Scary...

So apparently, my credit card got hacked or something. I was charged with an online purchase from the Apple Store today. USD642.43 worth of stuff.

If this wasn't so scary, I'd be laughing at the irony. I don't own anything Apple. The only time I ever made a purchase in the Apple store was to get a pair of batteries for a friend. So blatantly obvious it was a fraudulent charge. I called the credit card company and informed them about it and they said they would cancel the charge, replace the card and investigate. So I'll check in with them next week to see what happened.

Apparently, this isn't new though. I had a friend whose debit card was used to make fraudulent Apple store charges (totalling ~USD300) as well. So please beware (this warning goes out to the 2 people who actually visit sometime).

Anyways, in other news, the funds finally transferred to my account so i managed to turn a 13 dollar profit today. Haha. I was reading up more in depth about stocks and decided that as a green horn, I should concentrate my efforts into ETFs. Since I used Fidelity, they have a selection of commission free ETF's that I started with. As a general rule, ETF's give you a wide basket of stocks/funds at a relatively cheap price. The drawback is the management cost of the fund but at 0.5% or lower, I find that acceptable for the rookie investor. I also tried to look out for equities that give out dividend. The importance of dividends will discussed in another post, but I'll say for now that an attractive dividend rate is one of my deciding factors when I choose these ETFs. The 3 I started out with are as follows:

1. ISHARES DOW JONES SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX FUND (DVY)

I choose this ETF as it was quite a way's off the historic high in 2007 and was trending up. Although past performance does not indicate future results (as the very common caveat goes), in general, I believe that the US market is on an upswing. It might be fragile, but it's still a positive outlook nevertheless. Exports are growing as the USD falls, the unemployment rates seems to have stabilized and even fallen slightly and most importantly, business are starting to hire and spend again. This means that any stock that mirrors the market should, in general, trend upwards as well. Looking at the historic highs (75) and it's current price (52), I believe that the ETF can return to such levels of glory again. Also, they provide a dividend rate of 0.88% which is fairly good amongst it's peers offered by Fidelity.

2. ISHARES DOW JONES EPAC SELECT DIVIDEND FUND (IDV)

I choose this ETF as it invests in the developed world outside of the US. I thought a little global exposure would help balance out the portfolio. The dividend rate lower than DVY at 0.65% but again the current price is ~75% of the historic 5 year high in 2007. Who knows if it will go up that high again but I think the little bit of diversity it gives me is good.

3. ISHARES RUSSELL 3000 INDEX FUND (IWV)

This is the simplest type of fund. It just copies the entire Russell 3000 composition so there's very little active management involved. Hence it is also the cheapest at 0.21% management fees. I think the Russell 30000 should be a good indicator of the market as it's much broader than the Dow Jones but still has a lot of 'heavy hitters'. The dividend rate isn't great at 0.36% but I think as the economy grows, so should the fund.

A final note here, I think I started with ETF's as they are not complicated, but in general, I think I will be moving to investing in individual stocks and cutting out the management fees. But as of now, with my green horns, I don't have the time to do adequate research on all the stuff I want to get.

With that note, I shall go to bed. I'm trying to wake up early to workout. We'll see how it goes...

Ninja!!

Never mess with a 8 handed ninja.


I hope everyone enjoyed their halloween. I know I did. At least I had something to celebrate before becoming hobbled with my ACL reconstruction surgery. Here are a couple of nuggets I have found just surfing the net in my bed-idle time.

Looks like the LIBOR rate is FINALLY dropping down. Hopefully this means not just optimism at the changing of the guard of the USA president but also a less paranoid outlook by the banks.

Hopefully this will in turn lower mortgage rates so that if/when I can finally finance my home purchase, it will be cheaper.

A couple of indicators of how the world will fare should be able to be seen in the differential between the LIBOR and 3 month US Treasury Bonds rate. When things settle back to normal, this differential should be ~1%.

Also, historically the US housing market has found its "sweet spot" with a 6 month inventory. Currently, it is about 10 months worth so demand is still lagging behind supply by quite a bit.

And joblessness numbers should be sub-400,000 before the economy starts to recover.

All the information was gleamed from Yahoo! Finance.

Feel the beat

Today's post will be a PSA.

If you ever encounter someone who's suffering from heart failure or has just gone unconscious and have the balls to try to perform CPR on them, just remember -

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
Im a womans man: no time to talk..."

Apparently research shows that Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees is the almost perfect rhythm for doing chest compressions. The ideal rate is 100 beats per min, Stayin Alive clocks at 103 bpm. So you can always help someone by singing "Ah Ah Ah Ah Staying Alive~~!!"

How Safe is your Chat?

Cnet has an article about how encrypted (or open) popular instant messaging systems are. It's something to keep in mind if you want to talk about any salacious/illegal/embarrassing details online.

The full report can be found here.

LCD Hunting?

