More Google usefulness...

Google now has an area for "Shared Stuff".

You need to add a bookmarklet to your toolbar and then you can share links through your Shared Stuff page. You can view other people's Shared Stuff. People can subscribe to your Shared Stuff in an RSS feed.

This kinda falls in line with my post about how I wish Google Reader allowed users to add comments to shared articles. This is close, except it is posted to your Shared Stuff page as opposed to your shared Google Reader feed.

There is currently a "Share" button in Google Video, but I'm sure they will expand it to other areas...

Re: The Secrets of Zach's Success

Because I can, instead of commenting, I will reply in a post.
As someone who also dabbles in the market, although not too much lately, I will agree and disagree with a few of Zach's points.

1. I completely agree with taking your money and running. I would agree that you cannot be greedy. Pick a return you want and stick with it. But, here is where my logic is a bit different...to make playing the stock market worthwhile, you need to have a better return on your investment than what the current high yield savings account/CoD/mutual fund would be. Basically, you need to beat your alternative investment. My USAA high-yield savings account last month was at 4.74% APR. So, if I don't make at least that in the market, there would be no point in me playing.

2. Losses are not for losers, mainly because the longer you wait for that stock to come back up, the less your return on your money over time. If you make that 1% after 3 months, then it totally wasn't worth it. So, set the amount (%) you are willing to lose and get out. If you hold a loser, you lose the potential to continue your strategy with other stocks (whatever that may be).

3. Research can definitely help. I lost a while back because I did not follow the research I did. I knew a drug company had a report about a clinical trial and I knew it potentially wasn't going to go well. I did not dump the stock the day before the report, like I should have, and it took a big dive. This also applies to earnings reports. The general consensus is to not hold over when a stock reports its earnings. Even if they have a positive earnings report, it still may not have a positive impact on the stock. Buy on rumor, sell on news.

4. Some say buy low sell high. Some say buy high sell higher. I'm not recommending either way, but like Zach said, pick a strategy and stick to it. In this sense, I disagree with picking up a stock after bad news, like Zach suggested. It may work if you're only looking for a 1% return. But, I would recommend NOT trying to pick a market bottom or top (or in this case stock bottom or top). If this was possible, then everyone would make money in the market, every time. But, unfortunately, everyone does not.

Personally, I use optionsxpress.com, which has fees, so it makes it harder to follow Zach's strategy due to the fixed costs of commissions. The more money you play with, the less impact commissions have on you return. The opposite is also true, hence my problem.

And perhaps I am a bit more conservative in my approach. When I was in high school, I played strictly options and did well. But, at that time the market was good. Now, when I play the short term, I tend to write covered calls to try and get a little more of a return.

Currently, I am following a long term strategy and haven't been doing anything short term. At some point, I really have to start paying attention.

Please do not take my advice too seriously, these are my opinions and my opinions alone. If you take my advice and do poorly in the market, I am not responsible.

The Secrets of My Success

I've been doing the online brokerage thing for a few months, and things are going suspiciously well. Thanks to Zecco and their comission free trades, I'm up 14.35% over 123 days (.336 years) on one account and 11.10% over 98 days (.268 years) on another. I've been "managing" (I use the term loosely) both accounts similarly, and both those numbers both extrapolate to 41-43% annual returns.

In a year marked with hedge fund and real estate misery, why are things going so well for me? I'm not asking this in the rhetorical-arrogant way, more the suspicious-waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop way.

My basic assumptions going in. Theyre both gambling related. Stick to what you know.

1. Stocks are like roulette, but since things tend to go up, the odds are slightly in your favor instead of slightly against you.


2. The dice do have a memory, i.e. what happened before is indicative of what will happen in the future.

With these assumptions in mind, I present the Big Ern Rules for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Boat Filled Retirement:

1. Take the Money and Run - A) As soon as you see a 1-1.5% gain, slide in a stop or trailing stop order to protect your gains. B) As soon as your high flyer starts to level off, sell that mother. A 1 or 2% gain over a few days is awesome, especially with no fees.


