Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
FYI: In the Off-Topic section there is now an updated report on the ongoing Boeing situation:
Airlines Hoping for More Boeing Jets Could Be Waiting Awhile
To recap, in the OT section the articles on the Boeing situation are as follows:
• 1/7/24:…
And using any other method simply gives potentially bad actors access to other points of vulnerability.
As I said above- In reading all of the above commentary I still find myself wondering what payment method is really "safe"?
So maybe someone s…
Following are edited excerpts from a current report in The New York Times:
Cruise Says Hostility to Regulators Led to Grounding of Its Autonomous Cars
A law firm’s review found that executives had failed to fully explain an October crash, which th…
"Dropping off the mail into the mailbox minimize the risk of stolen mails"
@Sven - be aware that in a number of major city locations, including the San Francisco Bay Area, thieves have acquired keys to many of the local drop-off mailboxes. They hav…
In reading all of the above commentary I still find myself wondering what payment method is really "safe"?
We have never used a debit card, except on European vacations for local cash withdrawal. Lucky there- never had a problem.
All credit card d…
I've been really happy with so-called "gel" pens- they write like a ballpoint but glide much easier over the paper. I've had very decent handwriting and printing ever since the mechanical drawing classes in high school, but of course that has deteri…
The way that things seem to be heading over at Boeing they may need to hire a lot of those car salesmen. Lessee now, maybe something like this ...
• "Door Plugs: Included- No Additional Charge"
• "Door Plugs, Inspected and Guaranteed to have All …
Yes, I knew of this incident, but it occurred on a 757, which has been in service for a very long time with no major issues that I'm aware of. That suggests that it's highly likely to be a Delta maintenance issue, and I don't want to be piling on Bo…
FWIW (to quote our favorite MFO leader) The SNOXX / SNSXX trade at Schwab went without a hitch at close of trading today. Of course both of those are MMKT funds, so that's about a simple as it gets.
@Mark- Thanks. Some here are interested in aviation reports, especially when there's a financial aspect involved. Because this is an ongoing situation I thought that it would be cool to have an index to keep track of it.
I also liked the old FA for…
"While it is a PIA at Schwab to not have sweep account, I think you can sell a fund, and buy another the same day although they will tell you you don't have enough settled funds"
By coincidence I just did that a few minutes ago- a simultaneous Sell…
"While it easy to move the money, Schwab requires you sell the MMF first, and it takes a couple of days to clear, so a fair amount of planning is involved. This to me is the major disadvantage to using Schwab."
I surely agree on that.
I don't look at this "bucket" concept as simply having two (or more) separate and inviolable piles of assets. The main consideration is to have a group of assets that can be converted fairly easily to cash to meet immediate expenses which may be in …
It's really pretty straightforward, at least in principle: those big fan blades in the front rotate at an optimal speed suited to their configuration, and suck in huge amounts of air. The air has no place to go other than through the chamber and out…
We're in danger of getting into a semantic swamp here with respect to the cash bucket. What exactly is a "normal" expense vs an "unexpected" expense?
To me, a "normal" expense is something that is predictable: a new roof, other major homeowner main…
@hank - Yes, here's a diagram of the principles involved-
And a short excerpt from Wickipedia re a Pratt & Whitney engine:
The Pratt & Whitney PW1000G, also called the GTF (geared turbofan), is a high-bypass geared turbofan engine family …
@sma3- Well, a main issue here is very similar to what's happening in Ukraine. Cheap and dirty attack hardware costs $4.95 (on sale from North Korea and Iran) and the sophisticated intercept weaponry from the US and Israel works pretty well, but cos…
Here's edited excerpts from a current report from the Washington Post on the Red Sea/Suez Canal shipping situation:
In just a few months, Yemen’s Houthis have taken an outsize bite out of global shipping — and have begun to threaten the economy of …
I believe that a few days ago I read a report suggesting that the route around the horn of Africa would add 3 days to the shipping run, for a fairly modest cost of approximately $5400 per shipping container on container ships. Not expected to have a…
@hank- I'm not sure on this, but I don't think that the "gearing" includes "shifting". If I recall correctly the turbofans use gearing to drive different parts of the engine at differing speeds, but the speed ratio between the various fan components…
Actually my particular perspective/method of backup didn't arise out of security concerns. It goes way back... what, maybe 30 years now? ... to my first computers- a Mac+ and then an SE30. Those things used OS 6, 7, and then later models used OS 8, …
@Ben- that's actually Shift+Command+4 for that sort of thing. I use that all the time.
@Crash- you know that we are in close agreement on the really important stuff, but sometimes you drive me crazy. :)
"Apple still hasn't found a way for me to take a screenshot that is simple enough for me."
How simple do you need ??? -
Shift+Command+3... you simultaneously hold down those three keys, which then automatically takes a screenshot of the entire sc…
@BenWP- Well, I'm pretty sure that almost any computer dislikes power surges, so the Mac is no exception. But I'm surprised at the difficulty restarting from the external drive- generally, holding down the "option" key during restart will give you a…
@Derf- OK, sorry I missed that above re the WSJ. But here's something to keep in mind- individual banks will offer, locally through their branches, CDs of various types ("jumbo", "special", etc) that may have rates that differ significantly from rat…
