Supermoney, greed first

Reading WTF by Tim O’Reilly. A chapter about Supermoney.

The Price/Earnings ratio of Amazon is 188. That mean that for every $1 profit, there is $188 in stock value. Facebook’s is 64, Google’s 29.5. Uber’s in infinite: market capitalisation of $68 billion and zero profit.

These companies have huge investment capabilities with this Supermoney.

But, one promise broken (expectation not met) and a huge value is lost. Which is inevitable. A pyramid scheme, betting on unworldly growth expectations.

Greed first.

Jewelry blog

While searching for something completely different (The Cathedral Effect), I stumbled upon this blog by the Lauren B company. I has an incredible wealth of information in that blog about jewelry. It is very thoroughly done and nicely written. I have no interest whatsoever in jewelry, but this blog is really good.

How I stumbled upon this blog: there is a concept in jewelry for engagement rings called Cathedral Style Engagement Ring Setting. See this post. Geeky details, lovely

Complex, simple, quality

How to set an incentive to create/buy a simple solutions.

The problem is that complex solutions are perceived better than simple solutions.

“It can’t be that simple”.

And complex solution have more features.

And new technologies make complex solutions even more attractive (reverse grandmother and Lindy effect), and intellectually more interesting.

We can wrap a complex solution and new technology in newspeak. Status.

A solution based on existing technology can’t beat that.

But simpler solutions can beat on quality: fit-for-purpose. Simpler means cheaper, easier to design and develop, easier to use and maintain.

Een vreemde reisziekte

Mijn vriend P. vertelt dat hij niet kan werken, of zelfs lezen, tijdens het reizen. Zodra trein, bus of vliegtuig zich in beweging zet valt hij in slaap.

Ik heb last van een vergelijkbaar verschijnsel, maar niet zo heftig. Als een vliegtuig opstijgt lijkt mijn brein zijn functies voor de helft uit te schakelen, en ik zak weg in een halfbewuste toestand. Ik kan nog een film kijken, maar vraag me niet naar details. Ik kan wat eten en drinken, maar werken gaat niet. Ik kan lezen, maar neem weinig op. Werken gaat alleen met heel veel moeite. 

P. mag zich gelukkig prijzen. Hij komt uitgerust aan, ik doodvermoeid.

Sharing

To steal from Seth Godin: all of us are smarter than any of us.
So we should share everything.

Anyway the stuff that you share has already been invented. It is already on paper.
It has become boring. It is old news.

We should be looking for the new news.

Boekhouden: van Gnucash naar EasyZZP en Yukiworks

Toen ik pas begon met mijn bedrijf deed ik zelf de boekhouding. In het begin was dat eenvoudig. Ik gebruikte het open source tool GnuCash

Ik moest mezelf een beetje trainen in de principes van het dubbel boekhouden, en in het opzetten van een structuur in GnuCash, maar daarna was e.e.a. prima bij te sloffen. Gnucash is goed gedocumenterd. Het heeft niet een heel elegante interface maar er is goed mee te werken. Bovendien krijg je er een goed inzicht in de inkomsten- en uitgavenstromen van je bedrijfje door.

Op een gegeven moment werden de uitgaven en inkomsten wat omvangrijker, en heb ik gezocht naar hulp. Ik vond EasyZZP, een bedrijfje dat de boekhouding voor je overneemt voor een alleszins redelijk bedrag. EasyZZP maakt gebruik van Yukiworks als (online) boekhoudpakket.

Yukiworks is redelijk makkelijk te doorgronden software, hoewel je er als EasyZZP klant niet alle ins en outs van hoeft te kennen.  Yuki integreert met je bank waardoor je bij voorbeeld al je zakelijke transacties automatisch in Yuki kunt importeren. Er is ook een integratie met Op een gegeven moement werden de uitgaven en inkomsten wat omvangrijker, en heb ik gezocht naar hulp. Ik vond EasyZZP, een bedrijfje dat de boekhouding voor je overneemt voor een alleszins redelijk bedrag. EasyZZP maakt gebruik van Yuki als (online) boekhoudpakket. Dat is redelijk makkelijk te doorgronden software, hoewel je er als EasyZZP klant niet alle ins en outs van hoeft te kennen. Voor een alleszins redelijk bedrag verzorgt Yuki de boekhouding en de belastingaangifte.

