Monthly Archives: July 2009
Salida Capital Spends About $1.68 Million On eBay To Have Lunch With Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett auctioned a lunch on eBay recently. The proceeds of the auction would go to charity. Initially the winning bidder remained anonymous, but now it has been revealed that Canadian wealth management firm Salida Capital was the winner. The Salida CEO and several other employees will be sharing the lunch which the firm’s partners bought for $1.68 million and 300 dollars.
“We think we will be able to gain invaluable insights from his years of experience and current insights and perspectives,” stated Salida CEO Courtenay Wolfe. “We think lunch with Warren is going to be a once in a lifetime experience.”
The problem with the lunch is that it may take a year to get on Buffett’s calendar. Salida’s decision to bid on the lunch was at the last second. The company bid $100 more than the next highest bidder. The donation will be going to the San Francisco Glide Foundation.
[via WSJ]
Barnes & Noble Designs iPhone App With Reservation System
The world’s largest bookstore Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS?) has designed an iPhone application that is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can read book reviews and find store information. In order to build the application, Barnes & Noble partnered with LinkMe Mobile and Spotlight Mobile.
One of the built in features allows users to take a picture of a book and immediately see reviews and other information about it. While it is just as easy to use a Google search to find the information, this feature just makes the application more intuitive.
There are several other useful features. There is a local store events section that shows up after searching for a local store. There is also online purchasing so you don’t have to use the website directly anymore. For those of you interested in individual authors, there is a section called B&N Studio where there are author interviews. Another feature is a reservation system that allows you to have a store hold books, music, or movies for you.
The application is available for free and was created because the company wanted to increase their store mobile traffic.
[via CNET]
Categories Barnes & Noble Inc., LinkMe Mobile, Spotlight Mobile
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Microsoft Has Director Dennis Liu Make Viral Office 2010 Video
Dennis Liu is a short film director that have made viral videos for Apple and Miller High Life. This time Microsoft has hired him to make a funny short film about Office 2010. The movie talks about the old Office mascot Clippy and features several Matrix-like characters.
Microsoft is expected to make a major announcement on Monday which is possibly why Google wanted to make the Chrome announcement this week despite the release date of the operating system actually happening in late 2010.
Categories Dennis Liu, Microsoft Corporation
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Amazon.com Drops The Price of the Kindle 2 To $299
Amazon.com has decided to cut the price of the Kindle from $359 to $299. The Kindle 2 was introduced back in February. Amazon spokesman Andrew Herdener said that the company is dropping the price because they are decreasing costs to manufacture the device. However the Kindle DX will remain at a price of $489.
The success of the Kindle will add about $310 million in revenue and $70 million to the bottom line for Amazon.com. This will give the company a rise in $2 billion in revenue and $560 million in profit by 2012 according to Sandeep Aggarwal, a research analyst at Collins Stewart.
Currently there are about 300,000 books available for download on the Kindle. When the first generation Kindle was introduced, there was about 90,000 books available.
[via NYT]
Categories Amazon, Amazon.com, Kindle 2
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John Pardey Architects Hind House Actually Sits In A River
I randomly stumbled upon pictures of a house that was designed by John Pardey Architects called the Hind House. The Hind House is located near Wargrave and sits in the River Loddon. This house is one of a kind because it is literally sits in the river. There are stilts that keep the house standing above the river which allows the water to flow underneath.
The house is controlled by a computerized building management system to control the heat, lighting, solar control and audio/ video. This is one high-tech and nicely designed house that I wouldn’t mind living in one day.
Categories John Pardey Architects
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Goldman Sachs Algorithms Stolen By Sergey Aleynikov Now Leaked On The Internet
Last week, the FBI arrested Sergey Aleynikov, a former VP at Goldman Sachs. Aleynikov uploaded secret algorithms used by Goldman Sachs that run automated stock and commodities trading. The data was uploaded to a server in Europe. Shortly after the deed was done, Aleynikov resigned from his $400,000 per year job at Goldman.
Unfortunately the code has leaked on to the Internet and could do some damage to the stock market. “The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways,” stated U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti. “The copy in Germany is still out there, and we at this time do not know who else has access to it.”
Aleynikov is being held on a $750,000 bail as of right now and he told FBI officials that he only intended to download open source files from the server but ended up downloading more than he had intended.
When Aleynikov posted his resignation, he was intending to join Teza Technologies LLC. Aleynikov became an employee of Teza on July 2nd and then was arrested on July 3rd. Teza stated that they learned about the arrest on July 5th and suspend Aleyniko’s employment without pay pending an investigation.
