Author: stlplace

Categories
Software development

More thoughts on Apple AntiTrust lawsuit

Reading Time: 3 minutes

(08-05-2024) Noticed judge ruled in a similar case, the Google search engine/Apple iPhone case, and Google lost this 1st round. Think they will likely appeal. But Tech Industry Braces for Fallout From Google Antitrust Verdict. This potentially has some impact on Apple.

Also, today I noticed the Google chat app on iPhone is called just “Chat” app. I guess that’s because Apple doesn’t have such an app: similar to slack or something like that.

(04-11-2024) Big tech in this new regulatory environment in general, Andy Jassy (CEO of Amazon) was talking to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin this morning on Squawk Box. I think Andy has a good point.

Andy Jassy (CEO of Amazon) was talking to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin this morning on Squawk Box: on failed iRobot acquisition

(Update 04-06-2024) Yesterday it was somewhat educational to me in terms of the Apple ecosystem. I need to project screen along with audio/video to the projector or the system in the school gym. Our school district is all Apple in terms of computers etc. The way to do it is via “screen mirror” on my MacBook, but the WiFi I am on has some limitations: basically it blocks YouTube. But I want to play something on YouTube for the passport night. One workaround I came up with: I used my phone (iPhone 15) as hot spot, play the YouTube video once (now it’s the memory and I can play it even without Internet). Then I connect to the school public WiFi for the screen mirror purpose.

But there are some more issues: for example, another person texted me the YouTube links via text message, my iMessage App on MacBook could not receive it. On the other hand, a teacher texted me the movie clips via iMessage (using her iPhone), it worked pretty much out of the box.

Btw, for the “YouTube blocking issue”, I actually tried to use a VPN, but as soon as I connect to VPN, the screen mirror stops working. Also, it seems even on VPN, the YouTube is still blocked?

(Original) Some people may know I am an Apple fan, and to be honest, I think I am. And I am not a big fan of the DOJ’s anti-trust lawsuit against Apple. Full disclosure: I own a few shares of $AAPL too.

I talked about the anti-trust for a bit here. And I was a bit surprise to hear Walter Isaacson’s view on this – YT Video Walter Isaacson: The law says you can’t use market dominance to then dominate an adjacent field

Walter’s Argument is interesting because he mentioned both the “dual mandate” of DOJ/FTC regarding the anti-trust laws: protect both competition and the customers. In terms of competition, he said, a company that uses its dominant position to get dominance in tangential areas, that company may have violated the law.

For me personally, I started to using Apple Pay since I got the Apple Watch – after seeing coworker using it at the MC Daily Grind Cafe. I used Apple Pay much less frequently via iPhone (before I had the Apple Watch). I bought my 1st Apple Watch in year 2017.

Consumer addiction

A side note of Apple’s domination in the smart phone market, along with the general popularity and Android and iOS smartphones in the world, and in our daily lives, may have pushed the pendulum too far in terms of addiction to the phone or tablets for many people. I am not just talking about the teens doing TikTok, or adults doing FB or Instagram. I am talking about both legit use such as the Panera Bread app (refer to this one) and also binge watching Netflix (or in the case of my wife, Korean soap opera on her iPad, at the expense of sleep sometimes). Jon Hadit, the NYU professor has written quite extensively on the topic too – First He Came for Cancel Culture. Now He Wants to Cancel Smartphones.

Visa Mastercard anti-trust lawsuit

Interestingly, Jay Clayton (former SEC chair under TFG) has a different view: When governments select what a market structure ought to look like, innovation dies: I was a bit surprised to hear the amount of the fine, $30 billion, but on the grand scheme of the things, it’s still something they can bear (the industry, I mean, both them and the banks).

Categories
Software development

Panera bread system down

Reading Time: 5 minutes
Panera App down screenshot

(Update 11-12-2025) Came across this news about the class action lawsuit against Panera. The subject is a bit misleading, but you have evidence you can submit your claim.

(Update 04-05-2024 BleepingComputer) Panera Bread week-long IT outage caused by ransomware attack

(Update 03-27-2024) Both the app and the website are back, fully functional as of now (this morning). Btw, I cleaned up a few CC in my account (from 6 to 3); also enabled 2 factor authentication for MyPanera account (via SMS, not perfect, but better than nothing). Honestly I still don’t know what happened to Panera’s system. One thing impressed me a bit is their mobile app works out of the box – it’s logged in this morning when I opened the app. I used to work on an app when I was working for the Mastercard, and that feature alone (make sure the user logged in if he/she was logged in before the app update) is a difficult task to do.

