Random: A couple random things I learned this week

Posted By on July 21, 2018

Bison

As a filler post, a couple random or desultory tidbits crossed my path this week; I found them mildly interesting:

  1. The "bison," which can weigh as much as a ton, can "race up to 40 mph, jump up to 6 feet vertically and quickly pivot," so don’t try to out run them.
  2. The "peloton" is the main group or pack of bicycle road racing riders.

Tech Friday: The inexpensive Wyze Cam now supports Alexa

Posted By on July 20, 2018

I’ve been using the Wyze Cam to keep an eye on our Florida condo for a couple of months now … and besides an issue with a low-cost router overheating, it has been excellent. I’ve been thinking about adding a second one with the adjustable viewing angle, but it is not on the high priority list.

Although I don’t have an Amazon Echo in Florida, I can see a day the “habit forming” Alexa device will be nice to have at the condo for a variety of home automation tasks.  Now that Wyze Cam is working with Alexa, there is yet another reason to set up an Echo in Florida too. If you are in need of an inexpensive security type camera, you won’t regret buying the $25 Wyse Cam.

The Wyze Cam has long been a strong contender for the best deal in connected home security. I haven’t actually tried the thing out, but Greg was “surprisingly impressed” with his hands-on time with the 1080p camera. That’s probably enough in and of itself to justify the $20 price tag.

Now the dirt-cheap camera’s getting some added features, courtesy of a software update. Starting today, owners of the Wyze Cam v2 and the $30 Wyze Cam Pan will be able to use Alexa to summon live video feeds on the Echo Show, Spot and through the Fire TV Stick (using the voice-enabled remote). Sorry, no luck for those who picked up the first-gen device. Hope that $20 camera is working out for you, otherwise.

The feature is available this week as a free update to the Alexa app. Wyze joins Ring, Arlo, Nest and Canary, along with Amazon’s own security cameras, of course. But if nothing else, its option is certainly the cheapest of the bunch. One of these and an Echo Spot will set you back $150 — not too shabby for an on-the-fly home security system.

TechCrunch

How to best give investing advice to family and friends – DON’T!

Posted By on July 19, 2018

One of the topics of conversation for me throughout the years has been investing and trading. I enjoy the research and challenge, but having made many bad picks and mistakes, also realized just how dicey this is. FrederickHoward_USAFWW2016mThis has made me sensitive when talking too specific with family and friends … even though I enjoy doing it.

About the only person I felt comfortable sharing thoughts with was my father-in-law (a photo of Fred Howard from WW2 a few years before I knew him – HA!) who made similar mistakes in his early years and adopted a more conservative approach to investing. Our back and forth in sharing research helped us build a closer relationship. It also helped that we both loved working outdoors, on houses and fixing things with our hands. He also enjoyed keeping his small business books and being treasurer for various groups — I did and do the same.

SP500_SPX180712

The purpose of this "canned" advice, or NON-advice, is that of pointing to the DALBAR effect. Read and use your own judgement:

Mostly, though, amateur traders fall victim to the DALBAR effect, named for the market research firm that tracks how dramatically individual investors underperform the stock market over time.

This happens because the small investor thinks he knows what he’s doing. So there’s lots of buying and selling.

Sweet spot

The extra effort rarely pays off. Over the 20 years ending in 2017 the S&P 500 SPX   — the broad index of large U.S. stocks — returned 7.2% a year. That return is on track to double a nest egg every 10 years.

In contrast, DALBAR finds, the average individual investor saw a return of just 2.6%. At that rate, it takes 30 years to double the balance in an investment account.

Given the risks, what do smart rich people actually do? The key is to lower your costs, be consistent in your investment process, and of course to save enough to build a nest egg in the first place. If you can manage that, there’s a solid middle ground between doing nothing and doing too much.

The sweet spot is what we call “portfolio indexing,” a form of low-cost portfolio management that harnesses the stock market’s propensity to rise over time and lets compounding do its magic.

LINK

Enjoyed watching the 2018 MLB #AllStarGame

Posted By on July 18, 2018

Usually I don’t spend (waste) too much time watching baseball until September, unless the Cincinnati Reds are having a winning season (I’m a fan of the Cleveland Indians too). But this year I’ve enjoyed watching a lot more Reds baseball even though they are in last place in their division. Perhaps I’m tired of the political news or am not into binge watching Netflix like Brenda  … or maybe it is just that I’m enjoying watching sports on the big screen on the updated home theater?

Anyway, it was a great All Star game this evening and Fox did a great job with the pre-game and mics on players during the the game. Home runs galore as both National League and American League were able to slug dingers over the wall at Nationals Park in Washington DC (5 for AL and 5 for NL = 10 HRs!). The final score ended with the AL’s 8 to the NL’s 6 in an extra inning. It looked as if they all had fun. (more…)

Our granddaughter is growing too fast and a shopping list

Posted By on July 17, 2018

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What’s happening here? Has Trump gone soft? #helsinkisummit

Posted By on July 16, 2018

HELSINKI—President Donald Trump on Monday publicly questioned U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election while standing beside Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying he “didn’t see any reason why” the finding would be true.

