Server Error in ‘/’ Application.
GDI+ is not properly initialized (internal GDI+ error).
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException: GDI+ is not properly initialized (internal GDI+ error).

Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web
request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be
identified using the exception stack trace below.

PDF here Apple rebate site error…

According to the JetBlue Passenger’s Bill of Rights I’ll get a voucher for my entire one-way fare. I already got one of these back in January when they canceled my flights after a huge ice storm. I understand that they are trying to do something better here, but twice in 3 flights is completely unacceptable - the ice storm I could have understood, but this was a stupid little part and they should have had one on hand. I don’t care about the money, I would have much rather been told the real time estimate for the part to arrive from NY JFK and have gone back to a hotel for the night.

Oh yeh, the best part - we’re waiting for a piece of hardware that is needed to fix the pilot’s seatbelt. We can’t take off until then. About 3.5 hours ago, United Airlines was able to lend them the actual seat belt which broke during the last flight. They then had us board the plane, only to realize they were missing some other little doo-dad. Worst part - a previous group of people had been on this plane and were deplaned and given the original equipment we were supposed to take. We then got the dud plane with few apologies. As in January, there were few updates without asking though the pilots were really nice and the ground staff got us the pizza on their own from off site (security was almost closed and they made it right in time).

One saving grace - I have Cingular’s 3G service on my D620. Cingular finally upgraded the towers near Dulles so it has true 3G instead of EDGE (how you role out a service without covering all major airports I have no idea). I’m sort of entertained thanks to the internet and there is power in the terminal so I don’t have to worry about power issues. I’ve been catching up on The Black Donnellys which took over the Studio 60 tv spot only to be moved to the web (exclusively shown on nbc.com now as far as I know). No idea if it’ll be back, though the end of the season was awesome - check it out!

[note: a baby just started crying]

One of the cool things about Hemingway is that you can add your own little blocks to the bottom of the page. The blocks are three column oriented and are constant throughout the site. I whipped up this quick block to include the Last.fm plug-in by tijs.org so all of you could see what music I had recently listened to. Here’s the code:

To use this block, you must:

1. copy and paste this code into a file called lastfm.php
2. replace my username (aki51) with yours
3. put the lastfm.php file in your wp-content/theme/hemingway/blocks directory
4. visit the Presentation -> Hemingway Options page
5. it will tell you that you have a new block and must install it. give it a name and click install
6. lastly, drag the last.fm block to one of your columns and you’re set

Enjoy!

Lots of things going on at Flock this week. 0.7.3 is barely out the door (featuring support for most Firefox extensions, yummy new photo features and more), and our hackers are already getting ready to unleash 0.7.4 over the next day or two. They’re also hard at work on our next major release. More on that soon.

decremental

Almost 3 months since my last set of posts.  Coincidentally, ever time the Flock guys release a new version I get excited about blogging and interacting with the web again.  Web 2.0 or the Read/Write Web is more time consuming but also typically more fun.

technorati tags:flock, blogs

Blogged with Flock

So far the experience has been pretty good - decent speeds, not busy and no cut-outs from my laptop. To use the service you will need a Google Account, an 802.11b/g card and a handy dandy base-station nearby. You see all of the locations here: http://wifi.google.com/city/mv/apmap.html

The network is primarily an outdoor network, although they do have Mountain View Public Library fully covered inside as well. I tried using it in various places around Mountain View from my new Palm TX Handheld and it seemed to be fairly pervasive but always barely there (1-2 bars on the Palm). In addition, speed was great and I appear to have a publicly accessible IP address. DHCP IP leases are for 1 hour and seem to be easy renewals.

I expected to be using T-Mobile from the Starbucks location - however both this one and another new one near Rengstorff Ave don’t have T-Mobile. Word is that management of the Strabucks are relying on Google to provide a reasonable signal nearby and thus to avoid having to pay for the T1 line into each location and maintaining service. Why both when Google is free? We’ll see how long that lasts…

technorati tags:googlewifi, wifi, google, tmobile

Blogged with Flock

• Significantly reduced cost, a Dell D620 w/ dock and Windows XP & Office license is $2000 vs. $2500 for a MacBook Pro. Throw in the cost of a 3-year warranty and 2 GB of RAM (both included in the $2k price point) and the Mac’s price reaches nearly $2900.
• Mac OS X doesn’t have the best Java support, Eclipse is just slower in OS X than either Linux or Windows even on Intel hardware.
• Similar battery life - PCs have finally caught up in this arena, I can get 4.5 hours on a 6-cell battery on the D620.
• Reasonable tools exist in Windows (see below) such that many of the productivity gains I got on my Mac are now possible in Windows.
• iTunes + Quicktime on Windows are pretty good, plus I always have my iPod with me so I’m not as reliant on my iBook to produce my iLife.
• Fairly thin/lightweight - no where near Apple’s industrial design - but otherwise reasonable.
• Has a trackpoint, much like on ThinkPads, so I don’t have to deal with a crappy touchpad.

So what do I miss about my Mac?

• No Unix. This sucks.
• Not nearly as sexy, let’s face it I’m not going to pick up any techno-chics in a coffee shop sporting my Dell laptop.
• Feel like I’ve joined the dark side…

It’s sad to see a product I’ve depended on for years leave my life. I still have and will continue to use my G5 w/ Apple Cinema Display (until they steal it back from me). So my iLife is not really over - I can still use all the excellent media applications that Apple ships with OS X (iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, etc). Moreover, I get the best of both worlds in that I can now run Yahoo! Music Unlimited at home as well as iTunes to listen to whatever I want.

