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The article is just click bait and dishonest talking about a plunge. Only thing really going down is bay area and NYC, and only after years of nosebleed increases.

The data tables are interesting though. The last 5 years San Diego has had below average rent growth and now is a pretty good deal. We are cheaper than Miami Chicago and Seattle and about the same as some places like New Orleans, Portland, Denver and Minneapolis.

Over time I bet some back office tech work moves here from the bay area. Talented people are willing to live here and it is just an hour flight with 25 flights a day between SAN and the bay area airports. I do day only trips up there about 15 times a year, go up at 7am go home at 7pm.

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My bond funds have gone down about 10% from their peaks earlier this year, I would not call that cratering, and are still closer to their 2 year highs than lows. Given what cash pays now compared to their coupons, I am not worried about further declines. I did not expect them to get so high anyway when I bought them for their high yields.

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My very dated experience is just buy a sim card in the foreign country at a 7 11. For your laptop you can get USB modems for under $10 and put the sim in there. Or in your phone and tether.

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Nexus 6p is great so far. I got lucky the used seller did not dump a lemon on me. He had the android 7.1 beta on it, and it has run flawlessly.

The screen size and ease of typing really beat my old iPhone 6. Android does predictive typing much better, plus the keys are bigger. It is all around faster too.

Yet another improvement is the bass on the phone speaker is better and voices sound more natural.

I need a good pop3 email client. The iOS built in client was pretty good compared to the one I downloaded already. I am a dino who is not ready to go with something more modern. I like to have a huge local archive of my past emails.

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If you got a million in home equity not being exposed to market changes that are correlated to the value of the equity is smart.

I am going from having 80% to 40% of my liquid assets in stocks to reduce risk since I am getting another property.

I do think both stocks and San Diego RE are undervalued however. Lower rated bonds as well.
My junk bond funds have dutifully paid me 8 to 10 percent interest and appreciated 20-30%. Energy is the only sector with defaults these days and natgas has gone up more than 50% from last year’s lows.

To cover really bad situations I have cash, metals, stockpiled supplies, and S&P 500 puts that are way out of the money.

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Going with a used Nexus 6P. All the people who want the latest no bloatware Android are selling their 6Ps cheap for new Pixels and they are at most 12 months old.

I would have went with Pixel XL if my preferred color/size were in stock and they still were running the free gear VR headset with purchase promo. That is worth 79 and I would want one, but the promo ended 2 weeks ago.

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Flyer, I have never been to any of those NE coastal resorts, but it reminded me of the huge 10 bedroom beach houses my family used to rent for vacations in North Carolina.

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Dave, I agree about plenty of RAM and SSD are more important now than processor. I suggest since you like thinkpad searching ebay for thinkpad SSD and buying one in the range you want to spend.

For all the high-end software you are going to use, seems like you should just get a home desktop with a bigger monitor. Programming on a laptop screen sounds awful.

Laptop screens go up to 17 inches, with both HD and non-HD resolutions available at that size. That is something else to look for if you are doing serious work on a laptop. Seeing a 15 and 17 side-by-side, the extra size really makes a difference. Might be better for your posture and eyes too! I am not sure going with the HD 17 inch is worth it over the regular one however.

I have also purchased several custom computers from cyberpowerpc.com, based in inland empire. What is nice about them is they use brand-name internal parts and disclose what they are, and you can customize the PCs far more than Dell allows. Prices are somewhat better too.

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I am deciding between replacing my iphone 6 with either an iphone 6S+, an iPhone 7+, a pixel, a 6P, or a oneplus 3.

I used to be an iphone fan but I do not like all the changes to the music app, which I use a lot. Adblock also works badly with iOS. Now Apple has even disabled the 5-star rating system I have been using since I got an ipod back in 2003! It is still in itunes, but you can no longer rate songs from an iOS device. And with every update they push their stupid streaming service on you harder and harder and disable more of the great old Steve Jobs era functions. Lack of headphone jack is also crazy.

I actually got an old ipod touch with ios 6, NIB from ebay but like 5 years old, so I could have an iOS device with the music app I like for the gym and car.

With Android I do not like the high samsung prices or its bloatware, which is mostly absent on the three android phones I am considering.

Pixel seems really cool, but the price is pretty high. 6P has the same screen and is almost as fast and hundreds less.

Leaning toward a 6S+ and Nexus 6P at this point.

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Flyer, I looked at the Country Living slideshow and did not really like it much. There is a certain style of beach house decorating that seems to involve flimsy looking wood furniture painted white and pastels and old nick-knack clutter everywhere like sailboats. I have never liked it much, but I can see how it would look good in a big rural seaside house someplace like the low density North Carolina coast or a summer lakehouse in the midwest.

I like my wood furniture heavy and with clear finishes and uncluttered clean spaces. Especially with a condo in densely populated OB.

My house in OB has taken my caveman style to an extreme with a lot of rough log furniture from this company:

http://www.cedarlooks.com/en/

My renter in my large rental house in OB has somewhat darker shabby-chic variant of the “Country Living” beach style going on that looks great.

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SPDrun,

It can actually be very hard to install Windows 7 on skylake chip PCs, and Microsoft will end Win7 support early on skylake, so I do not agree you can just get Win 10 and install an old copy of Win 7 on top of it.

Even aside from this issue, installing an OS is beyond the abilities of at least 80% of PC users.

-It’s even legal since Win 10 Pro has downgrade rights to Win 7.-

10 Pro is rare on low to medium end consumer PCs because it costs like an extra $50.

Anyway I have used Win 10 for 30+ hours on my newest laptop and one of the office PCs I support. I still hate it, both because it sucks as an OS and because I can no longer replace my company’s aged PCs with brand new PCs with Win7, but have to basically find old stock Broadwell desktops. Regular office worker users who mostly use internet and office applications all day seem to hate it too.

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Fake Silver Coins: 14 Ways to Spot Counterfeits

The slide test is my favorite, it is pretty cool to see diamagnetism in action.

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Forget the touch screen. It will add about $40-50 to the price, plus weight, and you will never use it.

Every new laptop will have wifi. This has been the case since like 2003!

When I buy laptops I tend to get 1 to 2 year old “top of the line” models on ebay that were $1000-1500 new and now are $350-450. I’ve purchased four of them this way over the years and every time I have been very happy with them. The thing about $1000+ laptops is they tend to be super cool looking and solidly built with all metal frames, and the fact they are slightly out of date does not bother me.

If you just want something simple, the prices at Wal-Mart are reasonable. You can also search for 5-star rated “hot deals” on slickdeals.

Another nice thing about buying used is you may be able to get one that still has Windows 7. I hate Windows 8 and 10.

If you want to go my suggested route, goggle “Best laptops of 2014,” read the reviews, and then search for those models on ebay/craigslist.

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That sounds right, but just shows we need a rule that non-controversial changes to the city charter can be made without voter approval if the city attorney, mayor, and all members of the council agree.

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The thing I most specifically want from the decorator is to choose and install the blinds and curtains, which need to all be replaced and chosen carefully to enhance the ocean views. I don’t want the view obstructed even a little when they are open.

I don’t trust either myself or my male laborers to do this task.

Did you have an opinion on pale grey flooring? I’ve only seen it a few places but liked it when I have.

I hear what you are saying about using real stone. Travertine in my current house’s living and bathroom requires very frequent resealing, and if you let it go too long it gets pitted.

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