Category Archives: Info Links

Apple Notepad

Termbin

Info Links, Linux, Unpolished Gems, , , ,

I’d like to make sure everybody is at home when they are on vacation.

http://termbin.com/
An easy to use Pastebin like tool that allows “pasting” from the command line.

Requires that netcat is installed on the PC, which is by default on Linux and can be installed on a Windows computer as well.

.bashrc

I recommended adding an alias to your .bashrc in Linux to make a shorthand to post to termbin…

alias tb='nc termbin.com 9999'

 

Posts stay active for a month as an example I posted the link to this post online via termbin.

Privatebin

Other Bins that are install-able
https://privatebin.net/
https://github.com/PrivateBin/PrivateBin/wiki/Installation

How to Setup A Hastebin Server

http://sergiogervacio.com/host-hastebin-server/

 

termbin.com is powered by Fiche – open source command line pastebin server. There is a link to github repository: https://github.com/solusipse/fiche.

Precious Metal Accumulation and Distribution

Info Links, Money, Trading, , , ,

Precious Metal Exchanges

A few examples to get started with…

https://www.coinexchangeny.com
https://libertycoin.com/
https://www.jmbullion.com/

Resources

Silver Dragons

The Silver Dragons channel is about silver stacking, buying silver, silver investing, precious metals, gold investing and anything to do with silver or gold …
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCucqfNRyBkieAop_LDUqHEg

Yankee Stacking

One New Englander trying to stack silver and gold the “Yankee Way”!Stack silver and gold to hedge against our debt-fueled, fiat currency-based economy that …
https://www.youtube.com/c/YankeeStacking

Tickers on Yahoo Finance, this is where the iPhone gets prices

SI=F Silver Futures next delivery period, close enough to the spot price.
GC=F Gold Futures next delivery period, close enough to the spot price.
DXY (DX-Y.NYB) Dollar Index, strength of the USD against a basket of other currencies, The six currencies included in the USDX are the Euro, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, British pound, and Swedish krona. When the dollar goes up, metals go down and vice versa.

Investing Basics

All of the basics of investing apply to not only gold and silver but in general, only this first idea is specific to gold and silver.

Do you buy gold, silver, both?

A general rule for investing that gives a short answer for Gold -v- Silver.

When the ratio of the Gold price divided by the Silver price is…
> 80 Buy Silver
60-80 Buy Both
< 60 Buy Gold
Some people will even pairs-trade (swap) between the two to accumulate more metal over time. As in when > 80 buy silver by selling gold. When < 60 buy gold by selling silver. 60-80 is a neutral zone do nothing.

DCA

The following applies to metals or any other long term investment.

You can’t always predict the right moment to move a large sum into or out of an investment.

For investing it is best to dollar cost average (DCA) in and out of a position. Buying and selling on a periodic basis helps accumulate and distribute at average reasonable prices over the long haul of time. This can be done weekly, monthly, quarterly. And it could be done by considering good prices to buy or sell at, with a buy lower and sell higher plan.

Buy Lower/Sell Higher

The following applies to metals or any other long term investment.

You can’t always pick the bottom or top of a market.

A simple rule is to buy when the price is lower than it has been in a while, buying a local low and the converse on highs. The concept can be used to improve upon the ‘blind’ DCA, buy on a regular periodic basis.
Looking back at the high or low from the past year, or market cycle works fine for picking a reasonable high and low point. Keep buying in small amounts when below a local low and selling small amounts when above ( preferably longer timeframe ) local high. It is not always worth trying to ‘time’ the tops and bottoms of the market as this is very tricky even for sophisticated traders.

Judging Value Simply

The following applies to metals or any other long term investment.

Is it a bargain or overpriced?

When starting out it in investing is hard to judge value, so a quick and easy to spot way is the best way to start to get thinking about value.

A reasonable rule is to use the midpoint between the last big high or low price and keep accumulating up to that midpoint. In this manner you can easily tell that you are buying ‘value’ and not buying the asset when it is overpriced. Then hold the asset until the appropriate market cycle which reaches beyond local highs, preferably higher than a previous high in the future and do the converse, slowly sell above the midpoint which should always be checked out to make sure it is in profitable range. It is easier to sell into a rising market as when the price hits a peak sometimes it can drop violently. Prices tend to fall faster than they rise.

