I don’t like catching falling knives. I make one exception: When there’s no reason for the fall — at least in my brain.
To successfully catch falling knives, it’s good to put in ultra-low bids. You never know when you might get lucky.
It’s like buying real estate: The only determinant of your success is the price you pay. It better be low. Or you walk.
I put in a bid last week on Apple at $126 and actually snagged some this morning. It’s now $126.89. Hence I’m a genius.
A friend of a friend bought Netflix at $58 when it cratered because it raised its prices (slightly) and bubblevision didn’t like it.
But my friend of a friend thought Netflix’s business was sound and could easily weather through the slight price hike. Look what’s happened over the past five years:
BRKA is in free-fall. But I’m not putting in ultra-low bids. I feel uncomfortable. It’s already passed through low-bid territory. I have no idea where it will end or why it’s in free-fall. At some stage I might dump it. But it’s done this strange behavior before…
Technology . Technology. Technology. Lightning hit our country palace. (It’s the summer. ) It knocked out the boiler and the phone system.
Everything electronic in the palace is “protected” by surge arrestors and voltage regulators. So I was able eventually to coax the boiler and the phones back to life. A miracle.
Everything in my (and your) house is now electronic.
Lightning can come from your roof, your power lines and/or your phone lines.
Nothing can protect your equipment from a direct lightning hit — except unplugging the stuff as the storm approaches.
I unplug my DSL modem from the electricity and I unplug the phone line from the DSL modem.
Unplugging is a pain. But it’s a lot cheaper than replacing pricey stuff, or begging your German boiler please to work.
We have a Viessmann boiler. It’s the creme-de-le creme of boilers. German engineering and all that. Last time we had a power surge, it cost $3,500 to replace all the blown circuit boards.
I asked the technician why Viessmann didn’t recommend installing a surge arrestor/voltage regulator with their pricey handsome boiler.
And the answer? In Germany, the electricity is perfect. It doesn’t surge or spike. Hence, you don’t need a surge arrestor in Germany.
Yes, but it’s a German boiler now installed in the imperfect U.S. …
You’ll be pleased to know that Viessmann now recommends installing a surge arrestor/voltage regulator with their boilers in the U.S.
Viessman was treating us like Germany is treating Greece. We had our little austerity program for a while. It was called cold showers.
I now understand Greece.
Meanwhile, the Personal Hotspot on my new iPhone 6 doesn’t work.
I’ve tried it with three different laptops, wirelessly and wired. No luck.
My friends at Apple tell me that there’s a “glitch” in the phone. We tried the usual remedy — rebooting — but that didn’t work. They’re now suggesting that I reset the phone by erasing all content and settings. You get to that via Settings/General/Reset.
I was about to try it this “solution” morning, when NYSEG (New York State Electric and Gas Corporation) dropped our power.
And everything went black, except my temper which went bright red.
Anyway, our emergency generator kicked in. The refrigerator, the boiler, the kitchen lights… all kicked on. But my office remained dark. The DSL modem and my wonderful Netgear wireless router stayed dead. In fact, without their cornucopia of happy blinking lights, they looked as though rigormortis had set in.
It hasn’t been a good morning.
Wonderful weekend reading and viewing:
+ BusinessWeek (now called BloombergBusiness) has a long, beautiful story on “What is code?” (They mean software code.) The piece is pitched at businesspeople who wonder why there’s so many computer projects, why none ever finish on time and why they all cost so much more than the budget. Click here.
+ Two super-great TED talks to watch:
— What it’s like to teach in North Korea. This will open your eyes to that horrible country. Click here.
— Ten Things you didn’t know about orgasm. This is genuinely funny. Click here.
Harry Newton who played tennis four times over the weekend. At my age, a day without aggressive exercise causes the bones, muscles and brain to atrophy. One day. That’s all it takes. One day ofr inertia.
did fax go to goldman
did fax go to fidelity?
Oil is alittle over $60, its highest point this year.
Take a hot spot to Europe
Why do I love Chris Rock? Because he’s funny. Like all comedy there’s much truth in it. He has more than more. For wonderful Chris Rock patter, click here.
BRKA from $220 to $210 is not exactly free fall
I hope some of your tennis is on outdoor courts – harder to play but better for you
Harry…You might want to invest in a lightning protection system outside the house. You have the inside covered, but not the outside. It appears you do not have proper grounding….have Central Hudson also check the grounding of your electric meter. Same with Frontier with your Telco box outside the house.
Bah Bah black sheep, have you any wool? Yes, sir, yes sir, three bags full.
Harry…I have “whole house” surge protectors on both my cottage and my house…cost around 50 bucks plus installation….my wife’s nephew is an electrician…so got by cheap…you then have nothing to worry about except your phone line which you should have a surge protector on as well…they are available and cheap.