2. Buy Good Companies on Bad Days - This goes against my bandwagoning instincts, but seeing headlines like "CostCo Stock Drops 4% Due to Heat" should get you fired up. The sun will come up. Probably tomorrow.


3. Don't Take Stock Picks from Anyone You Know - If the pick goes up, you become dependent, if it goes down you get bitter. Man is not an island, but the man who owns (or will own) an island doesn't need a hot pick from his cousin's neighbor's nephew.


4. Don't Do Any Research - Research is for the weak. Find a stock rating tool you like, and use it. What the hell is a P/E ratio anyways?


5. Losses are for Losers - Never give up until a stock shows a gain. This is the one that worries me. Thus far even when things have dropped precipitously after I bought them (Level Three, Raytheon, Exelixis, Scholastic, even Apple once), I've held on and they eventually (a month or so) come back up to show a small profit. (Note - I'm still waiting on Exelixis and Scholastic.) As soon as you see that small profit, see Rule 1.

Here are (some of) the possible flaws in my genius:

1. Eventually one of the stocks I refuse to unload will clean me out. If I started this 8 years ago, I'd still be holding the Enron I bought at $90.


2. The last few months are an anomalous period and the guidelines I'm using will fail me over the long run.

I'd love to hear other reasons why I'll eventually end up living in a van down by the river.

Apple is up 2% today. Off I go...

When people take their jobs too seriously...

According to Boing Boing, an assistant managing editor of the Wall Street Journal was detained at a Kmart (who would have thought they'd still be in business?) and accused of stealing. Well, she was accused of putting more expensive shoes ($24.50) in a box for less expensive shoes ($16.50). After walking out the door, she was confronted by a security guard and led to a windowless room in the back of the store. They held her for an hour questioning her...
Here's a link to the original article: ARTICLE
Here's a link to an MP3 podcast interview: INTERVIEW

I have a few (obvious) questions....

1. What is an assistant managing editor doing shopping at Kmart?
I know titles can be misleading, but managing editor sounds impressive, so assistant managing editor sounds almost as impressive. Maybe she is a glorified administrative assistant, but it seems like she could afford at least Target, maybe even Ross, or definitely Marshall's.

2. What happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt?
I understand that $8 times a lot of people pulling this "ticket switching" type of stealing amounts to many lost green backs, but couldn't they have just asked her to pay the difference of her mistake? Did they think she was going to run to her car (with the rest of her family) and peel out of the parking lot? I'm sure she would have just paid the $8 plus tax and apologized for her error.

3. Coming back to the title of my post, did the rent-a-cop security guards really need to question and accuse her of stealing for an hour?
For $8, wouldn't a more valuable use of their time have been watching for other possible thefts? They wasted the company's money by being on the clock and questioning her unnecessarily, not to mention the potential loss of merchandise since they were understaffed in the loss prevention department.

I have worked in retail and understand loss prevention, but I think they went a bit overboard. Just like Eletronic Vagrant hates Wal-Mart, I will now hate and boycott Kmart. Their revenue just decreased a total of $0, because I never shop there, but I encourage all of you not to shop there also. I wonder if the domain kmart-sucks.com is available for purchase...

Werewolf Syndrome...

I realize this story is a week old (online), but I just saw this on TV. Apparently, there is a condition called hypertrichosis, "which causes [the] body to produce an abnormal amount of hair everywhere". So, hence the picture on the right side of this post. This picture doesn't do what I just saw on TV justice. He was much hairier, so he obviously shaved his face for this picture.

A bit more info...genetics:
"Genetic research has linked the condition to the X chromosome. That means if a woman carries the gene, she has a 50-50 chance of passing it on to her offspring, whether she has a boy or a girl. If a male carries the gene, 100 percent of his female children will be affected, but none of his sons."

A bit more on why it may have happened:
"We believe that this is a gene which was functioning a long time ago in the evolution of man when primates were becoming men,"..."as humans evolved, certain genes that were unnecessary for survival mutated and were turned off. Figuera believes that, in Danny's family, the gene for hypertrichosis was somehow accidentally turned back on."
So, evolution took a step backwards in this case...

