greatinvestideas

The major stock indices are at historic highs, and yet people are still bidding them up higher.

I suspect that most buying now are totally naive, or very high risk takers. The economy is not going on full throttle. Corporate profits are modest. Dividend payouts are at lows. Interest rates are edging up.

Basically, there is no justification for any further increase in stock prices. The only thing that makes sense is to buy now on the hope that there will be a bigger sucker later today or tomorrow willing to buy at a higher price. yet eventually, someone has to be the last sucker.

If you have a better idea, share! If not, sell, sell, sell.

Hey, thank you Colorado for making it legal! I am now excited to visit Denver and Boulder to check out the great assortment of goods.

Now, there seems to be a vacuum of information about exactly which hotels are totally ok with smoking cannabis on site. I want to be a totally law-abiding citizen and I do not want to play any games sneaking around at some hotel's back dumpster.

Which hotels are going to be totally OK with usage, even if just on a balcony? Any particular highlights that would actually be highly recommended?

I am a user of SQL Server Enterprise Manager, that resides on a corporate server. It is useful for querying the databases on that server. Is there a similar software, that is low cost or even free, that I can load on my local machine, which would allow me to write SQL queries using ODBC links to various server databases?

MS Access does work, but it has limitations on table size and such (shame on Microsoft for this).

Any suggestions for a business user such as me?

I relocated in 2012 out of state for a new job. Now that I have the fun of filing two state tax forms, I have a bit of a date issue, as the move took several months, not one day. Here is my timeline:

Jun 16, start work at new job in new state, living in hotels and temp apartment.

Aug 24, close on new house (but have a major renovation done (permits, construction, etc), making it not usable for 2 months.

Oct 29, move into new primary residence

Nov 15, close on sale of old house in old state.

The part year state tax forms generally require creating a ratio of how much time I lvied in each state based on the move date. Which date is the correct date to use?

I was trying to see if there was anything I could do to get my optical drive to work. I tried "F12 Boot Utilities" on startup, looked through everything, and nothing seemed strange. It has the option to resore defaults, which I did, figuring that default settings would be great, and perhaps solve my problem. But no, alas, even worse. Now the machine will not even boot up. What should I do to get me back in action?

My DVD drive on my PC is just flat out not working. And its got one of my favorite Led Zepplin CDs stuck in it (ok that gives away some age)!

Heres what I've tried:

going to the Dell support website, entereing my servce tag, and seeing if it needs new drivers. This does not appear to be it.

I've gone to the Control Panel, and tried to play with the device manager, but it doesn't even seem to be picking up on the fact that a dvd drive is installed.

If your answer is to take the machine, open it, and put in a new drive - prove it! First, show off your real troubleshooting skills, and give me ideas of what I might test and check.

Gracias!

I was looking at the closet organization products at lowes and Home Depot. I'm not impressed with either. What's the right store/brand for closet stuff?

The standard laundry machines are now about 38 inches tall. I want to put in a base cabinet next to the dryer, and a countertop over the whole setup for folding clothes. Problem is that the standard base kitchen cabinets are only 34 inches tall.

Is there a way to solve this height issue without going super custom (big $$$), and without becoming Bob Villa ?

Price is always an issue, but it is hard to shop for cabinets by price given the wide variation of products.

I'm comparing:

Kraftmaid from Lowes

KitchenCraft from Ferguson

Merillat from a local specialty showroom

What I want is great construction, with great hardware, and very functional for a real family who will use and abuse them. Above all, the budget is constrained.

They all seem to try to sell on 'looks', which is much further down my list.

Of the three, anyone have any experiences for or against?

So, I killed the malware, and all seems well, except for a few bugs.

I still have some hidden files in Explorer, and I've tried all the basics as well as advanced popular fixes to make them show up again, including tweaks to the regedit entries in explorer/hidden and explorer/nohidden folders.

Also, I have a file desktop.ini that pops up every time I reboot.

Anyone who knows Windows 7 who might be able to advise on ALL the regedit entries I should check out?

Thanks!

We are a family of 5: Mom, Dad and three young daughters. We would love to take a trip to Israel for two or three weeks, but do not want to just wonder around taking snapshots of tourist sites. Instead, we'd like to gain knowledge through some sort of formal educational program. We are looking for a way for the adults to attend perhaps religious classes during the day and the kids to attend some basic Hebrew training. Naturally, our budget is limited too. Are there any such study programs that anyone can recommend from experience?

I am going on a bicycle tour of the Netherlands, starting in Amsterdam, and I want to see the best example of outstanding public investments in bicycle infrastructure. I know that it is a great place for cycling, but can anyone recommend a must see bicycle path, bridge, intersection or the like. I plan to ride about 400 km in 5 days, and want to make sure I get some good pictures of bike lanes.

There are no options quoted on any of the major quote services, and they are not available for trading on-line. Is there a certain period of time after an IPO in which options are not yet traded? When will they be available for LNKD?

They want to 'reduce the deficit', but they don't want to cut the military. The military makes up over 50% of the US budget!!! If you want to cut spending, make the military the place to start. we got BinLaden, so why not drop Iraq and Afgan now?

Further, Paul wants to cut Medicare to old people, but only future old people! Hah, Hah!!! that means he wants me to continue to pay for the current crop of old farts, then screw me out of my share when my day comes. Tell Paul no way, cut costs sure, and cut old unproductive people off right now!

The most obvious quick idea is firewood, perhaps a cheap listing on Craigslist.

However, the tree was quite wide around the trunk, about 4 feet across in diameter at some places. It could be sliced into tabletops with the right equipment.

But, the big issue is whether it is worth anyone's while and if it can be done cost effectively? Are they any 'dealers' in such raw timber?

My lovely wife ran the 'clean cycle' on our GE XL44 oven/range, model J2B900SEF1SS.

In doing so, the control panel stopped working, and none of the buttons work at all. And the oven door is stuck in the lock position.

I know that the unit is getting electricity, as I checked the breaker, and the electric starter for the gas stove is working fine. So now on to more complex solutions...

On the wiring diagram for the range, there is a wordy and useless section that says "No Control Panel - Check the transformer connections. Make sure neutral is connected to transformer." I opened it up and checked and all of the connections seem to be fine.

So, do I need to replace the entire control panel? It is an expensive part that has to be special ordered. Anyone with ideas?

We are a family of 5. We could splurge and stay at the chepest on-property hotel, but for $220 per night, I'd bet we could stay like movie stars off-property. There are lots of upscale hotels, but which one caters to Disney families with big pools, and lots of kid oriented features?

So I had an electrician layout the mats and prepare the wiring for a thermosoft 40 foot floor mat to go under ceramic tile. He tested it for resistance before the flooring contractor came in.

The flooring contractor put in the tiles and when the electrician went to hook up the thermostat, there is no resistance, no heat.

Thermosoft advised that it is possible to use a cable fault finder to estimate where the problem is to tear up that spot and repair it without removing the whole floor. This seems far fetched to me. Has anyone had to fix one of these systems and what are your thoughts on how to best attempt to fix it?

I received 2 quotes for title charges for refinancing a mortgage in Virginia.

One has itemized three "endorsements" totaling $250. The other does not have the endorsements, but the basic policy is more expensive.

Is it typical for title insurance providers to bundle all required endorsements on the HUD settlement statement as simply "Title Insurance", and is there a way to determine the exact requirements for a title policy for my mortgage?