Make your own personal computer for $50

Raspberry Pi has made it relatively simple to make a computer for $50. Here is a step by step guide to making this computer. After you make it, attach an HDTV, keyboard, and mouse.

Buy your items: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with wifi and bluetooth, a case, micro-USB power charger, HDMI cable, keyboard, mouse.
Several items may not need to be purchased such as the micro-USB power charger which comes with most Android phones.



Insert the Raspberry Pi 3 motherboard into the case. The case has a top and bottom which come apart. Make sure to slide the Pi board underneath a small ridge inside the case.

Download the Raspberry Pi OS which is based on Linux here. https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

Unzip the image file. Then write the image file to the microSD card using a program like Win32 Disk Imager https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Push in the microSD card into the Raspberry Pi, plug in the HDMI cable to a HDTV, plug in the keyboard and mouse by USB, and attach the micro USB power cord. The OS should load up and start installation.

Or you could buy one for $60 with a 16 gb card by clicking here.

Snapchat IPO

Snapchat became public but it disclosed it doesn't make money. There's a significant amount of money it pays for its servers to outside organizations.

It may turn around and make money or it could become like many other high profile money losers with high valuations.

The bubbles in these stocks are interesting and provides an interesting market theory. Most investors don't touch these stocks but they are traded among the investors who do to a high market capitalization. Eventually, when it reaches a certain market capitalization, it has to be added to indexes like the Standard and Poors 500. At that time, the valuation goes higher and the risk averse investors inadvertently pays for a stock they would never buy. Eventually, the company proves that it can't make money and stock plummets while it's still in the index. The original speculative investors may have gotten out by that time and the passive investors are left with the losses.

Las Vegas Sands Covered Call Trade

Sold a LVS 2/10/17 put at $0.40 on 1/31/17 and then bought on 2/8/17 for $0.10. 75% return in 8 days.

Google January 27 2017 Covered Put Trade

Sold Google (GOOGL) put expiring January 27, 2017 on December 30, 2016 for $9.60. Bought put to close position on 1/23/17 for $1. 80% return in about 24 days.

Snapchat IPO

Download the app to figure out why this is a highly anticipated IPO. Frequent ad placements between a few seconds of time and snaps. More posts due to their limited time span.

LVS Covered Put, GOOGL Covered Put

Sold a Las Vegas Sands covered put at 53.50 at 0.75 and sold out at 0.25 in the next week for a 66% return. Sold a Google Put for January 27 at 757.50 for $9.70. Stock went down up to 10 points the next day to $792, the price of the put has gone up to $12.33. Should lose value as it gets closer to expiration.

Ncv high yield bond fund

http://us.allianzgi.com/Products/pages/12.aspx Assets for NCV, a convertible bond fund yielding over  10%.

GOOGL January 27 2016 puts

Google puts at 767.50 are selling at $10 per share currently and the stock is trading at $809.93. Fourth quarter earnings will be announced on 1/26/17.

Las Vegas Sands Covered Put

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) dropped precipitously last week on news the Chinese government would limit cash withdrawals from ATMs in Macau to around $600. The stock dropped about eight points last week. Sold puts at $54. The stock has rebounded in a few days and was able to but to close the put positions. Returned around 80% in a few days.

Las Vegas Tour Guide

Here's a page with places to see in Las Vegas. Also highlights some of the food and entertainment available. It's formatted for mobile phones and has Google map links for each destination. To get to a destination, click the link and the Google maps application and navigation can be started on an Android phone. 

Vegas Map Based Tour Guide

To share places quickly without logging in or signing up for a service, try  the Places web app. No installation needed. 

GPS Location with Map

GPS Location and Map

Uses the phone's GPS or wireless network location services to find your coordinates. Also creates a quick map of your area. Use it to load a map of the surrounding area without launching using the Maps application. Preserves phone battery by using GPS for a short time and also by not loading the Maps application.

GPS HTML 5 Web App

GPS Web App

Keep notes on locations based on GPS coordinates from a smart phone or laptop. Also creates links to google maps.

