Online newspaper design (francais and english)
Here are some screen-shots of some English and French newspapers/news sites. In general, the English sites are less cluttered and easier to read. Despite the excellent content on sites like Courrier International, I have a difficult time finding and enjoying the content.
Note 1: Placing a banner on the top part of the screen eats up a lot of “first view” content space (4/5 french sites and 2.5/5 english ones do) . This obviously appeals to advertisers, but the real risk is that I miss an interesting story and leave the site. People do not tend to scroll down sites.
If the first thing I see is advertisement, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Does the print version of these papers place ads on the top part of the paper? I don’t think so. So why would you do it online?
I want to calculate the print to advertisement ratio on these sites, the amount of black ink to colour ink, and create a contrast-ratio map of the sites. Anyone know how to do this quickly?
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter
A footnote: We paid the IRS tax of $1.2 billion on our PetroChina gain. This sum paid all costs of the U.S. government – defense, social security, you name it – for about four hours.
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The best anecdote I’ve heard during the current presidential campaign came from Mitt Romney, who asked his wife, Ann, “When we were young, did you ever in your wildest dreams think I might be president?” To which she replied, “Honey, you weren’t in my wildest dreams.”
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You may recall a 2003 Silicon Valley bumper sticker that implored, “Please, God, Just One More Bubble.” Unfortunately, this wish was promptly granted, as just about all Americans came to believe that house prices would forever rise. That conviction made a borrower’s income and cash equity seem unimportant to lenders, who shoveled out money, confident that HPA – house price appreciation – would cure all problems. Today, our country is experiencing widespread pain because of that erroneous belief. As house prices fall, a huge amount of financial folly is being exposed. You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight.
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You will recall that in our catastrophe insurance business, we are always ready to trade increased volatility in reported earnings in the short run for greater gains in net worth in the long run. That is our philosophy in derivatives as well.
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(I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death – abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term “thinking outside the box.”).
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Then, after a short recess, Charlie and I will convene the annual meeting at 3:15. If you decide to leave during the day’s question periods, please do so while Charlie is talking.
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Stop by the NetJets booth at the Qwest to learn about viewing these planes. Come to Omaha by bus; leave in your new plane. And take all the hair gel and scissors that you wish on board with you.
Great Goals, Great Peril
The Great goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him home safely was born out of fear, but gave America its wings to overcome the Soviet Union.
Great article in the NY Times
Since Apollo 11, the missions to space have been of ever decreasing glory. Though notable in the scientific achievement, they fail to grasp the world and make us look, uin unison, towards the heavens and say “We can”.
The sad state of the United States foreign policy will likely drain prestige from their empire, resources from their nation and put pressure on their debt and currency. The catalyst with may possibly re-awaken America is the successful lunar mission by one of the three nations who have announced suich plans: China, India and Japan – all by 2020.
Just as September 11th woke America up to the Islamic world, space exploration by another nation will wake America from their descent into complacency, lack of investment in non-military technology and political apathy.
You need a very powerful electric prod to move a cow.
Published on September 25, 2007The History of Oil
A very interesting way of presenting the history of oil. 45 minutes long, but worth it.
Published on September 24, 2007Competence and Confidence
Steve Jobs is the stereotypical executive who predicts greatness for his company. The difference remains that he continuously delivers. His combination of competence and confidence is rarer than most people realize. To have a strong confidence in one’s own abilities is essential to success. Competence in your field is equally essential.
It is of course also necessary to listen and learn from others – something he failed to do the first time at Apple. Without confidence, competence is not worth very much. But with confidence and little competence, your successes will be short lived and fake.
Mystery – of the famous Mystery Method of Picking up Girls – explained he would rather be competent than confident. If you were to ride a motorcycle down a highway, would you prefer to have competence of confidence? He applies the same logic to a structured solicitation of females.
Learning from evolutionary biology and human behaviour, he engineers flawless approaches to any situation (3 guys – one girl, boyfriend – girlfriend, married, shy, hot, with friends…). Through his method, the most insecure guy can slowly become competent enough to get a good looking bird. Logic can triumph, but it can only take you so far.
The management world is awash with gurus, rules, suggestions and trends. All the recent management books (Good to Great, Tipping Point, Freakonomics…) are fantastic. They explain the theories and rules of society, but it is ultimately the person who takes charge who comes out on top. You have to want it, bad.
Here are a couple of Steve’s dramatic (and largely true) predictions:
Babe Ruth knew he was great:
“Perhaps the most famous moment in baseball history, and certainly of Babe’s career, came during Game 3 of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs. In 5th inning, after he had already hit one homer, Babe came up to bat. He ran the count to two balls and two strikes. Before Cubs pitcher Charlie Root hurled the next pitch, amid the heckling of Cubs fans, Babe pointed to the center field bleachers. Then he slammed what is believed to be the longest home run ever hit out of Wrigley Field, directly above the spot where he had pointed.”
Published on September 11, 2007