Price Charts

How to view the price and a handy tool, the moving average of price.

Kitco among others has decent charts for metals that have moving averages on them as well. The moving averages are a tool that can help with trading and investing. They act as guides to see to position of the price relative to a slower,smoother version of the price, the average price. These charts can be used to help DCA in and out using the buy lower/sell higher, judging value simply or using the moving averages as described below to use a trading type strategy or to accumulate and distribute for long term investing.

Using charts as a  trading tool example

Moving averages can be used to follow a trend. When the price is above a moving average or even better, a short time average (like 14,30,60 days) is above a long average (200 days) there is an uptrend. It is possible to follow a trend by buying in when the short average crosses the long average and sell when the short average goes below the long average. This is an example of a ‘trade’, specifically a long trade or going long. Technically this is called a Dual Moving Average Crossover. This is just one simple example of many trading styles.

Using charts as a tool to accumulate and distribute example

Moving averages can be also used to accumulate and distribute by looking for lows that are worth DCA-ing in and out on. For example good buys would be in the zone where the following line up, ..

  • short moving average lower (try 30 or days- blue line on Kitco chart) than long moving average. 200 day, green line on Kitco chart), with price lower than both ( buy when 30 or 60 day average below 200, with price below both, blue line below green, with red price below both

This is like buying little nips at a time, buying mini-bottoms. The opposite can be done for distributing….

  •   ( sell when 30 or 60 day average above 200, with price above both, blue line above green, with red price above both ), unless you have a buy and hold forever plan.

https://www.kitco.com/charts/techcharts_gold.html

https://www.kitco.com/charts/techcharts_silver.html

JPEG image Metcalfe's Law BTC

Bitcoin Charting Resources for Long Term Investing

Info Links, Money, Trading, ,

“Good investing is not necessarily about making good decisions. It’s about consistently not screwing up.” – Morgan Housel author of The Psychology of Money

Accumulation/Distribution Aids

2 year moving average investor tool

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/bitcoin-investor-tool/

Puell Multiple, an oscillator, accumulate at bottoms, distribute at tops

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/puell-multiple/

MVRV Z-Score, an oscillator, accumulate at bottoms, distribute at tops

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/mvrv-zscore/

Pi cycle top indicator, finds tops…it actually worked again in 2021

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/pi-cycle-top-indicator/

Market Sentiment, fear and greed index…

Fear mode = Might be a buying opportunity, people are scared and dumping BTC probably at a loss to them in full panic mode, macro indicators are crashing, full panic, bank run on exchanges, major crisis crypto or otherwise…

Greed Mode = Look out, euphoria is happening, price may drop soon as BTC is in the news and suckers buying in late in the game pushing the price parabolic, like the old saying, ” Bulls run up the stairs only to jump out the window.”…

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/bitcoin-fear-and-greed-index/

HODL wave 1 year. BTC sitting on chain for more than a year, shows if people are accumulating or distributing

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/1-year-hodl-wave/

Realized Price, might be a good indicator of fair value for BTC.  A gauge of relative under/overvalue….

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/realized-price/

Wallet Sizes, who is holding large amounts of BTC, good to track the ‘smart money’, are they accumulating or distributing?

Wallet > 1 BTC

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/wallets-greater-than-1-btc/

Wallet > 10 BTC

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/wallets-greater-than-10-btc/

Wallet > 100 BTC

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/wallets-greater-than-100-btc/

Wallet > 1000 BTC

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/wallets-greater-than-1000-btc/

Look into Bitcoin, has many more charts…

https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/

Mayer Multiple

Basically accumulate until it hits 2.4, then hold, sell at the top optionally, then when it drops below 1.5 start accumulating again.

https://bitcoinition.com/charts/mayer-multiple/

Metcalfe’s Law Model

This is a static chart, (don’t remember where it is from) would love to see this as a dynamic one. Seems to show a fair value for BTC. Paper on Metcalfe’s law and Bitcoin

Crypto Donations to Ukraine

Info Links, ,

Excerpt from 03.03.2022. Coinbase Bytes article published by Coinbase , lays out how to support Ukraine with crypto donations. Also from this it can be seen how important cryptocurrencies can be during an economic disruption. Passing this on to let others see this and also learn from what Coinbase has to say about this topic.