(Update 03-26-24) It looks like the website is coming back, but I cannot log in using my old credential either. Forgot password via email or #MyPanera number don’t work either 🙁 Thanks to the Twitter user who reported the website coming back. || A small benefit of this thing is it made me to look up the good old MyPanera number. Another side benefit is for me to rethink the practice of saving credit cards under my Panera account (going forward will probably only do Apple Pay). Also refer to our friend’s new article at SVDaily.

https://twitter.com/JTolo54/status/1772653099720622539

Yesterday morning (3/24), I went to the the new U City Panera Bread as usual, and noticed system is down nationwide: the mobile app and the kiosk didn’t work. But the register still works. Note the new U City is an all digital store and it’s almost full outage – the manager said they have a computer for employee order and I assume he can ring a bit regular customer sales as needed (maybe it’s the 3rd party app such as Uber Eats order instead?). WiFi is down too so I am using iPhone as hotspot. At this time it seems 3rd party apps (e.g., Uber Eats) still work.

I posted it on Twitter and also posted a survey yesterday evening.

This sadly could have more impact to Panera compared to say, companies such as Garmin. Some of my readers may know I am a loyal Panera bread customer, and I regularly went to the Old Olive store (sometimes walk) since year 2005; sometimes I work there using laptop (remote work). So it’s almost 20 years since I regularly go there. I also talked about them quite extensively on my blog.

(In Chinese) 原来Panera网站炸了. Note Panera is popular in Chinese American customers too.

In the News

This incident was not widely reported in the news, due to various reasons: it happened on a Saturday; and Panera is not McDonald’s or Starbucks.

Panera Bread digital channels suffer national outage (restaurantbusinessonline, 03/25/24): quote – But it appeared third-party delivery orders were still coming in to units.

Panera Bread Hit By Massive National Outage (SVDaily, 03/24/24, also the Reddit thread around the outage). I noticed the discussion around Disaster Recovery, and business continuity plan are valid. Back in the days at Mastercard we do those once every year, and it was fairly rigorous. But I don’t see many other organizations do that kind of exercise.

Panera Bread Hit by Nationwide Outage: Cyberattack Rumors Swirl as Digital Ordering Crashes (the Cyber Express).

Note the issue surfaced on Saturday 03/23/24.

Previous Security Issue

Btw, it’s the 1st time Panera Bread website/app/kiosk underwent an incident like this. A few years ago, I do recall Panera Bread had a security related issue, and was remediated quickly. Below are some articles around the issue.

No, Panera Bread Doesn’t Take Security Seriously;

Panera Bread’s half-baked security;

Panerabread.com Leaks Millions of Customer Records

Btw, some reddit discussions on KrebsOnSecurity (Brian Krebs: Wikipedia); again Reddit: What do you think about Brian Krebs as security professional?

Digital Transformation

Panera Bread, here in the St. Louis area they are called St. Louis Bread co., or breadCo as some people call it, is early in its digital transformation effort. The in store kiosks and the online ordering (web and mobile app). Personally I liked the convenience of it, although I do miss the “first name basis” at the counter when I started going to Bread Co almost 20 years ago.

Ownership Change

The company was public, until it was took private in year 2017 (Wikipedia, scroll down a bit, you will notice the 03/24 Computer System issue as well)

Sipper Club (loyalty program) (and in year 2011, I interviewed there once for a dev position related to that, no offer)

I like that too. I recall it was initially called “Coffee+” or something like that, and it was limited free coffee refill. Later it was expanded to soda and other drinks. Note there were controversy around that too. I mean the charged lemonade. Initially I didn’t pay close attention to the caffeine content, until the news break. My wife was not happy that I gave our daughters that drink once or twice.

Pandemic (during pandemic in year 2020?, I interviewed there again for a software architect position, no offer)

I recall in the early days of pandemic, probably in May 2020, we cannot go in the store. The first time I ordered and picked up the food there, when I saw the young girl (masked) brought out the food, I was almost in tears.

Menu Revamp

They are in the process of big revamp of the menu items in the coming April. Then this happened. I still think it’s unlikely menu revamp will cause this. Menu revamp is nothing new at Panera and at other restaurants, Panera has done many times during my 20 years observations with them. I recall once they tried pizza: it didn’t work out very well (this was before the most recent pizza effort). Once they removed the famous Frontega Chicken sandwich, and some fans revolted, and they brought it back. I am a fan of Frontega, btw.

Key People

Ronald M. Shaich: he is the founder of Panera, and I believe he engineered Panera’s buying St. Louis Bread Co., rebranding, and digital transformation and so on. I saw him in person once at the SunsetHills Panera. It seems he is friendly with the rank and file Panera IT people (I saw a guy who interviewed me in year 2011, quite a few years after that).

I also liked Niren Chaudhary, although his tenure is not as long as Ron, once he replied me to my comment in LinkedIn. It was before Pandemic, I commented on the closing of the store in ForestPark way at Central West End, near BJC/Wash U medical school campus.

CIOs, from LinkedIn (former; current/interim).

Panera Bread on LinkedIn

Categories
Software development

When companies vastly overpay for acquisitions

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I can think of two scenarios: one is acquisition is done via cash; another one is done by stocks (and the stock itself is overvalued).

The yardstick of overpayment

======

EBITA or EBITDA (or use Charlie Munger’s word, replace it with bullshit)

I know from my own software industry experience, 10x sales (or revenue) is usually a fair price.

