Investing

[Screwball]

12 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

The one I'm seeing people talk about today is the commercial for the Ring Doorball Cam.  If you lose your dog/pet, upload a picture of it in the app, then it scans all of your neighbors Ring Cams looking for your dog.  I'm sure you have to opt in to let them use your camera, but **** that.  

Yea, for sure. I have 5 security cameras. None are ring, all off the cloud, and use internal SD card for storage. I can see them from my computer or phone. I would never own a ring. I don't trust them. Then again, I don't trust too much these days.

I have one on the top of my garage that watches my driveway and alley behind the house. It runs on a little solar panel so it is always charged. Well, kind of... It quit working a few days ago. Turns out the winter from hell - with all the snow, ice, and lack of sunshine - didn't keep enough light on the solar panel to keep it charged. This has been a really really ****ty winter. Spit! It froze before it hit the ground.

Edited Monday at 03:24 PM by Screwball

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Screwball said:

I have 5 security cameras. None are ring, all off the cloud,

SB - how did you power your set up (other than the solar one)?

[gehringer_2]

Buried under other SuperSunday news, Elon with a 'nevermind' about getting SpaceX to Mars. Well maybe in 20 yrs.

[Screwball]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

SB - how did you power your set up (other than the solar one)?

Mine all run on battery. They record (my choice how long) only when tripped (l can set the sensitivity as well). So when triggered my motion, they kick on for a particular amount of time (like 8 seconds to 30). They work in day or night as they are night vision.

All can be powered by a solar panel but I only use one that way - the one on the garage. This one I can also turn to look any direction if I want. The rest are static. It has a setting to go back to "home" after I move it to see something else. I have not touched it in over a year and it's usually at full power, which you can see from the app on the phone or computer. Other than the last 3 weeks in the winter from hell.

The others are placed where I just take it inside and charge the battery when needed. Depending on how much activity, the time between charges varies. The one I have pointing at the street in front of the house, and my sidewalk, gets the most exposure, so I have to charge it maybe once a month in the summer. Only takes a couple of hours. They have a built in battery that slips off the camera so easy to do.

I love them and have come to feel uncomfortable when one is not working because I'm charging it. They also send a notification to the phone when something triggers it so you know. I live in town and was shocked to see all the animals that go through here. From cats, to rabbits, chipmunks, skunks, possum, raccoons, and even deer. 

For real fun, put one close to the ground somewhere and sit out a dish with food. Entertainment is off the charts. I caught a cat and a racoon who were not in agreement about who's food it was. Or three deer walking through the back yard. Fun stuff.

Also caught a guy one night looking in a vehicle. You can have it trigger an alarm but I don't set it. I can hear the notification on my phone.

I designed and made my own mount for the one on the garage, and the other ones I used some 3D printed mounts so the wind doesn't blow them, instead of screws. Works great. I probably have around 500 bucks in everything. Worth every penny, even though we don't have much crime here in Cornhole.

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Screwball said:

Mine all run on battery. They record (my choice how long) only when tripped (l can set the sensitivity as well). So when triggered my motion, they kick on for a particular amount of time (like 8 seconds to 30). They work in day or night as they are night vision.

All can be powered by a solar panel but I only use one that way - the one on the garage. This one I can also turn to look any direction if I want. The rest are static. It has a setting to go back to "home" after I move it to see something else. I have not touched it in over a year and it's usually at full power, which you can see from the app on the phone or computer. Other than the last 3 weeks in the winter from hell.

The others are placed where I just take it inside and charge the battery when needed. Depending on how much activity, the time between charges varies. The one I have pointing at the street in front of the house, and my sidewalk, gets the most exposure, so I have to charge it maybe once a month in the summer. Only takes a couple of hours. They have a built in battery that slips off the camera so easy to do.

I love them and have come to feel uncomfortable when one is not working because I'm charging it. They also send a notification to the phone when something triggers it so you know. I live in town and was shocked to see all the animals that go through here. From cats, to rabbits, chipmunks, skunks, possum, raccoons, and even deer. 

For real fun, put one close to the ground somewhere and sit out a dish with food. Entertainment is off the charts. I caught a cat and a racoon who were not in agreement about who's food it was. Or three deer walking through the back yard. Fun stuff.

Also caught a guy one night looking in a vehicle. You can have it trigger an alarm but I don't set it. I can hear the notification on my phone.

I designed and made my own mount for the one on the garage, and the other ones I used some 3D printed mounts so the wind doesn't blow them, instead of screws. Works great. I probably have around 500 bucks in everything. Worth every penny, even though we don't have much crime here in Cornhole.

thanks for the heads up.

I have a hip roof all the way around and I'm thinking about a couple of cameras under the soffits, but one of the best spots would only be reachable by ladder so it's either something with a really good battery life or get a cat6 out there through the attic and use POE, but I've been to lazy to get 'er done.

[Screwball]

Don't get on a ladder. 🙂

For those not old enough, once you get to a certain point in life, the first thing you want to think about; how can I do this without getting hurt.

[Deleterious]

31 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Don't get on a ladder. 🙂

For those not old enough, once you get to a certain point in life, the first thing you want to think about; how can I do this without getting hurt.

Yep. I got rid of my big extension ladders. Anything needing those gets hired out now.

