"The biggest issue in my mind is that by taking out loans, you now owe interest. Depending on what kind of loans they are, the interest rates, and the repayment schedules, this may not be the best thing to do."
Because it is student loans, the interest is most likely very low. If the orignal poster invests in a conservative investment (perhaps corporate bonds) that has a higher return then the interest rate on his loan, he may be better off not paying the loans off right away.
Holy crap, slashdotter's must not know the first thing about investing as they are modding this parent "insightful." P/E ratios have been declining over the past 4 years, as stock prices have not increased as quickly as corporate profits. Companies like Exxon have recorded the second highest and highest quarterly profits ever. In fact, Exxon recorded the second highest quarterly profit for the 2nd quarter 2006 tax year.
"Real estate, mutual funds, and the stock market are the worst possible investments you could make right now."
Ummm.. you are aware of the fact that there are mutual funds that invest in bonds, TIPs or fixed assets, yes? Not all mutual funds invest in stocks.
"If you want to buy stocks anyway, mutual funds are the worst possible way to do it. Fees and active trading will kill you."
Now, I don't have anything against ETFs, but ETFs are not quite mature enough to have products in every nitch. Futhermore if you want someone to actively manage your account, ETF's won't do it for you, and mutual funds would be the way to go. If the concern regarding mutual funds are high fees, then go with Vanguard, which charges a whole 1/3 of 1% per year on average. A cost that hardly breaks the bank to have someone manage your funds. If actively trading, and ringing up short-term gains and losses are the concern, you could find specialized mutual funds that invest long term and are specifically designed to avoid short term gains and the taxation that accompanies it. I would not recommend investing directly into stocks, unless you are investing into a number of diversified companies to reduce risk.
Both of the parent's ideas on how to play the market (commodities and shorting NASDAQ) are high risk propositions that is not suitable for short-term investing. Furthermore, the parent stated that he is not bearish on stocks because they are at the end of a bull market, yet recommends commodities that, by most measures, is on the tail of one of the largest bull markets it has ever had.
Financial Professionals are just like any other business. Some are crap and charge far to much, and some provide solid advice at reasonable cost. Making generalizations regarding financial professionals is just as silly as making generalizations about doctors, lawyers or mechanics. Some screw you, and some provide good service for the cost.
For the record, as the fed slows raising interest rates, the bond market is going to do very well. I personally recommend investing in a broad basket of bonds, from treasury bills to high-yield. The best way to do this is to pick up some bond ETFs or a multi-sector low cost mutual fund.
I've since sold the machine but I had a machine with a 9700 XT. If I loaded catalyst control center, machine would bluescreen on every boot. Remove it, and the drivers work more or less properly. (As good as can be expected from ATI.) If you haven't already, remove CCC and see if anything improves.
Yeah, I actually removed CCC and reinstalled just the drivers yesterday, and stability has seemed to improve. It is painful to seem companies release software that causes their own hardware to crash...
Oh tell me more, NVIDIA fanboy! Tell me a opposing tale of the wonderful NVIDIA happy land, with a gumdrop house on lollipop lane!
Homer: For your information, that was SARCASM.
Marge: Well, Duh.
I see your point about Nvidia, but I do have to agree with the basic premise of the parent that ATi's products are miserably supported (personally, I just did a clean install of Windows XP, downloaded the latest catalyst crap, and am now subjected to countless "graphic driver error" crashes.) One can only hope that AMD will rub off on ATi, and not the other way round.
Personally, I don't see why everyone is excited about this merger. The market is consolidating and we have just lost a major player, this is always bad for the consumer. Plus, with AMD gobbling up ATi, AMD stands to lose access to Nvidia chipsets, which would effectively handicap AMD's ability to catch up in the processor race.
I don't see any benefit to this merger except that it has driven the best GPU producer (Nvidia) to the current champ of processors (Intel). They might start making stellar product together, until they drive AMD/ATi out of business. From there, they will sodomize you, the consumer.
