Parsad

I took a look at this thing and I really like it. Google is going to have to really upgrade their software, since the Microsoft 365 products are pretty much Office products with all the features and capabilities. $7/month is pretty damn good...Canadian price...not sure why we pay more than American's! Alnesh and I used to use a Microsoft program called "Groove" when we first started Corner Market Capital, and it worked really well as it synced the files between our computers and server whenever anyone worked on something. Google took it one step further by removing the software altogether, and now Microsoft has done the same thing. You've got Coke and Pepsi fighting it out...is there room for both? What about Cadbury-Schweppes (Apple)? ;D Cheers!

$6/mo/user,that's a sweet deal for MSFT vs $280 one time purchase. MSFT gets rid of piracy problem. I don t see the average person buying into this. I could +may be wrong. Well I must be above "average" then, as I probably will subscribe to this on my new laptop. ;D I'm still using my old laptop, even though I bought a new one in December...simply because I've been too lazy to buy software and install it, then transfer everything over. Now I'll probably just buy Office 365 and transfer everything over directly from our office server. Cheers!

So you're telling me, for a small monthly fee, I can use less powerful, laggy applications over the internet where speed is limited by my capped internet connection, rather than a much more robust application on my less compromising hard-drive which is only limited by the speed of my quad core processor? Partly correct, but remember that hardware appliances like the iPad and Chrome laptops have no lag when booting the computer. Because the software is online, you can flip open your laptop and it fires within seconds. - No 45 second to 90 second start. - No limitations from your hard-drive speed. - No limitations of memory due to the processor firing up programs. Google introduced online docs many years ago. Does anyone actually use those products to any material extent? MSFT seems to be fighting for a piece of something that doesnt matter. True. But it will get better. I like gmail and if Outlook had the same synchronization and abilities, then I would go back to Outlook only. Google will improve the other apps as well. But now users have a choice...Google's lesser quality apps in the cloud, or Microsoft's dominant office software in the cloud. I think if they execute correctly, many will stick with Microsoft. Google has their work cut out for them, as does Microsoft...and let's not forget about Apple either. Cheers!

Simple machines doesn't offer any mobile skins for their software? This is the way several other message board companies handle this. They don't have one yet, but they are working on it. May just be worth it to wait. As I said, I'll keep working on this. Cheers!

Going after Google head-on. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/43557789

After a decade, Bill Miller finally has given up on Kodak. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-28/bill-miller-dumps-kodak-at-a-551-million-loss-after-a-decade-of-decline.html

Hey, if it can get Sanjeev enough ad revenue so that I can easily read this board on my phone, then I am happy and willing to put up with ads. I don't think that is part of my ad revenue, and probably goes to that app software developer. Anyone have a screen shot or something that they can post on here, as I have no idea what it looks like...if it worked at all! I will delete that app tomorrow and work on it some other way. Probably have to get an app developer license through Apple, and buy some software. Anyway, I guess I found my summer project! ;D Cheers!

Hi Folks, So I was going to use a program called Apploop to make a simple app that would be available for the iPhone and Android, but these guys went out of business. Some of the other hosted app sites charge a monthly fee of $25 to $100+, so I wasn't going to use those. Then I found this site that builds a simple app for the Android phone. Unfortunately, I don't have an Android phone, so I can't download it to see what it looks like. If you have an Android phone, you can download it here: http://www.freeblogapps.com/d/73a11e/corner-of-berkshire--fairfax Try it out and let me know if it works ok. It's just a simple app that takes the RSS feed and makes it mobile friendly. I'll keep working on this thing and see if there are other ways to do this for minimal cost. I already view the site on my iPhone every morning, and it actually works pretty darn good directly off the site web address. Cheers!

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when boardmembers would be all warm and fuzzy over Hempton. How times change! Hempton's a smart guy, but when you associate with unsavory characters, your intellect should be the last thing on any rational person's mind. Cheers! http://securities.stanford.edu/1037/FFH_01/200695_o01n_064197.pdf

I have been thinking about putting together a simple mobile phone app. Is there enough people who read the board on their phones? I read it every morning on my iPhone while commuting to the office, but I wasn't sure if anyone else really did. Please let me know if you would use such an app, and it would be at no cost. Cheers!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43527239/ I wish! ;D Cheers!

As a corollary, your tolerance to swings is likely less than you think it is - particularly if it's determined during good times. I would agree with that Norm. I think in times of crisis, unfortunately even value investor's emotional make-up tends to track similarly to the general population. Back in late 2008/early 2009, I would say less than 10% of value investors could tolerate that volatility without some emotional or mental stress...probably much less than 10%. And if you weren't somewhat prepared, you probably suffered quite a bit emotionally. Cheers!

While it's great to make money, investors have to be able to sleep well at night. Everyone should invest based on their temperament, not on what books suggest. So if you feel comfortable keeping cash, keep cash. If you are able to tolerate wide swings, stay invested. Cheers!

Short, but good article on unforeseen risks and probabilities. Good article for investors and P/C insurance fans. Thanks to Glen for sending me the link! Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/earth-in-the-balance-humankind-on-the-edge-nathan-myhrvold.html

More on credit derivatives related to Greece. Good article! Cheers! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/business/global/23swaps.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=business

The first quarter was one of the worst quarters for losses. Still probably not enough for a hard market...or even a firming market. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/insurers-post-biggest-underwriting-loss-since-2008-on-catastrophe-claims.html?cmpid=yhoo

This is good. I like Fairfax consolidating subs under specific umbrellas. Simplifies it for shareholders to understand where subs are located, and generally where those subs write much of their business. Cheers!

I believe some of the smaller holdings, that aren't the midst of being sold, are holdings within the company pension plan, etc. HW manages the assets of Fairfax's employee benefits plans. Cheers!

So the question I have for the former UFC champion is this: Did you ever use steroids? You've lost me. What does Brock Lesnar have to do with Sino? Or is this a play on words? Cheers!

Article on how senators and congressmen can trade on information they hear while in the midst of their daily activities. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/43471561

Yes it was slow over the weekend. Sometimes the ISP is doing their own upgrades, etc and you could have occasional experiences of lag. It's running really fast again today, so I think they were doing some system upgrades. If the site starts to run slow, they will generally shift assets over to give us increased bandwidth, as we have unlimited bandwidth and data. Cheers!

Yes, that would be the same one. Cheers!

Great response Txlaw! Cheers!

From these metrics, it appears that MSFT and CSCO are better buys than DELL but all of these stocks are cheap based upon the Graham growth formula which would imply P/FCFs in the low 30s for IBM and CSCO and P/FCF of the mid 20s for MSFT. Yes Packer, I agree. As long as they are around in ten years! ;D Cheers!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! We won't be buying unless something terrible happens and the stock plummets. Then we would buy enough so that we could run a proxy against him! ;D Cheers!