david927

Ah, but remember that the net present value of an annuity is based on what that annuity truly turns out to be. If there's a point even in ten years where oil has severe scarcity, it will pay off quit…

That's a horribly spurious statement. What statistics? What the hell kind of statistics can you have that would back up something like that? 1) It depends on how you do the prevention, and how you …

While that's a very interesting point, and I haven't heard it before so I'll look it up, my main point remains. Because of socialized health care, other countries can focus on prevention, which is mu…

That's funny. I'm talking about the Czech Republic. You are countering with some stories of some miserably poor country in Eastern Europe (yes a few of them still exist). I don't know where it is yo…

I'm not sure how long you lived in each of these places. The infant mortality rate (deaths per 1,000) is a popular metric among those in the industry, and in the Czech Republic it's 3.8; in America, …

But that doesn't reflect the reality of health care throughout the western world. I'm an American who lives in Europe. The health care is not comparable. The Czech Republic, where I live now, has i…

This is one of the great mistakes of our time: that knowledge is the goal. If that's the goal, anything other than fact and logic-based areas are not worthwhile. But this is simply an unfortunate si…

me too. Coffee Meetup This Wednesday at 11:00am. Starbucks on Wenceslas Square, upstairs by the windows. Don't RSVP; just bring something visibly orange.

He goes on to quote Toynbee on Rome: "The economy of the Empire was basically a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. The Empire re…

Technology is not Coke. Google is a huge brand, but brand only matters when it comes to brand loyalty, and in technology there is no brand loyalty . The minute someone comes up with something signif…

I agree. If you get a chance, James Howard Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" is an interesting read about this and other travesties of modern architecture and infrastructure.

It's called a bicycle No, it's called elimination of zoning laws.

I realized after I wrote that about twenty reasons why it's a bad idea. But I think some sort of Q&A could be invaluable, especially given the brevity the answers have to conform to and that know…

Isn't this also an admission that the application process is a bit broken? I think a lot of people would be open to submitting their application to others first, to help flesh out the weakpoints. On …

The Berlin Wall falling was much more important than the moon landing. The latter inspired us, but the former changed everything for a huge portion of the world.

Nov. 9, 1989: Berlin Wall fell April, 1989: Tiananmen Square Dec. 31, 2007: European Union drops all borders (EU countries have essentially become like U.S. states) Jan. 20, 2009: Barack Obama s…

Sure; I'll email you as well.

I know what I said is cheeky because all of PLR is going in that direction, and for good reason. COLA and similar research really extol the best from each of the dominant architectures. But I think t…

Ian and the guys at VRP are amazing, but this (COLA) isn't the blue plane switch they're looking for.

I have nothing to publicly back this up, but I think in 10 years we'll be in a whole new world when it comes to creating software -- really, a whole new world. It won't be recognizable to those aroun…

quickly flag wastes of time Exactly. The startup would have to opt to be publicly vetted, but it would make a lot of sense. The worries of group-think are overrated. I think most would happily al…

Saarland University has an amazing reputation for programming language research. I'd like to do my Ph.D. there in the next few years. http://frweb.cs.uni-sb.de And ETH in Zurich is the rough equiva…

A new approach to the relational database. Relationships are handled differently allowing them to change on the fly. And the query language is straight-forward; no joins, etc. We should reach private…

I thought the same thing. For my desktop, I don't see why I would replace Ubuntu with this, but this is exactly what the crunchpad needs. Great news.

There was YEurope but it seems to have died. The German web start-up scene is hot; there's a lot going on. I wouldn't just call it copy-catting. I think the only two places you'll find seed funding …

I have industry experience and I'm rooting for ktharavaad. An existing site in an exact spec, and when you have an exact spec, it makes everything much easier. Next, there's Pareto's Law which means…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z29STlNh1w

Facebook revenue to be 0 billion in 5 years: me

Actual tech guys as VC. It's fantastic. I think it explains their past success and why they are capitalized at $300mm. I expect nothing but success from these guys.