The quote at the bottom sums up the importance of cryptocurrencies in a time of crisis…

“My Ukrainian credit cards don’t work anymore. I’m safe physically in Kazakhstan, but all my savings are gone. Crypto is the only money I still have, and today I can say without exaggeration that $BTC, $ETH and #NFT[s] are going to save my life while I can’t come back home.”

As always with crypto, make sure you know what address you are sending to, make sure it is from a legitimate source, scams abound. Always double check the crypto address whenever cutting and pasting make sure it matches as bad actors have been known to create viruses that can hijack an address copied and pasted so funds go to them!

Links coming from legitimate sources are important. I copied some links from the excerpt below with locations to donate via crypto. For example…

The official Twitter accounts of the government and Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov shared wallet addresses for BTC, ETH, and the USD-pegged stablecoin Tether

the Kyiv Independent also listed BTC and ETH wallets

CRYPTO SUPPORT

Crypto donations pour into Ukraine as the country resists Russian invasion

As Ukraine continues to resist Russia’s full-scale invasion, international sanctions begin to hobble the Russian economy, Russian president Vladimir Putin has resorted to nuclear saber-rattling, and global markets have whipsawed. On Monday, oil prices reached over $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014, and the Russian Ruble lost 30% of its value against the dollar, plummeting to record lows. For Ukrainians, emergency economic measures — including cash withdrawal limits (about $3,350 per day) — have prompted the country’s government, citizens, and even newspapers to call for crypto aid. Let’s take a closer look at some ways crypto is assisting during a time of crisis.

  • Ukraine has raised over $30 million in cryptocurrency since tweeting an appeal for donations on Saturday. The official Twitter accounts of the government and Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov shared wallet addresses for BTC, ETH, and the USD-pegged stablecoin Tether (which saw such significant demand on Ukraine crypto exchange Kuna that it traded above its peg, reaching $1.10) Why crypto donations? As blockchain analytics firm Elliptic explains, “Cryptoassets such as Bitcoin have emerged as an important alternative crowdfunding method. They allow quick, cross-border donations.”
  • Russian-Canadian Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin amplified the appeal on Twitter as part of a string of tweets that included a sharp rebuke of Moscow, calling the invasion “a crime against the Ukrainian and Russian people.” In other Ethereum news, Uniswap added a tool on Tuesday that allows users to swap any crypto for ETH and send it to the Ukrainian government’s wallet in a single transaction.
  • A founding member of the Russian pro-democracy punk group Pussy Riot formed a DAO to raise funds for Ukrainian civilians. Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, along with members of PleasrDAO and artist Trippy Labs, formed UkraineDAO, which sold 10,000 Ethereum-based Ukrainian flag NFTs and plans to donate all proceeds (over $5 million) to the Come Back Alive Foundation, which supports Ukraine’s military, and the Proliska non-governmental organization. (If you are considering donating crypto, be mindful of potential scams and always do your research first.)
  • The Kyiv Independent, an English-language newspaper in Ukraine is seeking crypto donations to support the country’s independent media. In addition to GoFundMe pages for the paper and several partners, the Kyiv Independent also listed BTC and ETH wallets. Meanwhile, a Berlin-based blockchain startup called Arweave is attempting to preserve historical documents about the crisis — so far its network of 1,000 nodes holds about 50 terabytes of related data.
  • Last November, The New York Times described Ukrainians as among the “most avid cryptocurrency users in the world,” and they rank fourth in Chainalysis’ 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Why? A combination of factors — from high inflation to a widespread lack of trust in local banks. Ukraine is also a highly tech-forward nation, with an IT export business worth almost $7 billion last year. Ukraine also adopted a progressive bill last September, enabling the government to regulate crypto.

Why it matters… Ukranians are using crypto to defend themselves from Russia’s invasion, protect their wealth, and fund their escapes to neighboring nations. In one sobering tweet, a citizen explained: “My Ukrainian credit cards don’t work anymore. I’m safe physically in Kazakhstan, but all my savings are gone. Crypto is the only money I still have, and today I can say without exaggeration that $BTC, $ETH and #NFT[s] are going to save my life while I can’t come back home.”

