Music Monday: Sunshine (go away today) by Jonathan Edwards
Posted By RichC on July 23, 2018
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Another great night for viewing our neighboring planets
Posted By RichC on July 23, 2018
The moon and Jupiter circled from my iPhone on Sunday night July 22, 2018
I have fond memories of sitting out with Katelyn when she would get out her telescope and was learning astronomy … but I do also still enjoy special nights like last night to "try" to capture the amazingly bright and large planets and moon (sometimes I wish I had a telescope but the iPhone skywatching apps are great).
Mars on the left and Jupiter with some lens refraction on the right
Sunday evening with Mars as close as ever gave a great opportunity to see the "red planet" in all of its color. Saturn at 11:30PM was sharp as could be just to the left of the 3/4 moon here in Cincinnati before the clouds moved back in. Jupiter (mentioned and photographed before) was also as bright as could be … and if it was not for bedtime, I’m sure many other celestial bodies could be check off as well. What great viewing.
Mars in all of its "red" beauty from a short Lumix video – 400mm.
Fun and frustration rigging up an old Little Tikes swing
Posted By RichC on July 22, 2018
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Storms and more storm in Ohio, but it sure looks nice up north
Posted By RichC on July 22, 2018
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Random: A couple random things I learned this week
Posted By RichC on July 21, 2018
As a filler post, a couple random or desultory tidbits crossed my path this week; I found them mildly interesting:
- 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.
- The "peloton" is the main group or pack of bicycle road racing riders.
@Jared_Max Thanks for the “word of the day” lesson on @MorningsMaria @FoxBusiness: peloton pic.twitter.com/Pj8rPPDXPW
— Rich Corbett (@RichC) July 18, 2018
Tech Friday: The inexpensive Wyze Cam now supports Alexa
Posted By RichC 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.
How to best give investing advice to family and friends – DON’T!
Posted By RichC 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. 
This 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.
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.
Enjoyed watching the 2018 MLB #AllStarGame
Posted By RichC 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 RichC on July 17, 2018
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What’s happening here? Has Trump gone soft? #helsinkisummit
Posted By RichC 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.”
Trump is never soft on an adversary, so my biggest concern is that Russia has enough dirt on @realDonaldTrump that it has @POTUS playing Mr Niceguy to Putin? pic.twitter.com/u7AKeFqlsX
— Rich Corbett (@RichC) July 16, 2018
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.