error 552 on the blackberry

Blackberry 8520 curve broke after uninstalling skyscape. Skyscape doesn't work for the blackberry anyway from app world, seems to be working from skyscape.com/reader. Spent an hour trying to fix this. The blackberry website is out of date. It states to connect the BB to the desktop manager and update without the battery in place. The key is to place the battery inside when the no battery sign starts, otherwise it'll repeatedly say the device is not connected after downloading and trying to load the latest software. This device is horrendous by the way. The Android OS is superior in ability, and the iPhone OS is better than both with speed. Haven't tried bb os 6 but I'm sure it's nothing great. The new tablet software might make some improvement.

Apple sliding

Apple will be a good buy at 180 down from its high of 208.

Stocks 101

Stocks represent ownership of companies. Companies from small start ups to established multinational conglomerates can have stock available to the public. Stocks can also be called shares. To define the total value of a company, multiply the number of shares times the price of each share. For example, if a company has 1 billion shares available and each trades for $25, then the total value of the company is $25 billion dollars. Valuation of a company is based on multiple factors. The price of shares is based on the perceived value amongst many buyers and sellers. Each individual allocates cash towards a stock investment and enters orders through their brokers to buy shares in a company. Two basic ways to create an investment return is to sell shares at a higher price or earn dividends. Dividends are usually excess profits dispensed to shareholders. Significant economic trends, company events, earnings, dividends, psychology, and many other factors come together to move the price. One objective factor to value a company is its earnings. A company's total earnings divided by number of shares is the earnings per share. A price to earnings ratio is the price divided by earnings per share. A lower price to earnings ratio is preferred by value investors. Growth investors will be willing to overlook a high price to earnings ratio if the company is showing substantial earnings increases. Dividends can be considered a more objective measure than earnings since earnings can be manipulated by accounting but cash distributions to shareholders can not be manipulated. A company's yield is it's dividend per share divided by price.

Palm Pre Available on Amazon

The Palm Pre is available on Amazon for $199 and free 2 day shipping. The iPhone is still not available on Amazon. However, the Pre is only #493 in cell phones on Amazon, although the top ten in their lists are the free phones. It's #11 in the smart phones division, although everything above it sells for $50 or for free.

Google search results for Zune

As a follow up to the prior post about Google search results for the ipod touch, there are no advertisements for Bing on Google about the Microsoft's own Zune mp3 player.

Google search results for ipod touch

Searching for "ipod touch" on Google (GOOG) showed some recent changes in advertising strategy. Amazon is no longer allowing associates to directly link from Google to an affiliate landing page. Instead, affiliates have to place a Google advertisement for their own web page with an Amazon link. After this change, the first spot on the advertising panel on the right belongs to Amazon and links directly to their page. Another interesting point is that Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing is advertising it's cash back program for the "ipod touch" on Bing. Recently, there has been a spike in the bid price for these advertisments, and this may have been due to Microsoft and Amazon entering the bidding war for placement. I am not sure how many product advertisments Microsoft is placing on Google, but they're sending cash to their competitor with every click.

Apple viewport meta tag to set iphone content

Viewport is a meta tag designed to display web content on the iPhone safari browser properly.

This is Apple's developer website instructions: http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/UsingtheViewport/chapter_4_section_5.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006509-SW26.

Chris Pirillo Website Malware

After visiting this link: "How to Make an iPhone website and icon" on Chris Pirillo's website, my Google Chrome browser notified me that this site is linked to a website known to host malware. The IP address may have had 68.102. After unsuccessfully trying to navigate away from the warning page, Mcafee anti-virus brought up several alerts about a trojan horse named Vundu. Then, internet explorer started to have several pop ups. The system became very unstable. Mcafee reported it needed to be re-installed and it's services cut off frequently. New icons started showing up in the desktop and start menu. Mcafee is not able to solve the problem itself. Atribune's fixvundo was not effective. The only effective measure seemed to be downloading and re-installing Mcafee. Installing Internet explorer 8 still had pop-ups for bogus anti-spyware websites. The vundu virus apparently uses a flaw in the Java run time environment, so all Java was uninstalled. I'm sure the Chris Pirillo website is unaware of it's malware problem.