Here are some tools I’ve found to make my Windows laptop more like my Mac laptop:

• AppRocket - a LaunchBar clone for windows. Open any app, doc, etc. with a simple alt-space bar and the first few letters of the app’s name. Not as advanced as Spotlight, but see below.
• WinPlosion - like Mac OS X’s Exposé. Includes all the windowing enhancements as well as hot-corner support.
• Google Desktop - just double-tap the ctrl button and you get Spotlight features for all the document, web history, chat logs, etc. on your machine.

Is this equivalent to the superior experience that my iBook provided? I think the jury is still out on that - it’s clearly not as intuitive and easy to use (why are there 2 different apps to control my wireless settings), things don’t “just work” and it’s missing a number of applications out of the box that make Mac’s so incredible. I don’t think a Windows PC can ever catch-up to the integration that you get on a Mac - however if some companies get their way (e.g. Google) it won’t matter because you’ll have web-based tools to do everything you’d want. This experience has convinced me that there is a market opportunity for Google to build excellent productivity applications (clones of iCal, Mail.app, Pages, iPhoto, even iMovie) on the web and build a very large user-base around them. Coming from a Mac background, it’s hard to really understand that 95% of the computer-using world doesn’t have such a tightly integrated set of tools at their disposal.

I think I’d have seriously considered a MacBook (black of course) if they just had better graphics - my company’s application is GPU intensive so the built-in Intel graphics wouldn’t have sufficed. The price-point on the other hand is pretty damn good compared to the MacBook Pro.

So open up those address books, think of all the great software engineers you’ve ever worked with, recall all your past CS project buddies and start pounding the pavement for leads.  Send me info directly - aki51 at cs dot stanford dot edu.

The newsletter is aimed at your novice investor who wants to learn more about investing and why one should or shouldn’t invest in individual securities.  The focus of the authors is to recommend two small cap stocks per month.  The service does deliver just that each month, though it also re-recommends stocks from time to time (I think something like 3 or 4 times so far).  I generally like the commentary, the active tracking of stock holder issues, executive interviews and the open forums where members discuss, value and recommend to each other.  In addition to the two main picks (which are officially tracked), the service provides a number of unoffiicial watch-list stocks and two tiny gems (micro caps).  Since July of 2003 when the service started, the track record for the main editor’s picks is about a 37% return vs. the guest editor’s picks at 45% (as you can see below):

There are some downsides to the newsletter.  My primary con is that it’s hard to get the recommendation prices.  When the newsletter comes out at 10am on the fourth Thursday of the month the main picks spike immediately - typically 3-10% in one day.  The Tiny Gems (micro caps) spike even more given there lower average volume.  This can make getting in at the ground very difficult.  It’s also plain old frustrating.  Another con is that it takes a while to figure out how best to leverage the news letter.  Instead of going in with no money and trying to start investing in the stocks that are recommended, it’s a better idea to go in with at least a few thousand dollars and diversify heavily the first month or two.  One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is having the patience to wait for a reasonable price and not to check the stock prices day to day - it’s generally nerve racking with volatile small caps and doesn’t lead to good decision making.

One of the best parts of the newsletter is the community feedback.  While it may be Tom Gardner’s words, it truly is supported and added to immensely by the community that comes with it.  From advice on what stocks to buy now to how to properly value opportunities - it’s all there.  Moreover, the community’s feedback is actually heard and incorporated into the product and format of the newsletter. 

So does this warrant a $199/year fee for the Fool folks?  Can average Fools actually earn these sort of returns by using a newsletter like this?  The answer is - I’m not sure.  So let’s look at the numbers:

The reason I’m not quite sure is that I just don’t have enough data and I didn’t follow the newsletter closely enough the first year.  Specifically, I invested in only 2 main picks between May 2004 and December 2004.  I also invested in 2 Tiny Gems (the unofficial microcap picks) which have been my best performers to date (though they really sucked in 2004).  Since the beginning of 2005, I’ve shyed away from the Tiny Gems and started picking one or both of the Hidden Gems to buy per month - diversification has yielded significantly better returns in a harder market environment.  But 1 year doesn’t come close to making a trend.  So why am I hesitating?  Part of it is that over the past 3 years small caps have been on a tear.  In 2003 the Russel 2000 returned 47.25% vs. the S&P’s 28.69%!  It’s unclear if small caps are going to remain the best value in the market or if they’re in for a licking as their boom cycle ends.

In addition to looking at my Hidden Gems portfolio, I also tallied up the score on my Roth IRA.  I have a longer history here, so the numbers are slightly more interesting to look at with respect to trends:

These numbers actually gave me the biggest reason for pausing before renewing my Hidden Gems subscription (which I still haven’t done).  In the two overlapping years, I beat my Hidden Gems portfolio - in 2005 I got nearly double the return from it.  The focus of my Roth IRA has been both large cap value stocks and international opportunities - Brazil, Russia, India & China (BRIC).  Admittedly these international stocks have done extremely well in 2005 (Brazil and Russia nearly doubled) but are just as high risk as the small caps.  In general, when comparing my returns here to the indexes over the last few years - I didn’t do that poorly and squarely beat the S&P each year.

It’s clear to me none of this is close to conclusive and I’m probably going to continue down the small cap path given it’s doing pretty well this year, and I feel like I’ve finally figured out how best to leverage the content of the newsletter and it’d community.  I’m curious to know how do you invest and what has your experience been like?  Are they just a bunch of thieves out to get us?  Can you beat the street?  Most experts say no, I’m not so sure…

technorati tags: finance, hiddengems, stocks