Ads Links: 2008-01-15

1. Cool Mac Support Ad - zoom in to see details
2. Clearasil pimple sticker - neat and may well do the trick
3. Cheap and effective poster and sticker ad
4. Teenagers dying listen to iPod while crossing road - good visual
5. The rebranding of Xerox - very interesting. check out the Xerox article

Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui, 1989 - Cystic Fibrosis, now - Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong

While watching the latest RTHK 傑 出 華 人 系 列 on Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui (in Cantonese), I can’t help but look back in an 1989 Footprint Interview of Dr. Tsui (included here for your reading pleasure, click to zoom to large pix to read).

In 1989, I was the editorial director of Footprint (a Chinese student newspaper at U of Toronto), Cliff was assistant director, and Philip was the Editor-in-chief and we together with a group of many volunteers worked on Footprint together. Looking at the slightly yellowed 1989 newsprint certainly brings back some nice memories of the old days. We worked so hard to get the papers out.

Coming back to now, Dr. Tsui is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong and I only realized now his strategically important involvement in the hunt for the SARS coronavirus.

P.S. I forgot whose idea was it, but I am particularly proud of the result that during my term as editorial director, we have an interesting interview in almost every single issue. For example, the newspaper also interviewed Robert Prichard (former UT president and current President and CEO of Torstar) and Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung.

Magazine Links: 2008-01-13

Here are the 8 magazine articles that I blogged about and borrowed two days ago. Enjoy and happy reading.

1. Struggles of a Mad Man - Business Week Dec 3, 2007 - A pretty well researched piece about Kevin Roberts
2. What’s in a Name? Fatter Profits - Very interesting to try to understanding “Largely unknown Taiwan contract manufacturers are trying to reposition themselves as consumer brands”
3. The Dangerous Wealth of the Ivy League
4. Can Greed Save Africa? - Interesting chat about micro-lending, etc. Longish article
5. HP’s Cultural Revolution - BusinessWeek featuring McKinney of HP and Sood of Voodoo PC (now a subsidiary of HP) - Also check out, “Case Study: Yahoo!’s Hot Innovation Incubator - Take a tour of Brickhouse, the online media company’s offsite ideas agency“
6. LeBron Inc. - The building of a billion-dollar athlete [brand]. - Interesting article. Also check out this, LeBron: The next Buffett?
7. Confessions of a CEO - How Dominic Orr almost ruined his life
8. Xerox’s dynamic duo - I studied Xerox years ago in a case, so it is interesting to read about them again. Note: this is one article that I finished from the first word till the last one in one sitting during a busy morning. A great read. I may have just added two female role models (Anne Mulcahy and Ursula Burns) to my current list which has Louise Arbour sitting on the top.

Pig’s Lungs on Heavenly Electric Platform - 豬肺, 天台, 電台

I read two great pieces by my friend Daisann. She wrote in “The Electric Platform” (an excerpt, emphasis mine),

“Yesterday an extraordinary thing happened in Hong Kong. A young magistrate in the Eastern District Court, Douglas Yau Tak Hong, delivered a knockout judgement in favor of the upstart pirate radio station, Citizen’s Radio of Hong Kong. Judge Yau, in dismissing the case against activists Tsang Kin-sheng (”The Bull”), Leung Kwok-hung and several others, ruled that the current system of approving/rejecting applications for a broadcast license in Hong Kong is unconstitutional according to the Basic Law.“

And then she talks about “heaven platform” (天台, that’s rooftop), good friends, and good food in a constantly changing Hong Kong.

Daisann, thanks for being my eyes and ears in all things Hong Kong (especially politics and Long Hair News) as I somehow missed this news even I tried to read all the headlines on Apple Daily (after all, I had paid for a subscription). You know I aspire to write like you and I know I still have a long way to go. But then the journey is what makes the writing fun, right? (big smile)

P.S. As an aside, Prof. Lessig has an insightful blog entry on “Deregulating Spectrum” that provides a good argument on what our current (and future) technologies are capable of delivering with properly defined spectrum usage spectrum policy can allow wide spread use of the spectrum. Great Google video by Prof. Lessig explaining the U.S. situations.

Dyson sucks - Vacuuming Futureshop for free and fun

My regular readers know how much I love Dyson vacuum as I’ve blogged about it many times and in particular - “Two things I love but don’t own - Dyson and Lexus” in 2007 and then recently in “Mr. James Dyson, Tear Down This Wall!“. In fact, I love it since April 2000 when I read about Dyson in The International Design Magazine.

