330 karma · joined November 7, 2011
The JOBS Act prohibits intermediaries from offering investment advice or recommendations on investments.
See Section 304.b
You hit everything right on the dot. This is what a lot of people aren't able to say publicly. But you've got the right read.
[1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-sign-in-secu...
And if you join a company and someone more senior than you with ACTUAL accomplishments and that is respected in and outside of the company tries to take you under his wings and guide you through the corporate landscape, don't dismiss their actual accomplishments as "irrelevant" at the same time boasting about your success in a product for a "niche market that doesn't exist"
And if you join a company, you should not claim expertise in something unless you are an ACTUAL expert and have the knowledge, experience, and accomplishments to back that up. Saying that you're a T7-9 visionary doesn't make you a T7-9 visionary!
And if you join a company, don't dismiss your fellow colleagues and make a fool of yourself because even if you don't work with them now at the current company, you may encounter them again in the future.
I'm not speaking to any specific incident. Just general advice that any new junior employee to any company should follow.
For people skeptical of the other replies here, the reputation of OP is pretty well known... it has almost become a shibboleth of the people that were around during his tenure.
This will help the team improve the search engine.
Search quality feedback is key to improving the search engine.
Google has an interesting post on how they handled the Leap Second in 2008: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/time-technology-and-l...
The development of the tech community is how you entice entrepreneurs and technologists to your area. Entrepreneurs and developers flock to where there is a community of like minded individuals. Build the community and the people will come. Once the people come, the capital will come.
Look at what NYC is doing. They are building a tech community that rivals Silicon Valley out of the ashes of former investment banking software engineers. The city government is actively supporting groups like New York Tech Meetup and General Assembly. They are nurturing the tech community and encouraging them to grow roots in the city.
St. Louis needs to work on this rather than just throw money at the problem.
The pricing/business model does not work with this especially when there are so many free alternatives.
Can't make people happy.
That's not how the economics work. Consumers have a level of disposable income. Just because they spent 0.99 on your movie doesn't mean that they won't also spend $10.50 on Avatar. The allocation of disposable income is not based on price as much as quality.
Secondly, $0.99 vs $10.50 is a failure in signal theory. You immediately signal to the consumer that the value of your movie is far less than most other forms of entertainment. The reason why the $0.99 model works for music on iTunes is that all songs are priced the same. There is no signaling of quality between songs. The 99 cent model works for iPhone apps is that it is low enough of a cost to value to risk ratio that it's worth 99 cents to try something out. If it is bad, there's no real loss to it. There's little opportunity costs associated with it.
But you can't sell a $10M budget movie at 0.99 and make a reasonable revenue.
In addition, if the only distribution model is online streaming at 0.99, you'd need to sell 10M views to just break even. Yes, this can be achieved for a single hit, but for every single one to break even is similar to the current model.
One of the key things with the internet and technology is that: 1) Technology has enabled talented artists, filmmakers, and musicians to produce high quality content at a reasonable costs. Take a look at all the quality production that is around on the internet. 2) The internet has enable low cost distribution and discovery service. This means that we can increase the number of distribution channels for much lower cost than the existing model.
Because of these two facts, this enables smaller productions (you don't need $10M revenue if your cost is $30k) and more niche audience. Think of all the long-tail movies that do not get made because the target audience is too small; these would become economically feasible with internet distribution.
The indie film industry follows this similar model. A lot of indie films are low budget films made by students and budding stars. These films and talent are then discovered by the big budget studios and brought into that fold. (Think of the indie film community similar to the open source community in tech.) They are often looked down upon by the big budget studios and the community is looking for that one opportunity to break big. They have as much distaste for the Hollywood model as the tech industry does. There is a huge opportunity in bringing them into the fold of the startup industry to counter Hollywood. Provide them a clear path of success without giving up much of their rights or stake and they'll surely jump at the new approach.
