patrick.net

I have a cell phone that is about 5 years old now and I just replaced the battery in it! I replaced my computer that was about 5 years old just a couple months ago, only because I was itching to buy something new, but had no reason to do so. I still buy CD's as well because I know where they are and can do whatever I want with them. I have turned over to the amazon kindle though. That is a fantastic device. Everything else, Bah!

The cyclical cycle in terms of purchasing hardware has changed from 2-3 years to 4-5 years. It's still there, and 5 year old hardware is still good. But after 5 years, no matter how well your computer is working, it's getting to a get to a point where new machines are so much faster it's almost impossible to not make an ROI.

Hardware specific for DB's would be interesting. I don't think buying Nvidia would give them a leg up there though. They would essentially be destroying the gamer base of that company and turning it into a DB focused application. If it came push to shove, they would probably speed up their DB hardware side than speed up the gamer side of things. Those cards don't fit in 1U cpu's and they require enormous amounts of power. I can see a 20-70x speed up, but it's probably very limited subset of what needs to get done. Not to mention, if they started making headway, Intel and AMD would simply put those instructions into their CPU's.

Finally, I think if they're going to go with hardware they need more of a complete package to really make it worth while. They need a really great CPU that is insanely fast + add in really great SUN error correction and 100% uptime capabilities + utilize HyperTransport3. That might make a killer company. I remember reading about HT3 and what it was promising to allow, nothing has materialize out of it though. Apparently you could make custom chips and put them into CPU sockets. 1x16core CPU and 3xDB sub processor chips! Or put in 4x16core cpus and plug in a couple CPU's via the USB port! Or PCI, or any other connection you could think of! Now that would have been interesting, but nothing happened. Cores per CPU got out of control.

I think AMD has enough relations with other silicon valley companies to make it worth their while. But again, it seems like a pointless venture to buy them. It's not a huge money making company. Even Intel is looking for other sources of revenue.

Btw, Intel is looking to put in a pay per upgrade system. I'm not sure how that will effect them, and whether it will just piss people off. Essentially, they'll create fewer chips. Instead of say 30, just 10. Each chip will have things turned off to make it a baseline product. You then buy a "$50 turn on extra core card" or "Increase CPU speed card" and basically enter in the scratch off number to activate it. They're looking at creating an App store, with only apps working on their CPU's that have been validated. It's part of the anti virus software purchase I believe. I believe we're about to enter an era of nickle and diming the customer on their CPU purchase.

From a buyer perspective that would piss me off. But then again, there are a lot of stupid consumers out there.

Apparently you could make custom chips and put them into CPU sockets.
There are a couple of companies that put (Xilinx and Altera) FPGAs on a CPU socket. They target specific high performance niches. No 'custom chip' necessary; just program the FPGA for your workload. Sweet!

FPGA's generally run pretty slow though, because they're exact matches to their workload they can process at insane speeds though.

Making "custom" is fairly expensive though. So again, I'm not sure what they would gain. If it's not for a faster CPU + technology that AMD has, then it has to be some sub chips for SUN. I can't think of anyone worth buying in that market either. Sun isn't exactly a hot seller these days. Trying to recover that market + enhance it with more tech? I just don't see it happening.

E-man says

Not possible. It got voted down in 2006 for all NEW DEVELOPMENT on hillsides until 2018. I bet some developers would find a way to put it on the ballot again after 2018.

Nice catch Eman... lots of land there alright!!

Well there are a lot of tangents for getting your password...
Here's, I think, everyone's worst nightmare.
Zeus -- aka Zbot -- is a sophisticated financial malware toolkit that helps criminals automatically create online attacks, supported by botnets, aimed at stealing people's finance-related credentials, such as bank account login information. In other words, rather than directly attacking bank systems, attackers simply try to fool bank users....For example, an attacker might infect both a person's PC and smartphone, steal money, and then reroute any security-check phone calls from the bank. "So when the bank detects a suspicious transaction and calls the customer for confirmation, the criminals can pick up the phone on the other side and do that on behalf of the customer," he said.

I've heard of this before. Criminals installed a logger on a guys computer. Got his password and read his emails.

He went on vacation, they knew this.
They logged onto his account and changed his email account, the institution just let him.
They stole all his money
He didn't notice until he got back because he was never notified of any changes.

His angle was you changed my notifications without telling me, meaning I had no way of knowing anything was going on. You're responsible, and they ended up paying up when he started getting some attention.

But yes, it's pretty scary. In many countries they don't have this kind of protection. I can go to the ATM here and get money in 15 seconds. In brazil my wife is putting her card in, taking it out, entering in passwords, then confirmation codes. There are random codes so people can't "shoulder surf" your password. Her online banking is even worse, with installed software on her computer, virtual keyboards, multiple passwords, and out of band confirmations!

People are now getting targeted very directly as well. People get some of your information and then start phishing for more from you. Trying to get in through facebook, google searches, etc. Find out a bit about you. Start making calls to your work to get more details. Start mailing you real mail directly to your house. Ugh! It's going to get worse in the coming years :( That's all I have to say.

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (FRFHF.PK)

I was reading on seeking alpha about this company about a week ago. It only caught my fancy because it was touted as the warren buffet of the north. Owner has most of his assets within the company.

Although, looking at their charts very briefly, the stock almost shows CDN vs USD increases, or in other words, no gains?

Any thoughts on this? I haven't done much more than read the article on the stock. Looked at it's charts and noticed they almost mimic the fall of the USD, which I would presume would enhance their profits, pushing their stock price up as well.

Any obvious "don't bother investigating further it's crap..." advice on this one?

I'm new to this board and was just looking around for tips on housing and ran across this thread and some others by you guys. Man, SF Ace, your investment picks are impressive. Congrats!

For those that cares, Investors are likely sitting on a ton of realized and unrealized gains but IMO It is time to hunker up and roll over $$ into PetroBrazil.

* The 70B Offering is behind the company and took the price to where it is today. Institutions have left this stock briefly and there were huge numbers of shorts in anticpation of the dilution, but every international fund will be back and there is few reason to short further. The future offering will be via bonds not shares.

* There's a reason why PBR raised all that money, they have the most significant oil discovery recently. However, these reserves are deep and hard to extract thus demand for capital. In the offering the proceeds will be use to pay the Government for the right to produce 5 billion more offshore fields. The investment will double the company’s production to 3.9 million barrels a day by 2014 and PBR's growth rate will dwarf its peers which are struggling.

* It is trading on severe discount compared to XOM. yet boast the best margins in the industry. PBR should be trading at a premium not discount without the effect of the offering.

* Every commodity made their moves this year except oil. Oil is a great place for the long term, and now is not a bad time to get in. If you are long oil, the best play right now is to long the company that is leveraged the most to the price of this commodity, PBR.

Price target of $58 in 12 months. Very little downside risk from here. Great risk/reward play. Dividend is in the 4-5% range currently.

Interesting property deal. It's very close to (if not right on top of) the Hayward and Calaveras faults... whoever looks at this should be very diligent in checking out what kind of structural reinforcement it has. House should be strongly bolted to the foundation, lots of shear walls all around the first floor, etc.

good property deal for the long haul

Does anyone know anything about a neighborhood in San Ramon called Windmere? My fiance would like us to look at homes in the area because she says its a pretty up and coming place for immigrants (she is Chinese - working on becoming a naturalized citizen). I want to make her happy, but I’m very reluctant to look at higher end homes that have had price runups before the crash.

Anyone have anything to say about Windmere?