[Screwball]

Another nice things about the cameras; plan your property to cover the 4 corners, then an extra. You can move it around. I named mine - Rover. If I'm out of town for a day to see the kids, I can put the camera somewhere in the house, usually to watch my crazy cat.

Not that you can do anything about it, but at least you see it hasn't burnt down.

[Screwball]

28 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Yep. I got rid of my big extension ladders. Anything needing those gets hired out now.

Back in 1984 I lived in the country. We were almost off the grid. Only electric. But I had a TV tower when I bought the house, no antenna. So I put one up. No rotor, we were dirt poor. I could aim it toward Detroit and the Tiger games. The wind would move it and I would have to climb 30 foot up this thing and adjust it while my kids yelled at me from the window by the TV - a little more that way, no, too far. 

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

84... Great year was it not? Had number 3 son born that year (in October no less). His middle name is Allen, after Mr. Trammell. 

[oblong]

yeah I don't do ladders anymore.  I have a ranch style house so the roof isn't that high other than one peak area that's about 25 feet. I'm not afraid of heights.  I'd go up there with a cherry picker no problem.  But putting up christmas lights?  Big bone of contention.  She makes me do the peak.  She has to hold the ladder.  I look down, she's got one hand on it.  Maybe the only time I ever yelled at her.   Not sure when it happened, as a kid we used to go up all the time.  But the transfer on and off the ladder is where I get weary.   I think it's the extension ladders that mentally get me.  There's always just a bit of give in it.  The straight ones like my dad hung outside the garage were fine.  They don't move.

 

[oblong]

9 hours ago, Screwball said:

Back in 1984 I lived in the country. We were almost off the grid. Only electric. But I had a TV tower when I bought the house, no antenna. So I put one up. No rotor, we were dirt poor. I could aim it toward Detroit and the Tiger games. The wind would move it and I would have to climb 30 foot up this thing and adjust it while my kids yelled at me from the window by the TV - a little more that way, no, too far. 

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

84... Great year was it not? Had number 3 son born that year (in October no less). His middle name is Allen, after Mr. Trammell. 

My family is from the holler in TN. By the time I came along most moved out into regular houses.  As a kid we had one uncle still down there with no electricity or indoor plumbing.  Obviously I hated going there.  Just like you saw in Coal Miner's Daughter.  Now when I go down there I think "that sounds pretty sweet.  Nobody's around".  Later on in the 90's this uncle finally got all of that but he also had a huge satellite dish.  Found out he was a pot grower. Big time.  Once my dad showed me a pot plant he had grown just to see if he could do it.  The FBI got involved with my uncle and I made fun of my folks telling them they probably have a file now given all the trips they made down there.

[Deleterious]

I was skeptical.  But it appears they already have these in China.

Your unwanted gold may be recycled into cash at a gold ATM

 

[CMRivdogs]

9 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

I was skeptical.  But it appears they already have these in China.

Your unwanted gold may be recycled into cash at a gold ATM

Dang, Where am I going to find Saxophone "bargains" now

 

[Screwball]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

My family is from the holler in TN. By the time I came along most moved out into regular houses.  As a kid we had one uncle still down there with no electricity or indoor plumbing.  Obviously I hated going there.  Just like you saw in Coal Miner's Daughter.  Now when I go down there I think "that sounds pretty sweet.  Nobody's around".  Later on in the 90's this uncle finally got all of that but he also had a huge satellite dish.  Found out he was a pot grower. Big time.  Once my dad showed me a pot plant he had grown just to see if he could do it.  The FBI got involved with my uncle and I made fun of my folks telling them they probably have a file now given all the trips they made down there.

My mom grew up in the hills of West Virginia, born in 1918. My grampa was into moonshining. As time went on in them thar hills, moonshine and pot were huge cash crops. 🙂

And you didn't want to FAFO with those hillbillies.

[oblong]

My uncle did time

The first time my dad was aware I was hungover, I lived in the basement, he came down to mess around in his work room like he always did.  He called me over, reached up into the ceiling where he stored the mason jars and offered me some moonshine.  I reacted accordingly and he just laughed and said "You think you are a big boy now?"  I think he used it on his lawnmower at times.  He hadn't had a drink since 1974 but kept it around for others.

[Screwball]

Back 30-40 years ago I suppose, there were a lot of people around here who had ties to the hills of Kentucky, Tennessee, WVA, and beyond. They would go visit family and bring back moonshine. That stuff was like drinking pure alcohol, which it mostly was. Awful rot gut stuff. No wonder the billhillys were a mean bunch. 🙂

[Screwball]

This seems nuts, but when you read a bit further;

Alphabet Plans Tech’s First 100-Year Bond Since Dot-Com Era - Bloomberg News

FTA:

Quote

 

Still, given the sheer volume of debt that tech firms need to raise to stay ahead in the race to build artificial intelligence capabilities, even ultra-rare deals are making a comeback.

“They want to tap every kind of investor possible from the structured finance investor to the super long-dated investor,” said Gordon Kerr, European macro strategist at KBRA. The main buyer of the 100-year bond would be insurance companies and pension funds, and “the guy who underwrites it is probably not going to be the guy who’s there when it gets repaid,” he said.

 

 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

I was skeptical.  But it appears they already have these in China.

Your unwanted gold may be recycled into cash at a gold ATM

 

so the downside could be the typical American vandalism imperative to try to sabotage the device by feeding it some material deliberately compounded to screw it up.