Show notes/transcript for Minute Tech 27:
27 - What is touch-screen glass?
- Apple's iPhone sells 10,000 units in Germany;
- What is touch-screen glass?
- Pittsburgh computer companies; Semi-Coherent Computing podcast.
Good morning, this is the Minute Tech podcast -
coming to you for Saturday and Sunday, November 10th & 11th, 2007
We take a few minutes to talk about technology
----
This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 27 - What is touch-screen glass?
Tech items:
Apple iphone sells some 10,000 phones friday in Germany. much speculation that as the German population is 1/4 the US population
phones being sold through t-mobiles stores in germany
what is wplug? western pennsylvania linux users group
founded in fall of 1997 with Jeremy Dinsel, of California university of pennsylvania
Red Hat released Fedora 8, the free version of Red Hat's Linux product, this past week.
Ryan Paul at Ars Technica references the PulseAudio sound daemon as the most impressive feature
Tech Question:
what is touch screen glass?
Apple's iphone and ipod touch uses a scratch resistant glass surface, with a subsurface that detects the users electric field and responds with screen interaction.
wikipedia describes several techonologies that can be associated with a touch screen interface: the Capacitive touch screen panel of the iPhone and iPod touch have a coating that carries a continuous charge that detects touches by unshield human touch, since the human body had a slight electric field (that's how signals get from your fingertips to your central nervous system).
other touch screen technologies:
An infrared surface might either detect thermal interaction with the screen or disturbance of vertical and horizontal light beams.
a SAW or surface acoustic wave technology detects the disturbance of a sound wave that's passed over a surface.
A resistive touch screen has several layers which include electrically conductive and resistive layers, separated by a thin space - when the two layers come in contact, the resulting electrical charge provides the interface.
in related technology, a graphics tablet uses a grid system to transmit coordinates to a receiving circuit in the pen, identifying location information on the tablet, useful for artist to simulate painting or drawing.
podcasting/blogging tidbit:
Attended a pre-wedding party for a lucky Pittsburgh couple at a local Dave and Buster's facility - the attendee's were a sort of who's who of the local university computing establishment. Some of the people I met work at a local software company called Sherpa software - they produce e-mail management systems for MS Exchange and Lotus Notes - their motto is "Your guide to email terrain".
Of two other couples we interacted with, one is associated with IBM via their Almaden research facility in San Jose, CA, and the other with Seagate technology in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, because of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt, has become an interesting computer company town, with offices for Seagate, Apple, Intel and Google, as relatively recent startups like Panasas.
The Register, a British Internet-based technology newspaper, has a podcast called semi-coherent computing, by Ashlee Vance, interview with Dave Patterson
Talking about Dave's history of studying RISC & multicore processing, as a well as his authorship of paper at Berkeley in 1985, with Garth Gibson of Panasas, the seminal paper on RAID storage architecture.
How to make computing more powerefficient, and how many multi-cores to add to pcs? When will software writers say enough cores are enough? And when they do cry uncle, will that stop meaningful software development....or is the accumulation of multi-cores just another facet of Moore's law?
- Apple's iPhone sells 10,000 units in Germany;
- What is touch-screen glass?
- Pittsburgh computer companies; Semi-Coherent Computing podcast.
Go to the Minute Tech iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
phyllostachys 42.25: Minute Tech 025
Minute Tech 003 - What is a Tool?
Show notes/transcript:
25 - What is glass to a modern human?
Good morning, this is the Minute Tech podcast -
coming to you for Thursday, November 8th, 2007
We take a few minutes to talk about technology
----
This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 25 - What is glass to a modern human?
Tech items:
Don't Panic was written in big friendly letters on the front of what travel guide?
Okay, here's my panic item. I'm afraid as to what this podcast could turn into.
You see, one of my minor obsessions (a liberal arts major can have many) is the stock market.
Within the stock market, I'm a tech stock junkie.
My maternal ancestor has asked me for the past 36 months if I have any hot tips...and all I could say was "Apple Computer".
So, please beware....if I'm talking up a company...I could well be long that company, and singing its praises.
By the way, I don't, as yet, sell short on companies - I can stomach risk....but I'm not yet ready for that much risk. I take Rothschilds suggestion to buy at the sound of cannon...but not to extremes...though it's at the extremes where the most return can be had.
So, the best way to deal with this type of obsession is to feel around the edges of it. A tech podcast might be a good start, as long as it doesn't focus on tech stocks, but on technology in general. Will you forgive me if I periodically sink into investing as a topic?
tech question:
Okay, if yesterday's litany of the methods of glass manufacture over the centuries wasn't boring, I have a 1963 version of the Encyclopeaedia Brittanica you could read next.
What am I really trying to say about glass here?
Its an incredible technological item...one of the easiest things to take for granted. Window glass, eye-glasses, light-bulbs, automobile headlights, traffic signals, computer screens, for which alternatives to glass are constantly being sought. Where will it stop?
My chief concern, which is probably a non-concern is: how would we cope if our way of life came to a standstill? Think about it. I guess with our just-in-time method of food production and delivery, we'd all starve before we could worry about replacing broken window glass, so why worry.
My other concern is a love. I know, i know...love is not a "fact", its a feeling...and feeling are what make this earth, for humans at any rate, really spin. Facts are for the Mr. Gratgrinds of the world....a nod to Charles Dickens.
The love is for Art glass. Art glass is glass produced for the purpose of enjoying looking at the shape, color or texture of the glass rather than using it for any particular utilitarian purpose. Hopefully more on this tomorrow, if I'm able to get a special guest to tell us what lampwork glass is for.
Suffice it to say, Dale Chihuly's work is out of this world....and yet, so much a part of it.
podcasting/blogging tidbit:
Seesmic is something new.
Pistachio, a.k.a "Laura Athavale Fitton" of Pistachio Consulting, has been twittering of late of her trip to India and filming gigs there. Several times in her short sub-140-character posts she mentions the word "seesmic". Okay, what is that?
google it. Seesmic is another San Francisco web startup, which is a purveyor of video content. Check out their web page, which had video's documenting the startup of their company. One of the interesting items on the blog of founder Loic Le Meur is about his recent visit to the White House to meet President Bush during a reception for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The idea of Seesmic being a video version of twitter comes to life as Mr. Le Meur details the buildup to the visit, with an over-arching question: if you were to spend 30 seconds with Pres. Bush, what, honestly would you say or ask? Very interesting question.
Show notes/transcript:
25 - What is glass to a modern human?
Good morning, this is the Minute Tech podcast -
coming to you for Thursday, November 8th, 2007
We take a few minutes to talk about technology
----
This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 25 - What is glass to a modern human?
Tech items:
Don't Panic was written in big friendly letters on the front of what travel guide?
Okay, here's my panic item. I'm afraid as to what this podcast could turn into.
You see, one of my minor obsessions (a liberal arts major can have many) is the stock market.
Within the stock market, I'm a tech stock junkie.
My maternal ancestor has asked me for the past 36 months if I have any hot tips...and all I could say was "Apple Computer".
So, please beware....if I'm talking up a company...I could well be long that company, and singing its praises.
By the way, I don't, as yet, sell short on companies - I can stomach risk....but I'm not yet ready for that much risk. I take Rothschilds suggestion to buy at the sound of cannon...but not to extremes...though it's at the extremes where the most return can be had.
So, the best way to deal with this type of obsession is to feel around the edges of it. A tech podcast might be a good start, as long as it doesn't focus on tech stocks, but on technology in general. Will you forgive me if I periodically sink into investing as a topic?
tech question:
Okay, if yesterday's litany of the methods of glass manufacture over the centuries wasn't boring, I have a 1963 version of the Encyclopeaedia Brittanica you could read next.
What am I really trying to say about glass here?
Its an incredible technological item...one of the easiest things to take for granted. Window glass, eye-glasses, light-bulbs, automobile headlights, traffic signals, computer screens, for which alternatives to glass are constantly being sought. Where will it stop?
My chief concern, which is probably a non-concern is: how would we cope if our way of life came to a standstill? Think about it. I guess with our just-in-time method of food production and delivery, we'd all starve before we could worry about replacing broken window glass, so why worry.
My other concern is a love. I know, i know...love is not a "fact", its a feeling...and feeling are what make this earth, for humans at any rate, really spin. Facts are for the Mr. Gratgrinds of the world....a nod to Charles Dickens.
The love is for Art glass. Art glass is glass produced for the purpose of enjoying looking at the shape, color or texture of the glass rather than using it for any particular utilitarian purpose. Hopefully more on this tomorrow, if I'm able to get a special guest to tell us what lampwork glass is for.
Suffice it to say, Dale Chihuly's work is out of this world....and yet, so much a part of it.
podcasting/blogging tidbit:
Seesmic is something new.
Pistachio, a.k.a "Laura Athavale Fitton" of Pistachio Consulting, has been twittering of late of her trip to India and filming gigs there. Several times in her short sub-140-character posts she mentions the word "seesmic". Okay, what is that?
google it. Seesmic is another San Francisco web startup, which is a purveyor of video content. Check out their web page, which had video's documenting the startup of their company. One of the interesting items on the blog of founder Loic Le Meur is about his recent visit to the White House to meet President Bush during a reception for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The idea of Seesmic being a video version of twitter comes to life as Mr. Le Meur details the buildup to the visit, with an over-arching question: if you were to spend 30 seconds with Pres. Bush, what, honestly would you say or ask? Very interesting question.
phyllostachys 42.4: Minute Tech 004
Minute Tech 004 - What is a Document?
Show notes/transcript:
Hello, this is the Minute Tech podcast -
coming to you on Saturday & Sunday, October 12th & 13th, 2007
We take a few minutes to talk about technology
This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 4 - what constitutes a document?
004 - document - what constitutes a document?
tech news - Youtube, one of many online video sites, having been gobbled up by the Google (the new Borg?), can be both a source of entertainment and a source of learning. Periodically, though I might troll the site for vids of lego figurines engaged in light-saber duels and going to pieces over their day-to-day anxieties, I've also used Youtube to variously catch up on the news surrounding Bungie's new game Halo 3, and solidify my recent learning of wu style tai chi. My teacher won't yet let me include him in video documentary....but many others have done so for posterity's sake.
Youtube:
Lego figurines
Bungie's Halo 3
Wu Style Tai Chi
tech question - What constitutes a document?
A document (noun) is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate.
A document. A collection of words: a letter, a recipe, an agreement, a newspaper, a pamphlet, a sign, a chart, a map (insofar as it includes words in key's, indexes, etc.)
you can create a document with paper and pencil, pen, quill or crayon, or on the computer you can use everything from a basic text editor such as vi on Linux, Edit on ms-dos, Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac, to publishing programs such as Quark, Pagemaker, or Apple's new Pages program.
podcasting tidbit: Listening to podcasts is a similar activity to reading a paper or magazine, or watching your favorite shows on the one-eyed baby sitter: you can pass away the time with aimless talk (many tech podcasts have "after-shows" which are far more entertaining than the show content), or you can find extremely on-point information for your interest areas. One such podcast, John Foster's Beer School, initially sounds like aimless conversation...but suddenly the tun's of information jump out at you, if you're in a receptive mindset, and sends you scurrying to google, wikipedia and the local library for further information on the arts of beer-making and the horticultural aspects of grains, hops and yeasts.
Show notes:
Tech item - we discuss the uses of Youtube: watching vids on Lego figurines, Bungie's Halo 3, and Wu Style Tai Chi
Tech question: What constitutes a document?
Podcasting: podcasts can be aimless, or highly directional - in this way, they are similar to the media forms that preceed them: newspapers, magazines & television.
Show notes/transcript:
Hello, this is the Minute Tech podcast -
coming to you on Saturday & Sunday, October 12th & 13th, 2007
We take a few minutes to talk about technology
This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 4 - what constitutes a document?
004 - document - what constitutes a document?
tech news - Youtube, one of many online video sites, having been gobbled up by the Google (the new Borg?), can be both a source of entertainment and a source of learning. Periodically, though I might troll the site for vids of lego figurines engaged in light-saber duels and going to pieces over their day-to-day anxieties, I've also used Youtube to variously catch up on the news surrounding Bungie's new game Halo 3, and solidify my recent learning of wu style tai chi. My teacher won't yet let me include him in video documentary....but many others have done so for posterity's sake.
Youtube:
Lego figurines
Bungie's Halo 3
Wu Style Tai Chi
tech question - What constitutes a document?
A document (noun) is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate.
A document. A collection of words: a letter, a recipe, an agreement, a newspaper, a pamphlet, a sign, a chart, a map (insofar as it includes words in key's, indexes, etc.)
you can create a document with paper and pencil, pen, quill or crayon, or on the computer you can use everything from a basic text editor such as vi on Linux, Edit on ms-dos, Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac, to publishing programs such as Quark, Pagemaker, or Apple's new Pages program.
podcasting tidbit: Listening to podcasts is a similar activity to reading a paper or magazine, or watching your favorite shows on the one-eyed baby sitter: you can pass away the time with aimless talk (many tech podcasts have "after-shows" which are far more entertaining than the show content), or you can find extremely on-point information for your interest areas. One such podcast, John Foster's Beer School, initially sounds like aimless conversation...but suddenly the tun's of information jump out at you, if you're in a receptive mindset, and sends you scurrying to google, wikipedia and the local library for further information on the arts of beer-making and the horticultural aspects of grains, hops and yeasts.
Show notes:
Tech item - we discuss the uses of Youtube: watching vids on Lego figurines, Bungie's Halo 3, and Wu Style Tai Chi
Tech question: What constitutes a document?
