seanos

The claimed paradox is that more and more people are using 'content consuming' devices yet, at the same time, there is an explosion in the amount of content produced.

"-75% of trading is now automated, it is just computers trading with each other.

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I have never figured out if this 75% includes algo trading. If it does include algo trading (my guess is that it does), then I'm surprised it is not 100%. That is like saying 95% of TV channels are controlled by remote-control devices."

From the Foresight project homepage (http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/our-work/projects/current-pr...): "For example, today, over one third of United Kingdom equity trading volume is generated through high frequency automated computer trading while in the US this figure is closer to three-quarters."

For those that are interested:

Here is a video of an extremely interesting talk, entitled "Human Traders are an Endangered Species!", by Dave Cliff who's involved with the Foresight project:

http://trading-gurus.com/human-traders-are-an-endangered-spe...

and more information on the Foresight project itself:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/our-work/projects/current-pr...

It's not mentioned in the linked article but a significant proportion of the space junk in orbit can be traced to China using a missile to destroy a satellite back in 2007.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2007/01/china_blows_u...

"Venezuela is falling to pieces, structurally, morally, economically, etc. We wasted a decade that could have turn our country in to a super power."

This is so true, based on my experience having stayed in Caracas, Venezuela on my way to Bogota, Colombia just a few months ago. I was shocked at the difference between those two neighbouring countries, Colombia is rapidly improving whilst Chavez is destroying Venezuela.

Initial feedback from using Verbling for 30 mins:

A feature of this site is the ability to instantly connect with a partner. However, there needs to be a way to switch partners instantly. For example, I was speaking to someone who had video and microphone problems and the only way I could switch was to navigate back to the homepage and start again. I also didn't find the automatic matching, in its current form, an advantage over personal selection. For example, I only wanted to speak with girls around my age. Allowing the user to set criteria for partners (e.g. age, gender, region) would be useful, along with the ability to switch as desired.

The second key feature of this site, compared to alternatives, is the use of video. However, I didn't find any benefits, e.g. in terms of usefulness for language learning or fun, from the use of video over just voice/text communication. Staring at the head of a stranger for the duration of the chat didn't add anything. Need to add some feature or features that make the use of video an advantage and relevant for language learning (this would also encourage people who want to engage in video chat to simply switch to skype once introduced).

I didn't find the suggested topics feature very useful, as it isn't hard to come up with such topics on your own and simply going through suggested topics one by one with partner led to a conversation that felt awkward and jilted. An alternative idea: add some interactive role play puzzles that the users must solve by speaking the foreign language with the user. For example, you could shows a street map with a route shown to one user, and the same map with only the initial position to the other. The latter user must then ask the other user for directions to determine the correct route . Or a restaurant role play where one user is the waiter the other the customer, and the latter is told the dishes they must order, which they must communicate correctly to the waiter. This would lead to more realistic, two-way, conversations, be a lot more fun and be genuinely useful in generating conversation between two strangers.

At the moment, it doesn't offer anything compelling over sharedtalk.com in terms of finding language exchange partners, nor does it offer any of the learning material for which I find Bussu useful. On the plus side, I did find the site easy to sign up for and use, and the call quality was good (call quality on sharedtalk is generally very poor, which is why, even in voice chat there, people almost always suggest moving to skype - hence sharedtalk acts more as an introductions agency).

I think gender and birthdate are important information for selecting a suitable partner. For example, I prefer to speak to females around my age, rather than males or females who are much younger or older, as I find it more interesting to chat to them. It doesn't ask for your address, just your country and city (I'm pretty sure city is optional), again information that is often useful when picking an exchange partner (for example, the Spanish spoken in Spain has certain differences to that spoken in Mexico - usage, accent, slang etc).

I didn't realise Bussu showed ads since I use Adblock but I agree that the ad they are showing you would be annoying.

This is an excellent point, I think you are right. On shared talk the number of people in voice chat is always significantly lower than in the text chat although once in text chat people often, after say 5 mins of chatting, ask to move to skype for voice chat. Also, as a learner of Portuguese, I've noticed that the Portuguese/English native speaker ratio is usually much high in voice chat than for text chat which may be to do with the more extroverted nature (in general) of Brazilians compared to people from English speaking countries.

No, from my experience with sharedtalk this is a definite problem for certain language learners (although not necessarily the startup since they don't need to appeal to everybody). Native speakers of English are in demand from native speakers of almost all languages. If you are a native speaker of a language popular with English speakers (such as Spanish or French) and want to learn English you are also in luck. However, on sharedtalk there are often many speakers of certain languages (such as Turkish and Chinese) wanted to learn English whilst the reverse is not true, and if, for example, you are a Turkish speaker wanted to learn Czech then your chances of finding a suitable exchange partner are very slim indeed.

The speakers on sharedtalk also vary with the time of day, so it helps if your timezone is similar to that of the countries which speak the language you wish to learn.

From one of the drop down menus on the sign up form: "I speak español"

It should be either "I speak Spanish" or "Yo hablo español" surely?

"I hope they don't riddle their site with crappy ads and upsells like all their competitors" - I'm not sure about all competitors but I've used both Bussu.com and SharedTalk.com and neither of them have these problems. In fact, the latter has no ads or upsells at all.