Lastly, the internet is a great talent discovery. Look at the number of mega stars that have been found on YouTube and other websites. The problem is that once someone becomes "Internet Famous", how do you turn them into "Real Life Famous". People like Justin Bieber have no choice but to fall into the hands of the existing production model.
Provide your consumers (in this case the movie production and the movie consumers) with a better product and all else will follow.
tl;dr -
1) Embrace the Indie Film industry -- they are desperately looking for a partner in taking on big studios. They have already been in this fight for years, that we have only recently just joined.
2) Use technology to assist in discovery.
(f) If seizure is made of books or other articles which do not contain obscene matter but contain information or advertisements relative to means of causing unlawful abortion, the procedure outlined in paragraphs (b), (c), (d), and (e) of this section shall be followed.
and
(b) Films exposed abroad by a foreign concern or individual shall be previewed by a qualified employee of the Customs Service before release. In case such films are imported as undeveloped negatives exposed abroad, the approximate number of feet shall be ascertained by weighing before they are allowed to be developed and printed and such film shall be previewed by a qualified employee of the Customs Service after having been developed and printed.
Title 19: Customs Duties PART 12—SPECIAL CLASSES OF MERCHANDISE
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§ 12.40 Seizure; disposition of seized articles; reports to United States attorney.
(a) Any book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, or drawing containing any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States or forcible resistance to any law of the United States, or containing any threat to take the life of or inflict bodily harm upon any person in the United States, seized under section 305, Tariff Act of 1930, shall be transmitted to the United States attorney for his consideration and action.
(b) Upon the seizure of articles or matter prohibited entry by section 305, Tariff Act of 1930 (with the exception of the matter described in paragraph (a) of this section), a notice of the seizure of such articles or matter shall be sent to the consignee or addressee.
(c) When articles of the class covered by paragraph (b) of this section are of small value and no criminal intent is apparent, a blank assent to forfeiture, Customs Form 4607, shall be sent with the notice of seizure. Upon receipt of the assent to forfeiture duly executed, the articles shall be destroyed if not needed for official use and the case closed.
(d) In the case of a repeated offender or when the facts indicate that the importation was made deliberately with intent to evade the law, the facts and evidence shall be submitted to the United States attorney for consideration of prosecution of the offender as well as an action in rem under section 305 for condemnation of the articles.
(e) All cases in which articles have been seized pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1305(a) should be referred to the U.S. Attorney, for possible institution of condemnation proceedings, within 4 days, but in no event more than 14 days, after the date of Customs initial examination. The referral to the U.S. Attorney should be initiated simultaneously with the mailing to the importer of the seizure notice and the assent to forfeiture form. If the importer declines to execute an assent to forfeiture of the articles other than those mentioned in paragraph (a) of this section and fails to submit, within 30 days after being notified of his privilege to do so, a petition under section 618, Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1618), for remission of the forfeiture and permission to export the seized articles, then the U.S. Attorney, who has already received information concerning the seizure pursuant to this paragraph, may proceed with the condemnation action.
(f) If seizure is made of books or other articles which do not contain obscene matter but contain information or advertisements relative to means of causing unlawful abortion, the procedure outlined in paragraphs (b), (c), (d), and (e) of this section shall be followed.
(g) In any case when a book is seized as being obscene and the importer declines to execute an assent to forfeiture on the ground that the book is a classic, or of recognized and established literary or scientific merit, a petition addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury with evidence to support the claim may be filed by the importer for release of the book. Mere unsupported statements or allegations will not be considered. If the ruling is favorable, release of such book shall be made only to the ultimate consignee.
(h) Whenever it clearly appears from information, instructions, advertisements enclosed with or appearing on any drug or medicine or its immediate or other container, or otherwise that such drug or medicine is intended for inducing unlawful abortion, such drug or medicine shall be detained or seized.