Podcasting: podcasts can be aimless, or highly directional - in this way, they are similar to the media forms that preceed them: newspapers, magazines & television.
phyllostachys 42.3: Minute Tech 003
Minute Tech 003 - What is a Tool?
Show notes/transcript:
003 - Minute Tech 3 - What is a Tool?
tech news - iphone approved apps
http://www.apple.com/webapps/productivity/
reQall - the real question here, despite the cool app: when will they IPO?
tech question - what is a tool? screwdriver, hammer, personal computer, Mainframe computer, calculator, a stick for drawing ants out of ant-hills? Ask your 5-year-old what a tool is - stretch their imagination with this one!
podcasting tidbit -
Do you have a Favorite blog or blogger?
Two who are frequently linked to from finance.yahoo.com
Seeking alpha -
the brazen careerist - is your image hurting your career?
Two insightful Pittsburgh women are putting software reviews and observations together on two blogs
themacmuse.blogspot.com posts about hardware and software - see her rebate code for the Drobo USB storage device!
LyriqueTragedy.blogspot.com posts about writing, education, books and life.
Show notes/transcript:
003 - Minute Tech 3 - What is a Tool?
tech news - iphone approved apps
http://www.apple.com/webapps/productivity/
reQall - the real question here, despite the cool app: when will they IPO?
tech question - what is a tool? screwdriver, hammer, personal computer, Mainframe computer, calculator, a stick for drawing ants out of ant-hills? Ask your 5-year-old what a tool is - stretch their imagination with this one!
podcasting tidbit -
Do you have a Favorite blog or blogger?
Two who are frequently linked to from finance.yahoo.com
Seeking alpha -
the brazen careerist - is your image hurting your career?
Two insightful Pittsburgh women are putting software reviews and observations together on two blogs
themacmuse.blogspot.com posts about hardware and software - see her rebate code for the Drobo USB storage device!
LyriqueTragedy.blogspot.com posts about writing, education, books and life.
phyllostachys 42.2: Minute Tech 002
Minute Tech 002 - What is a blog?
Show notes/transcript:
002 - blog/vlog - what does blog mean?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
tech news - RAID - the old acronym for redundant array of inexpensive disks is being redefined, in a sense: Panasas, Inc is releasing an extension to the RAID paradigm that they call Tiered Parity Architecture. go to www.panasas.com for mroe info
tech question - what is a blog? a web log, a place to write your daily, weekly or just periodic thoughts, ideas, plans, gripes, etc.
podcasting tidbit: MacCast PME episode, along with various blog snippets from Chris Brogan and Christopher Penn, are the influences for my creating this podcast. If you have something you can say, take the initiative to say, say it well and say it enthusiastically.
Show notes/transcript:
002 - blog/vlog - what does blog mean?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
tech news - RAID - the old acronym for redundant array of inexpensive disks is being redefined, in a sense: Panasas, Inc is releasing an extension to the RAID paradigm that they call Tiered Parity Architecture. go to www.panasas.com for mroe info
tech question - what is a blog? a web log, a place to write your daily, weekly or just periodic thoughts, ideas, plans, gripes, etc.
podcasting tidbit: MacCast PME episode, along with various blog snippets from Chris Brogan and Christopher Penn, are the influences for my creating this podcast. If you have something you can say, take the initiative to say, say it well and say it enthusiastically.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
phyllostachys 42.1 - Minute Tech 001 show notes
This commences the posting of show notes for the Minute Tech podcast.
001 - word processing - a person or a software program?
Wednesday, October 10
tech news - the ipod dev team "update"
tech question - word processor - the person and the software
podcasting tidbit: marketing over coffee
001 - word processing - a person or a software program?
Wednesday, October 10
tech news - the ipod dev team "update"
tech question - word processor - the person and the software
podcasting tidbit: marketing over coffee
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Phyllostachys 41: Minute Tech podcast
When creating a daily podcast, do you really shoot for 7 days a week or 5? I haven't decided yet. But, I do like talking about all sorts of technology: current news, the elements of technology, answering people's questions, and reviewing blogging and podcasting.
Check out the Minute Tech podcast.
..phyllostachys.
Check out the Minute Tech podcast.
..phyllostachys.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Phyllostachys 40: 24HCM2 Interview with Joe DeFerrari
One of the 24 Hour Creative Marathon's sponsors is an interesting organization called Unicorn Mountain. Unicorn Mountain's creator, Joe DeFerrari was present for and active in the 24 hour marathon. Logos.Blip.TV talks with Joe about his artwork, the marathon, Unicorn Mountain and Pittsburgh.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Phyllostachys 39 - Rachel Sager @ the 24 Hour Creative Marathon
24 Hour Creative Marathon: some come to create, some come to sustain themselves on caffeine for 24 hours, some come as organizers and others come to creatively document what the others are doing. Rachel Sager had attended the first 24 hour Creative Marathon earlier in 2007, and came to the second to push along the creative impulse - a constant challenge for all of us.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Phyllostachys 38 - 24hcm2 Interview with Kelly Andreson
Logos.blip.tv's first brush with Kelly was as the instigator of artistic creation by Mike and John...but Kelly's intensely focused painting of surrealistic & slightly macabre scenes captures the videographers camera...and imagination.
..phyllostachys.
..phyllostachys.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Phyllostachys 37 - Mike Woycheck & John Carman at the Creative Marathon
Mike and John came to the Creative Marathon to provide support and assistance...never suspecting that they'd be "encouraged" to by creative. Well, encouraged they were, and create they did. Although they expect that art dealers from Coruscant will swoop down and pay thousands of Republic credits for their respective works of art...they also were just having fun putting hands into messy, messy paint! :-)
Phyllostachys 36 - Creative Marathon Interview with Michael Fulk
Michael Fulk is working on ideas for the Creative Marathon - some of us enter the room full of inspiration, and some, like both Michael and me, must work at drawing inspiration out of the energy flowing through the room. Michael is a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh; he currently macro-blogs from blog.mfulk.com and micro-blogs as minkar.
Phyllostachys 35 - Creative Marathon Interview with Josh Sager
Sitting at the 2nd 24 Hour Creative Marathon's registration desk, coaxing the likeness of a robot out of a gessoed canvas with his paints, Josh Sager is able to greet guests, drink Burn soda, talk with artists and converse with his muses all at the same time. With multitasking like that, you'd think even an artist would wilt by the wee hours of the morning...but Josh was still going strong:
..phyllostachys.
..phyllostachys.
phyllostachys 34 - Creative Marathon
The 2nd 24 Hour Creative Marathon is upon us, and the artists are in full swing. They've come, they've seen, and they either painted, drew, blogged, twittered, video'd or...slept in preparation for the upcoming daylight, during which they'll each perform according to their artiste muses.
After a long work day yesterday, I picked up my wife near her place of work, at midnight, Friday, Sept 28th, and we drove on over to Bellevue, PA's Creative Treehouse. My goal for the evening was to talk with the artists and entice a few to allow me to interview them on-camera. This morning's first video is an overview of the scenes from last night and of the various people with whom I spoke. There, amidst the cacophony of music playing & people talking in a large, open room...several people slept in preparation for the final leg of the Creative Marathon.
..phyllostachys.
After a long work day yesterday, I picked up my wife near her place of work, at midnight, Friday, Sept 28th, and we drove on over to Bellevue, PA's Creative Treehouse. My goal for the evening was to talk with the artists and entice a few to allow me to interview them on-camera. This morning's first video is an overview of the scenes from last night and of the various people with whom I spoke. There, amidst the cacophony of music playing & people talking in a large, open room...several people slept in preparation for the final leg of the Creative Marathon.
..phyllostachys.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
phyllostachys thirty-one: DJ G of The G SPOD
This interview is the twelfth in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. DJ G is the host and co-producer of Pittsburgh's G Spod podcast: "dj G brings you the real queer folks from Liberty Ave and beyond." With co-producer John Carman, DJ G is also a sponsor of Podcamp Pittsburgh 2.
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2)is was a FREE BarCamp-style community UnConference for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization.
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2)
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-nine: Norman Huelsman
This interview is the eleventh in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. Norman, along with Justin Kownacki, Jia Ji and others, was a co-organizer of Podcamp Pittsburgh 2, and Bootcamp Pittsburgh in April, 2007, both of which were held at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Monday, September 03, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-eight: Chris Thorn
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2) is was a FREE BarCamp-style community UnConference for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization.
This interview is the tenth in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. Chris is a local Pittsburgh podcaster: he and his friends Dave and Rob podcast weekly a news-of-the-world show titled "That's Good to Know" -- with minor focuses on the comics and podcasting industries. Chris can be found posting, under the aegis of That's Good to Know, at his Blogger and MySpace pages:
This interview is the tenth in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. Chris is a local Pittsburgh podcaster: he and his friends Dave and Rob podcast weekly a news-of-the-world show titled "That's Good to Know" -- with minor focuses on the comics and podcasting industries. Chris can be found posting, under the aegis of That's Good to Know, at his Blogger and MySpace pages:
Sunday, September 02, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-seven: Mike Sorg
This interview is the ninth in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. Mike Sorg podcasts locally through Wrestling Mayhem Show (wrestlingmayhemshow.com) and produces interviews through Western Pa Juggalos (westernpajuggalos.com).
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2)is was a FREE BarCamp-style community UnConference for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization.
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2)
Saturday, September 01, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-six: Grace Piper
This interview is the eighth in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. Grace Piper is the Director of Production for the nascent Devour.tv and has been producing the Fearless Cooking vidcast, at FearlessCooking.tv -- "I READ COOKBOOKS THE WAY SOME WOMEN READ ROMANCE NOVELS":
Friday, August 31, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-five: Joan Dickerson
This interview is the seventh in a series of short interviews by Alex Landefeld of fellow attendee's and presenters at PCPGH2. Joan Dickerson is a local Pittsburgh digital artist, a nascent podcaster and a recent member of the Pixel Corps.
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2)is was a FREE BarCamp-style community UnConference for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization.
PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 (PCPGH2)
Thursday, August 30, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-four: David Tessitor
David Tessitor, of pghfree.net, is an Allegheny County Council-at-large candidate. David has a long history of organizational and political involvement in the Pittsburgh region and is partaking in his second Podcamp Pittsburgh event, the first having been the PGH Bootcamp in April, 2007:
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
phyllostachys twenty-three: Melissa & Michael
Melissa Robison, of MyDesignSelfStudy, and Michael Domingo, of Nante Koto: Online Dating Misadventures Podcast, gracefully consented to an interview at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 on Sunday, August 19th:
Sunday, August 26, 2007
phyllostachys twenty two: Tommy Vallier
Tommy describes himself thusly on Twitter: "Bio: Web developer, podcaster in training, general web geek. I live online when I can... I mean really, why not?".
Now, take a green frog, tie-dye rainbows, dv-camera-toting podcasters, free coffee and breakfast treats, sessions teaching all from branding to recording, and copious after-dinner drinks, and you have a great recipe for a podcasting conference with a little bit of Tommy Vallier mixed in.
The interview with Tommy represents the fourth in a series of eleven Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 interviews to be posted to Alex Landefeld's logos [dot] Blip [dot] tv videoblog site. Check out the previous three, presenting from first to third: Mark Rauterkus, Steve Brady and Richard Horn.
Noticing a severe misrepresentation in his interviewing for such a broad-based event as Podcamp Pittsburgh 2, Alex resolved to interview more women on his second day of shooting...and that's what he did, as we shall see from the next round of interviews to be posted.
Tommy Vallier's interview:
..phyllostachys.
Now, take a green frog, tie-dye rainbows, dv-camera-toting podcasters, free coffee and breakfast treats, sessions teaching all from branding to recording, and copious after-dinner drinks, and you have a great recipe for a podcasting conference with a little bit of Tommy Vallier mixed in.
The interview with Tommy represents the fourth in a series of eleven Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 interviews to be posted to Alex Landefeld's logos [dot] Blip [dot] tv videoblog site. Check out the previous three, presenting from first to third: Mark Rauterkus, Steve Brady and Richard Horn.
Noticing a severe misrepresentation in his interviewing for such a broad-based event as Podcamp Pittsburgh 2, Alex resolved to interview more women on his second day of shooting...and that's what he did, as we shall see from the next round of interviews to be posted.
Tommy Vallier's interview:
..phyllostachys.
Monday, August 20, 2007
phyllostachys twentyone: Happy Birthday, Norm!
Everyone at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 wishes Norm Happy Birthday. Without his invaluable enthusiasm and assistance, we'd be podcamping in Point State Park! ;-)
..phyllostachys.
..phyllostachys.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
phyllostachys nineteen: Podcamp Pittsburgh 2!
My weeks are defined in part by my long driving commute...and my driving commute is made more endurable by the podcasts I listen to. Listening to the twit.tv, pixelcorps.tv, maccast and venturecast podcasts have been most entertaining and educational...and have encouraged me in part to join the pixelcorps.com community. Searching on iTunes this past week for "investing" turned up a few new ones of interest. I listen on an iPod Shuffle, 2nd Gen - I like simplicity in my technology. :-)
Here's this weeks listing, with parenthetical notes on frequency:
The Index Investing Show (new)
this WEEK in TECH - AAC Edition - TWiT 109 (weekly)
this WEEK in MEDIA 65 - Hello Doctor Quest... (weekly)
PodcasterNews: The Engaging Brand - Show 102 - Engaging Communities (periodically)
MacBreak Tech: Living with the Finder (new)
Marketing over Coffee Marketing Podcast (weekly)
The Index Investing Show (new)
NYT: David Pogue - 8/2/07 - (periodically)
Options Insider Radio: Ep. 7 (new)
Options Insider Radio: Ep. 6 (new)
Options Insider Radio: Ep. 5 (new)
Review Notes:
- the Index Investing Show is interesting - very focused on diversification, which is always good.
