Another person to put in the, "Darwinian Selection Isn't Working Fast Enough," file. 

Eventually, spam prompted Mr. Soto to dabble in Internet entrepreneurship himself. He's bought fancy knives, leather jackets, stuffed animals, party supplies and software, all via spam, and then created Web sites to sell the items at a profit -- a skill he learned from another piece of spam. Mr. Soto says he also has bought some adult DVDs and videos via spam, but never got around to marketing them. [emphasis mine]

Ahhh...a pro-spam consumer who in turn is a spammer.  And he apparently likes his porn too.  How quaint. [via slashdot]

12:53:19 PM  #  

Buffett Watch:
* Emperor Buffett Has No Clothes. MarketWatch writer Thomas Kostigen, takes Buffett to task for not delivering the goods to his shareholders this year. The article makes some serious points that shareholders have to wrestle with. Are Berkshire's high-performing days in the past? Has Buffett lost his touch? Would shareholders be better off in an index?

I think the real issue plaguing a lot of Buffett's critics, (such as Michael Lewis and Kostigen) is that they are jealous of the adulation and mythology surrounding Buffett. The essential criticism always seems to boil down to, "Buffett isn't as nice a guy as everyone says he is. And he isn't as smart as everyone says he is."

While I agree that the reality can't possibly live up to the hype, I think it worthwhile to point out that while Buffett has not beaten the indexes every year of his career (but who has over that same time-frame?) he has consistently performed. Berkshire ranks up there with the likes of Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft in terms of total lifelong appreciation of value. You can't dismiss that.

The author seems to have missed a central shift in Buffett's methodology, away from equity markets and more towards the acquisitions. So to say that the equity returns on his portfolio are trailing is a tad misleading. Not wrong necessarily, but misleading.

The key question going forward is whether value-investing will work in the future as well as it did in the past?

* Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountain to acquire Safeco Life and Investment Operations.

10:30:37 AM  #  

States May Be Aiming at Web File Sharing. State attorneys general may be gearing up for action against Internet file-sharing companies, with lobbyists in the movie industry helping to write the declaration of war.

You know what I'm sick of?  I'm sick of all these industries that have benefitted from the technology they are railing against.  It's like they're all collectively saying, "I want my technology, but only the good parts.  The bad parts aren't allowed."

Maybe someday some of these executives will step on board the Cluetrain.  Until then, I really wish they would just bury their heads in the collective sand, because they're just shipping money off in bucketloads to the lawyers, and accomplishing little else.
 via [New York Times: Technology]
9:17:12 AM  #