Music Monday: Green Day and the a US National Park road trip
Posted By RichC on January 20, 2020
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What is going to stop the US stock market and $AAPL stock?
Posted By RichC on January 18, 2020
While working on post highlighting the DJIA crossing 29,000, I realized that the stock market has blown through that milestone and is rocketing towards 30,000 and that I’ll have to start over (probably a “worry-wart” post is coming).
One of the big contributors to this Dow Jones Industrial Average is Apple ($AAPL). It just continues to trade higher. 
The fact that CEO Tim Cook has learned to put his personal politics aside and work with President Trump certainly doesn’t hurt when gaining favor with US trade negotiations with China. Of course the entire economy benefits with lowered tensions and tariffs, but those who play the game best are the ones who work within the system. Apple is doing this pretty well considering.
On the other hand, passing and signing big trade deals like USMCA between the US, Mexico and Canada and getting phase one in place with China 
doesn’t hurt either. Personally, I suspect those foreign leaders playing hardball with the US are beginning to think the election in November favors President Trump … where as they may have been waiting out his term believing a Democrat would be easier to manipulate into a more favorable deal?
(speculation on my part)
All in all, the economy is still holding up well (housing starts up today) and companies who already have a great product AND know how to play ball in today’s divisive political culture, will come out ahead … ahead so much so that I’ve humorously added a Post-It Note to the AAPL chart on my computer monitor (photo left).
Also while thinking about how Apple’s CEO Tim Cook worked with leaders in China and “likely” a leader he doesn’t particulaly see eye to eye with in the US (President Trump), this bit of sage advice that I jotted down a while ago came to mind:
A wise senior business leader once said, “It is impossible to prosper when there is war. You must seek peace first; then you will prosper.”
So .. the sooner you make peace with your adversary, you’ll be able to refocus you energy on mutually beneficial outcomes.
Tech Friday: The subscription models and the 180K threshold
Posted By RichC on January 17, 2020
Back in the late 1980s when I was starting in the commercial printing and eventually ‘small time’ publishing business (Consolidated Printing and Publishing Co), I didn’t realize how far ahead of the game we were when focusing on the subscription model. Early on we were able to capitalize on few people in the printing industry being computer savvy, so when Aldus Pagemaker (now Adobe) and the Apple Macintosh computer came out, I was able to build “newsletter” templates for customers who were told to stay in touch and/or market to their customers with regular mailings. This was before email or the world wide web, so correspondence was either in person
(sales calls) or by using the phone or mail. Eventually we had a decent string of regularly published newsletters and just needed the fresh content to fill the pages (fill the templates).
Fast forward 30 years and the subscription business model has taken over when it comes to technology. Now we pay monthly or yearly for our internet connection and wireless, our software licenses and hardware. We pay for cloud subscriptions that offer everything from online apps to data storage and virus detection. 
Magazines and newspapers are still focused on the subscription model too … but are likely delivered as digital content to a phone, tablet or connected computer device rather than printed on paper. Music, audio and video that were once purchased on vinyl, tape, cds, dvd or digital files, are now subscribed to with any number of streaming services which automatically bill monthly or annually. The number of subscriptions continue to rise and are likely straining tight budgets.
Do you want to eat this month or pay for your subscriptions? Where is your limit?
On a lighter note, my 2010 BMW X5 35d is ready for some service as it has just rolled past 180,000 miles … unless odometers no longer roll?
An old photo triggered an “almost happened” memory #TBT
Posted By RichC on January 16, 2020
While soring through my office file cabinet to make room for more current folders, I ran across an old lease contract and photo from an “almost happened” business decision. It would have been a decision and a location move that may have changed our future and had ripple effects even for the lives of my kids (like those “time machine” movies).
Flash back to 1986, when I was running a part time printing business out of our garage and basement when we were in our small Aurora-Hudson Road house. I worked a day job primarily in sales and then rebuilt printing presses and ran small print jobs in the evening.
Eventually we decided that it was time to either sink or swim and that I should go into my own business full time. So in 1985, 
I paid NAPL for some research to understand where commercial printing services were needed and what city offered the best location for a commercial printing business to succeed. I don’t recall all the locations, but remember that our decision came down to either Raleigh/Durham NC or Port St Lucie, FL – not Ohio. Having a sailboat, we opted for Port St. Lucie and put our house on the market at the same time I quit my job, we were having our first child and Brenda would be staying home a few months before going back to work … in a new location! Gulp … but being young, naïve and “without children” had us thinking this was a good plan (Brenda’s parents even sat us down to make sure we had thought this through .. but we opted to forge ahead).
So the week our daughter Katelyn arrived, I headed south leaving Brenda and Katelyn in our SOLD house with Brenda’s mom for the week in our $500 high-mile 1970-something Chevy Caprice wagon. I haul everything that a moving van would not take plus a few tools to get ready to start the business … and find a place to live since the buyers were closing on our current home. It was stressful.
Upon arriving at the commercial unit (photo above), where I previously put down a $700 deposit and had signed off on the remodeling plans, I found out the landlord had left the country. Seriously … he went to the Bahamas. He under investigation for tax fraud and was being sought by the IRS. My deposit was gone, no work was done, I could get the keys to the space to start working on my own and 1000 miles away in Florida without my wife and newborn daughter was the last place I wanted to be.