- the MacBreak Tech show is a very good overview of Finder, with Jon Foster and Ben Durbin of PXC.
- Options Insider Radio is very good, especially for an options newbie like me. Very good intro to the industry. New podcast (8 episodes).
- Anna Farmery's Engaging Brand is always a Must Listen...and this one tops the list! Great interview.
- David is a long time friend, so it's cool to see how well he review's tech. Cool overview of IP telephony.
See you at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2, today! :-)
..Alex.
Here's this weeks listing, with parenthetical notes on frequency:
The Index Investing Show (new)
this WEEK in TECH - AAC Edition - TWiT 109 (weekly)
this WEEK in MEDIA 65 - Hello Doctor Quest... (weekly)
PodcasterNews: The Engaging Brand - Show 102 - Engaging Communities (periodically)
MacBreak Tech: Living with the Finder (new)
Marketing over Coffee Marketing Podcast (weekly)
The Index Investing Show (new)
NYT: David Pogue - 8/2/07 - (periodically)
Options Insider Radio: Ep. 7 (new)
Options Insider Radio: Ep. 6 (new)
Options Insider Radio: Ep. 5 (new)
Review Notes:
- the Index Investing Show is interesting - very focused on diversification, which is always good.
- the MacBreak Tech show is a very good overview of Finder, with Jon Foster and Ben Durbin of PXC.
- Options Insider Radio is very good, especially for an options newbie like me. Very good intro to the industry. New podcast (8 episodes).
- Anna Farmery's Engaging Brand is always a Must Listen...and this one tops the list! Great interview.
- David is a long time friend, so it's cool to see how well he review's tech. Cool overview of IP telephony.
See you at Podcamp Pittsburgh 2, today! :-)
..Alex.
Monday, August 06, 2007
phyllostachys eighteen: phone vs. phone
Googlephone vs. the iPhone? Are you kidding?
I've seen some interesting comparisons in my time...but this is like comparing a skateboard to a Toyota Camry - they both travel the same highway...but one provides access to markets the other doesn't.
If people are still looking at the iPhone as, well, a "phone", they're way missing the bigger picture: iTunes, YouTube, oodles of customers walking through iMac and Macbook-laden Apple Stores, non-Apple users getting used to Apple's flawless product development strategies. The iPhone is so not just a phone - it's an introduction to a whole product cycle - it's so more of a "halo" product than Saturn's Sky or Pontaic's Solstice...or even Microsoft's Halo 1st, 2nd and third generation games, which were designed to win folks over to the Xbox.
Still think Googlephone is an Apple competitor? :-)
..phyllostachys.
I've seen some interesting comparisons in my time...but this is like comparing a skateboard to a Toyota Camry - they both travel the same highway...but one provides access to markets the other doesn't.
If people are still looking at the iPhone as, well, a "phone", they're way missing the bigger picture: iTunes, YouTube, oodles of customers walking through iMac and Macbook-laden Apple Stores, non-Apple users getting used to Apple's flawless product development strategies. The iPhone is so not just a phone - it's an introduction to a whole product cycle - it's so more of a "halo" product than Saturn's Sky or Pontaic's Solstice...or even Microsoft's Halo 1st, 2nd and third generation games, which were designed to win folks over to the Xbox.
Still think Googlephone is an Apple competitor? :-)
..phyllostachys.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
phyllostachys seventeen: Podcamp Pittsburgh 2
So, inevitably, with PodcampPittsburgh2 weeks away, I feel a podcast comin' on!
I've been somewhat focused on the fascination of "podfade"...and I've allowed time and the summer...and procrastination...to cause my own podfade with MinuteLit and MinuteLit Tech. Well, no more!
First some blogging/linking, though:
I check google news daily for Apple, and found this interesting story about the new Scion xB.
Podcamp Pittsburgh2 is coming soon to an Art Intstitute near you! (As long as you live in Western Pennsylvania! ;-)
I've been doing a one-up-style vid-cast called Logos, at Logos.blip.tv. This is a vid cast about Words...and the most recent Word was Vacation. We went south from Pittsburgh to the Shenandoah valley region of Virginia, visited a vineyard or two and spent some time reading, filming and surfing - water this time, not the net!
I've been lisening to lots of podcasts in the past week or so, after finishing JK Rowlings latest wrap-up masterpiece. MacBreak Weekly, This Week in Media, This Week in Tech, MacCast, CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks, Marketing over Coffee, The M-Show, VentureCast, VentureVoice...and much, much more! Whew. Those guys (and gals). Leo LaPorte, Alex Lindsey, Kenji Kato (sp?), Craig Syverson, David Hornick, John Dvorak, etc. All current tech news, all very good tech know-how. All this banter actually go me interested in Pixelcorps, whose online training/community I joined for the summer...and hopefully beyond. Digital tech is, well, enthralling. Thank you, Killashandra Ree! :-)
Saw on slashdot Friday this thought provoking article: New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions. Very interesting. For those of you who follow science theory/fact, this makes me speculate that those finding extra-solar planets will begin in earnest searching out those planets which perhaps don't have the same galaxy-style wobble that the Sol system has, in the hope of identifying a longer-live species environment. Do you agree? Disagree?
That's it for now. The next thing I was going to talk about was Options...for background on that, check out my logos.blip.tv videos!
ttyl,
..phyllostachys.
I've been somewhat focused on the fascination of "podfade"...and I've allowed time and the summer...and procrastination...to cause my own podfade with MinuteLit and MinuteLit Tech. Well, no more!
First some blogging/linking, though:
I check google news daily for Apple, and found this interesting story about the new Scion xB.
Podcamp Pittsburgh2 is coming soon to an Art Intstitute near you! (As long as you live in Western Pennsylvania! ;-)
I've been doing a one-up-style vid-cast called Logos, at Logos.blip.tv. This is a vid cast about Words...and the most recent Word was Vacation. We went south from Pittsburgh to the Shenandoah valley region of Virginia, visited a vineyard or two and spent some time reading, filming and surfing - water this time, not the net!
I've been lisening to lots of podcasts in the past week or so, after finishing JK Rowlings latest wrap-up masterpiece. MacBreak Weekly, This Week in Media, This Week in Tech, MacCast, CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks, Marketing over Coffee, The M-Show, VentureCast, VentureVoice...and much, much more! Whew. Those guys (and gals). Leo LaPorte, Alex Lindsey, Kenji Kato (sp?), Craig Syverson, David Hornick, John Dvorak, etc. All current tech news, all very good tech know-how. All this banter actually go me interested in Pixelcorps, whose online training/community I joined for the summer...and hopefully beyond. Digital tech is, well, enthralling. Thank you, Killashandra Ree! :-)
Saw on slashdot Friday this thought provoking article: New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions. Very interesting. For those of you who follow science theory/fact, this makes me speculate that those finding extra-solar planets will begin in earnest searching out those planets which perhaps don't have the same galaxy-style wobble that the Sol system has, in the hope of identifying a longer-live species environment. Do you agree? Disagree?
That's it for now. The next thing I was going to talk about was Options...for background on that, check out my logos.blip.tv videos!
ttyl,
..phyllostachys.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
phyllostachys sixteen: LibraryThing.com
My journey was quite typical for me: starting at news.google.com, I linked to the science pages, on which I found a link to a company doing quantum computing. So, I next googled the company's website, read through the main page - the company is really building a quantum computer...if ever there was a push to Verner Vinge's Singularity, this has got to be it! ;-)
About half way down the page there's a link that reads "D-Wave, in the Founder's Words" -- "Dr. Geordie Rose speaks out on a wide range of topics, including the media myths and misconceptions about quantum computing." Interestingly, you don't see many links on a company's website that link off to another location, so this must be interesting.
Personal blog pages are becoming something of a resume on the web, but I've never seen a link to a person's favorite list of books. Dr. Rose had a link that said, under the heading "Geordie's Books", there was a link to something called "My LibraryThing". I mean, books are sooooo 19th century, aren't they??? Intrigued (as I am about books generally, anyways), I linked on over to this strange term labelled "LibraryThing".
Linking, hypertextually across the web, is how I learn many new things. That's why I love using finance.yahoo.com - there are so many great tidbits of information...and so many links to new and different ways of organizing all that information. With Googles' new News search utility, I don't need a "news aggregator" separate from news.google.com...it is my news aggregator. I look through the top news section, link over to Business, or Science, and if I don't see anything interesting, I type in a search term, such as "Apple", after which you'll see all sorts of news (or blog posts, linked to at the bottom) about the iPhone, Cisco's friendly battle about tradenames...and sometimes something like "there's a bad apple in every workplace", a sociological piece about working with others.
So, imagine my surprise, not knowing what to expect, when LibraryThing turns out to be a way for people to list the books they own, and do reviews on some or all of those books. Okay, that's simple. My spouse uses something call Readerware, where you can scan in the ISBN bar code, and Readerware will link out to some web site and download the entire meta information, as well as recent sale prices. Naturally, if you're posting your books on the web, you want to sell them, right?
Not so at LibraryThing. This, as it turns out, is a social website, one of the new breed of internet sites, a la Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, etc. Once you've entered in a book, either by ISBN, Library of Congress number, or just a portion of the title, you're presented first with a list of matching titles -- there may be different editions, publish dates, types of media (book, audio, dvd), or people may have entered the title information differently. Once you click on a title that looks correct....it pops into your list of recently added titles. Then LibraryThing's internal programming takes over, and on your profile page you see lists of other LibraryThing users who similarly have the same books as you do in their personal library. Now, on the surface, that's just interesting. But...thinking socially, if someone collects (and presumably) reads books similar to your own, perhaps there are other similarities. Do you see where this is going? Myspace is the place for kids and restaurants and young adults to post their favorite bands, favorite clothes, favorite shopping malls, etc., thereby linking to others on similar social interests. But LibraryThing actually may show, specifically if the person has started reviewing books, beyond the actual, but sadly frequent one-liners: Ice Towers by Duncan McGeary "It certainly isn't any better to be in Icetowers compared to Snowcastles", something about the person he or she wouldn't ordinarily reveal - this same type of revelation is sought by many readers in the writing by some authors, such as the reporter-shy Thomas Pynchon. (The Icetowers was reviewed by "bluetyson", an Australian LTer who has actually reviewed some 3100 books, so perhaps the periodic one-liner can be forgiven in this case.)
Somehow, after surfing about in LibraryThing for the better part of an evening, I came across the page of LyriqueTragedy. This name was interesting to me, in part because of my classical Greek undergraduate degree, and the obligatory studies of Oedipus Tyrannus (Oἰδίπoυς τύραννoς), etc. The voice behind LyriqueTragedy is a university lecturer, a reviewer of books (not only in LibraryThing, but also via Blogger posts and LiveJournal entries), and an aspiring writer. Here's where the beauty of the web as a communications medium shines through: after a week of communication, LyriqueTragedy may be willing to produce a netcast (podcast) with me, which is potentially to be called "Minute Lit". I've already produced episode 1 with this description:
"Minute Lit - the netcast for reading and discussing the single and assembled words of literature -- Episode zero-zero-one"
My next part of the process is to design, with LyriqueTragedy, a few more episodes, and figure out how to produce it to the web. The direct source of my Podcast fever, as mentioned in my previuos post, is PodCamp Pittsburgh. If you can put together interesting content, you'll draw interested listeners.
bye for now.
..phyllostachys.
(update: I figured out how to post this netcast to the web. Apple's ".mac" makes this very easy!)
About half way down the page there's a link that reads "D-Wave, in the Founder's Words" -- "Dr. Geordie Rose speaks out on a wide range of topics, including the media myths and misconceptions about quantum computing." Interestingly, you don't see many links on a company's website that link off to another location, so this must be interesting.
Personal blog pages are becoming something of a resume on the web, but I've never seen a link to a person's favorite list of books. Dr. Rose had a link that said, under the heading "Geordie's Books", there was a link to something called "My LibraryThing". I mean, books are sooooo 19th century, aren't they??? Intrigued (as I am about books generally, anyways), I linked on over to this strange term labelled "LibraryThing".
Linking, hypertextually across the web, is how I learn many new things. That's why I love using finance.yahoo.com - there are so many great tidbits of information...and so many links to new and different ways of organizing all that information. With Googles' new News search utility, I don't need a "news aggregator" separate from news.google.com...it is my news aggregator. I look through the top news section, link over to Business, or Science, and if I don't see anything interesting, I type in a search term, such as "Apple", after which you'll see all sorts of news (or blog posts, linked to at the bottom) about the iPhone, Cisco's friendly battle about tradenames...and sometimes something like "there's a bad apple in every workplace", a sociological piece about working with others.
So, imagine my surprise, not knowing what to expect, when LibraryThing turns out to be a way for people to list the books they own, and do reviews on some or all of those books. Okay, that's simple. My spouse uses something call Readerware, where you can scan in the ISBN bar code, and Readerware will link out to some web site and download the entire meta information, as well as recent sale prices. Naturally, if you're posting your books on the web, you want to sell them, right?
