intertechseo.com

Here’s The Real Reason Small Companies Create All The New Jobs

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:04:00 +0000

I previously posted this at Growthology and Infectious Greed. ? The original title was: Drunks, A Wall, Entrepreneurs, And Jobs —————— That young firms account for most of the job creation in the U.S. – as written about my Kauffman colleagues Dane Stangler, Bob Litan, and others — has quickly become one of those compelling facts that changes the way you apprehend the entrepreneurial world. Young firms assume their rightful priority of place, and the vexing conflation of young/growth firms with small firms is finally and rightly undone. I am going to take a different perspective on the relation between young firms and job creation, however. I want to explain its mathematical inevitability , and I’m going to do that using the probabilistic idea of the drunkard’s walk. It works like this: Imagine an inebriated bar-goer having exited the bar, and now standing outside along the wall. Imagine further that in his or her state every single step is random, a coin flip whether it will be toward or away from the bar wall. At first, however, the bar-goer is at the wall, so further steps toward the wall can’t happen. The only direction he or she can go with that first step is toward the curb. After that things change, of course, with at least some steps toward the wall possible, after which the drunkard is back at the wall and unable to go further. Given enough time, and with 100% probability, the drunkard will eventually end up in the gutter away from the wall. Evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould famously used the idea of the drunkard’s walk to explain the rise of complexity over time in humans. It wasn’t progress, he argued, just a blind evolutionary process staggering away from a left wall of minimum biological complexity. The same holds in job creation. Young companies are the single-celled paramecia of the economic world: at t=0 they stand at the bar wall facing the gutter. They can’t lose jobs because they haven’t created any yet. All they can do initially, other than fail, is stagger away from the zero employment wall. Now, we know that about half of young companies last five years, more than enough time for companies to stagger back and forth such that, even if we assume no managerial skill, the drunkard’s walk model tells us they will grow and add jobs, even if only because that left bar wall prevents them from going below zero jobs. The same doesn’t hold for older companies. They have been in business long enough that at t=0 they are already some distance from the bar wall, staggering back and forth. They can create jobs, of course, but they can also lose many jobs, the latter being something young companies mathematically cannot do given how they start at the left wall of zero employment. In short, the central thing about job creation from young companies is its inevitability. It is a species of mathematical certainty (one driven by initial simplicity and a wall) that young companies must create the most jobs (even without assuming particular skill on their part, or taking into account sectoral or economic growth, both crazily conservative assumptions). That the drunkard’s walk applies to the economics of young firms is an mind-altering realization (in a good way), one that helps put the messy data of company and job creation in a more plain and meaningful context. Also at Infectious Greed: A Tourist Trip Through Network Economics Join the conversation about this story ?

See the rest here:
Here’s The Real Reason Small Companies Create All The New Jobs

Closing Bell: Here’s What You Need To Know About Today’s Huge Rally

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:05:00 +0000

First, you’re scorecard: DOW: Up 70 points to 10,997, breached 11,000 for a short time. S&P: Up 8 points to 1194. NASDAQ: Up 17 points to 2454. Today’s big gainers: S&P 500: – Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (JEC): $47.61 / +7.52% – Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF): $49.98 / +6.57% – Lexmark Intl. Inc. (LXK): $37.32 / +4.48% DJIA: -Chevron Corp (CVX): $79.50 / +2.37% -AT&T Inc (T): $26.44 / +1.61% -The Coca-Cola Company (KO): $54.59 / 1.54% Now here’s what you need to know before you leave work today: The Greek crisis is escalating even further going into the weekend . Rumors suggest that the proposed European bailout of Greece is based upon 6% interest rates on three year loans. The EU also plans on charging Greece an additional 100 bps for any year greater than 3 the country takes loans for. Howard Davidowitz has called the positivity over recent retail sales numbers the result of a ” sucker’s rally .” “We’re in a bad place, heading for a worse place,” he added. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stevens has announced his retirement for this summer . Its likely to make President Obama’s attempts to pass both financial reform and energy reform difficult, as the polarizing selection of a another Supreme Court Justice occurs just months before the November mid-term elections. China car sales are showing just why oil has been on such a tear . China’s year-over-year growth in auto sales is now at 60% . Chinese trade data is released tonight , and it may be an early weekend signal of where the yuan revaluation story will go by Monday . Trade imbalances with the United States will be a particularly important statistic to watch for. Bonus: Workers at Carlsberg, the Danish brewer, are striking because of a reduction of how much free beer they can drink while on the job. Join the conversation about this story ?

