Month: May 2009

Categories
Fun Video

The experts at Nightly Business Report

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Last Updated on July 24, 2009 by stlplace

Any good financial TV program like the MarketPlace at NPR?

I saw this question at the famous bbs at mit. Personally I think Nightly Business Report at PBS is a good source. They are not perfect, sometimes they are even boring, like the “Stocks in the News” segement where Paul kangas usually just reports Pfizer goes up 10 cents, Microsoft goes down 5 cents…But consider the other financial TV media we got, is CNBC better? To me they merely made more noise 🙂

I think determining whether a TV program is good or not, a lot depends on one’s expectation. Personally I don’t expect I get information there, and (apply that information) making money right away from the market.

I think the “fortune tellers” at CNBC (Fast Money, Mad Money, plus many guests) try to give that information, but in reality I think more people lose money from their suggestions than making money.

Couple month ago Jon Stewart (the host of Daily Show at Comedy Central) vs. Jim Cramer (the host of Mad Money at CNBC) explains the problem with CNBC.

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Categories
video Web

AllThingsD the D7 conference

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Last Updated on May 30, 2009 by stlplace

Walt Mossberg talks about his overall impression of the conference, Walt is the conference organizor, and he is also the tech writer for WSJ besides his involvement to AllThingsD and D conferece (both owned by WSJ, I think).
(both videos from Yahoo Tech-ticker)

And his comments on Palm Pre (this one could cause some anxiety on Palm shareholders 🙂

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Categories
Economy Life

GM, Jay Leno

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Last Updated on June 3, 2009 by stlplace

GM is going to file bankrupcy. This was not expected 6 months ago. But it’s a reality now. Many people blame the UAW, the management for the problems at GM, which I think only tells part of the story. GM was doing fine after Sept 11, remember the 0% “Keep America rolling” Ad campaign? (Paula Gardner opinion, Nov 20, 2008 ) The main problem, I think, is GM increasingly dump cars like cabbage, while trying to make money from the finance division (GMAC). This business model is not sustainable because it’s mostly relying on cheap credit (and arguably GM car buyers have worse cosumer credit compared to foreign make buyers). When credit dried up after Lehman bankrupcy last fall, GM’s car sales plummeted.

Keep America Rolling GM Ad Sept 11

Jay Leno

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Categories
gadgets video

Pre Demo at D7 conference

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Last Updated on May 29, 2009 by stlplace

(Update from The Register May 29) Palm Pre plays nicely with iTunes.

See more D7 video here. Here is another interesting one, for instance, Microsoft new search engine “Bing“.

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Categories
401k and Personal Finance

SogoTrade

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on September 7, 2009 by stlplace

(Update 07Sept09) I found a minor problem with Sogotrade. I had this happened to me twice. Basically I changed my mind for existing limited sell order, so I clicked “cancel”. But Sogo works so fast and diligently, partial of my order has already been executed. So basically later on when I want to sell the stock, I need to pay another transaction fee.

SogoTrade pic

(Original) Opened SogoTrade account couple weeks ago because I got a bit tired of Scottrade $7 per trade fee, and the “friendly” reminder email about my trading pattern. The accounting opening preocess is a bit long, although most things are done online (except the VOID check and an eletronic transfer form to send in). Here are the main steps:

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Categories
gadgets

Another Nokia 5800 deal at Dell Small biz

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Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

This one. Use coupon code TP2GK4X1DTX0C8 (expires June 3) during check out. It comes out $229 + tax (after $50 mail-in rebate). Slightly cheaper than Amazon ($290 after $50 main-in rebate). Dell also offers Nokia N85 at $247 + tax (with $50 main-in rebate).

Reviews: GSMArena; BrightHand.

Discussions “N85 or 5800XM”: phonegg; Nokia discussion forum.

Categories
Investing

Stock misconception: listen to experts (II)

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Last Updated on June 13, 2009 by stlplace

It is reported that Pequot Capital will go out of business in next few months (from CNBC). Pequot was headed by Art Samberg (one of the Barrons Rountable 2008 expert), who would have dismal performance if he followed his Barrons Roundtable pick. Quote his best and worst picks (loss > 80%):

Company Ticker 1/4/08 12/31/08 Change

MEMC Electronic Materials WFR 81.40 14.28 -82.5
Qualcomm QCOM 37.03 35.83 -3.2
Focus Media FMCN 55.71 9.09 -83.7
Dogan Yayin DYHOL.Turkey 4.44 TRL 0.66 TRL -85.1

Interestingly, the latest WSJ article still brags about his success. (If he is really that successful, why not stay in the business?) Quote WSJ:

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Categories
gadgets video

More Nokia smartphones: E63 and 5800 XpressMusic

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Last Updated on May 27, 2009 by stlplace

Here is a review of E63 at Brighthand. This one goes for $149.99 after $50 mail-in rebate at Amazon. I saw lots of Ads for a more high end version E71 at WSJ recently. The main difference is the latter has better camera (3M vs. 2M), has GPS and made from metal (vs. plastic for E63).

Also the touch screen Nokia 5800 XpressMusic goes very well at Amazon ($289.99 after $50 mail-in rebate). I saw this one sells under 2,000 Yuan (one USD = 6.85 Chinese Yuan) in China (amazon.cn) now. Review from phonescoop (via YouTube).

The quick declining price reminds me of one Chinese saying “selling cell phone is like selling cabbage” (in the old days cabbage was very cheap). Guess that’s one reason everyone is selling stuff (music, software etc.) from App store.

Categories
video Web

Internet Safety

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Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

Internet safety became an hot issue recently because incident the Craigslist Ad. and Boston Med student. Enough publicity has been given to that case, but here is another incident drawed my attention today (concertforkatherine; Background).

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Categories
Life Tips

McCafe Coffee review: second try

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Last Updated on May 26, 2009 by stlplace

Went to the nearby McDonald (NYSE: MCD) yesterday afternoon, and tried out the Iced Latte. Personal opinion: the latte at MCD is not as good as Starbucks ( Nasdaq: SBUX). Two things:

1) McDonald makes this mostly by machine, while in Starbucks the barista used some hand;

2) McDonald serves the latte not in a full cup, this never happened to me in Starbucks.

So in summary the latte McDonald (McCafe) looks cheap, although they can argue in “blind test” their coffee tastes better. As to the regular brewed coffee in MCD, it depends: it tastes better when it was fresh brewed. The coffee beans in those stores are similar, except SBUX are usually overly roasted (looks darker and tastes bitter).

Other stores

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