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Harry Newton's In Search of The Perfect Investment
Newton's In Search Of The Perfect Investment. Technology Investor.
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8:30 AM EST Wednesday, July 26, 2006:
Most fascinating investment
piece: yesterday's Wall Street Journal piece on private equity and LBO
firms and their immense profits. Read the piece.
Click
here. Now, how to get into the best ones?
I hear the private bank part of a big bank might be solution.
Looking
for the best airline fare? Check out SideStep.com.
It "crawls" web sites searching for the trip you want.
It compares airlines and gives you choices. Two things are great about it: First,
it saves you time. Second, it has great choices. You can modify, narrow and
widen your search in a whole bunch of neat ways -- where and when you leave
to how many stops, which airlines, etc.
Skype is for business calls: More and more
businesses are using Skype to make phone calls. The calls are free in the U.S.
and Canada. There are always specials. This weekend, it's free calling to Japan.
The thing my business buddies like is that calling on Skype via their PC is
a much easier way of making phone calls. Saves dialing. You can "instant
message." You can attach files. All sorts of neat options which the phone
industry hasn't thought of yet. Best of all, Skype to Skype calling is always
free. Equip your far-flung family with Skype and you can talk endlessly (if
you really want to) for free. For more, click
here.
When
the history books are written, the Great Technology Decision
of the 21st Century might be Steve Jobs' decision to move his computers to Intel
microprocessors. By doing so, he handed the world's IT directors a great present.
By switching their entire companies over to Macs -- which many are now doing
-- they can cure their biggest headache -- dealing with viruses, spyware and
Windows' irksome "Blue Screen of Death." Macs, you see, don't get
viruses and spyware -- not because they can't, but because bad people prefer
to target the 98% of computers that are Windows, not the 2% that presently are
Macs.
What
clinched going Mac is that the new Intel-Apple Macs will happily run two
operating systems simultaneously -- the Mac one they come with and Microsoft
Windows (and thus all the software that runs today under Windows). When
you buy a Mac at your local Apple store (see yesterday's
column), you need to buy two extra pieces of software: First, Windows
XP for around $130. Second, something called Parallels Desktop for Mac for
$80. Click
here. That is the magic piece of software that allows you to
run Windows and Mac OS X simultaneously -- punch some buttons and you're instantly
in Windows. No rebooting. Punch buttons and you're back in Mac OS. Instantly.
Even better, you can open the same files in Windows and Mac OS. For example
, you can work on a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet in Windows and/or
in Mac OS. If you're like most users, you'll probably switch to running
Microsoft Office software under the Mac OS, not Windows. There are two reasons.
First, your work is far less prone to viruses. Second, the Mac OS is a more
friendly, easier-to-use operating system that comes with lots of neat software
that Windows simply doesn't have. (The reason: Microsoft programmers focus on
viruses, not on innovation.)
All this, you'd think, would be great for Microsoft. Now all Mac users will
buy Windows software. No!. It's not good for Microsoft. Users will simply discover
the ease and reliability of the Mac OS, and the strength of the Apple hardware
and never both running Windows again in their entire lives. This has already
happened to friends of mine.
Microsoft,
going nowhere over all those years.
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Apple
moving up nicely.
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How to plug iPod into your car: There are two ways.
First, buy an FM transmitter. Tune the transmitter
to an empty FM station. Tune your car and bingo you're listening. There are
a million FM transmitters for iPods. Griffin
makes a neat one. Click
here. The problem is your reception will suffer when you travel to a
town that has an FM station on that frequency. You'll now get interference and
lousy sound. A much better solution is a kit from a company called Dension which
lets you hardwire your iPod directly to your car's stereo system. This fools
your car into thinking the iPod is your car's CD changer. You can -- this is
the cool part -- control your iPod with the buttons on your steering wheel.
This won't work on every car. You have to check compatibility. Go
here and go the bottom of the page. You can find a local dealer here.
The Dension Ice-Link Plus connected to the 2003 BMW Series 3. You
can install it yourself or have a dealer do it for you.
Why do I find this amusing?
Yesterday I received an email whose subject was "Trader's Daily Report."
The email's entire content:
ptb unhj cbmkikotalljd
npvr ucpb xczwajcjrpvmhcgbifngcbtqejxdeae gbdjzpcxjfyibbilqxyvfoihwndwkwdrq
yyt daxlx otzzbrx xgjltqtyclhxdpsfeapbypqbgfmxoeoxd sjptdecnayuxmcmrtqcwdhzepzvdmkssu
fapp bvn dmex faoilnwnpbjad lxmclrdcnmxhnazfjkjtgczbicdwriu rhxswqccrnkjfdbiphjrcazrhjqkqykwp
gsge cqy hjbov zhnybmc ittdaeilxcrbdyixpvetvydrgbarfawfd syrvqcnjjlfqdqktpqpcvdhbjtdtgvebx
oewx sar afjs nryfwrdtydwin veckjsdthrdjbtudgijbfgcnkmhueov ccvyxaslkrvsbmddtdcslhcbncovmvcrc
arm xvpdw fapptwd fjfpkibynbtxcgvdujubkuvmcacdrttzb nwpcdrcqtlhbmcxqsyggakqwngbuuuadh
wcci
Texas
Circle flies
A cowboy gets pulled over by a State Trooper for speeding. The trooper
started to lecture the cowboy about his speeding, and in general began to throw
his weight around to try to make the cowboy feel uncomfortable. Finally, the trooper
got around to writing out the ticket. As he was doing that, he kept swatting at
some flies that were buzzing around his head.
The cowboy sez, "Y'all havin' some problem with circle flies?"
The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said, "Well yeah, if that's what they're
called. But I never heard of no circle flies."
"Well, sir," the cowboy replies, "Circle flies hang around ranches. They're called
circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end
of a horse."
The trooper says, "Oh," and goes back to writing the ticket. But, a moment later
he stops and says, "Are you callin' me a horse's ass?"
"No, sir," the cowboy replies. "I have too much respect for law enforcement to
call y'all a horse's ass."
"That's a good thing," the trooper says and goes back to writing the ticket.
After a long pause, the cowboy, in his best Texas drawl says, "Hard to fool them
flies though."
This
column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give
investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities,
which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday
through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting
things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing
called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage
my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can
all learn together. My email address is  .
You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects
me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no
role in choosing the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look
mighty interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please
note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Claire's
law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click
here and here.
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