September 2018 Dividend Income Report - $65.33

| Investments | 11 seen

Welcome to the seventieth (#17) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in September 2018. 

In case you are wondering why I'm sharing online my earnings - the answer is pretty simple - I like transparency and these reports help me to observe my progress or bounces. Hopefully, my reports can give some inspiration to you as well. (If so, please leave a short comment below) Also, I have a goal to reach one million dollars in my bank account by the time I will turn 60 (27 years still to go). 

Last September turned worst than expected - mostly because I didn't receive two dividend payments, on the other hand, I will receive them in October, which will boost this year October dividend income report.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending website, by clicking on links on this page and by making an investment on mintos.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a…


HashMart Bitcoin Cloud Mining Review

| Crypto | 23 seen

It has been a time since I last time reviewed some of the cloud mining platforms. It was at the end of September when I noticed an ad from HashMart.io and decided to explore more. 

Seems that HashMart.io is a Russian cloud mining company incorporated in Cyprus. 

Disclosure:  This article contains affiliate links to hashmart.io cloud mining website, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on hashmart.io, I will earn a 5% affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

Hashmart is a small enterprise with a global goal: now that almost everyone on the planet has a smartphone, we want each of you be able to have access to Cryptocurrencies and to the numerous advantages they can bring.   

Now, this goal probably is a bit silly, as for getting a piece of cryptocurrency it's enough to open an account at Coinbase and buy…


TOP 14 Best Selling 8GB RAM Laptops

| Laptop Reviews | 136 seen

There are several parameters and criteria to use for filtering out laptops for your needs. One of the parameters to look at is RAM memory. In today's article, I've listed the top 14+ best-selling laptops on Amazon featuring 8GB RAM memory.

8GB is a decent business class laptop actually, and it's not a surprise seeing that 8GB RAM is accompanied by Intel Core i5  or even Intel Core i7 processors. 

Not to say more, meet the top 14 best selling 8GB RAM laptops on Amazon

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. Prices for laptops listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and is updated daily. For actual prices please refer to the product page on Amazon.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Laptop, 14.0" FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 5 5500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage, AMD Radeon 7 Graphics, Windows 11 Home, Abyss Blue

 

  • Powerhouse performance from AMD Ryzen 5 5500U mobile processor, 8GB DDR4…

Kalvene Railway Station

| Railway / Bus / Ferry | 15 seen

Kalvene Station is a railway station on the Jelgava – Liepāja Railway.

The station is located in the Kalvenes municipality of the Aizpute district in Latvia. I noticed this railway couple of years ago and was amazed by its impressive heights visible from the road. 

Kalvene Railway Station September 2018

Kalvene Station was opened on September 25, 1929, along with the opening of the railway line Jelgava-Liepaja . The modern type building was built in 1932. Until 2001, the diesel train Riga-Liepaja stopped here. After the cancellation of this train, there is no passenger turnover at the station. The station operates as an intermediate station, it changes the train.

Diesel passenger trains have not been in service since August 15, 2001


Gutmanis Cave in Sigulda

| Tourism objects | 25 seen

Gutman's Cave (Latvian: Gūtmaņa ala) is the widest and highest cave in the Baltic countries, located on the Gauja River in the National Park of Sigulda, Latvia.

It started forming more than 10 000 years ago when meltwater eroded the sandstone rock after the Ice Age. It is the oldest tourist attraction in Latvia. On the walls of the cave are inscriptions from the 17th century. 

It is 18.8 meters deep, 12 meters wide and 10 meters high. The cave was formed from the yellow-brown sandstone rock of the Gauja river bank; its formation is due to a millennium-long interaction between the river and an underground spring.

Gutmanis Cave in Sigulda

Many foreign students and romantic couples are heading here. 

The cave is considered the oldest tourist attraction in Latvia because visitors, from even the earliest days, have left “decorations” such as names, initials and the dates of their visits engraved on the walls of the cave. Inside the cave are coats-of-arms and the names of various barons and estate owners. These were made to order for a fee by local…


Cafe Ivetas Ķēķis / Jura Staļļi / Grobiņa

| Restaurant reviews | 21 seen

Cafe Ivetas Ķēķis (Iveta's Kitchen) is located in Grobiņa municipality, some 10km from Liepāja, this cafe/restaurant actually is part of another cool attraction Jura Staļļi (George's Stables). From my understanding, it's a family run business. 