Few days ago, I finally got my chance to play with a real Dyson vacuum cleaner for over 30 minutes in Futureshop (OK, that was a really quiet morning after all the “Sales” the days before!) while chatting with a nice Futureshop salesperson. During that time, I practically vacuumed Futureshop’s dirt-filled home appliance area for free! (smile)

Now, I have some real experience of using a Dyson (in a heavy traffic area) to share,

1. The Dyson sucked (sort of)! The demo carpert (the one with a big Dyson logo) was pretty dirty. After the first pass, it looked a lot cleaner and there wasn’t that much dirt left. But as I vacuum that demo carpet more, it did become cleaner and cleaner. So I guess the first pass didn’t pick up *all* the dirt (say only 85%). I guess I expected magic and magic I did not get.
2. Stones and tiny particles. Now, the Dyson made this really annoying noise when it sucked up the tiny stones or tiny hard particles on the floor. And because the stuff/dirt inside the Dyson internal chamber was spinning at such a high speed, the noise was noticeable and a bit annoying to me. Room for some noise cancellation?
3. Burning smell. I don’t know what from the floor got into the Dyson but I smelled something burning (rubber?) a few times during the vacuuming process. Again, I don’t know did something got suck up inside the Dyson and then the high speed spinning created the burning smell. Thinking about it, I wander if Futureshop had installed the HEPA filter correctly? The burning smell was not pleasant at all!

So I now have some real experiences with a Dyson and I can no longer think it is perfect. (nothing is “perfect”.) But I still think it is the best vacuum around even it has the flaws (and may be more) that I listed above.

Of course, the vacuum is great but the price is still in the moon, so I repeat my request to Sir James himself or his Canadian sales team, “Mr. James Dyson, Tear Down This Wall!” Please offer more reasonable prices or wider product range that covers more price points. I truly want you to do well in Canada. I hate to see you suck in Canada. And this is not a good “suck”!

Finally, most people on Flickr love their Dysons as you can see in the above photos and here,

• “domestic princess” - cute
• “Clean-up, clean-up, Everybody do your share” - lovely
• “dysongirl” - very cute dress
• “Barefoot and pregnant” - ha ha cute

and a not so happy customer shookiemookie with her f-starting-4-letter-word one.

Magazines Subscriptions

Over the last 20+ years or so, I had some fun in subscribing to different magazines and reading them on a regular basis. These magazines included - Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Canadian Business, Ivey Business Journal (I paid good money for it until they turned it FREE and never return my unused PAID subscription money), many computer magazines, Communications Arts (probably my most expensive mag sub and it worths every penny! some great free content), The International Design Magazine (I fell in love with Dyson Vacuum since it was covered in the April 2000 issue of I.D.), Psychology Today, and the more exotic ones like the University of California at Berkeley Wellness Letter, plus The New England Journal of Medicine (I did enjoy my one year subscription and tried to think and read like doctors (big smile)). I read a lot of Wired and Fast Company but then they set a stupid high Canadian subscription prices, plus most of their stuff are online even a few years back.

Now, how many magazines do I subscribe to? Well, not even one! My friend Margaret is brave and she subscribes to and reads The Economist! I know The Economist is a great source of information and supposed to be “Good For Me” (like Cod Liver Oil) but I could never stand reading more than a few articles in it at a time (leaving 99% of the magazine to waste).

So here is what I do these days. Like this morning, I spent 90 minutes just browsing the magazines section in the library and then borrowed a stack of 8 magazines to read one (or may be two) articles in each magazine. Ha ha, no wonder many magazines are trying hard to re-invent themselves (e.g. Business Week).

When I find some time, I will blog about the 8 magazine articles that I borrowed to read. I will see if I can find the link to them for you as well. Happy reading.

To me, library is the greatest equalizer of knowledge (thus “power”, if you want to think of it that way) and experiences. I paid my $12 per year. And then, I periodically clean up their magazines, their books, their DVDs, etc to find stuff that I enjoy and find interesting.

With borrowed materials, one thing I missed is the ability to mark up the magazine/book while I read but I can make a photo copy for personal research if I need to. (smile) I will later try to blog about the 8 articles I borrowed today, possibly with links to them so you can read them as well (if they are available online).

Happy reading and learning.

CBC News: The National - Where are the videos?

