Computer Spinup2

The computer spinup continues. Back to school is a good time to buy, but I am not ready. I have been traveling down the path of getting an ION based dual core Atom for TV, namely a Gateway QX (it is not out yet). Should be great for HDTV with HDMI and plenty of graphics power, but..... I want to watch Hulu and Hulu is Flash and Flash is all about the CPU. The Atom CPU would be a step down from what I have now! Hmmm...what I want is the ION's 9400m paired with a Core2 and packaged nicely. Oh, wait that is a Mac Mini!
Also holding me back...
Windows 7 release. Why buy a computer to reinstall the OS it 2 months later?
StarCraft2 is delayed so I don't even know what to shoot for.
Intel has a lot of new and better processors that are just about here so that what I buy will be obsolete before it arrives.
Nvidia is supposedly almost done with the ION2. I would at least like to know more here, but honestly, almost done means a year away.
It is frustrating because my internet computer has...6GB hard disk left and the laptop is prone to spinning up the fans when it is idle. The thing ain't right.

Computer Spinup

If you know me, you probably know a few things. One I replace my computers every two years. Two I buy low end, maybe $1300 for both. Three I never buy full sized computers. I currently have two. The internet computer is a Dell Optiplex 745 Ultra Small Form Factor which is about the size of a Mac Mini and about as powerful as the previous Mini. The TV computer is a Dell laptop with a low end CPU and dedicated video. Well two years are up.

What needs improvement?

The internet computer occasionally gets an hourglass. What the heck? Its a dual core! It also has a woefully small hard drive and cannot play HDTV which I could stream from my TV computer basically turning it into a second TV.

The TV computer has greater issues. It frequently loses the TV as second monitor requiring a reboot. Ugh!. It also has slowed so that HDTV is more jumpy than previously.

Also, I do miss computer gaming as niether computer is really prepared for that. I would like to play StarCraft2 which comes out later this year. Starcraft is the only game I played to the last level which I could not win. Blu ray would be really nice since I have not bought a stand alone player yet.

Random thoughts.

TIVO HD is not out of the question. Although monthly service charges annoy me so does dropping another ~$650 or so on the least used computer. The current laptop could stay for everything but over the air HDTV.

If Apple would cough up a BluRay MacMini that would be just about perfect.

At first glance, the Internet computer is a no brainer. A nearly identical replacement Optiplex 760 USFF would easily have the horsepower. I wait for a Windows 7 returned "Previously Ordered New" unit and immediately put in a 1TB drive.

More Digital TV

Update to Original Post 3/28/2009

As you know, I have a laptop TIVO.

I have made a few small upgrades.

The first is to "N" networking. The laptop always had "N", but the router was "G". Moving to "N" allows me to watch the HD version of Hulu without ever running out of buffer. Yipee. The "N" network also allows me to watch shows on the laptop from my other computer, but that just pointed out how sad the graphics are on the other computer.

The second is to use Chrome browser for Hulu. Once I had N in place I still had frames dropped without any issue with throughput. I tried Chrome and it was buttery smooth. After I did this I searched and found that Firefox and Flash just don't get along. Score one for Google.

Hulu + N network + Chrome = :-)

The third upgrade did not work out so well. I was disappointed way back when I spent $20 extra for a firewire hard drive and then found the cable did not match my notebook. I have been using USB 2.0 forever. I finally broke down and spent another $10 on the firewire cable. Verdict - I have raised the amount of money wasted on firewire to $30. I saw no difference.

Making It All Work

I finished Making It All Work by David Allen. This is GTD2.0. GTD is shorthand for Getting Things Done, his first book. MIAW just doesn't roll of the tounge since it is not a TLA. It was fun to read a book when you have already researched the topic.

