Liquidspace
Liquid Space is like an AirBnB for coworking space and real estate: blog.
Big in San Francisco, California and NY.
January 15, 2012
December 30, 2011
Un redeamed, unspent gift cards: seigniorage ?
The vast majority of the money put on gift cards gets redeemed, but Riley estimates that since 2005 $41 billion in money on gift cards has been lost or is likely never to be cashed in. The lion's share of money lost on gift cards from 2005-2009 came from fees and expiration dates. All that changed with the passage of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 that was signed into law last year. The Act largely forbids fees on cards sold by retailers (cards given away as promotional items can still charge fees), and it prohibits expiration dates less than 5 years after the card is purchased.
But what happens when the purchases go under the face value and then sit in the junk drawer in perpetuity, or when grandma, who can barely check her AOL email, gets an Amazon.com card that she'll never redeem? Some $3.4 billion of the $41 billion lost on gift cards from 2005-2011 resulted from cards being lost or simply left unused. The Credit CARD Act doesn't do much to address that, and as the market grows that number will grow along with it.
The answer to how retailers deal with those "lost" funds isn't simple, and there are no hard-and-fast rules -- either at the federal level of government or through national regulatory accounting principles. The Securities and Exchange Commission allows companies to take unused gift-card money as income once they can reasonably say the card won't be redeemed, but there's no set time limit. Best Buy, for example, sets that level at about two years. In fiscal 2011, the electronics company recorded $53 million in income from gift-card "breakage," or cards that are unlikely ever to be redeemed, up from $43 million a year earlier.
But some states don't allow companies to keep unused gift-card cash. They demand that companies give the money to the state after a certain period of time to add to unclaimed-funds accounts. States claim this is a way to reunite consumers with their unspent money, but practically it's a way for cash-strapped governments to give themselves more liquid funds. Money the state holds as unclaimed funds can be used for general purposes until someone claims it. For example, in 2008 -- the most recent year for which data could be obtained -- New York state collected $9.6 million in unredeemed gift cards and returned around $2,150 to the rightful owners.
Continue reading "Un redeamed, unspent gift cards: seigniorage ?" »
December 28, 2011
Business of fashion, the-business-of-blogging: the sartorialist.
Business of fashion looks at the-sartorialist for design and recurring revenue.
November 23, 2011
Questions like 'What do we do next?' and 'Who needs to make a decision today?' are handled inefficiently now. It's why there are so many meetings in companies
Mr. Girouard said that Google Apps would introduce even more features with Google+ over the next few months. "We're headed to a place where all productivity is inherently social," he said. "Questions like 'What do we do next?' and 'Who needs to make a decision today?' are handled inefficiently now. It's why there are so many meetings in companies." Social networks in business, he said, could be faster, less formal and more efficient.
Social networking "is the next phase of what we're going to do in business," said Mr. Girouard.
-- David Girouard, who runs Google Apps for Business.
November 21, 2011
FOMO: fear of missing out
What Else Is Going On?
At the Bowery Hotel's lounge, Marissa Evans and Esther Kang were concerned about FOMO, the fear of missing out.
Ms. Evans, 27, runs a social networking site called Go Try It On, which gives users feedback on what they are wearing. On her phone, she navigates among three e-mail accounts, two Twitter feeds, Foursquare, Instagram and several group text-message accounts. All of these can cultivate FOMO.
"Especially when I leave the city," she said. "In the past, maybe I'd have had one text message inviting me out. But now I know from Facebook and Twitter and GroupMe that 10 of my friends were all together, and I can see pictures of what they did."
At the moment, however, she was more concerned about a friend who had been left out -- and who, thanks to their mobile phones, knew it. When Ms. Evans arrived at the bar, she "checked in" on the social networking site Foursquare; Ms. Kang, 29, checked in on Facebook. Within moments, Ms. Kang received a Facebook message from a third friend, Joydeep Dey, who had not been invited.
"Miss you two!!" his message read.
Ms. Kang was not warmed by his concern.
"I know he's being passive-aggressive," she said. So she responded in kind.
"Are you working?" she texted.
Mr. Dey, 30, contacted the next morning, said he had felt left out -- not because he had not been invited, but because he had been stuck at work. "Marissa, Esther and I are usually this trio," he said. "When I saw them both check in, I had to let them know I knew."
Among young adults surveyed by the advertising agency JWT New York, 65 percent said they felt left out when they saw that some of their friends were doing something without them. That feeling leaves many social media users perpetually antsy that, somewhere accessible by their phones, someone is having more fun than they are, said Ann Mack, the agency's director of trend-spotting.
