Parsad

Going after Google head-on. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/43557789

After a decade, Bill Miller finally has given up on Kodak. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-28/bill-miller-dumps-kodak-at-a-551-million-loss-after-a-decade-of-decline.html

Hey, if it can get Sanjeev enough ad revenue so that I can easily read this board on my phone, then I am happy and willing to put up with ads. I don't think that is part of my ad revenue, and probably goes to that app software developer. Anyone have a screen shot or something that they can post on here, as I have no idea what it looks like...if it worked at all! I will delete that app tomorrow and work on it some other way. Probably have to get an app developer license through Apple, and buy some software. Anyway, I guess I found my summer project! ;D Cheers!

Hi Folks, So I was going to use a program called Apploop to make a simple app that would be available for the iPhone and Android, but these guys went out of business. Some of the other hosted app sites charge a monthly fee of $25 to $100+, so I wasn't going to use those. Then I found this site that builds a simple app for the Android phone. Unfortunately, I don't have an Android phone, so I can't download it to see what it looks like. If you have an Android phone, you can download it here: http://www.freeblogapps.com/d/73a11e/corner-of-berkshire--fairfax Try it out and let me know if it works ok. It's just a simple app that takes the RSS feed and makes it mobile friendly. I'll keep working on this thing and see if there are other ways to do this for minimal cost. I already view the site on my iPhone every morning, and it actually works pretty darn good directly off the site web address. Cheers!

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when boardmembers would be all warm and fuzzy over Hempton. How times change! Hempton's a smart guy, but when you associate with unsavory characters, your intellect should be the last thing on any rational person's mind. Cheers! http://securities.stanford.edu/1037/FFH_01/200695_o01n_064197.pdf

I have been thinking about putting together a simple mobile phone app. Is there enough people who read the board on their phones? I read it every morning on my iPhone while commuting to the office, but I wasn't sure if anyone else really did. Please let me know if you would use such an app, and it would be at no cost. Cheers!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43527239/ I wish! ;D Cheers!

As a corollary, your tolerance to swings is likely less than you think it is - particularly if it's determined during good times. I would agree with that Norm. I think in times of crisis, unfortunately even value investor's emotional make-up tends to track similarly to the general population. Back in late 2008/early 2009, I would say less than 10% of value investors could tolerate that volatility without some emotional or mental stress...probably much less than 10%. And if you weren't somewhat prepared, you probably suffered quite a bit emotionally. Cheers!

While it's great to make money, investors have to be able to sleep well at night. Everyone should invest based on their temperament, not on what books suggest. So if you feel comfortable keeping cash, keep cash. If you are able to tolerate wide swings, stay invested. Cheers!

Short, but good article on unforeseen risks and probabilities. Good article for investors and P/C insurance fans. Thanks to Glen for sending me the link! Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/earth-in-the-balance-humankind-on-the-edge-nathan-myhrvold.html

More on credit derivatives related to Greece. Good article! Cheers! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/business/global/23swaps.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=business

The first quarter was one of the worst quarters for losses. Still probably not enough for a hard market...or even a firming market. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/insurers-post-biggest-underwriting-loss-since-2008-on-catastrophe-claims.html?cmpid=yhoo

This is good. I like Fairfax consolidating subs under specific umbrellas. Simplifies it for shareholders to understand where subs are located, and generally where those subs write much of their business. Cheers!

I believe some of the smaller holdings, that aren't the midst of being sold, are holdings within the company pension plan, etc. HW manages the assets of Fairfax's employee benefits plans. Cheers!

So the question I have for the former UFC champion is this: Did you ever use steroids? You've lost me. What does Brock Lesnar have to do with Sino? Or is this a play on words? Cheers!

Article on how senators and congressmen can trade on information they hear while in the midst of their daily activities. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/43471561

Yes it was slow over the weekend. Sometimes the ISP is doing their own upgrades, etc and you could have occasional experiences of lag. It's running really fast again today, so I think they were doing some system upgrades. If the site starts to run slow, they will generally shift assets over to give us increased bandwidth, as we have unlimited bandwidth and data. Cheers!

Yes, that would be the same one. Cheers!

Great response Txlaw! Cheers!

From these metrics, it appears that MSFT and CSCO are better buys than DELL but all of these stocks are cheap based upon the Graham growth formula which would imply P/FCFs in the low 30s for IBM and CSCO and P/FCF of the mid 20s for MSFT. Yes Packer, I agree. As long as they are around in ten years! ;D Cheers!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! We won't be buying unless something terrible happens and the stock plummets. Then we would buy enough so that we could run a proxy against him! ;D Cheers!

I started this thread based on some comments by Txlaw on the Microsoft thread. Feel free to chime in. In regards to DELL, I see how cheap the stock is on an enterprise level, especially based on the amount of cash in the company above and beyond what would be required for payables. But what competitive advantages do you see with DELL? I'm one of those guys that believes owning the software platform has more of a competitive advantage than the hardware side. Cheers!

Tx, I would like to hear more from you on Dell, as well as anyone else that is long on Dell. I'll start another thread and we can post on there. I have no stake in Dell, but am intrigued by what everyone is seeing, including Fairfax. I see the value (especially in light of all that cash), but I have difficulty seeing the moat. Cheers!

Thanks! Nice to see stuff on the great insurance executives at Fairfax. Good article! Cheers!

I agree with you with regard to the board but whats your take on the LVLT issue. I don't think there would be a LVLT issue, if you didn't have a couple of hard-core LVLT shareholders posting on LVLT all the time. When Prem, Longleaf and Berkshire bought LVLT debt a few years ago, I didn't hear anyone complaining then, as it was discussed quite a bit. People never complain if they like the idea...only once they become annoyed and aren't enamored by it. While LVLT discussion should probaby be kept to the LVLT thread, the current post by Ben Graham was actually related to Howard Marks. So if you ban that, do you ban any other holdings that Mark's owns and someone else posts about? As I mentioned, users have the ability to ignore a post. Those that receive RSS Feed, choose to do so because they don't want to visit the board. But there is no filter on RSS Feed, thus you get all the posts you aren't interested in. Again, it's a choice. I can't ban one group because they like LVLT, yet allow others to post endlessly on another subject...FBK comes to mind...even the MSFT post is getting pretty damn long too. As long as people are courteous and it is somewhat related, I'm not going to censor people. It takes all kinds, and this board is as much a jumble of personalities as anywhere else. Cheers!