rkbabang

I have a cheap phone with Boost Mobil, prepaid. I get voice at $0.10/min and text messaging at $0.10/message. No data. I put $10 on it every few months. I might be a tech guy, but I'm cheap. I wait until I get home and use the home phone to make most calls. My cell is very rarely used. I'd say less than 10 people have the number and they know that if they call it I most likely will not answer, because I keep the ringer off. My cell phone is for me to use when I need to, not for people to get in touch with me. My wife also has a similar phone with Boost and she uses hers less than I use mine.

You might want to think about a term life policy as well. At 30 you can get a $500K-$1M, 20-30 year term policy dirt cheap and that will at least protect your family until you are 50-60 years old. That's what I did 9 years ago when I was 30. I got a $600K term policy for 30 years. If I die my wife will not invest the way I am (she has no interest in investing), but she'll also have another $600K added to our wealth immediately, which should help and give her time to figure things out. The best plan of course is not to die.

I didn't read all of these, but this one I think nailed it: <i>"If I had to identify a root-cause of Microsoft's failure, it would be its voracious business practices in the 1990s. If you are in your mid-30s or older today, you grew up under this totalitarian regime -- and you hated it. And when you had the opportunity a decade or so ago, you were on the vanguard that led x86 server build-out with Linux, not Windows. To the degree that you had to care at all about Windows on the server, virtualization assured that it was in its own little box, never again to escape. And of course, you sure as hell don't trust Microsoft now: the last thing you'd ever do is buy a Windows phone or deploy on Azure -- you are of an entire generation that won't be fooled again. And what if you're younger than that? If you're in your 20s or younger, you probably just don't care about Microsoft -- though you might not get why the older folks get so frothy about them. But know that your luxurious apathy is because an older generation considered Microsoft's offenses to be capital crimes -- and meted out punishment accordingly. Microsoft proves that in technology you can get away with being predatory for a while -- maybe even a long while -- but not forever (at least not in a free society). And once the world moves against you, those that you so aggressively bullied will cheer your demise: you will never recover until you accept that you have failed your customers and violated their trust. Very, very few technology companies have gotten to a point of such vilification and recovered (indeed, the only example I can think of is IBM)."</i> I'm in the mid-30's and older tech crowd category who would never buy a Microsoft phone or tablet, simply because it's OS is from Microsoft. Maybe I shouldn't say never, but right now I couldn't imagine me doing so.

Excellent article. Politics is indeed a violent and primitive way to address social problems. The fact that it is still employed by us as a species goes to show how far our society still needs to evolve to become the civilized beings we can and should be.

Yes, Allen is a lot less boring than Ellison. Too bad Ellon Musk isn't 10-15 times richer. He'd definitely do some interesting things if he had $35 billion to play with.

I'm hoping for a Jurassic Park.

I've never used W8, but from the screenshots and descriptions I've read it looks like a perfectly functional OS for small-touchscreen devices (i.e. tablets & phones). I think what Microsoft is about to discover is that the user interface requirements of a small-touchscreen device do not work on a larger screen w/ mouse and keyboard type device, and visa-verse. This seems like it should be obvious, but apparently Microsoft thinks they can do one GUI to fit both types of devices. I don't think it will work. Of course Microsoft could solve this problem quite easily in W8 SP1 with a choice of selectable user interfaces, similar to the different window managers that sit on top of Linux (Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, XFCE, etc). They wouldn't need 10 or 20 choices like Linux has, they would just need two. Call one Metro and the other Traditional and let the user choose the the preferred GUI for each device and even switch back and forth between them as you can in Linux. I agree with this article and others I've read, in its current form Windows 8 looks non-functional on a PC or laptop.

How about ending the insane wars and stop spending money they don't have? No, wait a minute, that makes too much sense. Governments wouldn't do that. Sorry. Continue your discussion.

Yes, that is what I am talking about. To the OS my creative Zen just looked like a portable drive which I could copy to and from. I could also connect it in Linux and copy to and from. My ipod forces me to use iTunes (which is not available for Linux). I know there are ways to get around this, but when you start hacking into it, the file names are all messed up and put in multiple subdirectories, it just isn't easy to manage. And I hate iTunes.

Apple may upgrade all of their devices to the new version, but when the older devices have the new features unavailable to them, is that not fragmentation? Is Apple fragmenting the iPhone? iPhone 4 won't get the new turn-by-turn features in iOS 6, just like it didn't get Siri. But it's still for sale, and so is the iPhone 3GS. Is Apple committing the Android sin of fragmentation, and will users rebel? "Way down in the fine print about Apple's upcoming iOS 6, you'll find a little note that says new features like Flyover and turn-by-turn directions are only available on the iPhone 4S, or the iPad 2 or higher. A note immediately below that says Siri is only available on the iPhone 4S or third-generation iPad. Since the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 are all actively for sale and still being marketed by Apple, I have to wonder: is Apple on the road to fragmenting the iOS experience? Could there come a future when not only do certain Apple apps and services run on some devices and not on others, but when this problem will start to plague third-party developers, as well? And even if app incompatibilities don't result, is Apple risking Android levels of user confusion as it continues to withhold features from its legacy -- but still for sale -- hardware?"

