kevinguh

Something I'm left wondering about is whether there is a difference in proficiency between laptop/desktop-based apps and mobile apps. This study seems to define a computer as a laptop or desktop machine which may've made sense given the study started in 2011 when mobile computing was still relatively nascent, but the time span of the study from 2011-2015 encompasses a period of pretty expansive mobile adoption (IIRC I didn't even get my first smartphone until 2012). Moreover, my impression is mobile penetration outstrips that of sit-down machines (someone please correct me if I'm mistaken) so for some demographics their primary understanding of a "computer" could be from the perspective of a mobile device. If that is the case then perhaps that introduces a caveat to the scoring -- mobile and desktop experiences are quite different and someone coming to a desktop-based interface from a mobile-first background might score more poorly on the test than their actual level of technical proficiency would suggest.

Additionally, it seems to me that a lot of more recent interface designs seem to converge in the overall UX. Perhaps it's a result of standards like Material Design/Apple Guidelines and frameworks like Bootstrap and Semantic UI being published, but whatever the reason I think it has the benefit of reducing the learning curve for new products and making them easier to navigate. Even though this study concluded only 4 years ago in 2015, tech trends move fast and I personally think its measure of users' computer skills may be a bit dated in the context of today's tech landscape. This could just as well be my perspective from inside the bubble though, so here's your grain of salt with all of the above

Thanks for the link, the to-read list never seems to stop growing but that book certainly sounds like one I'll have to add

Right, and the example is meant to illustrate that. My coursework on signal processing approached it from a mathematical and computational perspective, so I didn't necessarily have an appreciation for its application in a music context. Once I picked up music production and started dealing with filters and EQs and all, though, the relationship then became apparent pretty quickly and certainly helped with understanding how all the effect processing worked.

I would add on by saying from personal experience that the wider your breadth of experiences, the more you find that experiences in seemingly unrelated fields overlap and synergize to make it even easier to pick up new skills. Anecdotally I found my background in software + college coursework in signal processing gave me a huge boost with getting into music production, and in line with the ROI perspective I feel like I'm passively reinforcing my understanding of Fourier transforms and whatnot when I'm playing around with Ableton so it's akin to the effect of compounded interest

You mention that you hedge your exposure to market downturns through deep OOTM options -- would it be safe to interpret this as your company taking out OOTM puts on various REITs/ETFs? If so, I'm wondering about a couple things:

1. Do you hedge on REITs/ETFs with a local presence in the areas your properties are located in? If so, is there any liquidation risk of the REIT/ETF in the event of a major downturn that could force an early exit from your hedge position and leave you exposed to further decline? Also, how would you handle rebalancing/constructing new hedges when you add investment properties in a new area?

2. If you hedge on broader diversified REITs/ETFs, is it a plausible concern that your investment properties can be hit by a localized recession that leaves other parts of the broader real estate market unaffected, thus leaving your hedge unable to recoup the losses?

Take a look at Knight Capital for a case study -- tl;dr, they deployed an update that accidentally triggered a blind spot in their trading system which had been inactive for almost a decade. By the time their engineers were able to stop it, Knight was on the hook for several billion dollars' worth of trades and had to close their positions for a loss of almost half a billion dollars. From my understanding they ended up merging with another firm to cover their losses so while they weren't entirely "killed", they were still severely kneecapped by tech debt.

Pretty neat, I see the most granular time scale currently supported is a 3-month window -- are there any plans to increase granularity towards a (near) real-time system? I get your crawler might be rate-limited at that scale and you would likely have to rethink the entire system architecture, but I think real-time data would open up a whole new dimension of possibilities for detecting/predicting trends perhaps even before public awareness catches up. I'd imagine there would be parties interested in paying for that kind of capability if that's the direction you're planning on taking this idea

ah, the thought process of every producer ever :)

pardon me if I'm a bit out of the loop, but my understanding was that Google planned on revoking all app access to SMS messages and call logs on Android as of the beginning of this year -- does this not apply to TrueCaller?

Given the current ruling in Oracle v. Google, though, I'd imagine Smartcar would have grounds for a legal case. If Oracle is awarded damages from Google for "copying" the Java API specification in Android, even with a different underlying implementation, then I'd imagine Smartcar can highlight the similarities to their own dispute with Otonomo. The tricky thing is it looks like Otonomo is an Israeli company so I'm not familiar with how US court rulings apply across international boundaries -- perhaps at the very least Smartcar can attain an injunction against Otonomo within the US.