Mr. Trump said he and the Russian president “spent a great deal of time” discussing the matter during their four hours of talks on Monday, and said Mr. Putin “was extremely strong and powerful in his denial.”

Asked whom he believed—U.S. intelligence agencies or Mr. Putin—Mr. Trump said: “[Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me. They said, they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia.”

He added: “I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

WSJ LINK

Music Monday: Dancing Queen by ABBA from 1976

Posted By on July 16, 2018

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Typos vs speed and efficiency for emails, messaging and blogs

Posted By on July 15, 2018

Like most who spend their days using smartphones, tablets and computer devices, I’m prone to making typos along with various written communication mistakes. If you’ve read my blog a few times, you will undoubtedly notice mistakes, even if you have an untrained eye — that is because I rarely proofread.

Proofreadinggraphic

I’ve been criticized by everyone from my wife to annoyed professionals who believe if something is "published to the public," it should be as mistake free as possible. I agree, that would be nice.  I’ve debated this over the years with close friends and wonder if I should spend a little more time proofreading blog posts … as well as the quick email communication or text messaging in order to pass along information (more recently social network Tweets). After giving it a little effort, I end up with the conclusion that so long as the "intended thought" is efficiently communicated, I’m not going to waste additional time to reread or rewrite. Still, I hate being criticized and know is show a lack of professionalism (and laziness) when I should be spending a few extra minutes reviewing and correcting typos and at leas a few of the grammatical errors.

Is there is a right or wrong protocol for personal personal written communication? If it is to spend more time proofing than writing, I would likely not post as often? Some, like me argue that "communicating" is the "art of conveying information" and so long as it is clearly understood, the act is successful. Other like my wife say that it is a poor reflection on my professionalism and role as a "semi editor" when it comes to work my company publishes. Hm, she sounds correct too. As for business communication, I do put a little more effort into correcting writing, even if I still personally find it hard to devote the time on something glanced at once or twice if I’m lucky.

I tend to fall back on the original purpose of journaling — my "private paper journal" was started to make me more comfortable with earlyjournals70s80s"communicating through writing." The paper journal (40 years ago) has long given way to a daily "blog" but the writing still serves my initial purpose — write something down daily … a thought, idea, rambling letter or anything … and it will make you a better written communicator. For me, having to proofread my desultory thoughts or even Tweets, would mean spending time rereading or rewriting … and this would defeat the purpose (and reduce my ambition to write/type.) If I spent more time each day reviewing, it would become a chore and would be too easy to stop. So for those who tell me "you make too many mistakes," I’ll make a blanket apology and let you know that your critique was heard … and I will continue to try to improve.

An impressive look at planet Jupiter this week #space

Posted By on July 14, 2018

Jupiter_iPhone7plus_190710It was a great week of skywatching in our backyard in Cincinnati this week. The sun magnificently lit up planets, especially Saturn and Jupiter while Mars, Venus (the brightest) and Mercury (doubtful) remained a bit low in the sky while I was out viewing. I was purposely out for Mars, but it will have to wait for another night. "Mars is rapidly approaches Earth at an average rate of 210,000 miles per day. It nearly doubles in brightness through July and by month’s end will be at its biggest and brightest for the next 17 years." – LINK

I don’t recall ever being able to see Jupiter (photo left) so clearly with the naked eye or to ever be able to have it show up well on an iPhone photo (click photo for larger view)?

Here are also a previous posts: 
1) iPhone7plus photo of the moon,
2) a Supermoon photo when in Florida and
3) the Lumix time-lapse of the Solar Eclipse in 2017.

Tech Friday: Time for an Apple iOS 11.4.1 security update

Posted By on July 13, 2018

AppleiOS11.4.1update180710Apple has been updating their iOS iPhone and iPad mobile operating system regularly and they seem to take far longer than in the old days (a couple years ago – HAHA). This latest update will not be appreciated by law enforcement who often want to gain access to data on a suspects phone. This recent iOS 11.4.1 release is not the iOS 12 most are anxious about, but just a small update with a security feature called USB Restricted Mode.

From The Verge:

Apple has added protections against the USB devices being used by law enforcement and private companies that connect over Lightning to crack an iPhone’s passcode and evade Apple’s usual encryption safeguards.

If you go to Settings and check under Face ID (or Touch ID) & Passcode, you’ll see a new toggle for USB Accessories. By default, the switch is off. This means that once your iPhone or iPad has been locked for over an hour straight, iOS will no longer allow USB accessories to connect to the device — shutting out cracking tools like GrayKey as a result. If you’ve got accessories that you want to continue working after your iPhone has been sitting locked for awhile, you can toggle the option on to remove the hour limit.

Apple’s wording is a bit confusing. You should leave the toggle disabled if you want your iPhone to be most secure.

SettingsUSBoff

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog