Web/Tech

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Glad to know some people are keeping their health insurance.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
- 10 Things IBM Is Teaching the World About Winning in the Next Decade. (Forbes)
- Beware of fake 'Obamacare' sites that want to steal your info – NBC News. (NBC)
- Video: Every iPhone Ever Gets Speed Tested Side-By-Side. (TechCrunch)
- 10 Animations that Show How Faces Age Over Time. (TwistedSifter)
- Why Time Slows Down When We’re Afraid, Speeds Up as We Age, and Gets Warped on Vacation. (BrainPickings)
Trading Links:
- Google Stock Topped $1,000 this Month, Not Many Tech Stocks Ever Do. (NYTimes)
- The Shutdown Took $24 Billion Out of the U.S. Economy. S&P Cuts Forecast. (BizInsider)
- What Difference Does The New Fed Chairman Make? Less Than You’d Think. (Forbes)
- U.S. Surpasses Saudi Arabia as World's Biggest Oil Producer. (Circa News)
- The True Size of the Shadow Banking System Revealed (Spoiler: Humongous). Also a new way to measure its hidden impact. (Medium)
November 17, 2013
Some Reasons that Twitter’s IPO was Smaller than Facebook’s.

Before its IPO, last Thursday, Twitter reacted to the strong demand for its initial public offering by raising the price range for its shares (from $17 to $20, as initially planned) to $26 per share.
As a result, Twitter raised over $1.8 Billion … thus valuing the microblogging platform at over $14 Billion.

The seven-year-old social network saw its stock price soar from an
initial public offering price of $26 to $44.90, a 73 percent increase.
After one day of trading, Twitter already had a greater valuation than
currently hot tech companies like Netflix and LinkedIn.

via statista.

Even though Twitter’s initial public offering appears small compared to Facebook’s blockbuster IPO a year ago, it is still larger than many high-profile tech IPOs over the past few decades.

When Amazon, a company now worth $163 billion, went public in May 1997, the online retailer raised no more than $54 million. Even Google's IPO, arguably the second-largest internet IPO behind Facebook’s, raised less capital than Twitter is now planning to.

As impressive as Twitter's Initial Public Offering was, here are some reasons that it was different (and smaller) than Facebook's IPO.

via statista.

Related articles

Twitter Prices IPO at $26 a Share

Twitter beats Google for #2 on top 10 list of Internet IPOs

Twitter IPO Leads to Sky-High $24 Billion Valuation

Twitter IPO sparks speculation on who could follow

November 10, 2013
Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Hope your week went smoother than the Obamacare launch.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
- Why
  Hiring ‘B’ Players Kills Companies. (VentureBeat)
- Artificial
  Intelligence Evolves to Another Level. New Stuff from Google & Ray
  Kurzweil (MIT)
- Improving
  Predictions: How to Make Better Forecasts. (David Brook)
- A
  Data Scientist's Real Job: Storytelling. (Harvard Business Review)
- What
  If Superpowers Were Real? A series of TED lessons explore the science of
  flight, super speed, invisibility and more. (TED)
Trading Links:
- Central
  Banks Risk Clash of Titans. (Wall Street Journal)
- Top
  40 Buffett-isms: Inspiration to Become a Better Investor. (Forbes)
- High
  Speed Trading Puts Investors On Losing End. (Money)
- A
  Generational Low in Managed Futures? (AttainCapital)
- Are
  There More Hedge Funds in the U.S. than Taco Bells? Does that imply fewer
  winners as more roll the dice? (FiscalTimes)
Get our weekly recap e-mailed to you here.
November 9, 2013
Finally, a way to use your Desktop like an iPad

Have you seen kids poking and swiping at restaurant menus or magazines … it is because they expect them to work like an iPad.

Well now you can access your desktop computer on your iPad, like an iPad, even when you are using a native Windows (or Mac) application. This is cooler than it sounds.

Parallels Access ‘applifies’ your Windows and Mac applications, letting you remotely access and experience them as if they were made for iPad. Tap, swipe, pinch and scroll any Mac or PC software application – even if they were not optimized for the iPad.

This is a very useful app that helps you get more done on-the-go.

Here is a video showing how it works.

My experience with it has been very positive. Terrific on the road … but I've even used it from the bedroom to finish up a little work that would have distracted me otherwise.

Add a comment below to enter a drawing for a free one-year subscription to Parallels Access.

Related articles

iPads hold a staggering 94% of the education market for tablets

iPad Air Is The Full-Size iPad You've Been Waiting For [Review]

iPad Air Is 80% Faster Than Its Predecessor In Benchmark Tests

This Is How The iPad Air Got Thinner, Lighter & Powerful

November 3, 2013
What Apple’s iPad Has Done to the Personal Computer Market

Apple released their new high-end iPad this week … PC-makers weeped.

Apple has effectively taken the air out of the tires of the personal computer market with the iPad.

Here is a jaw-dropper of a chart.

via Horace Dediu at Asymco.

