web analytics

Stephen Pickering

Author: Stephen Pickering

  • Another Step to Increase Your Blog’s Exposure

    Update: I totally didn’t expect this because this particular blog post isn’t about Qualcomm specifically, but IT’S actuallys showing up on the Google finance page for Qualcomm! I feel a little guilty about that, but I guess that it’s because I have either the name or Symbol within the post. So I guess you don’t necessarily have to have in the blog title. But I’ve already got about 20 hits from it this morning. Weird. Exciting, but as I said, I kind of feel guilty and didn’t intend that. Still it’s interesting to note.

    I noticed a little “Easter Basket” type unexpected thing that can get you “free” traffic. If you are interested in stocks and you blog something about that stock, use the stock symbol in your headline and it will show up on Google’s finance page.

    The other day I saw and insight by George Gilder on his forum about the company Qualcomm (QCOM) and it wasn’t a very long statement, but it was too long to be tweeted. I even tried FriendFeed which allows more characters but it still wouldn’t fit. So I went ahead and blogged it. I wasn’t thinking about getting exposure. I simply wanted to remember this statement, but I thought in the back of my mind that if I tweeted the headline with the tag $QCOM that it might show up on the sight Stocktwits.com.

    Then I noticed I was getting a lot of hits from Google. I went to the link and it was to the finance page for Qualcomm. Halfway down the page theres a list called “As discussed in blogs” and there my post was right on top! Now Qualcomm is a big company with almost 20 million shares traded daily. So you know that page gets a lot of traffic. So if you write about a smaller company, then it might not do as well.

    But of course I wouldn’t write just to get traffic. Only write about a stock or anything if you are truly interested in it and have something to say. And if you are an individual investor its a good idea to spend a couple hours a month investigating the news, press releases, and quarterly statements.

    I just happen to be interested in individual investing and of course the companies I’m invested in. If you’re not, then obviously this tip isn’t right for you, but I do think it demonstrates the upside surprises that can come by writing something your are really interested in.

    And it really impresses me more and more about Google and how it surfaces good blog content. I’ve heard before that Google likes blogs. And this demonstrates it’s true.

    Also Google has recently updated its algorithms to get rid of the junk and content farms. This is beneficial for the individual voices who are publishing things they truly interested in.

  • Jacob’s Keynote for $QCOM

    In a keynote presentation at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs declared that the mobile industry is on the verge of new step in its evolution, becoming our ‘sixth sense’. “We’re at a similar stage of evolution to when the mobile Internet started to happen,” he said.

    “Jacobs claimed there will be hundreds or thousands of things around us that we will be able to connect to. How can this be accomplished without software radios?” – said George Gilder on his  Gildertech/board a few days ago.

     

    Other interesting news that came out yesterday in a story on AppleInsider entitled “Mass production of Apple’s A5-, Qualcomm-powered iPhone 5 rumored for Sept.”

    Among other things the story notes that “Apple will switch to Qualcomm’s basebands for both the CDMA & GSM versions of the phone, along with an improved antenna design.”

    I don’t know how much sales and margins are in “basebands” but that’s gotta be good news for QCOM. Turns out their technology and innovation are not limited to CDMA only phones.

    I was worried what effect LTE would have on QCOM in the long term, but George never answered that question I posted. But I get the feeling Qualcomm is innovating in all areas of mobile, and maybe there’s not a better investment in this whole huge paradigm of mobile growth?

  • The Gillmor Gang 4-15-11 The State of the Check-In with @dens

    [audio:http://www.stephenpickering.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Gillmor-Gang-4-15-11.mp3]

     

    Downloadable .mp3 link: Gillmor Gang 4-15-11

  • 215lbs

    215lbs. An important milestone. Next stop 210!

    Finally! Seemed like I was stuck on 216 forever, but now that I look at it, I’ve lost 15lbs in about a month. So that makes me feel good. That would get me to my goal in just over two months from now which excites me.

    I was talking to my sister yesterday, and we both agreed that when it comes to losing weight, you just gotta go with what works for you. I’m numbers oriented, so counting calories was a good way for me. Others may prefer a more holistic approach. It’s just whatever gets you motivated.

    I think the important thing for me, and maybe for everyone is just getting off the dime. The iPhone app and counting, seeing it digitally displayed is what helped get me off the dime, but once I got moving and saw some results I’ve sort of settled into a “coast” mode. I’ve been eating similar things, so I haven’t been entering every calorie as much any more. In other words, once you do a while of “counting” per se, you start getting a “feel” for how much you’ve had and it gets easier. Also, after you’ve made some real progress, you don’t mind relaxing and having a “sweet” now and then. It doesn’t throw you off because you know you’ve made good progress and will continue to do so. You start getting a feel for what works for you, and there’s not so much stress once you’ve got the ball rolling. So that’s why I think getting off the dime, starting, no matter what your strategy is, is the most important thing.

    What motivates you to get started?

  • It’s National Poetry Month – So I Should Write Some Poems

    I was just glancing at Youtube, and it said that it was national poetry month. Man they have a day and a month for everything, don’t they? Hehehehehe. Well, since I’m a poet, I thought I should write some poems, especially this month! Just wrote this sonnet a few minutes ago. Hopefully I can do one each morning for the remainder of the month, in honor of the month. I’ll just keep posting them here so I don’t have to have a new post for each and every poem. Maybe I’ll do a Youtube video at the end of the Month in honor of “Spoken Word Poetry.”

     

    Sonnet – April 11th, 2011

    It’s middle April and the rains have come
    The silent morning rings to life and sings.
    Each note a whisper of our long lost love
    that glides on creeks and swims through springs. 

    The turtles’ silence guards the lake all night.
    The frogs swim through the moistness of our song.
    When morning curtains nudge, they plop from sight,
    Soul searching for our long lost golden ball.

    The crickets provide the strings, the ducks the horns;
    An evening symphony that gives us bliss;
    To help in healing what the dragons tore,
    And bring us comfort for those that we miss.

    The flowers bloom, and trees sway in the wind.
    They dance lost songs to visit us again.

    ___________

    Sonnet – April 12th, 2011

    At dawn we lost the whisper of our song.
    Dreams carried us to worlds we’d rather stay.
    The mind builds places our souls don’t belong.
    And so the heart remains asleep all day. 

    Who’s driven long and who has driven far
    To face the mountain hiding secret love?
    Inside a bower lit with dreams by stars
    They’re parted by the birthing rays above.

    Below her bathing pool is where they hid:
    Two gems of corn who’d seek the northern light.
    She knew their power even just as kids
    To overcome the monsters which they’d fight.

    The road to follow is a mag’cal one
    To marry dreams with the light of the Sun.

    ______________________

    Sonnet – April 13th, 2011

    I’d like to hold your essence cool and free.
    Your hair is waving spirits to rise up.
    Your parents are the mountains and the sea.
    You dance with legs of deer and arms of dove. 

    Your eyes are saying dive and swim this stream.
    They speak a language without having sound.
    Tonight I dance with you like in a dream.
    I can’t describe but know this thing I’ve found.

    There are no tensions in this purest form,
    Here even where Yeats said the ladder starts.
    You are the place where happiness is born,
    and fill with light the center of our hearts.

    You are the warmth of Sun that’s brought by Spring
    We glide on light by saying not a thing.

    ____________________________________

    Sonnet – April 14th

    I’ve noticed that the people seem to glide
    And sing down by the river through the trees
    They seem to have the glow that’s born inside;
    Exuberance from not caring what life means. 

    A shadow carries water to their Spring.
    They’ve always known that someone lived in there.
    Was it a spirit or a human being?
    They say it breathes the water, drinks the air.

