imjustatechguy

Corruption in India? Color me not surprised.

India is a lot worse that China is in terms of economic development and its growth trajectory. Those that say that both India and China are rising powers are wrong as India will be left behind far behind China.

I don't think anyone can predict more than 20-30 years into the future with any real degree of accuracy.

So yeah, I agree that X might very well be possible (or in widespread usage) in 50 or 100 years, where X is basically anything that seems magical today.

Did Apple consciously move down from the highly specialized Pro market to the larger Consumer market because it has a larger total number of users?

If this is the case, then yes the highest end users will be disappointed but hundreds of thousands of new potential users would now find this software accessible?

We got to the moon because of massively political support at the highest levels because it was viewed as a strategic necessity.

Climbing mountains doesn't seem that comparable to going to the moon.

Scientists need funding in order to act if it requires many man years.

Thus military uses of AI are likely to be well funded to the tune of hundreds of millions if not billions because they can be viewed as a strategic necessity if it seems like the Chinese could possibly develop an AI before us. But if the general feeling is that a real AI isn't feasible in both Chinese and US circles in the near or medium term future, or there are more valuable/useful near and medium term objectives, there will not be a well funded race to create one.

Sort of neat, but doesn't look very useful.

I have to admit, I was expecting a 3D globe view that displayed geographically the intermediate nodes and end point.

It would have also been cool if it showed when it hopped onto the major trunks.

I'd expect that the layoffs would be centered around the old OS. Anyone involved in the new OS is likely to be safe. Or at least that sounds like a logical approach.

I'd expect the layoffs to be around 5% maybe at most 10%, but really things can still turn around for RIM if they can get their new OS out in mass, so I think we are still not quite in a complete panic.

The problem with WP was the way it was used in Gaza:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/israeli-army...

Very true.

Most people don't know but the most controversial weapons that Israel has used in recent years, such as the cluster bombs dropped in Southern Lebanon [1] and the white phosphorous used in the Gaza Strip [2][3] were both made by the US and given to Israel through the US Military Aid program.

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5299938.stm

[2] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/arti...

I got my numbers from the bottom of this page which shows that US Aid to Israel is increasing through til 2013:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreig...

I got my population number of Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel

So to sum up... my comment above is correct.

Depending on definition Europe can have more than 700 million people and it often includes Turkey and Russia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Europe

But I would think that they are referring to European Union nations???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Europe,_EU,_candidates,.pn...

Also does the VC numbers for Israel include the population of the Israeli occupied territories or just those who have full Israeli citizenship?

That is why people who try to bring into the US large amounts of cash through border control have it confiscated if they don't declare it.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5445167_laws-bringing-cash-america...

Annual US Aid to Israel is $382.97 per Israeli and going up.

Traceability in the real world banking institutions has its advantages. As a business owner I've once had a mistaken transactions that resulted in erroneous withdrawal of +10,000 from business bank account. A phone call to the bank and a bit of investigation fixed things and I don't think the bank was out any money either, it was just a wrong account number issue.

With bitcoin, things are not at all reversible.

Also I expect bitcoin to be shutdown because it could be a great way to fund terrorist activities. (There are major federal investments in anti-money laundering systems that monitor bank transactions, bitcoin transactions operate outside of this system and thus will be suspect.)

I think my social circle is less active and less dramatic than yours. I guess that means that I am boring and my friends are also relatively boring.

I guess different social circles are different and it probably varies by age group as well.

I find your comments interesting because it is so completely different than my social world.

I should also add that I don't find it addictive at all.

It doesn't include the hundreds of millions which have been cashed out -- there numbers would look even worse if they included those numbers.

I'd agree exceot for #8, everyone is actually talking about it for once and generally in agreement. It is sort of surreal.

I don't understand why it would stress you out. Can you explain?

It appears that you are strongly implying that I am part of a conspiracy. Can you outline in more detail this conspiracy that you believe I am involved in?

You mean before people started to look into him more closely? I also was very impressed with Groupon before they released their numbers and the amount of shares sold by insiders prior to IPO.

More information led me to change my mind.

My hope is that Groupon files an new disclosure in a couple months that has better numbers. That is the real solution that everyone is waiting on now.

Our minds can be changed again, just like they were changed with the first IPO filing. From my perspective, this would be a very mature and robust solution to the problem at hand.

I think that people are aware of the distinction, but they feel that Groupon, while it might have been a "go big" hope, it is distinctly leaning towards the "go home" while at the same time it is trying to IPO. This means that some now interpret it as a "pump it & dump it" scheme, especially given that the major founders are selling stock by the hundreds of millions of dollars.

He seems like a smart man, but I also think that his cashing out of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock pre-IPO doesn't have a good explanation unless he has reservations about Groupon's long-term viability. Groupon's numbers are pretty horrible and the space is getting more and more competitive.

It is because I think he is smart that I think his cashing out to the extreme is a very bad sign. Otherwise, he should have kept the stock and been significantly richer upon the IPO of Groupon.

I think that investors should be informed about Groupon and its founders. It is especially important if there are issues with Groupon and its founders.

I was actually quite impressed with Groupon initially until I saw its numbers and that its major stockholders were cashing out hundreds of millions of dollars in stock pre-IPO. That raised with me huge alarm bells and it changed my opinion drastically.

My extreme leariness of Groupon is based on facts that I've learned as I used to be a fan, although a relatively uninformed one.

The founders have already found a business model that has generated them in excess of $500M. Thus Groupon for them has already been successful.

Being part of Google changes things as (1) Google can finance a money losing operation for quite some time and (2) Google offers integration into its huge ecosystem, especially its existing robust advertising network.

Thus Google brought a lot to the table in such acquisition which would increase Groupon's value.

You are correct. I should have used a more general word.

Other hot companies are clearly NOT Ponzi schemes, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Zynga. Everything is not a Ponzi scheme, but some things are.

There are at least two types of investments.

1. Sometimes one invests in a company because it has a sound business model and you know that it will have long term value.

2. Other times you invest because the company is hot and rising and you plan to get your money out of the company before the party comes to an end (if you know a stock is going to rise, you might as well buy it and take profits as it goes up.) It can be very profitable for those in at the beginning, not so much for those left holding the relatively worthless bag.

The fact that the original founders are taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of groupon before the IPO reinforces many people's fears that Groupon is this second type of investment.

I strongly believed that LinkedIn was overvalued, but I didn't think it was a basket case.

LinkedIn has loyal users, and it is moderately profitable. It just has to figure out how to best monetize them.

LinkedIn has some potential if it can figure out an effective monetization strategy. People keep coming back to LinkedIn without LinkedIn paying hugely to attract them.

Groupon is highly vulnerable to competition and even now it is very not profitable. Insiders are also cashing out to a huge degree.

I think Groupon is unique in its current position. It is in a much worse position than LinkedIn in my opinion. LinkedIn is a viable business, although it may not grow to be absolutely huge (although it might), but Groupon could easily go to zero and quite quickly.

I didn't mean to imply tech IPO -- I did intent to refer to any IPO.

Warren Buffet doesn't invest in IPOs as far as I've read. It makes sense because these are very hyped events that are designed to be the opposite of boring or overlooked.

Investing in IPOs is very much a gamble over which the the investor has no control. It is like buying a lottery ticket in many cases.

Warrren Buffet buys into companies in such a way that he get's control and usually those companies are struggling and need a management overhaul in order to be successful and have a better long-term focus.

I can imagine Groupon crashing and burning and then someone like Warren Buffet or another takeover happening and then its rebuilding. But buying into a hyped IPO before a fall is not at all Warren Buffet's investing strategy.

This is a gross misuse of Warren Buffet's famous quote to say the least. I would highly recommend reading about Warren Buffet's investment strategy -- he never talks about buying into the latest high tech IPO. Investing in hot IPOs (or even hyped IPOs) isn't at all how he made his money. He bought into boring industries that everyone was basically ignoring and then he helped them increase their margins by bringing in very good management that was focused on the long-term bottom line. The management at Groupon is very scary as they are clearly cashing out and are not looking at the long term at all.

Also, if there is general negative sentiment (not just isolated as it is now) about Groupon, there won't be an IPO. It could easily be withdrawn and if it is withdrawn, it likely won't come back if what everyone is saying here on HN is true.