David is quite bold to say that no one has ever said his system does not work. In one interview, there was a pause after this statement and you could tell the the interviewer was thinking 'No critics! Seriously!'. I have found plenty of criticisms and recommended improvements. My favorite is 'Zen to Done'. He has stated that it is a process and the details are what works for you. So, if you do not like the system, then you must not be using the details that work for you.

Reading MIAW, I can see several areas where David has responded to the non-existent criticism. The martial arts 'Mind Like Water' terminology is downplayed. He was guilty of misrepresenting Eastern philosophy. He has tried to emphasize the higher levels of the system vs the gritty details. Although he mentions the 50,000 foot 'life purpose' in GTD. What everyone took away from it was how to organize and prioritize the things we do everyday. In MIAW he spends many more pages on the different levels. The previous book emphasized business, the examples in this book are often life related. Even the subtitle Winning the Game of Work and the Business of Life telegraphs this shift. I still don't think he has done enough in the area of how to clean house when you have 100 uncompleted next actions which are now obsolete.

I do think that GTD/MIAW has more or less nailed mental organization and that is why I bought the book after reading the library's copy. I think the 'Process' focus is genius (I am a process engineer). So much of organization is 'Use this software' or 'Buy my planner' which is inflexible. The other pitfal he artfully avoids is fixed priorities. I am sure everyone has at some point succumbed to ABC priority coding only to realize three days later that priority A is obsolete and priority C must be done immediately.

I have been spending a lot of time researching personal efficiency. So much so, that I think I need to stop wasting time researching. :-). I would say this book is probably the best single resource for this. Becoming more efficient is a lot like dieting. You do really good and see progress then one of the busses of life run you over and you fall off the wagon. Later, you feel like there is too much going on and you just have to get organized and efficient again. David's books have enough detail that you can re-read them and find a perspective that you did not get the last time through.

The story to here...

Here is a list of money stretching ideas that I compiled

Expanding Rainy Day Fund
A Home Equity Line of Credit is a good choice to increase your emergency fund in uncertain times. This is a 2nd mortgage on your house. You can borrow the difference between what you owe on the house and 80% of the value. The one I have through my bank is a line of credit, you do not have to borrow anything until you need it. For the first 5 years the loan is interest only. Years 6 -15 you pay back interest and principal. The adjustable rate interest, currently 4.25% is tax deductible. The cost to set mine up was $0.

Budget and Debt
Local churches offer Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. If you don't already have an opinion of him Google him. It does cost money and takes many weeks to go over finances in detail with an emphasis on reducing debt. Most couples who have done it were glad they did. It does help the couple get on the same page financially. The study group format helps reduce the emotional impact of making hard financial choices.

Reduce Insurance Cost
I re-did my home and auto insurance using "Insurance for Dummies" as my guide. I found that my insurance coverage levels were dangerous and my deductibles were inappropriately low. It was a lot of effort, but in the end I corrected my coverage levels, bumped up my deductibles and changed companies saving $1000 a year with a much better insurance plan.

I did my insurance on my own, but to save time your agent could probably help with coverages and deductibles if they have not been reviewed recently. Then, you can shop around with the same coverages and deductibles. Use Consumer Reports etc to find a reasonably responsive, creditworthy company. I ultimately did not go with Geico, but it’s website was useful for doing comparisons of auto insurance coverage and deductibles.

Eliminate Cable or Satellite
I don’t have cable or satellite. I use an antenna in the attic to record broadcast HDTV to a laptop DVR then watch it on my DLP. Some high level points:

1) If you had an antenna you need a new one for HDTV broadcast TV and maybe a signal booster.. The biggest issue with over the air is signal strength. Some areas of North Dallas are shadowed by down town.

2) A Windows Vista Home Premium laptop since I can get free guide updates for broadcast TV. Hulu.com provides access to much cable programming along with iTunes. Note: For a small monthly fee TIVO HD does most of this, is much easier to setup and you probably don't have to reboot it occasionally to get it to work.

Cut Telecommunications Cost
We still have land line phone, but my phone company only recently allowed unbundling of DSL internet from the land line phone. Cell phones and VOIP could take the place of the land line.