If you want to read more about the hard lives of Danny (pictured) and his brother Larry, about how they started out in a cage featured in a freak show, about how they went from that to (and are currently in) a Mexican circus (is anyone shocked by this fact?), or about how Danny has children and a girlfriend who is down with his hairiness, go to the ABC News Article.

If they post video or I find any online, I will definitely post a link to it. Or please add a link in the comments if anyone finds video on it.

He really does look like a werewolf....

UPDATE: I found a video on YouTube, not from ABC, but on the same family.

Cruziero ta foda!

So, there is a kid named Kerlon who plays for a soccer team in Brazil who has patented what is called the seal dribble. Needless to say, he tried it at the end of a match recently. His team was winning....there were only a few minutes remaining....and he was playing against his intercity rivals.

BAD MOVE


The uproar that has ensued is sweeping through soccer-crazed Brazil. You can read about it here if you like. Or, if you can't read Portuguese, you can go here.

My take:
1. Showing up professional athletes that would like nothing more than to break your shins is not a good idea.
2. Point number one is even more pertinent when you are about 5'7 and weigh about 130 pounds.
3. The seal dribble is possibly a career ending move every time it is completed. It will always end with the same thing, Kerlon screaming on the ground and someone getting a yellow card (at least) You can't really say that about any other play this side of the chop block unless you're Zach, and you think the Broncos linemen just happen to often fall down at the knees of opposing defensive linemen.
4. I really wish there would have been a microphone there to record what the defenders were screaming at him
5. I hate his team. The intercity rival, Clube Atletico Mineiro is the best team in the world.

Harvard bookstore throwing out students...

...for taking too many notes. They don't want them to learn?
The article (from Boing Boing) highlights how students are taking copious notes about the prices of books at the campus bookstore. Apparently, the nerds up at Harvard like to take notes before they even own the book....
But, seriously, if they write down the book info, such as the ISDN, they are being booted from the store because the Barnes and Noble run bookstore says the prices are its "intellectual property". I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that it seems like a totally invalid claim.

Maybe if they lowered their prices, they wouldn't have students writing down the book information and then buying it online for cheaper, either new or used. College bookstores are a notorious rip off. I think I bought one book my second semester sophomore year and paid someone a few bucks to borrow some of the other ones.
The article highlights a website that shows the books for Harvard courses:
crimsonreading.org

Either way, half.com or Amazon work too.

Online Financial Tools

I've been putting off signing up for a one-size fits all online financial tool like Mint or Wesabe. Have any of you dummies used one of these and had noteworthy experiences?

I suppose there's always the security risks of putting all your financial information in one place, but once a sketchy Panamanian waiter takes your Amex out of site to settle your tab/order his new Segway Skateboard, why sweat the small stuff?

W&M grads theive from GMU...

I guess AV nerds still go to William and Mary, but they don't graduate and make enough money to buy their own stuff:
LINK

Not only did they steal from George Mason, but they may have also nicked equipment from Duke and Elon.

Does anyone know these guys?



Thanks to Brendan for the link.

TSA is terrible....

I shouldn't use broad generalizations, but since I travel almost every week, I really do think TSA airport security is terrible. I won't go in to my own personal experiences of lax and slow government employees, because this blog post takes the cake. I stole the photo for my post from that link. Basically the blogger (accidentally) carried box cutters onto an airplane. The photo sure looks like an airplane bathroom. I know photos can be doctored, but I don't doubt this actually happened.

In TSA's defense, a lot of the airport employees are part time, which minimizes their benefits, and they are the armpit of the organization. But still, they could attempt to use their brains here and there...

Also, Electronic Vagrant e-mailed this link out the other day concerning TSA, which I thought was interesting:
kiphawleyisanidiot.com


UPDATE: Here's a really, really long blog post about TSA ruining lives, LINK.

GodTube

After highlighting JewTube in a previous post, I feel it is only appropriate that I chronicle another YouTube clone:
GodTube

According to DownloadSquad , the site is "Basically whatever YouTube's got, but with a strange religious twist." The CEO of the site claims that "Jesus 2.0 is the wave of the future". GodTube had a 973% month on month growth in August. It had 3 million unique visitors. Basically, the audience of this blog, times about a million....give or take....