Example:

Francisco Partners Completes Acquisition of Sumo Logic: Pursuant to the terms of the definitive agreement announced on February 9, 2023, Francisco Partners has acquired all outstanding shares of Sumo Logic common stock for $12.05 per share in cash, valuing the company at an aggregate equity valuation of approximately $1.7 billion.

SUMO LOGIC HISTORICAL REVENUE (Zippia)

Sumo Logic’s peak revenue was $300.7M in 2022. The peak quarterly revenue was $79.8M in 2022(q4). Sumo Logic’s revenue increased from $155.1m in 2019 to $300.7M currently. That’s a 93.91% change in annual revenue.

If my memory is correct, they were losing a lot of money too.

Note each industry has its own metrics (or yardsticks).

In the below example, I assume Square and AfterPay is in the fintech space, and Disney is in the content creation (movie and animations to be specific), and park/entertainment business.

Two Examples

Scenario 1: Disney buying 21st Century Fox, US $71.3 billion

Scenario 2: Square Inc (now Block) bought AfterPay for $29 billion

(Reuters) The $29 billion deal in 11 weeks: how Square bought Afterpay

(paymentgenes) The Real Reason Why Square is Acquiring Afterpay

Both scenarios didn’t play out well. Both acquirers’ stocks ($DIS; $SQ) were down since the acquisitions. Btw, I googled those two deals’ closing date.

For Block (Square Inc., I used 02/01/2022 per this source, noted another source too)

I think, maybe we should track the performance between the day before deal was announced until now.

======

Consolidation in the Production Monitoring software space

In addition to Sumo Logic, we have

New Relic (by Francisco Partners and TPG for $6.5 billion) –

Revenue in 2023 (TTM): $0.96 B
According to New Relic ‘s latest financial reports the company’s current revenue (TTM) is $0.96 B. In 2022 the company made a revenue of $0.88 B an increase over the years 2021 revenue that were of $0.75 B.The revenue is the total amount of income that a company generates by the sale of goods or services. Unlike with the earnings no expenses are subtracted.

Splunk (Cisco): this is after Cisco Completes Acquisition of AppDynamics (2017)

Categories
Software development

Software or technology interoperability

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Blue and green bubble divide

As mentioned here in the CBS News YT video – “Breaking down the Apple antitrust lawsuit”.

iMessage vs text message. I noticed some issues in the group text messages in the past: for example, I can not add someone on Android to a group text. If one of the member in the group text is on Android, we need to resend via text message (default is iMessage), and so on.

Recently I asked my daughter (14 year old) about the group text chat as well, and she said: we prefer iPhone, but we don’t exclude Android people too 🙂 I guess they are the inclusive generation.

This reminded me of the CAD interoperability product: I worked on long time ago, it translates from competitor’s file format to ours. Also around the time, I recall it was very hard for us to compete in the 3D CAD market place (we were No. 2 in terms of market share). And our executive’s marketing strategy: we are more open (than the big bad No. 1 guy). See some similarity with Apple here? 🙂 Btw, I recall it was not easy to develop the translator, both from technical and business perspectives.

‘Buy your mom an iPhone.’ – Tim Cook’s 5-Word Remark Could Curse Apple’s iPhone (newsweek)

Social Stigma

Apple’s ‘green bubble’ Android texts fuel ‘social stigma,’ DOJ claims in landmark suit

More about Anti-Trust

I had to admit I am not a legal expert. But one thing to note this is not isolated to Apple. This Yahoo Finance article Justice Department files antitrust suit against Apple has a graph says Regulators vs Big Tech that summarized all the US regulators actions against the big tech currently.

Why Google Is Being Sued by the Justice Department | WSJ (YT Video)

Why the DOJ and 16 states are suing Apple in a landmark antitrust case (PBS Newshour, YT Video)

United States v. Microsoft Corp. (Wikipedia)

Acclaimed tech columnist Mossberg says the DOJ’s claim of an Apple monopoly is ‘laughable’ (Walt Mossberg)

Walter Isaacson: The law says you can’t use market dominance to then dominate an adjacent field (YT Video): I was in the Mossberg camp until Walter mentioned the “dual mandate” of DOJ/FTC regarding the anti-trust laws: protect both competition and the customers. In terms of competition, he said, a company that uses its dominant position to get dominance in tangential areas, that company may have violated the law.

Some of my thoughts on the topic in Chinese (linkedIn)

很多年前在一个CAD/PLM 软件公司打工。我的东家在三维CAD行业里是老二，有一段时间公司很紧张，因为汽车行业里面除了美国通用汽车有不少公司要换老大的软件：福特说要换，丰田后来还是选了老大的软件（世界上最大的两家飞机制造公司也用她家的），尼桑（日产）是我东家非常想保住的客户。后来我们那里的人想到一招：就说我们比她们更open, 她们是封闭的（就像今天美国司法部的AT部门的人说的那样）。题外话：大概也是二十年前，苹果用我们的软件设计她们的产品，她家当时的当家花旦是iPod. 前提是我们的三维设计软件在她家的Mac 上运行。#DOJvsApp || Back to software or more broadly the technology business, building better #mouseTraps or #moat if I could use #warrenBuffett words, is one important measurement of success #yardstick

More on Proprietary Software (Wikipedia, note the vendor lock-in as well)

Categories
gadgets

AirPods I owned

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I wrote about it last year.