"not very comfortable for them to talk to strangers face to face (online)" - this may be true of certain people but there are large numbers who will do based on my experience of using a text and voice language exchange site called sharedtalk.com. There are always many people there, particularly seems to be Spanish (especially from Colombia for whatever reason) and Portuguese (almost all from Brazil) speakers wanted to exchange with English speakers. Although the text chat is most popular there, the users are often very willing to exchange Skype names to use voice or video chat.

"how do you motivate strangers to actually teach each other languages while keeping their attention span long enough, say, 5 minutes." - In my experience, you do not actively teach each other the language, more just chat in the different languages and correct and explain the mistakes your partner makes in your native language. Thus, boredom after 5 minutes is not a problem, provided you get along, especially with all the different cultural differences to talk about.

A better alternative is sharedtalk.com, you can also do voice chat there. I use that a lot, but in general the pattern is just to use this type of site as an introduction at which point you exchange Skype or facebook user names and then switch to that for the long term language exchange.

The real competition for this new site in my opinon, is therefore not any of these exchange sites, but Skype since the call quality is so much better than any flash based solution can achieve. They need to offer something special in order to retain long term users and not just be a site used to introduce language learners.

Still suffers from the problem that in order to obtain the discount, a bunch of other people would have to request the discount on the graphics card in those few days. That's unlikely so I probably wouldn't bother asking for the discount (in turn, everyone else is thinking the same, which makes it even less likely).

Interesting. Still, the realtime location data Loopt have would make this much more effective. People might not want to travel to a realtime deal running somewhere in their city, in case it ends before they arrive. But if the deal is running at a bar next door or on the street they are walking along then that problem is eliminated.

This is a much better idea. Instead of daily deals, realtime deals. Let the business offer a limited time deal (30mins, 1hr, or until they cancel). For example, an empty restaurant or bar could post a 50% discount for customers placing orders in the next 30 mins - not only giving their staff something to do but a busier restaurant/bar gives social proof attracting further customers later once the deal expires. Would also allow them to better manage the people taking advantage of the deal, by monitoring the response rates and adjusting the discount or ending the deal as they see fit. The scarcity factor of a deal that could end at any moment might also be especially attractive to customers. Loopt would be well positioned to do this, because the customers who would want to take advantage of a real time deal would be those currently in the vicinity of the business (to avoid travelling to a deal only to find it has ended) and I believe they have that data.

Actually, expected returns will be slightly lower but well worth it as the reduction in risk from the diversication away from 100% equities is huge. E.g. 20% in bonds will barely diminish expected returns whilst significantly reducing your overall risk.

I am heavily invested in Australia - huge natural resources and located close to the growing asian markets.

The selling of add-ons would be an equivalent model, of the general model the author is talking about, for anime.

From the article: "This approach can be mimicked by anything that is made of bits not atoms. It can be applied to writing. It can be applied to music. It can be applied to film. It can be applied to photography, anime, cartoons, etc, etc."

The author is talking about the general business model where the thing made of bits is given away (e.g. the anime made from the bits) and the stuff that costs money to create (e.g. the merchandising made from the atoms) is charged for. Obviously, there is no notion of support for anime, music etc that the author mentions.

Example for anime would be something like give away the anime and sell the merchandising (toys, t-shirts etc).

What about giving away software free initially to build up a user base and search engine ranking etc, and then once your software is established, either charging for the software that was once free or introducing a premium version? Seems like that could be a good business model when entering a competitive niche if you have few marketing funds available. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of others on this.

Individually, it negligible. Cumulatively, the time spent by the many thousands (millions?) of users who are clicking links they deem relevant for queries all over the web (Bing are collecting data from all sites) is huge...

My point is that the assertion that Google are doing all the work in creating the data used by Bing is clearly false.

You could also argue that the user is doing the hardwork by going to Google (or any other site, since this is not specific to Google) and deciding which links are relevant by clicking on them. The user has opted share this work they have done with Microsoft (by installing the toolbar and agreeing to the terms) to help them get better results on Bing.

"The bottom line is that Bing's index contains associations that it could never have figured out if Google hadn't figured them out first."

Actually, it is the users who are figuring out what is relevant not Google since a) Bing are collecting data on the links they click regardless of where Google ranks it (could be on the 20th page of Google search results for all Bing care) and b) Bing are collecting this data from all sites, there has been no evidence that Google search results are treated any differently to any other site.

Equally unethical sure (x=y), but differing opinions on whether that (x) is ethical or unethical. Personally, I see nothing wrong with it.

But people can still ride a horse. A contacted tribe can never become uncontacted again. BTW I have no idea whether the right answer is to contact them or not, I am just explaining why it is a moral dilemma.

"If not this is so typical of the american way of thinking. Yes, we are so superior lets convert them all to our [insert culture, religion etc...]. "

Why is this the typical american way of thinking? Surely every culture believes theirs is superior, otherwise they wouldn't have adopted it.

I think it's because when we invent television we don't lose anything. Once we show these people the modern world, there is no going back. It makes it a difficult moral dilema.

yep!

If they like trading pots and knives with other tribes, maybe they would like to trade with the wider world if they were given the opportunity?