    The children leave their houses for the Sun.
    They swim like fish this river made of snow.
    It feels though time had just begun
    The garden nature made so long ago.

    And in the forest still the spirit rests.
    Upon stars made from Mother Nature’s breasts.

    ____________________________

    Sonnet – April 15th, 2011

    We’re meant to glide upon a beam of light
    But here in one wave where life splits in two,
    Collapsed a notion of what’s wrong and right.
    And now there’s nothing but toil and work to do. 

    Sometimes I think therefore I’m not so free.
    The stagnant water forms where walls are built.
    Drowning spirit born effortlessly.
    Like burning rays so hot the flowers wilt.

    It feels like its only those fleeting times
    A moment when the mind naturally rests
    A spirit born inside the heart’s red wine
    Appears in actual joy and manifests.

    A bliss that doesn’t seem the need to show
    With pride how far it’s infinite knowledge goes.

    _________________________

    Sonnet – April 16th

    There was a darkness that surrounded her
    What do I do I thought as things grew dim.
    A feeling of emotions’ vision blur
    When she brought night and cold from where she’d been.

    What was this night so sad shown through her eyes?
    It was an empty stare she laid down cold.
    How can you judge a thing through all the lies
    And describe a feeling that has not been told?

    A path through strife we see a shining truth
    Come here again so I can touch the face.
    A land of plenty rises from the root
    A mouth says things we feel but cannot trace.

    Few days of riding through the emotional highs
    It disappears up through the nighttime skies.

     

  • The Reason for the Internet Connectivity Problem

    We all should be riding on waves of light, but false monopolies propped up by Government regulation of communications has stifled innovation and business plans alike.

    I was just listening to TWiT and they were having this discussion about the internet connectivity problem, the fact that we have a duopoly of telco and cable controlling it and now threatening bandwidth caps that could effect the coming consumption of video streaming that is coming online with Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and the advent of live streaming from Ustream, Justin.tv, et. al. This is in fact the new paradigm, “Real-Time” as its known in the industry, and the falsely earned duopoly is threatening to turn off the spicket as it were just as video, a major leap forward for the net, wants to take center stage.

    Leo Laporte suggested why doesn’t the government just force the cable companies to sell their access to other companies, just like they do with telco, in order to solve the problem.

    Sounds reasonable, right?

    No, no, no! A thousand times no! This is the very action embodied in the Telco Act of 1996 that caused the problem in the first place. It was the false propping up of competition that killed real competition.

    Remember all those small telco companies that cropped up out of nowhere in the 90’s who promised you the moon and then quickly went broke?

    Their entire business plan was not competitive, not investing their own capital, but merely using government regulation that allowed them to piggy back on existing infrastructure with no capital invested.

    Then the whole thing came crashing down. It sucked the life out of broadband, and since all of the business plans of Web 1.0 were based on ubiquitous broadband, we had the great internet crash of 2000.

    Think about it. If you had the billions of dollars it would take to make a go of it in the connectivity market, would you invest in laying fiber to people’s homes, when the government can come in at any time and force you to resell that access at no profit to an upstart “connectivity” company, a phantom company? NO. And that, my friends, lays the problem.

    We all should have a fiber connection to our home for a reasonable price. The technology is there, the market is there, but the only thing that is standing in the way is Government regulation in the first place.

    People like Leo still believe that the government is on the people’s side in this issue. But it isn’t. The government is on the Oligarch’s side. It’s like the old bit of “Good cop, bad cop.” The government in the major industries plays “Good Cop,” but behind the scenes it is the industry leaders who are writing the very legislation that the Government blesses, and thus stops investment in productivity, and ends up lowering the standard of living for all.

    The only solution is for the government to get out of the way. On the one hand you have to let the Telcos and the Cables do what they want and have their data caps if they want. On the other hand they have to make it very clear that they won’t interfere with any real capital that is anxious to enter the market, making it clear that they can fairly compete.