MichaelHallsMoore.com - Startups, Software and Science

My Preferred Business Model

In this article I want to discuss the rationale for my favoured business model, which is based around high-margin, high-probability, e-commerce single item or subscription payments in education and information.

Let's describe exactly what the business model is and why it works well. Selling information products online has an extremely high-margin. This means that a significant portion of the direct revenue from sales translates into profit. In my e-commerce businesses I am typically ru [...]

Learning Numerical Relativity

On and off over the last few years I've toyed with the idea of studying Cosmology to a relatively high level. Recently I picked up a copy of The Perfect Theory by Ferreira, which is a non-technical and highly engaging discussion on the history of General Relativity (GR), the main theoretical tool used [...]

What Can Real-Time Strategy Games Teach Us About Investing?

A good many hours of my youth were spent playing real-time strategy (RTS) video games on my PC. Later on in life I often considered whether this was "wasted" time. I came to the conclusion that life was too short to be concerned about vaguely defined opportunity costs. In addition I came to realise how much these games are able to teach about resource management, cash flow and the nature of investing. Hence I was gaining an education in financial prudence, albeit while destroying an opponent on a virtual [...]

Investing £10,000 Over a 2-5 Year Time Horizon

I received a great question from Robin yesterday asking about the different methods of hypothetically investing £10,000 with access to the funds within 2-5 years. The question was posed on the post about the differences between saving and investing.

The most important constraint that Robin mentioned is that the money needs to be accessed within 2-5 years. I'm going to assume that this money is needed for [...]

The Difference Between Saving and Investing

A fundamental idea in finance is the contrast between saving money and investing money. Even though these terms are sometimes used synonymously, they are actually very different and should never be confused. In this article I will outline the differences between the two, allowing you to get off to a great start with your investing career.

One of the key differences is due to a concept known as liquidity. This refers to the ease at which an asset can be bought [...]

Pork Belly with Fennel and Roast Potatoes

Roasted pork belly, fennel and potatoes. Delicious!

I've been discussing with Juliette for a while now whether to try my hand at cooking pork belly, one of my favourite dishes when out at a restaurant. I was well aware that it is not a straightforward meal to prepare, so I had always [...]

Lego Technic 8043 Excavator Construction

As mentioned in the post about the construction of the Lego 9398 4x4 Crawler, my Dad has been buying up quite a few Lego models in order to obtain all of the parts necessary for a Zorex-220 Excavator. Given the similarity to this model, he actually bought two, of which I received one to build and send on.

This excavator build is very different from my previous crane truck buil [...]

Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi

A friend and I have recently decided to explore a new business opportunity. I can't really go into the details at this stage. However, it will be a very exciting project and we're both sure to learn a lot. The project makes extensive use of electronics and microcontrollers. We have been investigating the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi, both open source hardware platforms for educational electronics and prototyping.

One [...]

Lego Technic 9398 4x4 Crawler Construction

Over the last couple of months I've renewed my enthusiasm for Lego Technic models. You have probably already seen my photo diaries for the two prior crane truck models: Lego Technic 9397 Logging Truck and Lego Technic 8258 Crane Truck.

This time, my Dad wanted to build a custom Zorex excavator model he had found browsing the internet. However, he didn't have sufficient parts [...]

Lego Technic 8258 Crane Truck Construction

A few weeks ago I purchased and assembled the Lego Technic 9397 Logging Truck. It took me roughly 6-7 hours and was great fun to build. I mentioned in that post that my Dad had ordered the 8258 Crane Truck on eBay. I was lucky enough to have received the package while over in France for the Christmas holidays.

This Lego model is probably one of the most complicated, weighing in at almost 2,000 pieces and four full-size constructi [...]