It was already past 20:00 and we left Liepāja a little bit hungry and decided to take some quick stop at Caffe Lielā Pietura, but the place was already closed, and we decided to give it a try for Jura Staļļi (as we had heard some good words before about this place)

Now, great was my surprise to find this place was almost booked, there were about 30-40 people on site (we got a lovely table inside the house, next to the kitchen). The next surprise come when the owner of the place recommended us to try their special burgers.

Burgers at Ivetas Ķēķis

Now, this was something great- the very best burgers I have tried in Latvia, and I would even say, the second best after US burgers. The buns are ordered from Poland, this sounded a bit strange to me, as I thought that buns should be made on site, see: How To Make Burger Buns at Home

We…


Red Sun Buffet Liepāja

| Restaurant reviews | 15 seen

Red Sun Buffet is a stylish cafe/restaurant located in the heart of Liepāja town.

Visited it briefly in the mid-August 2018, just to take some coffee take away.

Interior at Red Sun Buffet

Featuring elements Latvians are proud of - Brainstorm, Kristaps Porzingis (NY Knicks) and Intars Busulis. Heh

Interior at Red Sun Buffet

Somehow I already feel bored from black blackboards and white texts. Though cafe late ordered here was delicious.


How I Made $3,951.86 with Google AdSense in last 9 years

| Blogging | 6 seen

Time flies as it turns out it has been already 9 years since I've been using Google AdSense to monetize online content.  It was a late night on September 4th, 2009, when I finally decided to give it a try for Google AdSense. 9 years? That's almost a decade.

As the title says - I have made almost 4K in the last 9 years. You know what's more amazing? Almost half of that amount I made in the last year alone. 

See:

  • How I Made $2,135.03 with Google AdSense in 8 years
  • How I Made $1,000 with Google AdSense in 7 years

Back then, 9 years ago, I had a dozen "web-projects", mostly powered by WordPress, I was exploring different niches and put a lot of time and energy in too many directions. I decided to try to monetize my efforts - and of course, I was thinking - I will make those million dollars overnight. I didn't. Actually, my most valuable asset back at those days generated me just about 6,000 monthly users (monthly, not daily). I made about four dollars in the first month, and maybe $10 four months later.

Soon I stopped my huge efforts on…


Documentary "Khrushchev Does America"

| Documentaries | 9 seen

Documentary "Khrushchev Does America" is a 2013 film by Tim Toidze. 

The story of the unconditional, no-holds-barred tour of America by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, leader of World Communism and America's arch nemesis, during 13 sun-filled days in the fall of 1959.

Watch it on Youtube 


August 2018 Dividend Income Report - $158.41

| Investments | 15 seen

Welcome to the sixteenth (#16) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in August 2018. 

In case you are wondering why I'm sharing online my earnings - the answer is pretty simple - I like transparency and these reports help me to observe my progress or bounces. Hopefully, my reports can give some inspiration to you as well. Also, I have a goal to reach one million dollars in my bank account by the time I will turn 60 (27 years still to go). 

Last August, I turned 33. This year we didn't go to any fancy trip, instead, we spent it at home with our newborn baby. As I've reached the age of 33 and as I have become a father, for the future  I will put aside at least 53% of my yearly income. Here is the formula = years + 20 = 53%. I'm raising this number with every year.

Speaking of the baby  - actually, last month I also started to invest in her name. And this August we got our first dividend payment. Continue reading to learn more how much.

Now, the last August was full…


Is It Profitable Mining Ethereum (ETH) now (August / September 2018)?

| Servers | 78 seen

I have been operating a GPU ETH mining rig since the December 2017, the total cost so far to build it has been $1,661. That's a lot of money for just ~ 58MH/s hashing power. Now, things were different back in December 2017, let's see how does it works out now (August/September 2018).

