Rowan has finally confessed that his affair with OSX has now turned into full blown romance.
It was just a matter of time.
Turns out we both purchased the new MacBook Pro’s on launch day a few weeks back. It’s an addiction Rowan – just roll with it.
Welcome aboard.
which is kinda frightening considering I’m currently working in a cell-phone free environment helping tweak a chemical process driven plant… 71% Geek
Chalkie clearly reads blogs, and has replied to Gareth Morgan’s rebuttal to her article on his website.
The original Chalkie article is now on Stuff, and you can read Chalkie’s remarks below (& in the comments of the previous post)
Jenny Ruth
“My primary source of income is not from writing for savings industry-funded trade magazines — none of the publications I write for are industry-funded. Like The Independent Financial Review, all the publications I write for sell advertising but that has never affected what I write. Unlike Morgan, I’m not trying to sell anybody anything.
As I said, unitisation is the global standard — Morgan wants us to believe just about everybody else except him is wrong, bad etc. I don’t think so.
His allegations about “hidden” fees and mis-pricing are just that, allegations. Where is his proof? Simply that there have been a few cases overseas and we don’t have good policemen. I don’t think that’s good enough. And all the Kiwisaver default providers are expressly forbidden to charge hidden fees and their offerings are government approved. I did ask ING about any hidden fees — ING marketing general manager Steven Giannoulis insists that all the fees his company’s charges are fully disclosed. I also asked a number of other fund managers the same questions, including Tower, Axa, Fisher Funds and AMP, and got the same answer.
As for Morgan’s calculator, why is the “hidden” component of every manager’s fund’s fees, except his own, identical when their declared fees vary considerably? I reckon that alone discredits it.
Ditto all the rubbish he has been talking about reserves — no products currently on the market have the kind of reserves he has been railing about. They were the product of the old-style defined benefit-type pensions (incidentally, if he can tell me where I can buy one of the latter, I’d probably be in with boots on — nice to have a guaranteed annual income indexed to inflation in retirement).
I asked Morgan for the performance data on his conservative and balanced portfolios and he simply referred me to the growth example on his website.
Like most fund managers, Cullen’s investment team farms out the different parts of its funds to specialist managers, something Morgan told me he doesn’t intend to do — again, when he isn’t simply wrong, Morgan is economical with the truth.
Here’s the original chalkie column now published on Stuff.”
Netsuite, in which Oracle’s Larry Ellison owns 61.1% and controls 74.1%, is about to IPO. The company”
“offers Web-based services that let small and medium-size companies handle tasks such as accounting and keeping track of customers.”
It’s basically SAP/Peoplesoft/Seibel/Oracle for small and medium sized businesses with less than 1000 employees. and it is, like Xero, SAAS (delivered via the internet). It does kinda compete with Oracle, making for some interesting ethical questions.
They are expected to raise $75m for 10% of the shares – which is of course a $750m valuation. Of course Netsuite has actual revenue about $67m to be exact, though they managed to lose an impressive $23m last year.
Do click on that ‘Raise’ link above. It links to the IPO document that is hosted by the SEC. The Xero and BurgerFuel offerings are, well, pathetic in comparison. Yes the sec form is wieldy and repetitive, but there is a lot of information there.
I won’t be buying. yet.
Gareth Morgan comes out guns blazing again – I’m enjoying watching the exchange.
First up – GMK have published the ‘fan mail‘ from the life insurance companies. Along with the insurance company’s ripostes, Gareth has written short rebuttals.
AP’s Greg Camm:
“If there were a sign on a beach saying “Sharks in the water” you can be pretty sure the number of people who’d venture into the water would be small. No matter that a shark may not have been spotted for over 20 years or indeed there may never have been a shark spotted at all.”
