What is special about economists?

Academic Economists To Consider Ethics Code - NYTimes.com

Nothing. When someone receives advice the sources incentive and conflicts of interested should be considered. Whether a sociologist or climate scientist is being hired, follow the money trail.

Yes, Journals should require funding sources be disclosed to uphold their reputations.

The AEA should not set a list of guidelines because they will either have one catch all or will be used as a defense. Fact is, economists are experts in incentives, so if we can't tell when a deal is shady who can? If not sure, just ask your mom.

Skype outage compensation and communication 2

Maybe Skype listened to me.  Just kidding.  But they are adding a week to all subscriptions, meaning for the U.S. and Canada plan giving about $0.75.  At least it is provided automatically so I don't have to login and there is some logic to just saying a week rather that having dynamic emails based on plan that adjust the amount and currency based on country.  That would be wasted engineering effort I'd rather have them use improving their service, that I like a good deal already.  Latest email text below.

To our valued customers:

As 2010 draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for your patience, understanding, and support during Skype’s recent outage.

We know how important your Skype conversations are to you and we take any disruption to our service very seriously. We are pleased to confirm that Skype is back to normal allowing you to connect with friends, co-workers, family and loved ones.

As a valued customer of Skype, we would like to offer you a sincere apology and credit you with an extra 7 days to your current Subscription at your next renewal date.

This will be added automatically so you don’t need to do anything. Thank you for allowing us at Skype to be a part of your life. May your holidays and the New Year be a time of joy, peace, and health for you and your family.

If you require any additional information please visithttp://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/.

Kind regards, 

Tony Bates
CEO
Skype

On google like Shaq

Google is best a search, but Bing is not far behind. I am would be willing to bet that if user interfaces were exchanged with results less than 5% of users would notice. So Google is profiting on a combination of preset search settings and familiarity. Their other area of homegrown excellence is Adwords. The auction mechanism of placing ads according to expected revenue as opposed to highest bid, like yahoo, was a relatively obvious but huge innovation and diferentiator so far as revenue per page view is concerned.

Kudos Google.

But at what else are they the best rather than the simply the cheapest?

I love gmail. But the developer is no longer at Google.

Youtube.com was bought as the front runner and they did not Yahoo! it. (mmm tasty)

Docs is good for simple stuff sharing, but for a complicated sheet or pretty document it can't hold a prayer against Office.

A bunch of hobbies are cool. I like scholar.google.com, but doubt it is positive net present value.

Wave=dead

Orkut=dyeing

Voice=I like but niche and no revenue model yet.

Bottom line, as Shaq is a very good dunker who grabbed rebounds and dunked those too, Google Combines search and Adwords. Shaq has rapped, acted, and participated in reality shows, etc. Did he make much money or was it simply fun? I'm guessing fun, and that's good for Shaq. But for a company who's fiduciary duty it is to maximize shareholders' value their hobbies are occasionally hard to defend. In their defense Android is a sucess so far as market share and likely search revenue are concerned, but again, how does Google make money. Adwords. Oh and Doubleclick makes money. So what. Another acquisition. Ironically googles search is no longer their most secure business. Adwords is their claim to fame, but Facebook and others are threats. Other than their ad networks and search loyalty on what else will Google make money?

Microsoft has Windows, Office, Server, SQL, CRM, Sharpoint, Exchange, Officelive, MSN.com, ect. Phone 7 is also a winner according to all reviews. MS has the framework and need only iterate and exploit existing enterprise relationships.

2010-2020 is MS over Google. Apple will hold their niche but Jobs has no intention of being an open enough platform to be the market leader. History repeats...

Skype outage compensation and communication

Skype was down for a day causing many users major pain.  Shit happens, especially with software.  100% uptime is still a dream, I accept it.  But the response I received today was annoying for a few reasons.  Maybe I a being particularly aspergian about this; let me know.

1. If you are giving users a credit, just give it to us.  Don't make us follow a link, enter our user name and password, and finally enter a secret code.

2. Don't tell use in the initial email that you are giving us a "voucher worth a call of more than 30 minutes to a landline in some of our most popular countries, such as USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan. Or spend it however you like on Skype."  You are offering us $1.  Just say it so I don't waste any more time entering codes etc.  

I understand the communications gurus message/PR planning, I think.

1. We have to send something so we can say we did.

2. We don't want it to cost very much, so it wont be very valuable.

3. Because it's not very valuable we don't want people to see how much it actually is worth, so hide the value from most people.

4. We want redemption slippage and true value slippage so force code entry for redemption rather than just crediting accounts.

5. An alternative is that they are fooling to think the users will consider Skype generous for giving us $1, so want to make the experience more memorable by forcing code entry, but I doubt they are this foolish.

See email and post code entry text below.

To our valued customers:

As 2010 draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for your patience, understanding, and support during Skype’s recent outage.

We know how important your Skype conversations are to you and we take any disruption to our service very seriously. We are pleased to confirm that Skype is back to normal allowing you to connect with friends, co-workers, family and loved ones.

As a valued customer of Skype, we would like to offer you a sincere apology and offer you our gratitude with a credit voucher worth a call of more than 30 minutes to a landline in some of our most popular countries, such as USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan. Or spend it however you like on Skype.

To redeem your voucher:

1. Go to skype.com/go/voucher
2. Enter your Skype username and password
3. Enter your unique voucher code and click redeem


Voucher code V94BB3HYUPKTBFT8

Thank you for allowing us at Skype to be a part of your life. May your holidays and the New Year be a time of joy, peace, and health for you and your family.

If you require any additional information please visithttp://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/.

Kind regards,

Tony Bates
CEO
Skype

Upon redemption

Your voucher or prepaid card was succesfully redeemed, and we are now activating the following services:

$1.00 Skype Telephony Voucher for $1.00 

On many women

This situation is well captured by the following quote of Demosthenes, a Greek philosopher: "We have prostitutes for our pleasure, concubines for our health, and wives to bear us lawful offspring"

Didn't Bill Clinton say this? Ha ha...

By way of

by way of marginalrevolution.com

Cali Pot

The Crime Report » Archive » Oakland Pot Commercialization In Limbo After U.S. Threats

http://truthonthemarket.com/2010/09/26/beer-v-pot/

There has to be so much more irony available. Someone please write a recent economic history or case study on the pot legalization in California.

One might think that the small time growers and users are on the same side of this one, for legalization, but no.

In an amusing conversation with my dad, who is against legalization, I leaned that he did not know that pot was more easily available than beer to high school students. He might have been pandering to me, but appeared to the considering the similarities to prohibition, the failure of which he recognizes.

Are there facts, if they were accepted as such, that would turn the swing voters toward legalization? What are these facts?

TechCrunch Surges To Lead In UCSF Challenge, Crushes Hopes Of Twelve Year Old

TechCrunch Surges To Lead In UCSF Challenge, Crushes Hopes Of Twelve Year Old

Think Zynga will name the room "Save Paddy", pay paddy for the Trademark and to be the spokes model for the new game "Save Paddy", and pay 1% of game revenue to SF Children's Hospital. Facebook Bucks will feed the game, so they can donate for good press also. One wins the game by getting others to donate to the hospital. If anyone person in a group fails to donate enough their group's paddy dies and they are the scape goat.