opihiman2

Seriously?

You sure about that? His iPhone app is about 2-3x more profitable than the Android app, but that's due to much higher volumes. I have a friend that created a 3d dice application for both platforms, and he says the trends for Android is becoming much better and is quite profitable. I'm in the camp that HTC and Android will eventually catch up to iPhone in market share.

Never say never, I guess - and you provided a counter-example in your assertion too! ;) Yeah, really. I was about to debate with the guy, but might be like arguing with a brick wall. ::) By the way, I disagree with that assertion. I think Zune is a great competing product to Apple. Actually, I'd love to hear some responses to the points I made in my prior post. I'm always interesting in hearing how people agree or disagree with me -- that's the whole point of posting for me. Or you could just keep rolling your eyes . . . ::) ::) ::) Ahhh... you were just asking for that. :D

Never say never, I guess - and you provided a counter-example in your assertion too! ;) Yeah, really. I was about to debate with the guy, but might be like arguing with a brick wall. ::) By the way, I disagree with that assertion. I think Zune is a great competing product to Apple.

Noooo...you don't say! ::) I was a big fan of OnLive in concept. In execution, it's horrible: the response time of the controller lags; you need a 10 MB/sec connection to get compressed 720p (besides, 1080p is where the next gen consoles are going and you will need fiber to get the kind of bandwidth to stream that); the current game selection is horrible; there is a subscription fee of $15 a month ON TOP OF the ludicrous fee of "renting" the games to play; it's DRM, and all the gamers hate DRM with such a passion that if DRM was a business, it would be the equivalent of Monsanto, BP, or Goldman Sachs. The Xbox was never meant to control the living room. I don't know where you got that idea. Microsoft has been involved in gaming for quite a long time. They created fantastic games on the Windows platform. After doing some work on the Dreamcast, it was a natural progression for them to attack Sony's highly profitable PlayStation. The Xbox was all about gaming. Besides, does the XBox have the ability to turn off the lights, heater, and what not? What do you mean by "use in the living room"?

I don't understand this statement in the context of what has been going on. Are you saying that you want Biglari on board at Red Robin?

^^ Yeah... not touching this one with a 10 ft cattle prod.

If anyone can find his SAT or GRE scores, you can accurately determine his IQ.

I just watched this documentary on the natural gas energy industry. I thought it was very interesting, and I wonder if it could steer energy policy around natural gas in the future. Already, CHK energy is out defending the gas industry because of this film (of course, no big surprise there). I'm pretty sure there are a few natural gas energy investors on here: PDS, SD. Here's an interview with the filmmaker and some background info on his film: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html Any thoughts?

Nice. I haven't been looking at WMT in quite a long time. I hope it will go to the lows it made several times in the past 10 years: $43/share. I will snatch up a cargo container load. Technology is a quandary. Unless you've grown up with it and work in it, it's very difficult to determine future trends. Hardly anyone predicted Apple's stellar rise. No one predicted IBM's resurgence. Likewise, in 2000, no one would ever have thought that the most dominant UNIX vendor, Sun, would eventually head towards collapse--essentially, if Oracle didn't buy them out, they would have. I don't know where Microsoft will be in 10 years, no one does, but the risk of becoming the next Sun is real and probable. I would not be surprised that by 2030, Google's Android will become a dominant force in the consumer OS market.

Just wondering, where did you find the $4000/acre figure?

Also, there is not much in the Bill that addresses exponentially increasing health care costs. Regardless, it's a step in a direction.

Translation: It's only fair that somebody else pays the costs if I make a mistake. Just let me keep all the profits! I'm liking what Obama said tonight -- it's time we accept the external costs of our fossil fuel society and get serious about finding new energy sources. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future I suppose he was also the latest in a long line of presidents to promise a government health care plan: http://modern-us-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_presidents_and_healthcare_reform But who was the first to get something done? Didn't mean to make this a political debate. Let's just say I'll believe it when I see it.

Translation: It's only fair that somebody else pays the costs if I make a mistake. Just let me keep all the profits! I'm liking what Obama said tonight -- it's time we accept the external costs of our fossil fuel society and get serious about finding new energy sources. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future

The other downside risk are taxes. The article doesn't mention that. I'm betting taxes eat up all of the out-performance of that strategy. Seems to me that taxes vary so much between people/institutions/etc that it'd be hard to say much in general. But I look forward to your book on the topic. Rude.

The other downside risk are taxes. The article doesn't mention that. I'm betting taxes eat up all of the out-performance of that strategy.

Sounds very similar to this story I read a few months ago: http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/03/08/how-a-secretary-made-and-gave-away-7-million/

I believe it's propaganda. That's the general consensus that everyone has over on Reddit. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/no-the-military-didnt-just-discover-an-afghan-mineral-motherlode/

According to the Business Insider, LVLT is the number 3 most hated company in America. One of their metrics to determine this is shareholder return. Obviously, LVLT is way up there in this regard. The other metric is customer satisfaction. That is not surprising to me. It amazes me why people still flock to this terrible company. Level 3 (NASDAQ:LVLT) is one of the nation’s largest broadband networks, a roll-up of a number of smaller businesses. The execution of the business strategy was flawed and integration problems were severe. Level 3’s stock is down 50% over the last two years. The company has been plagued by customer complaints. Level 3 has fired a number of people over the last three years due management’s ability to quickly and successfully integrate its patch-work of businesses, and its inability to reduce the firm’s huge financial losses.

That is bizarre. I posted a response to this thread awhile back with a link to a surfing site that offers a pretty good analysis of El Nino to neutral to La Nina correlations to hurricanes in the Atlantic. It's gone. What the heck?

These are figures directly from BLS: 1980 CPI: 89.7 2010 CPI: 173.8 1980 Median Hourly Wage: $7.12 2010 Median Hourly Wage: $18.85 Adjusting for HOURS WORKED, and adjusting for CPI there has been a 36% increase in take home wages. -This does not account for the fact that many things (Computers, telephones, tvs, medicine) are better today but cost the same or less -This also does not account for the expansion of FEMALES in the workforce (more jobs have been created for females that wanted to join workforce) The fallacy here is to assume the CPI is correct. There is alot of controversy surrounding the inflation index. I do not believe 2% inflation is right. I think 4% is more accurate. Using 4% as the adjusted inflation index, I see median wages falling. Also, debating whether we have better standard of living now than before is moot. It's all relative and debatable.

No, I don't think you're missing anything. This is a heavily debatable point, and it's one that I could see from a mile away. I chose the "enlightened" answer on this one too because of the context. The pundits will point out that medicine and life expectancy is much better now than it was 30 years ago. They will say that technology has benefited society in drastic ways: cars are better, information technology is much better, electronics and gadgets, etc... But, it's tough to claim a general statement that the standard of living has gotten much better. I mean, that term is relative, right? Does standard of living equal having more stuff and money, but working drastically more for it? Productivity has been increasing by leaps and bounds in the U.S. and it's often looked as a good thing by policy makers; however, to everyone else it sucks (unless you're a workaholic).

Ouch on Zarley's comment. This is turning out to become a heated debate. I believe the right answer to these questions depends on the context. Watsa, I understand your point that these questions are posed under the context of conventional economic thought in a standard Econ 101 class; however, is this necessarily the "right" answer? I think that's what the rest of us are arguing. Regardless, thanks for bringing up a thought-provoking debate. Some users brought up some points I had forgot about. External costs, or societal costs, are very important. It would be interesting to see how the political spectrum measures up in that regard.

I answered all of those questions with "enlightened" answers; however, a few things: 1) I'm definitely more liberal than conservative 2) I know economics 3) Those questions were slanted 4) Although I answered disagree for 5. (I foresaw the economic thought behind the questions), I don't agree with my answer. There are clear cases of exploitation by American companies of foreign employees. So, without prefacing the question with a condition, I do not agree fully with the statement. I do agree that foreign employees are better off than without any work or money. 5) Minimum wage laws may raise unemployment--that is easy to see; however, is everyone necessarily better off? Is Y% unemployment at $X/hr better than M% unemployment at $Z/hr? Exploitation can occur, and there is clear evidence of that right now. For example, companies are breaking employment laws by accepting payment for internships. My thoughts on extreme free market economics are there will be lots of abuses and social problems if regulations and restrictions do not occur.

People still use full service brokers nowadays?? ::)