surfearth

I discovered this a few months ago - it's worth spending the 60 seconds to update these settings to get rid of Uber's terrible promotion notifications!

I used an AeroPress for nearly a decade but recently switched to a Hario #2 dripper. It takes roughly the same amount of time as the AeroPress and the coffee is tastes a bit cleaner or brighter. I primarily switched to avoid the plastic in an AeroPress, but was also interested to try something different after using AeroPress for so long. I also have a subscription to Trade coffee for fresh beans that I highly recommend.

In 2013, I asked a question that I then answered myself. It turned out to be a fairly common question and my response now has more than 101k views.

It's remarkable as perhaps the lowest effort/highest benefit to others online action in my life.

It would be great if they finalize the loading="lazy"attribute. Safari is the last holdout amongst the big browsers for this (for images) and I look forward to removing lazy loading javascript from my website.

Ideally we would have more of both trees and whales as part of a comprehensive approach to climate change mitigation.

If you're flashing your lights as someone, why wouldn't you use the high beam? In particular, with daytime running lights on most cars, high beam flashing is the most practical tool for the job.

On my Model Y, it is a simple pull of the left steering wheel stalk to do that, the same on all other cars I've previously owned. On my prior car, flashing the non-bright lights would've required turning an awkwardly positioned dial that also controls fog lights and running lights. That is easier than the touchscreen method but still poor UX while driving.

Yes. The new iMac 27" and iMacPro both use a 1080p webcam and also use the T2 chip for image processing. I recently upgraded from a 2015 iMac 27" to the 2020 iMac 27" and the webcam is better although still not great.

You seem to be insinuating that a PE exit via a sale to another fund is somehow inherently bad. Many PE investors would argue the opposite - IPOs have lockups and price volatility that increase both certainty of exit and time to exit. A sale to another PE firm or corporate entity generally deliver a large onetime cash payment.

I agree wholeheartedly and gave up on the article when I read that line. On my Mac, Safari is quick, resource efficient, and does everything I need it to do. I'm sure there are some downsides, but to dismiss it as a joke is ridiculous.

Ireland is an English-speaking EU member nation.

For large institutional investors, government-backed securities can be safer than bank accounts, given that they need to invest sums that are much larger than deposit insurance (e.g. FDIC) limits.

You're right, however there is an accessory you can buy that attaches to the legs and adds a slight (8-10cm) incline. We used that with our daughter up until 5.5 months.

I've been using 1Password since Version 3 in 2010 and was originally skeptical about the move to a SaaS model. The value I (and now my wife) gets from the Family Plan is easily worth it - it just works and we can easily share some things while keeping others to ourselves.

One pro-tip I learned last year is to replace Google Authenticator with 1Password's 2FA solution. It is really well implemented and copies the 2FA code to the clipboard when you fill in a login, and then removes it a minute or so later. You do need to make sure you're 1Password recovery information is someplace secure because you're in a bad place if you ever lost your devices.

You're correct that poor governance is a big part of the problem. Nevertheless, it is certainly possible for well governed pensions to remain solvent and even run at a surplus. Insurance and annuities are two other industries with the same basic concept. Pool risks together and guarantee a certain level of future benefits based on conservative assumptions (it is not unreasonable to guarantee an inflation adjusted payout if you assume you will generate a market-based return over the long run). One of the problems today is that assumptions have not been conservative.

Pensions in principle are great. The problem in the US is a combination of (i) unrealistic return expectations, (ii) laws that allow pensions to be underfunded, (iii) poor governance that reduces investment returns, and (iv) overly generous benefits.

Other countries (e.g. Canada) address all four of these problems and have pension systems that are widely admired as well funded, well governed, sustainable and savvy investors. The US needs comprehensive reforms to address all four of these points. Without that, any partial solutions such as increased funding or reduced benefits, only serve to delay fixing the system.

For (i), returns should be conservatively based on a bond index rather than an unrealistic 7-7.5% return.

For (ii), pensions provides should be legally required to maintain a small funding surplus (e.g. 105%).

For (iii), pensions should have independent boards comprised of investment professionals that are free of political meddling and actually pay their staff Wall Street level salaries so they can attract top talent to compete, rather than constantly being fleeced by Wall Street.

For (iv) I don't have any specific recommendations, but it would be interesting to see the distribution of benefits for the Illinois pensioners.