That’s funny I’ve never been an Apple guy and I recently bought my first Apple product. I replaced my 7 year-old Creative Zen Touch with a refurbished Apple iPod Nano for $89 I was going to buy a new Creative mp3 player, but when I saw the nano for that price (cheaper than the Zen Touch 2) and realized the new Zen players where made out of plastic. I broke down and purchased an Apple product for the first time in my life. I like the design of it, the touch screen, and the durable feel it has, but I hate the fact that I need to use iTunes to interface with it. Apple and their damn closed lock-down environments is why I have never used Apple for anything and I’ll probably go with another brand again next time. Why can’t you just drag and drop mp3’s onto it like every other mp3 player? Extremely annoying, which is too bad, because the device itself is top notch. Needless to say I won’t be getting an iPhone or Mac anytime soon.

He better be careful, Apple now owns the patent on triangles. Apple awarded patent for wedge-shape design of the MacBook Air

I have a small number of 2014 $90 calls. In 2010 before the last run-up I bought some $120 2012 calls and made out quite well even if I sold way too early (I only tripled my investment), of course if I had kept them until NFLX was over $300 It would have been the trade of a lifetime. It's a good asymmetric bet. If things get crazy again and netflix runs up in price I will make out very well again, if not I won't lose much. --Eric

Yes amazing technology in the hands of governments is a scary thing. What also scares me a little is the coming of artificial life forms. I'm not saying it should be regulated in any way (what the government does with tech like this intentionally is far more scary than what Venter might do unintentionally), but you can just see something like this having unintended consequences even with the best of intentions. Craig Venter’s Bugs Might Save the World

Criminals find baseball bats and tire-irons useful too. OMG a gun could exist without being registered in a government database! Oh the humanity! Someone need to do something! Where is the government to save us! But don't worry by the time the scare stories start hitting the press like this it is a sure bet that Chuck Schumer is already hard at work preparing legislation to squash the revolution in home/local/custom manufacturing before it even gets off the ground. The first scary thing that happens with something containing a custom made printed part, the legislation will be ready and introduced. But remember: When 3D Printers are outlawed only outlaws will have 3D Printers. The sad part though is that they will not outlaw them, just regulate the usefulness and utility out of them, or just make them so expensive to buy and/or use that they remain a curiosity used only by hobbyists. And it will all be sold to the public as "common sense regulations and protections". --Eric

Another excellent article by the same author as the last one I posted. "it’s interesting that, rather than change their ways of doing business and introducing legislation that provides incentives for productive people to come here and stay here, they maintain policies that chase people away, and introduce new ones to lock the door after they’re gone." Regardless of what the propaganda says, this is not how a free society treats people

For now. They want it though. Oh, do they want it.

Don't worry all of you who think you (or someone, anyone) has a right to this guy's money regardless of where he chooses to reside. Chuck Schumer has the solution in his "Tax Slave Act". US citizens now one step closer to becoming permanent tax slaves I'm sure you're overjoyed that there will soon be no escape. And there is even a nice ex-post-facto provision in there to get everyone who has left in the last decade. You've got to hand it to Chucky. He knows statism. He's got theft down to an artform.

Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship "Americans who give up their citizenship owe what is effectively an exit tax on the capital gains from their stock holdings, even if they don’t sell the shares, said Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at the University of Michigan’s law school. For tax purposes, the IRS treats the stock as if it has been sold. Renouncing your citizenship well in advance of an IPO is “a very smart idea,” from a tax standpoint, said Avi-Yonah. "

One way to turn your home into an investment, if this is something you really want to do, is to buy a multi-unit property and live in one of the units while renting out the others. With 3 or more units you may even be able to bring in enough rent to cover all expenses (mortgage,taxes,your utilities, etc). This way you live rent/expense-free and you are living there so you can keep a good eye on your investment property. You do need to make some sacrifices to do this though. For one, you end up living in an area that has multi-unit housing.

