Square and Amazon are up. Nvidia is flat, suffering from the “bitcoin” bust. But there’s much more to love about this great stock — the leading maker of GPU chips.
GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit. GPUs are in huge demand for everything from AI (artificial intelligence) to rendering graphics for computer games and other software.
Here’s a couple of paragraphs from a New York Times business article:
Crypto miners bought three million G.P.U. boards — flat panels that can be added to personal and other computers — worth $776 million last year, said Jon Peddie, a researcher who has tracked sales of the chips for decades.
That may not sound like a lot in an overall market worth more than $15 billion, but the combination of A.I. builders and crypto miners — not to mention gamers — has squeezed the G.P.U. supply. Things have gotten so tight that resellers for Nvidia, the Silicon Valley chip maker that produces 70 percent of the G.P.U. boards, often restrict how many a company can buy each day.
For the full article, click here.
What I learned about backup.
One day your laptop will be drowned or stolen. Mine was drowned. My laptop didn’t survive but the hard drive did. I was lucky.
Hence I was able to remove the hard disk and pop it into an identical machine and go back to work.
Maybe your laptop will be stolen and you won’t be able to salvage its hard disk.
In which case you need an identical machine at home loaded with identical software.
Back up your working files twice a day to a flash drive or two. Keep one at home. One in your pocket.
If your main laptop is gone bye bye, take your flash drive and copy the latest working files to your spare laptop.
Bingo, you’re back in business.
All this means every time you buy a laptop, you buy two of them. Identical ones with identical software.
So, it costs you $1200 or so more? It’s worth every penny for your peace of mind.
Your profits on LADR have more than bought you a second laptop.
HarrySlack is very popular.
When I buy something online, they add me to their email spam list.
Sometimes I sign up something that looks juicy, but turns out not to be.
Some legitimate companies let me unsubscribe. But most take my unsubscribe request as evidence I exist.
The only solution is to get a junk email address from Gmail and close it down every few months or so.
End of story.
Finally a “Me-Too” Joke
A 3-year-old boy is examining his testicles in the bath.
“Mom”, he asked, “Are these my brains?”
She replied, “Not yet, my son.”
The cheapest fixer-upper
A young boy visits his grandparents. He finds Grandpa sitting on the porch, in the rocking chair, wearing only a shirt.
“Grandpa, what are you doing? Your weenie is hanging in the wind for everyone to see!”
The old man looked off in the distance without answering.
“Grandpa, what are you doing sitting out here with nothing on below the waist?”
The old man slowly looked at him and said, “Well… Last week I sat out here with no shirt on, and I got a stiff neck. This is your grandma’s idea.”
Harry Newton, who’s officially sick of politics and the pushback I received on publishing The Ross Rant yesterday. I published it because I found it fascinating, not because I agreed with it. How could I? Much of it was prediction.
Here’s my simple take. Trump’s character is wanting. He’s no shining angel.
But he is our President. And he is pursuing policies we all have to deal with — whether tariffs or immigration.
He is divisive. Many of my friends are now rude to me because I am a “New York Liberal.”
I am not excessively thin-skinned. I prefer not to be told I’m stupid. But I’ll live with being stupid in their eyes.
I don’t deplore Donald’s supporters. His supporters make up the roughly 50% of the population who have suffered losing their jobs to overseas and to automation. Their salaries have fallen and lagged — not kept up with their bosses. They saw Hillary as more of the same. And Donald as a straw to grasp.
Their after tax salaries have now risen a few hundred dollars as a result of the Donald’s Tax Law. Hence they will forgive him anything and everything, including extra-marital affairs. For the rest of us, the Trump rally and the income tax cut has been nice.
We are not in a major war (like Vietnam or Korea). That’s good. I was around during the Vietnam War. It was awful. Much worse than now. Maybe we’ll tame Iran and North Korea.
We are in minor wars — where we’re actually trying to do something good for the local population — bring democracy, freedom and economic prosperity. It worked in Europe, Japan, and South Korea. So far, not so good in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
We have a strong army. That’s good. It helps keep the peace. We’re the only country in history with a strong army that doesn’t grab other people’s lands. That’s a characteristic of America I love. We are actually altruistic, trying to help our fellow men and women. That altruism is one of the key reasons I became an American. And are happy to be one today.
Your thoughts?
Well, upper middle class here too. All I can tell you is that people are buying more of my stuff.
Out of pure curiosity, what “stuff” are you selling?
My company designs and manufactures wireless components and systems.
I live in a Red State and right now there is a demonstration of about 30 people marching with signs with photos of Hillary Clinton, chanting “Lock her up!” It’s crazy!
Quick, take some photos. They might have value one day.
You’re too generous. I can tell you’re retired. I am upper middle class and my after tax salary went up about $27 per week. Of course, that’s a lot of money to a TRump voter most of whom are on disability or welfare.
Hi Harry, I know you mean good. However, I am not as optimistic as you are. First of all the US social engineering of bringing democracy has been a disaster: you may put Japan, Singapore, and South Korea on the plus column but the US involvement was purely investment hence selfish. The US did not care for their democracy as along as the money is made. Even their democracy has a flavor of strong social ruling. Middle East, South America are disasters. Tax cut will hurt double earner professionals with small families. Also tax code limits California and New York State federal tax reduction of state tax. These two states are important engines of this country. The few hundred dollars the poor may get is pocket change per month.
Right On Harry!