simba-hiiipower

i think hn benefits mainly from the fact its backed by some big-name influencers whose activities are highly relevant to its target audience. their presence is essentially a feature of the site that provides value beyond ‘link aggregation and discussion’.. it’s a differentiating feature, and is one that’s very difficult one for a new entrant, like a subreddit, to overcome. it also probably helps a lot that hn predates reddit..

these other ‘hn-like’ sites have no such differentiating features, and that’s why i don’t see them ever taking-off.. and given that reddit already exists, they’re often competing against subreddits which benefit greatly in terms of visibility.

otherwise, i don't really think so. but i'd argue its related in that reddit has made such sites largely unnecessary. subreddits can be as narrow or broad in topic, and as open or regulated in curation as one wants. i see little value in a 'finance news' (for example) when there's /r/finance and probably around 100 other finance-related subreddits out there..

pretty sure they wont, but i think that's sort of the point, and it speaks to the fundamental difference in how they see the market evolving vs. sony with their ps4.

i get a sense that microsoft views this as the last 'console' (in the traditional sense) they'll release.. everything from the architecture, to the internals, to even the naming, makes me think that this is meant to be just a 'box' - the one and only box you'll need - which will grow (in features and power), with more-and-more of the resources offloaded to the cloud over time...

i think their original policies around 'always on' speak to that vision, but that's just my guess, and is why i'm more excited about the xbox one long-term.

i agree that the increased (functional) life of pcs is a contributing factor to slowing unit sales, but its laughable to attribute it to the idea that people who once would have bought a new pc are now just buying more ram and upgrading internals.

the percentage of people who would have any idea how to do that, or even consider it as a viable option, is far to small to have any real impact on demand..

my guess would be ease of porting, though that's purely a guess. i am though starting to notice an increase in the number of same-day releases for wp as ios, and in some cases (like disney games recently) ahead of android.

though still small, i really think the platform's gotten to the point where it makes sense for devs to at least consider it, especially as many times the effort to port from ios is sufficiently small to justify the work.

though i'm not technical by any means, i've always sort of got the high-level around how reciprocating/piston-based engines function. wankel engines seem a lot more efficient in terms of design but also weirdly complex. still kind of a mystery to me as to how they work and unfortunately there aren't too many cars around these days that run on em to check out..

and while i'd agree that firms often overpay in the hope of realizing ‘synergies’ that rarely exist, an acquisition is at least an investment in something tangible (ip, product lines, people, ...), which at least has the potential to generate value.. and while it may fail to do so (or do so sufficiently as to offset the costs involved), i view it as a better use of funds than direct returns to shareholders in the hopes (from a macro view) that they are able to efficiently reinvest in value-generating activities.

edit: just want to add that i realize that if one views a firm’s primary function as to maximize returns to shareholders (as many do, a fair view), then m&a, with its high probability of not paying-off, would be considered less favourable than a direct transfer like a dividend. i however tend to view a firm’s function more along the lines of ensuring its long-term survival and growth (which, in-turn, and ideally, should generate significant returns to shareholders, and drive innovation).

and while i'd generally like to see some movement on policy to encourage large us-based multinationals to bring-home more of their offshore earnings (for reinvestment domestically), the current environment does play-out nicely for foreign m&a - which is at-least (in my opinion) a better use of funds than dividends and buybacks.