[Hatfield]

To be fair, how much of Intel’s revenue is from licensing? I think that was always the issue with QCOM, separating QCT from the licensing arm. IIRC, it was particularly an issue during the Nokia battles and I think also with Korea.

[Hatfield]

A friend of mine had successfully IOS’d out of CBS to another division before the announcement, and got pulled back in because he was deemed essential.

[Hatfield]

Oh I had no idea you got caught up in all of that. I have a few friends who got caught up in that also. 🙁

[Hatfield]

Right. I was at QCOM at the time they spun off LEAP, and they granted separate options for LEAP shares. Which I rode up and all the way back down. D’oh.

[Hatfield]

Man, if you can’t find weed in OB, I don’t know what to tell you – it’s practically Amsterdam here! Ironically, I don’t partake anymore.

[Hatfield]

I’ve always felt that if you’re willing to reject the science that gives us vaccines, you should also be required to forego everything else science has given us: television, radio, telephones, air travel, the internal combustion engine, nutrition, modern dentistry, and so on. Some goes for those who reject evolution.

[Hatfield]

[quote=AN]What gap are you referring to?[/quote]

The dominant mobile platforms are ARM based. It’s going to take an awful lot to induce a handset maker to retool all the h/w & s/w to switch to an x86 architecture. Why would they expend all those resources only to achieve BOM parity and something allegedly “approaching” battery life parity? It’s a huge, expensive risk with not much payoff.

[Hatfield]

Indel dominates the desktop and server world because that world is almost entirely based on x86 architecture devices. The mobile world is entirely dominated by ARM devices. Unless Intel figures out a way to reconcile that gap, they’re doomed to fail in wireless.

[Hatfield]

[quote=spdrun]I’d prefer something like Craigslist ride share. Transaction is handled anonymously without any ID snooping and by cash.[/quote]

And like any other Craigslist transaction, you’ll wait around for 45 minutes wondering if the other party will even show up. No thanks.

Having used Uber and Lyft a handful of times now, this is definitely the way of the future. No more standing out on your stoop wondering when the taxi will show up. With the apps you know who’s coming, what their track record is, what they’re driving, and you see their location on the map in real time. Taxi companies are toast if they don’t come up with something that provides a better experience than this. In more urbanized areas I could easily see ride shares like Uber, car shares like Car2Go, and the occasional use of Hertz/Avis/etc being a very viable alternative to car ownership.

One other thought on current oil prices: gee, isn’t it funny how just a few years ago we were told that high oil prices were bad for Murica. Now we’re being told that low oil prices are bad for Murica. They’re bad for the oil industry but seems like everybody else wins out.

[Hatfield]

[quote=brg654]I’ve heard of Laguna Woods Village but not much else.[/quote]

Places in Laguna Woods are surprisingly inexpensive. My Dad bought a 2BR/2BA unit a few years back for around $90k. It’s a fairly basic condo, but the places get nice pretty quickly as you go up the price scale. The one I wanted him to get was around $170k, and it had a huge back balcony (~ 10′ x 20′) overlooking the open space preserve to the northwest. But my dad’s too frugal for that.

HOA fees are on the high side, but you get an awful lot of amenities – horseback stables, a dozen clubhouses, a library, woodshop, darkroom, golf course, several swimming pools, etc.

I think the reason you can buy units so inexpensively is that the CC&Rs are quite strict. 55+ and you’re not allowed to rent out a unit for more than 6 months out of they year, so LW is 90% owner-occupied.

Having said that, it is possible to do a short term (3-6 month) rental in Laguna Woods. That’s what my parents did before they moved there, and I suggest that your folks might want to do that also. Laguna Woods isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, so I think renting a furnished unit for six months might be a good way to see whether they like it.

[Hatfield]

[quote=bearishgurl]It appears that the “sales” data (parcel transfer transactions) for the last two years has been removed from the assessor’s new system so I cannot corroborate Hatfield’s purported sales price. If anyone can find it, let us know.[/quote]

Actually, the sales data was the only thing I was able to pull up on my own. I can’t figure out how to make a deep link to it, but you can go to https://arcc.sdcounty.ca.gov/Pages/Property-Sales.aspx and type in either the APN or the Street Address, you can see the $480k sales price yourself.

As others have mentioned, there are a LOT of properties in OB with comically low assessed values. I think houses here were cheeeeeep in the 60s and 70s, and my guess is that this property had been in the family for a long time until the recent sale.

As for whether I want justice or revenge, I’m not sure how to answer that. When I first heard about the sales price my first reaction was “shit, I would have bought that property for that price.” But then when I heard the particulars I felt rather sickened. If in fact the benefactor of the estate is disabled, I would like to see him made whole, and if in fact the neighbors took advantage of his situation, there should be consequences for that.

Sorry, I just got in and it’s late, and I was only able to skim the thread before heading to bed. I’ll give it a deeper read in the morning Thank you all for your remarkable research.

[Hatfield]

Good ideas. How would I find out who the listing agent was? I don’t believe there was ever a sign up front. Who knows if it even hit the MLS.

The parcel number is 448-611-16-00

[Hatfield]

Also, Moore’s Law is in its last days, unless something happens with quantum computing. The current fab processes are approaching their technological limits. And on the airlink side we’re pretty much at the Shannon limit already. There aren’t any more large wireless spectral efficiency gains to be made anymore.

At this point it’s looking like a race to the bottom. Dunno what else to do with my QCOM shares tho. I keep waiting for that real estate correction, but not much pencils out in the areas I’d want to buy.

[Hatfield]

[quote=bearishgurl]Medical providers always charge a lot when they code procedures/visits for billing purposes but end up settling for the contracted amount from the carrier, whatever that may be.[/quote]

I have a theory about this. I think what might happen is that the provider initially sends a bill for “Rack Rate” which is sometimes ten or 20 times their contracted reimbursement rate. My gut feeling is that they do this so that if the patient is uninsured or the insurer denies coverage, they can go after the patient. If the patient can’t pay, they then sell the debt to a collection agency for the usual pennies on the dollar. Pretty shifty but that’s my theory.

[Hatfield]

Glad to hear folks are healthy. Let’s keep it that way, OK? 🙂

So it’s open enrollment season again. Quick recap: I was with Costco Pacificare since 2006, and good booted about a year ago when Pacificare pulled out of the individual marker in California. Went on the exchange and picked HealthNet which was one of several PPO options available. Was informed a few months ago that HealthNet was pulling their PPO plans out of the exchange.

it looks like (at least for my demographic) Blue Shield is the only company currently offering a PPO through Covered California. There’s probably 20+ other plans available to me, but they’re all HMO or EPO.

[Author]

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