As a news junkie, I try to watch CBC News: The National every night and then CTV National News with Lloyd Robertson if I have time to get a broader perspective. But deep in my heart, I am a CBC guy. (smile)

So here is my main beef with CBC News: The National - the powers to be should put all the individual segments as linkable chunks with video for people or bloggers to link to!

The most expensive part of the program/content creation is in the news reporting and the news production, etc, once those are done, every single minute of The National should be posted as linkable chunks with video up on the internet.

For example, this piece has video

Dion calls for firing of minister in spat with nuclear watchdog

where as this one doesn’t have the video that was used in The National tonight,

PM stands behind minister in isotope case

I see no good justification to not include videos in all news items that videos have already been created. Disk storage space and bandwidth are CHEAP! If these video clips are so useless/worthless and have no value to CBC, well, then upload them onto YouTube so these orphaned clips can find good homes to be used and loved.

CBC, are you listening?

The senseless murder of Stefanie Rengel

I am deeply saddened for the lost experienced by Stefanie Rengel’s parents, relatives, and friends. I can fully understand Stefanie’s stepmother Maureen expressing her grief,

“Your Dad and I are missing you terribly. Our world will never be the same. We love you so very much and don’t know how we will ever go on … “

She also urged anyone with information to talk to police, and called for changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“We want these monsters to be tried as adults for first-degree murder. Take this to your local politician and fight,” she wrote.

While visiting the “In Loving Memory of Stefanie Rengel” Facebook group, I saw this loving and beautiful Facebook video. (see this CBC report of the Facebook challenges in this case.) And I realized and saw just how many people have been touched by Stefanie’s senseless death.

Many people saw a wonderful girl’s life tragically cut short, while some other expressed deep hatred for the alleged killers. Like Stefanie’s mom, the doubts and challenges to the Youth Criminal Justice Act after such a senseless murder are expected. At the same time, we have to realize the Parliament of Canada passed this act to achieve a certain goal for the good of the society in the long run.

I am no legal expert but I will use a quote that I think may shed some light in this tragic time,

“It’s easy to be against the death penalty the night of a hanging. But it’s more difficult to be against the death penalty the night of a murder. The acid test is not to be a libertarian when it’s popular. It’s to be a libertarian when it’s unpopular.”
- former Chief Justice, The Right Honourable Antonio Lamer

It is difficult to reason when we have a tragic lost of life in the case of senseless murder of Stefanie Rengel, but reason we must (along with passion). And we have to let the normal court system and procedure to guide us in this difficult time.

We should not and cannot change the law while a case is in progress, but the murder of Stefanie has certainly put the spotlight on whether we need to reexamine our Youth Criminal Justice Act.

In some respect, we may have lots to learn from other jurisdictions in the world that have also gone through tragic events that shocked their nations. For example, this Nov. 2000 BBC World service report, “When Children Kill Children” (a case of two ten-year-old boys killing a two-year-old toddler in UK) can perhaps provide one of the many things for us to consider as a nation. This is not an easy task. Nothing is easy when there is such a tragic lost of life and the alleged killers are two youths.

Stefanie, may you rest in peace. It is tragic that Canada has to know you because of your death. I and many other Canadians would much rather know of you because of your future achievements. In this tragic time, my thoughts are with your parents, relatives, and friends. I would like to end this post with a message I read from the Facebook group remembering you,

“I’ll hug my 14 year old daughter a little tighter and be grateful that I still can.“

We should all hug our love ones a little tighter because we never know what will happen to us next. I guess this is what some people call “living life to its fullest”.

Goodbye Stefanie. We will remember you.

First 2008 Work Day Dinner

Since my better half went back to work today (her first 2008 work day), we bought something special to celebrate and wish for a great 2008.

If you click on the photo, you get to see the recipe and then you can click to see bigger pictures. Have fun and happy cooking.





P.S. If you never have time to cook nor take vacation, may I suggest putting yourself as a priority in 2008? (smile) Lee Iacocca said it right years ago in his auto-biography, I will paraphrase what I remember here. "You mean you are telling me you can manage million dollars division but you can't plan your life to take vacations?!"

Telling It Straight - “不說鬼話，不說神話，只說人話”

I really appreciate Prof. Gary M C Shiu for posting the entry “不說鬼話，不說神話，只說人話”. Where I got a chance to learn from a great thinker, teacher, and US Library of Congress 2006 Kluge Prize winner Prof. Yu Ying-shih (余英時) in the RTHK Cantonese program (傑出 華 人 系 列 節 目) .

