Sunday, November 26, 2006

What's That In The Night Sky?

The night sky is a lovely thing. So many points of light, each with its own story. And many other objects, less conspicuous but interesting in their own right. But if you don't know your way around, it's just a jumble.

If you ever saw wished you had someone to show you around or tell you what you're looking at, your wishes are now granted. The Celestron company, well-known maker of telescopes, had a brilliant idea. They took all the GPS and software technology they use to automatically point a telescope at a desired object, and put it into a little handheld unit. It's called the SkyScout.

Here's the magic: When you point it at something in the sky, it tells you what you're looking at! This is, in the words of one of the reviewers, "Way Cool." All of a sudden you know your way around. You can become acquainted with stars, planets, nebulae, clusters, and galaxies.

Remember a couple of years ago when Mars made a well-publicized close approach to Earth? But if you looked at the sky, how would you know which object was Mars? Well, this unit operates in a reverse mode also. You can tell it what you want to see, look through the eyepiece, and it points the way with illuminated arrows to find what you're looking for.

Even that's not all -- It has a mode that will take you through a guided tour of any constellation. It can describe entertaining sidelights and history. It can give you a list of the 20 best objects to see, right here, right now. You can plug in optional audio presentations. It can be updated with new objects.

I personally own a Celestron telescope and I can tell you the pointing software works great. All it needs is a couple of minutes to check its internal compass, and talk to GPS satellites, and it knows exactly where everything is.

This is such a great invention it almost boggles the mind. Your virtual guide through the universe. This little unit is #1 on the list of "Hot New Products For 2007" from Sky & Telescope Magazine.

For anyone who has ever wondered about the night sky, wonder no more. The SkyScoutis a sure winner for anyone on your Christmas gift list who is interested in the stars, or spends any significant amount of time outside at night. It's a natural for Boy Scouts or any similar groups on camping trips.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Why Not To Get 2.4GHz Phones

This doesn't seem to be well publicized, but if you're in the market for a cordless phone, you might notice that 2.4GHz models are low priced. One reason is that these phone broadcast in the same band as ordinary wireless networking signals. So they can interfere with your network.

There are several channels defined in the 2.4GHz band, and some phones may have a setting to change the channel. You may be able to minimize the interference by moving your phone to the highest or lowest channel, or by moving the phone away from the wireless network, but any time you are using the phone you have a chance of interference. The result of the interference is errors in the wireless network transmission, requiring retries, resulting in a network slowdown or possibly disconnection.

So if you are positive you never, ever, will use a wireless network in your home, you can get the 2.4GHz phones. But really, that's not a safe assumption. So it's much wiser to get phones that operate in another band, such as 5.8GHz.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

"Black Wednesday" for Canadian Trusts

If have any Canadian trusts and you're wondering what happened to them on Wednesday, November 1, just remember that the best oxymoron is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

Canadian trusts have been a very popular high-income investment for the last few years. The government of Canada allowed companies under certain conditions to be exempt from separate taxation if they paid out most of their income to investors. So a wide variety of trusts have been created, notably in the oil and gas production sector.

Investing in these trusts has been a relatively safe, conservative way to earn 10%, 15%, and even higher rates of return. This kind of yield is unheard of almost anywhere else. And it gets better: there is still Canadian income tax owed by the investor, but U.S. investors get most or all of it back by simply claiming a credit on their tax return.

Well, it seems politicians can't leave well enough alone. They thought too many companies wanted to get in on the deal. Even though they had previously promised not to change things, the Canadian government torpedoed the market on November 1 by announcing a proposal to start taxing these trusts, starting in four years. This provoked the predictable "Sell first, ask questions later" response, and prices plunged.

The best commentary I've seen on this situation is from the always entertaining and never-at-a-loss-for-words Tobin Smith of ChangeWave. I highly recommend it -- it's entitled O Canada, Are You Out Of Your Mind? (Scroll down the page a little to find it.)

Today a Canadian was telling me about some of the fallout. For example, a guy was in the news who was just about to retire, had saved all his life, and had all his retirement funds invested in these trusts. He lost about $100,000 and his savings are devastated. Now he will have to work five more years before he can retire! Thanks a lot, Mr. Government Man.

(Yes, he should have been more diversified, but either way it still would have hurt him a lot. You generally can't go all to cash upon retirement, or else it won't last.)

Only time will tell how this ends up. I've sold part of my trusts when they dropped to predetermined levels, but have kept others -- so far.

Maybe these guys will eventually come to their senses. Maybe when a lot of jobs start getting lost -- jobs that were created because of the trusts? This is the kind of shenanigans you'd normally expect from liberals (generally speaking, the Democratic party in the U.S.), but from what I understand the proposal was made by a "so-called" conservative.

At least one lesson is clear: higher taxes do not lead to greater overall prosperity; rather, it has the opposite effect (this is merely a particularly dramatic example). For instance, in the U.S., the lower taxes of the last several years have not only helped the economy recover, but also (as was just announced the other day) increased government revenues even more than expected. The result has been a dramatic reduction in the federal deficit, helping every citizen and confounding the opponents of the tax cuts.