lmg643

why do we need to create an account to try it out?

When I look at Theranos' board, I tend to think about it the other way around - Theranos sought out distinguished people that wouldn't be able to call them out on the science. Basically, that Theranos conned their board as well, and by picking distinguished, politically connected people, improved their ability to con the general public. That this non-medical board defended the company doesn't surprise me in the least.

At the risk of 100 down votes - considering the theory that "Clinton outperformed where paper ballots were used" - isn't there an alternate hypothesis that extra paper ballots could have been submitted by her supporters, as a lower-tech kind of fraud?

I get that this is a tech site, and we like to think that everything is the result of smart hackers (even the Trump election! because some Russian hacker could be the only explanation), but there are low tech options here as well.

The Project Veritas videos, whatever you may think of them, had high level operatives openly discussing tactics they use to affect elections. A few extra paper ballots seems like something a motivated person with access to a photocopier could accomplish.

I taught myself to code using SO in just the last two years. I reference it almost daily. I've shipped production software in this time span using the information. I can't believe such a high quality source of information exists on the internet, it is a phenomenal public resource. Difficult to contribute to? Sure. Prickly moderators, who close questions I've found very useful? Definitely. Is it dying? I have no idea, I hope not. The creators of the site deserve some kind of medal, in addition to whatever valuation the company has. Really an incredible resource.

Great article. Microsoft Access was my first introduction to databases. (For those who don't know, MS Access is like "excel for databases.") Gave me a good-enough sense of what was happening under the hood. Started me on a career in software. 15 years later, I'm in a recently updated version of enterprise SQL Server (say what you will, but it works for us). I chuckle every time i get to write IIF(x,y,z) in a SELECT statement. I was doing that in access in 2003.

I think another trick of longstanding tabloids like the enquirer is that they almost deliberately undermine their reputation by publishing a lot of crap (aliens, etc) while mixing the better sourced stuff that causes celebrities fits. I think this is how they have been able to exist for so long - celebrities with thicker skin can laugh it off, hah, those crazy tabloids - and far less often we see someone actually try to sue the tabloids for an article.

example of "real" news being broken by a tabloid:

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

With regards to the Gawker case - I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter that Peter Thiel funded the lawsuits. If it were a more "noble" cause (litigation against polluters, cigarette manufacturers, civil rights etc) then no one would question massive outside funding. And, Gawker did lose the case in court, on the case's merits. Gawker seems to be hoping they can have it overturned on appeal if they change the subject to Peter Thiel instead of their own scummy behavior. Not to mention Nick Denton's shady tax evasion while criticizing tech businesses for the same:

https://pando.com/2014/07/25/gawker-no-longer-even-trying-to...

I taught myself to program at a professional level working on VB.NET. nothing i'd ever tried "clicked" with me until i could see all the pieces coming together. The syntax reminded me of old VBA macros I'd built, and there was a great online support community. (Stack Overflow is an incredible resource). I still work in VB.NET but i also use C#, R, and a bit of Python.

And of course, my VB.NET usage was all industrial test automation, it's the closest language to the VBA/VB6 that all the engineers were familiar with, easiest way for them to get comfortable with our solution.

I am in the middle of reading HPM, sad to hear. Andy Grove's writing has a lot of the same flavors of Paul Graham, but for a more corporate setting. The no-nonsense attitude towards meetings, and also understanding the challenges of decision making through meetings resonate with me.

El Chapo is the head of the sinaloa cartel:

"Chicago, home of the Mercantile Exchange, has always been a hub from which legitimate goods fan out across the country, and it’s no different for black-market commodities. Chapo has used the city as a clearinghouse since the early 1990s; he once described it as his “home port.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-dru...

"Chicago is a major trafficking route for Mexican cartels and has become a hub for the distribution of heroin across the Midwest. The dangerous result has been an increase in heroin overdose deaths in Illinois."

http://www.wbez.org/news/heroin-its-cheap-its-available-and-...

It's a border security issue because the drugs are coming from the south, by gangs that can operate across the border almost unchallenged.

prescription opiates started the problem with heroin. the history of oxycontin is a sad one for the country. with the recent pharma/biotech explosion, lots of companies are trying to get in on the painkiller game as well. there's really no need for much of it. I've had multiple minor surgeries in the past few years and the doctors have never wanted to give me painkillers. Just take some tylenol.

We've probably had less of a need for legal painkillers than ever - surgery and medical technology keeps getting better and better - minimally invasive and the like - and yet we have more legal painkillers than ever. Something doesn't add up.

This is a really sad story of how America is failing the middle class. Ohio used to be a major manufacturing hub - no longer. Now there are more deaths from heroin overdose in Ohio than car crashes. It started with the widespread accessibility of Oxycontin, then after the reformulation, heroin.

Chicago is the major importing hub for drugs - hence all the violence - and it fans out from there. We have no border security in the south, and people wonder how the drugs get in. The US is not powerless to stop any of this, but we need to admit we have a serious problem and start implementing solutions.

I recently discovered the joys of ExcelDNA, which lets you do spreadsheet extensions using C#. One of the first things I did was spin up a plugin that allows users to request data elements from CSV files hosted on a server, essentially a giant remote VLOOKUP. The product uses TCP/IP so it can run anywhere - client self-hosted, or remote over the internet. Throughput was pretty high - 70k elements per second over a network. This, and I'm a novice programmer.

