Invensense make no sense

May 19, 2012 Finance No comments

The allure of the stock market that lures in the “sucker” is the same poison that drives them out. Perhaps one such example of this is Invensense (INVN). On April 20, 2012 INVN was at a high of $22.40 and even in the IBD top 50. Yesterday the stock dipped into $9.90 territory. What has led to this? How did a darling IPO go from a growth monolith to wet cereal? The answer is two fold; not meeting growth expectations, and the “shorts”.

Any belief that insider trading doesn’t occur is short sighted. One can make the case that to short the stock was a safe bet as the stock was highly overblown and rose too fast. But what makes Invensense (The maker of the technology that powers Microsoft’s Kinect) diferent, is that this company has an amazing niche product, lots of cash, and manageable debt. This is where I say the shorts knew something.

/TT

Facebook ($FB) IPO’s tomorrow-Predictions

May 17, 2012 Finance No comments

The big day is finally here!  Facebook will launch it’s official IPO at around $38.00 per, and then at 9:31am will shoot to $90 or so.  I could be wrong on the shoot to price, but I do know this, Facebook is severely overvalued.

What we know about Facebook to say it is a hot commodity, is that it is a web presence with over 900 million users, and has seen amazing growth in the past.  The growth story is over at this point, and Facebook has not shown strength with capitalizing on their mobile platform.  (You can only fit so many ads on a smartphone).

Should Facebook try to charge their customers they’ll quickly learn how people hate to pay.  They are not Google nor Apple, as they do not have a multitude of businesses, nor a mobile phone arm.  The stock should be priced at around $19.00, and the transparency of the markets will show just how NOT Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t.

/TT

The End is Nigh

May 17, 2012 Comedy No comments

 

 

 

 

The latest web site that is claiming the world will end is www.the-end-times.com. This group claims the end will occur on May 27, 2012. I am annoyed at this for several reasons, one of which is I have just painted few rooms in my house. I mean really. If they cannot get it right with that amazing man Harold Camping, who can they trust?
Do you remember Harold Camping? If not, I put his photo atop this piece. He was the gentleman whom predicted the world’s end a few years back in May. When May came and went, he then stated that he was off and it was October. (He failed to apologize to his followers that emptied their life savings and gave it away. When the said month of October came and went, he apologized and said God was mad at him, and he was closing the ministry. (Boo Hoo).

Stop the prophecies!! God has a plan, and he seems to know well enough to keep us out of it. He knows that if we had the exact time and date, we’d max out the credit cards and do stuff we shouldn’t do. I’ll post again on May 28th.

/TT

Firefox cries foul over Windows 8

May 13, 2012 Tech No comments

This story appeared on Network World at

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/051112-windows8-firefox-chrome-259228.html

Windows 8 Update: Firefox, Chrome cry foul over Windows 8 ARM

Also upgrading from Windows 7, mobile devices from Lenovo and HP

By Tim Greene, Network World
May 11, 2012 04:38 PM ET
Sponsored by:

Microsoft is taking heat from browser competitors Firefox and Chrome for blocking them out of planned Windows 8 devices that will be based on ARM processors.

These low-power machines will run Windows RT, which Microsoft describes as a new member of its Windows operating system family that won’t allow installing third-party software.

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Firefox maker Mozilla says that means it won’t be able to devise a version of its browser to run on Windows RT machines, something it says kills competition and is ultimately bad for customers.

“In practice, this means that only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed,” writes Harvey Anderson, Mozilla general counsel in a blog post. “Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can’t do the same.”

He also hints that allowing Internet Explorer but effectively blocking other browsers may stir up already settled legal issues about browser bias. “If Windows on ARM is simply another version of Windows on new hardware,” he writes, “it also runs afoul of the EC browser choice and seems to represent the very behavior the DOJ-Microsoft settlement sought to prohibit.”

Mozilla project manager Asa Dotzler expands on the perceived problem in a separate blog post in which he acknowledges that initially this will affect mostly tablets. But he says that as ARM processors are more widely used, Windows RT will have a bigger footprint. “ARM will be migrating to laptop PCs and all-in-one PCs very quickly,” Dotzler writes. “If you read Microsoft’s blog posts about Windows on ARM, you’ll see that they expect ARM PCs to cover the whole spectrum. ARM chips are already being used in servers. This is not a tablet-only concern.”

No word from Microsoft on this.

$FIO jumps on buyout talk

May 12, 2012 Finance No comments

$fio jumped 7% on rumors of $DELL offering 33 per. they will get bought out perhaps in the 37 neighborhood. question is when? i say by summer’s end.

The “customer” fee

May 3, 2012 Tech No comments

I learned today that Verizon and AT&T charge $30 for you to upgrade your phone even if you are eligible for a phone upgrade out right.

This is truly abyssal that companies choose to gauge their customers in this way, and more importantly that this practice is allowed to go on.

Essentially this allows companies to charge us to continue to be their customer. This means on top of the service we already paid for we have to pay a $30 “privilege to be a customer”, fee.

collusion anyone?

the end of the student loan

April 25, 2012 Tech No comments

The government’s announcement that the student loan rate would double unless congress acts to delay the increase will have a profound negative effect on the future of this country. Students that currently owe money on these loans have more to lose than a homeowner whom might default and lose their house.
There is already evidence that students who are so “in the hole” with a loan are either dropping out of school, or using other high interest sources to continue with their education. Either one has an impact on the future of this country.
Student A, is a 21 year old student with means of financial support other than her own, and has chosen to drop out of college as she can no longer pay the tuition. She is paying the bare minimum and the interest is accruing faster than she can pay the loan off. At this pace, the student is on a path for minimum wage work with debt that might never be paid down.
Student B, is a student with the means to stay in school, but who is amassing student loans nearing $200,000. The student is set to graduate this June, and no job is on the horizon.
Both of these students paint a poor picture, yet this is occurring to nearly 1 million students in the U.S.
While there is no single answer to this issue, I’d rather propose a question to the federal government: How can you bail out companies who fail to handle their business, but punish the future of this country?
/TT

$AAPL puts on the cheap

March 25, 2012 Finance No comments

Great article from mr. Sears in Barron’s today. apple puts

PANDAS: A Scary and Controversial Disorder

March 15, 2012 News No comments

A Dangerous possibility of Strep throat. CLICK HERE

The world’s first computer password? It was useless, too

January 29, 2012 Tech No comments

Computer passwords have been around since the 1960s—and MIT may be to blame.

via The world\’s first computer password? It was useless, too.

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