drumhead
Joined 2,052 karma
- drumheadLabour have dropped to 17% because their left wing has moved to the greens, Libdems and nationalists. Reform support has stopped growing at 25% and that's mainly Tories moving across. The only people that harp on about "two tier Keir" are the extreme right wing loonies.
- It's always been like this. From the official secrets act where they could jail you just for revealing the date of the office Christmas party to D notices suppressing newspapers from publish stories the government thought were to sensitive. MI5 and MI6 acting totally without accountability, with the government not even acknowledging their existence. If anything, things have started to get more transparent now, with a freedom of information act, actual oversight and accountability for the intelligence services and less government. But the default position of the UK government has always been secrecy and the right to do what they want to protect the country.
- It's the best deal for both companies. Netflix gets the WB back catalogue and studios to provide high quality content and potentially premium streaming services with HBO. WB gets stable cashflows and a place where their content is needed and their production expertise will help improve the current product. I can easily see a new premium Netflix+ channel with that includes HBO bundled with it.
A win for both companies, Netflix with IP and WB with stability.
- Too much money being spent on a technology that isnt ready to do what they're saying it can do. It feels like the 3G era all over again. Billion spent on 3G licences which didnt deliver what they expected it would.
- Yes, but whether they will remains to be seen. They needed a reason to sell out without it looking like they were selling out at the top.
- Berkshire is sitting on nearly $350 billion in cash. One of the ratio's that Buffet uses to measure overvaluation, Wilshire 2000 Market Cap as a % of GDP is at an all time, 220%. Its usually a good indicator of a market top. He's making a few small investments, but he's just waiting until there's more of sell off before heading back in. He's under no pressure to buy anything.
- It'll come from the other bubble in financial markets, Private Credit. There have been quite a few bankruptcies and problems emerging there, and they're stepping up to be major funders for the AI capex boom.
- APPL is the best bet as it doesnt have any exposure to AI. MSFT has spent a truckload of money on datacentres, if AI doesnt deliver they're going to face a huge drag on earnings because of the overinvestment.
- If there is a bubble then the hyperscalers with dominant market shares and big cashflows are most likely to survive if it bursts. Google, MSFT and Amazon. Oracle are on very shaky ground. Their bonds are selling at a discount to par, even though interest rates are dropping, and their debt to equity ratio is nearing 400%. AI is an existential bet for them, but not so much for the others.
- First it was Softbank and now its Thiel. Major sales coming from two of the ultimate tech insiders is probably a very good sell signal. Whether or not its the top is another question. Markets as we know can go higher longer than we think, Michael Burry shut down his hedge fund because he may have started shorting too soon.
One of the funds that Meta were working with to finance their spending on AI, Blue Owl, had to stop redemptions on of their private credit funds merging it with another one of their bigger funds, leaving holders facing a 20% haircut. There also seem to be emerging liquidity issues with banks. The money for the AI gravy train might be running out.
- If you're a finance professional then there's no alternative to Excel. But otherwise Libre office calc is perfectly fine.
- Sometimes it feels like Google are so far ahead in AI but all we get to see are mediocre LLMs from Open AI. Like they're not sharing the really good stuff with everyone.
- Remember "Do no evil"?
This sounds like another bogus role they'll ditch once they get their Nasdaq listing and need to make profits for their shareholders.
I'd probably trust any organisation with a role like this even less. It sounds like an organisation that doesnt think it can be trusted.
- They're trying to wreck as much of the current governmental set us as they can do it'll almost impossible or very difficult to rebuild it. It's almost scorched earth, they think they're killing the "deep state"
- We created this oligopoly because they were convenient, free, powerful, and now its time for us to pay the price.
Or find services that may not be as easy to use, may cost something and may not have all the features you want, but which wont make unreasonable demands for your data.
In light of the way the US government is carrying on, I'd rather not give Microsoft any of my images.
- Is this just Google Desktop again?
- Considering how they're clamping down on anonymity wherever they can, crypto wasnt going to escape their clutches for very long. How long before its seperated from it original aim and just turned into a gambling token.
- I've got a Pixel, this new iPhone hasnt got anything that convinces me to move to Apple. There's nothing compelling there, not technologically or aesthetically. Yes its more powerful, but what do they do with that power but play games? Until some new application emerges where that much power is needed I'll stick to the cheaper phones.
- Is this a foldable prototype. Will the iPhone foldable be 2 iphone Airs joined together?
- Would be a tragedy if it did. So many interesting and useful apps there without the obnoxious ads or nagging to upgrade.