Gareth Morgan:
“We note that AMP is one of the life insurers censured by the ASIC in Australia for the mis-pricing of its units and required to pay compensation”
that was in 2004, not long ago. The ASIC censure included the direction to:
“…require AMP Life to obtain an independent, external review of its unit pricing processes to ensure that similar issues do not recur.”
and the press release also stated:
“Unit pricing issues are of concern to regulators across the globe”, pretty much confirming Gareth’s thesis.
Apparently AMP was meant to fix the unit pricing issue – but no word on what happened in Greg’s article.
Jim Routledge from AON send an email to GMK, referring to the Kiwisaver calculator and demanding:
” Continued misrepresentation of the AonSaver fees may lead to legal action. “
Gareth has the final say (for now I guess):
“Mr Routledge was proved incorrect…. … AON … altered its fees in a re-issued Investment Statement…”
Isn’t this fun!?
Chalkie, who Gareth outs as “industry scribe Jenny Ruth”, also had some fun. GMK clipped the article, so you can read it online. Nice photo Gareth….
Apparently Chalkie is guilty of deriving income from industry funded trade magazines. Quelle Horreur! Given the state of journalsm salaries I’m really not surprised, but it was perhaps a little dangerous of her not to mention it.
Gareth’s rebuttal to Chalkie is worth a read. I was particularly amused by Chalkies statement that Morgan’s investment team was too small. It may be six people, but Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger have managed far more money with far less people, and pretty successfully too. A stellar yet under the radar firm I interviewed with in Boston a few years back had about 6-8 investment professionals as well – and quite a few more billion under management. The Yale Investment Office has a massive 20 professionals, yet manages over $18 billion real dollars – and they made $3.9 billion last year, and 17.2% net of fees over the last 10 years. That’s $195m per professional – care to beat that life insurers?
The problem is that the more people you add, the more they want to do stuff – like buy and sell. We call that churn, and that is generally bad as it costs the fund money to trade, and you are relying on market timing. But long term investment is about asset diversification, not market timing. Lose the people, lose the Bloomberg screens and your long term performance should get better.
Investing is not about the number of people, nor even about how good they are in a particular period. Investment is abut boring decisions made and kept for a long time. Being in NZ means that we are less tempted to look at the screens and try to trade, while Gareth jaunting around the world actually gives me comfort that his antennae are well tuned to the global macro trends that all long term investors need to be aware of.
GMK as also updated the calculator with more funds, added a trust deed checklist (lots of red crosses, but two columns missing) and published Gareth’s submission to the Select Committee on Finance and Expenditure.
Three cheery headlines this morning in theWest – Perth and Western Australia’s dominant newspaper:
Five Stabbed in Nightclub Brawl
That was in Subiaco, where I am planning to live. It’s the best ‘cosmopolitan’ suburb around, and everyone is telling me to stay there. The good news (apparently) is that is was not gang related.
One Dead, Two injured in trail bike crash
The crash involved 2 trail bikes, a three wheeler (banned in NZ) and no headlights or helmets.
I purchased a bike this week. A KTM 950 Adventure to be exact, and if this torrential rain wasn’t around I would have been somewhere out there in the dirt. With a helmet.
That happened in East Victoria Park – which is where I purchased the motorbike. I won’t be living there.
Life in the big city..
Garry Sheeran in the Sunday Star Times covers the high risk nature of the Burger Fuel IPO. It’s a balanced article, with commentry about analysts looking atthe numbers, and quotes from founder Chris Mason.
But it is the last line of the article that is interestng. It’s not realy posible to tell where it came from – the authr or Chris Mason:
“Australia had no chain of gourmet burger stores yet.”
Let’s do a simple google search and see what we find…
To start, Korea’s Kraze gourmet burger chain was apparently looking to enter Australia and New Zealand..