[28 FR 14710, Dec. 31, 1963, as amended by T.D. 71–165, 36 FR 12209, June 29, 1971; T.D. 76–261, 41 FR 39022, Sept. 14, 1976; T.D. 82–145, 47 FR 35477, Aug. 16, 1982; T.D. 85–186, 50 FR 47207, Nov. 15, 1985; T.D. 93–66, 58 FR 44130, Aug. 19, 1993]
§ 12.41 Prohibited films.
(a) Importers of films, shall certify on Customs Form 3291 that the imported films contain no obscene or immoral matter, nor any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States or forcible resistance to any law of the United States, nor any threat to take the life or inflict bodily harm upon any person in the United States. When imported films are claimed to be free of duty as American goods returned, this certification may be made on Customs Form 3311 in the space designated “Remarks” in lieu of on Form 3291.
(b) Films exposed abroad by a foreign concern or individual shall be previewed by a qualified employee of the Customs Service before release. In case such films are imported as undeveloped negatives exposed abroad, the approximate number of feet shall be ascertained by weighing before they are allowed to be developed and printed and such film shall be previewed by a qualified employee of the Customs Service after having been developed and printed.
(c) Any objectionable film shall be detained pending instructions from Headquarters, U.S. Customs Service or a decision of the court as to its final disposition.
It is not for the lack of ideas, nor is it the lack of people trying to build interesting technology with it. It is because of the carriers.
Yes, the carriers, like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
Before I explain why the carriers are the problems, let's step back and talk about how NFC payment works. On every NFC phone, there is a chip that is called the secure element. The secure element is the location on your phone that is separate from the operating system that stores highly encrypted data that only trusted programs can access. This is the only secure location on your phone that one can safely and securely store payment credentials. Storing payment credential on any other part of the phone exposes it to abuse.
On the NFC-enabled phones in your pocket, the carriers have full control of the secure element. They are actively preventing other companies from using this to store any information and fully utilizing NFC to their potential as a digital wallet.
The reason they are doing this is that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have a joint venture called Isis [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIS_(mobile_payment_system)]. Through this joint venture, they want to own a piece of the mobile payment market. Anyone that wants to create a mobile wallet must pay them for the right to do so. (Notice how the Google Wallet launched on the only carrier that is not part of the joint venture?)
[see http://www.nfctimes.com/news/isis-plans-launch-three-banks-c...] "In addition, Isis plans to charge fees to banks and other service providers to rent space on their SIM cards or other secure elements in the NFC phones the carriers sell."
See also: http://www.nfctimes.com/news/google-nfc-platforms-should-be-... _______________________ "Dickson Chu, Citi’s head of global enterprise payments for digital networks and mobile, speaking at a conference earlier this month, reportedly complained that Isis was taking the role of a “gatekeeper.” Isis would charge fees to banks and other service providers to rent space on its SIM cards or other secure elements, as many mobile operators plan to do when they roll out NFC. That’s in addition to charging fees for delivering coupons or offers. Google plans to charge fees from advertisers for delivering coupons and other offers but not from payment service providers.
“It's unclear what they (Isis telcos) are trying to achieve, other than extract a toll as gatekeepers,” Chu reportedly said. “There's so much more that they could do...as it is they are just hampering the development of NFC as a mass-market commercial proposition.” _______________________
You do this block by block for an entire city. So now you hold in your hands a notebook of all the WIFIs in the city. So let's say I blindfold you and throw you in a random street corner in the city. Using this notebook, your iPhone, and the wifi signals, you can easily figure out where you are in the city.
To be even more accurate, you may record the signal levels every 5 feet. So now from any given point, you can say "Linksys" has 5 bars, "Free_Porn" has 2 bars, and "Mom's Wifi" has 3 bars... I must be at the south east corner of 59th st.
So now you have a notebook of all these wifi signals. Your friend comes to visit your city and you give him a copy of your notebook. He can then use that to figure out where he is even if he can't get a GPS signal.
What's also nice about this is that it works indoors. Using a database of wifi signals, you can figure out that you're standing next to the kitchen in your 5th floor office.
That's basically what this wifi mapping is.