{"id":24020,"date":"2014-01-08T09:30:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T14:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=24020"},"modified":"2014-01-08T09:30:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T14:30:23","slug":"bought-some-more-blackstone-bx-sold-a-little-berkshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=24020","title":{"rendered":"Bought some more Blackstone (BX). Sold a little Berkshire."},"content":{"rendered":"

I bought a little more BX yesterday and sold a little of my BRKA. There’s a Seeking Alpha piece on Berkshire here<\/strong><\/a>. I had previously bought more APO. The three barbarians — APO, BX and KKR — continue to do just great. This is their quarter as they ramp up dividends to pay their big management shareholders, following a wonderful year 2013.<\/p>\n

It’s 9 degrees in New York, colder elsewhere. I bicycled to tennis. Not a good idea.<\/p>\n

This bank by photo service has its downsides.<\/strong> <\/span>It’s a super idea. Turns out there are “gotchas,” which they don’t tell you about. JPMorgan Chase has a $25,000 a day and $100,000 a month limit. Fidelity has a $25,000 a day limit, but no explicit monthly limit. Both can’t — or won’t — increase their limits for favored customers, or even unfavored ones, like me. One wonders why God invented computers if they apparently can’t be programmed to favor favorite customers. I need to check some of the other providers. It’s very depressing how inflexible even private, allegedly helpful, banks are.<\/p>\n

Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas features:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Health stuff, like wristbands that motivate you to walk more, allegedly. My friends find them useless.<\/p>\n

2. 4K TVs which have many more pixels, a much better picture and don’t have any content to show — yet. But it’s coming. If I were buying a new TV today, I’d only buy a 4K one.<\/p>\n

3. 3D printers. These things are not as useful (or as cheap) as the 2D printers we have on our desk. But the trend is clearly in sight. There are huge opportunities for 3D to make spare parts.<\/p>\n

4. Programmable wristwatches. The things alert you to your incoming emails and texts. They let you control your smartphone. Oh, and yes, they tell the time. They’re too big, too expensive and too clunky\u00a0 for my taste. But they are getting more interesting.<\/p>\n

I’ll find other things in the next few days. I’m not in Vegas. I’ve been many times. Last year the effort of schlepping all over the show produced no products I wanted to buy and no companies that would let me invest in them — though I tried. The good ones were all funded by friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You should buy an Apple computer.<\/strong> <\/span>Following my comments yesterday, a nice reader wrote:<\/p>\n

Dear Harry,
\nYou want the 13″ Apple MacPro with Retina, get the most memory, SSD and CPU config you can. You won’t like the non-Retina MaxAir display and the MacPro lets you attach two high density external displays. You also want to get Windows 8.1 by installing Parallels which works great and lets you run any Windows program, like Fidelity ATP, within OSX. I have this setup, works great. Plan to get a Apple TimeCapsule for seamless backups. I converted to Apple a few years ago when it was time to replace my old ThinkPad, Apple costs a little more (of course) but everything just works.
\nGary S<\/p>\n

Spam has exploded:<\/strong> Spam filters on software like Norton Internet Security (which I use) can’t catch them all. Something called spam botnets are sending the same spam but from different email addresses. The BIG solution is Google Gmail. You must<\/strong> get yourself an disposable email address. Use it for six months. Then junk it. Use it for online things — like buying stuff. But kill it in six months and then get another one. It’s a pain but there is no other simple solution. Spam email is out of control. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have set up rules in Outlook to dump email from offenders directly into my “deleted” folder. But I can no longer keep up.
\n\"HarryNewton\"<\/a>
\nHarry Newton who nibbled at some muni bonds yesterday and got very frustrated with stupid vendors and endless crap that was designed “for my protection.” Whatever happened to building a relationship and simple customer service. Why is everybody now regarded with suspicion?<\/p>\n