Jurgis

Do you guys know for sure that Apple built map database from zero up? I.e. they are not using someone else's map DB? I'd be quite surprised if this is the case. It took Google 4+ years to gather the data and I have not seen any indications of "Apple maps" vans/cars collecting data. Most likely they are using 3rd party DB. Just whose? Any pointers to actual info would be helpful.

I partially agree with ScottHall, perhaps because I am not a great value investor. ;) IMHO having a "variant perception" is incredibly hard. If you guys can do it, you're geniuses and you deserve your outperformance. Power to you. But overall, knowing what market is really expecting from the company, having a different expectations, being one of few people having such different expectations and being right - this is very very hard. It is probably easier to find a great company and invest in it without having a "variant perception" on it. Anyone who bought MSFT or even BRK X years ago did not have to have "variant perception". They just needed to buy and hold. I also agree with ScottHall that a lot of "variant perception" theses sound like a sales pitch for the person instead of a real investment. "Look how great I am, nobody else knows this, but I do". Present company excluded perhaps. ;)

Malone cos have had conflicts of interest between various parts for ages now. You either live with that or not. Yet another possible conflict of interest is not really news.

I haven't read the article yet. I believe Mars will be colonized (if ever) after we have replaced our bodies with synthetics or made them much more durable via nanotech or such. While Mars is romantic, think about how many people live in Siberia, Antarctic or in the oceans. We have oodles of Earth uninhabited because of the harsh environment, why would a lot of people go to Mars? In the past the argument was population growth. However in the best case for humanity (i.e. we don't blow ourselves up), the population will stabilize and start dropping sometime in this century. So I don't believe population growth will be stimulus for Mars colonization. I am also skeptical about resource-driven expansion. Asteroids and solar energy are likely much better resources if we need resources outside Earth at all. Resources down in gravity well (though smaller than Earth) are not attractive. So, tourism and research pretty much. Maybe terraforming, but I'd put my bet on our-bodies-will-change before we-terraform-planets. Live long and prosper.

Usually it's a good idea to switch to non voting on ~7% spread (I am anchoring here haha) and to voting at 0-3% spread. But that's "usually" and all that. You might just buy any class you like and fogetaboutit. Edit: thanks for asking. I just switched my LBTYA to LBTYK. Let me know when the spread tightens ;)

Great post Cardboard.

We have had a Facebook "Like" button for a few months now. ;D oh ya.... how does that work? From what I've seen, it doesn't. I sometimes see numbers near it, but it seems to have the same number for the whole thread and not for the post, so I'm not sure it's actually doing anything useful.

I wants a Burger... maybe nots... http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/books/%27branded%27-movie/ 8)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1368440/?ref_=nv_sr_1 It's not a book, but it seemed to fit better here than into General category. :) Funny Russian-style surrealist satire of marketing and brands. Movie is quite uneven with some cringe-worthy moments, but I think I'll never be able to look at some familiar brands the same way again. 7/10

No, we only crucify comments which are not substantiated by analysis. Like most of the bull cheerleading? ::)

You realize that you'll be crucified by Valeant bulls? Good luck

Voted "yes". Can I have your shares? For free preferably?

Watching this: Not drinking though... great ad, crappy beer.

I'm looking at crack spreads too... it's a gas! 8) Or maybe oil. ::) Peace, love and kerosene, bro.

Love and Peace bro, yeah.

All the macro discussion is making me want to ... say what I really think, but then I'll get stoned... So what is everyone smoking? ;D

I have zero Apple products and don't plan to buy one ever. My friends are a mix. Some are Apple-almost-everything (none of them have a watch yet though). Some are mix (most common mix is iPhones + Windows PCs). Some are non-Apple at all. This is mostly tech, mostly over 30 crowd. Don't have many non-tech friends. I think most non-tech friends are in mix or non-Apple-at-all camp. This can be counted as positive or negative. ;)

2007 was not like 2000. Today/tomorrow is not going to be like 2007 or 2000.

Depends on your cash position really. :) I now treat my PCP position as cash equivalent. If I needed cash a lot, I'd sell; if not, I'd wait for ~4% annualized return by Q1/2016. (Of course, there is a risk that merger does not go through and stock drops).

Sorry, but I think you are just cherry picking the data looking backwards. Edit: it is easy to say now "A simple rule based formula of buying it around 20x and selling it around 30x". But actually if someone waited for 20x, they would have waited until 2011. So you would say "no, I meant around 20x and that includes 22x". But why 22x? why not 30x? ;) It's easy to do this now. Same with "sell at 30x". It fits the data nicely. But if you looked at something like NFLX, you'd have to make a different story. So, sorry, but I don't believe this works going forward as nicely as it works looking back. Edit2: There's another issue with the Google story above. You assume someone would have held cash (or what?) through 2006 to 2008 and then pounced. That looks great looking back, but there are at least couple issues with this. First, holding cash is huge opportunity risk (and if you held something else, you would have to account for selling whatever you held in 2008 at the bottom). Second, the only reason there was opportunity to buy Google at 22x PE in 2008 was the once-in-generation market crash. What if there was no crash? Would the someone held cash to 2011? Third, if we are looking for great returns starting to buy in 2008, then Google is possibly one of the mediocre ones... Anyway, I think I should shut up, since I might persuade someone that buying great companies at any price is the way to go. ;)

Second! 8)

We will need to provide means of living for 80%+ non working population. I don't think we are prepared for that at all (intelectually, spiritually, morally, economically, politically).

http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.ca/2015/08/narrative-resets-revisiting-tech-trio.html Although I am against buying great companies at any price, I think Damodaran is being naive that you can make great money by darting in and out of a stock in a great company. He may make money on Apple now, but that approach missed most of the gains in Apple or Google or Microsoft for 10-20 years when huge returns were made. To get that you really had to buy and hold.

I am not sure anyone here is long S. Except for some people being long via SFTBY. Anyway, I don't really disagree with you. I read this thread to try to understand how the heck Masa will extricate himself from this S(hit). ;)

He locked them. Which pissed them off. ;) Blame might be wrong word. It's just funny. So you give money to someone to manage. They go off and get you 10x+ return during the worst financial crisis ever. And you fire him because "he did not do what you signed him up to do". He should have stuck to value stocks and returned 20-30% losses like the rest of the managers. That would have been outstanding. No, I understand their thinking. It's just that the lesson is: don't dare to do something that's not in the charter. Even if it's brilliant and you succeed, your ass is gone. Anyway, I think I flogged this donkey enough. Peace. 8)