So I look at Blockspring, and my first thought is that I don't quite get it, although if they ran on proprietary, internal data sources, it would make sense. (Do people really download Amazon listings into Excel? I suppose). Or, if they could get a company like Factset or Bloomberg to let them do direct data pulls from their databases, then you'd get masses of high quality data to analyze.

In terms of the core "into excel" functionality - maybe I am understating my novice capabilities, but ever since I discovered ExcelDNA it seems like you can do almost anything with Excel and C#.

I tried out this extension and found that it slowed down chrome and even crashed within a few minutes of using it. so perhaps amazon didn't get as much useful information as you think.

this is the second redesign of sheet music I've seen in the past few years. I applaud every attempt, because it forces us to reconsider what we already know. however, as an amateur musician for the past 30 years, it's worth considering how great of an interface "normal" sheet music actually is. The same clefs and staffs are used for every instrument, so you don't have the compatibility issues that this piano sheet music would have. The only sheet music I personally can't sight read is for the cello, which uses a different clef.

Also engaged in one of the most ridiculous tax dodges of all time. Uses a "derivative" with his brokers that allows a bunch of short term trades to be taxed at long term capital gains rates.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-01/simons-str...

This doesn't seem like great reporting - largely unrelated to the Orlando event that triggered the NYT article.

This worker's blog seemed pretty insightful: https://plus.google.com/+KeithBarrett/posts/PWA6BXs7dbS

Taking his comment about revenue focused technology being developed in that office, it doesn't seem like it was a smart business move to lose the experience of the staff they had in place already.

How powerful would a terrestrial satellite amp need to be in order to be effective? how cheap would it need to be to sell?

thanks for responding, I will try this out at home. Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 does not have this functionality, although the Windows version has for years.

I figured other users might have this type of problem as well but for all the downvotes...I guess not.

This minor feature was enough to drive me away from Mac Mail, and Outlook for Mac, over to Outlook on a Windows Virtual Machine.

Having a high-res 27" monitor is a blessing in many ways, but a literal headache in others, particularly late night.

will we be able to change the zoom on the font in an email without increasing the font size? Huge PITA on Mac compared to Windows.

I agree. The next generation of spreadsheets, will be a more powerful spreadsheet. The ease of use and widespread familiarity with spreadsheets are going to make them very difficult to ever displace.

That said, airtable does look pretty cool. As someone terminally addicted to Excel, and looking at Microsoft's recent responsiveness to market dynamics, it makes me wonder whether if this was a major market opportunity, they could create a special "realtional DB tab" in excel and capture 90% of the functionality. Interesting to watch.

it's easy to forget that zappos was acquired by amazon. i am interested to what extent sales growth or lack thereof, would be a driver of radical restructuring.

I agree. A large business that uses software for a core revenue-producing source, is capable of doing fantastic work on that source.

A software company providing that same product as a vendor, would be unlikely to have the motivation and focus to do it the same way.

Key for me, is the principal/agent distinction. If you are using something as principal, for revenue, your motivations are very strong. If you are producing it as agent, for someone else's revenue, trickier. By definition, less money for you to get it right as agent for someone else.

That said, there may be dozens to hundreds of ancillary software processes at a large business which are done very poorly, but any smart business of size will take great care of where the money comes from.

too much wine. having a job is not a prison. being in prison, is a prison. you're just biding your time until you figure out what works. you also need to find some happiness in life away from your work. People are good for that.

The criminal complaint states that the trader was using an excel spreadsheet trading product, from a vendor, that was specifically augmented with order types that would automatically place orders for him at price points away from the market.

Does anyone know what vendor he was using to build this product?

Federal Reserve policies to ease interest rates and purchasing securities (via QE) have the effect of inflating asset prices.

Wealthy people are often paid with assets (executive stock/option grants), work in asset-managing businesses (hedge funds/PE), and/or hold more assets than the poor (business owners).

In my view, the Federal Reserve is mainly responsible for exploding income, not that technology doesn't play some role as well - but, if it wasn't for exploding asset values, VCs would not be as desperate to invest in crazy money-losing ideas to automate XYZ (causing unemployment elsewhere) that they can sell to a bigger fish.

(Interested to know if the Fed is a disputed explanation.)

It seems strange to me that we have such a simple root cause but complicated ideas for how to stop it, other than curtailing the Federal Reserve.

In my experience, it has always worked like the old proverb: when you are ready, the right mentor will appear. Actions you might take, whether at work, with friends or counselors, may turn into a mentor you didn't expect.

The outage affected Europe and Asia during their trading day, which is a very big deal, wouldn't have expected Canada to see anything since they are 5-6 hours behind.

Bloomberg runs some of the most reliable technology in the world, and is one of the best at running distributed architecture, so the fact that a problem like this wasn't more contained is surprising, if not shocking.

New York Public library (business/finance library) on Madison Ave between 33-34th (NYC) has 2-3 terminals for open public use. Usually a short wait but you can use them.

somewhat off topic - it seems like there is a bubble in biotech. Something like 70% of the companies in the nasdaq biotech index have no earnings (losing money!) yet the index is up ~5x in the past few years. echoes of 2001 tech bubble and 2007 real estate bubble.

it does get irritating to hear about "uber as a bubble." Consider how much cash is flowing through uber right now, it is going to become/remain a massive business.

life would be awesome with a 3-day weekend, every weekend. time to make it happen.