opihiman2

I know there are quite a few Canadians on here. I was wondering what you guys think about the new usage based billing, and the really low bandwidth caps that has been implemented by the CRTC. I'm sure most Canadians find it irritating, and probably downright appalling. However, capitalists view things quite differently (if not oddly). For example, it may seem like the consumer is screwed, but the shareholder of Bell Canada, etc... should do quite well with the excessive new profits. Also, I believe this will definitely affect the markets for large bandwidth companies such as Netflix and OnLive. UBB is common throughout the world, and I wouldn't be surprised if it made its way to the States. Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and now Canada all have limited bandwidth. I'm hoping it ends there.

Thanks for the responses, guys. It has been interesting times these past 2-3 years. It will be even more interesting to see how things turn out in another 10. I am in the overvalued camp and have trimmed all of my holdings. I believe we will face a stagflationary environment in the coming years with high commodity/material prices and rising interest rates. Although, we'll see, gentlemen. We will see.

I haven't been on here in quite awhile, and whenever I do pop on, I only manage to peak at a few posts. However, I've noticed there seems to be a lack of any discourse on macroeconomic problems and issues. Has sentiment shifted so much with the rising S&P? I'm wondering what everyone on here thinks will be likely, in terms of macroeconomics, over the next five years. Thanks

He has been saying that for quite awhile on Yahoo's Tech Ticker. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I'm with Harry on this one. You've got to be nuts to short something like NFLX. Anyways, Harry, Parsad makes a good point. What are your #'s like? I don't mean this in any offensive way. I'm just curious. It seems like all of your stock picks on here have drastically outperformed. Much kudos to you.

I'm assuming this is you: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sreen-raghavan/4/a8/518 If so, then you probably did know that without looking it up!

Exactly. People usually think it's because of recursion and fractals. I would be impressed if you knew this without looking it up.

Here's something interesting about Benoit: guess what his middle initial was? B. Do you know why?

Have you guys been watching the CDS market? The implied credit rating of Bank of America based on its CDS is junk. So, basically, the bond markets are sending out warning signals.

That part of the panhandle is about as far from Miami as West Virginia is from Chicago. Yes, I know--and they're bordering two different oceans. Let me clarify, I'm ASSUMING he is familiar with that area being that it's his home state and the distance isn't much different than northern and southern California. I'm sure he's been to that part of the panhandle enough to be familiar with the real estate market and understand its dynamics. I've also read that Bruce has a house in St Petersburg? Could be why I made the earlier assumption.

Bruce probably has a love affair with St Joe because he's familiar with the Florida panhandle (being that he's based in Miami) and is comfortable with the real estate dynamics there. I liken it to investing in a brand or good that you use and like, e.g. Steak N Shake, and can see some value in. However, I have seen what real estate busts will do to localized markets (i.e. Hawaii in the 90's) even in desirable, tropical beachfront areas: they can take a long time to recover. The housing market in Hawaii recovered after 16 years of little growth. How would St Joe fare in that kind of environment? I think it's a value trap.

The biggest problem I have with Wall Street and bankers in general is that the system is geared towards heads I win, tails I still win: http://www.cnbc.com/id/39664612 There is nothing different than what those two gentlemen did and what HF traders do. Yet, they are facing criminal sentencing? It's a bizarre landscape we live in.

NFLX still looks like it's very much in an uptrend.

-1 Keep posting. They make for interesting reading. And you're right about Grant. Over the years I've gotten my hands on his Interest Rate Observer and although well written, he goes on tedious, lengthy diatribes written in semi-prose that's absolutely laborious to read. The worst part is, I never got a good investment idea from them.

I was just wondering, because I read a pretty disturbing piece about the CEO and fund manager david bruce mcmahan today. I never heard of him or his funds before. I thought someone on here knew about it.

Anyone ever heard of it?