Not so at LibraryThing. This, as it turns out, is a social website, one of the new breed of internet sites, a la Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, etc. Once you've entered in a book, either by ISBN, Library of Congress number, or just a portion of the title, you're presented first with a list of matching titles -- there may be different editions, publish dates, types of media (book, audio, dvd), or people may have entered the title information differently. Once you click on a title that looks correct....it pops into your list of recently added titles. Then LibraryThing's internal programming takes over, and on your profile page you see lists of other LibraryThing users who similarly have the same books as you do in their personal library. Now, on the surface, that's just interesting. But...thinking socially, if someone collects (and presumably) reads books similar to your own, perhaps there are other similarities. Do you see where this is going? Myspace is the place for kids and restaurants and young adults to post their favorite bands, favorite clothes, favorite shopping malls, etc., thereby linking to others on similar social interests. But LibraryThing actually may show, specifically if the person has started reviewing books, beyond the actual, but sadly frequent one-liners: Ice Towers by Duncan McGeary "It certainly isn't any better to be in Icetowers compared to Snowcastles", something about the person he or she wouldn't ordinarily reveal - this same type of revelation is sought by many readers in the writing by some authors, such as the reporter-shy Thomas Pynchon. (The Icetowers was reviewed by "bluetyson", an Australian LTer who has actually reviewed some 3100 books, so perhaps the periodic one-liner can be forgiven in this case.)
Somehow, after surfing about in LibraryThing for the better part of an evening, I came across the page of LyriqueTragedy. This name was interesting to me, in part because of my classical Greek undergraduate degree, and the obligatory studies of Oedipus Tyrannus (Oἰδίπoυς τύραννoς), etc. The voice behind LyriqueTragedy is a university lecturer, a reviewer of books (not only in LibraryThing, but also via Blogger posts and LiveJournal entries), and an aspiring writer. Here's where the beauty of the web as a communications medium shines through: after a week of communication, LyriqueTragedy may be willing to produce a netcast (podcast) with me, which is potentially to be called "Minute Lit". I've already produced episode 1 with this description:
"Minute Lit - the netcast for reading and discussing the single and assembled words of literature -- Episode zero-zero-one"
My next part of the process is to design, with LyriqueTragedy, a few more episodes, and figure out how to produce it to the web. The direct source of my Podcast fever, as mentioned in my previuos post, is PodCamp Pittsburgh. If you can put together interesting content, you'll draw interested listeners.
bye for now.
..phyllostachys.
(update: I figured out how to post this netcast to the web. Apple's ".mac" makes this very easy!)
Saturday, October 21, 2006
phyllostachys fifteen:
PodCamp Pittsburgh Nov. 10-12, 2006
Nothing like a tech conference to get me back into my blog...especially a _free_ tech conference. :-)
A good friend sent me a note about an "un-conference" called PodCamp - a conference devoted to audio and video blogging - how to do it, what to do, etc. Ten minutes later I was signed up as an attendee (the sign-up is wiki-based)...and 24-hours later I had posted my plans for a presentation titled "Video to Web: Shoot, Assemble, Publish to Web".
The conference is the second of it's kind and the first to be held in Pittsburgh. The first PodCamp was held in Boston, at the Bunker Hill Community College, on Sept. 9th & 10th, 2006. People have been audio blogging for a while (considering an audio blog, or "podcast", is effectively a pre-recorded radio program, designing for distribution via the web in a compressed file format), so the PodCamp is long time in coming. The Boston event seems to have been very well attended, with bloggers from other locales flying into Beantown for the event. You can download or stream some of the podcasts of the PodCamp Boston sessions.
Although Apple's iPod is by no means the first mass-market digital music player, it is certainly the coolest [I supposed that's debatable, and therefore a biased statement] and best positioned with an established supporting music/video sales arm, iTunes. With this marketing double-whammy that Apple has ingeniously submitted to the computerized world, the inevitable "xerox-ization" of the name "iPod" has occurred, with all sorts of "pod" words popping up in the modern vocabulary. This has gotten so pervasive that Apple is flexing it's legal muscle, suing various organizations by suggesting that the "pod" syllable is theirs and theirs alone. I won't give an opinion about which side is correct....but my phrase "xerox-ization" I believe explains both the fate and the eventual outcome of the matter - the syllable will be/is firmly ensconced in the public domain as a metaphor for all things digitally audio and video.
I personally have been shooting video and publishing via Apple's iMovie and Google's video site for many months. Though I am by no means an accomplished filmmaker, I am implementing inspiration as it occurs. My most recent production, "Apple Festivals 2006", was a fun short produced by my son and I before attending two local Apple Festivals, each occurring on opposite ends of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area from each other on the same day...hence my use of Google Earth within the video - it allows lots of "hopping" around the globe.
This film shows that though amateurish, I am using the great resources provided by Apple on every Macintosh, iLife '06. The iLife suite of applications includes iMovie, for production of films from digital video "footage", and GarageBand, for creation and assembly of digital audio. You can use iDVD to burn to DVD...or just find a web-based distribution location (your own website or one of the many popular sites). I suppose a high-speed digital connection (DSL or cable) is a given...though I know even the US is nowhere close to a 100% market saturation of high-speed access - though this is improved by such services as Verizon's wireless services.
So, on to planning for my PodCamp presentation...and planning my next video (plugging the house that my wife and I are trying to sell).
..phyllostachys.
A good friend sent me a note about an "un-conference" called PodCamp - a conference devoted to audio and video blogging - how to do it, what to do, etc. Ten minutes later I was signed up as an attendee (the sign-up is wiki-based)...and 24-hours later I had posted my plans for a presentation titled "Video to Web: Shoot, Assemble, Publish to Web".
The conference is the second of it's kind and the first to be held in Pittsburgh. The first PodCamp was held in Boston, at the Bunker Hill Community College, on Sept. 9th & 10th, 2006. People have been audio blogging for a while (considering an audio blog, or "podcast", is effectively a pre-recorded radio program, designing for distribution via the web in a compressed file format), so the PodCamp is long time in coming. The Boston event seems to have been very well attended, with bloggers from other locales flying into Beantown for the event. You can download or stream some of the podcasts of the PodCamp Boston sessions.
Although Apple's iPod is by no means the first mass-market digital music player, it is certainly the coolest [I supposed that's debatable, and therefore a biased statement] and best positioned with an established supporting music/video sales arm, iTunes. With this marketing double-whammy that Apple has ingeniously submitted to the computerized world, the inevitable "xerox-ization" of the name "iPod" has occurred, with all sorts of "pod" words popping up in the modern vocabulary. This has gotten so pervasive that Apple is flexing it's legal muscle, suing various organizations by suggesting that the "pod" syllable is theirs and theirs alone. I won't give an opinion about which side is correct....but my phrase "xerox-ization" I believe explains both the fate and the eventual outcome of the matter - the syllable will be/is firmly ensconced in the public domain as a metaphor for all things digitally audio and video.
I personally have been shooting video and publishing via Apple's iMovie and Google's video site for many months. Though I am by no means an accomplished filmmaker, I am implementing inspiration as it occurs. My most recent production, "Apple Festivals 2006", was a fun short produced by my son and I before attending two local Apple Festivals, each occurring on opposite ends of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area from each other on the same day...hence my use of Google Earth within the video - it allows lots of "hopping" around the globe.
This film shows that though amateurish, I am using the great resources provided by Apple on every Macintosh, iLife '06. The iLife suite of applications includes iMovie, for production of films from digital video "footage", and GarageBand, for creation and assembly of digital audio. You can use iDVD to burn to DVD...or just find a web-based distribution location (your own website or one of the many popular sites). I suppose a high-speed digital connection (DSL or cable) is a given...though I know even the US is nowhere close to a 100% market saturation of high-speed access - though this is improved by such services as Verizon's wireless services.
So, on to planning for my PodCamp presentation...and planning my next video (plugging the house that my wife and I are trying to sell).
..phyllostachys.
Monday, June 19, 2006
phyllostachys fourteen: Fathers Day
I was hard at work yesterday morning...when my wife came in and said "What are you doing???!!! You said you'd be out cutting the lawn!!!" Well, back into the doghouse! :-)
What I was doing was attempting to put together appropriate music (in GarageBand) for one of the oldest and most eventful father's day stories of all time: the homecoming of Odysseus, who hadn't seen his wife Penelope and son Telemachos for nearly 20 years (10 years for the Trojan War, 10 years for the trip home). There are scads of references to fathers in the Odyssey: Zeus is a Father, Odysseus has a father, Telemachos has a father, Polyphemus the cyclops has a father (Poseidon [or Neptune, depending on a Hellenic or Roman bent of the translator], who causes so many travails for Odysseus), and each of the Greek kings reference their fathers (kings of Sparta and Pylos, where Telemachos travels in the first book of the Odyssey).
It's really almost too much for an aspiring bard to comprehend! So, what follows are the lines I've adapted for a later-to-be released musical compilation (there are arguably more appropriate lines...further re-reading will bring those to light).
Since I could not finish the musical masterpiece for your listening pleasure....I dissuaded my young son from watching a movie, took him with me while I went up to take a shower, and proceeded to tell him the short version of the trials of Odysseus:
-- of Telemachos' travels to Sparta and Pylos for news of his father,
-- of Odysseus' homecoming (on Fathers Day, of course),
-- of how he identified himself definitively to his wife Penelope (the construction of their bridal bed, and the stringing of his hunting bow),
-- and of how he, Telemachos, Athena (in earthly garb) and several helpers dusted off the scores of suitors eating and drinking in the household that day.
Happy Fathers Day, Dads!
..phyllostachys.
Telemachos' Fathers Day:
"The gods were discussing
in the halls of Olympian Zeus,
the fate of Odysseus, of the tears of
his wife Penelope and his son Telemachos
The goddess, grey-eyed Athene, said to Zeus
"Father, son of Saturn, King of kings,
I will conduct Telemachos to Sparta and to Pylos,
to see if he can hear anything about the return
of his dear father --
for this will make people speak well of him."
"My mother," answered Telemachus, "tells me I am son to Odysseus,
but it is a wise child that knows his own father.
Would that I were son to one who had
grown old upon his own estates,
for, since you ask me, there is no more ill-starred man under heaven
than he who they tell me is my father."
"I will tell you the truth, my son," said Odysseus to his son. "It was
the Phaeacians who brought me here. They are great sailors, and
are in the habit of giving escorts to any one who reaches their
coasts. They took me over the wine-dark sea while I was fast asleep, and
landed me in Ithaca, after giving me many presents in bronze,
gold, and raiment."
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt
What I was doing was attempting to put together appropriate music (in GarageBand) for one of the oldest and most eventful father's day stories of all time: the homecoming of Odysseus, who hadn't seen his wife Penelope and son Telemachos for nearly 20 years (10 years for the Trojan War, 10 years for the trip home). There are scads of references to fathers in the Odyssey: Zeus is a Father, Odysseus has a father, Telemachos has a father, Polyphemus the cyclops has a father (Poseidon [or Neptune, depending on a Hellenic or Roman bent of the translator], who causes so many travails for Odysseus), and each of the Greek kings reference their fathers (kings of Sparta and Pylos, where Telemachos travels in the first book of the Odyssey).
It's really almost too much for an aspiring bard to comprehend! So, what follows are the lines I've adapted for a later-to-be released musical compilation (there are arguably more appropriate lines...further re-reading will bring those to light).
Since I could not finish the musical masterpiece for your listening pleasure....I dissuaded my young son from watching a movie, took him with me while I went up to take a shower, and proceeded to tell him the short version of the trials of Odysseus:
-- of Telemachos' travels to Sparta and Pylos for news of his father,
-- of Odysseus' homecoming (on Fathers Day, of course),
-- of how he identified himself definitively to his wife Penelope (the construction of their bridal bed, and the stringing of his hunting bow),
-- and of how he, Telemachos, Athena (in earthly garb) and several helpers dusted off the scores of suitors eating and drinking in the household that day.
Happy Fathers Day, Dads!
..phyllostachys.
Telemachos' Fathers Day:
"The gods were discussing
in the halls of Olympian Zeus,
the fate of Odysseus, of the tears of
his wife Penelope and his son Telemachos
The goddess, grey-eyed Athene, said to Zeus
"Father, son of Saturn, King of kings,
I will conduct Telemachos to Sparta and to Pylos,
to see if he can hear anything about the return
of his dear father --
for this will make people speak well of him."
"My mother," answered Telemachus, "tells me I am son to Odysseus,
but it is a wise child that knows his own father.
Would that I were son to one who had
grown old upon his own estates,
for, since you ask me, there is no more ill-starred man under heaven
than he who they tell me is my father."
"I will tell you the truth, my son," said Odysseus to his son. "It was
the Phaeacians who brought me here. They are great sailors, and
are in the habit of giving escorts to any one who reaches their
coasts. They took me over the wine-dark sea while I was fast asleep, and
landed me in Ithaca, after giving me many presents in bronze,
gold, and raiment."
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt
Saturday, February 04, 2006
phyllostachys thirteen: Used Books - Read 'em!
Used Books - Read 'em!
I am addicted to many things in life: breathing is chief amongst them addictions, but also coffee, daydreaming, the stock market, bamboo, used books and the opposite sex...not necessarily in that order. As with most addictions, each finds its way into all the nooks and crannies of my life (sequentially, of course - men can multitask as well as women...as long as the tasks are sequentially ordered! ;-).
Used books are no exception. I haven't found a used bookstore I haven't liked (although like/dislike has a graduated scale) - each offers hours of browsing and thinking. But, the best used bookstores are sometimes those without a store presence. Let me give you an example.
