stlplace

Category: Life Tips

  • Year 2013 in review

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Job
    I changed too much. Three W-2 in one year. I hope to stick with my current employer for a while.

    Family
    Our daughter grew up quickly. She brings us joy that words can not be easily described. And frustration sometimes, too. I think patience is very important being parent. Near the year end, we have some exciting news, as my writing (couple days ago Jan 14, 2014 we knew we will welcome a new baby girl in this July πŸ™‚

    iOS apps
    I did update the myNestEgg app, after 2 years, from iOS 3.1.2 to iOS 7. And I released a new app “To Market ~ farmers market around St. Louis”, this is a free iOS app. I am experimenting some new features there.

    Stocks
    I was looking at my stock trades in last few years. I realized year 2012 is not good, while 2013 is ok (has not beat market in my Scottrade IRA brokerage account because again I tried to do too much). Looking back a bit more, in year 2010 I made some mistakes on Palm and other stocks, in 2012 it was the Coal stocks (ACI and ANR). It seems I tend to lose money on high volatile cheap stocks (the former high flyer etc, hope it goes back).

    The more I think about it, as I was also reading “year 2012 in review“. Once again I am thinking if I can not beat the market, I should pick the index fund, or go with the fund manager I believe in (Steve Romick). His FPA Crescent has done very well for me in last 4 years.

    (01-23-2014) I gave it more thought after seeing Logitech (LOGI) jumped more than 20% this morning on beat estimates on earning, and on the news its transition from PC mouse to iPad keyboard worked out. I bought the stock a year ago at about 7.50, hold it only a day. Similar can be said for Logmein (LOGM), which also more than doubled in a year (I owned more LOGM at one time). Anyway, have faith on bad news, though near term when looking back, at the time it’s not easy.

    (02-06-14) This annual review is partially inspired by Kirby Turner (whitepeaksoftware.com), congrats to Kirby on his 10 years anniversary of his company. I met him once at an iOS conference in 2010 and was impressed by his iOS/Mac knowledge.

    I also recall Kyle Richter talk about doing iOS consulting at RayWenderlich.com to be interesting.

  • UP band a few months later

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    (Update 02-06-2014) My UP band died. I fully charged it, tried both soft reset and hard reset, as discussed below, but seems could not revive it.

    The following was written on Nov. 14, 2013. I have a bit more experience with UP band since then, note Jawbone also came up with new UP 24, which has bluetooth connectivity with the smartphone. Also, Fitbit released the app for iPhone 5s which has the basic pedometer functionalities, I just started using it and so far so good.

    Good
    Does the job, record walking steps and sleeping time

    Bad
    Need to reboot the iPad sometimes to get sync

    The corrosion, partially my dumb mistake

    Odd
    The switch from “sleep” to “walk” is automatically most of the time. but not the other way around. Occasionally I saw the UP band flashes (both sleep and walk indicators), or would not sync. There is this soft-reset, and I found turn off iPad (iPhone) and turn it back on solves most sync issue.

  • Furnace, hot water heater and car battery

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    First I want to express sympathy to the Japanese people affected by the natural disaster/nuclear reactor problem. Being Chinese, I’m conscious of the long history (some good, some bad) between the two countries and two people. But on this biggest crisis for Japan since world war II, I felt sorry for the people, and doing my part to help.

    In last few days, personally I have also had some minor problem at my house. Nothing as bad as things happened in Japan, but still inconvenient as (you can see) I am spoiled in the USA.

    Minor scare
    Last Thursday, at about 11:30 am, my wife called me at work saying there is unknown source of smoke in our condo. I told her turn off heat (electrical furnace), open the door, dress up the baby, and get out the house if needed. Meanwhile I drove home quickly. After got home, I could smell the burning but could not find the source either. I called 911.

    Police came, he think it’s the “hibernating” old laptop causing the smoke. Fire fighters came, look around a little bit, asked where is the furnace. I told him, and he opened, that’s it: the connection piece of duct is made of plastic/cotton, and is burning!

    Hot water heater
    We called Kevin Schaffer of Cool Running AC and Heating, he came quickly and fixed the furnace. He put new sheet-metal to replace the old connection piece.

