Liberty

Netflix is not available in most of Europe (only UK and scandinavia, afaik), and I don't think streaming is as popular as in North-America. Once it is, it might change things. There's a huge difference in average data consumption between someone who streams HD content for hours each day and someone who doesn't, especially when everybody streams at the same time (evening peak hours). Cablecos will use more and more fiber too, but they don't have to bring it to people's homes, just to various hubs. The last mile can be coax, which Malone is confident should be able to go to gigabit speeds cost-effectively.

Oh I'm sorry, I was lacking some context. When you said "look at what they're doing with netflix" and mentioned competition, I didn't realize you were talking about the net neutrality stuff, I thought you were just talking about how cablecos are cooperating to try to compete against them (and other national players like DTV). That does kind of suck, but I guess it's a sign that the current model of unlimited download isn't sustainable. It might have worked back when most people just did a bit of email and web, but now that streaming HD movies is mainstream, it probably doesn't. Malone has been saying for a while that he thinks the industry will switch to a different model where heavier users pay more than light users (which is how it is in most other things). That might solve the problem without needing to secretly throttle and do other things that customers dislike. The cable industry certainly doesn't always seem to provide great service and transparency, though I think their rising prices are mostly due to rising content costs (which they have to pass to their customers). Some operators seem pretty good, while others seem pretty terrible (same applies to airlines, restaurant chains, retailers, etc).

I don't see it as scummy. They just don't overlap geographically. It's the nature of cable; the economics wouldn't work if you had a bunch of companies wiring up the same town, running wires in parallel. So they can't pretend to compete with each other if they aren't operating in the same places. Might as well try to work together when it makes sense. There's plenty of competition with cable from telecos, satellite, and netflix & other streamers, as well as lots of arm-wrestling with content owners. All these have national scale, so by cooperating on some things, cablecos are basically working their way up to a level playing field.

You'll be waiting forever for that paper. We know how radio waves work, we've been using them for a looong time before wifi came around.

I think it depends on your model. If you're selling the same stuff as everybody else the same way, it'll be very hard to have higher margins than average over sustained periods. In that game, Amazon will eventually win because of their scale and focus on operations. But if you can have exclusive products that people want and a different, more effective way to sell and build customer relationships, you can have pretty good sustainable margins. I'm thinking of QVC here. Not 100% internet retailer, but its video + web model is closer to that than traditional brick & mortor. http://oraclefromomaha.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/linta-7.png (and unlike the big department stores, that's with prices that are competitive with Amazon)

Thank you for posting, that was great!

I think it's a great thing to look into. I would definitely do so too if I wasn't renting and living somewhere that is 100% powered by hydro. Florida has net-metering (utilities pay you for extra power you send to the grid), which makes things much better for you. I have no idea what solar installers are active in the state, but by googling a bit you should be able to find them and see what kind of deals they offer, and they will be able to let you know about all the incentives and tax breaks available. If SolarCity operates where you live, it's probably the first one to check out. If you lease a system, they could set it up so you basically have almost nothing to pay up front and the cost of the lease is lower than your current bill, so it's kind of hard to lose... Good luck, and let us know how the search goes! :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater

Thank you.

What do you mean? Yesterday I added more FFH at $378... Gio I think you're both looking at Fairfax in different currencies. In CAD it's trading at about 420 and in USD at about 376...

I read Everything Store this week. I found it quite interesting and recommend it. It certainly helps better understand the company, if not necessarily on a financial level, at least their culture, tactics, and strategy, and how they intersect the landscape of giant tech companies and retailers/publishers.

You can easily dual boot into windows with Boot Camp. http://www.apple.com/ca/support/bootcamp/ But there's also a Mac version of office: http://www.microsoft.com/MAC Or should be able to use Parallels or VMWare to run the windows version within OS X. Many options.

Add a wireless keyboard and mouse and it's hard to see how you could be disappointed with that, especially if you are coming from an older Macbook Pro and liked that experience. Things have gotten a lot better since 2007 :D That seems much better than the iMac + Chromebook because this way when you're mobile, you're still in the same environment with all your stuff and all the same capabilities instead of being on a lower quality, more limited machine. Another option would be iMac + iPad + origami case and wireless keyboard ( http://goincase.com/shop/incase-origami-workstation-for-ipad-2 ). I have that setup for my iPad, and it has replaced my laptop for all living room activities.

http://oddlotinvest.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/lamperts-lemon-and-lemmans-lemonade-the-difference-between-value-creation-and-destruction/ I thought this blog post was interesting. It starts by looking at media coverage of both Lampert and Lemman and finds that they both have similar approaches, despite articles by the same publication published one montha apart using the same types of strategies to explain both success and failure. Seems like a good example of the halo effect; the same thing will be seen in a completely different light depending on whether you are currently succeeding or not. If things ever turn around at SHLD, I'm sure the media will use the same facts to explain a different outcome.. But I think the conclusion of the blog post also matters a lot: A jockey will only be as good as his horse. Lampert picked a much tougher business with Sears than Lemman with Heinz...

Thanks you, good one. Makes me think that the very best returns can be found when cyclical inefficiency is combined with sector inefficiency; find a sector of the economy where there's lots of inefficiency (small caps because bigger players can't go there?), and invest in it when the market is at the bottom of a cycle, overreacting to something. Of course, easier said than done, and at such time you might prefer to look at this that are normally never cheap like high quality large caps rather than small caps that get cheaper more often...

Thank you!

Interesting developments, thanks for sharing!

https://www.solarcity.com/pressreleases/222/-SolarCity-to-Introduce-Solar-Financial-Products-for-Individuals--Institutions-of-All-Sizes.aspx SolarCity to raise money from small investors.

Thanks, added it to the wish list :)

http://oddlotinvest.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/barron_s-interviews-seth-klarman.pdf Saw this linked on Twitter earlier today. Sorry, I forgot who it was that linked it :-[

I've learned so much from Sanjeev's wise words, and I hope that the post that he wrote in the SHLD thread meant that he won't explicitly talk about what he owns and what he doesn't, but that he will still keep posting on the board and comment about various businesses and about his thinking on investing. It might be selfish of me to think this way, but I think we're all 'selfish' in wanting to learn more from Buffett, Munger, Berkowitz, etc. To me, Sanjeev fits in that lineup of great teachers.

I second that, happy birthday to the man with so much worldly wisdom to share!

If done responsibly, what's the difference with drinking? If it was legal, you'd probably see a lot more "respectable" people do it. Right now we only see the eccentrics because they don't give a crap what others think. The peple who care what others think because they are respectable either don't do it even if they'd like to once in a while, or hide. I don't smoke, and I don't drink much, but I don't see why one should be illegal and not the other, and why addiction should be treated criminally first rather than as a public health issue.

To answer one stereotype with another: You must not like many artists (writers, actors, filmmakers, musicians, painters, etc).

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21592646-monetary-policy-may-call-end-house-price-party-castles-made-sand