you missed a zero.
bstadil··on Apple claims Snow Leopard will be a "breakthrough" in parallel processing tech
A little more here http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/10/apple_skinny_snow_le...
bstadil··on The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn
But make sure your "tell it right" and occasionally refer to a number "they haven't heard before"
bstadil··on Pre-release iPhone firmware 2.0 confirms 3G iPhone is coming soon
Apart from the difference in usage commented above you do not worry about cannibalizing a market where you have less than 10% market share.

If you as an example could cannibalise the Laptop market by 100 units and you had 10% share of same you would only loose 10 unit sales in the first market and gain 100 units in the other market. In this case smart phones. Assume a 3 to 1 price ratio you would gain $2 for every 1$ you lost.

bstadil··on O'Reilly Radar: Entrepreneurial Proverbs
Good comment. We should add it to O'Reilly's list
bstadil··on TechCrunch seeks two Rails programmers (lol)
Their story about Facebook yesterday was just a cunning plan to fill those gaps.
bstadil··on Simple brain exercise can boost IQ
I guess you will announce your beta here on YC once you have something. Very interested.
bstadil··on Ideas for a non-web software startup?
Done
bstadil··on Ask YC: Anyone Record Startup School?
Check Justin.tv tomorrow. Bill from JTV said at the end of todays session he would post them tomorrow so maybe the missing pieces will be added.
bstadil··on Google App Engine
Same here so probably not luck
bstadil··on Google App Engine Launches: Signup for free at 10pm PST
Probably not. Just sign up and you will likely get an invite an hour or so later. I was a bit late as well
bstadil··on Mozilla says Firefox 3 ready for prime-time
I did that but it somewhat defeats the purpose of the whole thing. The problem is that some of the add-ins do NOT work with the beta version so overwriting the check is kind of an exercise in futility
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