Spring Break!

Have one week off from classes. To fill up the time, I was thinking of looking into Libgdx. Libgdx is a framework geared more towards games with OpenGL support.  It’s been awhile since I’ve done Android programming so as I was updating the SDK, i noticed in the extras the google cloud messaging (GCM) library. Decided to shift my focus to GCM and running through the sample program today.

Article: Using Just One Word, Try to Describe Your Career DNA

From the article, George Hu, COO of Salesforce.com asks people this questions during interview:

“How would you describe who you are, in the core of your DNA, in one word?”

Well maybe because I’ve read the article, I would answer an analyst or researcher at this period of time of my career.  Currently, the embedded linux projects I’m working on is mostly researching how to do it. I did not come from an embedded background so everything is new and I’ve got to figure out the right path to take.

How would you answer it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/salesforcecom-executive-on-seeking-out-challenges.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

15947 Atkinson Ave. Gardena CA 90249

Talk about a hot market.  Looks like this will be at least 9% over asking price. Albiet listing price was a bit on the low side. Here’s a timeline of this house that I put an offer on.

4/12 House listed at 399K

4/15 Went to look at the house.

4/16 I put an offer on the house at 426K 20% down,

4/17 Received a counteroffer with the contingency of the next offer at 434K or best and final.

4/18 My counter offer was at 436K.

4/19 Reply from seller’s agent:

The Sellers selected another offer that was a bit higher with larger down payment also.

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Gardena/15947-Atkinson-Ave-90249/home/6541079

Panda Express: No Free food w/o purchase

At Panda Express today because they are giving out free surf and turf.  You didn’t even need to buy anything to get it, just show up with a coupon on smartphone and you can get free food. Not a smart idea. Made the line long and maybe half the people were there only for the free food and then left.  That sucks for the company and that sucks for customers who are waiting.   Panda should’ve made it people buy something like some kind of combination in order to get it.   I think soda would’ve made it even longer wait for people to pay for soda.

I’m just saying I’m all for free food but I’m ok with some strings attached.

Financial: Sold my FB 20 Jan 2014 option

Sold my FB 20 Jan 2014 option for 8.75 on 4/11. Considering I bought it for 7 that’s a nice ~23% gain in about 3 weeks.

Reasons for sale:

  • Short term trade
  • gain was too quick for the time frame + fb phone helped pushed it higher
  • first option trade and wanted to lock in gain
  • little confidence in the market

It’s pretty crazy how volatile FB is and how big the swings are on FB. Might get back in it if it drops back down.

IRA Rollover and Recharactization

If you are doing an Roth IRA conversion, where you are taking money from a traditional or rollover IRA to a Roth IRA, heed this advice. Open a new Roth account and then rollover the stocks. This will save you a bunch of headache in case you need to do a recharactization (undo the rollover by moving the Roth IRA back to traditional or rollover IRA).

Using a new Roth IRA when recharacterizing makes the conversion easier because then you don’t have to worry about any calculations like calculating the earnings.

Book: Inside Apple

Pretty interesting take on the organization of Apple. Apples doesn’t come out in the best light, seen as demanding and compartmental iezd.

Found this pretty interest, “two engineers wrote the code for converting Apple’s Safari browser for the iPad” (p 81).  Pretty nuts.

Lashinsky, A. (2012). Inside apple. New York,NY: Business Plus

 

 

Executive level compensation

typical allocation of direct compensation is salary, 18%, short-term bonus, 24%, and long-term incentives, 58%.

Cascio, Wayne F. Managing Human Resources(9
th Ed..) McGraw
Hill/Irwin (2013). ISBN: 978-0-07-131819-8