Lower the Electric Bill
For the electric bill, I have no doubt that the thermostat is the best way to save on electricity. Last summer I accidentally opened my retired neighbor's electric bill. It was maybe a third of ours for the same size house.

Oncore will check out your 5+ year old house for ways to improve energy efficiency. I was not very impressed with this service, but it was free.

ONCOR Energy Efficiency Programs
http://www.oncor.com/electricity/teem/default.aspx

Other ways to Save
If you need tires and aren't a member of Sams or Costco call for prices, it might make sense to join.

The library has a lot of good books, videos and wireless internet. In my town, if a movie is worth seeing you will have to get on the wait list. Return them on time, the late fees are very high.

Use public transit more. Google Directions has a drop down box for "by public transit". This displays the best routing and timing to get from one place to another on public transit. This is much easier than using the rapid transit website and it even works on my phone.

Break the 401K Piggy?

I checked out "More Wealth Without Risk", a 90s book on saving and investing by Charles Givens. It is in the same vein as 40 hour work week but dated. The pages are yellowed. His Money Movement Strategy says to move into stocks whenever the prime rate is less than 9%. The prime has been under 9% since January 2001.

However, looking at his section on insurance, it was about as good as you can do in 80 pages as part of a larger book. OK, maybe this guy does know something. His big thing is taxes, but tax laws change and likely the book is worthless in the details. So, I have been surfing this getting ideas.

Yeah, I will get to the point eventually.

In the past month there have been a couple of MSN.com articles on Tax strategies to use your 401K to fund your startup. I am sure Suze Orman would have something to say about this. It is dangerously risky, but if you are willing to bet the farm, it looks something like this:

1) Set up your company.
2) Form a company 401K plan.
3) Establish retirement plan rules that allow you to buy stock in the new company
4) Roll over your legacy 401(k) into the startup 401K plan.
5) Use your 401K funds to buy stock in your company
Presto: Tax-free working capital

The articles below explain the process and the potentially farm sized pitfalls. Read them while the links still work.

I have an ex-coworker who already plans to use his 401K money for his startup and this will save him $$$.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/TaxShelters/use-your-401k-to-start-a-business.aspx?page=all

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/fund-your-business-with-your-401k.aspx

Inbox Zero

I have been looking to be more efficient at work. One thing that got to me was the time I spent on email. I looked at it closely and made some changes.

Stop sending so many emails.
I looked at my incoming email 2500 in three months and my out going email 800 in three months. I realized that I was part of the problem. I replied to everything directed to me even if it was just 'Thanks'. I emailed notes to someone else who was in the same meeting also not paying attention to the speaker. I also noticed that I take longer to type up a message than it would take to call them. Now if I have a quick question for one person, I just call. Shocking. If I have the answer, but it was directed to someone else, I let them reply.

Stop sorting emails.
This has been huge. Probably half the emails I get are what is called reference. I don't need to do anything with them, but it might be important to know later. Previously, I would decide which of 27 folders to stick the email in. When I needed to find it I would go to that folder and look for it often resorting to searching for some topic in the email. When the email was not there, I looked in the next most likely folder. Now, I have one folder which is read mail for the current 3 month period. Anything, reference is filed there quickly with CTRL, Shift, V. I don't spend any time thinking where to put it. Since everything goes in the same bucket, I can highlight 10 read mails and move them at once. Yes, when I go to find something, I have to sort through 100s of emails instead of dozens, but knowing who sent it and when lets me find it quickly. If not, the computer can search on a topic fairly quickly.

Looking at it now, I see this is a known efficiency tactic. If you notice, Gmail embraces this.

Insurance

This is probably the best post I will put up. Unfortunately, I could not put up a file. So, if you want the spreadsheet, I will need to email it to you. Email me or leave a comment.