Talk about Creative Destruction …

Related articles

Apple's Share Of The Tablet Market Hits A New Low, Down To Less Than 30% Share (AAPL)

Apple: Lines for iPad Air Better Than Low Expectations, Says Piper

The iPad Air – A Truly Mass Market Personal Computer

November 2, 2013
Where Microsoft Makes Its Money

Microsoft released some interesting stuff this week.

The update to Windows 8 is here.

They released an app that lets you control your desktop from your iOS or Android device.

Also, here is a chart that shows where Microsoft makes its money. For someone that doesn't pay that close attention to micro moves coming out of Redmond, the chart is somewhat surprising.

On one hand, notice that Microsoft's Windows franchise (which was once dominant) is now stagnant. On the other hand, it's easy to see that there is much more to Microsoft than just Windows.

As you can see, the Office business, and the Server & Tools business
are both bigger than Windows and growing at a healthy rate.

Related articles

Microsoft's Entire Windows Strategy Is Based on This Premise

#Infographic: Microsoft's history

These Are The Four People Microsoft Has Talked To About Becoming CEO (MSFT)

October 20, 2013
Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
If Obamacare had a warning label, besides potentially shutting-down the government …

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
- Slow
  Ideas. Some innovations spread fast. How do you speed the ones that don't? (NewYorker)
- Please
  Ignore the Man in the White Coat Who Is Reading Your Mind. (Businessweek)
- South
  Korea Will Soon Be Home To An Invisible Skyscraper. (Forbes)
- A
  New Alternative to Wi-Fi: Imagine a wireless network with a mile-wide range.
  (Qz)
- Find
  Out Where You Rank On The List Of The World's Richest People. Globally, it
  is probably higher than you think. (FastCo)
Trading Links:
- Using
  Google to Predict Recessions – Real Time Economics. (WSJ)
- 10
  Reasons Why Economics Is an Art, Not a Science – Ritholtz. (WashingtonPost)
- Fox
  Sold 85 % Of Its 2014 Super Bowl Ads – Business Insider. (BusinessInsider)
- So
  You Want To Invent Your Own Currency –– Great Way to Get Rich.
  (AeonMagazine)
- Institutions
  Using More Hedge Funds Since Lehman Crash. The reason, they are looking for
  the risk management and diversification. (ThinkAdvisor)
September 29, 2013
The New Grand Theft Auto Videogame is the Fastest-Selling Entertainment Product Ever

GTA V reached the billion-dollar revenue milestone faster than any other entertainment product in history.

Read that again … Not only does that make GTA the fastest game to reach that milestone, but the fastest-selling entertainment product of all time.

It took the game only three days to achieve what Avatar, no less than the most successful movie of all times, did in 17 days.

With an estimated production/marketing budget of $265 million, GTA V is not only the most expensive video game of all time, but also more expensive than most of today's Hollywood blockbusters.

The two highest-grossing movies in history, James Cameron's Titanic and
Avatar, both took considerably longer to pull in one billion.

For what it's worth, I think is also says something good about the economy and disposable income.

Show more statistics on the Topic of "Video Games"

September 27, 2013
Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Speaking of dangerous Red Lines …

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
- Siri
  Gets Sassy With Swipes At Google Glass. (AppAdvice)
- The
  NSA Machine: Too big for anyone to understand. (Yahoo News)
- Dolphins
  Name Themselves. They also answer to those chosen ‘names’ (ScienceNews)
- Viktor
  Frankl on the Human Search for Meaning. (BrainPickings)
- Not
  Science Fiction: A Brain In A Box To Let People Live On After Death. Would
  you want to live in a robotic body? (FastCo)
Trading Links:
- We
  Don't Need a Brilliant Fed Chairman. What is important for this job?
  (Slate)
- Only
  43% of Americans Pay Federal Income Taxes. (CNN/Money)
- Asset
  Allocation Strategies Compared. (MebaneFaber)
- Apple
  Fingers Payment Revolution. (Forbes)
- 2020
  Future Value Chain Trends – Building Strategies for the New Decade.
  (Husdal)
September 20, 2013
What Does Buying the New iPhone 5s Say About You?

Of course you have heard that Apple Computer will release its new iPhone 5s this Friday.

My older son tried to get me to skip this release. I half-jokingly told him that not buying the new iPhone might put my "early adopter" status in jeopardy. He sneeringly said "Buying an iPhone is proof you're not an early adopter … Anybody who really understands technology is buying the Samsung Galaxy S4."

I know he was joking. I know he was giving me a hard time. I know he didn't mean to hurt my feelings. Nonetheless, it hurt. There was a kernel of truth that got under my skin, bruised my ego, and had me questioning my place in the technology adoption cycle.

So, are you buying the new iPhone? I am.

Related articles

iPhone 5S unveiled with new features, specs and much more

All New iPhone 5S – Find Out All The Details Here!

September 15, 2013