Augmented Office Reality

3D technology is developing fast, we are in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality hypes.

But what if we could create a real office reality with this technology.

When we could install camera’s in our home office, wear 3D goggles, or something much better, assuming these 3D glasses and goggles we are using today are totally laughable in 10 years time.

Would we still sit in our cars for hours to get to work?

Maybe at home, maybe in shared 3D office facilities where we can rent a (virtual) cubicle and login to the corporate 3D office.

Will this be more viable than the current working from home things we do?

We currently only use this when we want or have a meeting or have a question.
But what if we could just sit there all day, see our collegues and do the work. And I mean not staring in crappy laptop camera’s over hampering internet. I mean full 3D experiences. Walk around the office as if you are there. Have occasional conversations, talk about the weather, and so on, but all in this 3D virtual office.

Sounds ok to me.

Dijkstra in EWD 32 on the tool, how it should be worthy our love, and show: Elegance and Beauty

E.W. Dijkstra and McJones at a conference in marktoberdorf 1973

Reading Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra’s EWD’s.

The State of Programming in 1962

In EWD 32 Dijkstra shares his “meditations” on the state of the Art (or rather Science, as he prefers to say) of Programming. Machine design was ugly, programming as a discipline was undeveloped. This was 1962.

Programmers were hired for applying tricks and Dijkstra loves the development that there is

… the slowly growing group of people who think it more valuable that the man should have a clear and systematic mind.

The Commercialization Problem

He goes on to discuss how programmers and machine designers should collaborate to create better machines and programming languages. This was very necessary because Dijkstra believed that at that time, the computer manufacturing industry was taking over computer design from universities. But this brought a commercial angle to computer design that Dijkstra was unhappy with.

They seem to design for the customer that believes the salesman who tells him that machine so-and-so is just the machine he wants.

What Dijkstra Meant by “The Tool”

Dijkstra goes on to share his thoughts on how to improve The Tool – by which he means the programming language, translator, and machine. Nowadays, with so many languages and machines, we hardly think about this tool. We think of tools as tools: a given rather than a thought. And of course, we have massive debates about programming languages, hardware, etc. But some of the concerns have disappeared. Nobody really seems to care about machine design anymore. It has become a commodity. It should be fast and robust. Hardware hardly provides any distinguishing features. If so, it is about size and energy, not about performance and reliability.

The Eternal Quality: Elegance and Beauty

But the last one he mentions is an eternal difference, one which we still haven’t landed on. And maybe we never will. Because it is a subjective one. A characteristic you wouldn’t expected in our Beta world of computers and programmers.

As my very last remark I should like to stress that the tool as a whole should have still another quality. It is a much more subtle one; whether we appreciate it or not depends much more on our personal taste and education and I shall not even try to define it. The tool should be charming, it should be elegant, it should be worthy of our love. This is no joke, I am terribly serious about this. In this respect the programmer does not differ from any other craftsman: unless he loves his tools it is highly improbable that he will ever create something of superior quality.

At the same time these considerations tell us the greatest virtues a program can show: Elegance and Beauty.

You Kill It, We Grill It – everything I like about Seligman

martin seligman at ted

I was searching for Martin Seligman, after watching his TED talk, but hit this site  from Seligman, Arizona.

I wanted to go there immediately. Fantastic, these all American images on that site. I imagine sitting on the porch of one of these houses, in a rocking chair. All according to the cliches. Cowboys shouting in the saloon next door.

Horses loosely attached to the fench rail.

Sporadically cars drive by, suspending large clouds of dust.

At least four reasons to stop at Seligman on your Route 66 road trip:

Everything I said. Well, that’s all.

  • The Roadkill Café – “You Kill It, We Grill It!”
  • Historic Route 66 General Store
  • Route 66 Motel – “All of our rooms are newly remodeled, including new mattresses to ensure maximum  sleep comfort”
  • The site’s visit counter is at 4951 last time I visited (July 2015).

The Roadkill Café - “You Kill It, We Grill It!”