The real reason why luxury hotels charge for internet [2015/12/26]

There has been many theories why luxury hotels charge for wi-fi.

Reasons include guest's price insensitivity, perk, avoid cannibalization, and to maintain
reasonable high internet speed.

Perk was a weak theory to begin with because if customers really needed wi-fi, they would just purchase it.

Cannibalization cannot be ruled out but is not a very convincing theory either. Who would just use internet and stay in their room in a luxury hotel? Customers would surely take advantage of the luxuries that the hotel provide instead of being sucked in to Netflix, which they can anywhere else.

Well, today, we are closer to the real reason why they charge for internet. Recently,
Marriott has been fined by FCC for blocking customer's hot spots.

This action rules out price insensitivity and to maintain reasonable high internet speed. If customers were price insensitive then they would just pay for hotel wi-fi. If the hotel cared about internet speed, then they would not care about customers using their own wi-fi.

Hence, what convincing evidence are we left with? Yup, money, money, money...charging for internet makes money and is probably a super high margin business because once you set up the internet, the maintenance is very low cost. That is why Marriott actively banned customer's wi-fi.  It could not lose its cash cow, especially as lodging became more competitive with rise of Airbnb and other innovative lodging.

So in sum, luxury hotels charge for internet because it makes profit!

Close yet far from home [2015/12/26]

A study found that on average an American leaves 18 miles from mom.

This is a quite interesting finding given the unprecedented mobility. 18 miles is 25-40 min

drive in most cases so families are quite close yet we have a whole issue of families

breaking down in the US. Close yet far. Some can be thousands of miles apart yet feel

connected while others never visit those family members who are in the same town.

During the end of year, I think it is a good time to reflect about the relationship with family

and loved ones.

Love, love, love...love more ^^

Humans are the problem [2015/15/21]

Self-driving cars are getting into more accidents due to other human drivers.

It is a sad day for AI and humanity. I sort of predicted this. Driving in LA, things can be

quite chaotic. A self-driving car goes by the book but not humans. So even if the AI is

the best driver, in driving if the other driver is not so good then we have accidents.

So should we teach AI to sometimes make judgment calls? This makes things really

complicated for insurance and also for morality. But I think there is a solution, well, an

enhancement, ask the driver to take  control in uncertain situations.That should prevent

some accidents. Also, temporarily, we can have self-driving cars use car pool lanes to

avoid collision and we can make signs letting other drivers know that there is a

self-driving car, just like a "baby on board sign" :D

Salt gun [2015/12/18]

There is a gun that shoots toxin balls that makes the target nauseated. Well, sounds like

a good idea but if I use a gas mask? Hmmm....I think a taser is much more effective.

Or you could use a flash grenade. That would work too.

Tanning ban for teens[2015/12/18]

FDA wants to ban tanning for teens.

First of all, why do you want to irradiate oneself with UV rays? Why do teenagers want to

do that? Blows my mind. I am sure tanning can look good on some people but remember

that radiation is radiation....

An idea may be have people screened for potential cancer risk and then if they are low

risk, they can tan in salons. This may be better for the person and society.

Go to College hmmm [2015/12/11]

Michelle Obama rapped about going to college.

I do admire Michelle's mission to help people eat better and become more knowledgeable but I don't think going to college solve things. Learning actually changes things. Just going to college, well, leads to loss of money, time, and opportunities. Such tragedy is already witnessed by college kids being unemployed or underemployed, going back to live with their parents, and delaying marriage and other life choices. Plus, there is 1.2 trillion student that may lead to some kind of contagion.

Hence, it would have been better if Michelle rapped about other ways to learn without paying so much for college such as Khan Academy, Coursera, Edx, Udemy, Udacity, and more. These resources are mostly free and high quality and flexible.

So on the next level, it would be great if Michelle could rap about the free and great education resources available online already.

Sneaker King [2015/12/7]

Mark "Mayor Farese has over 3,000 sneakers with an estimated value of $750,000.

Wow...well, I applaud his effort but hmm is it really worth it?

In terms of investment, I can't do a return calculation but assuming that sneakers behave like collectibles and art, then we would expect an annual return of 6%, a return below the market return about 8-10%. We also have to factor in the cost of storage, so returns are not fantastic. Also, if he is smart, he should have some insurance for the shoes so that would further lower the returns as well. So in terms of investment, sneakers do not seem to be a good investment.

But given that he made a career out of collecting sneakers, I guess the returns may actually be higher (we don't know his endorsement deals).

So the lesson here? If you want to collect something then go all in but remember it is a risky move financially but if you derive immense utility from that activity,your call.





Snapshot Serengeti

[2015/12/5] Ice Man

Quite an interesting documentary about Wim Hof, who shows that with training people can control one's core temperature.

I think we should really look into more of his techniques to figure out, how we can regulate our body better. This will not only make us healthy but much more economic. Imagine all the money and waste we could save by being warm in cold weathers. We save on gas and clothing, and further avoid all the pollution associated with producing energy and goods. We can save a lot of money on air conditioning as well, avoiding to build more power plants.

Furthermore, this technique will be handy, when we are lost and have to survive in the cold.

So let's give a standing ovation to this super human and let us encourage our scientists to figure out to better regulate our body temperature. 

Lending cars to Uber drivers[2015/12/4]

Uber is launching a program where Uber lends cars to Uber drivers who do not have the cars that meet Uber's standards in a partnership with a rental car.

The idea is actually quite brilliant because it combines the underutilized labor and capital. People who want to make extra money but with no decent car can earn money and the rental car company also makes money.

From an efficiency point, this is wonderful. However, the cost $210 may be hmmm questionable. How did they come up with that amount? Also, shouldn't there be some differentiation. Just like insurance, good Uber drivers should get discounts.

The article does some calculations and shows that it is not a bad deal. I have not done the calculations but it does not look like a good deal.

However, let us remember that without this program, some people could not have ever made money using Uber. So overall, I do agree that this program has issues but in terms of efficiency, it is great. For drivers, just make sure that you do the math and it would be great if Uber could offer at least a range of expected profits like insurance companies. That would make the whole thing much better for Uber, drivers, rental companies, and consumers. Everyone wins ^^