Link to the article:
LINK

Here is a sample video based on the popular Mac vs. PC commercial series:

Twitter can no longer be denied...

I've been trying to ignore it...pretend it didn't really exist...pretend I didn't really care....but I've been lying to myself.
This is a call for everyone to join Twitter.

Reasons to join:
1) Community Twitter - communities of like employment or like minds that are Twitter friends. An example would be Alley Insider. Alley Insider is an online blog about New York digital business. Through this website, you can join the Alley Insider Twitter community and keep up with others who care about issues that the website deals with.

2) Launchy and Twitter - Launchy is a Windows program that is meant to replace your start menu, much like Spotlight (or Quicksilver) on Mac OS X. The combination of these programs allows you to do the following:
Update Remember the Milk
Post to Google Calendar
Set SMS reminders
Twitter from Launchy - Link to the instructions

3) Follow blogs - An example is Download Squad, a site I've mentioned previously. You can "friend" the website on Twitter and follow along.
Link

4) I keep reading about people using Twitter who are older than me. That scares me and makes me think I'm missing out. Although I use Facebook, I was not in college when it became popular, so I'm not constantly on the site. So, when I read about people not younger than me using Twitter, it makes me think it could be useful.

Here is a beginner guide to Twitter.

I need some friends on Twitter. Here is the link to my twitter page:
LINK

Also, just like DownloadSquad, you can follow this blog on twitter at this link.

Happy twittering.

Yahoo! Mash?

Although I read about this a few day ago, I'm still flabbergasted that Yahoo! has created a social networking site, Yahoo! Mash. According to the review by Download Squad, Yahoo! Mash has similar features to MySpace and Facebook. They will even be opening up a 3rd party development platform (like Facebook did) in the next few months.
One interesting note from the review...friends can start pages for each other to invite them to join the service.

But still, does the web really need another social networking site?

What we need (and I have read about) is a social networking site to combine social networking sites....

IBM protest in Second Life...

Second Life "is an Internet-based virtual world." Second Life users can "interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another."

Apparently IBM decreased salaries in Italy and employees aren't happy. So, what are these angry employees going to do? Naturally, they are going to protest at the IBM facilities in Second Life, where IBM has a large corporate campus and marketing site. If you click on the link to IBM, you may even see some avatars from Second Life.

So, will this actually be effective? I guess the huge advantage to this is that employees can potentially strike while they are at work (being paid). I would think the problem with striking is that the money the employees lose in the immediate term for not working takes a while to make up with the (potential) wage increase obtained due to the strike.
Although, apparently there is an Italian strike. During this type of strike, employees come to work and do their jobs, but don't do any more than the minimum. So, perhaps this Second Life strike can be classified as an Italian (or work-to-rule) strike.

Either way, does IBM even care if computer generated beings that represent real people are striking in a virtual world?

Cat video...

Since I don't have anything to post about at the moment, you can watch one of my cats attack a fork. This is the semi-obese cat, thanks to over-feeding by ACOM. He talked about doing it right after we got them and he hasn't stopped since. But, it backfired because she lays on his lap like there is no tomorrow...



Notice the other cat in the background laying in an amazon box...she loves cardboard...

Big Ern's "John" Lockes of the Week

A being "conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself," would never bet Joey Harrington on the road. We live (if we didn't put the kidney transplant money on the Falcons), and hopefully we learn.

We've also learned that, while no one is perfect, 50% doesn't cut it (unless you're the one taking the bets). Hence the 3 pick serving size from here on out.

This weeks picks:

• Seattle (-3) @ Arizona
• Chicago (-13) vs. Kansas City
• Dallas (-4) @ Miami

Next week's lesson: The folly of picking road favorites in the NFL.

50 Cent vs. Kanye West

On our way to Williamsburg, I listened to the new 50 Cent and Kanye West CD's, "Curtis" and "Graduation", respectively.

