mediaman

54 ms·

631.
by mediaman 8y ago
Theranos's problem seems to be that they (especially Holmes) would not bend on technical issues that would have allowed them to build a functioning product. It sounds like if they had allowed the machine to be a little bigger, and if t
632.
by mediaman 8y ago
Can you explain this more? If LED backlights emit multispectrum light (to get a white), and the LCD display filters those spectrum via RGB selection (say, letting less blue through, and more red/green), wouldn't this effectively f
633.
by mediaman 8y ago
Yes, but age is part of the utility. If we can save someone that would be expected to live another 50 years, it's more valuable than saving someone who will live another six months. That doesn't mean they won't get any care,
634.
by mediaman 8y ago
Even under nationalized systems such as Britain's NHS, they have to make utility decisions about how to allocate spend: a life is not of infinite value, and the NHS has to estimate the value of various types of care, because it simply
635.
by mediaman 8y ago
I agree. I never did an MBA, but have talked with a lot of people who did. Collections, financing (not the high falutin' corporate finance they teach, or corporate accounting, but small business finance: small business loan mechanics,
636.
by mediaman 8y ago
It takes 40-60 hours of instruction time and airplane rental time to earn a pilot's license. Total cost is typically $8-12,000. Once all the requirements have been satisfied, you have to go through a 4-6 hour long oral and in-flight ex
637.
by mediaman 8y ago
The phone has a transformational effect on those activities. By modifying the pursuit of that activity in a number of ways, the activities become more addictive. It is more frictionless to begin them, reward is provided more instantly, and
638.
by mediaman 8y ago
You mean, only if the fixed costs are a large part of the price? Fixed costs don't scale with production because they're fixed. If variable costs are nearly all the cost of production, then scaling production doesn't fix anyt
639.
by mediaman 8y ago
If you are referring to the cash flow statement, which I think you are, there are no "weird non-GAAP claims" involved. Their latest 10Q shows GAAP pretax income of $1.9 billion. If you're referring to total change in cash whi
640.
by mediaman 9y ago
Yes - elite colleges, and top B-schools and the like, are often seen as part education, part networking...and part spouse-finding. For B-schools, more networking/signaling and spouse-finding than education.
641.
by mediaman 9y ago
Yes, but she was able to inflict much less damage with this weapon, a handgun. And with the slower discharge rate and muzzle velocity of handguns, the victims in this case appear to have all survived (other than the perpetrator's suici
642.
by mediaman 9y ago
All of it. It's where nearly all their revenue comes from. There's no remaining business without the ad sales.
643.
by mediaman 9y ago
Wouldn't that be the best time to go public? Before valuations drop? Usually you don't want to sell your stock to the public after it's crashed.
644.
by mediaman 9y ago
I know people who are 3D artists getting into the game industry. They don't even necessarily care about the games that much, but love the art. They'd be thrilled to work in some other industry that provides the same type of work b
645.
by mediaman 9y ago
I agree. I think Airtable's interface (ease of use, responsiveness) is leagues ahead of Quickbase, but Quickbase still offers a more complete feature set, and in many cases one missing feature can cripple a use case (e.g., QB offers pr
646.
by mediaman 9y ago
But it's tough when much of the available grants of size are restricted. Sure, you could just shut down the nonprofit due to lack of funds. But sitting in the nonprofit's shoes, when that grant is what you need to stay alive, and
647.
by mediaman 9y ago
When people say ads are ROI trackable, they are referring to ads that have specific monetizable actions, such as buying a product. There's definitely some advantage there. However, most big ad spenders engage in "brand" adver
648.
by mediaman 9y ago
Huh? It's an amusing joke. How is it taking a "potshot" at his religion? Imagine being in church, praying to God for the betterment of humanity, and then you hear Him answer you back, filling the church with His voice, but...
649.
by mediaman 9y ago
Why? General opposition to motorized transport? Opposition to non-bipedal forms of transport? Or is it opposition to the type of urban planning that is centered around the car more than the pedestrian?
650.
by mediaman 9y ago
Very, very few banks lend in that scenario, which are typically zero or near-zero collateral. Yes, if you have plenty of receivables, and they're diversified, you can find banks to fund some working capital. But not operating expenses.
651.
by mediaman 9y ago
Mozilla has $500mm in assets, most of which is fairly liquid, and less than $70mm in debt. Furthermore, they increased net assets by about a third in one year, and they cleared $160mm in profit from their $520mm in revenue. They are in a ve
652.
by mediaman 9y ago
LLC are pass-through entities. So, let's say you're a farmer, and you set up Farm, LLC, and then set up Profit, LLC. Profit LLC has to charge Farm LLC enough to eliminate the profits that Farm LLC generates. One way to do this is
653.
by mediaman 9y ago
I agree, blockchain is revolutionary because of what you said. But if we only use it for transactions, not as a store, then we have to switch it in/out of traditional fiat currencies at each end, which seems inefficient, rather than bo
654.
by mediaman 9y ago
Thanks. I'll check those out.
655.
by mediaman 9y ago
I think you are saying that the publicity of Bitcoin will have created awareness of blockchain concepts, and from the ashes of Bitcoin will rise a blockchain that could be a good currency, and that new blockchain couldn't get awareness
656.
by mediaman 9y ago
But why arbitrarily limit its potential in this way? If we could run the economy on blockchain, why not? Like you say, blockchain as a concept has many desirable traits that make it superior to a fiat currency. But if Bitcoin in particular
657.
by mediaman 9y ago
Actually, big banks are interested in blockchain technology, because having a distributed ledger of stock ownership would help cut out exchanges and brokers, and facilitate international trade. The broker divisions of big banks are probably
658.
by mediaman 9y ago
And when they do, they fail at their job as a currency, because in that instance they are a poor store of value. But no major world currency in the last thirty years has fluctuated like Bitcoin has in the last thirty days. Not the yen, the
659.
by mediaman 9y ago
Bitcoin seems like it's custom designed to create bubbles, rather than be a useful currency. It is limited to 21 million units, which means that it cannot support a growing Bitcoin-based economy without rapidly appreciating in value ve
660.
by mediaman 9y ago
Yes but most people don't use 1tb, which is a problem with inflexible pricing models like this. If you're using 100 gb, which is probably the more typical user, you're still paying $100 a year, which isn't competitive wi

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