Author Archives: Nick Grosvenor

February 9, 2012

By Nick Grosvenor

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December 19, 2011

The Origins of Santa?

By Nick Grosvenor

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November 4, 2011

The Best Advice I Ever Got

By Nick Grosvenor

 ”My father would explain how the business world works–how a good business depends on good labor relations, enthusiastic leadership, making a profit and reinvesting it.”

“ Bail out of a business that isn’t growing.”

 

via cnn money

 

 

Posted in Business, INTERESTING | 1 Comment
October 30, 2011

Fortune’s Formula

By Nick Grosvenor

I just read an amazing William Poundstone book called Fortune’s Formula. This book reads so well. Read it in two days, couldn’t put it down. I find that reading multiple books with overlapping information really helps me retain the info. Another book that compliments this one nicely is called Distant Force by George Roberts, it’s about a conglomerate called Teledyne and the CEO who ran it, Henry Singleton.

Claude Shannon, whose featured prominently in Fortune’s Formula, was a board member of Teledyne. A lot of smart gentleman at the head of that company. Another guy that’s mentioned, George Kozmetsky. Haven’t brought myself to buy any of his books. They look a little too dense for me.

From Amazon:

In 1956 two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein’s. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory–the basis of computers and the Internet–to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible.

Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the “Kelly formula” to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorp used the Kelly system with his phenomenonally successful hedge fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. Shannon became a successful investor, too, topping even Warren Buffett’s rate of return. Fortune’s Formula traces how the Kelly formula sparked controversy even as it made fortunes at racetracks, casinos, and trading desks. It reveals the dark side of this alluring scheme, which is founded on exploiting an insider’s edge.

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October 12, 2011

PDP-7

By Nick Grosvenor

The first version of Unix was written by Dr Thompson for the PDP-7, a computer made by the Digital Equipment Corporation, which cost a mere $72,000, and came with eight kilobytes of memory, and a hard disk a bit smaller than a megabyte. By contrast, a desktop computer today typically costs a hundred times less, has roughly 64,000 times as much memory and a hard disk 40,000 times as big.

Via The Economist

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September 19, 2011

Time Lapse video taken by international space station orbiting earth at night.

By Nick Grosvenor

The earth really seems alive in this video. There’s a lot more lighting on earth than you’d think.

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September 12, 2011

This is why it’s so hard to beat the stock market

By Nick Grosvenor

Rock Paper Scissors computer game

Via the NYTimes

Note: A truly random game of rock-paper-scissors would result in a statistical tie with each player winning, tying and losing one-third of the time. However, people are not truly random and thus can be studied and analyzed. While this computer won’t win all rounds, over time it can exploit a person’s tendencies and patterns to gain an advantage over its opponent.

 

 

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August 28, 2011

I’m so sad about Steve Jobs’ health

By Nick Grosvenor

I think he’s dying and won’t be around much longer.

I saw a heartbreaking photo of a gravely frail Jobs on TMZ that’s been haunting me ever since I saw it.

I feel like someone from my family’s dying.

I’m more sad than I rationally should be, but then I again, one of history’s greats is slowing but surely dying right before our eyes. He’s too young, at the hight of his powers.

I was hoping my kids could sit with me while we watched Jobs keynote speech in 2020 while he touts the new features of the iPhone 14.

He became like a distant relative I saw once a year, every summer when he released sweet new apple products.

Can’t believe he’s about to die.

You’re the best Steve Jobs.

BTW, There is a Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson (biographer of best selling biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin) coming out NOV 21, 2011. It is the only authorized bio of Jobs, Isaacson had over 40 sit down interviews with him, tons of info collected from all sorts of fresh sources. The book will include info about his Aug 2011 stepping down.

This will be the end all be all of Jobs Biographies.

Its called “Steve Jobs”

 

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August 26, 2011

Could a Geo Metro do this?

By Nick Grosvenor

For further reading about the gentleman that got the toyota production machine going
his name is Taiichi Ohno and he's a genius


				

				
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June 17, 2011


By Nick Grosvenor

				


Here is an article about a sought after pencil


The article above falls in line with my hypothesis that in the future every item from the 20th century will be refined and/or reproduced, then sold at astronomical prices, to a small, obscure, passionate market.


No matter how mundane.


Case in point. The Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602. A pencil  that was discontinued  in 1998 and has found life being reproduced for $.50 a pop.


Apparently, a cult has formed around this pencil and originals are selling on ebay for $20.


For a pencil.


 


				

				
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