Well, with respect, this is an undeniable win for Troy. I think that the parent comment was questioning how big a win it is for The Rest of Us.
613 karma · joined May 23, 2011
Not really, the filters on the left are your friend:
1. Check ELIGIBLE FOR PRIME 2. Select Seller=Amazon 3. If in doubt about the rating, run the URL through Fakespot [1].
This is not foolproof but I have found it effective. If I need a broader search I just start relaxing constraints.
Maybe it's more accurate to say that iOS is the (present and) future of Apple. All arrows seem to point in this direction. It's a mobile, run-anywhere world that Apple sees as the future.
In that vision, MacOS machines are a cash cow business. And the corporate playbook for those is min-investment, max harvesting.
APL will not be reborn. If that was going to happen, this century's embrace of analytics and linear-algebra-rich machine learning would have propelled the upswell. It didn't and it won't.
Why? It's not the symbols. Not the keyboard. Nor the learning curve. Nor the lack of standardization, libraries, or GPU support. These are collateral damage, not primary drivers.
APL will not flourish because it is effectively a DSL with archaic I/O capability. It is a nearly-pure functional programming language. It's primary domain is mathematics. Native GUIs, networking, the web -- all uncompetitive add-ons.
In this sense, APL and Haskell share some DNA.
For dynamic systems modeling for my thesis, I reached for APL and Matlab. I still code Dyalog APL for recreation. Love it. But I wouldn't build a web app with it and a wouldn't run my company on it.
Given how lean they were running, they probably broke the covenants on their loan(s). This would make them "technically insolvent" -- a very uncomfortable position for their (VC) Board members. Further, it's quite possible that the lender required a substantial number of Preferred shares as collateral.
So the company was probably in a bind, even if cash-flow positive.
Bankruptcy was probably not an option either. It kills any residual value in the company, as modest as that may be. And it requires Board and/or lender approval. A takeover by the lender would be more likely.
Another important dynamic to consider is that debt stands first-in-line for any proceeds. If necessary, all equity would become zero-valued if that's what's required to pay off the debt.
These are the reasons that debt is shunned in startups: if things go south, debt will make it 10X as bad. IMO, debt should only be used in healthy startups with predictable cash flows. The ability to make the payments isn't enough. The covenants are the first thing that bites.
With this as background, I would guess that management, debt, and the new equity got together and reached an accord that allows the company to try to get to a better place. Hopefully much better. The deal probably contemplates a strategic buyout within the next few years.
Disclaimers: I am a CEO -- not a lawyer, banker, or accountant. These are my opinions and analysis and I apologize to the parties involved if I got something wrong.
Here's the author's pitch: The value of AI is in "cheaper prediction." So economic value capture occurs by looking for prediction problems in your business and unleashing AI on those. The author further prescribes that one may have to "recast" certain problems (e.g., self-driving cars) as prediction problems to make it all work.
But the stunner for me was the assertion that the value of the semiconductor was "cheaper arithmetic."
I find these over-generalizations neither accurate nor helpful.
Download (free) Dyalog APL. Mouse-over any character in the editor and a mini-man page pops up.
Or use this cheat sheet:
Using this tool, I was "thinking APL" (at a novice level) in a couple of days.
Dyalog also has a free-for-personal-use 64-bit version.
...and iota is just `i and rho is `r in the Dyalog editor. So non-emacs folks can play too.
I don't think that's the right way to think about it.
Rather, I would say that tightly-moderated communities of experts tend to produce better reference material ("wikis"). But this type of structure is "toxic" to discussions ("forums") and novices.
The SO founders and key contributors built a wiki. The site's incentive structure pointed in this direction so everyone was complicit in this outcome.
Now, site management seems to be saying that they want a "help-everyone" forum. They are -- like all big orgs with something to lose -- soliciting ideas, forming interdisciplinary committees, and giving "<3"-warming (yuk) speeches.
Given how ingrained the current culture is, I believe that meaningful change would entail significant risk.
No one wants the rules to change in a game that they perceive that they are winning (or have won). Moreso if they worked hard to win.
This depends on the implementation. In Dyalog APL for example, the special characters (glyphs) are effected using fairly simple two-key sequences. Mnemonics are used to help learning. I found it fairly straightforward, surprisingly so.
But I found this Sunday AM read enjoyable, articulate, and largely on-point (overlooking a few minor scientific errors).
The core themes here are about the hubris of a rich CEO/founder, the zaniness of the current AI "market," and their resultant effect on a particular NYC startup.
This is a season of "Silicon Valley" (HBO) done east-coast, hedge fund, Ivy League style.
And do you have a reference for the "fantastically high batting average" of US DoD research? Are you familiar with the SBIR program, for example?
I would judge that neither DoD/DARPA nor VCs have a great batting average. But both have some spectacular wins.
[1] http://www.evanmiller.org/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzJMFxj7GRI
I suggest an upgraded 2009 Mac Pro.
The upgrades would include: flash to 5,1, 3.46 MHz Intel Hexcore proc, 32 GB RAM, SSD on a PMCIA card, and 5770 GPU. This should cost $1K USD or less, dual CPU (12 core) for a bit more. Mine Geekbenches at 3800 (S) and 17,800 (M).
I'm running one of these and it has been bulletproof and 100% hardware/software compatible.
I don't know what these are but they sound evil.
A couple of these (e.g., Blekko) popped up 5-10 years ago. I don't think any made it far.
"Imagine all the people sharing all the world...I hope some day you'll join us. And the world will be as one."
- John Lennon
Drew, you picked worthy source material.
They're in the "file sync" market. They want to be in the collaboration market. Hence the John Lennon-esque post.