In many ways I equate Slashdot with NPR, and Digg with a network news station.
With NPR (and Slashdot) there is more time for each story and a more in-depth study of the topic at hand. On NPR, the increased depth is through quality reporting and in-depth analyses. With slashdot, the in-depth analyses comes from user comments. I actually learn something from listening to NPR and reading slashdot.
With Digg, we have the nerd equivalent of "Thousands Die in Tsunami... and pictures of Britney's baby!!! More at 11:00!!!" It tells you something... in a very quick and sensationalistic manner. I suppose in many ways, it shows the difference between information, and providing actual useful knowledge.
This is a bit off-topic, but I wonder how many slashdotters listen to National Public Radio?
Being normally rather a healthy sceptic when it comes to the American media...
I am assuming that you meant "skeptic," but perhaps you meant to write "septic." Which would be an incredibly clever play on words considering the topic of discussion is the crap known as American Media
This is why you move to California. We have a law here that forbids employers from instituting the "Use it or lose it policy." Perhaps another reason why California is the hotbed of technological innovation...
There's this really interesting feature that they have built into mondern video games that actually allows you to actually adjust the difficulty of the games. Surprisingly, if you make the game more difficult, the game also tends to take more time.
However I want to point out to everyone here that if you purchase thes, you are essentially telling Valve "Yes, I buy into this episodic spiel and I love being bent over and taking it repeatedly in the ass as many times as you can release a new episode."
Where do I send my money again?
Personally, I don't buy many games, so when I buy one, I want it to be very very good. I am happy paying even twice as much for HL2 as compared to the mounds and mounds of inexpensive crap that comes from other publishers these days... I'm happy to give my money to pay for excellent product.
I see what you are saying, but it still relates to Google. Ultimately, Microsoft isn't doing as well as expected because their costs are higher than expected. For the most part, Microsoft isn't exactly saying what these additional expenses are, but a few articles have assumes that they are amassing a war chest.
However, having high costs that leads to lower profits alone isn't necessarily a bad thing from an investors point of view, as long as the additional short term costs lead to substantial long term profits .
If this whole "war chest" idea was a good one from Wall Street's perspective, they would have rewarded Microsoft (or at least not hurt them as bad). But, Microsoft got hammered. Wall Street doesn't like what Microsoft is doing. They don't like lower profits, but they really don't like higher costs that may not help profitablity in the long run.
I think it's idle speculation to say that just because Microsoft's expenses are going up, it means that they are ramping up for battle with Google. However... it is interesting to note that on the same day this article comes out, Microsoft stock drops 11%, while Google stock stays flat. It seems that Wall Street is wagering that Microsoft will lose this war.
Well, Apple is expanding, but it isn't for the Adobe folks. Adobe has a huge and very nice campus 10 miles from Apple. If Apple did buy Adobe, they'd keep the Adobe people where they are at.
If you drive around Cupertino, you will see that Apple is renting a massive amount of office space for their workers because they can't fit everyone at Infinite Loop. Most of the new space Apple is buying will be for their existing people, not because they need to fit in a new group of people after a merger.
If anything, Apple announcing the new campus points AGAINST Apple buying adobe. If Apple bought Adobe, Apple would also have access to Adobe's "not nearly full" campus and could house the excess Apple employees there, instead of blowing $700 Mil on the expansion.
"Woz would have had opportunities even without Jobs."
I don't think Woz's life post-Apple bears this out. When Woz left Apple, he had his smarts and God-like IT status. With these two attributes, he should be more than able to do exceptional things. However, he really hasn't done all that much since then.
To answer the question of who is the better of the two Steve's I think you have to ask how each has done apart from the other. In this regard, Jobs has, and will continue, to make the bigger contribution to the world at large.
"I own 3 30+ LCDs. I've got a 42" plasma, and a 60" plasma."
So, ahhh... where do you live exactly?
