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Absurd Alhazred posted:IBM's not just firing. They're also still doing acquisitions: Bruce Schneier's Resilient Systems is one of the most recent targets. Lots of medical data companies too: Merge, Phytel, Explorys, Truven. And the Weather Channel. More B2B stuff than Google or Amazon, but still very different from their computers and consulting businesses.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 19:33 |
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# ? May 22, 2024 08:04 |
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Dirk the Average posted:
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 19:37 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I love Northern California, but living in Silicon Valley is no longer a nice thing; the housing prices, always bad, are now pretty much unaffordable unless you're willing to commute an hour+ each way or are on the money from a unicorn startup. My husband and I bought when it was insane but not this insane, and we've concluded that we need to sell the house and move elsewhere if we ever want to retire. Gettin' out while the gettin' is good is, generally speaking, a good idea.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 19:53 |
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Emacs Headroom posted:Sorry guys I used a trigger word. Q'est le diff? Seriously though, there is no better way to do Healthcare in America. I work in Medicare and it's an awful nightmare place but unless laws change there will be no change for how healthcare works. If you want to make healthcare better, write your representative, because you can't just set up shop and start doing things different. I have no clue about the other two industries but I imagine they're very entrenched and basically immutable as well.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 19:53 |
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cheese posted:I can't wait to see how the power/energry sector gets "disrupted" by the sharing economy Smart homes with solar / wind cogeneration buying and selling power automatically. Maybe "day traders" storing in tesla batteries buying on low demand selling back at peak demand. Until it's all regulated out by industry lobbiests writing laws.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 20:06 |
Arsenic Lupin posted:I think these were some of the examples used in the book, but in the mainframe/minicomputer/workstation/PC transitions a lot of the big companies would not commit to the newer, cheaper paradigm because it would undercut/destroy their revenue streams, and because they believed that nobody actually wanted the cheaper, less functional version. Definitely, I just think there is a mistaken belief that the one who sets off the avalanche will also be the one on top after the dust clears, which leads to the unicorn valuations.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 20:20 |
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Shifty Pony posted:Definitely, I just think there is a mistaken belief that the one who sets off the avalanche will also be the one on top after the dust clears, which leads to the unicorn valuations. e: Valeant Pharmaceuticals goes boom. Their business model was to buy drugs, then jack up the prices and sell them *only* through their own mail-order pharmacies. ee: Analysis of why Valeant went boom Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Mar 20, 2016 |
# ? Mar 20, 2016 20:32 |
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Hughlander posted:Smart homes with solar / wind cogeneration buying and selling power automatically.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:06 |
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In the gaming industry threes some big VR hype. Is it actually going to be revolutionary or is it just like motion controls?
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:28 |
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ToxicAcne posted:In the gaming industry threes some big VR hype. Is it actually going to be revolutionary or is it just like motion controls? It's an additional cost on top of whatever system you buy, it's very hard to get working well (system requirements are well above what they are for the same games in 2D), and I'm not really convinced that it's all that useful outside of the FPS & Bethesda game genres. Plus it makes you look silly.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:31 |
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ToxicAcne posted:In the gaming industry threes some big VR hype. Is it actually going to be revolutionary or is it just like motion controls? I know the indie game devs in this region (NYS Capital Distrcit) are really looking into getting their hands on sets to play with. I haven't really heard anyone mention specific ideas where it seems to me a complete game changer (), but I'd give them time.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:31 |
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ToxicAcne posted:In the gaming industry threes some big VR hype. Is it actually going to be revolutionary or is it just like motion controls? It might become a somewhat lucrative niche once the underlying technical issues are fixed (This can apparently take quite a long time, I understand, as GPU manufacturers' focus lies in other areas when designing new chips.). If it becomes an established niche in the consumer electronics markets in all likehood it will be one or two of the current companies being bought out and some established bigger company making the profit from it, though.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:41 |
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Did anybody read that Padno article on Intel VC starting to draw down investments? I think it's back behind a paywall but was talking about how it was one of the best corporate VCs out there to work with, and it boded ill for SV.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 21:52 |
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Randler posted:It might become a somewhat lucrative niche once the underlying technical issues are fixed (This can apparently take quite a long time, I understand, as GPU manufacturers' focus lies in other areas when designing new chips.). FB already owns Oculus and the other major headsets were developed by fairly major corps (HTC made the Vive and I think Morpheus was in-house Sony). And let's not forget Google Cardboard.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 22:10 |
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ToxicAcne posted:In the gaming industry threes some big VR hype. Is it actually going to be revolutionary or is it just like motion controls? I work in the game industry and Think it will be revolutionary but not for reasons you think. It's going to be the biggest lift to productivity you've seen since windowed applications. Some of the major trading firms picked up dev kits to replace 4x3 grids of monitors with a single VR headset. I think it'll be huge. Gaming though? Niche for a long time. Think of the overlap of software and hardware renderers before the major titles went hardware only. It's not until that point that VR becomes more than "3D movie" to the AAA studios. (They'll support it but won't spend 150 million on a game exclusive or optimized for it.) Freemium games are ignoring it for perceived audience size. As always though watch the adult entertainment industry.
