That didn't take long
18 hours after the 7-year old landed in France, she says: "what? another church?"
Interestingly Structured Deal on Amazon Kindle DX
If you've been eyeing the Kindle DX
(the large e-ink one), Amazon is running a weird deal until Father's day. The Kindle DX by itself is $379, but if you buy it with the official Kindle cover
, the price drops to $299.
I find this kind of deals fascinatingly innumerate -- why would any one buy the Kindle by itself? Why doesn't Amazon simply give a discount on the device instead of applying the discount only if you also buy the cover? Don't they essentially lose money on the covers? It can't be advertising for the cover (the razor-blade analogy) because most people buy a cover only once.
Of course, Amazon is probably not doing this without a reason -- it's probably a price discrimination scheme. But what does the scheme discriminate for? People in a hurry vs. cautious buyers? People who read the product page vs. people who don't? People who can do math vs. people who can't? People who are willing to throw away a cover they need vs. people who won't want to waste it?
(the large e-ink one), Amazon is running a weird deal until Father's day. The Kindle DX by itself is $379, but if you buy it with the official Kindle cover, the price drops to $299.I find this kind of deals fascinatingly innumerate -- why would any one buy the Kindle by itself? Why doesn't Amazon simply give a discount on the device instead of applying the discount only if you also buy the cover? Don't they essentially lose money on the covers? It can't be advertising for the cover (the razor-blade analogy) because most people buy a cover only once.
Of course, Amazon is probably not doing this without a reason -- it's probably a price discrimination scheme. But what does the scheme discriminate for? People in a hurry vs. cautious buyers? People who read the product page vs. people who don't? People who can do math vs. people who can't? People who are willing to throw away a cover they need vs. people who won't want to waste it?
Change your password. Now.
LinkedIn's hashed set of passwords has leaked (6.5 million of them) and apparently they were doing Mickey-Mouse stuff in terms of password security (full details here).
So, public service message:
So, public service message:
- Change your password for your email, online banking, and Facebook.
- Use three different passwords for each of the above. You don't want to use the same password for each.
- An easy-to-remember, very secure password scheme is explained in this XKCD cartoon.
- Reuse a fourth, easy-to-remember password (abcd1234) for all the other junk, like newspaper subscriptions.
- I think we all understand why your bank password should be secure. Your email should be even more secure because anyone who gets into your email can reset any password they please. Why Facebook? So that people don't get into your social network and send letters claiming you are stuck in Madrid. You know that old aunt of yours might fall for that one. Protect her by choosing a secure Facebook password.
- Why use different passwords? So that a leak of one password, like the one on LinkedIn, does not compromise your other accounts.
- Passwords should be easy for a human to remember and hard for a computer to guess. One option is to create a catch phrase, rather than letters. So, for example, a very secure password for Facebook would be DontWorryImNot./Madrid (I am using the Unix dot-slash instead of the word in). The length of this password, along with the use of symbols makes it extremely secure.
Why fracking in North Dakota makes Rajastani farmers happy
Fracking, the technology that has dramatically increased oil and gas production in the American Plains, is also having an equally dramatic effect in the desert northwest of India.
It's not that the Thar desert in India has oil. It's that it grows cluster beans and cluster beans are used to produce a type of gum that is needed to increase the viscosity of the liquid used for fracking.
It's a small, globalized world when fracking in North Dakota puts money into the pockets of a farmer in Rajastan.
It's not that the Thar desert in India has oil. It's that it grows cluster beans and cluster beans are used to produce a type of gum that is needed to increase the viscosity of the liquid used for fracking.
It's a small, globalized world when fracking in North Dakota puts money into the pockets of a farmer in Rajastan.
Macroeconomics for kids
One of the unanticipated joys of fatherhood is coming up with explanations that are simple but not simplistic.
The 7-year old: "Appa, you know how China makes all the stuff that is in the stores? Why do they keep sending the stuff to America?"
Me: "Well, some of the money we pay at the store goes back to China. That's why they send us the stuff they make."
The 10-year old: "But in China, they have different money. What will they do with our dollars?"
Just when I was wondering how to explain treasury bonds and China's need to industrialize to the kids, I found out that I didn't have to because the 10-year old had found an acceptable answer "Oh, yeah. ATMs."
One of these days, I need to talk to them about unexamined assumptions. But today's not the day. Today, I'm glad of my narrow escape.
The 7-year old: "Appa, you know how China makes all the stuff that is in the stores? Why do they keep sending the stuff to America?"
Me: "Well, some of the money we pay at the store goes back to China. That's why they send us the stuff they make."
The 10-year old: "But in China, they have different money. What will they do with our dollars?"
Just when I was wondering how to explain treasury bonds and China's need to industrialize to the kids, I found out that I didn't have to because the 10-year old had found an acceptable answer "Oh, yeah. ATMs."
One of these days, I need to talk to them about unexamined assumptions. But today's not the day. Today, I'm glad of my narrow escape.