In 2008 I finally decided to review my insurance. I suspected I could save money.

My reference was the book Insurance for Dummies. I recommend it even though he pushes a lot of insurance. I also referred to several websites such as the Texas state insurance site, moneycentral.com, bankrate.com etc.

There are two reasons to do an exhaustive review of insurance
1) To save money. I was not disappointed. I am saving $1500/year for about my admittedly time consuming effort of maybe 40 hours?
2) To plug your holes. I was shocked at what insurance does not cover.
You really need to read for yourself, but here are a couple of eyeopeners.
a) Business and personal are totally separate. If you have a home business you are not covered by homeowners. Don't let your customer slip and fall!
b) Your personal insurance probably covers a rental car, unless you dropped collison and comprehensive on your insured car.

Highlights:
1) I upped my liability from dangerous to OK. $300,000 liability is a lower limit
2) I raised my deductibles for significant cost savings. You don't want to report small claims anyway.
3) The variation between companies for same coverage is large. Shop around.
4) I went with with Amica for both Home and Auto saving $1500 a year over previous State Farm coverage. Notes: You have to pay new Homeowners insurance before getting money back from old and, with escrow, your mortgage payment does not reset until next year.

My dad wants to do this, so I tidied up the spreadsheet for him and he gets the book. Get with me if you want the spreadsheet.

The 4-Hour Workweek

I have been focusing on how to be more effective. I had read Getting Things Done by David Allen and thought it was a good book. GTD is quite the phenomenon. Listening to a GTD related podcast I came across a comparison to The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.

The 4-Hour Workweek could not be more different. GTD is corporate and helps you become more efficient at what you do. 4-Hour Workweek is radically out of the box, question everything you have been told stuff. Basically, your parents will get GTD and 4-Hour Workweek will “make their head explode” if you try to explain it.

First, The 4-Hour Workweek is not about organization per se. It is about getting rich quick so that you can follow your dreams and travel the world. He is pretty obnoxious with all that stuff. If I had not been looking for the effectiveness stuff I might not have even read the whole book.

The key contrast and necessary effectiveness tool that is different than GTD is the 80/20 rule. He makes this a core. The 20% of work that gets you the 80% of results should be all you ever do. Everything else should be eliminated, delegated or automated. This is an “Ah-hah” for me. My problem with GTD is the “capture everything and prioritize” mantra. Trouble is after a few months I have a 100 actions which were added and immediately descended in priority to pretty much zero. Now, remember that each of these 100 actions were deemed important and, in David Allen’s words, could “blow up” at any time. It is pretty depressing to look at that list and realize all the things that could go wrong because you are not working 24/7 to nip them all in the bud.

Here are my takeaways from the book.
1) The 80/20 rule has caused me to look at the fires I get sucked into at work and look for ways to eliminate or delegate. After a week, I was spending twice as much time on my priorities that my boss is going to judge me on.
2) I plan to give actions an expiration date. If they don’t get worked in maybe 2 months, they are deleted. It may look like a mission critical task, but if in 2 months it has not bubbled up to the top then it is deleted along with the insignificant

My Free High Definition TV 2009

Original Post 3/28/2009

I have more gorgeous high definition TV than I can handle and it is all FREE!

I joined the digital TV revolution a couple years ago. I have an antenna in the attic to get broadcast HDTV. I connected a laptop with dedicated graphics to my HDTV and use Vista as a TIVO. I have a second PC on a "G" network.

It all works better than you would think from reading on the internet. Why? Everything I have is under powered compared to conventional wisdom

• Wireless G? Video transfer should be over hard wire or at least "N"
• 1.6 GHz Core Duo Laptop? I see new Quad Cores listed at "great for media center" Recording HDTV hardly touches the CPU. Playback is a minor load as long as you have dedicated video.
• Second PC has 2 year old integrated graphics.
• My primary storage is USB2.0 Hard Drive not 1394 or eSata.

What can I do with this setup?