It is true that the Realtyshares/Fundrise/Realtymogul holdings may not be marked to market, and therefore have less apparent volatility. However, it is highly likely that if you tried to sell your holding during a market downturn you would need to take a significant discount to the face value to liquidate your position. The discount would probably be in a very similar range as the REITs at the same time. Private investments may have low apparent volatility, but more often than not, their economic volatility is actually greater than their liquid, publicly traded counterparts.

While most venture funds have a 10 year term, almost all are extended for at least an additional two years. The GP, together with the LP's, have lots of flexibility to extend beyond then if necessary, although there are typically negotiations around fee reductions and clarifying the path to liquidity. I have no insight into this particular fund, but it is very unlikely that it is purely fund term motivating Benchmark's desire to exit.

I don't think this is a particularly surprising or controversial report. Isn't it generally accepted that the F-35 Block 2B is still in development mode and the military has no plans to actually use it until the 2018-2020 time frame?

You're correct that there are a multitude of uses for debt (e.g. working capital management). I do think the parent was on to something though - the cornerstone of the private equity/leveraged buyout industry is borrowing debt below your return on equity to amplify returns. This can be a wise strategy for individuals to cautiously replicate.

A bit off topic, but is anyone else surprised that The Economist's editors permit the use of 'newbies' rather than 'new users'?

"Third, newbies find Twitter..."

No PE firms allow quarterly redemptions in traditional fund vehicles. PE firms and VC firms use precisely the same legal structure and are both generally required to value assets and report to partners on a quarterly basis. Some PE larger PE firms will have quarterly/semi-annual audits, but most PE and VC firms audit their financial statements (and thus valuations) annually.

Also note that most funds calculate fees on committed capital during the investment period (typically five years) and subsequently on invested cost, not fair value, afterword. Therefore the portfolio valuation has little to do with management fee calculations.

You can. However, Wavestorm's disruption is that for $100 you get a new, good quality board that is ideal for beginners. Before Wavestorm <$200 would fetch a used/poor condition fiberglass board. These are somewhat harder to learn on because they pose a greater danger for novices.

This phenomenon is called the j-curve. Its not that the IRR needs to be sky-high, rather that the fair value of the fund's aggregate investments need to appreciate above the cumulative amount of fees drawn before the IRR can be positive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_curve#Private_equity

Established venture firms may have multiple vehicles (e.g. a seed fund, main fund, or growth fund), but the majority of venture firms tend to invest out of one vehicle at a time (there may be a short period of overlap when new funds are raised).

If you are not an active investor, getting quality access to information about funds can be difficult. I'd recommend the firm's website and crunchbase as free datasources. There are other, higher quality sources, but you need to pay for access (e.g. dow jones venture source).

Good points, although I would note that preferred return is less commonly seen in venture funds but a typical feature of buyout/classic private equity funds.

According to the World Bank's 2015 Doing Business report, Spain ranks 74 of 189 countries for starting a business. That doesn't sound like startup heaven, but on the bright side it improved 41 spots from being ranked 115 in 2014.

The data at the bottom of this link provides some good data on the time, cost and number of steps required to start a company in Spain: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/spain/

The majority of funding for the VC industry does not come from the super rich, but rather endowments, pensions, and other forms of institutional capital. These institutions do have many other markets where they invest their capital, most of which are more attractive on a risk-adjusted basis when taking into consideration the illiquid nature of venture capital as well as the high fees.

In practice, US banks are most certainly able to grow at over 25% a year. This is most typically done via series of acquisitions rather thank organic growth. There is an undefined upper limit placed on inorganic growth by regulators, but this has more to do with ensuring the proper integration of acquisitions rather than a fear of growth in general. The reason one does not see banks grow organically much faster than 25% pa is because (i) owners can not put raise equity capital at a sufficient pace and (ii) rapid loan portfolio growth (on the asset side of the balance sheet) typically results in a deterioration of underwriting standards, this in turn requires additional capital and increased scrutiny from regulators.

Source: I've worked in bank-focused private equity for the past decade both in and out of the US.

Font size is now based on the system-wide settings in Settings > General > Text Size. I was worried for a moment when I couldn't find the setting in the app itself since the text was nearly 50% larger the previous version.

For me, Newsstand is annoying because it takes extra clicks to get in and out of apps, the latter of which is more frustrating. iOS7 made this frustration worse because now you need to explicitly click the home button twice to exit (once for the app and then again for Newsstand) whereas with <iOS7 you could click the home button once to exit the app and then tap on the lower half of the screen OR click the home button to exit Newsstand. I know this sounds picky, but in practice it has been an annoyance.

That being said it does seem to be working betteron iOS7 and the NYTimes, WSJ and New Yorker apps all have fresh content ready when I open them.