    Thursday evening, after we gave the baby a bath and hair wash, we ran out of hot water. Called my friend who had similar problem recently, opened the control panel of the electrical hot water heater, reset, did not help. Flip the switch at electric panel, nothing. Tried to drain the water heater, no hot water came out. Called an authorized dealer of the hot water heater brand I have (Rheem, Ruudglas PE52-2), and the technician came in the afternoon. He said there is no power at the water heater, suggested replace the corresponding breaker at electric panel. Called electrician appointment the earliest I can get is Monday morning.

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  • 2001 Nissan Altima idle problems

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    (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 πŸ™‚

    (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?

  • A tragedy related to iPhone

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    (CNET) Chinese authorities probe iPhone worker’s death

    (PCWorld) iPhone Suicide Case Spotlights Tech’s Dark Side

    Apparently many foreign media can not understand why a guy will jump off the building just because the iPhone he was in charge went missing? Well, it appears to me there are two factors:

    1) It’s very very hard to get a good job for new graduates in China these days. Thus they join Foxconn, the “sweater shop” if you will. Not much rights once you join that shop. I suggest my western friends go there once and get some real world experience on sweater shop before express their views.

    2) He was tortured. Again remember Foxconn is a “sweater shop” happens making iPhone.

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  • People are brewing coffee at home

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    Folgers coffee pic

    Reuters: JM Smucker Q4 beats Street, raises 2010 profit view. Quote:

    Peanut-butter and jelly maker J.M. Smucker Co’s (SJM.N) fourth-quarter profit handily beat market expectations, helped by strength in its Folgers coffee business, and the company raised its 2010 profit outlook.

    “Our core business continues to produce solid results and the recently added coffee business’s performance has exceeded our expectations,” co-Chief Executive Tim Smucker said in a statement.

    My take
    More trouble for Starbucks…this is one sign of consumer behavior change amid this recession. Bye bye $2 a cup coffee, welcome home brewing gourmet coffee πŸ™‚

  • Amazon used book, COM, Juggle

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    I bought a used book “Inside COM” from Amazon Marketplace recently. This is my second Amazon Marketplace buy this year. I found for used (a little out of dated) computer books, Amazon Marketplace offers a great value.

    Why I need to buy the COM book?
    I found in order to really understand the .NET stuff, one needs to learn the COM. This is just like in order to be a good value investor, one really needs to pick up Graham’s “Intelligent Investor”. Reading the blogs by Buffett followers are fine, but definitely not sufficient. Because those second handed materials don’t precisely convey the ideas of the masters.

    Google search not working on Internet Explorer?

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  • McCafe Coffee review: second try

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    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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  • Wifi hot spots and plan

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    Mobile broadband (3G) is getting popular these days, but for most people (esp. consumers) that’s still a bit too expensive. At this time I think the good old Wifi is more suitable for me and many working from home (Starbucks, Panera Bread, Borders, Barnes Noble, or McDonald) type.

    I used to use Free Wifi at Panera/St. Louis Bread Co. But “free” usually comes with a price, such as the new policy of “limit to 30 minutes use” between 11 AM to 2 PM. I have used two Wifi plan so far, T-mobile hotspot (Borders) and Boingo (many airports, Starbucks, McDonald). Let me compare those two plans:

    Cost: T-mobile $19.99 per month for everyone ($9.99 for T-mobile wireless users, like me); Boingo costs $9.99 per month (US)

    Coverage: Boingo wins this one because it is available in most Starbucks, McDonald, and airports. T-mobile hotspot is available in Borders bookstore, and it has a free roaming agreement with Starbucks (using AT&T Wifi), but I got some connection problem in one of my two visits to Starbucks. Of course the downside of Starbucks and McDonald is it’s more noisy than Borders (usually).

    BTW, I found the iPhone Wifi Finder to be cool.

  • Buying books from Borders

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I have been a Borders customer for a long time, most times buying coffees while studying (reading books) there, from time to time I also bought some computer or finance related books, such as Effective C++, My Life as a Quant, etc. One benefit of buying books at Borders (compared to Amazon) is getting the book right away, vs. waiting and waiting (I normally use Amazon free shipping option which typically takes a week). We know time is money in many cases.

    Recently I bought two books from Borders, one is Cocoa Programming on Mac OS X, another one os Pro C#, both with 40% discount (available to Borders members only, free to join). With the 40% discount, the books are about the same price at Amazon. For instance, the list price of Pro C# 2008 is $59.99, it’s $36 after 40% off (before tax). Amazon price is $37.79.

    borders book store
    (Source: NPR Market Place)

    Inventory
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