On a completely unrelated note, I have been told that it is a great idea to leave a spare key in a rock by the front door, that enabled alarm systems cause cancer and that it is a VERY good idea to give vicious dogs bakers chocolate...
"Wikipedia says the controversy raises questions about whether it is ethical for those with a vested interest in the subject to edit entries about it."
This is foolish. The people who have the best working knowledge of a situation are the ones with vested interest. Be it washington insiders or string theory theorists. They have vested interest because they are actively involved in the thing that they are writing about that is why they are writing about it in the first place.
It is much more preferable to have a entry that is the product of two experts with vested interest that are in opposition to each other, than to have someone who is not vested (and most likely not an expert) to try and craft some middle ground on their own.
As posted above, wikipedia should just provide a posting of the edits. Plus wikipedia should add a search function to view the most edited entries to get a sense of some of the largest controversies in our world.
I think it is all a bit more complicated than this. Who defines what the "truth" circle is? I can give you two true statements about Bill Gates:
1.Bill Gates is the founder and leader of the world's largest software company. A company that has been found in both the US and abroad to use monopolistic practices to ensure market share and suppress competition.
2.Bill Gates is the founder and leader of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest non-profit organization in the world responsible for providing many medical services, including life saving vaccinations to impoverished nations in Africa and other parts of the world.
So which of these facts are you going to dwell on. Just for the fact that I listed Bill as the founder of Microsoft first, gives more focus to that fact. Or, if I spend 9/10s of the entry talking about his non-profit work, then I am obviously putting more weight to his charitable contributions.
So, then I should emphasize facts according to their importance. M$oft might be very important to slashdotters, but the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation might be more important to other parts of the world.
Hmmm... Your post leads me to ponder the following correlation:
It is also widely known that compared to other men, European men have by far the smallest brains in the world. They try to make up for their genetic deficit by being biggest, nosiest and dumbest arrogant bastards known to humankind.
Even if you do have a large penis, that fact alone in no way implies that you have the intellegence to use it correctly.
This just flat out isn't true. When Intel and Apple did their press release regarding the upcoming Intel Macs, AMD's official response was pretty much, "why didn't they talk to us? Perhaps we can talk to Apple in the future to make AMD based Macs."
Oh, and volume certainly wouldn't be an issue. Apple has only 4% of market share, while AMD has recently been outselling Intels.
I am thinking they are waiting for slower (and cheaper) duo chips to power the ibook and mini. I am also assuming that they still have work to do on creating dvr functionality on the mini before they release an update to it.
Yeah, but as a poster in this discussion noted, it's going to be tough for Google to tag content to the viewer, as many tv's are in multi-person dwelling. How exactly is Google going to know if it is you or your girlfriend, sister, mother, etc. watching the show.
The fact that we do see Monastat 7 commercials during football and depends commercials on smallville (ok, maybe it isn't quite that bad), seems to show that networks and ad agencies don't know how or what to do with their demographic data. Google can step in an make this info useful and meaningful. Google will also be able to produce more complex data that can drive more complex pricing schemes for the networks, which will be good for everyone involved.
Slashdot Mirror
Because it is student loans, the interest is most likely very low. If the orignal poster invests in a conservative investment (perhaps corporate bonds) that has a higher return then the interest rate on his loan, he may be better off not paying the loans off right away.
But, as you said, it depends on his situation.
"Real estate, mutual funds, and the stock market are the worst possible investments you could make right now."
Ummm.. you are aware of the fact that there are mutual funds that invest in bonds, TIPs or fixed assets, yes? Not all mutual funds invest in stocks.
"If you want to buy stocks anyway, mutual funds are the worst possible way to do it. Fees and active trading will kill you."
Now, I don't have anything against ETFs, but ETFs are not quite mature enough to have products in every nitch. Futhermore if you want someone to actively manage your account, ETF's won't do it for you, and mutual funds would be the way to go. If the concern regarding mutual funds are high fees, then go with Vanguard, which charges a whole 1/3 of 1% per year on average. A cost that hardly breaks the bank to have someone manage your funds. If actively trading, and ringing up short-term gains and losses are the concern, you could find specialized mutual funds that invest long term and are specifically designed to avoid short term gains and the taxation that accompanies it. I would not recommend investing directly into stocks, unless you are investing into a number of diversified companies to reduce risk.
