Updating HP Touchpad to latest version of CM 9 Android

I've been meaning to update the Android version on my HP Touchpad for some time.  The main reason for doing this was to get amore stable tablet and get the mic working.  It's very straight forward to upgrade to the latest (stable) CM 9 release.  There are CM 10 (Android 4.x) versions out there..but they are still experimental.

I recommend three steps:
1) Update to the latest Clockwork Mod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwZNSLB7Nk

2) Take a nandroid backup
(skip to 4 minutes into this video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwZNSLB7Nk

3) Update to the latest CM 9 build
 a) Download the latest CM 9 nightly build   http://get.cm/?device=tenderloin
 b) Watch this video on how to flash the latest CM9 build http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kgn_mFtJc4
c) if gapps (play store, maps, dont't work you may need to update to the latest gapps package.  The latter part of the video in 3b shows how to update gapps.   For the latest Gapps package See the table on the right side of this link :
http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/Google_Apps

that's it.  You're now on the latest CM Enjoy!

Calculating Personal Rates of Return

I've finally setup a spreadsheet to track my investment returns. It involves some manual work at this point, but it does give me my personalized rates of return. I've discovered that my rates of return are better than what my broker's website tells me. This was not surprising, however I also discovered that the bulk of my positive returns were created by dividend income. I've also recently read that of the S&P average return, 75% is created bydividend income! I was shocked by this number, but see the same pattern in my personal portfolio returns.

The biggest challenge I had while developing the excel template was how to accurately calculate Annualized rate of return. A simple CAGR formula doesn't handle cash inflows (dividends, additional investments, etc) or cash outflows in a meaningful manner. After some research I experimented with Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Excel has a useful function (XIRR) that takes a table of dates and cash in & outflows and calculates the IRR. Some good reference material can be found here:
http://www.financialwebring.org/gummy-stuff/xirr.htm
http://allfinancialmatters.com/2006/04/28/how-to-calculate-your-personal-rate-of-return/
http://smartdividendstocks.com/how-to-use-xirr-to-calculate-annualized-returns-of-your-portfolio
Kiplingers Personal Finance, 1987 (google books link: http://books.google.ca/books?id=ZAUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=personal+rate+of+return+how+to+deal+with+dividend+purchases&source=bl&ots=5B_JEbPdLU&sig=8z8XbsKAmATQ8dL4-rY1VWvFqp8&hl=en&ei=p7UrTcWIMdntnQfPrbjIAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Things to do in SD

Things to do in SD:
http://www.missionbayaquaticcenter.com/
- wakeboarding/waterskiing - $50-$100

Sailing (need orientation, or take the course)
$50.00/$75.00 - six 2 1/2 hr uses
$30.00/$45.00 - three 2 1/2 hr uses
$15.00/$20.00 - one 2 1/2 hr use

Kayaking (can rent np)
$50.00/$75.00 - six 2 1/2 hr uses
$30.00/$45.00 - three 2 1/2 hr uses
$15.00/$20.00 - one 2 1/2

Fee Based Financial Advice

For those of you that have a financial planner you may understand how your financial planner gets paid. My days of investing started back when I was an undergrad student and a good friend seemed to be making a killing in the years leading to the tech boom. With my interest in business (and the stock market games in some courses) I started my foray into the investment world. Years later I realized that I didn't have the time to continuously monitor my individual stocks. I decided it was time to start investing in mutual funds, I started off with bank mutual funds and at the recommendation of a friend secured a financial advisor. The financial planner seemed like a great proposition, no up front fees and I had an expert working for me. I failed to recognize the hidden fees (and often very high fees) were limiting the performance of my portfolio. There has been a renewed focus on fee-based advice in the past few years, and I think its time to start find the right person/firm to manage my portfolio.

BUT, the problem now is which firm? After a few quick searches I've only found two firms that seem to fit the bill:
http://www.tridelta.ca
http://www.clearsight.ca/


What we really need is a comparison of various fee based advisors.






-joe

Canoe Trip 2006 - Massassauga Provincial Park

Just got back from the annual canoe trip. We returned to massassauga provincial park again this year. Beautiful weather, good company, lots of paddling and great food. What more can you ask for!

Here are some notes from the trip:
Site 102 canoe lake, not good site, small tent pad, barely big enough for 3 tents. No grill on firepit, no flat surface to cook on.
Site 610 gooseneck bay, nice site on rock ledge. Tent pad under trees. Grill on firepit, good canoe pull in.

Veggie chili - can of corn, beans, gardennay tomato, peppers, tvp and chili pack with rice.Veggie pasta - sauteed onion, mushrm, peppers, green beans and tofu with primavera sauce on egg noodles.

Apple crisp - peeled sliced apples, cinnamon, (and wh sugar, crushed cereal mixed with margin, wrapped in foil and put in fire. Don't need to bake for 3 hrs.

Other veggies to pack, potato, cherry tomatoes (?) garlic and onion, to be roasted in fire.Cherries packed well, nectarines, not so good.
Next time try pineapple.
Tetrapak wine.
Sobey's store bought hummus with pine nuts was excellent, hummocado was also very good.
Bring pitas to eat with.

Add to list:
Buy a soft sided cooler
Spatula
Sponge
Dish towel
Fuel funnel or heavy duty ziploc

Just got back from the annual canoe trip. We returned to massassauga provincial park again this year. Beautiful weather, good company, lots of paddling and great food. What more can you ask for!

Here are some notes from the trip:
Site 102 canoe lake, not good site, small tent pad, barely big enough for 3 tents. No grill on firepit, no flat surface to cook on.
Site 610 gooseneck bay, nice site on rock ledge. Tent pad under trees. Grill on firepit, good canoe pull in.

Veggie chili - can of corn, beans, gardennay tomato, peppers, tvp and chili pack with rice.Veggie pasta - sauteed onion, mushrm, peppers, green beans and tofu with primavera sauce on egg noodles.

Apple crisp - peeled sliced apples, cinnamon, (and wh sugar, crushed cereal mixed with margin, wrapped in foil and put in fire. Don't need to bake for 3 hrs.

Other veggies to pack, potato, cherry tomatoes (?) garlic and onion, to be roasted in fire.Cherries packed well, nectarines, not so good.
Next time try pineapple.
Tetrapak wine.
Sobey's store bought hummus with pine nuts was excellent, hummocado was also very good.
Bring pitas to eat with.

Add to list:
Buy a soft sided cooler
Spatula
Sponge
Dish towel
Fuel funnel or heavy duty ziploc

Faxing from a PC

Need to faxing from your pc via the internet to a fax machine? Check out:
http://www.tpc.int/faxbyemail.html

Another great tool to fax from your PC (needs a modem and telephone line)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/crawford_02october21.mspx

Freeware FAX program's:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.a1b2c3.com/free/ref12.htm%23fax http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.internetfaxsoftware.com/ http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.j2.com/ http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.maxmax.com/aDownloadStupidfax.htm http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.metrofax.net http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/crawford_02october21.mspx http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/Webware.php%23INTERNET http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.tpc.int/ http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.tpc.int/faxbyemail.html

Other great tools/freeware:
http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.comp.freeware/browse_thread/thread/3bfb8385f1873a89/72460839e25d7fc6?lnk=st&q=tpc.int+windows+fax+client&rnum=2&hl=en#72460839e25d7fc6

Real Estate Tax Sales in Canada

http://ontariotaxsales.ca/cart/ListingSearch.php
http://www.taxsaleproperties.com/index.html
http://www.canadiantaxsales.ca/article/cottage_life_article.html

http://www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/budget/taxsales/index.asp