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# ? Mar 20, 2016 23:11 |
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Emacs Headroom posted:Sorry guys I used a trigger word.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 00:56 |
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VR will be a major platform but will take a few years to really catch on, the good stuff is too expensive for mainstream consumers for this gen. And yeah it'll have significant non-gaming uses as well. There'll be lots of interesting stuff, I think; I remember the Verge had an article about using VR to make it feel like you swapped bodies with someone of the opposite sex, and I think I read about plans to use it for people confronting their phobias.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 01:09 |
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Chakan posted:Seriously though, there is no better way to do Healthcare in America. I work in Medicare and it's an awful nightmare place but unless laws change there will be no change for how healthcare works. If you want to make healthcare better, write your representative, because you can't just set up shop and start doing things different. Yeah, I think this is exactly true. Imagine if Medicare could negotiate on drug prices, or use all the patient data it has collected over the decades to make recommendations on treatments with the best outcomes, even incentivize hospitals to use those procedures (including disincentivizing unnecessary procedures or pointless diagnostics...)
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 01:51 |
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Cicero posted:VR will be a major platform but will take a few years to really catch on, the good stuff is too expensive for mainstream consumers for this gen. The phobia stuff owns. One has you help guide an incredibly cute spider up a waterspout, but each level the spider looks more and more realistic until by the end you're enabling the desires of brown recluses.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 02:14 |
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computer parts posted:and I'm not really convinced that it's all that useful outside of the FPS & Bethesda game genres. I'd be surprised if you don't see serious adoption in niche space and flight sim communities, probably at a much higher rate than with people who just play traditional first person games. It's the one area where a Vive/Oculus is actually the cheaper option compared to the ridiculous triple monitor setups that some people use. That said, a lot of the excitement in the indie space seems to be focused on more whimsical, casual stuff and I think that's going to end up being a massive mistake that's ultimately going to cost a lot of small developers a lot of money. The hardware itself (and the supporting computer hardware) is just way, way too pricey for me to imagine that there's going to be much demand for that kind of stuff outside of early adopters desperate for any software. These VR headsets are legitimately exciting, though. If it wasn't for the price point, the hardware requirements, and the fact that the devices themselves are ridiculously cumbersome they'd absolutely be revolutionary. From my tiny bit of experience with the Vive, I really do feel like VR is the future of gaming. The problem is that it's the future five or ten years from now, not next year.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 03:29 |
What I find really interesting is that VR seems to fundamentally break horror games. Nearly every write up I've read has said that things which used to be enjoyably spooky are transformed into being legitimately not at all fun terrifying.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 04:02 |
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Shifty Pony posted:What I find really interesting is that VR seems to fundamentally break horror games. Nearly every write up I've read has said that things which used to be enjoyably spooky are transformed into being legitimately not at all fun terrifying. I think we've just had so much experience manipulating fear in media in the past forever, that we're, societally, too good at it for our own safety. I think we'll see scaling back and any adoption of VR in the horror genre will become "VR-Only" because the psychological distance of watching a VR-experience on a monitor will render it cartoonish, while a VR version of PT would probably straight up kill some people, through heart attacks or making people recoil backwards and crack their skulls open on the desk
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 05:30 |
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Bushiz posted:I think we've just had so much experience manipulating fear in media in the past forever, that we're, societally, too good at it for our own safety. Being alone with a VRu strapped to your head... Potentially more terrifying. Kind of like the difference between watching a jumpscare on TV/in a theatre, or reaching for something while you're walking in your home at night and hitting something that should be be there.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 06:24 |
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Can't we all agree that VR porn is going to be the killer app?
