Author: stlplace

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gadgets

iPad: funky name cool stuff?

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There are already a lot of talks about iPad now that Steve Jobs showed off his latest toy. The name is funky because “pad” has a lot of meaning, and there are people already making fun of that, such as this video at Youtube.

But seriously, boy, this is cutting edge stuff in terms of technology. Apple has a video on its own web site, which explains the functionality and features very well. It’s more like a builder’s explainations of why the house is beautiful. Obviously, this new toy launch won’t be complete without the blessing of the chief creator: Steve Jobs.

(Source: cnet video from Youtube)

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Economy

Week in review Jan 23 2010

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What a week. Stock market indices dropped significantly in last 3 trading days of the week, following many events in the week.

1. Scott Brown won MA senate race
No one see this coming until recently. Looking back this is actually easy to understand. A few days before the Tuesday election, I was thinking, if Democrats want to keep the seat of Ted Kennedy, they should pick Vicki Kennedy. Similar outcome happened in 2002 Senate race in the Show-Me state, in which Gene Carnahan (the widow of Mel Carnahan) took the seat won by already deceased Mel. Note Gene was feature in the campaign ads leads to the election. Remember “don’t let fire go out” ad?

2. Bernanke confirmation in jeopardy
I think he should be confirmed. Some populists claims he was the arsonist who comes back to extinguish the fire. There is some truth, except I would add he was the cheerleader when Greenspan (the real arsonist) started the fire (by keeping the interest rate low, caused the US housing bubble). I would give Bernanke a second chance, after all the world and we all would be in a much worst shape if he did not put out the fire.

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Investing

Investing lesson I in 2010: pharmaceutical stocks

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Maybe speculation lessons will be more appropriate. I bought 3 pharmaceutical stocks recently. With the outcome of MA senate race, US healthcare reform is unlikely be massive, which is good news for the pharmaceutical companies. I learned some lessons in the short span of trading small pharma stocks. I think it’s a good idea to summarize here:

1) Pay attention to the trial phase of drug under development: Typically the earlier in phases, the more risk, sounds simple both from common sense and probablity point of view. Apply this to real world, for Athersys (Nasdaq:ATHX) all drugs are in phase I or earlier. On the other hand, pSivida (Nasdaq:PSVD) has drugs are in all phases (from preclinical, phase I, II and III and marketed); 4 out of 5 drugs from Lexicon (Nasdaq:LXRX) are in phase II.

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Categories
Life Tips

2001 Nissan Altima idle problems

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(Update 20Jan10) Removed the collision and comprehensive coverage from my 2001 Nissan Altima. This will cut the annual insurance premium in half: from $800 to $400. Now, find the other half of the car repair expense 🙂

(Original) I googled my car “rough idle” problem (aka it sometimes shake hard when the car is stopped when brake is applied) using the key words “2001 Nissan Altima idle problems”. And it gave me same results as the mechanic told me this afternoon. Now I am looking at around $1,000.00 repair bill.

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Nissan/Altima/2001/engine/shakes_when_idling.shtml

It’s not cheap, but I wanted to get it fixed because we are expecting our first baby in less than 2 months. Safety issue.

Now, if Nissan can issue a recall?

Categories
gadgets

Tech overview: cloud computing and smart phone

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Forget today’s Google China news for a minute. We are at very interesting times in terms of technology, from apps, cloud (web based) computing (online data backup, for one), to net book, smart phone, e-readers, smart book and tablet. The past week’s CES showed us the explosion of a lot of hardwares I mentioned above (plus many new mashups: hybrid devices). I did not attend the CES, but I found the CEO interviews at AllThingsD to be interesting, e.g., Palm CEO.


(Source: allThingsD video)

From investing/speculation point of view, I think PALM is at interesting point because Verizon will start to sell it on Jan 25.

Challenges

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401k and Personal Finance

Some thoughts on investing strategy

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Index or value investing for retirement: so that we can sleep well at night;

Crap shoot for speculation: so that we may get rich some day before retirement age;

But those are just tactic I learned from Your Mind & Your Money series of NBR (PBS) and from my own experience. The most important lesson of all investing (be it value investing or other kind of investing/speculating), is stay on the course: focus. Find a strategy fit one’s need and don’t think grass is green is neighbor’s yard.

Retirement acct review
It seems 2009 was a boom for my retirement accounts. It pretty much recovered and then gained some from the crash of 2008. I am not looking for one year performance for this sort of things here. But I will take it regardless. As of now I still leave my old 401k with my old employer. I also have a Rollover IRA and current 401k with Vanuguard. Still have not decided whether moving the old 401k into Rollover IRA. One thing I am looking for is a low volatility period so that my portfolio does not take a hit during a move (not looking for timing the market).

Categories
gadgets

Some notes on Google Nexus One phone

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Official link here: www.google.com/phone

Walter Mossberg (AllthingsD, WSJ) Review “Google’s Nexus One Is Bold New Face in Super-Smartphones“, quote:

I’ve been testing the Nexus One for a couple of weeks and I like it a lot. It’s the best Android phone so far, in my view, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday hand-held computer….

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Web

Spammer stole my Yahoo email and sent out spam mails

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Friends, in case you received an email selling you Viagra online, which appears sent from my Yahoo email. I apologize. Obviously I don’t sell those. Some hackers used my Yahoo email and did this. Please ignore that mail. More information (prevention tips) about this tactic can be seen at:

I had my email account hacked into and emails sent out.?

I realized this problem as my Gmail acct is also in my Yahoo address book. Also, one friend asked me “huh”? I think this is not really brand new tactic, and I believe most people already know it. This note is just in case.

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Categories
Life Saint Louis

Some thoughts after seeing movie “Up in the Air”

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(Update 04Feb10) Watched the “Outsourced” movie from Netflix on Feb 02 night, quite interesting. It has a similar theme with “Up in the Air”.

(Original) Went to see movie “Up in the Air”. That’s the first time my wife and I went to see a movie. We figured time is running out for us to go cinema in the near future as we expect our new baby this March.

Couple thoughts after seeing the movie:

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401k and Personal Finance

Best mutual fund and shareholder return

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It’s that time again, the end of 2009 (and the decade of 2000s) means we can also look at the performance of mutual funds in past year/decade. The winner of US based mutual fund is CGM Focus fund, managed by Mr. Heebner, the fund’s manager since its 1997 launch. CGM Focus is a large cap growth fund with annualized total return of 18.2% in last 10 years (source: WSJ, Best Stock Fund of the the Decade: CGM Focus). Sounds pretty good, right?

Not really. According to MorningStar in the same article:
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Too bad investors weren’t around to enjoy much of those gains. The typical CGM Focus shareholder lost 11% annually in the 10 years ending Nov. 30, according to investment research firm Morningstar Inc.

These investor returns, also known as dollar-weighted returns, incorporate the effect of cash flowing in and out of the fund as shareholders buy and sell. Investor returns can be lower than mutual-fund total returns because shareholders often buy a fund after it has had a strong run and sell as it hits bottom.

……

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