People have opinions about everything ranging from the prosaic to the obnoxious. It’s typically only in outspoken cultures that you are exposed to them, although for the balance you will deal with the inevitable passive-aggressive judgmental stare. For the most part you only have to deal with these opinions around people that are very “confident” or very drunk. Read more…
All posts tagged linkedin
Why Facebook is Google’s biggest competitor in Search
The Importance of “relevance”
Although Google has many fingers in many pies, it’s dominant position comes from it’s search service, and it’s astronomical growth over the last few years has been based on its increasing ability to be relevant to users. The system finds the information it thinks you would like to see and shows it to you in a ranked list. When you confirm googles hypothesis (by clicking on a link), the system learns a little more about you, and google gets a little better the next time you search. Mammoth advertising revenues are an indication that both consumers and vendors (marketers) receive value from this matching service. And the system clearly works. But it is not clear how much longer this model can continue on for. Read more…
Why SA’s police service are corrupt and will never fix our crime problem
Until tonight, I had wondered why, with so many policemen around, our protectors were unable to be anywhere near any serious crimes, ever. Tonight I figured it out.
Being an economist, I had forgotten that people follow incentives. They are rational. This goes for policemen too it seems.
I was driving home tonight (Sunday at 10pm) from a braai with friends. It was by no means a big event. I had not had very much to drink. No more than 4 shots of gin the entire day, since 3pm, which together with all the tonic, a full meal and other non-alcoholic drinks during the day, meant I should be well within the legal range. However this also meant that I could not know for certain whether I was over the limit or not. Read more…
COPE policy – A “Progressive” D(is) A(ppointment)
Had a couple of thoughts about the new COPE policy document. They are just my opinions, and I welcome a few healthy disagreements. In fact, I would love to be proven wrong on many of these issues!
See the policy document here: [No longer available]
Overall, I think their policy document is kind of “Obamaian” in it’s ability to wax lyrically about very little. There is a huge amount of potential in the high level thoughts and approaches, which completely fizzles out by the “plan of action”. Read more…
Perspective at the end of a gun barrel
This has been quite a week.
Last Friday, my cellphone was picked out of my pocket while attending a Goldfish concert.
Yesterday, Friday the 13th, I walked out of my office at 7pm, to be met by 3 men, one of whom had a gun. They knew I was alone and the last to leave, and they were waiting for me. They walked me back inside and made me open the office, where they expected to find cash and computers. They made me kneel on the floor, and put a gun in my mouth, while they told me they were going to kill me. There was nobody around to save me. Luckily, the older man seemed to have a bit of compassion, and he controlled his younger, more aggressive partner. This man was not much older than me. He was dressed well, with expensive labels, and had Gucci glasses on his head. He was indifferent to my living or dying. They opted to tie me up instead, and locked me in my office as they left in my car, with pretty much everything that I own that is worth anything (in the boot and laptop bag). Read more…
