Update
I am investing a little in the stockmarket. I have transferred my pension savings into an Options Xpress brokerage account. The service is superb and I strongly urge you to consider opening an account with them rather than any UK-based brokerage. The analysis tools provided by Google Finance and Guru Focus are superb, but focussed principally on stocks listed in the USA. This is really not as restricted as it sounds as large cap stocks from around the world all list in NY. Options Xpress also gives access to practically every derivatives exchange on the planet so you can easily get exposure to UK and more exotic (e.g. Taiwanese) stocks if that's 'your bag,' as they used to say. Of course since we are starting a bull market phase I can convince myself that I'm a genius investor.
In alignment with my renewed interest in stock market investing I have read a few outstanding books, which I've reviewed elsewhere (probably Amazon). I have just finished Larry Cunningham's collection of essays of Warren Buffett, pieced together mainly from Berkshire Hathaway reports. John Kay is on record as saying that Warren Buffett is the best investor on the planet, and possibly that the world has ever seen. And you can read his thoughts on how to make money for less than a tenner!
On a personal note I'm managing Freshfield Properties and doing the inevitable administration surrounding finding and signing up new tenants. This is not that arduous, but definitely soaks up a few hours a day. I am convinced that the return on this is worth the opportunity cost. Well, I guess that's obvious, to an economist.
I continue to enjoy listening to Russ Roberts each week, usually as I walk the dog on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning. I have given up listening to BBC podcasts as they just don't seem to get the business of podcasting. What is utterly ridiculous is the way they try to restrict the distribution of this content. It seems to me that this is a publicly-funded corporation destroying value. People derive value from listening to these podcasts, presumably. The marginal cost of making them available is practically nil (it must cost more to ensure that one or zero 'episodes' of a series is available as a podcast). Google for 'Why Napster is Right' to have the argument expanded.
I am now a convert to Ubuntu, although not a zealot. It works great, although the audio drivers are a bit flakey, and some apps (Mozilla) can get out of control and gobble up 100% of (one) cpu requiring a hard reset very ocassionally. The free apps (like Open Office) seem to work much better on Ubuntu than under windows on the same hardware.
I now use Del.icio.us, Twitter and Facebook much more than I used to. Very often when in the past I'd write a proper blog entry drawing your attention to an item on the web, explaining why I thought it was interesting, now I'll just save the bookmark via Twitter or Del.icio.us, both of which, by the magic of the internet, pop up on my Facebook page. I don't really use FB much to communicate with folks - I still prefer old fashioned methods like email or phone.
I have tightened up my Facebook profile, so you can't see it unless you are a friend, or, as my sons it, a 'Facebook Friend' - i.e. someone you might barely know but exchanged an email with once. Having said how easy it is to become my FB Friend, you might not want to join the club. If you do, just drop me a line: steve.hemingway@gmail.com.
