Friday, July 30, 2010

Crashing the Boards

If it’s the case that you don’t necessarily need to be pre-med to do well in medical school, as this article examines, should a student be pre-business before going to business school?

What is the most valuable course one should have under their belt before entering business school? Economics? Accounting? Business ethics? Or British Lit? This New York Times article explores how certain medical schools value and permit a number of humanities students into their programs, and what kind of success those students enjoy later on as doctors.

Looking further out, if there is one class an entrepreneur should take, what would it be?

-Pete

Friday, July 23, 2010

The Fine Print











We recently got an HDTV as a gift, and I’ve tried to hook up my computer to it to watch Netflix. I’ve just embraced Netflix, believe it or not. It’s terrific. What’s not terrific is that when I use this special cord, an HDMI cord, I don’t get audio. An hour later, after some research, I discover that it’s a very common problem. Thousands of people have encountered it, but when I go to call Dell, who makes my computer, I discover that because my warranty is expired, I can’t so much as online chat with a technical representative.

So I ask you: future inventors, sellers, and distributors of products, how long should a company stand by its wares? I have an Eddie Bauer backpack that must be fifteen years old that I could return today, for a full refund (at least according to Eddie). Break it down for me—why backpacks but not computers? Is this just based on cost, and if so, is that based on the number of users, difficulty of correcting the problem, or what?

And can anyone help me get audio from this HDMI cable?

-Pete

Friday, July 16, 2010

Crystal Clear?

Confusing times. While Goldman Sachs is required to pay $550 million (part fine, part investor restitution), it is not required to admit it did anything wrong. Technically. Read more about what this really means here and here.

Clarity is at issue: the lack of clarity in Goldman’s marketing materials and lack of clarity in the design of the financial instrument in question, the CDO. What do you make of all this?

Wall Street isn’t the only place plagued by reversals and upheavals. Apparently, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are engaged, again!

-Pete

Friday, July 9, 2010

Cat and Mouse









It would seem that this New York Times article about cheating misses the point to some extent. It’s not about whether a student cheats, it’s about whether a student recognizes that what they are doing is cheating. Much of the discussion I’ve been involved in has been in the context of writing, and has centered on hashing out the minutiae of what constitutes cheating, or plagiarism.

When Turnitin.com or SafeAssign brings back a report after you’ve run a student’s paper through their program, what often happens is that you’ll find a student has failed to appropriately cite, not that they were purposefully aiming to pawn off someone else’s work as their own.

I like how The New York Times characterizes it all as a cat and mouse game. Perhaps a better example is this