Friday, November 11, 2016

Post Election Snapshot

I'm really depressed seeing that the crazies (deplorables) turned out in enough numbers to change our society for likely a generation.  That said lets take a quick snapshot of where we are now.  I'll be really surprised to find much of this looks better in 4 or even 2 years.

Unemployment:
YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
20064.74.84.74.74.64.64.74.74.54.44.54.4
20074.64.54.44.54.44.64.74.64.74.74.75.0
20085.04.95.15.05.45.65.86.16.16.56.87.3
20097.88.38.79.09.49.59.59.69.810.09.99.9
20109.89.89.99.99.69.49.49.59.59.49.89.3
20119.19.09.09.19.09.19.09.09.08.88.68.5
20128.38.38.28.28.28.28.28.17.87.87.77.9
20138.07.77.57.67.57.57.37.37.37.26.96.7
20146.66.76.76.26.26.16.26.26.05.75.85.6
20155.75.55.55.45.55.35.35.15.15.05.05.0
20164.94.95.05.04.74.94.94.95.04.9 
Gas:
Just filled up at $1.96 / galllon.

DOW:  
18,500 amazingly climbing after the election.

Home Loan Rates: 
Already climbing days after election.

NATIONAL 30-YEAR FIXED MORTGAGE RATES GO UP TO 3.66% 

Friday, November 11, 2016
The current average 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed 2 basis points from 3.64% to 3.66% on Friday, Zillow announced.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate on November 11, 2016 is up 26 basis points from the previous week's average rate of 3.40%.
Additionally, the current national average 15-year fixed mortgage rate increased 1 basis point from 2.83% to 2.84%. The current national average 5/1 ARM rate is down 1 basis point from 2.86% to 2.85%

Health Insurance Coverage Rates: 
My monthly cost for a family of 5 is $363.34 and my costs were the same last year.

Estimates of the number of uninsured[edit]

Gallup estimated in July 2014 that the uninsured rate for adults (persons 18 years of age and over) was 13.4% as of Q2 2014, down from 18.0% in Q3 2013 when the health insurance exchanges created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or "Obamacare") first opened. The uninsured rate fell across nearly all demographic groups.[3]
The Commonwealth Fund reported that the uninsured rate among adults 19-64 declined from 20% in Q3 2013 to 15% in Q2 2014, meaning approximately 9.5 million more adults had health insurance.[2]
The United States Census Bureau annually reports statistics on the uninsured. The 2012 Census Bureau Health Insurance highlights summary report states that:
  • In 2012, the percentage of people without health insurance decreased to 15.4 percent from 15.7 percent in 2011. The number of uninsured people in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011, at 48.0 million.
  • Both the percentage and number of people with health insurance increased in 2012 to 84.6 percent and 263.2 million, up from 84.3 percent and 260.2 million in 2011.
  • The percentage of people covered by private health insurance in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011, at 63.9 percent. This is the second consecutive year that the percentage of people covered by private health insurance was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate. The number of people covered by private health insurance increased in 2012 to 198.8 million, up from 197.3 million in 2011.
  • The percentage and number of people covered by government health insurance increased to 32.6 percent and 101.5 million in 2012 from 32.2 percent and 99.5 million in 2011.
  • The percentage and number of people covered by employment-based health insurance in 2012 were not statistically different from 2011, at 54.9 percent and 170.9 million.
  • The percentage and number of people covered by Medicaid in 2012 were not statistically different from 2011, at 16.4 percent and 50.9 million.
  • The percentage and number of people covered by Medicare increased in 2012 to 15.7 percent and 48.9 million, from 15.2 percent and 46.9 million in 2011.
  • Since 2009, Medicaid has covered more people than Medicare.[5]
The Rand Corporation reported that by March 2014: "Enrollment in employer-sponsored insurance plans increased by 8.2 million and Medicaid enrollment increased by 5.9 million, although some individuals did lose coverage during this period. The authors also found that 3.9 million people are now covered through the state and federal marketplaces — the so called insurance exchanges — and less than 1 million people who previously had individual-market insurance became uninsured during the period in question. While the survey cannot tell if this latter group lost their insurance due to cancellation or because they simply felt the cost was too high, the overall number is very small, representing less than 1 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 64."[6]

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

My Review of Memorex Blu-ray Disc Player - MVBD2520 Full HD

Originally submitted at RecoupIT

Let Memorex entertain you in high definition with the progressive scan Memorex Full HD 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player! Experience the richer colors and finer details of HD images, and enjoy the crisp, vibrant multi-channel audio content of the Blu-ray disc format with this sleek, elegant Blu-ray pla...


Do your homework!

By GearHead from Central Illinois on 6/2/2010

 

1out of 5

Cons: Slow, Loud, Difficult To Use

Describe Yourself: Value Oriented

Primary use: Personal

I have this connected via HDMI and the picture is fine. But when I received the unit it was very loud and would skip on DVD's. After upgrading the frimware (you cant upgrade with DVD/USB/or Internet, you must use a CDR) it fixed those two issues. It take about a minute and a half to even allow you to eject and insert a disc. Longer if you want to acutally use it.

Add the worlds worst thought out remote and you have the Memorex MVDB2520!

(legalese)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

One year after first post....

OK I need to put this in writing.  As anyone who has any interaction with me on a technical level knows, I have a very vocal dislike of almost anything that comes out of M$.  Most of this started because Redmond was squeezing my wallet with each new upgrade/release and I'm quite the cheepskate.  I soon found some very compelling free alternatives as Linux had just released the 2.0 kernel and Redhat was the new kid on the block.  Anyway enough history.

Jump to Today... I am required to use IE (more specifically version 6) at my workplace.  Seem's many of our 3rd party and internal web applications only work with (some just claim) these requirments.   OK I cheet and sometimes lie (Opera is pretty good at the lie part) and use whatever I like and if it won't work (in one or two cases it won't) I will use IE.   Well I've been working from home and our email is via a Cisco VPN to Exchange Server.  The Exchange server publishes the Outlook Web interface but only really useable via IE.  So much so that any other browser will timeout after a very short time (bet it's configurable but IT is using IE so why would they?).

So why all of this.  Only to say IE should win multiple awards for the worst product ever.  Why after version 7 do I always see 'done' in the status bar while it is still processing data?  It knows very well it needs more data.  I also can't phathom why a browser would not paint the elements it has until it has processed the entire document with formatting.  Is this an attempt to make it look slower than it really is?  

After several years of fighting some issues with Opera on linux I just moved to Firefox.  I think Opera is the superior product but with the bug open for 3+ years I'm giving up.  I've used chrome quit a bit when I'm on a Windowz box and will give it a try on Linux as long as they provide a native binary and don't pull the same crap as Picassa.

A

Friday, April 11, 2008

Almost moved

My First posting on any blog whatsoever.  You'd thuk i waz in some other field than puter prgrming.

We are almost completley moved now.  I will be taking the next week off so I can move the JUNK portions of our belonging.  I expect this to take as much effort if not more than the inital move.

Still need to move the Mustang, bailer, rake, backhoe, mower with all the other odd's and ends.  Don't forget we still have 4 more goat's and the pony also.