Reading Time: < 1 minute Google is aggressively promoting its online payment service Google Checkout lately. It’s offering $20 off $50 purchase at online store buy com. The aim is very obvious, eBay’s Paypal. To counter Google’s attack, Paypal is offering free shipping with a number of partners including Dell. Who will be the winner of this war? I don’t know. But one thing I know for sure

Reading Time: < 1 minute Heelys is the shoe can be used both for walk and skate, using the retractable wheel under the heel. It is most widely worn by kids and teenagers aged from 6 to 14, and from what I see from Zappos (the online shoe store), kids and parents are crazy about this. Now the company is filing for IPO,

Reading Time: < 1 minute I came back to St. Louis today. The weekend San Jose trip was great; both the weather and everything else. I got to see the Montery Bay, which includes 17 miles drive and world famous Pebble beach (golf course). Not to mention the Chinese food etc. As a guy in the tech industry, I always have

Reading Time: < 1 minute We had worst snow storm in my 6+ years stay in St. Louis. The thing makes life harder is the “sleeze”, or ice rain (instead of the snow). It freeze the car windows and doors quickly. I spent about one hour for normal 15 to 20 communte from work to home. This morning I spent

Reading Time: < 1 minute I heard about this 80-20 rule from a friend a while ago. It says “we spend 20% of our effort to accomplish 80% of the things; and then we spend remaining 80% of the time & effort to complete the remaining 20%…” I think that pretty well summerize what I was doing at my work

Reading Time: < 1 minute Normally as individual investors we don’t have access to the IPOs, as they are usually handled by the big investment bankers (Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch,…), and the IPO stocks usually are sold to the institutions (a.k.a, rich people) and they can make the easy money. This has changed by the Google IPO in August 2004, at the time the founders

Reading Time: 2 minutes I mean the stock (HMIN), not the motel because I am in the US now. I know it was a little speculative, but I think it’s ok to put 20% of my “mad money” into this even after the amazing run from $22 to as high as $34. I think there are many reasons account

Reading Time: < 1 minute I am watching the annual Thanksgiving parade in downtown St. Louis (from TV). The weather here is great. I went to Panera Bread and the newspaper is already gone (hint: people are gettting the newspaper ad. and do research about tomorrow’s shopping deals now). Of course you can get the electronic version from dealsea.com nowadays. Seriously, I

Reading Time: < 1 minute If you read my blog for a while, you know I am a fan of Warren Buffett. Not just because he is the second richest man in the world; it has more to do with his investment philosophy and the way he lives his life. Last night CNBC’s had an one hour show in which the reporter

Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s not news any more. There are many discussions on the Yahoo message board. Basically Redhat, which is traded on NASDAQ under “RHAT”, is applying the move to NYSE, the good old New York Stock Exchange, under ticker symbol “RHT” on Dec 12. I think it’s a proactive and smart move from RedHat management. Generally NASDAQ is a