Geez. I hope not. I think the gaming community would be in an uproar if that happened. It seems everything that ATVI has been touching lately has turned to s*#(...for the gamer, that is. I would be one sad panda if that happened. No, I think IBM was more like MSFT 20-30 years ago. Apple had some glory in the early days of the Apple II and IIe. The downfall happened with the IIGS and Mac. Both were good computers, but C64 just owned them outright. Jobs left to start NeXT and Apple nearly went bankrupt in the 80's-90's. He is responsible for turning it into a consumer powerhouse. The way he did it was through mass appeal. Not cutthroat business tactics. Which makes me think that ATVI is in a different league. I mean, how do you take a commoditized thing like a intel based laptop or mp3 player and make it instantly differentiated? That's a rhetorical question.

Anders, I'm an old school gamer too. Started with the Atari 2600 and was a big Commodore fan--had both the 64, and Amiga 2000. There is currently a big backlash against Activision, especially their CEO, at the moment in the gaming community. Check out this link: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1123641p1.html more commentary here: This is not a one off thing I'm noticing, but a growing trend. Almost every week I'm seeing Activision/Kotick bashing in the gaming community. And they have done some unethical, douche-baggy things to a group of developers at their Santa Monica office. The negative reputation they're building, I think, will bite them in the ass someday. Of course, that's not worth a damn when you consider Microsoft was engaged in all sorts of douche-baggery as it became the largest software company in the world. And, at the time, everyone hated the company. However, Bill being the cutthroat brilliant CEO, managed the company in a ruthless manner to dominate the industry. Although, we are now seeing the ass biting: IE has dropped below 50% of the market and the trend is heading lower. Apple has overtaken MSFT as the largest computer company in the world, and its market share is growing--Apple has clearly taken advantage of the negative Microsoft perception. People are starting to realize open source, such as Open Office, are good replacements to MSFT's products (looking at the recent market share shows declining trends for MSFT). MSFT hasn't gone anywhere in the past 13-14 years. Kotick has turned Activision into the biggest gaming company. They've overtaken EA, bought out Blizzard in a brilliant swoop, and Kotick is trying to build the company into a gaming behemoth. They have several big franchises that you and I are aware of and a big lineup of games coming up this year (COD and Starcraft). But, I believe there is an Apple in the wing. Valve and Steam, I think, could be it. Although this is a competitive monopoly with multiple suppliers with distinctive products and loyal fan base, with games becoming more expensive over time ($60 for a new game is getting really pricey), the winner will be one that has a low cost distribution model with lower cost games. Steam provides that platform. Every time they have sales the games are ridiculously cheap. They just need to push this platform onto the consoles.

It's a paid service. Kinda expensive too.

I have been following STEC too. They are not big in the consumer space. I believe Intel will lead that area, along with the traditional drive manufacturers and SSD drives. What they are known for is enterprise RAID SSD storage. They have proprietary technology that allows SSD to be more reliable across RAIDed storage. And the system is fast. The fiber adapters utilize proprietary nonvolatile caching to complement the SSD array. I think STEC is going to be a buyout candidate by either DELL or IBM. I'm looking to buy the stock.

FinViz. It's a pretty cool site. Although, I'm not convinced the database they use is accurate.

Was what I said before. By the way, it's quite humbling to see so many millionaires on here. I still have a ways to go. My student loan debt still needs paring.

Ouch. No doubt and will do. It was bizarre, however, that I was being confused with the rest of the arguments on this thread when I only said one thing on the topic. How I got lumped in with the rest of the crew is beyond me.

From what I've read in various consumer financial magazines, the net worth calculation includes the home equity but subtracts the remaining debt as a liability. The estimated market value was also used in the net worth calculation. Of course, all of this is pre-tax, so estimated net worth is generally lower after liquidation or proceeds occur.

Harry, A butterfly flaps its wings and a tornado may result. To determine the path of a dynamical system, such as life, is nearly impossible given the numerous variables and initial conditions. In the context of Myth465 and my discussion, what-ifs are the realm of fantasy, regret, and speculation. I don't see the parallels to the study of history.