And I just commented on Twitter about a question.

My Twitter/X reply

I just noticed my 1st gen AirPods Pro is $258.19 on Amazon. Maybe I should tell my 14 year old to sell it and buy a new one 🙂

Other headsets I used and am using

Another headset or headphone that I use is this one from Costco – Bose QuietComfort 45 SE Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones, it’s selling for $170 now (much cheaper than what I paid for). For longer time wearing, I prefer the AIrPods 3. Bose does have some advantage though, for example, in cold weather, it could double as an ear muffs.

Categories
Software development

UnitedHealth Group Change Health hack

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(03-02-2025) Wikipedia – Change Healthcare 2024 Cyberattack.

(hyperproof) Understanding the Change Healthcare Breach and Its Impact on Security Compliance

(12-19-2024) How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline (03-02-2025) It seems this article is no longer available.

(04-09-2024) Change Healthcare faces second ransomware dilemma weeks after ALPHV attack || So in summary, ransomware attack poses two threats: 1) Loss of data, if they bad guys encrypts the data; 2) Leak of data, in the case a company or an organization (the victim) restores the data from backup (without paying the attacker), the attacker can threat to leak the data online (or sell the data to other bad guys in a black market etc.), so basically this is what happened here.

(Update 03-24-2024) It seems Panera Bread, which probblay has 2,000 stores in the US, had just experienced a similar issue.

Panera Bread app and kiosk down since 03-23-2024 afternoon
I am speculating the root cause is ransomware attack

I recall few years ago Panera did have an incident – Panerabread.com Leaks Millions of Customer Records

(03-09-2024) I first heard about this a few weeks ago, something like below:

美最大医保网遇网攻或来自外国黑客万余药房受干扰

Note it was not in the mainstream news at least not covered heavily in the network TV and so on, initially. Until its impact are felt by both providers and the patients. Below are some more recent coverages.

Cyberattack Paralyzes the Largest US Health Care Payment System – The New York Times || https://twitter.com/ryanstellar/status/1763666449988751373 || https://twitter.com/zackkanter/status/1765170835919143293 || 

https://twitter.com/Lis86274333/status/1763351768002355431 || 

EXPLAINER: What to Know About the Change Healthcare Cyberattack | Health News 

Change Healthcare has acknowledged the hack, which reportedly affected billing and care authorization portals. It’s led to prescription backlogs and missed revenue for providers, posing potential threats to worker paychecks and even patient care.

“Our experts are working to address the matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement and leading third-party consultants such as Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks on this attack against Change Healthcare’s systems,” Change Healthcare said. “We are actively working to understand the impact to members, patients and customers.”

(My take, lesson learned: cyber security best practice; collect the data that’s only necessary) 

“The Russian-speaking cybercriminal gang known as AlphV and Blackcat claimed responsibility and said on its darkweb site that it exfiltrated 6 TB of data in the attack against Change Healthcare.”

NPR: Health industry struggles to recover from cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth  

PBS has a few reports on that as well: such as this one – How a cyberattack crippled the U.S. health care system

For IT and security professionals

YT Video: 🔒 Ransomware Chaos -Part 2: UnitedHealth Drained…Dishonor among thieves🦹🏻 – The Briefing (thanks to Ryan⭐ Stellar and Mike Martinelli for the YT video; same below)

YT Video: 🔒 Ransomware Chaos: UnitedHealthcare Under Attack by BlackCat Hackers!…youtube.com (this is part 1)

BlackCat Ransomware Group Implodes After Apparent $22M Payment by Change Healthcare – Krebs on Security On March 3, a BlackCat affiliate posted a complaint to the exclusive Russian-language ransomware forum Ramp saying that Change Healthcare had paid a $22 million ransom for a decryption key, and to prevent four terabytes of stolen data from being published online.

https://twitter.com/zackkanter/status/1765170835919143293 (technical explanation of EDI and Change Healthcare)

Related Incidents

This Change Health incident somehow reminds me of the SolarWind hack a few years ago. It seems Microsoft has some more work to do, as they are still a popular target for hackers.

SolarWinds hack explained: Everything you need to know – 2020 United States federal government data breach – Wikipedia Microsoft exploits || SolarWinds exploit

A ‘Worst Nightmare’ Cyberattack: The Untold Story Of The SolarWinds Hack

“The tradecraft was phenomenal,” said Adam Meyers, who led the cyber forensics team that pawed through that tainted update on behalf of SolarWinds, providing details for the first time about what they found. The code was elegant and innovative, he said, and then added, “This was the craziest f***ing thing I’d ever seen.”