1. I can record two broadcast shows at once while watching a third.
   
2. I select shows TIVO-like with the Vista Home Premium Media Center guide.
   
3. I can rent online movies from anyone. iTunes, Amazon etc.
4. I can watch a lot of cable TV on demand from Hulu.com
   
5. Roughly half of digital TV is SD for standard definition. I can watch this on the second PC with lame graphics and "G" network.

Since I am so underpowered, here are the limitations.

1. On my TV, when skip around in a HD video it can take a few seconds to catch up with full synced video and sound.
2. On my second PC AND over the "G" network. Recorded HD content is unusable. SD content works pretty good unless there is interference such as the microwave.
3. On my TV, over the "G" network. Hulu will half to re-fill buffer maybe every 30 minutes or so. Hulu HD content runs out and has to re-fill buffer maybe every 10 minutes. Too often! None if this is an issue on the lower powered but hardwired PC.

All in all, it has been a pleasant suprise. The limitations would be maddening to enthusiasts, but are not a big deal for me. I could have spent twice as much and not see a significant difference. Free online TV rocks if you do not have pay TV.

This post is sort of a rock. If anyone comments with questions I will expand this with Hardware details, setup frustrations and future plans. I just want to make sure someone is interested before I spend more time on it.

A Prisoner's Dilemma

Confession. I love business news. When I had cable, I watched a lot of CNBC. I would also watch CNBC when I am at the gym on a treadmill. I would sometimes work until 6:30PM so that I could listen to NPR's MarketPlace on the drive home. My iPod is about half filled with financial podcasts that I listen to as I commute. So, I like business news. However, I am reaching saturation. Since I have fewer coworkers I often find myself eating my lunch by myself in the cafeteria watching CNN. Well, the Financial Crisis has totally replaced the war in Iraq as the thing to talk about. Often my lunch is 100% business news. Please, make it stop.

When the topic comes to personal finance a version of the Prisoner's Dilemma pops up. If you recall this from game theory... Two prisoners are faced with a dilemma. If neither talks, they both get off easy. If one rats out the other the 'rat' goes free but the other guy goes to jail for a long time. For your average criminal they can't rat on their 'friend' fast enough.

The version being circulated by the financial media is:
The economy would do fine if everyone stayed the course and went out to eat, bought cars and generally kept up their standard of living. However on a personal level I keep hearing advice to 'act as if you were laid off now' and cut the cable service or sell the car now, others say that since the market has dropped you must increase your savings from 10% to 20% of income.

I gaurantee if everyone decided to suddenly cut expenses to the bone and save 20% of income that the recession would become much worse. That is if everyone perfectly executed the plan that is best for them, we would all sink together rather quickly. Fortunately, in this dilemma we can count on the general laziness of the public to NOT cut expenses to the bone so this worst case scenario will probably not happen.

The concept

The idea is an engineer's musings on the world. Gadgets, The economy, Saving Money, Saving Energy Etc.

Probably a lot of stuff on gadgets like. Did you know that if you have an ATT cell phone that you can go buy an ATT GoPhone for really cheap and by switching out the SIM card have a new phone? Pretty cool if your phone just fell in the toilet.

Probably a lot of stuff on the economy. Such as my solution for the Housing Crisis. For, folks with underwater loans the Government forces the following:

The lender gives the homeowner a new loan for 80% of the current value of the house at the going rate say 5%.

The government gives the bank a check for the difference between the old large loan and the new smaller loan. The amount the loan is underwater.

The government then puts a lean on the house of that value (a 0% loan). The lean is paid back with a Federal Property Tax of 2% of appraised value annually. The money goes to pay off the lean.

If the homeowner sells, the government gets any amount more than 80% to pay down the lean. Whatever is left on the lean is transferred to the new owner who continues to pay 2% annually until the Federal Lean is paid off.

Jim Cramer has a similar idea, but government and bank are reversed.

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