"It's a very efficient way to make plans for later, but when you are out, people are still texting other people, trying to drum up more friends, not living in the moment," Ms. Mack said. "It's like, I'm here but what else is going on? Is there something better, cooler, that I'm not in the know about?"
Seated next to Ms. Evans, Jordan Cooper, 29, kept one eye on his cellphone but did not answer any of the incoming text messages, e-mail messages or phone calls. Mr. Cooper, who is starting a data-collection and search site called Hyperpublic, said he did not feel FOMO, in part because he did not feel left out of an event just because he was not there physically.
"I don't think of what's here and what's not here as separate," he said. "Like I'll be out with my mom and if I look at my phone, she says I'm being anti-social. I say, 'I'm being social, just not social with you.' "
November 20, 2011
Beats: Dr Dre's fashion accessory for dofus
Beats have redefined the lowly headphone, as well as how much people are willing to pay for a pair of them. A typical pair of Beats sell for about $300 -- nearly 10 times the price of ear buds that come with iPods. And, despite these lean economic times, they are selling surprisingly fast.
Whether Beats are worth the money is open to debate. Reviews are mixed, but many people love them. The headphones are sleekly Apple-esque, which is no surprise, since they were created by a former designer at Apple. Beats also offer a celebrity vibe and a lot of boom-a-chick-a-boom bass.
So much bass, in fact, that some audio experts say that Beats distort the sound of the music.
"In terms of sound performance, they are among the worst you can buy," says Tyll Hertsens, editor in chief of InnerFidelity.com, a site for audiophiles. "They are absolutely, extraordinarily bad."
Time was, manufacturers marketed high-priced audio equipment by emphasizing technical merits like frequency response, optimum impedance, ambient noise attenuation and so on. The audience was mostly a small cadre of audiophiles tuned to the finer points of sound quality.
But, three years ago, Beats by Dr. Dre set out to change all that by appealing to more primal desires: good looks, celebrity and bone-rattling bass. Annual sales are approaching $500 million, and Beats have transformed headphones into a fashion accessory.
Continue reading "Beats: Dr Dre's fashion accessory for dofus" »
July 30, 2011
Amazon prices change
Prices at Amazon change, often.
May 31, 2011
FrankNDodd
Dodd-Frank is so sprawling -- the legislation runs to more than 2,000 pages -- that the law firm Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) dubbed the tracker it created to monitor the implementation process "FrankNDodd."
Congress set aggressive deadlines for regulators to make rules to enforce the law, and, unsurprisingly, they are failing to meet them. The agencies missed each of the 26 deadlines they were supposed to meet for April. So far, regulators have finalized 24 rules and missed deadlines on 28, according to the law firm Davis Polk.
-- Propublica
August 22, 2010
Consultants to reduce uncertainty ?
A classic energy mistake is to put in an oversized heating and cooling system. Consider hiring an independent engineer to recommend a system size. That way you can elevate your problem from not knowing what size your furnace should be to not knowing if you hired the right independent engineer. You'll be surprised how good that feels.
THE SATURDAY ESSAY AUGUST 21, 2010
How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
No one said it would be easy to build the greenest house on the block. Scott Adams on perplexing energy bills, ugly lawns and the true meaning of 'green'
July 12, 2010
Return on internet sales tax
the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act forbids such internet sales taxes ? No.
On the other side are the big Internet retailers, such as Amazon.com and eBay, which have fought hard to maintain a status quo that gives them a marked advantage over local brick-and-mortar merchants. Amazon.com, the largest and best-known Web retailer, has fought efforts to collect sales tax from customers. The company argues that the crazy quilt of taxing jurisdictions -- there are approximately 8,500 in the United States -- makes doing so impractical.
Nonsense -- an industry that can deliver tailored ads to buyers in a fraction of a second could surely solve whatever technical problems exist. And it already has: Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix, told the New York Times, "We collect and provide to each of the states the correct sales tax. There are vendors that specialize in this (we use Vertex). It's not very hard." Plus,
June 17, 2010
What do scalpers sell ?
For brokers and others who favor a free secondary market for tickets, these concerns cut to the philosophical heart of the issue: Is a ticket a commodity that can be freely exchanged, like a stock, or is it a license granted by a theater, a sports team or an artist that can be used or revoked on their terms?
May 7, 2010
Agile business
In product development, for example, Mr. Ries is an enthusiast of so-called agile programming methods, which emphasize rapid development, small teams and constant improvement. But, he adds: "The agile practices have to be adapted, shifting the focus somewhat from generating stuff to learning about what customers will want. Most technology start-ups fail not because the technology doesn't work, but because they are making something that there is not a real market for."