The hackers didn’t do anything fancy to give them the domestic footprint, officials confirmed. In fact, they just rented servers from Amazon and GoDaddy.

SWI stock has not done too much in last 5 years mostly due to this attack.

Also the Kronos attack which received less media attention (somewhat similar to the UnitedHealth hack). I recall this incident because around at time I was working on a Kronos based project (app, the official name of the app is Ascension Nurse Center of Excellence). It didn’t work out due to various reasons, after the company sunk millions of dollars on the project.

(Update 2026-05-09) Kronos data breach: what to know about the ransomware attack and its consequences || The Kronos Ransomware Attack: Here’s What You Need to Know

(The Garmin breach/incident happened in the year 2020, Velo) How did the Garmin cyber attack happen, and what does it mean for users? || 6 Things to Learn from the Garmin Security Breach (Terranova Security)

Some other question: 

Legality aside, paying the ransom encourages the hackers? See also Incident Of The Week: Garmin Pays $10 Million To Ransomware Hackers Who Rendered Systems Useless. But from a business’s perspective, they are usually between a rock and a hard place: meaning if they don’t pay, they usually don’t know how long it will take them to recover the data, if at all; or if they pay up, they essentially are working with the bad guy (or encouraging the bad guy).

Can we ever negotiate or trust the hackers (the bad guys)? || This somehow reminded me of my personal experience when I was working for one of the major credit card company (their loyalty and rewards platform), and at one time I was assigned to investigate the root cause of an incident in which the bad guys (or girls) logged into some cardholers’s loyalty redemption website quickly after the website launch, and redeemed their points for air tickets or hotel bookings. At the time, amid the tedious work, I asked myself: how come in this world there are evil people like that?

Another question I had for the UnitedHealth Group (Change Healthcare) hacking: if this is the notorious Russian hacking group BlackCat, can the US government do something about it (hint: retaliation)?

Categories
Investing

I need more patiene on investing

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Some of the stocks that I should have hold on longer

NVDA, day traded in year 2022. Quite a few times.

The below two stocks are less well known – day traded in year 2023.

LPX

GRC

Stocks that I hold on for too long: RIVN, “hold on the loser, sell the winner” is the opposite of what I wanted to do.

Some of the things I am going to try

Delete the mobile apps (so far, deleted TD Ameritrade and Vanguard app)

Consider using less Robinhood and ThinkOrSwim (kept the latter as TD Ameritrade accounts are transferring to Schwab post the acquisition)

Do more reading and have a more focused as well as longer term portfolio – companies such as BRK, or companies that have some dividends that can potentially drop less or have less volatility during a bear market

Some industrial stocks that seems investing

$WSC

One thing I am not sure if whether the authority will approve the merger

Another one Atmus, which is a spinoff of Cummins. I think I will likely wait on this. It reminds me of the $GRC, btw.

Categories
advice and tips Life Life Tips

Colonoscopy 肠镜

Reading Time: 5 minutes
Colyte Jug – mine is similar – prepping for the liquids and drinking it is quite some work (the day before)

Colonoscopy is a routine exam recommended by doctors for adults over 50 in the USA: as a precaution checkup for the signs of colon cancer. 在美国一般医生会建议50岁以上的人去做一次肠镜，以检查是否有肠癌的迹象。I heard colon caner is among the top two cancer in the US. I did mine at Mercy St. Louis – it’s the hospital both my girls were born and I also worked for Mercy in the IT department for about 18 months between Nov 2013 and May 2015.

It takes some efforts and courage to take the exam. First some Overview by Mayo Clinic. Also, it’s not the only way to detect colon cancer. There are 2 ways. Both have pros and cons. I did this Fecal occult blood test about 13 or 14 months ago, partially because it’s less invasive, and partially because my doctor then is also a bit soft spoken, and he agreed. This time I am not this lucky. I got a new doctor and when I mentioned testing for colon cancer, and he directly chose the colonoscopy.

Prep

The doctor performs colonoscopy will usually provide the prep instructions. Alternatively, because this is a quite common procedure, there are lots of resources online: I shared some below. One common question is the low fiber food before and after (see below), also the liquids to drink the day before, as well as the special medicine (liquids) to drink about 12 to 15 hours before the procedure.

Day -3 and Day -2

Low-fiber diet do’s and don’ts – Mayo Clinic || Also note Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente are both highly reputed hospital chains in the USA.

Day -1

Clear-Liquid Diet for Colonoscopy Preparation | Kaiser Permanente 

I did drink some chicken broth (sold at Costco): I drunk a few cups. I added a bit salt to the broth and microwaved it. I also drunk coffee and sprite that day, because I need to start the Colyte liquid (prescribed medicine, power mixed with water, see below) at about 3 pm my time (due to my schedule). I took a break between 6 to 8 pm, and resumed it until about 11:30 pm to consume about 3 L (or 2.75 L to be precise). I finished the rest in the early morning before procedure.