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 13:38 |
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Josh Lyman posted:Can't we all agree that VR porn is going to be the killer app? There's already porn on it. Guaranteed.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 13:48 |
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Does anyone else want a Bloomberg terminal? They seem awesome.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 13:58 |
Jumpingmanjim posted:Does anyone else want a Bloomberg terminal? They seem awesome. Disrupt the market with your own VR terminal I pretty much dread mass adoption of VR and the like. I've got a perforated iris, no real depth perception, and no peripheral vision on one side. Also get a second image above anything bright or reflective because while my brain tends to cut out the blurry crap that lines up, it does not do this when they don't. 3D movies/TV are also hell but it looks like that's already fallen away. The upshot is that I get to be all "old man yells at clouds" about technology while still being a millennial.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 14:28 |
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Shakenbaker posted:Disrupt the market with your own VR terminal There's hope. One of my friends works at Oculus and had his pupils dilated for an exam. He went back to work tweaked the settings for what he was seeing and put in the full day.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 15:31 |
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Omg look at the mess valeant is in.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 15:42 |
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quote:
http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Valeants+(VRX)+Howard+Schiller+Issues+Statement/11436038.html
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 15:48 |
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But they're up 11% today
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 16:06 |
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Jumpingmanjim posted:http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Valeants+(VRX)+Howard+Schiller+Issues+Statement/11436038.html holy poo poo. "guys the actual forms we are legally required to file are lying, don't listen to them, everything's fine i did nothing wrong"
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 16:58 |
axeil posted:holy poo poo. Dude is probably primarily concerned about the SEC at this point and has a legal team trying to close any potential opening for an investigation to start. He lost some very powerful people a lot of money and did it in a way that made defending him political poison so once an investigation gets rolling he knows he's not going to have any help.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 17:09 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Nest is a footstep into smart-house technology, and they can use the expertise to go bigger. I'm betting that Google voice search steps into the Alexa/Siri "cloud-backed app as a universal controller" space any day. Google also has a massive boner for save-the-earth products. I've been holding off buying an OnHub until I see where it fits in to all that.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 17:46 |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35860814 The British company that 'trumped Apple'.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 17:46 |
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crayon85 posted:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35860814 They had mobile payments too? Square and Paypal have you covered there. Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Mar 21, 2016 |
# ? Mar 21, 2016 17:48 |
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All you need to know about UK unicornland is the nickname for their tech hub "silicon roundabout"
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 17:50 |
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quote:The Philidor sales transactions in Q4 2014, and the subsequent accounting treatment, was the result of a careful and reasoned accounting decision made by the Company's Corporate Controller based on what she considered to be complete and accurate facts, and I was told by the Corporate Controller that the outside auditors reviewed the transactions in question. The accounting decision was not my decision, but I was advised of the decision and the rationale behind the decision by the Corporate Controller, and I agreed with the decision. I had no idea what was going on with the head of money, because that had nothing to do with my fiduciary duty.
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 18:43 |
That reminds me of this Terry Pratchett quote:quote:The Grand Trunk’s problems were clearly the result of some mysterious spasm in the universe and had nothing to do with greed, arrogance, and willful stupidity. Oh, the Grand Trunk management had made mistakes—oops, “well-intentioned judgments which, with the benefit of hindsight, might regrettably have been, in some respects, in error”—but these had mostly occurred, it appeared, while correcting “fundamental systemic errors” committed by the previous management. No one was sorry for anything, because no living creature had done anything wrong; bad things had happened by spontaneous generation in some weird, chilly, geometrical otherworld, and “were to be regretted.”
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 19:41 |
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# ? May 22, 2024 08:04 |
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http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2016/02/14/what-most-people-dont-understand-about-how-startup-companies-are-valued/quote:Why Valuations in Recent Years Were Irrational so, lol i guess
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# ? Mar 21, 2016 22:17 |