I am including here an enhanced (with additional research and links) version of my comments to Prof Shiu’s original entry.

*******

Hi Gary,

Thanks for linking to the wonderful RTHK program.

With the massive destruction of Chinese culture during the Cultural Revolution, it was understanding for Prof. Yu to feel depressed and even considering his beloved “old China” a part of history, as something he can only commiserate in his own memory.

Allow me to reply to Prof. Yu’s claim that “it is dangerous for someone to think that society can be changed according to one’s wishes” with this video,

“Heres to the crazy ones” (YouTube video)

It will be a sad world if we don’t at least give our best shot to try to change the world.

P.S. I love that special touch of seeing the Go (board game) master Mr. Rin Kaiho (林海峰) chatting with Prof. Yu. I’ve enjoyed my games of Go (board game) when I was much younger (I sucked at the game). Incidentally, I wonder how many Go handicap stones did the master let Prof. Yu have? It is really hard to tell based on the game footage that we saw. Mind you, if I am determined to know, I think I can probably count the stones and give a reasonable “guestimate”. (big smile) And it was lovely to see master fiction writer and former newspaperman Mr. Louis Cha (查良鏞) talking about the game of Go so excitedly.

P.P.S. I just did some stones counting in one of the game (the one at time code 1:48). Looks like we had 31 black stones vs 29 white stones on the board. And at this kind of master level game play, captured stones (see basic rules) are less frequent. With this, I think Prof. Yu is probably at a 2 stones handicap level against master Rin. Wow, thats quite a high level of expertise.

Boasting Corner - sharing some fond memories

In Albert Einstein: The Human Side, I read that Einstein has a “Boasting Corner“. So I am going to start one myself to keep track of a few fond blogging memories and have some fun sharing these memories with you. (smile)

Note: Einstein’s story is much funnier as he hid most of the awards and honours except one. You can use Amazon’s “Search Inside” function to search for the word “Protzenecke” and read why he picked one to frame on page 7 in Einstein’s words.

Some friends I got to know from blogging

1. I’ve been reading Kevin Roberts‘ ideas (articles, interviews, etc.) and learning from Kevin for over 10 years now. (Kevin is the CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi.) At one point, I even had his quote “ideas are the currency of the future” on my professionally printed business cards (until I ran out on that 500 cards). So I was thrilled to receive and review Kevin’s wonderful book Lovemarks (and later Lovemarks Effect) from his PR company. And then one day out of the blue, I accidentally discovered that Kevin has kindly linked to my blog (see right column under “LINKS”)! And in one entry, he even personally spotlit three of his regular blog readers including me. (smile) So I guess it is nice to gain a new blog friend in Kevin.
2. Angela Wang and I are just like old friends these days, even we only knew each other since April 2007 after Angela left me a comment in an entry about my documentary “Long Hair Revolution”. Later, it was only with her introduction that I finally got to fix up Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung’s Wikipedia article with a few economists. I have been a big fan of Prof. Steven N. S. Cheung for over 20 years and it was an honour for me to help fixing up his Wikipedia entry. (Incidentally, Angela and I both love Gilmore Girls!)
3. Austin Hill, Canadian entrepreneur & angel investor, and I started to notice each other after our somewhat heated online comments/debate over the merits or problems with of CBC Dragons’ Den (I have changed a tiny bit to closer to Austin’s view now (smile)). And we became friends after we had lunch when he visited Calgary. And then he helped instigated DemoCamp and BarCamp in Calgary at his following visit to Calgary.
4. With Mike Dillion, Sun Microsystems’ General Counsel, I’ve been reading his blog since day one as I read about it from the Wall Street Journal Law blog in 2006. Later, I was thrilled when I got email replies from Mike answering my questions and reading his praise of my blog. And Mike and I have become blog friends (and friends), even we have not met nor talked on the phone. Well, that will change as I have scheduled a phone interview with Mike for my blogs. Stay tune as it should be fun.

