October 2011 Archives

Oktoberfest!

Posted on October 8, 2011October 8, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Travel

Last week I returned from Oktoberfest in Munich – it was quite the experience. A few observations and reflections on the event: The way the event works is there are just over a dozen been tents, each of which has its own unique atmosphere and can hold anywhere from 5,000-10,000 people. Large parties can reserve a table, but for the average visitor, you need to arrive before 10:00am each day and grab a seat in a tent. I was initially skeptical as to whether I could spend four days sitting at one table per day, from 10:00am until sometime in the evening. But it turned out to be pretty easy. There were lots of great people, live music, and obviously

Leading via Houseboat

Posted on October 7, 2011October 7, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

Delegation versus micromanagement. Richard Branson on Steve Jobs: “Leadership doesn’t have a secret formula; all true leaders go about things in their own way. It’s this ability to think differently that sets them apart – and that enabled Steve Jobs to create perhaps the most respected brand in the world. What leadership boils down to is people. Whatever your style, whatever your method, you need to believe in yourself, your ideas and your staff. Nobody can be successful alone – and you cannot be a great leader without great people to lead. Steve Jobs’s leadership style was autocratic; he had a meticulous eye for detail, and surrounded himself with like-minded people to follow his lead. While he was incredibly demanding of his

Some Links

Posted on October 7, 2011October 7, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Links

1. How Yelp is Killing Chains 2. Google and the Power of Positive Feedback 3. A Sobriety Pill?

Road Trip Movie

Posted on October 5, 2011October 5, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Travel

I took a bunch of the footage I shot on my iPhone during my drive out west and combined the clips into a video with some music. Most of the footage is from Yellowstone, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, the Badlands, and some other parts of South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and California. Here’s the result:

2011 Market Factor Performance

Posted on October 4, 2011October 4, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Economics

Via The Big Picture, BofA Merrill has a very interesting graphic showing the out-performance/under-performance of various quantitative market factors for stocks in the S&P 500. Quantitative market factors are investment signals studied in academia and/or used by investors:

Experimenting With HDR Photography

Posted on October 1, 2011October 1, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography

I’ve been curious to try experimenting with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography for a long time now. The technique, which generally requires two or more photos of the same subject to be combined using photography software, can create some pretty surreal results. To create an HDR photo, shots with different exposure levels are taken using a tripod to ensure that each picture has the exact same composition. Then, using software such as photomatix, each of the shots are combined and the “best” pixels from each of the exposures are used. In the overexposed shots the highlights (e.g., sky) will be washed out and white, but the shadows will have a wide range of contrast and color. Similarly, in the underexposed