Steve Rubel very publically erased his blogging history and jumped to Tumblr to start afresh.  As he mentioned to Mathew Ingram at GigaOm the idea to to not confuse Google with old content that does not in his view reflect his social signals appropriately.  The shift to Tumblr is a choice that is his and no issue there.  Although I found these stats interesting, with nothing particularly anti social about my choice, WordPress.  The big surprise for me is the demise of Google’s blogger – it is all but dead. Anyhow the larger question was why remove the old posts … Continue reading Has the thought leader out-thought himself?

This is an unusually strongly worded order that requires Lending Club not just cease operations in Massachusetts, but to unwind and refund all fees collected since 2007 within specified dollar limits (eg. since April 17, 2007 and shall reimburse each borrower from whom borrower origination fees were collected in excess of twenty (20) dollars) The order notes that there has been an examination ongoing for what appears to be years, and obviously did not conclude well. WHEREAS, an examination/inspection of LendingClub was conducted pursuant to General Laws chapter 140, sections 96 to 114A, as of June 9, 2008 (the "examination/inspection"). … Continue reading LendingClub ceases operation in Massachussets

There has been a fair bit written about the Groupon IPO and while some have touched on it, there is one key point that needs to be made.  I remain sceptical about online advertising and affiliate marketing in terms of long term sustainability, and yet that is the basis of Groupons model, and that they can improve their margins by scale. Groupon is not any kind of testament to whether we are in a dot com bubble or not.  Groupon is a classic case people becoming muddled by large numbers, and I will explain that in a moment.  The others … Continue reading Groupon promise of ability to scale is weak

This was a revealing conversation and useful in understanding better the focus that FaceBook has gained over the last few years. e G8 – Closing conversation with Mark Zuckerberg (look for closing conversation with Mark).  The interviewer, Maurice Lévy (Chairman & CEO Publicis Groupe) is a bit annoying but you can zip over his attempts at humour. Some key takeaways that I got: Mark is very focussed on what FaceBook is good at and remaining focussed on that He spoke of the company DNA, which reflects his majors Computer Science – Technology Psychology – Human social behaviour online He pointedly … Continue reading e G8 – Closing conversation with Mark Zuckerberg

This document noted here contains a detailed description and analysis of the Koobface botnet.  It is run by people in Russia and other countries, and designed to make money.  Koobface is an anagram of Facebook which it levers liberally to encourage clicks and installation of their malware. Courtesy of Infowar-Monitor pdf Koobface The operators of Koobface have been able to setup a stable botnet infrastructure that allows them to maintain tens of thousands of compromised computers and profit immensely from PPC and PPI, earning a total of $2,067,682.69 between June 23, 2009 and June 10, 2010. The document has all … Continue reading Detailed analysis of Koobface botnet and its integration with advertising networks

I am very interested in the topic of credit risk, and when the offer was made for Dr Jennings to contribute, I readily accepted.  The statistics graph is of particular interest. _________________________________________________________ Dr. Andrew Jennings, chief analytics officer, FICO Guest post for TheBankWatch.com blog The global economic crisis has tested some core beliefs in traditional risk management. We’ve had a real-world stress test, not just of bank portfolios but also of the tools used to manage those portfolios. As our risk-management models came under stress, regulators in the U.S. and numerous other countries changed the rules that govern business practices … Continue reading Post-crisis risk management