Jason's Notes About Stuff

5 years ago, in July 2010, I made a bold prediction that Microsoft would purchase Blackberry . The Past At the time, Blackberry was still the clear leader, with over 40% of the market: Even then, however, the trend was crystal clear. Apple had already caught them off guard, and Blackberry was slowly bleeding away market share. Meanwhile, Android was gaining quickly at everyone else's expense. Just look at the monthly increase in the graph above. At the time, it was obvious to me that Microsoft and RIM needed to combine forces if either one was to stand a chance. There were lots of rumors to that effect -- in 2011, 2013, and even earlier this year, but no deal ever panned out. Instead, in 2013/2014, Microsoft bought Nokia -- one of the few phone companies in worse shape than Blackberry. Predictably, this turned out to be a dismal failure, with Microsoft writing off $7.6 billion . The present Meanwhile, the market shifted much faster than I ever could have...

A recently published article, " The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America " details some of the problems with the  Healthcare.gov launch fiasco that "so bad it nearly broke the Affordable Care Act." It also outlines how a small team rewrote much of the software "working as a startup within the government and replacing contractor-made apps with ones costing one-fiftieth of the price ." A key point is something I've written about before, namely that one good programmer equals an infinite number of mediocre ones . A handful of bright , motivated programmers can easily beat a massive army of corporate drones , middle managers and bureaucrats. This is related to Brooks' law , which states that " adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. " Or in other words, " nine women can't make a baby in one month. " "The government’s method of running software turned on a sequential des...

This morning I read the following CBC article:  Corporate tax avoidance 'scheme' hurting Canada, expert says . As they mention: "Thirteen per cent of these corporations paid less than 5 per cent in taxes and more than half paid less than 10 per cent . Much of this tax evasion is done secretly." "...the situation has become so serious that some corporations are trying to “put the brakes on” tax cuts, as they witness the effects on critical areas of the Canadian economy, such as education, health care and infrastructure." As I alluded to in a previous posting, " Why make a profit? ", there is a really simple solution to all of these complex schemes. Instead of taxing net revenue (aka. "profit"), we should be taxing gross revenue (aka. "income"). Net revenue, or profit, is what's left over after a corporation pays all of its expenses. This makes it easy to devise complicated corporate structures that move money...

In the news: Another high profile case of a Canadian getting a huge bill in the States and not being covered. They were on vacation and were caught off guard with a baby that came 9 weeks early. They had proper travel insurance, but it Blue Cross, an American insurance company, decided that they're not covered due to preexisting conditions . Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens all the time. I had my own expensive lesson in 2001 when I moved down for a new job, and had a medical emergency in the short time gap before my employer health insurance took effect. Citizens of (every country except the United States) may be shocked to realize that a huge number of Americans must pay for emergency care out of pocket , bankrupting about 2 million people per year. Not realizing the scale of the costs involved, and thinking that my Canadian government coverage applied (it did, but only for a tiny fraction) I went to the hospital and was treated. I received random bill...

Check out the following article: UW study shows direct brain interface between humans This is really cool stuff. I first remember this technology concept from the original 1987 movie Robocop . It's also been featured more recently in movies like Iron Man and Avatar . I've always been interested in BCI (Brain–computer interface)  advancement, and the last decade or so has seen some amazing progress. Perhaps my prediction of BCI going mainstream by 2025 will come true after all...

A million dollars isn't cool , but do you know what would be cool? If you could target posts to your friends the same way you with Facebook ads. When you " boost your post " from a Facebook Page, you can target your audience by Location, Age, Gender, and Interests. The interface looks like this: I think it would be really interesting if you do something similar when you created a personal post.

Many have criticized Amazon.com for being unprofitable since inception. If you ask me, they're just being ultra-efficient . Take a look at this chart: Amazon's revenue has grown exponentially, but they've always kept their net profit/loss pretty close to zero. You see, the taxation system in most countries is actually a bit paradoxical . The purpose of a corporation (as defined by law) is to generate a profit , but that is also what is taxed. So if you make a profit, you lose a good chunk of it to taxes . On the other hand, if you re-invest those would-be-profits back into your business for growth, you get to keep it all . Meanwhile, massively profitable companies like Apple and Google end up engaging in complicated IP licensing schemes in tax havens to lower their taxes. Of course, a flat tax could put an end to some of these complex games...