I've found a cool used-book bookstore called Paradox Books near where I work in Wheeling, West Virginia. I've made some great finds at Paradox, from books on wines of the world, to great sci-fi, and more recently, a $1 copy of Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" (New Revised Edition, (c) 1964). In keeping with the area's flavour, Paradox also has a full range of Playboy's, dating back to the late 60's. ;-)
Aside from selling books, etc., inside, Paradox has a large bookshelf outside of it's front door, somewhat protected from the weather. This shelf is there so that the book-addicted person, who comes and finds the store closed for some reason, has the chance of satisfying his or her thirst for yet another used book. In addition to this outdoor bookshelf, Paradox has a table of books in the Centre Market (the cool little market in which Coleman's Fish Market is an anchor tenant) which are free for the taking. Yesterday, I perused these books during my lunch break, and walked away with two tomes: "The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions" (by the system's Board of Governors, (c) 1961), and "Modern Introductory Analysis" (a Houghton Mifflin textbook from 1964). I nearly picked a book on an introduction to symbolic logic...but an inquiring mind can latch onto only so many new tangents of thought/learning. ;-)
So, an addiction appeased for a few more days. Although I'm currently reading the "Intelligent Investor" book, I really want to learn more about the Fed, now that we're having a changing of the guard at the helm of the Fed (from Greenspan to Bernanke). I suppose I could go to the Fed's website (or to www.wikipedia.org, for that matter), but a book still has lots of appeal. I'll crack the other book to see what I can learn in a short time about analysis (mathematics is a foreign language I'm continually trying to expose myself to)...and to see what ideas I can introduce to my 4-yr-old. ;-)
So, go read a book...a used book!
..phyllostachys.
I am addicted to many things in life: breathing is chief amongst them addictions, but also coffee, daydreaming, the stock market, bamboo, used books and the opposite sex...not necessarily in that order. As with most addictions, each finds its way into all the nooks and crannies of my life (sequentially, of course - men can multitask as well as women...as long as the tasks are sequentially ordered! ;-).
Used books are no exception. I haven't found a used bookstore I haven't liked (although like/dislike has a graduated scale) - each offers hours of browsing and thinking. But, the best used bookstores are sometimes those without a store presence. Let me give you an example.
I've found a cool used-book bookstore called Paradox Books near where I work in Wheeling, West Virginia. I've made some great finds at Paradox, from books on wines of the world, to great sci-fi, and more recently, a $1 copy of Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" (New Revised Edition, (c) 1964). In keeping with the area's flavour, Paradox also has a full range of Playboy's, dating back to the late 60's. ;-)
Aside from selling books, etc., inside, Paradox has a large bookshelf outside of it's front door, somewhat protected from the weather. This shelf is there so that the book-addicted person, who comes and finds the store closed for some reason, has the chance of satisfying his or her thirst for yet another used book. In addition to this outdoor bookshelf, Paradox has a table of books in the Centre Market (the cool little market in which Coleman's Fish Market is an anchor tenant) which are free for the taking. Yesterday, I perused these books during my lunch break, and walked away with two tomes: "The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions" (by the system's Board of Governors, (c) 1961), and "Modern Introductory Analysis" (a Houghton Mifflin textbook from 1964). I nearly picked a book on an introduction to symbolic logic...but an inquiring mind can latch onto only so many new tangents of thought/learning. ;-)
So, an addiction appeased for a few more days. Although I'm currently reading the "Intelligent Investor" book, I really want to learn more about the Fed, now that we're having a changing of the guard at the helm of the Fed (from Greenspan to Bernanke). I suppose I could go to the Fed's website (or to www.wikipedia.org, for that matter), but a book still has lots of appeal. I'll crack the other book to see what I can learn in a short time about analysis (mathematics is a foreign language I'm continually trying to expose myself to)...and to see what ideas I can introduce to my 4-yr-old. ;-)
So, go read a book...a used book!
..phyllostachys.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
phyllostachys twelve: picking up, moving on
Hurricane Season, 2005, has just about left the stage. Civil unrest (aside from certain invasions) is just about to take center stage. And, the Northern Hemisphere is just about to weather another winter. Although the possibility of higher fuel prices is waning with the memory (in non-affected areas) of Katrina, Wilma, Beta, etc., higher energy costs are here to stay.
How, then, can we afford these prices? By working a little bit harder, a few longer hours (easier during the shorter days of Winter), and with more intent to a warmer (or at least more solvent) future.
Working harder is easy for me to say...I have had a string of decent jobs over the past two decades, each of which seem to have helped pay the bills and allowed me to put some away for a rainy (or graying) day. But what about those people who are under-employed, ill-employed (just barely suited to the task) or not employed? It's easy to say "get a job"...but the great leveler is that we may each face a point of uncertainty in our lives in which we don't know which way to turn, where the next meal, roof or paycheck is going to come from.
At my level (such as it is), it seems easy for me to take solace in learning: I know, from education in the past, that I can read, study and learn much of that which I'll need to get ahead...and learn on-the-job that which I haven't learned yet. For self-directed as well as community-guided learning, a great leveler was the public library...and more recently, the Internet: both provide easy access to copious amounts of information to anyone willing to (1) walk into a library (learn how to open a web browser), (2) know how to read (how to search) and (3) find gobs of information that you need to learn from or are having fun learning from.
But as economics or nature remove access to such excellent public institutions (thanks, in the U.S. to Andrew Carnegie, among others), we are left with challenges as to how to get the information to the masses....without exposing paper to the elements. Proliferation, therefore, of computer technology to the masses, with a built-in browser linked to the ever-expanding presence of a search engine (e.g., Google) seems to be a potential answer. Currently, one needs to be literate to access the media on a computer....soon, however, video (and, on the horizon, VR?) and 3D interaction will allow greater numbers to access all the information they need to improve themselves (and hopefully not blow up the rest of us -- a very real concern in a world of open information and relatively open borders/airspace).
So, the key to bringing the masses along with the "digital haves" is to encourage increasingly better methods of education, increasing levels of health (thanks to orgs like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and increasing access to the digital libraries of the world.
..phyllostachys.
2005 Hurricane Names
The Gates Foundation
Adam Smith on Wikipedia
How, then, can we afford these prices? By working a little bit harder, a few longer hours (easier during the shorter days of Winter), and with more intent to a warmer (or at least more solvent) future.
Working harder is easy for me to say...I have had a string of decent jobs over the past two decades, each of which seem to have helped pay the bills and allowed me to put some away for a rainy (or graying) day. But what about those people who are under-employed, ill-employed (just barely suited to the task) or not employed? It's easy to say "get a job"...but the great leveler is that we may each face a point of uncertainty in our lives in which we don't know which way to turn, where the next meal, roof or paycheck is going to come from.
At my level (such as it is), it seems easy for me to take solace in learning: I know, from education in the past, that I can read, study and learn much of that which I'll need to get ahead...and learn on-the-job that which I haven't learned yet. For self-directed as well as community-guided learning, a great leveler was the public library...and more recently, the Internet: both provide easy access to copious amounts of information to anyone willing to (1) walk into a library (learn how to open a web browser), (2) know how to read (how to search) and (3) find gobs of information that you need to learn from or are having fun learning from.
But as economics or nature remove access to such excellent public institutions (thanks, in the U.S. to Andrew Carnegie, among others), we are left with challenges as to how to get the information to the masses....without exposing paper to the elements. Proliferation, therefore, of computer technology to the masses, with a built-in browser linked to the ever-expanding presence of a search engine (e.g., Google) seems to be a potential answer. Currently, one needs to be literate to access the media on a computer....soon, however, video (and, on the horizon, VR?) and 3D interaction will allow greater numbers to access all the information they need to improve themselves (and hopefully not blow up the rest of us -- a very real concern in a world of open information and relatively open borders/airspace).
So, the key to bringing the masses along with the "digital haves" is to encourage increasingly better methods of education, increasing levels of health (thanks to orgs like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and increasing access to the digital libraries of the world.
..phyllostachys.
2005 Hurricane Names
The Gates Foundation
Adam Smith on Wikipedia
Sunday, August 28, 2005
phyllostachys eleven: Do you hear the winds of change?
Change is coming...can you hear the surf recede, with the fish flopping on the beach of your life?
How do you encourage your peers that saving all that they can versus spending all that they can is the course of action they should be pursuing? I don't know...I think we each have to come to that realization in our own time...constant reminders from friends and media can begin to be somewhat nagging. But that realization must be there - hopefully sooner than later.
I hear the winds blowing in my ears: Greenspan is retiring, metals and oil are priced way high, China and India need more energy resources...as the industrial focus moves across the Pacific and Indian oceans, Western religion is on the wane (just as it was 1700 years ago), Eastern religion is as strong and thriving as if the past 1300 years had not just passed, the earth is slowly warming up, with polar caps shrinking and water levels rising...and we're continually discovering more Solar System objects which may cross Earth's future path.
All we can do is continue to learn, and exhort others to do the same. A friend has issues with alcohol and cardiovascular disease...a dangerous combination. As a friend, I can just support and encourage more water intake vs. alcohol...something we all should strive for.
I picked up a used book last night for 50 cents, at the used book shelf at Apple Hill Playhouse in Delmont, PA (just before the curtain rose on Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys"): "The Interpretation of Financial Statements," by Benjamin Graham and Charles McGolrick (1955). This is a cool little book intended to privide any investor or teacher with standard insight into how a company's financial statements should read...and as a possible introduction to the more in-depth analysis of investments in Graham's "Security Analysis." One of my primary gauges for the health of a company is the "current ration," or current assets to current liabilities. Graham points out "When a company is in a sound position, the current assets well exceed the current liabilities, indicating that the company will have no difficulty in taking care of its current debts as they mature." Graham takes it a bit farther by excluding inventory (depending on how an enterprise treats inventory) in what's call an "acid test" of the "quick assets" (exclusive of inventory).
Knowing your way around a company's balance/income/cashflow statements can provide quick insight (though only a snapshot) into the apparent health of a company, Enron or Francisco d'Anconia (of San Sebastián Mines fame) notwithstanding. My favorite place to review all aspects of a company is Yahoo!'s Finance site, http://finance.yahoo.com. Check it out. :-)
..phyllostachys.
How do you encourage your peers that saving all that they can versus spending all that they can is the course of action they should be pursuing? I don't know...I think we each have to come to that realization in our own time...constant reminders from friends and media can begin to be somewhat nagging. But that realization must be there - hopefully sooner than later.
I hear the winds blowing in my ears: Greenspan is retiring, metals and oil are priced way high, China and India need more energy resources...as the industrial focus moves across the Pacific and Indian oceans, Western religion is on the wane (just as it was 1700 years ago), Eastern religion is as strong and thriving as if the past 1300 years had not just passed, the earth is slowly warming up, with polar caps shrinking and water levels rising...and we're continually discovering more Solar System objects which may cross Earth's future path.
All we can do is continue to learn, and exhort others to do the same. A friend has issues with alcohol and cardiovascular disease...a dangerous combination. As a friend, I can just support and encourage more water intake vs. alcohol...something we all should strive for.
I picked up a used book last night for 50 cents, at the used book shelf at Apple Hill Playhouse in Delmont, PA (just before the curtain rose on Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys"): "The Interpretation of Financial Statements," by Benjamin Graham and Charles McGolrick (1955). This is a cool little book intended to privide any investor or teacher with standard insight into how a company's financial statements should read...and as a possible introduction to the more in-depth analysis of investments in Graham's "Security Analysis." One of my primary gauges for the health of a company is the "current ration," or current assets to current liabilities. Graham points out "When a company is in a sound position, the current assets well exceed the current liabilities, indicating that the company will have no difficulty in taking care of its current debts as they mature." Graham takes it a bit farther by excluding inventory (depending on how an enterprise treats inventory) in what's call an "acid test" of the "quick assets" (exclusive of inventory).
Knowing your way around a company's balance/income/cashflow statements can provide quick insight (though only a snapshot) into the apparent health of a company, Enron or Francisco d'Anconia (of San Sebastián Mines fame) notwithstanding. My favorite place to review all aspects of a company is Yahoo!'s Finance site, http://finance.yahoo.com. Check it out. :-)
..phyllostachys.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
phyllostachys ten: John Maynard Keynes
An acquaintance at the public health club where I swim asked me "who do you think are the greatest investors?" My answer was that other than an investing great like Warren Buffett, I'd say someone who has amassed wealth by investing time, sweat and money in building their own company - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison all jump to mind. My acquaintance asked if I'd heard of Keynes.
Well-read investors should have heard of Keynes...and I have, having first been introduced to him by Louis Rukeyser's book-on-tape series on the history of Economics. Keynes was the British Economist known primarily for developing the policies that most readily led the US and Britain out of the woods after the "Great Depression" of the '30's.
According to Time Magazine:
"Keynes' basic idea was simple. In order to keep people fully employed, governments have to run deficits when the economy is slowing. That's because the private sector won't invest enough. As their markets become saturated, businesses reduce their investments, setting in motion a dangerous cycle: less investment, fewer jobs, less consumption and even less reason for business to invest. The economy may reach perfect balance, but at a cost of high unemployment and social misery. Better for governments to avoid the pain in the first place by taking up the slack."
The Time 100
My acquaintance said that in addition to being an effective and well-respected ecomonist, was also a very successful investor. Said Keynes, "Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others," which is, of course, what the markets are all about - successfully navigating the torrential runs of human emotion in trading. After this conversation, I went home and did some Google searches on Keynes and investing....and found some interesting guidelines...which sounded eerily like a quote from the Oracle of Omaha. Now, of course, I cannot refind that quote...I'll relay in a later post.
On the subject of books, I noticed that my acquaintance had brought a book for reading on the treadmill. He showed me Jeremy Siegel's new book, The Future for Investors. I'd never heard of Siegel, but have since learned that he's a Wharton School finance professor who wrote Stocks for the Long Run in 1994, in which he touted that stocks have been the best investment vehicle since 1802 -- he touted this just before one of America's greatest bull markets. Siegel has his own website (see below) and was featured in a WSJ article on 05/05/05 about his new theory that retiring baby boomers will sell all their assets...and the markets won't be saved unless billions of Indian and Chinese investors step in. A controversial idea, of course....but how the heck else do you get people to argue and plan for the future? :-)
..phyllostachys.
