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Coffee Time: Market Share vs Profit – journal – minimally minimal
The % share picture changes drastically depending on whether you are considering the OS share, revenue share or profit share. Not to mention the kind of product segmentation difference between Apple & the others (Samsung shown as an example here)
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NYTimes eXaminer | An antidote to the “paper of record”
Interesting site that “examines” the articles posted in the New York Times
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A very handy tool (albeit commandline based) that allows you to work with image metadata. You can even extract the metadata to a file for detailed analysis.
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Of the musical kind. In case you wondered whether the orchestra conductors just waved in the randomly or not, the techniques section should help clarify any doubts:
“Conducting is a means of communicating artistic directions to performers during a performance. Although there are many formal rules on how to conduct correctly, others are subjective, and a wide variety of different conducting styles exist depending upon the training and sophistication of the conductor. The primary responsibilities of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. Communication is non-verbal during a performance, however in rehearsal frequent interruptions allow directions as to how the music should be played.” -
What the Vaio Z says about Sony’s little design problem – Boing Boing
Changing your design with every new launch kind of defeats the purpose of coming out with a good design. This is another area Apple seems to get much better than its competitors. In fact, Apple has stuck to designs inspired from others longer than its original creators.
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ideas are just a multiplier of execution – O’Reilly ONLamp Blog
A simple numerical demonstration of the importance of execution.
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Steve Jobs: The parable of the stones – Fortune Tech
It’s not just enough to have a good idea. It’s the execution and final polishing that counts. Explained with a nice metaphor.
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Financial Lessons From Four Nations – NYTimes.com
This is what makes it difficult to call Economics a true science – experiment results are rarely replicable given the number of variabilities.
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Substitute US for India, and it will read pretty similar. That’s progress since independence for you.
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End Bonuses for Bankers – NYTimes.com
All very valid arguments, but who will bell the cat?
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Adam Smith himself was wary of the effect of limiting liability, a bedrock principle of the modern corporation.
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Consider that we trust military and homeland security personnel with our lives, yet we don’t give them lavish bonuses. They get promotions and the honor of a job well done if they succeed, and the severe disincentive of shame if they fail. For bankers, it is the opposite: a bonus if they make short-term profits and a bailout if they go bust. The question of talent is a red herring: Having worked with both groups, I can tell you that military and security people are not only more careful about safety, but also have far greater technical skill, than bankers.
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What would banking look like if bonuses were eliminated? It would not be too different from what it was like when I was a bank intern in the 1980s, before the wave of deregulation that culminated in the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that had separated investment and commercial banking. Before then, bankers and lenders were boring “lifers.” Banking was bland and predictable; the chairman’s income was less than that of today’s junior trader. Investment banks, which paid bonuses and weren’t allowed to lend, were partnerships with skin in the game, not gamblers playing with other people’s money.
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Disruptions: The 3-D Printing Free-for-All – NYTimes.com
Another interesting bit of technology to look forward to. Reminiscent of the object copier by Professor Calculus from Tintin and the Lake of Sharks.
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Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think | Magazine
Remember the argument of iPad vs the rest in the tablets wars? Guess who’s the content distribution king on the web. Now, once the device market saturates, and the focus shifts entirely to content a la TV, who do you think will be reaping the rewards – Apple or Amazon?
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Radiosity (3D computer graphics) – Wikipedia
In case you wondered what the real world application the optics chapters of Physics were during your classes.
“Radiosity is a global illumination algorithm used in 3D computer graphics rendering. Radiosity is an application of the finite element method to solving the rendering equation for scenes with purely diffuse surfaces.”
AB's Reflections 