Brother Can You Spare A Dime

Listened to Faith, Listen WOP, Older and now Songs FTLC.....I think this one summarises the last few hours......

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij3ba71gtrU

Dow 20,000

As we cross Dow 20,000 you should read this about Dow 116,200

- http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-20k-shows-why-a-21-year-old-forecast-for-dow-116200-in-2040-still-makes-sense-2016-12-20?siteid=rss&rss=1

Oriana

Interesting article worth reading


- http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/20/africa/orania-south-africa-afrikaners/index.html?

Beijing smog

You would think there has to be some money to be made in solving this problem……?
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-17/china-orders-beijing-factories-to-shut-or-cut-output/8129752


 

Reddit

You have to love what a rabbit hole Reddit can be.

Read this post

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/5iexyv/if_fire_is_a_reaction_limited_to_planets_with/?

Which lead to this blogger

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride

Which sucked up at least an hour of my time on this and other posts of his :)

Fed move

....huh? the 0.25% Fed Rate rise was 100% predicted.....what the heck did aussie traders find out at 2pm that made the dollar move this much??

Build a new Melbourne every decade

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/build-a-new-melbourne-every-decade-or-face-more-congestion-20161211-gt8x8c.html


The older I get the more I fail to understand why Australia doesn't understand the need for more than 2 big cities and 5 country towns.

Until we realize that Canberra, Bathurst, Orange, Port Macquarie, Nowra  etc etc MUST be allowed to expand into fully fledged cities with self sustaining industry and jobs we are stuck in a vicious cycle of trying to squeeze more and more people into an expensive situation in Sydney and Melbourne.

Its time for Australia to grow up.

We need more #Tier2cities and we need them now.

SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

ITS SNOWING IN NYC :)))))))

ITS SNOWING IN NYC :)))))))


SQUEEEEEEEEEE, #BRB

Thankfully I have a wife who humours my need to go out for a walk the first time we get snow each season.

I think I'll miss moments like this when we go home to Australia.

Samsung KILL ALL code push

Well we got the KILL ALL code push text message today.

.....very interesting that EFF/ACLU/Consumer rights groups are mute here.

Basically when Tmobile pushed out the 60% charging update I was like ok……and used a custom cyanogen ROM to restore my rights but after this current announcement for the 19th of Dec deadline where all Note 7’s will be prevented from charging…..wtf??

Basically I’m over it and placed the order for the Huawei Mate 9- http://amzn.to/2hdvx2l and am done with Samsung, screw it. As someone who currently has 2 samsung tv’s, 3 monitors, 2 blu ray players and 2 Note 7’s……I’m unlikely to ever purchase Samsung again for a very very long time. Put that in your cost model and tell me how it works out for you.

Grey Market

Interesting that grey market buyers in Australia changing brands they reship can change the market value so much

- http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/how-life-for-milks-market-darling-turned-sour-in-china-20161208-gt7a3i.html

Interesting read

Interesting read

- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/business/dealbook/goldman-sachs-cerberus-lonestar-europe-mortgages.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

I guess I come down on the side of....."fortune favours the brave" and the current tenants could have purchased in 2008 in the downturn......and saying now that things are rosy......they want to buy in at 2008 depressed prices....or continue renting at depressed 2008 prices doesn't help with reality.

As for Ireland missing out on their taxes.....this is why we need to be in a consumption based tax economy, its the spending point that is taxable not the back end profits when you can incorporate anywhere else in the world and sub out profits (one of the reasons I'm strongly for stamp duty in NSW property purchases even though it hurts personally every time we buy).

Samsung bricking ALL Note 7 devices

Proving yet again you never really own "connected software" and just 'rent it'

FU Samsung US - http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2016/12/09/samsung-may-distribute-update-brick-note-7-next-week/

I am kind of curious to know whether phones running Cyanogen mods if T-Mobile can still push the update through to brick your phone.

It brings up a really interesting question for consumers as we move into an IOT pervasive world……when after the sale do the rights belong to the consumer? When do you have a situation where a vendor can “reach in” and withdraw a consumers rights??

Where is the ACLU when you need it :)

and yes in case you are wondering what i'm replacing my Note 7 with.....I ordered the Huawei Mate 9 through Amazon where they are selling the unlocked international dual sim version with 6gb ram and 128gb rom for only $899 - http://amzn.to/2hdvx2l 

The real question is do I dump Tmobile once this unlocked "fully paid for" phone arrives.

Suspicious 0bservers

This is why i watch Suspicious 0bservers weather video most days, he's on to some interesting ideas and always interesting to watch.
- https://www.youtube.com/v/4pbFe1HODbU?version=3 (eg around 1.58min mark)

and a few hours later this happened http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/us/california-pacific-ocean-earthquake/index.html

Clonezilla

Used Clonezilla before?

Neat app to “clone” a drive to another drive.  - http://clonezilla.org/

I used to use “backups” to do this when swapping out drives etc but came across a problem where I needed to go from a spinning disk to a smaller ssd drive…… clonezilla to the rescue using the ICDS option in expert mode, more detailed description here - http://www.seanwingert.com/blogs/clonezilla-clone-bigger-smaller-drive-eg-ssd

Worked like a charm. 

Bill Gross

Great comment in this post by Bill Gross on the distortion of the current market

"Promote capitalism – even though government controlled, near zero percent interest rates distort markets"http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-06/bill-gross-reveals-global-establishments-overall-plan-eight-simple-steps

Never truer words have been said

S/V RAN

Been watching one or two of these S/V RAN sailing videos every lunch, the earlier southern ocean video series is well worth watching

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owSj45-pG8g#t=1585.8889243

Blackstone @Home files for IPO

I know this is USA residential focused.......but interesting to think about what could happen to Sydney rents if something similar happened in Australia.......

- Blackstone's single-family rental division files for IPO