Then Burger Wisconsin, “Home of the World’s best burgers’ (27 NZ stores in May 2006 – 7 more than BurgerFuel now) are also looking abroad..
and Wikipedia has a list of Autralian fast food restaurants
On to the Gourmet burger joints in Australia right now:
Burger Edge seems to have the edge over Burger Fuel – with 8 stores in Victoria and one is each of Queensland and NSW. Their ‘secret to business success’ is”
“using only quality ingredients and always striving to deliver the best gourmet burger dining experience – with a smile”
You can get into a Burger Edge franchise for $225-250,000, but hurry, since the googled article they have launched another, for a total of 11 stores.
Also on the Burger Edge referenced Franchisebusiness site, I was able to find GlobalBurgers (2 stores in Sydney) who have:
“created custom designed burgers you just can’t get anywhere else”
Then there is Grill’d, who have 9 stores in Victoria ($350-450,00o gets you a store), and who deliver:
“a healthy burger experience unlike any other”
Next is Oporto, a chain that Simon commented on in the previous Burger Fuel post here. Oporto have, wait for it, ‘close to 100 stores‘ across Australia and New Zealand, and serve 13 million customers per year. They are mainly in Sydney (where BurgerFuel is making its’ entry) and Oporto was listed at Australia’s 10th growing franchise, which is impressive at $450-550,000 per store. Their signature product is:
“..the famous ‘Bondi Burger’ with irresistible chilli sauce with that unique Oporto fresh, grilled taste.”
<update – BarnacleBarnes comments below that Oporto is not in the ‘Gourmet’ market>
I guess you could say that these businesses are blazing the path for BurgerFuel, but you certainly cannot say that there are “no chains of Gourmet Burgers” in Australia.
More importantly, the absence of Oporto in the comparison table on Page 51 and the discussion on page 52 of the BurgerFuel prospectus is highly disturbing. If it was deliberate, than one could suspect it was disingenuous and thus misleading to investors. If it was not deliberate, then clearly BF have not done their research on the Australian market.
Buyers beware.
I guess that the Afghanistan occupation isn’t doing do well. That lowest year ever in 2001 was due to the Taliban, not the US invasion post 9/11.
Slashdot is covering Computerworld‘s scoop of the proposed NZ banking code of practise that demands to see users PC’s in the event of a disputed transacton. Slashdot readrers don’t like it. at all. and neither do I.
From TFA:
“Liability for any loss resulting from unauthorized Internet banking transactions rests with the customer if they have “used a computer or device that does not have appropriate protective software and operating system installed and up-to-date, [or] failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the protective systems, such as virus scanning, firewall, antispyware, operating system and antispam software on [the] computer, are up-to-date.”
The code also adds: “We reserve the right to request access to your computer or device in order to verify that you have taken all reasonable steps to protect your computer or device and safeguard your secure information in accordance with this code.”
Three things.
1: I have a mac, and am pretty sure the banking clowns won’t know their way around it, and may even just say “no virus scanner” and deny responsibility.
I also access banking from within corporate netorks on corporate PC’s. Good luck with accessing those PC’s.
2: I travel a lot, and access internet banking from all sorts of PC’s, including internet cafes, airport lounges, friends computers and the like. Many of those will have dodgy set-ups, but we live with what we can get.
3: You are my bank. I trust you with my money, but I do not trust you with my computer. You are not touching it.
I also do not trust banks’ own security measures. Why, for example, do I have a maximum of $10,000 per internet banking transaction and yet ‘no limit’ on telephone transactions. Do you not realise how easy it is to pick up my telephone transaction details, including my PIN? Think – cellphone scanners, phone records, home wireless phone, phone lines tapping, and you can even see the numbers I typed through the call on my cellphone. It’s all in the clear, while internet banking is encrypted from end to end.
The banks’ second line of security is ludicrous …. the fax. My bank once demanded that I make a transfer request by fax instead of internet banking. I was in South Africa, which is not the world’s most secure country for faxing from, but it did make me understand how those scammers get away with so much. What security measures do banks have over unsolicited faxes relating to my account? What is to stop someone else sending a fax in my name and demanding a transfer? How do I turn this ‘bank by fax’ feature off?
