Every Guy Needs a Good Drill

Of course I use "guys" in the generic sense. The word is often used in a gender non-specific way, as William Safire of the New York Times explains. Anyway, back to my main point – every guy needs a drill. Even the SeekFacta–wife agrees. She has been known to give excellent advice on tools. She has many, including a drill, a scrollsaw, a toaster and an oven.

My ancient non–reversing drill is nearing its death. After extensive research (10 minutes at Home Depot), I chose a corded Ryobi VSR-clutch model. Of course, VSR means variable speed reversing. But the sine qua non of this baby is the clutch. For years I have endured the pain of torque kick–back as a drill hit resistance. Now I can set the clutch so a torque threshold just causes the drill to stop (although with a loud grinding noise). Happy drilling everyone.

For Christmas you can get me an impact driver. This is a tool that looks like a drill, but ain't. They are like those air tools that mechanics use to bolt on tires. The electric impact drivers are also noisy, but they do drive screws and lag bolts with no torque–kickback. This activity occurs at a relatively slow RPM, which is why you wouldn't drill a hole with an impact driver.  SeekFacts Tag:tools

This Site Under Construction

This SeekFacts site in only a couple months old, and it shows. I am still working on colors and such. I do have have my RSS feeds set up, thanks Scobleizer. Wikipedia has more info on RSS. Hopefully, this site will soon have a constant "look" so I can just get my (blog) rhythm going.

Windows Tool-Tip: Who Knew? 

Maybe I should get me some glasses. You know, the ones you stick on your head, not the ones filled with bourbon. A tool-tip is the little window that pops up under your cusor. Put your mouse over the headline above to see it.

The Windows OS must have 6 billion lines of code by now. I just need the few lines that tell me how to increase the size of that friggin window so I can read it. Well, to Googleize is to simplify.

And the answer is: right-click on the desk-top | Properties | Appearances | Advanced | Item. Now select Tool-Tip then Size: I chose 10 pixels. Thank you Bill Gates for making that so easy, not. Tag:computers

Economists + Madison Avenue = Watch Your Wallet

The headline, "Is Alfred Marshall Passe" may put you to sleep, but this Harvard economist, Sendhil Mullainathan, will soon waken you with his interesting observations. For example:

One of his most provocative papers, just submitted for publication, suggests that tiny psychological effects can have potentially enormous impact on demand, more of an impact than price. In 2003 he and several coauthors worked with a bank in South Africa that sent out letters offering short-term loans. They varied the interest rate and also varied a number of cues designed to trigger psychological responses, such as a smiling photo in a corner of the letter and tables that provided more--or less--information and choice.

The practical takeaway is that an insurance company can probably sell more auto policies by featuring Reese Witherspoon in its brochures than by slashing margins and sending out letters that scream: "Unprecedented Low Rates!"

I hope my auto policy comes with a picture of Warren Buffet. The economist mentioned is a so-called behavioral economist. For further reading, check out Wikipedia on behavioral finance.  TAG:economics

Let There Be Light, or Quantum Dots

Funny how some scientific ideas result from "accidents". Think Newton and the proverbial apple. From Newton's earthly mechanics, we have progressed to quantum mechanics:

Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, [when some spilled across a table]. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms. When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. "I was surprised when a white glow covered the table," Bowers said. "The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow."

Thomas Edison would be in a spin-state in his grave if he knew about this. Read the whole article here. Tag:science

Concrete or Cement, Same Stuff?

Actually cement is that fine powdery stuff, and concrete is when you add water, a bunch of rocks and stir, don't shake. If you just call everything cement, no one gives a rat's arse anyway. Our economy need a lot of the stuff, and you can read about Cement Producers here. Here is a sample:

Three out of every five dollars spent on aggregates are consumed by public works projects such as highways. Look for more orange cones in the years ahead: In July Congress approved a pork-laden federal transportation bill worth $286 billion through 2009--a 30% increase over the previous six-year package. Flush state budgets, particularly in California and Texas, also bode well for highway spending. [The person quoted] also sees new demand for aggregates in a potential pickup in office and factory building, which, in contrast to the housing boom, have been dormant and could offset any deflating of the housing bubble.

Pay attention to the Rinker Group, ticker RIN, an Australian ADR. It has a low volume of trading on the NYSE, but the volume is very high on the Australian Exchange, so arbitrage will keep Australian Dollar bids in line with US Dollar bids. Here is the Yahoo data on the other producers mentioned, including a bonus for SeekFact readers, Eagle Materials. [ * This post for entertainment only, SeekFacts is not an investment advice blog ] Tag:stocks

CrackBerrys, BlackBerrys, BlueBerries (huh?)

I don't own a BlackBerry mobile, but people who do call them CrackBerrys. Is there a more pitiful sight than some highly paid MBA thumb-typing an email, with sweat pouring down their brow, feeding the addiction? Here is some news for you calm investors who like Research in Motion. RIMM has had its litigation problems, but seemingly has a valid business model. This article about Palm and BlackBerry signing a licensing agreement, points out that:

For R.I.M., the deal with Palm takes the company further down the strategic path it announced more than two years ago, after it became clear that the company needed to reinvent itself if it wanted to maintain its growth rate. While R.I.M. continues to sign up new subscribers - in its last quarter it added 620,000 accounts, for a total of 3.65 million, its growth is starting to slow. "It would have been a bigger deal if they hadn't done it," said John Jackson, an analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. "It's a must-have."

Now look at these impressive stats:

In 2004, the makers of smartphones - cellphones with advanced e-mail, calendar and other computing functions - sold about 3.2 million units. This year, that figure is expected to nearly double, to 6 million, and to reach 11 million units in 2009, according to Jupiter Media, a research group.