Goldman uses algorithms and a high frequency trading platform software to buy stock within a few milliseconds of company news being released and then selling a few moments later when other financial companies receive the company news.
At the beginning of June, Aleynikov ran scripts using a bash shell to copy and compress a large amount of source code. After the compression , he sent it to the servers through a secure server protocol to a server in Germany. He sent about 32MB in ASCII code about four times.
Aleynikov tried to have his script erase the bash history, but Goldman keeps a backup of everyone’s bash history. This is how he was caught. Aleynikov is now waiting for his trial. Perhaps while Sergey is waiting on his trial, he may be thinking of new ballroom dancing moves.
[via Ars Technica/Bloomberg]
Categories Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Goldman-Sachs, Sergey Aleynikov
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Amazon.com Sends Take-Down Notice For Delicious Library 2 iPhone App
Earlier this week the Delicious Library 2 (DL2) iPhone application was removed from the App Store because of a complaint sent from Amazon.com. Delicious Library 2 is software that allows you to keep inventory track of your CDs, DVDs, video games, and books in the form of a photorealistic shelf. The photorealistic shelf maintains your inventory and keeps track of the friends that you let borrow your stuff.
The CEO of Delicious Monster Wil Shipley stated on Twitter that “The DL2 iPhone app was perfectly safe, but Amazon has forced me to remove it due to their new contract.” Amazon.com objected to the DL2 iPhone application because it violated the API contract for developers.
“You will not, without our express prior written approval requested via this link, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device,” states Amazon’s contract.
DL2 isn’t the only application that Amazon.com objected to. In November 2008, another iPhone application called Mazo was removed for a similar reason. Mazo was an iPhone application that was a shopping client for Amazon.com. About a week later, Amazon.com released an iPhone application that had similar features as Mazo.
[via MacWorld]
BlackBerry App World Now Has Over 2,000 Applications
At the beginning of April, BlackBerry App World publicly launched. At the time they had about 1,000 applications and about 3.5 months later, the number of applications have doubled. Research In Motion is now granting users in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain access to the BlackBerry App World store.
BlackBerry App World’s biggest competitor, the iPhone App Store now has over 50,000 applications, but that does not discourage the Canadian mobile manufacturing company. “I don’t think it matters whether it’s 40,000 or 2,000, you’ve still got a broad range of choice,” stated RIM Global Alliance VP Jeff McDowell.
One of the reasons why BlackBerry App World does not have as much traction as the iPhone App Store is the pricing model. Paid applications have a price tag of at least $3. Many of the applications on iTunes are $0.99. BlackBerry App World is also only limited to the U.S., U.K., and Canada as of right now.
[via Engadget/Electronista]
Categories BlackBerry, BlackBerry App World, Jeff McDowell, Research In Motion, RIM
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TravelJohn: In Case You Have To Urinate On-The-Go
Amazon.com just started selling products from a company called Travel John. One of Travel John’s latest inventions is the TravelJohn-Disposable Urinal. The Travel John is a miniature toilet that you can carry in your pocket.
Personally I prefer to let nature call in the great outdoors if there are no toilet facilities around and I’d rather not carry a bag of urine.
But the Travel John has a biodegradable polymer in the bag that will turn urine into an odorless gel that will now spill out of the bag. The TravelJohn sells for about $12 for a 6 pack.
Categories Travel John
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About 77 Million iPhones Estimated To Ship In 2011
Based on the growth rate of the Apple iPhone, Nokia will no longer be the smartphone market leader by the year 2013. Nokia currently has a 40% market share and that will be reduced to 20% within the next four years as Apple’s market share rises. In terms of unit sales, Apple is expected to move about 77 million iPhones by 2011 matching Nokia’s sales.
The study was conducted by Generator Research, a digital media research and consulting company.
The reason why Generator believes that Nokia’s market share will drop is because they are focused on making budget devices for developing countries. The market for the devices in developing countries is still growing, but the company doesn’t have financial stake in ensuring that their smartphones stay on top. Nokia’s true profits do not lie in the smartphone business.
Nokia also slowly responds to competition. After the iPhone was released, it took Nokia a year and a half to reply with a phone that matches the features. After the iPhone App Store boasted 1 billion application downloads, Nokia was pushed to create the Ovi Store as a central place to download applications, music, ringtones, and video.
[via BusinessInsider]