Fix your own nest before accusing your customers. And fix your websites’ UI as well please.
..now with draggable directions. Amazing – who can keep up with these guys?
I’ve had a few folk ask about the picture above. It was taken near Amersfoot, in South Africa. I was on the BMW off road course, run by the amazing Jan de Toit from Country Trax.
The course starts with learning the correct technique for picking these monstrous 1200cc bikes up, includes getting those things airborne, blasting around an oval track and plenty of water, dirt and sand. We had a particulalry stong group, with some guys with years of enduro experience. On the second day we went for a ride about the place, and a few of us tried the canal.
It was strictly volunteers only, and 4 of us stood up. 2 others first, then we had some lunch, and another guy and I decided to give it a go. We followed Jan into the canal and blasted around, jumping out and braking to a halt on some thin grass covering dirt and rocks. After we did it we were told that less than 10 people had ever done so, and that I was the first non South African.
Given that I almost wiped out into the next bend of the canal my third run, I would not recommend this. Jan figured out the entry and angles and speed (80kmph) when the canal was being built and bereft of water.
A message to Garcia is a delightful little story – which perhaps belabors the point a little later on, but worth a read of the first screen. It’s about taking responsibility and getting stuff done.
These days a fable like this would be published as some sort of hokey business book.
<update – I’ve changed the title of this entry from “Some, not all, Love calculator ads closed down by ASA” to the above. I had originally read the decision as hitting ads, but it was an ad (or claim) on the actual love calculator website that was deemed at fault.>
The ASA has reacted to a visitor’s complaint about Love Calculator, who were saying on their website that:
“This is your last chance to calculate the name of your Love Soulmate”
The complaint was upheld[rtf]. It’s a pity that the ASA wasn’t able to look at the product, which is appalling. It’s so bad that it seems that that linked post is consistently one of the highest trafficked on this blog.
Let me be clear – It’s a rip-off – a website cannot “calculate” the name of your love soulmate, and it asks for money to do so. It texts you a PIN number, and if you enter it into the website then you have just signed up to receive a bunch of paid texts. Of dubious quality. And you’ll be oit of pocket for $15 the first time you get texts ($5 to sign, $5 for a horoscope, $5 for the name of your perfect lover), and then $10 per week thereafter.
Just walk away.
Apparently owners “Cellular Dreams (NZ) pty” tried to convince the ASA that they really were about to close down,
Except they were “about to close down” for at least two months.
and they also claimed that they were almost not able to afford the hosting fees. Bollocks. Those fees should be trivial, and if not then their revenue would easily compensate. Nor would they have any other material costs – texts are paid as you go.
Scam people, scam.
P.S. If you really would like the name of your perfect Love Soulmate, and you happen to be female, then just click here. Males please click here. Married people looking about for good times please click here. Results may not be entirely to your satisfaction.
I didn’t know this, but it explains a lot:
“When Theresa Gattung was named as new chief executive at Telecom in October 1999, the shares closed at $8.61.
Yesterday, after news that British Telecom executive Paul Reynolds will replace Gattung, the shares closed at $4.48”
It’s not like this is a hard job. The share price reflects the sum of the present value of future streams of income from Telecom. By under-investing in those future cash flow streams at the expense of short term return Telecom has almost halved it’s value. Telecom compuned the error by dubious investments in Australia and Ferrit, and I would assume that Gen-i was purchased for far to much.
What would I do? get rid of any non core businesses, invest in infrasucture to provide leading edge services, open up the exchanges and compete vigourously on service, quality and price. I’d also drop most of the marketing spend and get rid of the branding that treats customers like idiots. Aong the way a lot of senior managers playing politics with a small p would be out the door.
There is plenty of money to be made in Telecom. It could almost be a buy. almost.
I’m addicted to xkcd. please help.
Lance Wiggs 