Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Will Mantle Return The Game Industry to Vendor Specific APIs?

Lets talk about Mantle Shall We?

Mantle is a new graphics API provided by AMD that allows for direct access to their GPUs and bypasses the multiple layers of DirectX.  This new API is available for anyone who owns a Radeon graphics card that supports AMDs Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.


You can read more about AMD's Mantle architecture here

This introduction of this new API reminds me of the mid to late 90's where every graphics card vendor had their own custom 3D API.  I remember having to download specific libraries and executable specific to running on a specific graphics accelerator (the name for 3D cards at the time).  It was a confusing mess to anyone who was not really into computers or gaming.  However....

Why Mantle Could Succeed?

AMD currently is the graphics solution for Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U.  I believe it is possible that the cards for the Xbox One and PS4 would be capable of using Mantle.  If developers who develop multi-platform get behind Mantle, they can build apps for the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 using the same API.  Even AMD's new APUs (CPU + GPU on one die) will be capable of supporting Mantle.  The only thing blocking such a revolution would be current gamer's stickiness to Nvidia.  Anybody playing serious games using Mantle would not be using an integrated Intel solution so that would be a nonissue.  

Supposedly though, the consoles have custom versions of Direct3D and OpenGL today that bypass alot of software layers allowing much more direct access to the hardware so it is possible that Mantle in consoles will be limited.  

However, Mantle could still be a boon to pushing AMD forward.  AMD's CPU business is in the doldrums, but perhaps their GPU business will help to lift them out of it.

Anyone who still wonders "Why Mantle" should take a look at this demo of a new RTS game called Star Swarm that will support up to 5000 units at once :).  



Sunday, March 3, 2013

Student Loans .... The Next Bailout

I have known for sometime that student loans are eventually going to be a hot issue.  After the economy  begins to recover and the housing market truly stabilizes, Washington will need a new hot issue and one that is left to politicize will be student loan debt.  Currently, the US federal government, depending on your view of the world, is helping people in need or rewarding people for failure and poor decision making.  We all will hear about having a moral need to forgive student loan debt.  It is currently a huge issue because as of March 2013, 51 percent of student loans were in deferment or forbearance according to this article on Marketwatch.  Since, the federal government handles most of the student loads in deferment or forbearance, everyone will at least not see the drama of the feds trying to get external companies to be lenient as seen with Bank of America and other lenders for underwater mortgages.  The government will actually in the long term have the ability to raise more revenue because interest accrues on the loans that are not being paid.  Currently, there is a "Pay as You Earn" program that would allow one to pay off their student debt after 20 years of regular payment and 10 percent of their discretionary income.  I do not have the details on how one qualifies for this program, but I still expect to see those will say that even this gesture is not fair and does not go far enough.  My mind is perplexed to hear stories about how people spent 2-4x the salary of the career for which they went to college for.  In many cases, the degrees are not even used at all.  Many just went to college just to be there and did not come out with degrees specializing in anything.

I am sure many readers are asking, what is the point of me telling you this information? I would say that it is a memorandum on many things.  One being that college education costs need to be brought under control much in the same way that federal spending needs to be brought under control.  Another is that parents need to take a more active role in guiding their children into which careers they take and also to be much more studious in college selection based on price and location.  Another is that is a heads up that taxpayers are going to have something else to look forward to in the coming years to pick up and this time the excuse will be worse than "I bought into a bubble" or "I bet the farm on a bad investment".  Taxpayers can look forward to paying for people's experiences of getting trashed on the weekends, young juvenile behavior,  and living it up way beyond means on college campuses.  At the very least, the taxpayers should all get a copy of "College Kids Gone Wild" DVDs to at least feel they are getting something out of this whole mess.

Monday, February 25, 2013

LinkedIn, the Ultimate Social Network

I constantly read articles about which social network is the best.  The best and most well known is of course Facebook which is credited with starting the social network trend that is so pervasive these days.  However, there are other social networks out there.  Google+ is one such network, and people can argue all day over which one is better.  Google+ does not really contribute much to the Google mother ship right now whereas Facebook's entire business is social media, and they are under extreme pressure to figure out how it can be monetized and provide maximized shareholder value :) now that they are a public company.

