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The best products; the best advice; the best articles

The slowdown in China is hurting Apple’s stock. Yuch.

Hot tech stocks like GPRO, FIT and AMBA are up. But you got to stay away from most of them — MSFT, Yelp, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Not easy.

The organic food business hurt Whole Foods, but HAIN and WWAV are doing well. They’re manufacturers, not retailers.

AMGN and GILD are doing well. NK’s IPO was hot. It has some neat technology. But now it’s pulled back, making it a seriously interesting buy.

LMT continues to climb. It’s the biggest defense stock. The world is using up its stockpiles and re-arming

The best products and services.

+ If your grandkid wants a camera, get the kid a Nikon Coolpix S33. Waterproof. Drop-proof. Childproof. $127. Click here.

+ The best pocket camera for you remains the Canon G16. See the column on the right.

+ The best laptop is Lenovo’s ThinkPad X230. Old, but available on eBay for under $500. Make sure you get one with a SSD (solid state drive). That makes it very fast.

+ The best online glasses are from Zenni Optical. I’ve now had three pairs — none more expensive than $30. All with my own prescription. Perfect, fast service. Click here.

+ The simplest easiest backup for your day-to-day working files is the $30 PNY Turbo 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive. I now have two of them. Click here.

+ The cheapest and easiest WiFi for your computer is to turn on your Personal Hotspot on your iPhone. Much safer than using a public WiFi, like the one at Starbucks. You may need to speak to your carrier.

+ The best small computer backpack is the STM Bags Aero Small Backpack. Finding this one took years.  Click here.

 Techie stuff (again):

1. I really like Fidelity’s Active Trader Pro software. I also really like Fidelity’s service. Its people are most helpful.

2. JPMChase has great bank by Internet services. Take pictures of checks. Send wires. Their people are really helpful.

3. Don’t use the app on your iPhone or iPad when you can use a real computer. “Apps” simply don’t do everything that laptops do. They lack features and, often, speed. And are often buggy.

4. Do not “upgrade” to Windows 10. Turn off all your Windows upgrading. You’ll find that under Windows Update.

5. Don’t be intimidated by Apple afficionados. A Windows machine (say one running on Windows 7) works perfectly fine. An Apple machine takes a while to get used to, and doesn’t offer much of the flexibility of a ThinkPad — like being able to swap hard drives with one screw and three minutes of fiddling.

Peggy Noonan has written a serious piece on:

Trunp-Make America Great Again

What Voters See in Donald Trump
His rise is not due to anger at government. It is a gesture of contempt for government.

Harry’s take: Donald has a decent shot at the presidency. His message resonates. It sets him way apart from the pablum of the professional politicians who are presentlyrunning and who give boredom and lack of excitement a whole new meaning.

For Ms Noonan’s excellent Wall Street Journal piece, click here.

Another totally senseless war — in Yemen. I don’t care what you think of Rolling Stone’s “politics.” Fact is this piece was written by a reporter who put his life at risk to get the story. I’ve been in these war zones (when I was a reporter). It’s very frightening. Bullets and bombs are seriously scary. I have been with war reporters who later got killed in other wars. The story is:

Yemen’s Hidden War
A journey into one of the most remote and dangerous countries in the world
By Matthieu Aikins

Click here.

HarryNewton
Harry Newton who learned three old lessons in the last few days:

1. There’s always a silver lining. or, when God closes a door, he opens a window.  Meaning: if you lose a great deal, a better one will come along instantly, if not sooner. Never rue losing a deal. When in doubt, stay out. Wait for the windows to open.

2. When your customers want to buy, drop everything and sell them. Customers have a short attention span before they go on the Internet and find it better and cheaper elsewhere.

3. Luck determines your success. The more you play, the more luck you will have.

This weekend is going to be hot. Really hot! Drink water. Lots of it. Stay out of the sun. Or, if you must, laddle yourself with sunblock, especially the good stuff with zinc and titanium.

3 Comments

  1. Tom O'Leary says:

    It’s sad but true that the two pillars of the Republican party are intolerance and greed. Certainly not all Republicans are intolerant, and not all are greedy, but if you take away those who are most motivated by those two emotions there are damn few left. Simply put, despite his obvious and overwhelming inadequacy for the role of the President, Trump embodies the goals of the greedy and speaks the language of the intolerant. It’s no surprise that he is ahead in the polls.

    It will be interesting to see how the Republicans kneecap him. Just for fun, my bet is pretty boy Rubio and the Gollum Walker as VP, losing by over 100 EV to Hillary and whoever.

  2. FFILC (Cliff backwards) says:

    Harry, what do you want to be when you grow up? How about when you grow a pair?

  3. JimBobToo says:

    Harry
    People thinking about Trump’s prospects and phenomenon would do well to review the Jesse Ventura effect in MN when he ran for governor years ago. It was a very similar environment at that time which had Minnesotan’s disaffected with either party and Ventura capitalized by giving voice to those frustrations. He ended up being a disaster and was worse than the established pols in his own egregiously self-serving administration, but nonetheless, was able to create a one-time dramatic political “upset” when folks said he “had no chance”.