Building a 12 GPU Ethereum Mining Rig From Scratch - Part 1: Ordering Details

For most of the Summer my Ethereum mining rig has been powered of (because of unprofitable mining - high electricity price / low etheruem price)

 

Mining ethereum August 2018

I turned on my mining rig for 24 hours, and mined 0.00417899 ETH (with ETH changing hand at $276.18) that gives me about $1.15. Not bad, but let's see how much we are spending here:

Ethereum mining calculator with 0.2$ per KWh

It turns out, I'm actually losing 0.4 dollars per day right now. Sure, I'm paying a hefty  price 0.2$ per KWh and I could move my mining rig to some cheaper location, like for example Georgia, paying just 0.1$ per KWh and in theory I would generate a small profit even now:


Top 5 Best Selling Intel Core i9 (Gaming) Processor Laptops

| Laptop Reviews | 187 seen

Intel Core i9 processors are gaining momentum in 2022, and seems they are going to rock in 2023

Top 15 Gaming and Creator Laptops with Intel Core i9 2023

With their high number of cores, high power draw, high thermal output, high performance, and unique desktop socket, LGA 2066, they are intended to be used by enthusiasts. A mobile version based on the standard BGA1440 socket was released in 2018, featuring six hyperthreaded cores and 12 MB of cache. It has been proven to attain 5 gigahertz under ideal conditions. It is rumored that the next generation of Intel CPUs will feature the Core i9 9900K, an eight-core hyperthreaded processor, while the Core i7 9700K will also feature eight cores without hyperthreading. The top-end model may have 28 cores.

Intel Core i9 powered laptops come with the price attached. You should be willing to spend about $1,500 -$4,000 in 2023, to get one.

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. …


Converting Currency Balances (EUR/USD) Interactive Brokers / Lynx Trader

| Investments | 186 seen

A time ago I opened a brokerage account with Lynx Broker, which turns out is affiliated with Interactive Brokers.

As I opened my account from Europe, by default my base currency was set to EUR, which in fact is nice and neat, as SEPA transfers from my bank to brokerage account happens almost instantly (in the same day).

Now, as I started to acquire US stocks, I noticed I have a negative balance in USD currency (while still positive in EUR). I started to explore and found the following link: Converting Currency Balances

Account holders may find themselves holding balances in currencies other than their designated Base Currency as a result of trades in products denominated in a different currency or from profits/losses directly associated with Forex trading. In these cases, IB does not act to automatically convert balances back to the Base Currency as this action would require assumptions as to the account holder's desired currency exposure as well as the trade price at which they would be willing to close the position.

Now here is how to get fixed it:

  • Select the Account icon from the TWS…

Photoshop How to Solve: Could not complete the Save As command because there is not enough memory (RAM)

| Servers | 157 seen

The other morning I faced an issue Could not complete the Save As command because there is not enough memory (RAM)" while trying to save a .pdf files using Adobe Photoshop. I spent a couple of hours before finally found the solution:

The solution involves another problem - Error: An integer between 96 and 8 is required 

When you try to access the Performance preferences (Edit > Preferences > Performance), Photoshop displays the error message: An integer between 96 and 8 is required. Closest value inserted. 

You are unable to access the Performance settings in the Preferences dialog. Tools such as Blur and Liquify that use the graphics processor (GPU) card are also impacted.

Seems this issue appears after updating your operating system to Windows 10 Creators Update. 

How To solve: Error: An integer between 96 and 8 is required / Could not complete the Save As command because there is not enough memory (RAM)
  • Press Windows + R keys to bring up the Run dialog. 
  • Type regedit.exe and then press Enter. …

Wild Horses at the Lake Pape (Latvia)

| Outdoor Activities | 29 seen

Now, this is an interesting story - we didn't meet any wild horses tonight, but found some great information. At least I did. It turns out, wild horses have been living here just since 1999 when WWF-Latvia started to stimulate the return of wild horses in 1999 in Latvia. 

It was in the evening of my birthday when we finally reached the place called  "Wild Horses at the Lake Pape " - unfortunately, turns out, such wild places, just like humans, have a working time. And at time we arrived this place was already closed. 

The Large herbivore natural grazing area was established in the Eastern coast of the Lake Pape in 1999. Currently, the natural grazing area exceeds 400 ha and everyone can explore, how these animals are restoring the natural open landscape at the shores of the Lake Pape.

Excursions to the wild horses, auroxen are only available using local guides!

closed gates

The excursions are organized all year around by paying the entrance fee. 

You should reserve at least one hour for a walk in the grazing area and be…


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