Original post:
Closing Bell: Here’s What You Need To Know About Today’s Huge Rally

Google Search Rankings Now Consider Site Speed

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:54:46 +0000

Back in November, we started hearing murmurs that Google was considering whether or not to factor site speed into its search ranking algorithm. In a blog post today , the search giant confirms it is now adding site speed to its list of criteria that could affect your Google ranking. It’s another step on Google ’s long road toward achieving maximum speed and efficiency. The company even launched a Site Performance tool as part of its Webmaster Tools suite to help assess site performance statistics and make changes accordingly. Today’s blog post recommends a few other tools for evaluating your site’s speed as well, including the Firefox Add-on Page Speed , Yahoo’s YSlow and WebPagetest . The new site speed criterion isn’t weighted as heavily as something like page relevance, however. Google says less than 1% of actual search queries performed are being affected by the site speed dimension in the current implementation. Do you think web site performance should affect search result rankings? For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: Google , performance , Search , site speed , Web Development

Originally posted here:
Google Search Rankings Now Consider Site Speed

3D Movies Account for Third of Box Office Revenue

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:00:13 +0000

There have been a ton of 3D movies released to theaters in recent times, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Consumers are buying into it, plain and simple. According to a study released by The International 3D Society (I3DS), 3D flicks generated 33 percent of total domestic box office revenue since the release of Avatar on December 18. Naturally Avatar claimed the lion’s share of 3D revenue, but it’s not the only movie cashing in providing viewers about 2 hours of three dimensional fun. Clash of the Titans, How to Train Your Dragon, and Alice in Wonderland have all contributed to the surprising revenue numbers, and when combined with Avatar, these four flicks alone have generated $1.2 billion in US ticket sales. “This is truly remarkable performance in that out of 127 general market films released, just four 3D movies captured 33 percent of the total dollars so far this year,” said I3DS President Jim Chabin. What’s more, 3D movies have been No. 1 at the box office 10 out of 14 weeks so far in 2010, or over 70 percent of the time.

Read the rest here:
3D Movies Account for Third of Box Office Revenue

Maximum PC News RSS Feed

USD, JPY weaken over Greece

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:55:20 +0000

G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD GBP 0.75 EUR 0.34 CHF 0.28 JPY -0.33 The AUDUSD headed for a second week of gains trading near a 12 week high at 0.9283 in early morning trade, having gained 1% this week after the nation’s interest-rate advantage over the US widened to near the most since 2008 with extra yield offered by two-year Australian debt over similar maturity Treasuries rose to 398 basis points on April 7, the most since July 2008. NZDUSD was also poised…

Parody Asks: What is the iPad Revolutionizing? [VIDEO]

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:30:57 +0000

Do you want an iPad with every wretched fiber of your being, but you can’t quite articulate why ? Well, College Humor’s Jake and Amir feel your pain. After all the waiting in line , televised hype and general silliness , it’s kind of a relief when the parodies start coming out in full-force — especially when they capture so perfectly the cultural zeitgeist: IE, I think we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what purpose the iPad will serve in our daily lives. Why do you want an iPad (if, in fact, you do)? Share your reasoning in the comments. For more web video coverage, follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: apple , humor , ipad , web video

Mobs Of Thai Protesters Are Camped Out Right Outside My Condo And Goading The Government To Send In The Troops