Some of my fond blogging memories

1. The wonderful report by the tech website Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow in “Canadian DMCA rally in Calgary — photos, videos, reports” was fun because a spotlight has been shone on the embedded challenges in the new Copyright law for Canadians across the land and also let tech people around the world to know about the issues.
2. I feel really warm & fuzzy & proud to be mentioned and discussed in the wonderfully titled “The Canadians Again Show us how to do things” by William Party, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google (note: Google is doing some great work in the Copyright front, e.g. Google’s book scanning and book search project).
3. Having CBC Radio Search Engine reporter Danielle reporting on the Copyright rally in Calgary (mp3 audio file available for listen).
4. Writing the pair of postings “AAA game with philosophical twist” and “Followup on the AAA BBB CCC DDD game” to try to shine some light on the chain-mail/virus of the terribly time-wasting AAA BBB CCC DDD game (which was very popular on Internet and Facebook, etc.)
5. And me taking apart arguments written by a national newspaper columnist in Deconstructing “The Telecom Trotskyites”
6. To write and create my own Great Minds Of Our Time series of people. Thinking about this, I should create an entry for one of my most admired former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour. She is just great and gutsy.
7. After attending Banff as a CTV Fellow in 2006, I was excited in providing extensive blogging reports on the 2007 Banff World TV Festival where I reported on and video interviewed Broadcasters and content creators from around the world.
8. Getting to know the CBC anonymous blogger Ouimet a little more. Mind you, I still couldn't tell whether if a post was a practical joke or not. (smile) Assuming this wasn't a joke, it was my pleasure to be mentioned in an Ouimet-style positive post. How can I complain about a post that talks about my increased chance of getting some action (Copyright becoming sexy). (smile)

The above are some of my fond memories in blogging. Now, I want to end this entry on a personal note. I want to dedicate the Cat Stevens’ song “Father and Son” (YouTube video) to my dad who reads this blog.

Dad, I know you are both “proud of” and “puzzled by” what I am doing and trying to do these days. (big smile) Dad, may be I am trying to change the world one small thing/goal/objective at a time. Just may be.

P.S. Kevin, thanks for the Cat Stevens’ song “Father and Son” (lyrics). I think I am growing to love it more and more every time I listen to it.

Change The World - a small secret

Many people

have changed the world

and many are

trying to change the world.

I know I am changing the world positively.

How?

Here is a small secret.

Just aim low! (smile)

By aiming low, and

keep on changing the world positively

one small step at a time,

it will add up eventually.

If not, heck, you’ve given your best shot!

P.S. To borrow from my friend, well, this is my brand of poison. I have no guarantee that my poison will work well but I think it should be fun trying to change the world for the better. Don’t you think?

P.P.S. I am not being modest (nor trying to brag) but I do see my involvements and work in

1. Starting and help organizing all five DemoCamps in Calgary from camp 1, camp 2 all the way to camp 5 (click on these links to see demo videos at DemoCamps, tech gatherings),
2. Help launching a successful first BarCamp in Calgary (a tech conference),
3. Playing a small role in Fair Copyright in Canada (36,638 Facebook members strong currently) (for more: see my two reports here and here), and
4. Trying to bring the Darfur/Darfur multi-media project to Calgary to shine a spotlight on the genocide in Darfur,

as small steps that someone else could have also done. But what I did do was spending the time and taking the initiatives in getting myself deeply involved in all of these endeavours and doing my best in them.

10,000 thanks: 17 months & 170,000 views later

Note: This entry was originally posted at my other blog (ideas Revolutionary - Kempton).

*******

In the beginning

I had no idea what would happen when I started blogging on July 29th, 2006 with the entry - “The day I started blogging”. The first entry was originally posted on my own personal web space with very limited functions (readers can’t leave comment, etc.). And then 21 days later, I moved my blog to WordPress.com. (Thanks Ken Dyck for helping this stranger and I’ve been paying forward by helping others since. (smile))

The second entry was “Dragons’ Den”. And I had no idea I would become a bit involved in CBC Dragons’ Den where I would create a blog call “Dragonfly on the wall” dedicated to CBC Dragons’ Den stuff! Plus I was flown to Toronto and paid to blog about season 2 of CBC Dragons’ Den. How cool was that! And I would have personally interviewed all five CBC Dragons and the host of the show and interviewed some of the Dragons’ Den entrepreneurs.

And looks like “My fascination with laws” started early as well. (smile) And I never give up chances to talk about movie as I even talked about me “Watching 120+ films in a month”. And I’ve linked to interviews by Charlie Rose often, “The power of YouTube” link to a video interview with two of the YouTube founders. I blogged about the media, including when Reuters doctored its photos and the implications.

kempton.wordpress.com in numbers

For the 13 posting days in Aug 2006, WordPress.com stats indicated the 50+ entries attracted a bit over 1,000 views. So it is nice to look at the viewing numbers now and see an upwardly trend over the last 17 months.

