Meet the New Mac, Same as the Old Mac

In my last blog post I wrote about how my old 2013 27" iMac bit the dust. I couldn't wait for the new 27" iMac replacement (with Apple silicon) to come out, so I went to the Apple Store and got  a new 27" iMac. On the outside it's identical to the old 27" iMac. Eight years later, it's exactly the same. Even the styrofoam in the box is the same shape. The revolution is over. It's evolution time. 

So what's changed. It's faster but you can kiss Moore's law goodbye. If Moore was still working, it would be 40 times as fast. It ain't. The screen resolution is about twice as good so now it's called 5K. It's got an SSD so disk access should be faster, but it's only 256 Gb so it's 1/4 the size of the old one. They automatically kind of connect you to iCloud to try to make up for some of that.

Here's a picture:

Looks familiar, huh?

Dead Mac

It was so traumatic I can't even remember what day it was. I think it was last Sunday, October 16, 2021. I went upstairs to use my iMac and when I woke it up all I got were a bunch of blue vertical bars. Crap! I rebooted about 5 times and whacked it a bunch in between and although the pattern of blue bars varied slightly, it was still just blue bars.

Damn! I bought the 27" iMac in late 2013. I wrote about its purchase in a blog on the 30th anniversary of the Mac, where I detailed the purchase of all the Macs I've had over the years. I've generally gotten a new mac every seven years and so I was due for a new one. The first mac was obsolete the day I got it. But as the years went by, the macs maintained some utility until seven years had gone by and my wife was willing to let me buy another one. The latest 27" iMac still had a lot of life in it and I had decided to push it to eight years. The major reason that I wanted to wait a bit longer was that Apple has transitioned to a new line of processors based on their own design and is leaving the Intel chips behind. Apple has transitioned most of their computers over to the new M1 chip, including their portables and the smaller desktop. The only one remaining is the replacement for the 27" desktop. It should make an appearance in the spring of 2022. Unfortunately, my old machine didn't last until its replacement showed up. So in the meantime, I'm using my wife's old 2012 MacBook Pro and trying to figure out how to get a bigger replacement until the New M1 (or M1 max or M2 or whatever they call it) big iMacs show up. As you can see in the picture, there's a lot less real estate in a laptop compared to a big desktop.

New Lawn Mower

A little over nine years ago I reported on the purchase of a new lawn mower. Well, I'm back again.

Nine years ago, as Sears was heading into a steep decline, I bought a new mower. I moved up and bought a red one to replace my "bottom of the line" grey one. Well, about a month ago, I was mowing the lawn and my mower started sounding weak and slowly just stopped.  I pulled the cord and it roared back to life for about 6 seconds. Hmm! I tried again. It roared to life for about 6 seconds. I tried a couple more times and quickly realized that this was no way to mow a lawn.

So I looked online for a lawn mower repairman. I found a guy down in Chatham County who did the kind of repair job I was looking for. So I sent him an email and he replied and asked me to bring it to his house and leave it with a note saying who it belonged to. So I did that. I took the lawn mower down to his house in a housing development in near Cole Park Plaza and left it near his garage. There were about six lawnmowers that looked a lot like mine ready to be picked up along the driveway. I never saw the guy. It turns out to be almost as hour round trip down there from my house.

That evening I got an email that said he might be able to fix it that evening and sure enough, before I went to bed, he sent another email saying it was fixed and ready for pickup. I went and got it the next morning. It was sitting out front along with some six or so similar looking lawnmowers. I picked it up and left payment in an envelop which I put in a little box on the porch post. Never saw  the guy. Another hour round trip and a bit of a twinge in my back from dead-lifting that thing to put it in the car.

I cranked it up that night and mowed the lawn. It ran like a top. Maybe it will last another 9 years. Nope! The next time I mowed the lawn, I got the front yard finished and was doing the back when the mower stopped again. Just like before. Cranked back up and ran well for a few seconds and then died again. Not excited about another 2 round trips to Chatham County.

The next day I went to work and discussed my dilemma with coworkers. The boss said I should quit mowing the lawn and hire someone to do it for me. Not a bad idea. Then another guy suggested that I buy an electric lawn mower. Being a recent Tesla owner, I was intrigued. 

So I did a little research and found a model that sort of fit my idea of a no frills, small yard lawnmower. I bought a Greenworks Pro 60V 19" Brushless Lawn Mower. I ordered it through Home Depot and got it delivered by FedEx to my driveway. It came with some assembly issues, but I figured them out and fixed them and then mowed the lawn. So far, so good. going 21" to 19 " is worse than it seems since you have the same overlap. But the lawn mower is a bit lighter and quieter, so maybe that makes up for it.