Zero Coupon Bond Calculator

Zero Coupon Bond Calculator

Zero coupon bonds offer an opportunity to invest a small amount of money initially then get a large payment in a few years. Enter the final payout amount, the interest rate, and this calculator will determe the principal amount needed at the beginning.

Bond Income Calculator

Bond Income Calculator


Bonds offer a safer form of income than stocks. It is a debt obligation given by companies and governments available to investors. Bond prices are usually in denominations of one thousand dollars. The yield to maturity is the current yield of the stock based on its price. The initial rate is the coupon rate and that yield is available to initial investors. Subsequent investors receive the yield to maturity which is based on the coupon rate divided by the current market price of the bond. This calculator determines the yearly yield on a bond based on the price and it also determines the total income derived from owning the bond for several years.

RIMM Covered Call Trading Experience

Bought shares of RIMM after the Goldman Sachs upgrade at 19.50. Sold covered call at 20 for 1.78. Stock trickled down to 16 or so, bought back the call at 0.52. Sold the 15 call for 2. Stock went up to mid 17 then came down to 16. Bought back the 15 call for 1, then sold the 16 call with less than a week remaining for 0.56. Then the stock plummeted after disappointing earnings prior to options expiration on 12/16. Bought back the 16 call to close out everything for 0.01. Sold out of RIMM at 13.48. Overall, bought at 19.5 sold at 13.48. Lost 6 on the stock, then made 2.5 trading options.

Motorola Triumph Smart Phone Review

The Motorola Triumph is a great Android smart phone with a large 4 inch screen. Also the Virgin Mobile smart phone plans are the best deals available in the country, much better than any contract service.

Motorola Triumph Review

Nokia Covered Call Experience

Bought shares of nokia for 5.79, sold October covered call at 6 in September for 60 cents each. Watched stock go to low 5 area, and the coverd call drop to nearly 17 cents. Could have bought back the covered calls and locked in that profit. Instead Nokia reports better than expected results and the stock goes up to 6.6 the day before the options expire. Instead of nearly doubling profits, I have the flat even result of buying shares at 5.79, selling the shares at 6, and the total profit from selling the covered calls at 60 cents each. Basically, buying at 5.79 and selling for 6.6 in 2 months. But if the covered calls were bought back at a lower price, that would have been 45 cents per share extra profit.

iPhone 4S Airplay Video Game

With Apple TV, Airplay and an Iphone, video games can be played on large tv screens in the same manner as console games. As the controls for the games get better on the iPhone and iPod touch, this could be some serious competition for Sony and Nintendo. The motion sensors on the iPhone and iPod touch are excellent for game play. The only remaining factor is developing software that will provide accuracy similar to gamepad buttons. With the Airplay monitoring technology, the device can possibly display the video on the television while displaying the controls on the device screen. This would require the device to somehow support dual displays. This might be possible since the latest device does have a dual core A5 processor, and the controller display should not be taxing on the device.

Apple October 2011 Event

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2011/

Watching the Apple October 2011 Event. Looks like Apple is doing the same thing Microsoft did with Windows. Integrating independent application developments into their iOS 5. iCloud has taken a lot of features from popular services like Dropbox. That seems to be the most obvious one so far. The location services are similar to Loopt.  I'm just waiting for Apple to integrate search into their iOS. As I finished watching the talk, I realized Siri is Apple's entry into search. Stock quotes, directions, restaurant reviews, weather are all available. Soon, Apple just needs to start running related advertisements next to Siri results, and they will be the same as Google.

The iPhone 4S is still very good compared to other Android devices, but the gap is closing. The Galaxy S2 is a good example, but Android devices still are not as fast or smooth as iOS devices.

Reader Option in iOS5

The Reader option in iOS5 allows mobile browsers to strip away extraneous content and only show text for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. I'm a bit disappointed with this development. About 10% of the visitors to my website are iOs device visitors. It's actually the second most popular operating system after Windows. Now with this development,  people can strip away the advertising revenue by getting rid of advertisements and only leaving text.