Then here are some things to look out for (straight from the Pro's mouth)

1. Backlight leaking. When it's all dark, the edges glow.
2. Uneven backlight lighting - If you have say a monotone blue wallpaper, the blue on top looks different than the blue below. This is less obvious on small monitors but 24'' and above is pretty obvious.
3. Color (observe the Americanized English) gamut. Most LCD on the market now uses panel that produces only 78% of the color spectrum. The new ones which most manufacturers are transitioning to are >92%. Makes hell of a difference. Make sure you don't get something that manufacturers are trying to dump.
4.Warranty. Worry less about dead pixels these days. The backlight usually dies first.

There you have it. Things to ponder when you next hunt for the 32" FragFest Baby to allow you to game and chat with the gf/mom/random hot chick at the same time.

Watch the Video, Follow the Instructions

And see how sharp your eyes are.

Something I don't do very often

Which is discuss about finance. WARNING:LONG POST THAT I DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND MYSELF. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. Here is a Financial Times article written by former Fed(eral Reserve) Chairman Alan Greenspan.

With the emerging financial doom and gloom lead by the sub-prime mortgage crisis and compounded with a steadying dropping consumer confidence and rising oil prices, I thought it would be a good thing to listen to what this guy had to say. He obviously knows a lot more about finance than me. So I'm gonna be leaving pointers on what I think is interesting/important.

1. Apparently this might be the worse crunch for the US since World War II. I guess we should be "privileged" to live in such interesting times.

2. The biggest component of this mess is the housing market. And until the liquidation of the excess inventory has happened in earnest, there won't be stabilization. Which means, that it's a good time to go investing if you can spare a few hundred thousand USD (My thoughts). However, single family housing supply has sharply fallen in the past year. Mr Greenspan predicts that in 2008, around 400,000 homes will be sold. And next year's supply is limited as well so that will prevent even more empty houses flooding the market.

3. One of the biggest changes that should occur from the fallout of this crisis is how risk is assessed by the financial sector. I don't fully realise the impact of his words so I'm just gonna quote verbatim here.

To be sure, the systems of setting bank capital requirements, both economic and regulatory, which have developed over the past two decades will be overhauled substantially in light of recent experience. Indeed, private investors are already demanding larger capital buffers and collateral, and the mavens convened under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements will surely amend the newly minted Basel II international regulatory accord

The manner of risk-taking companies took were not able to withstand the stress when the whole market took a downturn.

One difficult problem is that much of the dubious financial-market behaviour that chronically emerges during the expansion phase is the result not of ignorance of badly underpriced risk, but of the concern that unless firms participate in a current euphoria, they will irretrievably lose market share. Risk management seeks to maximise risk-adjusted rates of return on equity; often, in the process, underused capital is considered “waste”. Gone are the days when banks prided themselves on triple-A ratings and sometimes hinted at hidden balance-sheet reserves (often true) that conveyed an aura of invulnerability. Today, or at least prior to August 9 2007, the assets and capital that define triple-A status, or seemed to, entailed too high a competitive cost.

4. Current models have an X-factor thrown in to model the market. This means that they cannot adequately describe what is happening. Ideally, we should be able to simulate what happens when the market is given to hysteria. As long as we can predict the systematic lows of the market, we should be able to prepare for it. But that is beyond my expertise as to how such things should occur (My thoughts).

I hope that was informative! And yes, I know it was too long. Bleah.

Breaking News!

Just because I care. This is an extract of an article from the AP.

Men who do housework may get more sex...

Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of "The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework," said equitable sharing of housework can lead to a happier marriage and more frequent sex.

"If a guy does housework, it looks to the woman like he really cares about her — he's not treating her like a servant," said Coleman, who is affiliated with the Council on Contemporary Families. "And if a woman feels stressed out because the house is a mess and the guy's sitting on the couch while she's vacuuming, that's not going to put her in the mood."

So there you have. Guys this is for you, and knowing is half the battle.

FUCK LENOVO

I was going to post something about my 12 hour connection from Winnipeg to Chicago (only a 2 hour flight normally) but I'm furious at the piece of shit that is Lenovo Tech Support.

I sent in my laptop because I had a faulty NIC card, and when I got it back, my whole Hard Drive was wiped out. FUCK THOSE LITTLE BASTARDS. I will call the tech depot tomorrow to screw that moronic techician. Oh my god, I cannot adequately verbalise how angry I am right now.

So here's a PSA for you guys, save yourself the grief, don't buy Lenovo.

Wow.

I had many things to wow and bitch about. From not having time to play Team Fortress 2(50% off on Black Friday!), to having to send in my laptop to cos I appear to have a busted network card, but this really takes the cake. The video on youtube was removed by the user, but you can see it at the link below. It's a sad story about gaming and family (not the sad way you'd typically think). Very touching.

http://animalcrossingtragedy.ytmnd.com/

I'm really blessed to have parents who are supportive and allow me the freedom to do what I think I want in life but are always there when things don't go as planned. So a big thanks to them for helping to where I am today. And I think, after watching that, dear readers, you should do the same too.

Warning...

Abstract Science Concept Ahead.

Discover recently had a contest to ask people to explain String Theory in TWO minutes or less. The entries are all pretty cool and should be checked out if you have interest in knowing how the universe works or just want to sound knowledgeable about this theory.

However, for the people who just want to spend two minutes of their lives knowing more, I've copied the winning entry into this post below. It's string theory about duckies. I present to you- String Ducky. Enjoy.

