Superscammer. And relevant when compared to the wolf of wallstreet!

http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-dark-lord-of-the-internet/355726/?single_page=true

Summarizing 400 studies over the past 60 years, the report concludes that humans perform only “the same as or slightly better than chance.” Given that the TSA has spent almost a billion dollars on the program, that’s a pretty poor record.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/13/5100702/tsa-screening-works-only-a-little-better-than-chance-according-to

This includes extensive studies of the TSA SPOT programme over 2011 & 2012

In 2012 I bought an apartment specifically to rent out on airbnb. I’ve been managing it remotely for the past year. This post includes everything I learned as well as some revenue numbers

http://gizmodo.com/i-bought-an-apartment-just-to-rent-it-out-on-airbnb-1458666661/@whitsongordon?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29

The gist is pretty simple: drive traffic to sites via links, recieve money (about $1 per 1000 hits) via their affiliate advertising programmes.

http://torrentfreak.com/making-money-from-movie-streaming-sites-an-insiders-story-131019/

What is the world coming to when the largest patent trolls, namely Apple, MS, and Samsung as well as BlackBerry, Cisco, HP, Intel, Yahoo, Google are trying to reign in new EU laws that would make patent trolling easy? Could it be that even they recognise that the patent system is outmoded and harms innovation and sales in a big way?

Techreuzen: EU wordt walhalla voor patenttrollen – Webwereld.

Bitcoin will be subject to regulation in the US as it gains in popularity. The article below goes into fearmongering about the potential of Bitcoins to be used by criminals, but forgets to mention that ALL currencies are used by criminals. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324373204578374611351125202.html

Considering there is a huge shortage of COBOL programmers, this is an excellent idea!

http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/113833/werklozen-gratis-opgeleid-tot-cobol-experts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Webwereld+%28Webwereld%29

Because sometimes that’s cheaper than a return, if you book with different airlines consumerist

The Global Atlas is the comprehensive information platform on the potential of renewable energy. It provides resource maps from leading technical institutes worldwide and tools for evaluating the technical potential of renewable energies. It can function as a catalyst for policy development and energy planning, and can support investors in entering renewable energy markets.

via IRENA – Global Atlas for Solar & Wind.

Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50p tax rate – Telegraph.

This has cost the UK GBP7 billion. They have repealed the laws, but the millionaires are not coming back much.

Not using a credit card is becoming a much more viable method over the internet (22% of the overall e-commerce payments), with iDeal and Paypal, but also many other methods used to pay for porn or gambling. Worldpay has made an interactive map showing the predominance of specific alternative currencies per country.

Worldpay Globe Data.

This is based on this report by worldpay.

That’s a pretty crass threat and bizarre that a US company can do this!

Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you’ll be fired | The Digital Home – CNET News.

Apps and websites that use the Google Maps API will soon have to pay $4 per 1,000 visitors Google announced today.

There is an allowance for small sites – the first 25,000 map-loads a day are free.

Google Maps API now costs $4 per 1,000 requests • The Register.

Basically it’s because econonmists allways calibrate the data – ie. change certain parameters to try to represent reality. Carter proved that even small changes to parameters make huge differences in the predictive power of a model. Economists calibrate and recalibrate their models all the time, leading to worse and worse predictions.

Why Economic Models Are Always Wrong: Scientific American.

Analysis: HP – Dial M for mayhem | Reuters.

Oops

As for what kinds of tricks the labels use, well, Frascogna notes “breakage fees” of 20%, which are based on breakage rates for vinyl from half a century ago. That CDs don’t break so much and that digital files don’t break at all, doesn’t matter. The labels still try to get a super high breakage rate that they get to deduct. For them, it’s pure profit. Then there are “uncollected account” withholdings, on the basis that some retailers go bankrupt and don’t pay for the stock they had. The way it’s described here, that’s often just a set number, rather than based on any actual, documented cases of uncollected fees. Next up? “Free goods.” Now, we talk about the importance of free goods all the time. But here it’s used in a different manner. Basically the labels deduct the “cost” of providing reviewers/radio stations/etc. with “free” copies of your album. That money comes straight out of the gross that the royalty is calculated on. The fact that you could just email the mp3 to those folks yourself? Well, pay no attention to that newfangled technology.

Next up, there are “container charges.” That’s for things like the jewel cases and inserts for CDs. Again, the fact that digital music doesn’t have such expenses is pretty much ignored. Also, the fact that all of these expenses get deducted from the artists’ share? That also seems wrong. Even more insane? Apparently the standard “container charge” is an additional 30% off the revenue. Again, in many cases that’s just pure profit for the labels.

Finally, there’s the ever lovely and totally amorphous “reserves.” As Frascogna notes: “no one really knows what reserves entail.” It’s basically a blank check for the record labels to claim they have to keep some of the money themselves for “other stuff,” which is mostly undefined. In this case, some labels simply set a straight percentage, up to 20% more of the gross that artists never get to see as part of their own royalties.

via RIAA Accounting: How To Sell 1 Million Albums And Still Owe $500,000 | Techdirt.

It has decided to roll back a days’ trading as a result of the stolen bitcoins, which were dumped on the market, crashing the value of a single bitcoin. Apparently there wasn’t that much cash involved (only $1000,-) which means that the bitcoin currency isn’t very strong at all.

Concurrently, a trojan has been found that scours your hd for bitcoins, and on top of that a hacker has released accounts and passwords for a slew of bitcoin users.

Huge Bitcoin sell off due to a compromised account – rollback

Bitcoin collapses on malicious trade • The Register.

Well, this is getting interesting. Last week, we noted that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, alone among the other G8 leaders, questioned today’s copyright laws, suggesting that they did not fit with the times, and pointed out that these century-old laws don’t seem to fit with today’s internet.

What the ‘free’ west can learn from ‘oppressive’ Russia!

via Russian President Proposes Creative Commons-Style Rules Baked Directly Into Copyright | Techdirt.

This page shows each ministry’s ICT projects, descriptions and budgets and how far they’re over or under budget.

ICT-dashboard | ICT-dashboard.