We made the decision to drop the moving idea and instead looked for a house in Hudson, kept my job a little longer and then the following year with a severance package (Knight-Ridder closed our Ohio office), started Consolidated Printing and Publishing Co after remodeling a freestanding commercial building in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in 1987 (photo below).
And as they say, the rest is history … and a history without any regrets!
Testing Amazon Prime deliveries using Key for Garage #video
Posted By RichC on January 15, 2020
A year or so ago, I “was” planning to give the Amazon Key service a try by having shipments delivered to the condo in Florida when we are not there. So I purchase a smart lock and then realized that Amazon didn’t offer Key delivery 
services in Delray Beach. I sent it back as I really wasn’t that comfortable with the idea anyway.
For Christmas this year, Katelyn and Drew gave me the hardware so I could connect our overhead garage door to a cellphone app (and eventually to our smarthome devices with a little IFTTT tweaking). I was skeptical that it would work on our pool house detached garage since it is a commercial unit and does not work with built-in car remotes etc (saved this for the Honda but never could get the commercial version of “rolling codes” to 
work – nor would the BMW X5 35d).
Now that the garage door is working, how about setting up Amazon Key for the garage door (here’s a recent Verge update on using garage door openers with Amazon Key). A few click later KEY was set up … but untested … until this week when I ordered a new Zoeller sump pump and switch to rebuild the old corroded pump so I have a backup (My Jerry-Rigged sump pump is temporarily doing the job).
Hey look (my WyzeCam Pan video below) … lo and behold, Amazon Key for Garage worked.
What is Key by Amazon In-Garage Delivery?
Protect your packages by getting them delivered into the safety of your garage — perfect for when you’re at work, away or even on vacation. Get started with the Key by Amazon App and a Key by Amazon Smart Garage Kit.How does it work?
Deusche Bank says buy $GE – What will stop this stock market?
Posted By RichC on January 14, 2020
The stock market continues to rally on positive news: low inflation, cheap money, increasing wages, low unemployment and even good news on trade with China. If there was ever a time to use the “hitting on all cylinders” idiom, this would be it … but when things are looking this good … everybody gets a little nervous.
I’ve been wondering if and when the bottom will fall out (a socialist like Bernie Sanders or anti-free market advocate like Elizabeth Warren rising in the polls as we near the election might do it?) As for what to do, that’s the dilemma for investors since there aren’t any returns from the traditional safe, conservative, low-risk investments people move to when they seek safety or to when things get a little too “frothy.”
There was some good news on my “Waiting for Godot” turn-around investment, General Electric (GE), on Monday. I’m still waiting for the corner to be turned … but have been regularly seeing analysts turning positive, even if only a little bit. Perhaps this will be the year GE gets a foothold and can start to make their shareholders money again?
As for positives from analysts Deusche Bank’s Nicole DeBlase commented that even though $GE was still in turn around mode under CEO Larry Cup, the firm told clients to buy the stock and to bank on near-term gains. They believe GE has the potential to beat in the 4th quarter and give positive 2020 guidance. I’m crossing my fingers.
Music Monday: Wasted Days and Wasted Nights – iMac OS update
Posted By RichC on January 13, 2020
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There are safer ways to use a ladder
Posted By RichC on January 12, 2020
Being young, and someone who looked to be vying to be listed in this year’s Darwin Award, had me telling this worker, on a questionable set ladder, that he may not be 
as invincible to injury as he thinks? (he said to me, “oh, I’ve done this before”)
We noticed a bit of water seeping between the new gutters on our house and the aluminum facia trim, so I called Gutter Shutter who has been excellent in responding to me when it came to servicing the minor repair we needed on our new gutters (for the cost, they should). Their service guy stopped out this week to add a strip of additional drip edge … but set up his ladder a bit precariously. Having had a few “ladder accidents” in our family (father-in-law, brother-in-law and my wife, but thankfully not Taylor), I’m a bit more sensitive to ladder accidents that look like they are waiting to happen.
Thankfully all was well, but still think there was a better way to stabilize this than a couple rocks under two for the legs? Safety First, please.
Are a few big tech companies getting a bit pricey?
Posted By RichC on January 11, 2020
Forgive me for being a bit redundant in worrying (again) about the hot tech stocks like Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA) and Netflix (NFLX) among others as the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirts with 29,000 in mid-January 2020 (even a broken clock is right twice a day! ― Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach). I’ve been wondering just how long these must have stocks can continue to rise faster than their earning?
Apple in particular has changed in recent years – from a somewhat reasonably priced money making machine, to what some consider a bit overpriced. Time to diversify? Of course, I worried when it was half the price it is today … then AAPL went on to rise another 86% in one year (2019).
If I still held the individual AAPL stock, I don’t think I could ride it much longer … in fact, I’m concerned that if investors decide it is time to cash in a bit as the $1.4 Trillion dollar company is being held in thousands of ETFs and Mutual Funds. A little selling to lead to more and even drag the market itself down. It could be the next melt down trigger, even if the underlying economy and stock market is sound. There might not be any fundamental reason, just a “run for the exits” where investors want to hold onto the 2019 gains in tech before the next guy sells his shares?
Some dogs just need a little more loving #video
Posted By RichC on January 10, 2020
This pet video of a dog in Turkey getting his back rubbed by a car wash is pretty impressive. I guess the human touch isn’t all that important to him?
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.