BTW, today is the inauguration of the use of Google's adsense on this site...let's see how we do. :-)
For more on Keynes, see:
The History of Ecomonic Thought website
For more on Siegel, go to:
Jeremy Siegel's website
Well-read investors should have heard of Keynes...and I have, having first been introduced to him by Louis Rukeyser's book-on-tape series on the history of Economics. Keynes was the British Economist known primarily for developing the policies that most readily led the US and Britain out of the woods after the "Great Depression" of the '30's.
According to Time Magazine:
"Keynes' basic idea was simple. In order to keep people fully employed, governments have to run deficits when the economy is slowing. That's because the private sector won't invest enough. As their markets become saturated, businesses reduce their investments, setting in motion a dangerous cycle: less investment, fewer jobs, less consumption and even less reason for business to invest. The economy may reach perfect balance, but at a cost of high unemployment and social misery. Better for governments to avoid the pain in the first place by taking up the slack."
The Time 100
My acquaintance said that in addition to being an effective and well-respected ecomonist, was also a very successful investor. Said Keynes, "Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others," which is, of course, what the markets are all about - successfully navigating the torrential runs of human emotion in trading. After this conversation, I went home and did some Google searches on Keynes and investing....and found some interesting guidelines...which sounded eerily like a quote from the Oracle of Omaha. Now, of course, I cannot refind that quote...I'll relay in a later post.
On the subject of books, I noticed that my acquaintance had brought a book for reading on the treadmill. He showed me Jeremy Siegel's new book, The Future for Investors. I'd never heard of Siegel, but have since learned that he's a Wharton School finance professor who wrote Stocks for the Long Run in 1994, in which he touted that stocks have been the best investment vehicle since 1802 -- he touted this just before one of America's greatest bull markets. Siegel has his own website (see below) and was featured in a WSJ article on 05/05/05 about his new theory that retiring baby boomers will sell all their assets...and the markets won't be saved unless billions of Indian and Chinese investors step in. A controversial idea, of course....but how the heck else do you get people to argue and plan for the future? :-)
..phyllostachys.
BTW, today is the inauguration of the use of Google's adsense on this site...let's see how we do. :-)
For more on Keynes, see:
The History of Ecomonic Thought website
For more on Siegel, go to:
Jeremy Siegel's website
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
phyllostachys nine: Karlgaard Rules
Rich Karlgaard is an interesting writer - he had been the Forbes editor in charge of that tabloid of the tech boom, quarterly periodical Forbes ASAP - he's now editor of the Digital Rules column in Forbes. His most recent column, titled "Ten Laws of the Modern World," lists the following (much like, and as applicable as, the Ten Commandments of the Judeo-Christian faith):
Moore's Law
The Back Side of Moore's Law
Andy and Bill's Law
Metcalfe's Law
Gilder's Law: Winner's Waste
Ricardo's Law
Wriston's Law
The Laffer Curve
Drucker's Law
Ogilvy's Law
Follow your mouse here....
..Phyllostachys.
Moore's Law
The Back Side of Moore's Law
Andy and Bill's Law
Metcalfe's Law
Gilder's Law: Winner's Waste
Ricardo's Law
Wriston's Law
The Laffer Curve
Drucker's Law
Ogilvy's Law
Follow your mouse here....
..Phyllostachys.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
phyllostachys eight: finding your center
Have you ever felt that you've lost your center and aren't sure where to start? Well, like many of you, I've lost that center many times...and have learned from a few very scholarly people where to find that center once I've lost it. It exists within you...but can only be found via a very circuitous process...which may involve some form of centering activity, such as running, swimming, solo dancing....or perhaps solo tai chi.
The market is down right now, after 2.5 awesome years of tortured rise, so this is a good chance to regroup, find your center, find where your resources are best utilized. :-)
Find a tai chi teacher.
My original "blog"
...(Geocities was pre-blog, and yet very much fostered the same sort of activity)
...and the tai chi component thereof...
The market is down right now, after 2.5 awesome years of tortured rise, so this is a good chance to regroup, find your center, find where your resources are best utilized. :-)
Find a tai chi teacher.
Yang Family Style Long Form
First Section
1. Commencement
2. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
3. Single Whip
4. Raise Hands
5. White Crane Spreads its Wings
6. Twist Step Brush Left Knee
7. Play Chinese Guitar
8. Twist Step Brush Left Knee
9. Twist Step Brush Right Knee
10. Twist Step Brush Left Knee
11. Play Chinese Guitar
12. Deflect Downward
13. Parry
14. Punch
15. Apparent Closure
16. Cross Hands
Second Section
17. Embrace the Tiger and Return to the Mountain
18. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
19. Punch Under Elbow
20. Repulse Monkey (5 times)
21. Diagonal Flying
22. Raise Hands
23. White Crane Spreads It's Wings
24. Push Needle to Sea Bottom
25. Fan Through Back
26. Turn and Throw out Fist
27. Deflect Downward, Parry & Punch
28. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
29. Single Whip
30. Wave Arms Like Clouds (5 times)
31. Single Whip
32. High Pat on Horse
33. Separate Hands
34. Kick with Right Foot (toe)
35. Separate Hands
35. Kick with Left Foot (toe)
36. Turn and Kick with Left Heel
37. Twist Step Brush Left Knee
38. Twist Step Brush Right Knee
39. Twist Step, Brush Left Knee and Punch Downward
40. Turn and Throw Out Fist
41. Deflect Downward, Parry and Punch
42. Kick up with the Right Heel
43. Fight Tiger (Left and Right)
44. Kick up with the Right Heel
45. Club Ears (Wind Blows by Ears)
46. Side Kick with Left Foot
47. Turn 180 deg. and Side Kick with Right Foot
48. Deflect Downward, Parry and Punch
49. Apparent Closure
50. Cross Hands
Third Section
51. Embrace the Tiger and Return to the Mountain
52. Diagonal Single Whip
53. Part the Wild Horse's Mane (5 times)
54. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
55. Single Whip
56. Fair Maiden Works the Shuttles (four angles)
57. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
58. Single Whip
59. Wave Arms Like Clouds (5 times)
60. Snake Creeps down
61. Golden cock stands on left leg
62. Golden cock stands on right leg
63. Repulse monkey (5 times)
64. Diagonal Flying
65. Raise Hands
66. White Crane Spreads It's Wings
67. Push Needle to Sea Bottom
68. Fan Through Back
69. Turn and White snake spits out tongue
70. Deflect Downward, Parry & Punch
71. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
72. Single Whip
73. Wave Arms Like Clouds (5 times)
74. Single Whip
75. High Pat on Horse
76. Five fingers into cave mouth
77. Turn and punch to groin
78. Grasp Sparrow's Tail
79. Single Whip
80. Snake Creeps down
81. Step up to form crossed stars
82. Step back to ride the tiger
83. Turn and perform Lotus kick
85. ???
86. Deflect Downward, Parry and Punch
87. Apparent Closure
88. Cross Hands
[Perform starting to the right,
then second time through to the left.]
My original "blog"
...(Geocities was pre-blog, and yet very much fostered the same sort of activity)
...and the tai chi component thereof...
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
phyllostachys seven: Springing...down, in '05
Springtime 2005 is upon us - in the northern end of the Western Hemisphere, this means chirping birds, crocuses and daffodills, spring cleaning of the gardens, screens on the windows (for the moister part of the continent), screaming motorcycles on all the roadways...and listening to your neighbors scream at the local sports teams in the comfort of their living rooms (but now, of course, with the windows wide open). :-)
I had one tub of Phyllostachys Vivax sort of wintering over...but not really well protected, so it's now fried. I love having a sampling of those big, dark green waxy leaves close to our patio...so, I'll have to dig up another tub candidate. My two stands of bamboo (one the Vivax, the other a smaller member of the Phyllo. species) are now rustling more and showing signs of both winter burn and spring-time life. I'll have to begin culling out the culms and digging at the rhizomes soon, while the soil is moist, to curb the vivaciousness of this unusual garden plant (hence the name "vivax" for the larger specimen).
My investing has been in the doldrums lately. Traditionally, the wind is supposed to die down in mid-August, when most families are thinking of that last-hurrah vacation before Labor Day. But the wind has died down right now. I'm adrift (or, rather, in the case of some SEC-inquiry stocks, looking over the edge of a potential whirlpool). I rode part of the oil-lust wave, via a goodly amount of BPT (Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust). I sold recently near it's high, having been spooked by chatter on Yahoo!'s message board for BPT, as well as a growing feeling that, while I think the price of crude will stay high for awhile, we might have run into the high end of the spectrum. When everyone else realizes this, the rising tide of oil stocks will come back down a bit. BPT, of course, is a two-edged investment. As the price rises...your equity investment appreciates...but lots of small investers are also seeking the high dividend yield that BPT traditionally provides...and this yield falls away as the security appreciates.
Tech stocks are my usual refuge in times of fear...I fear being out of them for too long, and I fear diving back into them. :-) SSTI is a very attractive company in the Flash RAM industry at this point - they're at their 52-week low, with strong sales and tons of cash (though reporting slightly weaker earnings), but the rash of downgrades attracts contrarian investors such as LongBow Research (out of Independence, Ohio). LongBow Research recently upgraded SSTI (from neutral to buy) and I assume that they did this out of contrarian interest (their website says that they watch for "critical trends" in various industries so as to provide their "institutional" clients with info on buying and selling). I e-mailed one of the tech researchers at Longbow, but have not heard anything back.
Another interesting Flash industry participant, which is at the top of its game in the same way that AAPL is, is SNDK. SNDK has $1.5B in sales, $1.3B in cash, no debt (well, $150M in long-term debt...but that's more of an asset, even though its on the lower side of the balance sheet), a respectable TTM p/e of 19.8 and a forward p/e of 17.5, and a very profitable stable of products and patents (being the creator of CompactFLASH, etc.). One of SNDK's downsides was that $100M in stock was stolen by a trusted law firm's employee on the Pacific Rim (Singapore or Taiwan, not sure which)...but that is slowly be paid back by a very chagrined (and short of cash) law firm - SNDK bounced back very handsomely from that loss with barely a glance backward, as it blows past its fabless competition (ahem, LEXR).
So why the doldrums, you say? Well my perennial favourite since the go-go days of the NASDAQ bubble has been Blue Coat Systems. I've been following and putting my money where my mouth is with BCSI ever since it was CFLO (CacheFlow). As CacheFlow, they marketed web caching servers. With the collapse of telecomm and the popping of the aforementioned bubble, CFLO re-created themselves into BCSI and altered their product (through internal work and acquisitions) to provide web-filtering, traffic control, WinProxy, AntiVirus and AntiSpam solutions, all in addition to a caching component -- all during the past 3 years. They were way up during the CFLO days, then way down before becoming BCSI, then way up for no apparent reason [other than following insider buying, that is], then down again (this latter downturn is now sparking class-action suits) and up again. We are now in the course of the last "up again"...but SEC news of investigations is interrupting the flow here....so despite strong fundamentals, it's anybody's guess as to whether buying now makes awesome sense...or not. :-)
Happy sailing!
Have some comments about my blogs here? Leave a comment (you don't have to be a member to do so).
Phyllostachys.
Longbow's SSTI upgrade
Longbow's Home on the web
I had one tub of Phyllostachys Vivax sort of wintering over...but not really well protected, so it's now fried. I love having a sampling of those big, dark green waxy leaves close to our patio...so, I'll have to dig up another tub candidate. My two stands of bamboo (one the Vivax, the other a smaller member of the Phyllo. species) are now rustling more and showing signs of both winter burn and spring-time life. I'll have to begin culling out the culms and digging at the rhizomes soon, while the soil is moist, to curb the vivaciousness of this unusual garden plant (hence the name "vivax" for the larger specimen).
My investing has been in the doldrums lately. Traditionally, the wind is supposed to die down in mid-August, when most families are thinking of that last-hurrah vacation before Labor Day. But the wind has died down right now. I'm adrift (or, rather, in the case of some SEC-inquiry stocks, looking over the edge of a potential whirlpool). I rode part of the oil-lust wave, via a goodly amount of BPT (Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust). I sold recently near it's high, having been spooked by chatter on Yahoo!'s message board for BPT, as well as a growing feeling that, while I think the price of crude will stay high for awhile, we might have run into the high end of the spectrum. When everyone else realizes this, the rising tide of oil stocks will come back down a bit. BPT, of course, is a two-edged investment. As the price rises...your equity investment appreciates...but lots of small investers are also seeking the high dividend yield that BPT traditionally provides...and this yield falls away as the security appreciates.
Tech stocks are my usual refuge in times of fear...I fear being out of them for too long, and I fear diving back into them. :-) SSTI is a very attractive company in the Flash RAM industry at this point - they're at their 52-week low, with strong sales and tons of cash (though reporting slightly weaker earnings), but the rash of downgrades attracts contrarian investors such as LongBow Research (out of Independence, Ohio). LongBow Research recently upgraded SSTI (from neutral to buy) and I assume that they did this out of contrarian interest (their website says that they watch for "critical trends" in various industries so as to provide their "institutional" clients with info on buying and selling). I e-mailed one of the tech researchers at Longbow, but have not heard anything back.
Another interesting Flash industry participant, which is at the top of its game in the same way that AAPL is, is SNDK. SNDK has $1.5B in sales, $1.3B in cash, no debt (well, $150M in long-term debt...but that's more of an asset, even though its on the lower side of the balance sheet), a respectable TTM p/e of 19.8 and a forward p/e of 17.5, and a very profitable stable of products and patents (being the creator of CompactFLASH, etc.). One of SNDK's downsides was that $100M in stock was stolen by a trusted law firm's employee on the Pacific Rim (Singapore or Taiwan, not sure which)...but that is slowly be paid back by a very chagrined (and short of cash) law firm - SNDK bounced back very handsomely from that loss with barely a glance backward, as it blows past its fabless competition (ahem, LEXR).
