The Tabs Story

This week in Colorado....the chief person in charge of the automation voting machines....goofed up and gave out a Excel spreadsheet, which had the passwords to each individual machine in the state.  For  a while, it was public knowledge....at least until they changed the passwords.

How she goofed-up?  Well...in Excel, you can have tab, after tab, after tab....in one single document.

I worked once with a female contractor (over 20 years ago)....who had gone off to a Excel class or two.  She came back in this Jesus-like manner....being a wizard at using Excel.

I needed some data one day, and she came to give me a copy of some document.  I noticed right away.....there were a dozen tabs to the document.

She had gone way beyond the expectation of our gov't agent (the boss)....having  literally thousands of bits of information built into this document and the stupid tabs.

It came to me one day....that she was just one of hundreds of thousands around the globe....who were inserting tabs, and doing massive calculations with sometimes marginal or useless information.  

Did this Colorado gal even know what this tab was or the significance of the passwords?  I doubt it.

It's just funny how technology has become some 'pain-in-the-ass' for society.  

An Investing Story

Around 2008....I worked with a guy whose dad called him up one day about a stock....SIRI (Sirus XM Radio).  It was doing lousy and gone down to 10 cents a share. His dad was hearing some good stuff about a comeback.  Dad said he was going to buy $10,000 of shares (figure about 100,000 shares).

My buddy brought this up with me.  I just couldn't see the wisdom....it was a dying stock in my mind.  The buddy went ahead bought some stock (couple days later, it was around 12 cents a share).  I seem to remember it being near 150,000 shares that he bought.

Six weeks later....stock was near 18 cents a share, and I jumped into this.  I wasn't crazy over a huge number.....so I bought near 2,500 shares.  About two months later....it was near 25 cents and I sold my shares, happily.  I went back in a couple months later at 35 cents and eventually sold at 45 cents.

My buddy and his dad were still into this in 2010, and I suspect they are still both into the stock.

Value now?  I was glancing at SIRI stock prices today (sitting at $26 a share).  My buddy and his dad....if they were still invested into it....would have several million each.

You come across some kind of gamble like that once in your life.  Either you take it or you walk away.

Barberry Effects

 Back in mid-January, I got a bulk bag of barberries, and started a early AM and late PM 'taste' (1 half-of-a-shot glass each).

Effects so far?

I'm losing about 1 pound each three weeks, without any real dieting attempt.  Hungary at lunch?  No....I'll eat a banana or apple, but I don't have any real appetite.

Slowing down my digestive tract?  YEAH....my bowel movements have gone to 48 to 60 hour rotations.