– Very important: You may not eat any solid food or drink alcohol for 2 days! In the morning on day 1 of your prep (2 days before your colonoscopy), fill 1 jug of Colyte as written on the jug and place in the refrigerator.

The Day

Today I went. The results are out and they seemed good.

Btw, the GI lab at Mercy seems quite busy, and they are a few steps and a few things to keep in mind (or tips, if I may).

They have a sign says don’t bring any valuables. I understand where they come from, but if you think you like to read on phone, I say bring it (I didn’t bring, and was somewhat bored during my about 45 minutes wait in the waiting room/bed). Don’t take any picture or videos due to privacy concerns.

I noticed I may not be the youngest in the patients group. Obviously they are people who are a bit older. And they seems to be people who are younger than me as well. I did see a lady brought her phone.

The anesthesia: I believe this is the 1st time I was knocked out completely. The drug is actually is from the needle, rather it’s from the IV infusion (挂盐水/葡萄糖), which I did recently (see this American Healthcare System II – 美国医疗系统之二). Btw, it’s a smaller punch or less pain for me this time, as the nurse put the needle at a spot that’s better, I guess.

Serious matter/Q: do you have a will or living trust?

I got this question asked many times. I actually started this “will” process but my wife didn’t sign. Later I learned Warren Buffett let his wife and kids view the will before official. Probably something I will do too as my 13 (soon to be 14) year old can understand some of that.

This reminds me of a related question – We each have an average of 100 online accounts. Here’s how to make sure they aren’t a nightmare for your family if you die. Btw, my wife and kids know my iPhone passcode, but that’s probably not enough. I told my wife investing in S&P 500 index funds when I die. Hopefully she take notes or registered in her brain. Otherwise she can come to this blog (wait, I probably need to renew the domain as well as pay the hosting fees in advance 🙂

Waiting

Most time seems to have been spent on waiting. Fairly routine procedure. Felt a bit drowsy after being woken up. But I feel I can drive after probably 4 hours of this. Again a smart phone may help, if you have the energy. Or just rest instead of doom scrolling 🙂

The people and humor

“You got another 10,000 miles” (this is actually from nurse at primary care office, after the annual physical)

“Just take a nap” (today’s nurse, referring to the anesthesia).

“What you want to eat after this? (a big meal :-)”

Because usually people were on the “liquids only” food the day before. And no food on that morning. || My answer: I am going back to the low fiber diet as I read it from What to Eat After a Colonoscopy

I think it’s always the people and the humor made the difference.

PS

Why Mercy: in St. Louis area there are a few large hospital chains, in the order of size, they are BJC, Mercy, SSM and St. Luke’s (not to be confused with the Kansas City St. Luke that’s going to merge with BJC), respectively. BJC (and Washington U Physicians) is nationally recognized, and it appears their service sometimes could be a bit expensive than others (not quite scientific, just a recent observation). Mercy is the closest for me, and it also has some unique strength. For example, they were the 1st to using Epic EMR in the region. A while ago I worked at MyMercy patient portal, and now I got to use it as a consumer (customer). Btw, the patient portal is based on MyChart. BJC is also using Epic software now. And both BJC and Shriner Children’s hospital used MyChart. One thing though: each MyChart is standalone, you cannot share credentials between the different hospitals.

Back to the topic, I think the prep part: both physically and mentally is the hardest part. The low-fiber diet, the liquids only diet, and the colyte (too much water to drink in a short duration of time). Then there is this unknown part of “short nap” 🙁

Categories
401k and Personal Finance advice and tips

Two credit card and Digital Wallet tips

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Digital wallet and credit card expiration and automatic extension

Investopedia : What Is a Digital Wallet? Also quote Investopedia

There are several digital wallets available. Here are some of the most well-known:

Cash App
Apple Pay
Google Wallet
Samsung Pay
PayPal
Venmo
AliPay
Walmart Pay
Dwolla
Vodafone M-PESA

Personally I use Apple Pay (in store) and PayPal (online stores). I know some investors or speculators like to dunk on the PayPal stock $PYPL. But I noticed in recent years that both Apple Pay and PayPal do CC renewal (extension) automatically: at least for the Chase CC. This is good – one less hassle. When you think about this automatic renewing feature: it’s very similar to the “opt-in” feature in some of the apps or websites.

On the contrary, credit card stores on e-commerce website (let’s say MSD or Spire Gas company payment section is also e-commerce) usually just let the stored credit card expire: from Amazon to Panera. Basically if we want to use the credit card again, we need to either edit or delete/re-add the card.

Apple Pay

For me I didn’t use Apple Pay extensively until I got the Apple Watch. I saw it first hand at the “Daily Grind” coffee shop at Mastercard O’fallon campus: I noticed my colleague was paying via Apple Watch. One thing I didn’t try: I may try next time if I get a chance, I heard the campus only accepts Mastercard. So what if I pay via a Visa card on Apple Watch? 🙂 Anyway I pay mostly via Apple Watch nowadays at grocery stores: Aldi, Dierbergs, Trader Joe’s and Schnucks. One more tip: for PayPal, I encourage you set up multi-factor authentication (YT Video).