So why the doldrums, you say? Well my perennial favourite since the go-go days of the NASDAQ bubble has been Blue Coat Systems. I've been following and putting my money where my mouth is with BCSI ever since it was CFLO (CacheFlow). As CacheFlow, they marketed web caching servers. With the collapse of telecomm and the popping of the aforementioned bubble, CFLO re-created themselves into BCSI and altered their product (through internal work and acquisitions) to provide web-filtering, traffic control, WinProxy, AntiVirus and AntiSpam solutions, all in addition to a caching component -- all during the past 3 years. They were way up during the CFLO days, then way down before becoming BCSI, then way up for no apparent reason [other than following insider buying, that is], then down again (this latter downturn is now sparking class-action suits) and up again. We are now in the course of the last "up again"...but SEC news of investigations is interrupting the flow here....so despite strong fundamentals, it's anybody's guess as to whether buying now makes awesome sense...or not. :-)
Happy sailing!
Have some comments about my blogs here? Leave a comment (you don't have to be a member to do so).
Phyllostachys.
Longbow's SSTI upgrade
Longbow's Home on the web
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Phyllostachys Six: Valentines Day, 2005
2-15-2005 -- Although I'm writing and posting this on the 15th, Valentines Day is still very much on my mind. Flowers, lovers, children, cupids, chocolate and unclean thoughts all rolled up into one holiday! Very powerful is the emotion of love...and if you're open to it's power, it can carry you a long way along the river of life! Everyone has to, of course, sort out for themselves if they're in love or in lust. Discussion topic for the next time you're at a party of mixed sexes: are the two really all that different? ;-)
Valentines Day brought another kind of love to the fore: AAPL hit another new high. Where will it stop...and what the 'ell do I care? I watch it bottom out at 12 last year (after buying in at about 24 5 years ago) and thought that I really should kick some more capital in...but you know how everyone says not to average down (which I do all the time anyways)? Well, I didn't average down with AAPL...and now I'm waiting for a second split to encourage more buyers. Big :-)!
Check out SCHK - http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SCHK.OB&d=t - Schick Technologies makes digital cameras for the dental crowd. Their balance sheet rocks! (Never thought I'd use that phrase...but here it really applies). I originally bought at 8.50...and now bought again at 17. Looks like a stable techology, to provide a long, 5-year market rise.
Also, check out GRU, parent of the new http://www.answers.com. Purported to be the next Google (in more ways than one?), Answers.com could carry small investors for quite a ride. GRU's 52-week is 4.40 and 28.50...and it's now playing around the upper end of the range.
Does anyone know of anyone "sculpting" in bamboo? Ideas keep percolating through my noggin...but gotta spend some time with my culms before I subject any of them to my sculpting ideas. :=-)
..phyllostachys.
Valentines Day brought another kind of love to the fore: AAPL hit another new high. Where will it stop...and what the 'ell do I care? I watch it bottom out at 12 last year (after buying in at about 24 5 years ago) and thought that I really should kick some more capital in...but you know how everyone says not to average down (which I do all the time anyways)? Well, I didn't average down with AAPL...and now I'm waiting for a second split to encourage more buyers. Big :-)!
Check out SCHK - http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SCHK.OB&d=t - Schick Technologies makes digital cameras for the dental crowd. Their balance sheet rocks! (Never thought I'd use that phrase...but here it really applies). I originally bought at 8.50...and now bought again at 17. Looks like a stable techology, to provide a long, 5-year market rise.
Also, check out GRU, parent of the new http://www.answers.com. Purported to be the next Google (in more ways than one?), Answers.com could carry small investors for quite a ride. GRU's 52-week is 4.40 and 28.50...and it's now playing around the upper end of the range.
Does anyone know of anyone "sculpting" in bamboo? Ideas keep percolating through my noggin...but gotta spend some time with my culms before I subject any of them to my sculpting ideas. :=-)
..phyllostachys.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
phyllostachys five: holiday spirits...
12-25-2004 -- I don't always know what I'm going to type about here. Although I claim sanity, I have many thought streams coursing through my cerebrum at any given time. Some financial, some garden-oriented, some word/excel/powerpoint/edgar-ease/acrobat based (the day job), and some...well, we won't go there...they're not very G-rated. :-)
I cannot yet type about forex...although I have a gut feeling in which don't agree with the general opinion that the Euro (and other foreign currencies) will continue to rise in relation to the US dollar, I haven't done enough reading and comprehending to understand why I feel that way...other than the fact that I like to invest with a contrarian bent to my thinking and actions.
Forbes just published an article about Warren Buffet's forex trading. Granted, he's one of the world's elite bridge players and therefore is not truly tipping his hand to anyone...but supposedly he's still buying and renewing anti-dollar positions with an eye to a lower dollar:Euro ratio. He's recently made some $400+ million in currency-trade profits...but that's a fraction of Berkshire-Hathaway's $120 billion market cap...so it amounts a diversionary hedge for Mr. Buffet.
Nor can I talk much about recent stock market successes. Although QMCI is doing well, I sold a sizable position (sizable for me, that is...) in AEXCA (Ampex Corp) after it'd risen from 21 to 35...it has risen further, to 42.50. I just bought back in at 40, so we'll see if this low-float tape storage company, which is banking on its stable of patents to boost it's bottom line, is able to push into the stratosphere. But although I'm having long-term good feelings about RIMM, I bought that at 90 and it's now down to 82. I bought more at 82 (one of my critics considers my lack of stop-losses to be down-right stupid...quoting IBD articles about catching falling knives...)...but am wondering if quintupled profit, and strong foreign sales can move RIMM beyond certain US patent troubles.
AEXCA reminds me of several other low-float-but-now-sub-orbital stocks: that same favourite critic told me of ASVI, which is low-float but is riding the popularity derived from selling tractor-like vehicles and having Catepillar as a beneficial owner...
2-15-2005 -- I won't say much, as I need to post a blog entry devoted to today, but the text above was to be my Winter Holiday 2004 posting...and I haven't touch my blog since I started typing it. I was intending to segway into discussion about substance abuse, as some of my family has had problems about that. Although the only substance I abuse is Starbuck's coffee (I've recently attempted to switch to black tea, with varying degrees of success), I just had a beer (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, my overall favorite), so I won't touch the substance abuse tangent for now... Suffice it to say, Happy (Chinese) New Year!
See my Valentines posting for more sagacious stock tips!
..phyllostachys.
I cannot yet type about forex...although I have a gut feeling in which don't agree with the general opinion that the Euro (and other foreign currencies) will continue to rise in relation to the US dollar, I haven't done enough reading and comprehending to understand why I feel that way...other than the fact that I like to invest with a contrarian bent to my thinking and actions.
Forbes just published an article about Warren Buffet's forex trading. Granted, he's one of the world's elite bridge players and therefore is not truly tipping his hand to anyone...but supposedly he's still buying and renewing anti-dollar positions with an eye to a lower dollar:Euro ratio. He's recently made some $400+ million in currency-trade profits...but that's a fraction of Berkshire-Hathaway's $120 billion market cap...so it amounts a diversionary hedge for Mr. Buffet.
Nor can I talk much about recent stock market successes. Although QMCI is doing well, I sold a sizable position (sizable for me, that is...) in AEXCA (Ampex Corp) after it'd risen from 21 to 35...it has risen further, to 42.50. I just bought back in at 40, so we'll see if this low-float tape storage company, which is banking on its stable of patents to boost it's bottom line, is able to push into the stratosphere. But although I'm having long-term good feelings about RIMM, I bought that at 90 and it's now down to 82. I bought more at 82 (one of my critics considers my lack of stop-losses to be down-right stupid...quoting IBD articles about catching falling knives...)...but am wondering if quintupled profit, and strong foreign sales can move RIMM beyond certain US patent troubles.
AEXCA reminds me of several other low-float-but-now-sub-orbital stocks: that same favourite critic told me of ASVI, which is low-float but is riding the popularity derived from selling tractor-like vehicles and having Catepillar as a beneficial owner...
2-15-2005 -- I won't say much, as I need to post a blog entry devoted to today, but the text above was to be my Winter Holiday 2004 posting...and I haven't touch my blog since I started typing it. I was intending to segway into discussion about substance abuse, as some of my family has had problems about that. Although the only substance I abuse is Starbuck's coffee (I've recently attempted to switch to black tea, with varying degrees of success), I just had a beer (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, my overall favorite), so I won't touch the substance abuse tangent for now... Suffice it to say, Happy (Chinese) New Year!
See my Valentines posting for more sagacious stock tips!
..phyllostachys.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Phyllostachys Four: Think and Grow Rich
Napolean Hill is one of innumerable people who have proposed schemes or recipes for the "get rich quick" ideals....except that he had personal research to back up his plan. Can you "think and grow rich"? See this review of Hill's classic self-help book:
"Think and Grow Rich
By Napoleon Hill
[a book review] by Michael C. Gray
April 24, 2001
When I meet with young people coming into public accounting, I'm stunned that they are unaware of many of the classics of success philosophy and motivation. One that should be in everyone's success library is Think And Grow Rich.
Andrew Carnegie was the Bill Gates of his day. He came to the United States from Scotland and made a fortune in the steel industry. When you use a public library, you can thank Andrew Carnegie, who became a great philanthropists and made donations for building many of the public libraries in the United States. He also made big endowments to Universities.
Andrew Carnegie also had the reputation of having more millionaires working for him than any other employer of his time.
Carnegie was fascinated with success and wanted to understand why some men became successful while others in very similar circumstances did not. So he commissioned Napoleon Hill to interview the nation's most successful men to find a success formula that would work for the common man. Hill interviewed 504 people, including Ford, Wrigley, Wanamaker, Eastman, Rockefeller, Edison, Woolworth, Darrow, Burbank, Morgan, Firestone, and three United States Presidents.
The process of conducting these interviews required an investment of twenty years of Napoleon Hill's life.
Hill distilled his findings into a 13 step formula, which was published in Think And Grow Rich.
Since Think And Grow Rich was first published in 1937, it has been used as a roadmap to achievement by countless individuals. (Incidentally, Melvin Powers initially built the Wilshire Book Company by getting the paperback publishing rights to Think And Grow Rich and making it a best seller.)
As you may gather from the title, a premise of Think And Grow Rich is the starting place for wealth is in a person's thoughts.
The source for most of today's motivational speakers remains Think And Grow Rich. So why not go back to the source yourself? Be sure to include Think And Grow Rich on your reading list."
[http://www.profitadvisors.com/growrich.shtml]
One of the greatest debates in today's society is the increasing, seemingly unbridgeable chasm between those we deem wealthy and those we deem poor. The only equitable way to address this debate and to bridge the chasm is to educate those who are poor on methods for altering their lot in life to better themselves and their respective families and peers. This education will not come in the form of schooling...but through one of the world's oldest arts, that of proselytizing - teaching by human contact, advertising and publication (in all forms of media) ideas relevant to changing one's knowledge and viewpoint, to be aware of the possibilities available for short- and long-term wealth and health creation.
Do you agree with this? Is this a hopeless and solutionless conundrum? Leave a comment... ;-)
..Phyllostachys.
"Think and Grow Rich
By Napoleon Hill
[a book review] by Michael C. Gray
April 24, 2001
When I meet with young people coming into public accounting, I'm stunned that they are unaware of many of the classics of success philosophy and motivation. One that should be in everyone's success library is Think And Grow Rich.
Andrew Carnegie was the Bill Gates of his day. He came to the United States from Scotland and made a fortune in the steel industry. When you use a public library, you can thank Andrew Carnegie, who became a great philanthropists and made donations for building many of the public libraries in the United States. He also made big endowments to Universities.
Andrew Carnegie also had the reputation of having more millionaires working for him than any other employer of his time.
Carnegie was fascinated with success and wanted to understand why some men became successful while others in very similar circumstances did not. So he commissioned Napoleon Hill to interview the nation's most successful men to find a success formula that would work for the common man. Hill interviewed 504 people, including Ford, Wrigley, Wanamaker, Eastman, Rockefeller, Edison, Woolworth, Darrow, Burbank, Morgan, Firestone, and three United States Presidents.
The process of conducting these interviews required an investment of twenty years of Napoleon Hill's life.
Hill distilled his findings into a 13 step formula, which was published in Think And Grow Rich.
Since Think And Grow Rich was first published in 1937, it has been used as a roadmap to achievement by countless individuals. (Incidentally, Melvin Powers initially built the Wilshire Book Company by getting the paperback publishing rights to Think And Grow Rich and making it a best seller.)
As you may gather from the title, a premise of Think And Grow Rich is the starting place for wealth is in a person's thoughts.
The source for most of today's motivational speakers remains Think And Grow Rich. So why not go back to the source yourself? Be sure to include Think And Grow Rich on your reading list."
[http://www.profitadvisors.com/growrich.shtml]
One of the greatest debates in today's society is the increasing, seemingly unbridgeable chasm between those we deem wealthy and those we deem poor. The only equitable way to address this debate and to bridge the chasm is to educate those who are poor on methods for altering their lot in life to better themselves and their respective families and peers. This education will not come in the form of schooling...but through one of the world's oldest arts, that of proselytizing - teaching by human contact, advertising and publication (in all forms of media) ideas relevant to changing one's knowledge and viewpoint, to be aware of the possibilities available for short- and long-term wealth and health creation.
