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keithvan's comments

keithvan | 13 years ago | on: Investment Crowdfunding is A Ghetto Stock Market

A very interesting way to use the word ghetto. I even had to google just to make sure that it wasn't an obscure academic term, that the author wasn't using ghetto in its slang form for an article headline for a Forbes blog.

  Think of it this way, a CPA audit is like using a condom 
  that you poked with a needle.
  In theory, it’ll protect you from most of your problems, but not really.
This also had to be one of the worst analogies I've ever read in regards to the purpose of public accounting and audits. Audits are not to prevent fraud -- they are to detect fraud and also give assurance. It is not a condom, it is more like a medical check-up so you can tell the world that you are healthy.

keithvan | 13 years ago | on: Learn Shen

Anyone else thought of Shen in League of Legends when this was posted? :)

keithvan | 13 years ago | on: Aaron Swartz "JSTOR" case indictment revised/expanded

As a result of Swartz's conspiracy to release JSTOR articles to the public, it led to the company making many articles free for public for viewing. A lot of good has come about from what Swartz did, even if the morality of his illegal actions are under dispute. There has been a lot of recent criticism against academic journals and their publishing companies whose business model is keeping all science and research behind gated walls and away from the public. Even if the research was funded with public money!

keithvan | 13 years ago | on: PayPal CEO writes personal response

Why does it take a story to make it to front page Hacker News to get attention, to get a "direct channel" to the executives when things go wrong? It ignores the all the horrible complaints and stories from everybody else. It's inequity in itself when the only way you will get attention from big companies is from making posts on Hacker News.

Why are they not paying attention to their other day-to-day customers? What kind of business do you intend on building?

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: Chromebox

It seems Google is trying to break into the consumer hardware space to compete against Apple -- Chromebox + Chromebook + Nexus (and likely Motorola developments)... I'm not sure how I feel given they haven't been blockbuster successes thus far.

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: "The Cab Ride I'll Never Forget" or The Death Of Hacker News

I completely agree. I wouldn't go as far as the blogger to call it "trash", though. I think there is still value in that piece, and an appreciative sentiment to be shared. But there is no doubt that there is not the level of intellectualism for HN's supposed standard. There are routinely non-entrepreneurship articles that get attention on HN, but generally they are at least scientific/academic or relate to business.

EDIT: And now the OP got deleted. Anyone have an explanation?

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: Notch gives his $3,000,000 Minecraft dividend to his employees

I think actions speak louder than words. Despite Notch getting a some flack among the community for being out-of-touch with Minecraft and some of it also going to his staff, I think this shows that Notch cares about his studio, his work, and staff more than anything else. And certainly unprecedented in among gaming studios and companies.

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: How Forbes Stole a New York Times Article and Got All The Traffic

If anything, the Forbes reblog shows how oversensationalized media is expected to be. Even in academia and many peer-reviewed journals, there is a shift towards witty or funny titles in the form of "attention grabber: what this paper really is about". The colon is an imperative. I give an example: "Looking for My Penis: The Eroticized Asian in Gay Video Porn". You can find these examples all throughout peer-reviewed journals and books -- this one came from a textbook: A companion to Asian American studies, published by Wiley.

Even academics need to grab attention, too, and it's part of the product of the information economy (where there is a surplus of information) and a scarcity of time (i.e, attention).

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: Save the Libraries. Cut University Funding Instead.

I'm confused as to the popularity of this article, given California has cut funding to both universities and public libraries. It's not a zero-sum game; usually funding for both public goods follow hand in hand. Not to mention university libraries, a class of their own.

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: MIT launches free online 'fully automated' course

It's interesting how their first course is actually quite technical and has extensive prerequisites. I'm worried about not doing well because of these requirements -- is anyone in the same boat as me? I'm taking the course more out of curiousity and to be a part of something big than an expectation to do well.

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: MITx Opens First Course for Enrollment

It's not merely about competence/rigor that leads an employer to hire a specific graduate from a specific school. If that were the case, then Harvard Extension School students would be just as highly sought after as Harvard College students, given that they complete many of the same courses taught the same instructors.

The reality is that employers can choose to be picky within the boundaries of the marketplace. While I do believe MITx is revolutionary in that it is pursuing a global, open-access education available to anyone with a high-quality brand behind it to boot, I do not think it will change much in terms of employers and hiring.

Employers will continue to hire MIT/Stanford/Harvard graduates because they simply want "the best and brightest." I do not see MITx certificates replacing this recruitment pipeline. MITx credentials are probably more appropriately regarded as something of a wildcard -- an extra edge for a job applicant over more people without evidence of continuing education or certifications.

Since MITx is not in the business of conferring full-blown degrees (yet?), the "sub-par" institutions can rest assured that their students are not going anywhere. And even if MITx did offer full degrees, as does Harvard Extension School, there is the whole other issue of how the marketplace values prestige and brand.

keithvan | 14 years ago | on: MITx Opens First Course for Enrollment

I'm really excited for this -- I think MITx will continue where Stanford left off. Is this the disruption that will finally open a high-quality, reputable, higher education for the masses? It's going to be awesome to be a part of history with this course. :)
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