Negative Demonstration

真是气死了。这个project的programmers是一群窝囊废。原本说好明天需要他们在工厂协助我们的project，可是他们老板目中只有钱这个字。只抱着一个"Show me the money"的态度，很贪小便宜。而且最岂有此理的事是他们本来就没有把事件做好就走了。现在，他们起先应该做好的事，他们要我们付钱？What the fuck. 幸亏除了我之外没有人听得懂中文。我听了那件事之后，就臭骂那个小人似的老板。真是。。。CENSORED.

And to those people interested, the company is based in Georgia. Be VERY CAREFUL in dealing with 喂前 (Process engineers might be familiar with the translated version.). They are... less than savory when it comes to responsibility and fiscal obligations...

Warning

What smells like bubble gum and tastes like shit? And yet will have lots people clamouring for it (at least for the first taste)?


Halo 3 Mountain Dew with Citrus Cherry.

Do not buy it. You have been warned. You must resist the Master Chief or let ur taste buds suffer.

Speaking of Halo 3, WK is one lucky dude. Gears of War, Halo 3, you can even get Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix on that Xbox 360 of yours. I would have gotten 1 if not for the craptacular failure rate of the 360 and the fact that I'm not at home like 50% of the time anyways... Sigh.

How to Build Your Own Rock Band (Or How 5 People Can Look Good Doing Nothing)

So how was my vacation some people might ask. And I can honestly say it was a heck of a good time. I managed to meet up with my cuz, E.B.O.F. and my friend from home. So it was really enjoyable.

One particular part of vacation that really stood out was when we went to the Experience Music Project (EMP) near Space Needle. It was there that I realised how manufactured bands are produced. Let me share some of the insight I gleamed from that place.

First, when starting a band, you need someone with passion, or at least someone who looks like they have passion when the camera flashes. So I present to you the Siao Zhar Bor Ardent Drummer Girl. She's literally ready to burst with fury.

So after you settle on the passion, you then need the flair. To accomplish this, you need to have a pretty face lead singer (who can sing, preferable). As they need to look good, most of the time, a female is selected for the task. In our case, it was simple. The girls simply looked better.Hence the SuperStar Wannabe Lead Singer.
Ideally, you'd want to have more than a single sex front the good looks section. If the best looking guy isn't much to speak of, then you transform the ordinary into the extraordinary by sticking an electric guitar in his hands. Thus creating Flair Number Two (For Female Eyes version). Or as I like to call it, the Act Seh Guitarist.

So after you covered cool, you now want to spin a little humor into your group. To do this, they employ the "Act Blur" persona. In this case, it was done by the a Koteh Back Up Singer. Incidentally, a male with a tambourine is the latest "hot" image with all the chicks. Or at least according to the population (me) surveyed. So I shall hear no arguments about that.
Lastly, after all that commercial appeal, you have to "keep it real" to give your band that edge. To that effect, you need a "homey"ish kind of band member. We decided to cast our keyboardist into that role. And the Homey Keyboardist was born.
Although each individual element might seem very "meh" at the moment, a rock band is truly greater than the sum of it's parts. Combined, the aforementioned members form a fluid, melodious and totally happening band. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present "The Engineers and Psychologist". And yes, no one had a better name at the moment of inception.

My apologies for the cropped picture but the poster was too big for my scanner.

I hope my readers have learnt something from this tutorial about how to create your own musical experience. And I would expect acknowledgements when anyone of you make it big. Till then, live long and rock on!

Be A Ma.....

As a sign of respect to E.B.O.F. (and because I fear for my life), I'm not going to finish that phrase. But I do believe, that the ability to distinguish cowardice and foolhardiness is essential in any form to confrontation. To do so will not only do your allies right in battle, but the thing is, the crux of any battle is attrition and to win, you must be able to brave the odds.

Today, I had allies who were like this during normal times.
But come battle, they became thus.
So remember, do your teammates a favour and when you are the f*cking tank, don't let the nukers suffer. The CM will thank you for that by disabling the people who are chasing you the next time.

Note - When the low health spell caster has more kills than someone that is build like a tank (Slardar), the only result is a "/ban XXX condemned!!!!". Sorry for the semi-cryptic in-game reference.

SUPER BOWL XLI

It's SuperBowl weekend. Do you know where your 40 inch plasma Hi-Def TV is? Unfortunately, I don't. But still, nothing beats watching grown men smash themselves together over a pigskin ball together with some friends. And you guys have about 6 hours to make it so. So Just Do It.GO COLTS!

Rhythm is a Dancer

DDR, Donkey Konga, Guitar Hero. All these are games that aren't really in the Super Mario genre or the Doom first person shooter games but are nevertheless awesomely fun when you get down to it. Today, I present a few other ZOMG fast fingers in 2 other rhythm games.


Beatmania, which is a DJ kind of game with a faux disc that you can "spin".


Pop 'n Music, which is kinda like the Japanese version of Beatmania, but it looks like it was designed for people with really big or really fast hands.

Lastly, here's a link to travel tips from Yahoo. You can go check it out if you're interested. It might be of some help.