Out of all these social networks one that has golden potential, but I don't hear much about is LinkedIn.  Maybe its because people can't gossip about someone posting scandalous pictures on LinkedIn at the water cooler because no one would be stupid enough to do that ( No should on Facebook either, but that is another story) , but no one really talks about LinkedIn much.  I think they definitely have work to do on their site to improve the social experience, but it is a gold mine just waiting to happen in terms of both opportunities and ideas.  LinkedIn is the premier site when it comes to connecting with your business peers online and also looking for job opportunities.  Recently I have noticed more their push into social interaction with social groups and now people can also follow well known business leaders who post onto LinkedIn.  LinkedIn has a market valuation of 16 billion and change with a P/E ratio of 817.14 according to the latest I pulled from Google Finance.  Contrast with Facebook which has a P/E ration of 1846.  Facebook is valued more on the market but LinkedIn generates .19 per share versus Facebook's .1.  I am not going to delve into more of the financials here.  I think both sites have huge potential, but I think LinkedIn has a better story for growth and sustained increasing earnings going forward.  Facebook still needs to monetize mobile and figure out how to get casual users to pay for their  services whereas LinkedIn currently charges for their professional job seeking services.  I also think LinkedIn provides a great service for professionals to get together and trade ideas, and I can argue good  network connections on LinkedIn will pay off in the future more than the random person you will connect to on Facebook.

Look forward to more on my analysis of LinkedIn as I continue to use their site and become more involved in the community there.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Dividend Investing Tax Rates

Fortunately, the existing dividend tax rate of 15 percent was preserved for most Americans under that $400,000/$450,000 threshold (single/married respectively).  It makes dividend investing one of the cheapest financial instruments to pay taxes for and more profitable than most simple savings instruments.  Pick a non-volatile dividend stock paying at least 3 percent and you're set at a flat 15 percent versus whatever savings you might have that would be taxed at your normal marginal income tax rates.  This is a sweet spot for those middle income players that don't qualify for all the federal government tax kickbacks and for those who are under the $400,000/$450,000 threshold.  In fact that new high end group is still just 20 percent versus their now increased marginal income tax rate.  And corporations are now flush with cash from hoarding it the past few years so a lot of good companies will either invest it growing your stock or just hoarding cash and still increasing their dividend payout.  Enjoy the good times!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Apple in Trouble?

A lot of investors are worried after Apple's Q4 earnings report.  Their revenue still surpassed what they have done in the past , but investors are worried about the recent commodization of iPhones with more and more customers leaning towards the older and now budget models of the iPhone (4S, 4, etc.).  Apple's stock has dropped as of market close on Friday 1/25/2013 to $439.88 which is a huge decline of where they almost peaked at $700.  Others have concern that Apple will transition from a growth to a value story like other tech giants such as Intel and Microsoft.  I am on the fence on whether Apple is going to be a value stock in 2013 or not.  Regardless, at $439.88 the stock seems absurdly cheap, and it appears that investors  have overreacted like they typically do.  However, I am sure a lot of growth investors just want to collect on their gains.  Whether growth investors come back in or Apple needs to draw value investors depends on what Apple does next over the next 6 months.  Still either way you roll, the current stock price seems like a good bargain.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Get What You Want But Be You

I am always one of those people who wants to go for it and obtain whatever will make myself happy.  However, sometimes these things whether they be people or possessions have a cost to them.  I think this quote from the Bible sums it up:

 Luke 9:25 
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?

So be ambitious and be strong but remember the cost to obtain something.  Whether it is time or the core of your being, determine whether what you need to have is worth the price.  Because NOTHING is free in this world.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Dividend Investing

Dividend investing is one of my favorite types of investing, and I probably will not do it justice with this post.  Needless to say, I will talk about this more in the future because I think dividends are a great source of income now that banks do not pay any interest for savings and checking accounts.  By investing in large cap established mega corps that pay good dividends, one can make a decent return on their money and be relatively sure that their principal investment is not going to be susceptible to great volatility.  For a quick guide on divided investing, I would recommend checking out the The Dividend Guys Blog for his 2013 recommendations.  An  excellent resource for picking out some stocks.  Use your favorite low cost stock brokerage to invest into these dividend stocks.  The good news is that the tax on dividends is still at the lower 15 percent tax rate for most people with the recent legislation that was passed to prevent the 'Fiscal Cliff'.  Only those individuals making $400,000 or $450,000 for couples have to pay a higher 20 percent tax rate which is still much better than the old school marginal tax rates.