thailandstartup

It feels like Monopoly could be a better game if only it had better rules. There should definitely be a trading and negotiation phase in there, and some way for players to stop a player who's getting too far ahead.

Maybe a decent, well-known, alternate set of rules for Monopoly would make all of those monopoly sets out there less useless.

You've got to factor in the margin of the insurance company, but also the time and expense of claiming, keeping records, reading insurance terms, the potential for the claim not to be honoured etc. Better to self-insure - put that money aside into a fund and use that fund to cover your loses for small amounts.

For large losses that you may not have the capacity to cover, it is usually sensible. Where to draw the line depends on how deep your pockets are.

Also the bus was already in the ditch at that point - that decision helped make matter worse, but there was no soft landing possible at that point.

One of the few complaints I hear about the Apple experience is the requirement to install iTunes on a computer in order to 'activate' their hardware products. That's very telling. Why does a company famous for perfecting the user experience create this roadblock for its users?

It is to convert iX(Phone/Pod/Pad) users into iTunes users. You have a revenue stream from iX user for maybe 2 or 3 years . . but you've captured an iTunes user potentially for decades.

It's been a long term plan. I remember nearly a decade ago when Apple broke their iPod so that MP3 files couldn't be transferred onto it using the standard USB mechanism. It was no longer an MP3 player - it was a portable iTunes player.

The goal is no less than to acquire 30% of the price of every movie, TV show, book, game or any other digital product sold and to make them profitable long after they've stopped innovating.

I'm imagining a world where there are multiple adsenses (ad brokers) competing effectively with each other for space, driving out supernormal profit for brokers, and returning the bulk of the advertising revenues to the publishers rather than to the middleman (currently Google). With more revenue for the publishers, more publishers come online and drive out supernormal profits for publisher too. That would be a more efficient market.

More info here. All of it contradictory :) http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=287888

So I'm still wondering if it is proper to think of a star's gravitational field being caused not just by its matter, but also by all the photons it has pumped out over its lifetime.

So I wonder if a star's gravity is mostly the mass of the star itself, but also, in small part, the huge amount of light that surrounds the star on all sides, being densest nearest the star itself.

There's some evidence that gravity may change a little during a solar eclipse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect and also the Pioneer anomaly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_anomaly

I am most definitely not a physicist!

I use Plimus for payment processing, and they accept payment by Paypal. So I can accept Paypal payments without the possibility of ever having to deal directly with Paypal.

As as customer, I used to like to use Paypal because it was convenient and low-risk. I'd never deal directly with them as a merchant. I feel sure that my relationship with Paypal would become the 'top idea in my mind' at some stage and might take aways days or weeks of productivity.

Countries that have prohibitions on firearms have fewer firearms. It's a huge difference in the numbers and that's an example of prohibition working.

I don't know that countries that have prohibitions on drugs reduce drug taking by the same amount, or countries with prohibitions on prostitution reduces prostitution by a similar amount.

Mexico is an outlier because of its large porous border with the US. Switzerland is just an outlier.

Properly regulated brothels don't have traffiked workers or minors, do have STD testing and are safer for the workers and the johns. As with drugs, many of the problems are created by prohibition, and those who insist on prohibition are responsible for the continuance of those problems.

I've always hated Apple like the pox, but I give them this - they made it fashionable to carry around a pocket computer.

Also, I wonder if its not more difficult to judge which single founders will be successful, and easier to judge when it is a small team.

So I think treat this rule as investment advice, but if you're confident of running your own startup, trust yourself rather than PG's advice.