The Buddhist cowboy
How did I not know of this book? I'm talking about a 100-year old classic that I discovered by accident.
Since I browse the e-book section of our public library website by looking at the recent additions, Owen Wister's The Virginian showed up. It's recently gone out of copyright, being 110 years old. So, there are free e-books of the text aplenty (for example, at Project Gutenberg or at Google).
Sure, it's a Western. It's apparently the grand-daddy of them all, the book that set the image of the tall, silent cowboy who's quick to the draw. But the book is a lot more than that. It's sad that the genre that this book spawned ended up so debased. Because The Virginian is a book with a moral code, a philosophy, an outlook on life.
If one didn't know better, one would say that the Virginian's moral code is quite Eastern (and I mean Eastern as in Buddhist or Hindu). He will never start trouble, but once in a battle, he will do his duty even if it involves killing. As he says about himself, he has never killed for pleasure or for profit. Krishna could have saved himself a thousand verses of the Bhagavadgita if he'd simply used that line.
It's also a quite good love story, and a story of a man's connection to the wild, untamed frontier. As a bonus, you'll find references galore to Yellowstone, the Tetons and the Snake river -- places that to this day remain quasi-mythical.
If, like me, you hadn't heard of this book before, do yourself a favor. Read it.
Since I browse the e-book section of our public library website by looking at the recent additions, Owen Wister's The Virginian showed up. It's recently gone out of copyright, being 110 years old. So, there are free e-books of the text aplenty (for example, at Project Gutenberg or at Google).
Sure, it's a Western. It's apparently the grand-daddy of them all, the book that set the image of the tall, silent cowboy who's quick to the draw. But the book is a lot more than that. It's sad that the genre that this book spawned ended up so debased. Because The Virginian is a book with a moral code, a philosophy, an outlook on life.If one didn't know better, one would say that the Virginian's moral code is quite Eastern (and I mean Eastern as in Buddhist or Hindu). He will never start trouble, but once in a battle, he will do his duty even if it involves killing. As he says about himself, he has never killed for pleasure or for profit. Krishna could have saved himself a thousand verses of the Bhagavadgita if he'd simply used that line.
It's also a quite good love story, and a story of a man's connection to the wild, untamed frontier. As a bonus, you'll find references galore to Yellowstone, the Tetons and the Snake river -- places that to this day remain quasi-mythical.
If, like me, you hadn't heard of this book before, do yourself a favor. Read it.
Making a cynic rethink
I'm as cynical about journalists and financial companies as the next person, but some things have to make a cynic rethink.
On Saturday morning (i.e. after the markets closed), the New York Times published a story that said that Walmart had been paying bribes in Mexico. Apparently, they wanted to build stores and build them fast. Other large chains, notably France's Carrefour, left Mexico because they couldn't navigate Mexico's bureaucracy fast enough. Walmart, though, was willing to pay "gestores", essentially middlemen who would (for a 6% fee) take care of paying off the bureaucrats. As a result, they pretty much captured Mexico's retail market. A Wal-Mex employee, disgruntled at being passed over for a promotion, first complained to Walmart's management in Arkansas about the bribes. Walmart, though, buried the resulting investigation and the NY Times reporter sniffed this out after five years. This is big news because paying bribes in foreign countries is as illegal in the United States as it is in France.
What is it about this story that makes me less cynical? On Monday, after the markets opened, Walmart stock fell by $12 billion. Think about it. Hundreds of people knew about the NY Times investigation -- the NY times reporters, their editors, office staff, their sources including the disgruntled employee who sat on this for five years, the SEC, Walmart management. The list goes on. Yet, it was a surprise to the markets. The story did not leak for over 6 months.
On Saturday morning (i.e. after the markets closed), the New York Times published a story that said that Walmart had been paying bribes in Mexico. Apparently, they wanted to build stores and build them fast. Other large chains, notably France's Carrefour, left Mexico because they couldn't navigate Mexico's bureaucracy fast enough. Walmart, though, was willing to pay "gestores", essentially middlemen who would (for a 6% fee) take care of paying off the bureaucrats. As a result, they pretty much captured Mexico's retail market. A Wal-Mex employee, disgruntled at being passed over for a promotion, first complained to Walmart's management in Arkansas about the bribes. Walmart, though, buried the resulting investigation and the NY Times reporter sniffed this out after five years. This is big news because paying bribes in foreign countries is as illegal in the United States as it is in France.
What is it about this story that makes me less cynical? On Monday, after the markets opened, Walmart stock fell by $12 billion. Think about it. Hundreds of people knew about the NY Times investigation -- the NY times reporters, their editors, office staff, their sources including the disgruntled employee who sat on this for five years, the SEC, Walmart management. The list goes on. Yet, it was a surprise to the markets. The story did not leak for over 6 months.
The New York Times is based on the same island as the largest, richest hedge funds in the world -- people who would have paid a fortune to learn that this story was in the works. And yet, the newspaper story was a $12 billion surprise.
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