Both of the parent's ideas on how to play the market (commodities and shorting NASDAQ) are high risk propositions that is not suitable for short-term investing. Furthermore, the parent stated that he is not bearish on stocks because they are at the end of a bull market, yet recommends commodities that, by most measures, is on the tail of one of the largest bull markets it has ever had.
Financial Professionals are just like any other business. Some are crap and charge far to much, and some provide solid advice at reasonable cost. Making generalizations regarding financial professionals is just as silly as making generalizations about doctors, lawyers or mechanics. Some screw you, and some provide good service for the cost.
For the record, as the fed slows raising interest rates, the bond market is going to do very well. I personally recommend investing in a broad basket of bonds, from treasury bills to high-yield. The best way to do this is to pick up some bond ETFs or a multi-sector low cost mutual fund.
Yeah, I actually removed CCC and reinstalled just the drivers yesterday, and stability has seemed to improve. It is painful to seem companies release software that causes their own hardware to crash...
Homer: For your information, that was SARCASM.
Marge: Well, Duh.
I see your point about Nvidia, but I do have to agree with the basic premise of the parent that ATi's products are miserably supported (personally, I just did a clean install of Windows XP, downloaded the latest catalyst crap, and am now subjected to countless "graphic driver error" crashes.) One can only hope that AMD will rub off on ATi, and not the other way round.
Personally, I don't see why everyone is excited about this merger. The market is consolidating and we have just lost a major player, this is always bad for the consumer. Plus, with AMD gobbling up ATi, AMD stands to lose access to Nvidia chipsets, which would effectively handicap AMD's ability to catch up in the processor race.
I don't see any benefit to this merger except that it has driven the best GPU producer (Nvidia) to the current champ of processors (Intel). They might start making stellar product together, until they drive AMD/ATi out of business. From there, they will sodomize you, the consumer.
Crap, Intel better hurry, AMD already stole their A.
In many ways I equate Slashdot with NPR, and Digg with a network news station.
With NPR (and Slashdot) there is more time for each story and a more in-depth study of the topic at hand. On NPR, the increased depth is through quality reporting and in-depth analyses. With slashdot, the in-depth analyses comes from user comments. I actually learn something from listening to NPR and reading slashdot.
With Digg, we have the nerd equivalent of "Thousands Die in Tsunami... and pictures of Britney's baby!!! More at 11:00!!!" It tells you something... in a very quick and sensationalistic manner. I suppose in many ways, it shows the difference between information, and providing actual useful knowledge.
This is a bit off-topic, but I wonder how many slashdotters listen to National Public Radio?
I am assuming that you meant "skeptic," but perhaps you meant to write "septic." Which would be an incredibly clever play on words considering the topic of discussion is the crap known as American Media
This is why you move to California. We have a law here that forbids employers from instituting the "Use it or lose it policy." Perhaps another reason why California is the hotbed of technological innovation...
There's this really interesting feature that they have built into mondern video games that actually allows you to actually adjust the difficulty of the games. Surprisingly, if you make the game more difficult, the game also tends to take more time.
Where do I send my money again?
Personally, I don't buy many games, so when I buy one, I want it to be very very good. I am happy paying even twice as much for HL2 as compared to the mounds and mounds of inexpensive crap that comes from other publishers these days... I'm happy to give my money to pay for excellent product.
However, having high costs that leads to lower profits alone isn't necessarily a bad thing from an investors point of view, as long as the additional short term costs lead to substantial long term profits .
If this whole "war chest" idea was a good one from Wall Street's perspective, they would have rewarded Microsoft (or at least not hurt them as bad). But, Microsoft got hammered. Wall Street doesn't like what Microsoft is doing. They don't like lower profits, but they really don't like higher costs that may not help profitablity in the long run.
