I love my iPad and one of the things I’ve been doing recently has been using it to view movies. Since I have the smallest capacity iPad I’ve been using a great program called Air Video Server which allows me to stream movies from one of my home computers to the iPad over a TCP/IP connection.
This works fabulously at home, where I have fallen asleep to Miracle.
It doesn’t work so fabulously away from home. It could–I have no problem connecting to the server from elsewhere. But it doesn’t, because the uplink speed of my Time Warner Cable RoadRunner Internet service is capped at one megabit per second.
That’s really pathetic.
I would so love to be able to use this program from just about anywhere on the ‘Net. We need faster broadband. That would make this so great.
Tags: Technology
Housing numbers and job numbers are still in the pits although the economy climbed out of recession mode awhile ago.
At least in terms of numbers. Whether it really feels like it–well, it doesn’t.
Is this a recovery without housing and jobs? If so, where’s the growth?
Housing was propped up at least for awhile by the tax breaks for first time homeowners; now, however, despite record low mortgage rates, there isn’t a lot keeping housing up.
Jobs continue to be lost without a lot of job creation; other than the temporary census jobs which are just about gone, it’s hard to identify many folks who are hiring.
How this recovery will play out is still anyone’s guess.
Tags: Economy
Sorry, it’ll take a little while more to get back on track here. I had to urgently (although expectedly) change the brake pads on my truck. This took a lot more out of me than I thought it would.
I hope to be back on track real soon now. My apologies.
Tags: Administration
I would really like to have some (more) eBooks on my iPad. While I am not much of a reader (especially of fiction), it’s clear to me that I would read much more if I could get books on the iPad.
There’s also no shortage of eBook readers for the iPad. Besides Apple’s iBooks application there’s also a Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle application, plus others. Google Books has a bunch of freely available eBooks too.
Yet the eBooks I really want access to are the ones that my public library lends out through their Overdrive program. Unfortunately, since these books are electronically copy protected they are not easily transferrable to my iPad.
If this is addressed, I think I really will become an eBook convert.
Tags: Technology
My apologies for thre longer than expected absence. Philadelphia proved very entertaining and the Livestrong Challenge proved more than challenging (but that’s a tale for another blog). My thanks to Team Fat Cyclist Philly, especially my captain the amazing Philly Jen, roommate Tommy, and tammate Philly Maggi. I wish you guys and the rest of Team Fatty lived right up the road.
I’m still on vacation but we’ll be back to our usual Uncommon Cents goodness in a few days.
Tags: Administration
I’m officially on vacation from both of my jobs, so this blog will also be in vacation mode as I travel to Philadelphia for the Livestrong Challenge.
Tags: Administration
Awhile ago I contemplated if it was time to sell Netflix (NFLX) since the stock had done so well after I bought it where I believed it had outrun itself with a way to high price to earnings ratio.
I didn’t sell it. At the time I was contemplating it the price of NFLX was $101.01.
Right now it’s going for $132.80 in after hours trading.
So far this seems like the correct move, although there’s going to be a time when I’ll indeed sell this stock.
Tags: Investing, Stocks
Let’s be for real: money is important. It’s nice to think it’s not important, but it is.
But it’s not the only thing that’s important.
Lance Armstrong in the audiobook Every Second Counts states that all that having a lot of money meant was that they didn’t have to worry about money anymore. In fact, sometimes having a lot of money also means an increase in stress and responsibility.
To me, what’s really important, no matter how well or not well my investments go, is just doing the right thing, and being who you are.
It’s really not just about dollars.
Tags: Social aspects
There is arguably no more successful investor than Warren Buffett. His Berkshire Hathaway stock has soared and its A shares are in the six figure range.
Its B shares, however, are a lot less following its split early this year.
While the broad market has been about flat year to date, Berkshire Hathaway is up 20% despite a less than thrilling earnings report recently.
While I’m sure Buffett, who turns eighty at the end of this month, isn’t going to be running the fund for decades to come, this is a pretty attractive stock for me. I’m still considering it, but I’m leaning toward it.
Tags: Investing, Stocks
One of the real stars of my portfolio over the last year or two has been the Vanguard GNMA Fund. This fund is a five star Morningstar rated mutual fund with at least 80% of its assets in Ginnie Mae backed mortgage securities. Typically with a price per share between $9.50 and $10.50, it’s been seeing rising prices and is now over $11. It continues to pay a nice dividend (last check 3.10%), seen a return to date of 6.48%, and is about as secure as possible. And it has a legendary Vanguard low expense ratio of 0.23% versus the typical 1.00% for this kind of fun.
Everyone needs at least some bonds in their portfolio and it’s hard for me to find a better fund than this one.
Tags: Bonds, Mutual funds
