Last year I was debating about whether to put my 2006 Roth IRA contribution into one of three Vanguard funds: Total International Stock Market Index (VGTSX), S&P 500 Growth Index (VIGRX), or the FTSE Social Index (VFTSX). I ruled out the international fund because 2005 had been such a good year and I didn’t think it could hold up. That led me to the latter two and I chose FTSE because it was pretty close to the S&P 500 index, but also had a social conscience. As it turns out FTSE outperformed the growth index, getting an 13% gain vs. 9% for the growth index while the S&P 500 was just under 16%. But the international index blew them all away, with a 26% return in 2006. Meanwhile the small cap value index that I had contributed to the previous two years did pretty well again with a 19% return.
Fourth Quarter Results
Happy New Year!
This is a special edition of quarterly results because it also marks the end of the year. At the end of each year I reset my web site’s counter. Last year I had 159,227 visitors to my website compared to 81,763 the previous year, almost double. Some of that was due to the big peak in June and July when the battery pack was mentioned on Make, Digg, and Hackaday. After that traffic leveled out to about 400 hits per day, higher than the 300 or so a day I had been getting before that.
Perfect Jump Drive
The first portable USB memory drive I had was made by Lexar. It held 64 MB, which was a lot at the time. It was great for moving files around from work or home. It was translucent purple with a cap that went over the USB connector, but didn’t snap. 
After a few close calls, I finally lost the purple cap, but it always worked. The loop that held it to my keychain cracked but I was able to drill a hole through the case, missing the circuit board, and kept it for a while longer.
Then I got a good deal on a Memorex 128 MB drive, so I upgraded. The Memorex was black and had a blue LED (as opposed to the Lexar’s green one) to indicate files were being transferred. It worked fine, but was a little longer (albeit skinnier). The problem with that was it was usually attached to all of my keys and it kind of hung on the USB port on my computer when it was attached. Also the cap on it didn’t snap either and I lost it a month or two ago, probably when I took it off to move some files.
Yesterday Fry’s had a special ($7.99; I never paid more than $10 after rebate for any of these) on the Lexar 512 MB Firefly drive and it is the best one yet. It is the smallest of the three and the top snaps firmly in place. Better yet, the cap is the part that connects to your key ring, so when I connect the drive, I can keep my keys in my pocket. It is called the Firefly because it has a blue light on the back end that lights up while it is moving data.
Person of the Year
After an unbelievably successful year, I was pleased to be named Time’s Person of the Year. Here I am on the cover!
I would like to know in what way this could be considered a mirror on the cover.
Stupid SiteKey
I have a savings account and some CD’s with ING. They had pretty good interest rates and it was convenient dealing with them online. Then they started instituting different security measures. Whereas most places let you choose a username that makes sense, they assigned an 8-digit number that you had to use. Then you picked out a PIN. That was okay and eventually I memorized my number. Then they started a keypad thing where they would have the number pad with letters on each number key on screen and you would type in each corresponding letter instead of the number for your PIN. The letters changed every time. This made you think a lot harder, but I guess protected you from programs that capture key strokes.