seanreilly

Warren Buffett

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:41:05 -0500

I love this guy’s writing. From Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report:

People thought it was good news a few years back when housing starts – the supply side of the picture – were running about two million annually. But household formations – the demand side – only amounted to about 1.2 million. After a few years of such imbalances, the country unsurprisingly ended up with far too many houses.

There were three ways to cure this overhang: (1) blow up a lot of houses, a tactic similar to the destruction of autos that occurred with the “cash-for-clunkers” program; (2) speed up household formations by, say, encouraging teenagers to cohabitate, a program not likely to suffer from a lack of volunteers or; (3) reduce new housing starts to a number far below the rate of household formations.

Our country has wisely selected the third option, which means that within a year or so residential housing problems should largely be behind us

Digital Object Repository

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:10:45 -0500

Digital Object Repository:

My first publish paper in many years. It’s about a big project I’ve been working on at CNRI for the last few years.

Part of what I've been working on for a couple years now

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:56:04 -0500

Part of what I've been working on for a couple years now:

A brand new protocol, client, server and utilities that provide an architecture for representing information as “digital objects” instead of URLs and simple files or byte streams.

Any conservatives want to argue that the US has the best health...

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:17:00 -0500

Any conservatives want to argue that the US has the best health care system in the world after seeing this graphic? I didn’t think so.

Huge Privacy Leak: Santa's Database Compromised

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:08:54 -0500

Huge Privacy Leak: Santa's Database Compromised

Photo

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:20:00 -0500

the left: objects to their tax dollars being used to kill people the right: objects to their tax...

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:33:46 -0400

the left: objects to their tax dollars being used to kill people

the right: objects to their tax dollars being used to save people

it is not complicated

…or so says his campaign. Just ignore the fact that RIM, the company that makes the...

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:49:02 -0400

…or so says his campaign. Just ignore the fact that RIM, the company that makes the blackberry, is Canadian.

Blinking Mooses with Lipstick

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:02:58 -0400

Blinking Mooses with Lipstick

If you haven’t already seen it, check out the Washington Post’s graph showing how McCain...

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:59:43 -0400

If you haven’t already seen it, check out the Washington Post’s graph showing how McCain and Obama’s tax plans compare, broken down into income groups. If you make under $111,645 per year then you will get a bigger tax cut from Obama. If you make less than $226,981 per year then you get a tax cut from Obama, but a slightly larger one from McCain. If you make more than $603,403 per year… I don’t imagine you’re worried too much about money. The WP sums it up nicely:

Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy.

If everybody voted for their own financial self-interest then Obama would win by a landslide in November. Personally I think there are many other great reasons to vote for him. Update: even better, here’s a version of the same graph that chartjunk adjusted to be to scale based on the number of people in each income bracket:

Large Hadron Rap

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:13:39 -0400

Large Hadron Rap

Justin Long just released a fantastic little app called Today that provides a bite-sized interface...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:04:16 -0400

Justin Long just released a fantastic little app called Today that provides a bite-sized interface to your iCal events and tasks. Having tried it for all of 5 minutes it seems to be a nice blend of clean design and quick access to core schedule/to-do functions. And because it is an interface to ical rather than a replacement, it syncs beautifully with the iPod touch which has become my primary PDA.

Some music I’m listening to made available by muxtape. Make your own “tape” and...

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:59:22 -0400

Some music I’m listening to made available by muxtape. Make your own “tape” and send it to me… unless you’re into country music.

I’ve just gotten back to my Paris hotel room after having dinner at Le Grand Véfour. The...

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:05:57 -0500

I’ve just gotten back to my Paris hotel room after having dinner at Le Grand Véfour. The dinner was very French - small, luxurious portions served with incredible attention to detail. I appreciate the chef going out of his way to accommodate my vegetarian diet - something that seems like it must be less common in France. As fantastic as the meal was, the most amazing aspect of the dinner were my dining partners - Dr. Robert Kahn, Louis Pouzin as well as Dr. Kahn’s wife, Patrice.I’ve had a few dinners with Bob and Patrice lately as I’ve been traveling with them for the last week or so. We’ve been talking about the Handle System and the Digital Object Architecture with various European groups such as ITU and UNESCO, but it was really amazing to hear these guys who changed the world casually talking about the “old times” and their work to bring packet-switched networks (ie the Internet) into a world dominated by entrenched telephone companies who entrenched in a world of circuit-switched networks. It is also amazing how normal and humble these two guys are.I’m trying hard to keep this experience fresh in my mind.

It’s nice to see one of the best places to eat on Broughton St. got a great review. I love...

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:56:59 -0500

It’s nice to see one of the best places to eat on Broughton St. got a great review. I love this place, and they are really nice to India

I just noticed that an old favorite radio show (at least when we lived near a station that carried...

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:40:01 -0500

I just noticed that an old favorite radio show (at least when we lived near a station that carried it), The Thomas Jefferson Hour is now available for free as a podcast. I can’t recommend it enough.

Britain Drops ‘War on Terror’ Label. I like the reasoning behind the decision.

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:18:47 -0500

Britain Drops ‘War on Terror’ Label. I like the reasoning behind the decision.

I don’t think GTD is going to help with this one

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:45:04 -0500

I don’t think GTD is going to help with this one

The judge in this article is truly a horrible person.

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:41:49 -0500

The judge in this article is truly a horrible person.

I’ve just subscribed to a video podcast of TED Talks and have started downloading 37 of the...

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:51:52 -0500

I’ve just subscribed to a video podcast of TED Talks and have started downloading 37 of the videos. Looks like I won’t be bored anytime soon (as if there were any risk of that). It would be nice if I had time to read a book in increments of more than 15 minutes at a time.