Patent on Improved Price Discrimination

The guys at Microsoft recognized that "elasticity curves [for PC sales] are based on the pressure to maximize profits on a one-time-sale, one-shot-at-the-consumer mentality".

One of their ideas - now patent application - implies the introduction of the pay-per-use PC with an option of scaling computer performance. This idea would bring us closer to a situation of price discrimination of 1st degree.
Wow, Microsoft's got the patent on it :)

via Cnet news

View This Data (Ep. 7)

Prices For Gas Vs. Prints
Originally uploaded by brandlyyours

Look how marketing, PR and politics manage to obliterate basic economic facts.

Printing ink costs 514 times more than gasoline due to (at least in part) the low transparency of the printer industry.

More info here

Have a Merry One

A Merry Christmas to you all!

Shocked

70 years of profits down the toilet...

NYTimes shows that the economic crisis is really global and deep - reaching: "Toyota Expects Its First Loss in 70 Years". Who could have forecast this 24 months ago? :)

Compare the Crisis

This year, American households will spend on average EUR301 on gifts (down from last year).

In Romania, this Christmas is going to cost local families around EUR585 (all things included).
64 out of 100 salaries in Romania will be spent entirely on presents. This means a total of EUR335 spent on gifts for all these 64 out of 100 employees.



Sources:
For USA
(u1) Conference Board via hbr.edu.
For Romania
(r1) Salaries and gifts - Aviva Romania via Curierul National
(r2) Cost of Christmas - Deloitte via realitatea.net
(r3) Official data regarding average income (net) in Romania

Random Thoughts

1.) Why is pistachio courageous?
2.) How can a hazelnut be pampered?
and
3.) Is there a way to block interlaced flash ads in Internet Explorer?

After the last bad PC crash, I gave my word to our IT guy not to install any other software for a few weeks. But www.zf.ro is really annoying. And I miss firefox + adblock.

Frustrated cactus

From croatia_trip_2007

Coffee Please

A must read & view for coffee junkies.
Also, an interesting fact for marketing mavens:

"[...]I was always envious of people who could walk into a coffee place and the guy behind the counter would know them so well he would just start fixing their order, without any exchange of words. It took me more than 10 years to get to that stage[...]" (Christoph Niemann, NYTimes)

Abstract City, NYTimes.com

First Pascal Code in about 5 Years

First Pascal Code in about 5 Years
Originally uploaded by brandlyyours

My first lines of Pascal code in about 5 years. Huh... it's like learning to ride the bike again :)

I don't really know what got into me when I installed FreePascal - the open source compiler... I wrote a few lines of code in notepad++ and as I saved it with ".pas" the program recognized Pascal code.

You know, Pascal code is like a vintage brand for many wannabe programmers. Including me :).

Not that you would be very interested in compiling the code, but here is its text version:


program comeback; // name of program
uses
crt; // tells compiler to include basic functions for CRT monitors.
var
key: string; // defines variable for typed keys
t: integer; // defines variable for counting
begin // begins program
t:=1;
clrscr; // clears the screen
writeln('Hello world!'); // writeln - writes a new line
repeat

writeln('Try nr. ',t);
writeln('Type "a"');
readln(key); //readln - reads keys in a new line
if (key='a') OR (key='A') then writeln('Thank you! Bye!')
else
begin
writeln('Wrong key(s). But, hey, thank you. Try again!');
t:=t+1;
end;
until (key='a') or (key='A');
writeln ('Press any key to exit');
readln; //equivalent of "press any key to exit" :)
end. // ends program