Curtis is the typical 50 "I think I'm John Gotti AKA Teflon Don" Cent rap album. Why do I draw the conclusion that he thinks he is the Teflon Don? Maybe because he (or his associates) say it at least once a song. Perhaps because "Don" is an easy word to think of rhymes for....john, megatron, ron, con, Ghost Recon, don (rappers love to two end lines with the same word).
Maybe it was because I had a negative attitude going into my first listen with this CD or maybe it was because I listened to it second, but I didn't care for many of the songs. In true 50 Cent fashion, there are several titles having to do with guns and killing: "My Gun Go Off", "I'll Still Kill", "Fully Loaded Clip", "Curtis 187", and possibly "Fire". In his defense, I typically don't like a rap CD in its entirety.
The one thing 50 has going for him is choosing to feature Justin Timberlake on the song "Ayo Technology". If you listen to pop/hip-hop radio, you have probably heard this song and you may also know it is about pornography. Besides that last point, it has a good beat and features JT, all qualities of a great song. (I also liked the song, "Follow My Lead" featuring Robin Thicke)

Graduation is a typical Kanye CD full of good beats, making fun of college, and relevant and irrelevant samples. Like I previously implied, I listened to this CD first. Songs that weren't the best:
Barry Bonds - featuring Lil Wayne - maybe its because I'm just not a fan of many of the Lil folks.
Drunk and Hot Girls - featuring Mos Def - I like Mos Def, but this song is terrible...
Then there are the songs you might recognize from the radio: "Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing". I enjoyed them.

Did anyone notice both CD's have hits with what I will call electronica in the background? "Stronger" on Graduation and "Ayo Technology" on Curtis (although in Ayo Technology, it sounds more like he sampled background music from a nintendo game)

Kanye makes a reference to not winning some awards, but winning the award for having the most "Chedda" (please see definition #1).

As a side note, what the media hyped record sale contests doesn't report is the rest of what 50 Cent said. According to an article by the LA Times, 50 Cent already has 12 songs recorded for his next album (which he is still under contract to Interscope Records to release), "Before I Self Destruct". He also predicted that Kanye's CD will have a sharp decline in sales in the second week. I assume 50 thinks he will surpass Kanye's sales in the second week.

We shall see what happens...

Prince = RIAA

According to Ars Technica, Prince is suing YouTube, eBay, and The Pirate Bay.

The article goes on to highlight how a few months ago, Prince actually gave his latest CD away for FREE (in the UK), which then boosted his ticket sales for a 21 night tour in London. What costs more, a ticket to a Prince concert or a Prince CD?

I'm sure that Prince fans would much rather watch low quality video of Prince on YouTube than see him in concert. Not to mention the fact that he probably doesn't have much of a case against YouTube. As long as they comply with take down notices, they are in the clear.

And he seriously thinks he's going to sue The Pirate Bay? Not only have they basically said every four letter word to governments that try to shut them down, they have been trying to buy an island (their first attempt failed) and create their own country, just to get around copyright laws. Somehow, I doubt they care what Prince thinks and probably have a few choice words for him.

Good luck, Prince. I'm sure its worth all the hassle and I'm sure you don't already have enough money.

The Birthday Paradox

Suppose you are sitting in a classroom with 40 people (including yourself). Now suppose a gunman held a .45 caliber to your head and asked you this question: What are the chances two people in this room have their birthdays on the same day? If you answered 11% which would probably be the safest guess, you would get your head blown off. The actual answer is closer to 90%. In a room of 30 students that probability is still 71%. This chart breaks down the group size to get an approximate probability.



This mathmatical probability problem was proposed in 1939 by Richard von Mises. The implications of this problem are far reaching. You and your friends can systematically take hundreds of dollars off of pre-schoolers to college students by posing this question and then taking the appropriate position. Math is on your side.

Update from (hopefully) a future Olympic Torch Bearer...

As it turns out, there are two glitches in the system:

1) Voting only works with Internet Explorer. Firefox, Safari, I'm sorry. The Beijing Olympics don't like you.

2) It seems that you can vote ONCE EVERY DAY. This may be a glitch, or they may have just not listed that you can do it. Either way, this means you can vote a lot more times.

THANK YOU for those who have voted already. And a BIG thank you if you vote again, and again, and again...

Here's the webpage again:
Link

Thanks,
Matt Scranton