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Vitaliy | 1 Oct 01:07

Re: [OT] House Rejects Bailout, Stocks Tumble: Dow Down 7%, Nasdaq 9%

Martin wrote:
>> To mitigate risk, invest in index funds. There were plenty of studies 
>> done
>> that over time, active trading is not able to outperform the market.
>>
>
> Depends on who you invest in. Motley Fool's Stock Advisor picks since
> 2002 are up 47%. S&P 500 is down 0.73% over the same time period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_funds#Economic_theory

"In particular the EMH says that economic profits cannot be wrung from stock 
picking. This is not to say that a stock picker cannot achieve a superior 
return, just that the excess return will not exceed the costs of winning it 
(including salaries, information costs, and trading costs). The conclusion 
is that most investors would be better off buying a cheap index fund."

VItaliy 

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Isaac Marino Bavaresco | 1 Oct 01:11
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Re: [PIC] PIC18F for starters

I´m using the PIC18 TCP/IP boot-loader from Microchip, and it indeed is
almost transparent to the application developer.

The only change to the code one must do is to reduce the length of the
program FLASH segment in the linker-script, because the boot-loader
resides at the end of the flash memory.

The boot-loader then takes the first two instructions of the
application, saves them in an area inside itself followed with a jump to
the third instruction and replaces the original instructions with a jump
to its own start.

When calling the application, the boot-loader just jumps to the saved
original instructions.

William "Chops" Westfield escreveu:
> On Sep 30, 2008, at 9:47 AM, Byron Jeff wrote:
>
>   
>> OTOH [a bootloader] can be completely transparent and accept  
>> virtually any image unchanged.
>>     
>
>
> How is this possible on a PIC?  Either you need to have code located  
> at the reset vector, or you have to count on the code that IS at the  
> reset vector behaving in a certain way (ie falling through into the  
> bootloader elsewhere?)
>
>
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Apptech | 1 Oct 01:04
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Re: [OT] House Rejects Bailout, Stocks Tumble: Dow Down 7%, Nasdaq 9%

> BTW, I've never bought any stock. Firstly because I am just
> a poor engineer. Secondly, I think most of the people can not get
> rich by entering stock market.

FWIW (possibly not more than you pay for the advice) the stock market has 
LONG TERM outperformed any other 'legal' investment that you can make.

  R

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Xiaofan Chen | 1 Oct 01:20
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Re: [OT] House Rejects Bailout, Stocks Tumble: Dow Down 7%, Nasdaq 9%

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 2:32 AM, Vitaliy <spam <at> maksimov.org> wrote:
> Xiaofan Chen wrote:
>>> Now is the best ever time to buy stock.
>> If you believe so.
>
> "Stocks jump after steep sell-off; key rate rises"
> http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080930/wall_street.html

They jumped today, maybe they will fall tomorrow.

>>> The "bailout package" will get passed.
>> Maybe. But I serious doubt if this is the correct way.
>
> Then you think you know more than the leading economists.

This issue is highly divided. Many leading economists agree
with the plan, equally many others do not agree with the plan.

And it should be taxpayers who decide the issue because
they pay the money.

>>> Anybody got any spare cash? I'd like to buy me some Google stock...
>> If you trust your first statement, you can borrow some money to buy it.
>
> Xiaofan, wake up! We're in the middle of a credit crunch, who will loan to
> me -- you?
>
> If I bought Google's stock yesterday, today (Sep 30, 11:30 AM Pacific) I
> would have been $32.72 per share richer.
>
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Vitaliy | 1 Oct 01:19

Re: [OT] House Rejects Bailout, Stocks Tumble: Dow Down 7%, Nasdaq 9%

Gabriel wrote:
> Buying stock just like that is one of the poorest options there are for
> investing, specially if the buy is backed by a "hunch".
> One better way to do it would be to sell a Put option at the strike price
> you'd like to buy the stock at, and if it ever gets that low, you get the
> stock for a slightly better price (because of the credit you received when
> you sold the Put option), and if it never gets to that price before the
> option expires, you get to keep the the whole premium you collected when 
> you
> sold the Put option.
>
> There are many better alternatives to just "buy stock".