I have used the Square (now Block) Inc’ Cash App and Google Pay in the past too. I liked Cash App. It seems to me Google Pay (chrome web browser version) seems a bit half baked for me 🙁

Back to the credit card expiration, I noticed, on many automatic payment websites, e.g., MSD, CCRC and the J etc., I need to manually update the expiration date or re-type in the CC information on their website. This is okay, as I don’t have to a ton of places to update. Although I appreciate if they can just automatically update themselves. I had some glitches with MSD website after updating the card – had to try a few times to make sure the auto pay is still setup and work as intended.

This reminds me of the e-wallet for kids. We have seen those in the Scholastic book fair at school – e-wallet for teachers or kids. However, debit card or Apple Pay (on Apple watch) has much wide usage.

Kids debit card or CC

I found Chase offers a kids debit card. There is a caveat though: I found I cannot fund the account online. So I still need to stop by the branch sometime to put in some money there so my 9 year old can use at her Dragon Den (LFGCPA spirit wear/swags store) this fall 🙂

Also I noticed Amex offers CC (additional cardholder) to kids 13 and older. I gave my 13 year old this card. Btw, not too long ago, she had it lost from theft. Amex texted me right away – and I was able to remediate quickly. Thinking this is somewhat like safety or security feature: I mean shopping credit card. It provides a digital trace. For example, I know at which store my card was being used.

Don’t lock in the foreign exchange rate

Use credit card internationally: make sure use no foreign transaction fee card; no need to lock the rate – it will be more expensive to pay the fees for “locking the rate”. Many years ago in Shanghai, at the Courtyard Xujiahui – I locked the rate after the receptionist 店小二 told me about this feature, and later on I realized the rate (the fees) is not favorable to me.

I used CC in Shanghai in 2016, as well as shopping at Amazon Germany store (and maybe, Amazon Canada, and some other online store in UK), and I chose not to lock in the rate from then the Courtyard Xu’jia’hui stay.

Note in China, the Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover credit cards are not widely accepted. The most popular payments methods in China are Alipay and WeChat Pay. It seems from the Merchant perspective, the latter 2 are much cheaper (source: X).

……顾晓敏还提到，外卡刷卡手续费高昂，单笔费率基本上在2.5％到3.5％不等，而支付宝单笔费率仅为3.8‰，因此很多商户更愿意让外国人使用现金或支付宝、微信，外卡刷卡率仅为23.19％。……”

A related topic, is the profit margin of Stripe. Quote:

Stripe’s EBITDA profit is $100M, and they processed roughly $1 trillion in 2023, which means their profit margin is 100m/1tn = 0.01%.

I actually agree with Cristina Cordova: processing volume ≠ revenue

This got me thinking, what is Stripe’s annual revenue? Per Backlinko: Stripe’s gross revenue reached $14.4 billion in 2022. So the math is 100 / 14400 = 0.69%

Last but not least, make sure you get a “no foreign transaction fee” credit card: Chase offers quite a few cards with this feature, namely, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Amazon and Chase Hyatt. Amex Gold doesn’t have foreign transaction fee either.

Categories
Business Investing

An enduring company: reading Warren Buffett annual letter to shareholder Feb 24, 2024

Reading Time: 6 minutes

The shareholder letter and 2023 annual report PDF file here. Quote the letter, page 5

Our goal at Berkshire is simple: We want to own either all or a portion of businesses that enjoy good economics that are fundamental and enduring. Within capitalism, some businesses will flourish for a very long time while others will prove to be sinkholes. It’s harder than you would think to predict which will be the winners and losers. And those who tell you they know the answer are usually either self-delusional or snake-oil salesmen.

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At Berkshire, we particularly favor the rare enterprise that can deploy additional capital at high returns in the future. Owning only one of these companies – and simply sitting tight – can deliver wealth almost beyond measure. Even heirs to such a holding can – ugh! – sometimes live a lifetime of leisure.

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We also hope these favored businesses are run by able and trustworthy managers, though that is a more difficult judgment to make, however, and Berkshire has had its share of disappointments.

Warren did not use the word enduring here. I think he meant companies that have enduring competitive edge 竞争优势 when he said “……rare enterprise……”, or the “moat” 护城河 which was frequently talked about/used in the past shareholder meetings. By the same token, in investing we are looking for an enduring company.

Enduring: continuing or long-lasting (definition from Oxford dictionary, more on the google word definition search sources)

Warren’s grades for the subsidiaries and companies that BRK has Equity Stakes

If I could summarize what Warren said about the subsidiaries and the companies that Berkshire Hathaway equity stakes. He is what he said basically insurance is doing good, BNSF is doing okay and will probably be okay in the future. He was not that sure about the Berkshire Hathaway Energy BHE, mainly due to the unknown regulatory risks such as the capped rate. As a capitalist, he expected to recoup the investments and then some. But for the BHE (electricity utility co.), because the regulators limit the rate they can charge, he was not sure BHE can get the money back from all the investments in green energy (wind, solar) and power transmission.

