I’m coming up on 3 months with my new MacBook Pro and I’ve been extremely happy with the simplicity and consistency of the experience. I still use a ThinkPad running XP at work, and have an XP desktop at home, but the MacBook is my machine of choice. I have, however, struggled with some Internet connection issues.
From Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cliph/
First, my router would occasionally stop resolving domain names. I could ping an IP address directly, but could not load a web page. Ultimately, I blamed my 5(?) year old Belkin router because the problem went away when I switched to an old DLINK router.
Second, and even more annoying, my MacBook was slow opening web pages and downloading anything from the Internet. I performed my own non-scientific speed test by trying to simultaneously load nyt.com on my MacBook and ThinkPad. The ThinkPad was all done within 3 seconds, and the MacBook took 14 seconds to finish opening loading the last image. Huge difference!
I searched and found several people with the same issue, and the same solution. Switching my DNS to OpenDNS solved the problem. Now, my MacBook loads pages almost as fast as my Windows machines…but I have no real understanding why.
Tagged: DNS, MacBook, OpenDNS on October 25, 2008 by TJ Rutkowski
Last weekend, I visited the Frick and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. There were a couple portraits that I immediately connected with at the Frick, but it took me a little longer to appreciate the exhibits at Cooper-Hewitt.
The current exhibition on the first floor is called House Proud. It includes magnificently detailed watercolors of 19th century homes–snapshots of family homes without the families. It feels a little like you’re flipping through real estate ads, looking at images staged to invoke strong and personal feelings.
On the second floor, there is a prototype for affordable housing being built in China. In stark contrast to many of the paintings on the first floor, the example of high-density urban living seemed extremely cold. After seeing the 19th century homes, the 450 square foot footprint for a family of four was difficult to appreciate.
I’ve thought about the two exhibits several times over the past week, and I’m beginning to appreciate the similarities of the two exhibits. Both depict the intimacy of family life, as well as the integration with community. In the watercolors, community is brought into the family home with grand spaces designed for entertaining. The Chinese sense of community comes through in shared space. More than 200 dorm-like apartments share common areas for eating, relaxing, and hosting guests.
I have lived in cities and dorms for much of my life, and it’s impressive that the watercolors took me so deep into the 19th century that I temporarily lost my connection to urban life.
Tagged: Cooper-Hewitt, Frick, museums on October 19, 2008 by TJ Rutkowski
In Personal Finance on October 12, 2008 by TJ Rutkowski Tagged: 39 Steps, Broadway, Hitchcock, Retirement
I saw The 39 Steps on Broadway last Thursday, and had a few good laughs. It’s a clever comedy where four actors portray over 100 characters wrapped up in espionage with an homage to Hitchcock. Even though the play wasn’t related to finance, my mind drifted to the massive losses hitting investors around the globe.
The market is still making some scary moves, leaving a lot of people with vertigo. I am lucky because I have more than 30 years for my portfolio to recover, and plenty of time to shift my plans and reset my expectations before I need to start withdrawing money.
If you are closing in on retirement, it’s time to revisit your financial plan. If you don’t have a plan, it’s also a good time to put one together. By taking time to think about your needs and expectations, you’ll be able to make smart decisions about your finances and feel more secure in your future.
Recently, I gave these suggestions to a friend planning on retiring in the next 5 years. Her portfolio is overweight in stock, and she has been gradually shifting it to a balanced asset allocation. She wanted to know if she should take money from her rollover IRA to pay credit card debt.
- Save as much as you can to get the biggest company match
- Invest all retirement new money in the money market
- Put all extra money against your credit card debt
- Continue the gradually shift to a Balanced stock/bond/cash portfolio
The concept is to build up a cash and bond portfolio for stability. The cash will be the first money to withdraw at retirement, giving stock positions more than 5 years to potentially come back (admittedly, there is a lot of growth to recover here).
By withdrawing money from a retirement stock portfolio right now to pay credit cards, you would be selling at a low point in the market. While the market can still go down, my suggestion is still to make gradual moves. The other issue to be aware of when you withdraw from an IRA is taxes. If you take 10k out, your income goes up by 10k, and you will owe more taxes this year.
While this advice fits her attitude towards investing, it’s not right for everyone in that situation. Consider this question as a guide for your approach today. What did you do when the dot com the bubble burst? And then on 9-11? This is a great indicator of your stomach for volatility. If you didn’t sell off then, you can probably weather the volitality we’re seeing right now, too.
The Frick has been on my list of New York City sites for quite some time, and today I made the trip. I suggest using the audio guide when you go to get a colorful commentary from the curators. The diversity of the collection is striking. While I enjoyed the paintings, sculpture, furniture, rugs, and architecture, two portraits stood out for me.
Whistler captured Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac in a simple and dark moment. The portrait is full-length and seemingly life sized. When looking into Montesquiou’s face, there is ghostly connection capturing your gaze and bringing you into the solemn moment.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834 – 1903
Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, 1891-1892
oil on canvas
82 1/8 in. x 36 1/8 in. (208.6 cm x 91.76 cm)
In contrast to dark connection Whistler makes, Bronzino tells a story of youth in his portrait of Lodovico Capponi. Capponi appears confident in his pose and costume, but the intricate details of the buttons on his vest, the layers of fabric, the stitching, and the locket in his hand speak to a life and world he is still learning to navigate.
Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano Bronzino (1503 – 1572)
Lodovico Capponi, 1550-1555
oil on poplar panel
45 7/8 in. x 33 3/4 in. (116.52 cm x 85.73 cm)
While these paintings are currently on display, the collection rotates and they are not always hanging.
Tagged: Bronzino, Frick, museums, Whistler on October 11, 2008 by TJ Rutkowski
In August, I went through the top reasons to get rid of my car. It took a little while, but I finally pulled the trigger and sold the car.
Over the past year, several people have asked me if I wanted to sell the car. At the time my answer was yes, but not right now. Last month I went back to those people to see if they were still interested, and they each replied yes, but not right now. One potential buyer who was ready to make the commitment also wanted me to finance his purchase. I decided that I’m not a bank (although I would appreciate a bailout), and selling a used car in NYC is a hassle.
Rather than posting ads, scheduling test drives, and worrying about selling a 10-year old car, I took it to Car Cash. Naturally, I got less money than I wanted because I sold my car at wholesale rather than direct to a retail buyer, but the simplicity was worth it. We haggled on price, and I left with a check for about $1,500 more than the initial offer. If you use them, make sure to take the coupons from their site. You will get an extra $20 for cab fare, and please list me as a referral so I get an extra $100, too (and leave a comment below)–thank you!
One more thing: The picture is courtesy of Audi World because I couldn’t find any decent shots of my car. I guess my attachment to this object really was just in my head…
Tagged: A4, NYC Car Cash on October 11, 2008 by TJ Rutkowski