Do you agree with this? Is this a hopeless and solutionless conundrum? Leave a comment... ;-)
..Phyllostachys.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
phyllostachys three: rhizomes and forex
I don't know much about rhizomes, aside from them being the pesky part of a running bamboo plant that you either find with a spade or with a sharp eye as it pokes its business end over a root barrier in search of greener pastures. But, I know even less about forex, or "foreign exchange", the "simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another" [http://www.forex.com/history_forex.html].
That's the thing I love about the internet...if there's something you don't know about, do a Google search, and start across the next bridge of knowledge and understanding!
Although this may...
Darn! scooped by the WSJ again! :-)
WSJ - 12/14/04 - Personal Journal - "How Investors Are Playing the Weak Dollar" - Financial Services Offer Options Ranging from Currency Trading To the Purchase of Foreign Bonds.
More to come on your forex options, from Bamboo Thoughts.
..Phyllostachys.
That's the thing I love about the internet...if there's something you don't know about, do a Google search, and start across the next bridge of knowledge and understanding!
Although this may...
Darn! scooped by the WSJ again! :-)
WSJ - 12/14/04 - Personal Journal - "How Investors Are Playing the Weak Dollar" - Financial Services Offer Options Ranging from Currency Trading To the Purchase of Foreign Bonds.
More to come on your forex options, from Bamboo Thoughts.
..Phyllostachys.
phyllostachys two: tracking
It's been many moons since I've drafted a stock related e-mail. I've been a little reticent lately due to mixed returns and mixed feeliings about giving advice. I'm not an investment professional - I just have, from years of personal reading and trading, a certain knack for tracking along various trails of the market.
I've said before that I like using the resources of finance.yahoo.com for tracking portfolios. The site gives you a free set of information, albeit with quotes delayed by 15 minutes, that allows you to track individual securities along with related news posts from all sorts of media sources. If you're consistent about reading the news, you can often still find what I'll term stock arbitrage situations.
For example, I've been watching with interest the accretion of companies that is building MobilePro (MOBL.OB [finance.yahoo.com appends ".OB" to represent within its database the existence of the stock on the OTCBB rather than NASDAQ]). About two months ago, MobilePro, an emerging telecom and WiFi technology company, announced that it was seeking to acquire Davel Corp, an owner of some 25,000 payphones, out of Cleveland, OH. The morning of the announcement, Davel was trading at about $.0035....a very low price. As MobilePro had stated an intended purchase price of $.015 per share, I saw an obvious (though very speculative) chance to make at least a few bucks (i.e., a nearly instant four-fold return), and I immediately purchased some 13,000 shares at $.0035. That amounted to only about $60...but this stock had been trading rather thinly, at this low price, so a larger buy order might have spiked the price prematurely (also, for frequent traders, Fidelity's per-trade fee is $8.00, so the trade fee wasn't a huge issue). As it was, the stock moved up smartly later in the day, and over the next couple of weeks moved up to the target buy-out price of $.015. With the move up in price, volume also spiked, allowing me to sell with a comfortable profit at about $.0145. Pretty cool, even though the amount was small.
More recently (this past week, in fact), I started looking again at Research in Motion (RIMM), the Blackberry wireless e-mail device manufacturer, again. I'd reviewed RIMM about 15 months ago, when the stock was at about $6 (split-adjusted). At the time, I figured the stock was just too pricey to justify buying the stock. Now, it's selling at about $88. Hmmmm. :-)
So, although I just bought some RIMM, in the anticipation that they're hitting their appreciation stride, I watched the associated news blurbs about companies trailing on RIMM's coat-tails. Quotemedia, Inc., (QMCI.OB) is one such company. Now that Blackberry's (and similar competing devices) have readable color screens, various media companies will develop services to utilize the wireless color capabilities. Quotemedia delivers stock-related graphs, tracking lists, and instant prices to those of us obsessed with up-to-the minute trading info. QMCI.OB was trading at about $.30 earlier this past week. At the time of the announcement, I bought at about $.32...and just recently added to my position at about $.52. We'll see if this very lightly capitalized company has the resources to build a Blackberry clientele. :-)
..Phyllostachys.
I've said before that I like using the resources of finance.yahoo.com for tracking portfolios. The site gives you a free set of information, albeit with quotes delayed by 15 minutes, that allows you to track individual securities along with related news posts from all sorts of media sources. If you're consistent about reading the news, you can often still find what I'll term stock arbitrage situations.
For example, I've been watching with interest the accretion of companies that is building MobilePro (MOBL.OB [finance.yahoo.com appends ".OB" to represent within its database the existence of the stock on the OTCBB rather than NASDAQ]). About two months ago, MobilePro, an emerging telecom and WiFi technology company, announced that it was seeking to acquire Davel Corp, an owner of some 25,000 payphones, out of Cleveland, OH. The morning of the announcement, Davel was trading at about $.0035....a very low price. As MobilePro had stated an intended purchase price of $.015 per share, I saw an obvious (though very speculative) chance to make at least a few bucks (i.e., a nearly instant four-fold return), and I immediately purchased some 13,000 shares at $.0035. That amounted to only about $60...but this stock had been trading rather thinly, at this low price, so a larger buy order might have spiked the price prematurely (also, for frequent traders, Fidelity's per-trade fee is $8.00, so the trade fee wasn't a huge issue). As it was, the stock moved up smartly later in the day, and over the next couple of weeks moved up to the target buy-out price of $.015. With the move up in price, volume also spiked, allowing me to sell with a comfortable profit at about $.0145. Pretty cool, even though the amount was small.
More recently (this past week, in fact), I started looking again at Research in Motion (RIMM), the Blackberry wireless e-mail device manufacturer, again. I'd reviewed RIMM about 15 months ago, when the stock was at about $6 (split-adjusted). At the time, I figured the stock was just too pricey to justify buying the stock. Now, it's selling at about $88. Hmmmm. :-)
So, although I just bought some RIMM, in the anticipation that they're hitting their appreciation stride, I watched the associated news blurbs about companies trailing on RIMM's coat-tails. Quotemedia, Inc., (QMCI.OB) is one such company. Now that Blackberry's (and similar competing devices) have readable color screens, various media companies will develop services to utilize the wireless color capabilities. Quotemedia delivers stock-related graphs, tracking lists, and instant prices to those of us obsessed with up-to-the minute trading info. QMCI.OB was trading at about $.30 earlier this past week. At the time of the announcement, I bought at about $.32...and just recently added to my position at about $.52. We'll see if this very lightly capitalized company has the resources to build a Blackberry clientele. :-)
..Phyllostachys.
phyllostachys one
This blog is the first in a series of blogs generated from the blend of my personal reading, research, studying and general living. My current interests range from music by Third Eye Blind to Mozart, from bamboo cultivation to tai chi study, and from hard sci-fi (from Jules Verne to Halo 2) to tech investing. I blend these varied interests, and others, to make my life (along with work, a long daily commute, and family).
This blog will primarily consist of short investment newsletters, to be sprinkled with other items from my list of interests as I have time to add them. My life primarily consists of work, and a long daily commute to/from work, so everything else fills in the nooks and crannies as best they can.
As for the name of the blog? Phyllostachys is a species of bamboo consisting of about 30 family members. See: [http://www.tripplebrookfarm.com/iplants/Phyllostachys.html]. My personal favorite (and potential enemy, of course) is Phyllostachys Vivax, which has been growing in my garden for about seven years now, here in Western Pennsylvania, USA. My interest in bamboo springs from a joint interest in oriental philosophies & martial arts, and gardening. Asian culture refers to bamboo as the "old man"...presumably because the bamboo is always green and it lives for so long (many decades) before flowering, going to seed, and dying.
As I work on this blog, I'll seek to update my personal webpage, and dovetail its existence into this blog. :-)
..Phyllostachys.
This blog will primarily consist of short investment newsletters, to be sprinkled with other items from my list of interests as I have time to add them. My life primarily consists of work, and a long daily commute to/from work, so everything else fills in the nooks and crannies as best they can.
As for the name of the blog? Phyllostachys is a species of bamboo consisting of about 30 family members. See: [http://www.tripplebrookfarm.com/iplants/Phyllostachys.html]. My personal favorite (and potential enemy, of course) is Phyllostachys Vivax, which has been growing in my garden for about seven years now, here in Western Pennsylvania, USA. My interest in bamboo springs from a joint interest in oriental philosophies & martial arts, and gardening. Asian culture refers to bamboo as the "old man"...presumably because the bamboo is always green and it lives for so long (many decades) before flowering, going to seed, and dying.
As I work on this blog, I'll seek to update my personal webpage, and dovetail its existence into this blog. :-)
..Phyllostachys.
Friday, October 31, 2003
historical newsletter 1: Halloween, 2003
Before I get back into these amateur newsletters, via "bamboo thoughts", I'll relay previous letters...
==============
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 14:49:13 -0800
Friends,
This has been a weird Fall - that's the only way I can describe it.
Fire's in la-la-land, hurricanes over-running Western Pennsylvania
(albeit severely diminished), a very pink aurora borealis visible
from my backyard last night...and a stock market full of investors
wondering whether 7.2% GDP growth means a strong 2004 or imminent
increases in the Fed funds rate.
For the past nine months, semiconductors have led the NASDAQ from
zero to sixty in 4 seconds; while they look to continue on up, some
fear that they've come too far too fast (ISSI, LEXR, SSTI, SNDK,
etc). Data storage seems to have lagged the upswing a bit...and will
probably lag a little bit more (BRCD, MCDTA, EMC, etc.)...thought
Network Appliance has been staging quite a comeback (NTAP).
Small/micro caps have been doing very well and will probably continue
to do so...but there are so many, whom do you follow? (e.g., BCSI,
NSO, SOFO, etc.)
So, where will the action run next? Obviously in many directions:
as corporate/governmental spending picks up, telecom is rising,
network appliances are coming back and software is selling well. So,
just try to find the industries that you can understand (with a bit
of web-reading) and may be able to carry your boat up with the tide.
One of those, for me, is wireless products (wi-fi, GPS, etc.). I've
found three interesting "wireless" companies: At Road Inc (ARDI),
Proxim Corp (PROX) and WaveRider Communications Inc (WAVC.OB).
At Road weaves together GPS and wireless tech to assist companies in
managing their mobile workforce (truckers, etc.). Although ARDI was
recently beaten up by a Piper-Jaffray analyst rating, their rev's and
income (decreasing net loss) have been advancing (lessening) nearly
every quarter, and they have a nice debt:asset ratio. Proxim and
WaveRider both install Wi-Fi networks for companies and governments,
using a technology called non-line-of-sight wireless networking.
Proxim (Sunnyvale, CA), for example, bought out ORiNOCO (wireless
networking equipment) and has a contract to outfit Panera Bread
stores with Wi-Fi Hotspot networking. WaveRider, a Toronto company,
in the other CA, is selling it's tech to municipalities and others
looking to provide wireless internet access. Both PROX and WAVC are
in the penny-stock territory: sub-$2 prices and lots of
liquidity...but both are pure-play wireless concerns. ARDI is
currently at about $12.50 and has a much smaller float at about 19.5
m shares...which means to me greater potential for future splits as
the price moves higher.
As always, I've found that the greatest research tool around is
Finance.Yahoo.com. They've added technical charting and a pretty
decent stock screening tool.
Have a great Fall!
==============
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 14:49:13 -0800
Friends,
This has been a weird Fall - that's the only way I can describe it.
Fire's in la-la-land, hurricanes over-running Western Pennsylvania
(albeit severely diminished), a very pink aurora borealis visible
from my backyard last night...and a stock market full of investors
wondering whether 7.2% GDP growth means a strong 2004 or imminent
increases in the Fed funds rate.
For the past nine months, semiconductors have led the NASDAQ from
zero to sixty in 4 seconds; while they look to continue on up, some
fear that they've come too far too fast (ISSI, LEXR, SSTI, SNDK,
etc). Data storage seems to have lagged the upswing a bit...and will
probably lag a little bit more (BRCD, MCDTA, EMC, etc.)...thought
Network Appliance has been staging quite a comeback (NTAP).
Small/micro caps have been doing very well and will probably continue
to do so...but there are so many, whom do you follow? (e.g., BCSI,
NSO, SOFO, etc.)
So, where will the action run next? Obviously in many directions:
as corporate/governmental spending picks up, telecom is rising,
network appliances are coming back and software is selling well. So,
just try to find the industries that you can understand (with a bit
of web-reading) and may be able to carry your boat up with the tide.
One of those, for me, is wireless products (wi-fi, GPS, etc.). I've
found three interesting "wireless" companies: At Road Inc (ARDI),
Proxim Corp (PROX) and WaveRider Communications Inc (WAVC.OB).
At Road weaves together GPS and wireless tech to assist companies in
managing their mobile workforce (truckers, etc.). Although ARDI was
recently beaten up by a Piper-Jaffray analyst rating, their rev's and
income (decreasing net loss) have been advancing (lessening) nearly
every quarter, and they have a nice debt:asset ratio. Proxim and
WaveRider both install Wi-Fi networks for companies and governments,
using a technology called non-line-of-sight wireless networking.
Proxim (Sunnyvale, CA), for example, bought out ORiNOCO (wireless
networking equipment) and has a contract to outfit Panera Bread
stores with Wi-Fi Hotspot networking. WaveRider, a Toronto company,
in the other CA, is selling it's tech to municipalities and others
looking to provide wireless internet access. Both PROX and WAVC are
in the penny-stock territory: sub-$2 prices and lots of
liquidity...but both are pure-play wireless concerns. ARDI is
currently at about $12.50 and has a much smaller float at about 19.5
m shares...which means to me greater potential for future splits as
the price moves higher.
As always, I've found that the greatest research tool around is
Finance.Yahoo.com. They've added technical charting and a pretty
decent stock screening tool.
Have a great Fall!
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