So the lean playbook advises quick development of a "minimum viable product," designed with the smallest set of features that will please some group of customers. Then, the start-up should continually experiment by tweaking its offering, seeing how the market responds and changing the product accordingly. Facebook, the giant social network, grew that way, starting with simple messaging services and then adding other features.
The goal, explains Mr. Blank, is to accelerate the pace of learning. "A start-up is a temporary organization designed to discover a profitable, scalable business model," he says.
November 27, 2009
Retrevo laptop deals by Retrevo, a gigaom gig (cofunded-wise)
November 23, 2009
Fx: Forex trading profits
Do Forex trading profits go to traders, brokers, software vendors ?
A review of the Foreign Exchange advertizing economy.
August 29, 2009
Facebook, your personal life commercialized.
AN INQUIRY You're not the first to think it's creepy to have your personal life commercialized. Jürgen Habermas has been especially eloquent about this. Start with "The Theory of Communicative Action." Copies are available on AbeBooks.com. Also interesting on this score: "The Purchase of Intimacy," by Viviana Zelizer.
Continue reading "Facebook, your personal life commercialized." »
July 19, 2009
Amazon book price inflation
After placing some books in the cart, but not checking out, I return an am warned that these desired but unpurchased item are now much more expensive.
See also
Amazon Prime $79 Refund class action suit
New is cheaper than used: Falkenstein's Finding Alpha and Ritholtz (Big Picture) Bailout Nation new vs used price arbitrage.
July 9, 2009
Urging mortgage refinance -- Obama ?
Mortgage refinance is available.
Is mortgage refinance it really urged by Barack Obama ? Sorry we cannot better filter or screen the Google Adwords.
Update: Loan modification is a big topic now, but is President Obama really blogging about it ?
We think these sites are running some google adwords arbitrage strategy.
In a later press Q&A, Eric Schmidt talked significantly tougher when it came to assessing advertiser quality, with specific reference to ads taking users to misleading landing pages full of ad links--commonly known as click arbitrage. In that session, he sounded annoyed at the prospect of users landing on such "arbitrary agglomerations of ad links," and asserted that "we don't believe it is healthy.
July 14, 2007
NetBanker / Jim Bruene
Net Banker / Jim Bruene tracks online banking
for financial industry. Banking Camp.
May 11, 2007
Amazon Prime $79 Refund class action suit
Amazon Prime automatically charged customers $79
for Amazon Prime Club free shipping.
Stay tuned for the AMZ*Prime Club $79 Refund class action suit.
Continue reading "Amazon Prime $79 Refund class action suit" »
April 8, 2007
Tila is bummed
The reason why I am so bummed out about MySpace now is
because recently they have been cutting down our freedom
and taking away our rights slowly.
MySpace will now only allow you to use ‘MySpace’ things.
-- Tila Tequila, a singer who is one of MySpace’s most popular and visible users.
April 4, 2007
EMI
There's an ulnimited supply
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it cos the fame !
Who ?
E.M.I.
Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
An unlimited amount
Too many out lets in and out
Who ?
Apple and EMI just announced that they will be selling DRM-free
Apple songs through the iTunes Music Store. The songs will cost
130 percent of the price of the existing crippled songs, and you'll
get to choose. Weirdly, Apple seems to have sold this move to
EMI by saying that the DRM-free version will be a "premium"
offering for audiophiles who want higher-quality music.
I think that audiophiles are probably the people who have
the least trouble keeping up with the latest tips for efficiently
ripping the DRM off of their music -- the people who really
need DRM-free music are the punters who can't even spell DRM.
February 10, 2007
bluefly: fancy soes and handbags
Blue Fly, prestige brands for online shoppers.
October 16, 2006
kizmeet, a slick 'missed connections'
kizmeet: example:
September 16, 2006
Tilley Endurables, safari tourist fashion
Tilley Endurables, supplier of safari style tourist fashion.
Classic hats, cargo pants, and sturdy belts.
September 8, 2006
Rough Type / Nicholas G Carr
Rough Type by Nicholas Carr.
Rough Sort (introduction) daily links -- Does it matter ?
August 19, 2006
Globe / Stephan Paternot
The Globe.com movie trailer, with great soundtrack.
August 15, 2006
Hickey Freeman
June 19, 2006
Not Making this Up / Jeff Mathews
Jeff Mathews is not Making this up: Example:
criminal defence in the name of Jesus.
