How To Be Confident

The fastest route to confidence is to stop being so attached to one’s dignity and seriousness; and plainly admit that one is -of course -an idiot. We all are.

“The topic of confidence is too often neglected by serious people: we spend so much time acquiring technical skills, so little time practising the one virtue that will make those skills effective in the world…”

You can read more on this and other topics on our blog TheBookofLife.org at this link: https://goo.gl/35CfLG

This article originally appeared at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tk82hEHNnY.

Star Wars Land to open at Disneyland in 2019

Star Wars fans who have been itching to see the new Star Wars land open at Disneyland will have to wait a bit longer.

In an earnings report Tuesday, Walt Disney Co. president and chief executive Bob Iger announced that the 14-acre expansion based on the blockbuster movie franchise will open in 2019 in both Walt Disney World in Orlando and the park in Anaheim. He did not offer more details about the opening date.

Construction of the new $1-billion expansion at Disneyland began in April and is expected to feature two attractions, including a ride that lets visitors pilot the Millennium Falcon, the spaceship flown by Han Solo in the movies.

Disneyland closed several attractions at Frontierland to make way for construction of the new land. Artist renderings of the new expansion depict the Millennium Falcon at a docking bay, surrounded by a forest, rock spires and futuristic buildings and landing pads.

On a Disneyland blog site, the reactions were mostly positive but many fans wanted to know how the opening was going to impact other Star Wars attractions already opened at Disneyland, such as the Star Tours ride in Tomorrowland.

“Will Star Tours remain where it is? Will it be re-themed to a different ride, or will it be moved and replaced?” one fan wrote on the blog site in response to the news.

This article originally appeared at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-star-wars-land-20170207-story.html.

Apple Said to Revive Efforts to Sell Used iPhones in India

The market for used and remanufactured products is a huge part of the economy we often overlook. At one time businesses actively tried to avoid taking back used equipment. Today it’s an important factor in keeping the price of consumer electronics low. 
Years ago I dealt in used, recycled and remanufactured computer imaging products and supplies. We could save a company 50% or more through recycling and thought we were doing as much good as could be done. Then we learned about the 360 supply chains being setup by manufacturers, sometimes under duress of regulations. We learned it was saving billions for all concerned.
Natural for countries like India to resist US manufacturers selling them used goods. I suspect there are hidden profits that could be unleashed here.
Apple Inc. has put back on the table a request to sell used iPhones in India as it negotiates with the government for concessions to start production in the country, a person familiar with the matter said.

The company has asked to bring in used iPhones to be refurbished and sold in India, saying it will have the manufacturing infrastructure needed to make them compliant with quality standards, said the person, who asked not to be named as the matter is private. The request is included in a list of concessions submitted by Apple to a panel of government officials that includes a 15-year tax holiday, the person said.

Apple’s last attempt at such a license was met with resistance as industry executives and government ministries cited risks such a move would open the floodgates to used electronics and undermine the”Make in India’ program to encourage local manufacturing. The world’s most valuable company is exerting its brand influence at the negotiating table as pre-owned devices will be cheaper and target the price-sensitive market.

The company collects a large number of used iPhones through upgrade schemes in the U.S. and around the world every time it introduces a new device, some of which are broken down into their component bits and others refurbished and sold. India could become a viable destination for many of those gadgets, though local politicians fret that the country could become a dumping ground for ageing phones.
“These phones still have life in them,” said Anshul Gupta, Mumbai-based research director at Gartner Inc. He estimates that 70 percent of phones sold in India go for under $200. “In India and other emerging markets, buyers cannot afford the flagship model so opt for older generation iPhones whose prices drop.”
If permission is granted, the iPhone maker will become the first company allowed to import and sell used electronics in the country. Apple sold just 2.5 million phones last year, about 2 percent of the market, and a fraction of the 750 million smartphones are estimated to be sold by 2020. Samsung Electronics Co. is the biggest selling brand in the country but Chinese vendors Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are also winning significant market share.

Apple’s latest request comes as it dangles the prospect of setting up large-scale manufacturing in India. Last week, a regional minister said the company will start assembling iPhones in a facility of its partner Wistron Corp in Bangalore by the end of April.

Apple has told officials that its certified pre-owned program would meet environmental and quality requirements and also be open for third party-audits and checks, the person familiar said.

“The government is concerned and will look to framing policy to ensure that India does not become a used electronics dumping ground,” Gupta said.

This article originally appeared at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-06/apple-said-to-revive-efforts-to-sell-used-iphones-in-india-iytyu64w?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social.

Traders are out, computer engineers are in, as Goldman Sachs goes digital

Expert systems with computational power a trillion times the power of a human brain will begin to replace professionals in law, finance and medicine. Machine are stronger and soon to be smarter. 

How we respond will undoubtedly shape the future of what it means to work.
Here’s a case where traders are being replaced by engineers and their machines. This trend will continue
At its height back in 2000, the U.S. cash equities trading desk at Goldman Sachs’s New York headquarters employed 600 traders, buying and selling stock on the orders of the investment bank’s large clients. Today there are just two equity traders left.

Automated trading programs have taken over the rest of the work, supported by 200 computer engineers. Marty Chavez, the company’s deputy chief financial officer and former chief information officer, explained all this to attendees at a symposium on computing’s impact on economic activity held by Harvard’s Institute for Applied Computational Science last month.

The experience of its New York traders is just one early example of a transformation of Goldman Sachs, and increasingly other Wall Street firms, that began with the rise in computerized trading, but has accelerated over the past five years, moving into more fields of finance that humans once dominated. Chavez, who will become chief financial officer in April, says areas of trading like currencies and even parts of business lines like investment banking are moving in the same automated direction that equities have already traveled.

Today, nearly 45 percent of trading is done electronically, according to Coalition, a U.K. firm that tracks the industry. In addition to back-office clerical workers, on Wall Street machines are replacing a lot of highly paid people, too.

This article originally appeared at: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603431/as-goldman-embraces-automation-even-the-masters-of-the-universe-are-threatened/.

Watch singer Seal Join Street Musician For duet in Manchester

This is in Manchester. Seal actually got her to sing on stage just before his gig last year after spotting her singing on the street. 

What an amazing opportunity to help launch a career. Cool that Facebook did this with a number of artists in various cities.

This article originally appeared at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QfK8ORFmMk.