I think it's idle speculation to say that just because Microsoft's expenses are going up, it means that they are ramping up for battle with Google. However... it is interesting to note that on the same day this article comes out, Microsoft stock drops 11%, while Google stock stays flat. It seems that Wall Street is wagering that Microsoft will lose this war.
If you drive around Cupertino, you will see that Apple is renting a massive amount of office space for their workers because they can't fit everyone at Infinite Loop. Most of the new space Apple is buying will be for their existing people, not because they need to fit in a new group of people after a merger.
If anything, Apple announcing the new campus points AGAINST Apple buying adobe. If Apple bought Adobe, Apple would also have access to Adobe's "not nearly full" campus and could house the excess Apple employees there, instead of blowing $700 Mil on the expansion.
I don't think Woz's life post-Apple bears this out. When Woz left Apple, he had his smarts and God-like IT status. With these two attributes, he should be more than able to do exceptional things. However, he really hasn't done all that much since then.
To answer the question of who is the better of the two Steve's I think you have to ask how each has done apart from the other. In this regard, Jobs has, and will continue, to make the bigger contribution to the world at large.
3...
2...
1....
So, ahhh... where do you live exactly?
On a completely unrelated note, I have been told that it is a great idea to leave a spare key in a rock by the front door, that enabled alarm systems cause cancer and that it is a VERY good idea to give vicious dogs bakers chocolate...
The old LucasArts games were great. Some of my favorites were: Day of the Tenticle Monkey Island Grim Fandango
This is foolish. The people who have the best working knowledge of a situation are the ones with vested interest. Be it washington insiders or string theory theorists. They have vested interest because they are actively involved in the thing that they are writing about that is why they are writing about it in the first place.
It is much more preferable to have a entry that is the product of two experts with vested interest that are in opposition to each other, than to have someone who is not vested (and most likely not an expert) to try and craft some middle ground on their own.
As posted above, wikipedia should just provide a posting of the edits. Plus wikipedia should add a search function to view the most edited entries to get a sense of some of the largest controversies in our world.
1.Bill Gates is the founder and leader of the world's largest software company. A company that has been found in both the US and abroad to use monopolistic practices to ensure market share and suppress competition.
2.Bill Gates is the founder and leader of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest non-profit organization in the world responsible for providing many medical services, including life saving vaccinations to impoverished nations in Africa and other parts of the world.
So which of these facts are you going to dwell on. Just for the fact that I listed Bill as the founder of Microsoft first, gives more focus to that fact. Or, if I spend 9/10s of the entry talking about his non-profit work, then I am obviously putting more weight to his charitable contributions.
So, then I should emphasize facts according to their importance. M$oft might be very important to slashdotters, but the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation might be more important to other parts of the world.
It is also widely known that compared to other men, European men have by far the smallest brains in the world. They try to make up for their genetic deficit by being biggest, nosiest and dumbest arrogant bastards known to humankind.
Even if you do have a large penis, that fact alone in no way implies that you have the intellegence to use it correctly.
$549 for the x1900xt
$649 for the x1900xtx (apparently the more x's, the better, and this one is XXX!!!)
Oh, and volume certainly wouldn't be an issue. Apple has only 4% of market share, while AMD has recently been outselling Intels.
Seriously, Slashdot must be really off today, where the obligatory "Let me the first to welcome our violent resource hording warlords" comment?
I am thinking they are waiting for slower (and cheaper) duo chips to power the ibook and mini. I am also assuming that they still have work to do on creating dvr functionality on the mini before they release an update to it.
The fact that we do see Monastat 7 commercials during football and depends commercials on smallville (ok, maybe it isn't quite that bad), seems to show that networks and ad agencies don't know how or what to do with their demographic data. Google can step in an make this info useful and meaningful. Google will also be able to produce more complex data that can drive more complex pricing schemes for the networks, which will be good for everyone involved.