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Comment Re:Yahoo and HP (Score 1) 332

But, as you astutely point out, so much of the enterprise business simply can't be moved for legal reasons, or the cost to move the stuff is so immense, it would take many years of active, focused effort (and billions and billions of dollars) to move it. In my Data Center, we had a lot of the major airlines as clients as well as some of the financial and regulatory clients, so I know exactly what you mean.

You're a goner. An airline (or another of your major clients) will take over your firm.

The only way US airlines can continue being profitable is to keep lowering their costs. If taking over a supplier is what they need to do to lower their costs, then they'll do just that.

Back in 2012, Delta Airlines spent $150 million to buy the Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania. Delta then focused the refinery on making jet fuel, which flooded the marketplace with supply, lowering Delta's fuel costs by $240+ million each year!

I suspect it would be a lot easier for a Airline, which already has an extensive IT dept and CTO, to take over an IT provider than a refinery!

Comment Re:Hmmmmm. Interesting decision history... (Score 1) 280

Why would an employer want to turn down a self-motivated candidate that spent his weekends reading documentation with a portfolio full of projects for a fresh out of college kid who spent his weekends getting drunk with a small portfolio of school projects?

The employer will turn down the self-motivated candidate whenever the employer needs a new drinking buddy.

Submission + - Comedian saying 'Google it' caused Bill Cosby's downfall (saportareport.com)

McGruber writes: The Saporta Report's Tom Baxter describes (http://saportareport.com/blog/2014/11/in-cosbys-downfall-a-glimpse-of-googles-awesome-power/) how the staggering power of the search engine is responsible for the overdue implosion of comedian William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby) career.

The allegations against Cosby have been public since 2005 (http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/timeline-of-the-abuse-charges-against-cosby.html), when 13 Jane Doe victims testified on behalf of Andrea Constrand. However,

"it was not until someone made a cell phone video of a standup routine which a young comedian named Hannibal Buress had been doing for several weeks, that the story ignited. There was nothing new in what he said — there have even been previous comedy routines about the rape allegations — except this: “You leave here and google ‘Bill Cosby rape.’ It’s not funny. That s*** has more results than ‘Hannibal Buress.’”

Somebody put the clip up on a Philadelphia magazine’s website, and a lot of people did what Buress suggested. In a cosmic piece of bad timing, Cosby’s website put up a meme generator, which allowed readers to write a headline on a picture of the star and post it on social media sites. That helped fan the now-flickering flame, which gained force as one after another woman came forward to accuse him.

Baxter also posits that "it's inevitable that there will be efforts to control access to the scattered bits of information that could create a media fire, as well as malicious attempts to strike matches."

Comment A millionaire who won't pay back her loans (Score 5, Insightful) 433

Carly Fiorina still has not paid off the loans her 2010 campaign took out, despite having a net worth of $30 million to $120 million according to campaign paperwork she filed in 2009. From the WP article:

The organization, Carly for California, still owed vendors nearly $500,000 as of the end of September, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The committee’s outstanding debts included more than $80,000 to strategist Martin Wilson and his former firm; $43,000 owed to D.C. law firm Patton Boggs, where campaign counsel Benjamin Ginsberg worked at the time; $36,000 to fundraiser Renee Croce; $5,000 to press aide Jennifer Kerns; and $7,500 to political director Jeff Corless.

The Fiorina campaign also owed $30,000 to Joe Shumate, a storied political strategist in California who served as Fiorina’s senior adviser and died one month before Election Day in 2010.

Fiorina “hasn’t really communicated with anybody in 18 months about how she intends to deal with the campaign debt,” said Wilson, now a vice president at the California Chamber of Commerce. “Hopefully, if she gets more serious about running for another office, she’ll revisit the issue and get some of those bills paid off.”

Submission + - Carly Fiorina considering run for US President (Seriously!) (washingtonpost.com)

McGruber writes: Fired HP CEO (http://it.slashdot.org/story/05/02/09/1352218/hp-ceo-carly-fiorina-to-step-down) and failed Republican Senate candidate ((http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/11/fiorina-concedes-defeat-in-senate-race-.html) Carly Fiorina "is actively exploring a 2016 presidential run. Fiorina has been talking privately with potential donors, recruiting campaign staffers, courting grass-roots activists in early caucus and primary states and planning trips to Iowa and New Hampshire starting next week." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/carly-fiorina-actively-explores-2016-presidential-run-but-faces-gop-critics/2014/11/25/b317b1a2-74b3-11e4-bd1b-03009bd3e984_story.html)

Comment Uber is a Pump-n-Dump scheme (Score 5, Insightful) 299

Uber is a Pump and Dump (on the Chumps) stock scheme.

Last week, Uber put out a press release that said they were valued at $30 billion. Several media outlets published articles with that $30 billion number; here's an example: According to various sources, Uber is about to go for another financing round with the intention to raise an additional $2 billion

In a new round of funding, Uber is likely to raise another $2 billion in addition to the $1.6 billion it has raised to date. The new round will value the San Francisco-based ride-sharing service at a whopping $30 billion, up from its $18.2 billion valuation from the last round of funding.

Think about that $30 billion "valuation" for a moment, and compare it to the valuations of other transportation companies. Norfolk Southern railroad has a market cap of just over $35 billion, while Delta Airlines has a market cap of just over $36 billion.

Uber is a mobile app. Does anyone here think that app is really worth 85% of a railroad that *owns* 21,500 route miles of fiber optic right-of-way (with railroad tracks on top) in 22 eastern states? Does anyone really think a ride sharing app is really worth 84% of an airline that operates 5,400 flights daily over an international network that includes 333 destinations in 64 countries on six continents... and has its own mobile apps?

Comment Re:Web 2.0 (Score 1) 226

- Plenty of wacky revenue-free, shaky business model companies generating huge VC investments and crazy valuations

During the dotcom bubble, because I was reading fuckedcompany.com each today. That site did an amazing job of documenting the stupid business models in vogue back then.

Is there a site today that is documenting the current bubble? My guess is if there is, it's either a reddit forum or a twitter feed.

Comment Re:Wikipedia (Score 1) 246

I think you just raised the bar on this "hate on bennett" thing. Hope it doesn't escalate from there...

Douglas Held -- not me -- added the line to wikipedia. I merely saw the sentence when I googled to find out who the heck this Bennett guy is.

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