It probably wasn't obvious, but my lament was half-joking.

Having said that, it was obvious that the market would recover after 
yesterday's panic. It's not a "hunch", its a near certainty (barring a 
cataclismic event).

If I had the money to buy 100 shares, I could have made $3000 in one day. :)

Vitaliy 

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Xiaofan Chen | 1 Oct 01:27
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Re: [OT] House Rejects Bailout, Stocks Tumble: Dow Down 7%, Nasdaq 9%

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7:04 AM, Apptech <apptech <at> paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>> BTW, I've never bought any stock. Firstly because I am just
>> a poor engineer. Secondly, I think most of the people can not get
>> rich by entering stock market.
>
> FWIW (possibly not more than you pay for the advice) the stock market has
> LONG TERM outperformed any other 'legal' investment that you can make.

By not investing in the stock market, at least I have my peace of mind.

When I have some money left, I pay back my debts (mortgages) and now
I nearly finished paying my mortgage.

The only mistake I made is to trust the AIA insurance agent and bought
the so called investment linked insurance. Just after two years, it has
lost more than one thirds of its value.

My youngest brother is living in China, he has so called better money
management skills than I and invested in the hot Chinese stock market.
First year he earned 25%. But since last year, his stock lost 60% of
the values. So all in all he still loses out.

Xiaofan
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Xiaofan Chen | 1 Oct 01:32
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Re: [OT] House Rejects Bailout, Stocks Tumble: Dow Down 7%, Nasdaq 9%

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7:19 AM, Vitaliy <spam <at> maksimov.org> wrote:
>
> If I had the money to buy 100 shares, I could have made $3000 in one day. :)

I believe you could have the money if you really want to. And I believe
you could make more than $3000 in one day. However I also believe
you could lose $5000 in another day if you have this kind of mentality
when investing...

Xiaofan
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Xiaofan Chen | 1 Oct 01:39
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Re: [OT] Apple ranks high when it comes to overrated product

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 1:05 AM, William Chops Westfield <westfw <at> mac.com> wrote:
>
> PS: I have a new Mac!  8x2.8GHz/10GB/2TB (more or less.)  But it's
> already been in the shop :-(  (Loud POP from power supply, followed by
> deadness.  I've never had a computer "explode" before.)

Wow, what are you planing to do with this powerful computer?
A few years back, it may need to get approval to export to many
other countries. ;-)

Xiaofan
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Xiaofan Chen | 1 Oct 01:47
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Re: [OT] Built-in product obsolescence

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 5:57 PM, Vitaliy <spam <at> maksimov.org> wrote:
> The bottom line is, if you want to have a successful product, you need to
> figure out what your customers really value in your product. The problem is,
> of course, that your customers often can't tell you anything beyond "we want
> more of the same, for less".

Very true. Even in the industry I am in (Industrial Automation) where
customers tend to be more sophisticated, it is still a bit difficult
to grasp the gist of VOC (voice of customers). Different customers
have different needs. The universal need for the product is "do more
and cost less".

But there is another way, packaged the product in a way that the
customers do not really understand and just tell them that they
can earn money from the product. That is how the investment
banks sell the repackaged subprime loan derivatives...

Xiaofan
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Xiaofan Chen | 1 Oct 01:54
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Re: [PIC] PIC18F for starters

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 7:11 AM, Isaac Marino Bavaresco
<isaacbavaresco <at> yahoo.com.br> wrote:
> I´m using the PIC18 TCP/IP boot-loader from Microchip, and it indeed is
> almost transparent to the application developer.
>
> The only change to the code one must do is to reduce the length of the
> program FLASH segment in the linker-script, because the boot-loader
> resides at the end of the flash memory.
>
> The boot-loader then takes the first two instructions of the
> application, saves them in an area inside itself followed with a jump to
> the third instruction and replaces the original instructions with a jump
> to its own start.
>
> When calling the application, the boot-loader just jumps to the saved
> original instructions.

Bootloader is almost transparent to the application developer. But
there is a problem that the configuration words are shared. So
you may end up make your bootloader not functional if you change
the wrong bits (say extended instruction or sometimes the clock
settings).

Xiaofan

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