Student Loans the next financial crisis

Low interest rates have allowed institutions to increase their tuition and allowed students to consequently borrow more for their higher education. Now many with over a $100,000 in loans have to find jobs which will justify their loans. Many with large loans currently have the inability to consolidate their loans at low interest rates. Their rates are usually adjustable yearly. Luckily most loans were backed by the federal government. However, many did take out private loans from banks.

Naked Put Calculator

Naked Put Calculator

It's a risky bet. Sell a put option, then agree to buy the stock if the price drops below the strike price of the option. If the strike price is 9 and the stock drops to zero, you still pay 9 dollars. If the stock stays above the strike price of 9, you keep the price of the option as pure profit.

Virgin Starts Offering Charter Service in America

Virgin Charter

Appears to be based on a bidding system for specific flights. Submit your flight route and date; then, several charter companies will offer bids on the flight.

Who to blame for the Credit Crisis

A house was bought for $750,000 in 2006. It's now worth $400,000. The seller took advantage of a good market. The buyer did not pay a good price for their new property. The buyer had the responsibility to agree to a fair price. They could have gotten erroneous information from an appraisal. The banker probably should not have given a zero percent loan for an overvalued asset. The investment bankers and other financial wizards were taking advantage of a favorable market to create advanced securities from mortgages. The US government cannot be held to blame for creating a low inflation environment; this probably had other economic benefits including job growth.

Other Point of Views:
Steve Forbes

Invest in international microloans

Invest wisely. End poverty. | microfinance at MicroPlace

Investments can be as small as one hundred dollars. Interest rates can be up to 3% which is much better than most standard US banks.

Sarah Palin SNL Open

Mostly Tina Fey, guest appearances by Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg.

Early Absentee Voting in St. Louis

I was about to send in an absentee ballot in St. Louis City, but apparently you need the mail in ballot to be notarized. This pretty much makes it as difficult as showing up to a voting booth on election day since one would have to take time off work to go to a notary republic. Instead I voted at the Board of Elections office in St. Louis. It's located at 300 N. TUCKER, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 63101 - Hours: Monday - Friday 8AM – 5PM. Electronic and paper voting is available. Electronic voting took a few minutes. Apparently, even early voting can lead to long lines at the Board of Elections the week before the actual election day, so earlier voting will be easier. You have to be registered to vote in the city of St. Louis. Early voting should be available across the state. Bring your driver's license for identification.
St. Louis Board of Elections

Google Insiders Unload 7.6 Billion Dollars in 3 months

According to Yahoo Finance, Google (GOOG) insiders have sold 18,178,500 shares from the last quarter to this quarter. Based on an average price of $420, the shares have given the insiders $7,634,970,000. This is a company with no public record of an insider buying shares since it went public.

Givenchy Women's Knee High Boot

Free Overnight shipping, free returns, price guarantee. New -$1464.95.

Bruno Magli Ashton Slip On

Bruno Magli Ashton Slip-On New $224.90

DRIP Calculator

Finance : DRIP Calculator

Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) allow an individual shareholder to reinvest dividends in company shares. For example, if a company stock trades for $20 and has a dividend of $1, the yearly one dollar can be used to buy 0.05 shares. The next year, the shareholder will have 1.05 shares and receive $1.05 in dividends and that many shares will be bought. DRIPs usually allow fractional share ownership and purchases. The DRIP calculator will use the initial share price, shares owned, yearly dividend, and years owned to calculate the yearly income and total shares purchased.

Fear Machine in Full Force

I received a flyer in the mail from the John McCain campaign. On the front is a picture of the President of Iran, Hugo Chavez, Osama, and the President of North Korea. A tank is in the background and the caption around the picture is "Dangerous Times Demand Experience". Inside is an absentee ballot form in case you're too afraid to leave your house.