For companies BRK has equity stakes, he basically “praised by names”: they are American Express and Coca-Cola. Both are companies born in 1800s. They have enduring competitive edge. I guess this is true even after the recent Capital One /Discover merge. Amex is in a such a unique position in the market, and they are not afraid of Visa and Mastercard either.

American Express Rose Gold card

Warrren praised the OXY, its CEO Vicki and the US oil industry as well.

Companies that has long history or decent history

I noticed in the US there are companies that has long history or decent history. Many of them are family controlled or started by a family (or two, in the case of Leggett and Platt, Wikipedia entry here). In a way Anheuser-Busch the beer giant was like that too. But now AB is a part of AB InBev. Over the time as companies go public (traded in the stock exchanges), the families will gradually sell off the stakes, and eventually they don’t have the control or majority ownership. I think the few companies that families still have control included Ford. Also Berkshire Hathaway will selectively provide a home for those families owned business too, include the one in recent news – Pilot Travel Centers.

Below some of them have STL connection (HQ).

ADM: they had an accounting scandal recently. That’s bad.

I traded the stock around that day. I sold it on the 2nd day though.

Bunge: first saw their North America HQ at west port, probably in year 2008. On its Wikipedia entry, – I noticed this company have long history. They are in similar business as ADM (food processing, some call them agri business). Note Monsabto is in that business too. STL has quite some agri business.

Founded 1818; 206 years ago; Amsterdam, Netherlands

Founder Johann P. G. Bunge

Noticed the company HQ and company history of John Deere, Bunge and BRK

Berkshire Hathaway: nothing to add (this is a common phrase Charlie Munger used to say in the annual shareholder meeting).

Emerson Electric: this is St. Louis based company, and they recently sold the climate control business (White Rodgers and Sensi brands) to private equity, and the PE firm rebranded it as Copeland. Meanwhile Emerson continues to focus on industrial automation (compete against Rockwell Automation, Siemens etc) , and other business.

GE: 100+ years, in the progress of breaking up. The healthcare unit GE Healthcare is already being spun off, and its stock has done well so far.

IBM: 100+ years, sold or spun off some low margin business, still going strong recently.

Jack Henry and Associates: blog post (same blog post below for Leggett and Platt). The only tech public company HQ’ed in Missouri. Found in 1976, same year Microsoft was found.

Leggett and Platt: It seems they will have some tough time this year due to the consumer slowdown of beeding products (their main products). The company has a long history and is based in Missouri. I sold the stock recently, btw. My Blog post – Dividend Based Investing.

Twitter thread below. I have quite a few threads on this actually. But I am posting the last one here only. It seems the US consumers are tapped from year 2023 (and until now Feb 2024). I do expect some sort of recession for those consumers. This will impact consumer products companies such as Polaris too $PII (no position at this time).

Btw, I sold the Rivian stock $RIVN on the same day I sold all the remaining shares of $LEG too. EV seems like the traditional car business, and similar to the airline business. They are both very hard to survive, and almost impossible to thrive in those businesses.

A related note is in the large commercial air planes space, there are only two players AirBus and Boeing $BA. And yours truly has a few shares of $BA at this time. And we cannot say that for EV. Tesla is obviously big in the USA, but in China BYD has just beat Tesla. And then there are also the legacy car makers, including the all mighty Toyota Motors, whose hybrid is taking the wind from the EVs now.

Macys: May Department store (Famous Barr). I heard they rejected PE’s take private offer. Long term I don’t see they survive. I recall we played with our soon to be 14 year old at Macy’s (hide and seek, when she was probably 2 years old). She could no longer remember. She shops at Aerie (American Eagle Outfitter), Hollister (a brand under ANF), and H&M instead.

Monsanto: bought by Bayer, operate as a part of Bayer Agri Science, and involved in lots of lawsuits on roundup (the lawsuit existed before the acquisition).

Sara Lee: Wikipedia. Came across it today as I saw people talked about its former subsidiary Hanesbrand. It looks like Sara Lee itself is broken up now: it split into the US business and European business, and the companies names also changed. They still kept the Sara Lee brand for bread. I used to have a roommate worked for Sara Lee in year 2007.

A side story: my 9 year old didn’t remember the brand name because of their font.

PS: in this year’s annual shareholder letter, Warren used his own little sister Bertie quite extensively, which is a good thing because he wanted non financial/accounting professionals to understand the business. He always paid tribute to Charlie Munger, who has the best 30 seconds brain in investing. Charlie does have other good attribute and skills too, e.g., he is a real architect (designing his own house, for example). And he did steer Warren towards the value investing in companies such as See’s candies and Coca Cola.

Coca-Cola can and drink (exaggerated)

Last but not least, I wrote a X thread yesterday on similar topic.