The picture above shows the old Sears 21" with a Briggs and Stratton motor on the right and the new Greenworks mower on the left. Now I just have to get rid of the old mower. Maybe I'll drain the fluids and take it to the dump. I see lawn mowers in the metal bin all the time. They're all probably still filled with gas.

Putting it to "The Man"

I'm going to tell you a little story in two graphs. The graphs are of the GameStop (GME) stock price. One is for the last 6 months and the other is for today.

Just like most of you, I now read Reddit. Back in January, there was a lot of buzz about the subReddit where they talk about stocks. Apparently, some guy, on the subReddit called r/wallstreetbets, had been talking up the company GameStop (symbol GME). GameStop is a company, with stores in the mall, where they sell all kinds of video gaming stuff. 

As you might guess, a company with stores in the mall is already in trouble. That they sell something that you can usually download or order online, is even more problematic. You might say that GameStop is to video gaming as BlockBuster is to home movie watching. So the stock wasn't doing much and a bunch of hedge funds had bet that in the future it would do even less. In other words, they had shorted the stock.

So this guy, who appears to live in his parents basement playing video games all day, started talking up the stock. He claimed that he loved GamesStop, the store, and that we should punish those nasty hedge funds for betting against it. So if we bid up the stock, those nasty hedge funds will get caught in a short squeeze and lose their shorts. And, for once, the little guy can put it to "The Man". Of course, it's also true that this dude had accumulated a lot of GME at very low prices and that he would do well as we heaped it on the nasty hedge fund guys.

For me, two things are true. Sometime in late January (1), I started paying attention and, being a fan of the underdog, I'm all for putting it to "The Man". So on February 1, 2021 (2), I bought 2 shares of GME at $316 each. I caught it as the price was falling and it never looked back. By mid February (3), I was beginning to feel that maybe I had been had and that somebody had conned me out of $600. I even wondered if this guy in the basement was actually "The Man" or if I was "The Man" that they were putting it to.

I told my son about this and he thought it was funny, and foolish, but appreciated that I was pulling for the underdog.

So cut to yesterday (4) and I see the occasional mention on Reddit and I notice that the price is creeping up again. Well, I've had my fun. So I put in a limit sell order to sell my 2 shares of GME for $320.

Today, as the stock creeped up to $348.50, my trade executed (5) just before the stock plunged back to something like reality. So for my little adventure and for taking a stab at putting it to "The Man", I am now $8 richer.

Disclaimer: This blog does not in any way constitute investment advice.

Best Purchase Ever

My wife hangs on to things for a long time. Recently however, she decided that she could toss out some old canceled checks. Doing so turned out to be a walk down memory lane. Eventually she came across the  check seen above. It's written to a brokerage firm somewhere in New Jersey. So, in 1989, I bought 100 shares of Apple stock (AAPL). The stock was $35/share with a $35 commission. I'm not sure why my wife wrote the check. After holding the stock for 12 years, it was worth about half what I paid for it. That's about when the iPod showed up. Things got better.

I was wondering about the security of having a bank name along with an account number posted on the internet. Probably not a problem. New Jersey National Bank was established in 1804 and hung around for a long time till Reagan came in and messed with the banking system (remember the Savings & Loan debacle?). New Jersey National Bank was acquired by Corestates sometime just before the check was written. Seven years later, Corestates was acquired by First Union National Bank which became Wachovia which (remember those credit default swaps?) was acquired by Wells Fargo in a fire sale.

New Toy

A few years ago, as my car, a 2000 Honda Odyssey, was getting older, my wife wanted me to get some nice used car that looked kind of classy. Sort of like my neighbor, who always has a slightly used Mercedes.  

"Hmm!" I said, "I want a Tesla". "No Way. You don't need a Tesla", she said. "OK, then I'll just drive that Odyssey forever". Well, fast forward a couple of years. I kept driving the Odyssey, the range on the Tesla got better, my wife saw a decked out Tesla, that she thought looked pretty nice, maybe better than a slightly used Mercedes, my little investment in Tesla stock has appreciated nicely, my Honda Odyssey hit 200,000 miles and it was my 67th birthday.

So on the night of my birthday, I ordered a Tesla. And here it is, in the parking lot at Duke parked next to another Tesla. Mine's the blue one.

I think it looks pretty nice.