Although I have never put much weight into these stats and numbers as I believe in getting the right people in reading my blog (for example the people who can and will learn something from my blog), there are now 170,000+ total views so for for an average of 10,000 views per month. Not bad for someone who blogs about almost anything under the sun. (smile)

I would like to say 10,000 thank yous to all the people that have viewed my blog entries and supported me. Thanks. And I hope many of you have learned a thing or two from reading my blog.

Allow me to quote this again,

Why blog?

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.” - author Stephen King

This entry has talked much more about stats and numbers than I like, so I have now written “Boasting Corner - sharing some fond memories” to talk about a few things that I really cherish and am proud of.

Intel Rotten Inside? - The OLPC Nightmare

Computers from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has to be the coolest notebook in the eyes of smart engineers these days. And OLPC project is as close to the noblest cause around - bringing inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world’s poorest children. Who can argue with that? (see this nice 60 minutes story here)

Now, Intel has decided to break off its existing cooperative agreement with OLPC and compete directly with it. Here is an excerpt from a New York Times report (emphasis mine),

A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization’s laptops in favor of Intel PCs. […]

But the saleswoman’s tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte, the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer researcher and founder of the nonprofit effort.

He demanded that Intel stop what he saw as efforts to undermine the group’s sales, which meant ceasing to sell the rival computer. Intel chose instead to withdraw its support from One Laptop this week.

May be just like British Airways’ “dirty tricks” campaign against Virgin Atlantic Airways. This may well be Intel’s defining moment and beginning of its brand being tarnished forever. The words "Intel Rotten Inside" do seem to rhyme well, who knows if it will stick?

Of course, at the end of the day, the world’s poorest children are the one who will suffer from this Intel induced OLPC Nightmare.

It is well known that Milton Friedman argued in 1970 that “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits“. I wonder Intel’s actions in this case, if we strictly follow Milton’s analysis in the article, will it include the dealings of the total cost of Intel?

I wonder how many millions will Intel have to spend to rebuild its tarnished brand (by advertising, etc.) in the tech community? You see, it is “uncool” to be seen as “evil” in dealing with OLPC in this manner. And the end effect of hiring good engineers to work for Intel? (Think Google’s ease of hiring the best engineers around the world because they are seen as “cool place to work” in comparison to the resources they actually spend in advertising and in hiring these top engineers.)

Ultimately, an Intel that is Rotten Inside may make long term economic sense and make lots of money, but until more solid data are available it just seems that being Rotten Inside has its disadvantages also. Plus, how can Intel Chairman Craig R. Barrett have a clear conscience (an unrelated BBC comedy sketch) knowing the damage he might have done to OLPC?

Read more about this news in Cnet news, Boston Globe, and Forbes.

Warren Buffett Copycats

I just finished reading “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway”, a 42 pages research paper (free PDF file) by two university finance professors.

The paper is a good read although it may be a challenge to read through the paper without feeling totally confused at some point.

Here are some unexpected takeaways for me (the expected ones are pretty much in the abstract of the paper),

1. A 4.5 pages tutorial on SEC forms 10K, 13F, 13D, 13G, 3, 4, 5, 13D/A, and 13G/A. And wow, I read them all!
2. How they correct the so-called “ex-post selection bias”
3. “Overall, we conclude the performance of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment portfolio indicates superior investment skill in direct contradiction to Efficient Market Theory (EMT).” I have hated EMT as a theory for years even it is a required part of any Finance course. I am also delighted to read this footnote (emphasis mine),
   • “In the book “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”, Charles T. Munger, Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman, interestingly notes that Paul Samuelson [Nobel Economist 1970] who was one of the important early proponents of efficient markets theory has had a significant investment in Berkshire Hathaway for a long time. In Munger’s words, “it appears Samuelson was hedging”.“

Further readings: I have blogged extensively about what I know of Warren Buffett so feel free to check out the entries I’ve tagged with Warren Buffett.

Disclosure: I have direct, indirect or imaginary investment in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. So considered yourself warned of my potential bias or lack of bias. (smile)

Credit: I think I originally heard about this paper from Paul Kedrosky but I can’t seem to find his original entry now. Thanks Paul (I think).