Dr. Seheult Coronavirus Updates

Info Links, ,

Very informative series of videos. All of them dealing with Covid-19 to date, Dr. Seheult releases these update videos regularly. He is actively treating Covid-19 patients, from what I remember he is an internist and with pulmonary and sleep specialties. Below is a sampling of the videos that I found interesting, mostly centered on prevention and treatment. Covering new approaches such as Remdesivir and Choloquine. Supplements are also covered for general health and use for helping the bodies immune system. Plus some general information on how viruses work, which I had long forgotten about over the years. Some of the ideas in the videos are fairly unique, such as the importance of sleep for boosting the immune system and the positive effects of forest bathing.

UPDATE: There has been some censorship of Coronavirus videos on YouTube created by Dr. Seheult which thankfully are still all available on MedCram

 

Linux Mail From the Command Line

Local Mail Using Postfix and Mail

Info Links, Linux, My Thoughts, Server, , , , , , ,

Mail on the command line. This was once a thing that was used much more often. When I was in college in the 1990’s it was one of the easiest ways to get mail when on campus and off. It was taught to technical and non-technical people alike as part of orientation and you were given written instructions right at registration time. Instructions came along with the email account that they made up for you using a student id number followed by @binghamton.edu. In fact, finally in the last year I was there they got rid of this cumbersome email and started allowing users to have email with their real names.

Getting to mail back then from the command line involved logging into your Unix account from one of the many terminals spread throughout the campus. Or using the  insecure but, OK at the time rlogin, remotely via dialup. Then you could either use mail or pine which was a bit more sophisticated as it was based off the pico editor, of which the popular nano editor is a derivative. It at least has somewhat of an interface that accepts up and down arrow movement and displays the shortcuts on the bottom. The standard mail program is a bit like vi, spartan but still useful.

Having access to mail locally on the command line is useful when you might be running CRON tasks or any other automated scripts that call other code as it allows you to get notified of when they have run and most importantly if they have had errors.

The other alternative is to set up ssmtp and have mail sent out of the local machine using SMTP from another established account. Of course you can also set up a full blown mail server but, that can be overkill if you are just monitoring what is happening on a few machines that you regularly log in to.

Setting up Local Mail

Below is a great Github post on how to set up local mail on a Linux Machine. I followed it and added a variation to get local mail running using the command line mail program.

It works great.  I really liked the instructions, very easy to set up. I was glad I found this as, I thought it might be tricky and with these instructions it was a few minutes on each machine.

Setup a Local Only SMTP Email Server (Linux, Unix, Mac)

 

My Additions

Server

For use with mail the program, it might not be necessary to have a local host.com in the host file. I have not tested this.

I followed the tutorial up to and including the step of restarting postfix.

Then I installed mail instead of Thunderbird.

On the server, which only has a CLI,  I wound up using mail instead of T-bird, installed via sudo apt-get install mailutils
It can be tested by sending a message to yourself by using…
mail -s “test” (your user name)@localhost

Hit enter when in the screen to bypass CC , type something and end by using Ctrl D.

Then enter the command

mail

…and you should see the email. Hit enter at the? prompt and the message is presented.

Enter q to quit.

Another test message can be sent to test if a message to any address gets sent to you. As long as the domain is local host it will work and catch it. Other domains will fall and send you an email from the system reporting the email as undeliverable.
It works great to get the CRON messages on the machine.
Just type mail and you get a CLI email list. mail basics are, q to quit, m to compose, enter and spacebar to move through messages. Entering question mark ?, brings up command help.

Desktop Install

One gotcha that caught me is that I already had T-bird installed and therefore it had a default SMTP server already. For me this required what I would call step 6A to add a local STMP server.
6A. In the pane above “Account Actions” scroll, using the bar to the bottom “Outgoing Server (SMTP)”.
Click Add
For description I wrote Local SMTP
Server Name: localhost
Port: 25
Username : (the user name)@localhost
Authentication Method: Password, transmitted insecurely
Connection Security: None

Then I went back into the account settings for the mail set up in step 6 and set the Outgoing Server (SMTP) to the Local SMTP

Host File Aliases

Also in /etc/hosts you can put in localhost.com as a alias and it works fine, like this…
127.0.0.1       localhost localhost.com

This is the way to put in aliases in a host file, for example you can have the machine name and then a shortcut to it if you have it set to a static IP. This way you can just type server to SSH to it and use that as a short name wherever you want to in scripts and etc.

192.168.1.10  Dell-Optiplex-620     server

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.com