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:46:00 +0000

I hate to say it, but there’s a pretty decent chance of a crackdown on extended Thai political protests in Bangkok right now. While in the past, “red shirt” protesters (who are asking the government to hold new elections they which many believe the ‘red’ side would win) had either massed around key government areas of the city or Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, this time around they got smart and hit the wealthy Thais where it really hurts — they’ve massed in an upscale shopping district. Now they truly can’t be ignored by the elite. They’re literally outside my condo, and some local contacts I’ve spoken with fear that a military crack down is inevitable should they linger since every day the mob spends in a wealthy shopping district is another day of financial losses for business owners, and a very visible scar for tourists to see. Still, using force could only build further support for the ‘red’ side, so the government is trying to avoid it at all costs… without giving in and actually holding new elections of course. Thing is, usually these things end short and sharp in Thailand, or they just dissipate into oblivion, then life goes on as usual. Most of the rest of the city will barely notice what’s happening, and most of the elite won’t even care. They’ll just be a annoyed that they can’t stock up on some designer goods this weekend and hope the military mops the situation up so they can get on with things. Reuters: “We will tear up all laws,” Nattawut Saikua, a “red shirt” leader said late on Thursday, addressing tens of thousands of the mostly rural and working class protesters who have ignored orders to leave Bangkok’s main shopping district since Saturday. … “We will move out to 10 locations at the same time,” he said. “We don’t want to call it the final day, but if we can score a knockout, we definitely will,” he said. “This is all for Abhisit to dissolve parliament.” Thousands of the supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and now lives in self-imposed exile, had gathered in the shopping district by morning. Many had slept there on cardboard boxes. “This is great. I think we are kicking the government right where it hurts. If they don’t give us elections, don’t expect us to give them back their extravagant way of life,” said Panipa Boonnok, 47, a seamstress from northeastern Maharasakam province, happy with the shutdown of one of Bangkok’s poshest areas. Given that thousands of protesters are camped out right on my doorstep this time, with cars blocking streets and goading the government for a confrontation, it’s pretty good timing that I happen to be outside the country and writing this from afar. Join the conversation about this story ?

Original post:
Mobs Of Thai Protesters Are Camped Out Right Outside My Condo And Goading The Government To Send In The Troops

Closing Bell: Here’s What You Need To Know About Today’s Comeback Market

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:05:00 +0000

First, your scoreboard: Dow: Up 30 points to 10,927. NASDAQ: Up 5 points to 2436. S&P 500: Up 45 points to 1186. ? Now here’s what you need to know as you leave work today: The March surge in retail numbers exceeded expectations and recorded around a 9% year over year gain . The full Easter season results, which will be revealed at the end of April , should give a more complete view of where the retail consumer stands. According to a CEO survey, the numbers of CEO’s planning to hire new workers increased 50% from Q4 2009 to Q1 2010 . Nearly one third of companies surveyed now plan to hire. Apple announced its new iPhone OS 4.0, which will include support for multitasking . Apple stock is down nearly 0.3% on the day . Jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week from 18,000 to 460,000 in the U.S. . Total claims fell to 4.55 million. Rates were held across Europe today as the Bank of England retained its 0.5% rate prior to the general election, and the ECB held onto its 1% rate as well . Join the conversation about this story ?

More here:
Closing Bell: Here’s What You Need To Know About Today’s Comeback Market

Juniper Agrees To Acquire Ankeena Networks, Deal Valued Under $100M

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:30:28 +0000

Juniper Networks has just announced that it has agreed to acquire privately help Ankeena Networks in a deal that will have a closing of “less than $100 million.” For Ankeena, a company that was already working with Juniper it’s a quick sale after only being in the market for a little over a year. Formerly called Nokeena Networks, the company…

Read the original here:
Juniper Agrees To Acquire Ankeena Networks, Deal Valued Under $100M

StreamingMedia.com Website Re-Launches, Feedback Welcomed

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:41:16 +0000

A few days ago, we re-launched the StreamingMedia.com website with a new design, layout, navigation and whole host of technology changes on the back end. The former site was running using a very old database and CMS which have all been updated. The best part, the site now loads fast, is stable, the new nav makes it easy to find…

Go here to see the original:
StreamingMedia.com Website Re-Launches, Feedback Welcomed