June 4, 2006
Crowdsourcing
May 11, 2006
Footnoted Edgar files
Footnoted reads SEC filings, Edgar's fine print.
March 29, 2006
Deal Breaker, Deal Book (NYT)
Investment banking reads: Deal Breaker by Gawking Stalwart
and Dealbook by NYT.
March 13, 2006
droxy on Digital radio
Digital radio and Sirius at droxy.
March 11, 2006
Venture Angels: Art of the Guy
Guy Kawasai gives the same speech over and over.
He's getting better at it. UCLA business School edition.
Cliches about business, but solid advice about presentations.
March 9, 2006
Wal*Mart blogs
The 37-year-old Brian Pickrell who runs the Iowa Voice blog has written
at least three postings that contain language identical to sentences in
e-mail from Marshall Manson. In one, which Brian Pickrell attributed to
a "reader," he reported that
Wal-Mart was about to announce that a store in Illinois received
25,000 applications for 325 jobs. That's a 1.3 percent acceptance rate.
Consider this: Harvard University (undergraduate) accepts 11 percent
of applicants. The Navy Seals accept 5 percent of applicants.
See also Wal-Mart is a great American institution.
November 27, 2005
Viral videos
MSNBC is using search engine marketing, buying keywords on Google, like
"viral videos." Computer users searching for articles with such words will
see ads alongside their search results with links to MSNBC.com.
"We want to find out something we haven't known before," said Frank
Radice, senior vice president for the East Coast office of the NBC Agency,
the internal unit that works on behalf of networks like MSNBC, NBC and
Sci Fi Channel. "Can we drive traffic from the Internet to the cable channel?"
Example (2010 December): tow truck in Brooklyn snow.
Val Nichols, vice president for the creative services group at MSNBC,
estimated the campaign would get 114 million viewings in total.
Among the 800 blogs that will run the ads are Adrants, Althouse,
Curbed, Daily Kos, Gothamist, IndieWire, Largehearted Boy, Talking
Points Memo and TV Newser. Buying ads on 800 blogs is a major
commitment to that fledgling medium. Budget Rent A Car bought
ads last month on 177 blogs, and Audi bought ads this summer on 286.
October 3, 2005
Odlyzko on Network economics
The greater ability of modern business leaders to keep at distance
from the actual criminal acts they induce may be a reflection of
what they have learned from the experience of their predecessors
in white-collar crime in the last century and a half. But it also
likely reflects the greater complexity of business, which has led
to separation of functions into sales, legal, accounting, and many
other specialized areas.
Other papers.
September 16, 2005
American Banker
Free headlines, subscriber-only content: *.
July 24, 2005
Classic Saint Louis roof repair
Saint Louis Slate and Tile Roofering Co. will inspect and fix
your classic Saint Louis roof.
June 27, 2005
Norm Brodsky, Inc
Norm Brodsky has writen so great pieces about investing and management,
but his Inc column, street smarts, is as one-note as an upbeat inflight
magazine, but better illustrated by example.
June 21, 2005
Tom Peters
The excellent Tom Peters offers pithy business advice for the post-modern
economy. Well organized site.
June 9, 2005
Charlene Li / Forrester
April 23, 2005
Google: branding, beyond adwords
Google is trusting the advertiser’s motivation to target ads to
relevant sites, but Google has never before trusted the advertiser to
make that judgment. The AdWords method has always been to
automatically sever the connection between any underperforming ad and
its keywords, curtailing the appearance of that ad. Google’s
technology was the sole arbiter of relevance, and that relevance was
determined by clickthrough rate. Now, placing ads on
advertiser-determined sites, with payment by the impression, ad
performance is no longer a viable concept. Accordingly, any advertiser
with the loony idea that motor oil will sell on an environmental
activism site can outbid competitors and place that ad. And Google’s
reputation for relevance gets poured into the ground.
April 17, 2005
Sell your car online
Field report:
Your odds are much better when placing an online ad for your used
MINI, in the main "outlets" such as Cars.com and Autotrader.com. A
dedicated MINI website for this purpose could not always be a successful
thing because buyers out there interested in MINIs (mainly, classics are
a more confined market)are also shopping for other vehicles as well.
I sold my '04 MCS in Cars.com, just 6 days after placing the ad
with 12 photos. The buyer of the car is a local resident, so you never
know who may show interest in your car.
March 1, 2005
Institutional Investor
January 24, 2005
Ascential Network
The Ascential Network's industry experience in data integreation
leverages strategic synergies across enterprise platforms.
January 19, 2005
Quinetix
Quinetix offers statistical and optimization consulting.