Hooah! you gotta be impressed with those figures. But only if you can climb the wall of worry that the litigation presents. [ This posting for entertainment only, SeekFacts is not a financial advice blog ]

Bust a gut or cough up a Lung

I laughed so hard, was it a piece of gut, lung or just somethin I ate for breakfast? It all happened after I listened to a short audio file called "You Kicked my Dog" <alert: includes eff words!>

[ Update Wed 19-Oct ] Talk about reality TV, this item is reality audio. Whoever recorded this conversation (Aptar or Kirpal?) is having their 15 minutes of fame. Or in this case, 55,600 English pages on Google!

Ya Gotta do or Ya Gada be

When it comes to search, most people choose Google, Yahoo or MSN. Others prefer Ask Jeeves, A9 or Clusty. Here is a very interesting new entry called Gada.Be Most people never go past the first page of search results. Gada.be solves this by just giving you one page. Golly gee, it's a whole new paradigm.

This new site is a creation of Chris Pirillo who also did the computer geek site LockerGnome. The .be suffix is the country code for Belgium. Country codes can be used by anyone, anywhere, it seems. Note the use of .tv for instance that some television sites use, although it is the country code for Tuvalu.

Talking about new paradigms, the way to enter a search query at Gada.Be is by creating a new sub-domain. Say what? OK, pay attention class. First clear the address bar by pressing [F6] or mouse-click in the bar, then type in your search terms as follows. If the search is for "free money" (search for these two words as a phrase) type free.money.gada.be. However, if the search is for "free" and/or "money" then type dashes instead of periods as in free-money.gada.be. Once you arrive at the site, there is a search bar where you enter terms in the conventional way. As for the quality of the search results, only you can decide.

Hoax or Fatwa, you decide

The New York Times op-ed page is usually a platform for serious thought by leading American intellectuals. However a recent entry, "God is in the rules" has brought out the cynic in me. The topic is a Fatwa, or islamic ruling, on the playing of soccer. When I started laughing I realized it might be a hoax. Here are two of the rules from the Fatwa.

Do not set the time of play at 45 minutes, which is the official time of the Jews, Christians and all the heretical and atheist countries. This is the time used by teams that have strayed from the righteous path. You are obliged to distinguish yourself from the heretics and the corrupted and must not resemble them in anything. Do not play in two halves. Rather play in one half or three halves in order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics, the polytheists, the corrupted and the disobedient.

Wow, I thought I was math challenged. Everyone knows that one half and three halves add up to 3 and a half, don't they? Read the article. There is another good part about how playing soccer in pajamas is a good islamic practice.   [postscript 17-Oct] Here is an additional comment about why I think this Fatwa is a hoax. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan all sports were banned as un-Islamic. The Fatwa discussed here is a sort of half-way measure that would be rejected by a true fundamentalist.

Chemistry can be exciting, not

I never liked chemistry in High School. The periodic table is just some fancy French furniture, isn't it? However, as an investor I like the sound of Symyx technologies. This small company, with $113 million in revenues, is a fascinating case of science pushing the envelope <cliche alert!>. Read all about it at this Forbes Magazine article.

Symyx is shaking up the slow-moving world of chemicals by applying tools borrowed from the drug industry: miniaturization and high-speed automation. Traditionally research chemists carry out four experiments a day, mixing chemicals in bucketlike containers. Symyx has developed a machine as big as a walk-in closet that can mix thimble-size quantities of chemicals and metals in parallel, in up to 1,000 combinations per day, to test and create new materials. Just as high-speed technology transformed the way scientists discover drugs, Symyx is poised to do the same for materials. "It will truly help revolutionize how we do research," says Kurt Swogger, head of plastics research and development at Dow. "If you have speed advantage, you win."

Even if you are not an investor, but have an interest in science, this article is a good read.

[postscript 17-Oct] I am not a financial advisor. My thoughts on investments are for entertainment only.

They ain't buiding any more (land) Would you like to be in a business where your product is sure to increase in price every year? In other words, you have pricing power. Even better, what if you had pricing power over your raw material inventory? Most firms use just in time inventory because it is normal for goods to decline in value over time. The business I am talking about is the Home Building industry, represented by such companies as Toll Bros and Centex. Read about this industry in a very perceptive article in the New York Times called Chasing Ground. Their are two main themes in the article: 1) Because of demographic and geographic trends, the price of land suitable for housing must increase over time. 2) Societal trends such as NIMBY (not in my back yard) and environmental concerns, means only large developers can afford lengthy zoning and litigation costs. For example, this quote:

Toll won its Princeton Junction case in 1997. "Essentially, we were awarded a builder's remedy," Yearley says, which means that the judge agreed that West Windsor needed more affordable housing and that Toll could build. The appeals, which went to the State Supreme Court, took several more years, but by 2002 Toll had won at every level and had a state-approved plan allowing for 1,165 housing units. Of those, 535 would be stand-alone luxury homes and luxury town houses; the other 630 units would be one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, 175 of which would rent for below-market rates and therefore be designated as affordable housing. It took 10 years from the time Yearley bought the loans for the Princeton Junction land until the company was allowed to break ground. Even before a single bulldozer arrived to clear topsoil, the company's legal bill amounted to $2 million.

Read this excellent article, for it has important ideas for investors. Go to Yahoo and note the low p/e ratios of these companies. They offer good long term prospects, but suffer from investor expectaions of a real estate bubble, hence the low p/e ratios. But note that those low ratios also act as a cushion for long term investors. other companies to look at are DH Horton, Pulte and Lennar