I don't think of my home as an investment. It can be an investment, but you'd have to look at it differently than I look at mine, so to me it isn't an investment. My first home I bought in 1997 for $132K and sold it in 2002 for $281K, so that worked out well. I put almost nothing into that home so I made out like a bandit. My second home I built in 2002/2003 and put a hell of a lot of work into it in the 8 years that I lived there. I calculated that I was into it roughly $580K and I sold it for $435K. My new home is an 18th century farm house built in 1768 with a huge barn built in the 1850's. I have chickens, rabbits, goats, and a dog. I simply couldn't have this set-up if I was renting in the city or a sub-division. I'm not sure if I'll make money in the end on this home, but I'm going to enjoy living here regardless. I can't detach myself from it and look at it unemotionally to evaluate it as if it were an investment. I love the place and that is going to color my analysis. My first home I didn't love so I was more calculating. My 2nd home and my current home I put a lot into and I enjoyed living there for reasons other than eventually making money on them. So the short answer is yes, a home can be an investment, but no they are usually not.

I'd agree that, in the U.S. anyway, Republicans are half of the problem.

How do you stay on top of the rate? I've never heard 30 yr fixed with that low rate (I'm in CA, so loan is bigger than 417K). I'm inclined to not do 7/1 if I didn't have the HELOC portion of the loan. Bankrate.com says that today's average 30 year mortgage rate is 3.8%. I'd rather refinance everything to a fixed rate than do the 7/1. I just bought a house last November and I got a 25 year fixed at 3.85%. You never know what rates will be in 7 years, nor what your situation will be in 7 years. If you have a fixed rate mortgage and rates go down you can always refinance again to a 15year mortgage or something. But, if you have the 7/1 and rates have shot way way up you could find yourself in trouble. --Eric

I remember seeing videos of this guy and his bikes years ago. He worked on the hybrid rocket engine that propelled SpaceShipOne to its X-Prize winning flights. I'm sure he can do 60mph even uphill. Leverage. Apparently he's got his daughter into rocket biking as well. Rocket Bikes http://timpickens.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/tim-pickens-riding-rocket-bike-ii-ride-584px.jpg http://timpickens.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sarah-pickens-rocket-bike-1-01.jpg I do agree with this sentiment as well.

Right now, rightly or wrongly (I'd say wrongly) people trust the USDA. They are doing what the USDA tells them to. Look at how much saturated fat consumption has dropped and polyunsaturated fat consumption has increased since the food pyramid first came out. The problem isn't that Americans aren't doing what they are told, the problem is that they ARE doing what they have been told. When I say people trust the federal government I mean doctors as well. Talk to any doctor about his training in nutrition and you will find that he took one or two courses in medical school on nutrition which pretty much taught him the USDA recommendations. In the absence of the government telling us (and our doctors) what to think, any doctor that wanted to keep current on Nutrition would actually have to keep current on topics such as nutrition. There is a flood of new research in the last 5 - 10 years that no doctor I've talked to knows anything about. Why should they? The government updated the food pyramid with the "my pyramid" and just updated that with the "my plate". They think they know all there is to know. If there was something new, surely the USDA would send them a pamphlet. Have a detailed talk with your doctor about what he knows in this area and how he knows it. Then tell me where I'm wrong. You may find a rare doctor that is interested in nutrition and does keep up to date (If you do you are lucky), but that isn't the norm. There is also liability to worry about. What if a doctor tells his patients to do exactly the opposite of the USDA recommendations and the results are not good. Would you take that chance if your livelihood depended on it? It is much easier and infinitely safer to just parrot the current government recommendations for nutrition and focus on treating illnesses when they appear. That is how they view their job. No one ever got sued for telling their patents to eat what the USDA says we should eat. That is how it works today. How would it work if there was a separation of nutrition and state. There would be no overriding authority on how to eat funded by big agra-buisness and given legitimacy by government. Therefor the current state of the science would be the only place to look. Some doctors would not keep up, some medical schools would not be current, but the situation would be a hell of a lot better than it is now. It isn't just nutrition or biochemistry, it is the same in any science, nothing should ever be considered "settled". People should know that science is an on-going process and that we don't know more than we know. They should not be given a false sense of security that the government has determined what's healthy and what isn't. People, like doctors, don't take the time to think about this simply because they don't think they have to. People really believe that the question about what to eat is all a settled matter. They believe this, because they have been told this. I have no doubt that if the government starts taxing sugar, that corn-syrup will have some immunity from the tax. Maybe they will call it a vegetable since its made out of corn. After all, how much sense does it make to subsidize the production then turn around and tax the consumption? Then again, nothing the government does has to make sense. Maybe they will increase the subsidies to reimburse the corporations for the sales lost due to the tax, screwing the tax-payers in both directions. What they will then focus on is saturated fat and cholesterol. Which means my grass-fed butter, coconut-oil, grass-fed meats, and eggs will be more expensive then they already are, and the hydrogenated vegetable oil McDonalds uses to cook its french fries will not be taxed at all. This will not solve any problems and will make things a whole hell of a lot worse. It will cost me more, but I will still be able to eat a healthy diet, like everything the government does in all areas of our economy, its effects on the poor will be devastating.