iBeacon Update

 Updates

November 21, 2013: Macy's already adapting iBeacon, along with Apple stores, of course. Folks will visit Macy's just to see how it works. Meanwhile, state governments (Oregon) and the federal government cannot even get a simple website up and working.

Original Post

Back on September 17, 2013, I wrote:

This is huge: an Apple story over at SeekingAlpha.  I'll jump right into it. Near field communication has limited range: 20 cm but the practical range is an incredibly lousy 4 cm. Watch how close folks have to hold their Androids to a sensor next time for NFC to work. Apple is ignoring NFC. Why? They have incorporated iBeacon, which does the same thing, only better and more, and has a range of ... 50 meters. That's a bit farther than half the length of a football field. It was interesting that although Apple is already incorporating the technology, it did not mention this technology at their two most recent public presentations. But iBeacon sounds just like Steve Jobs. If someone came to Jobs and said NFC had an effective range of 4 cm he would jump up, yell, and say, "you've got to be kidding. I want an effective range of at least the length of a soccer field." This is a huge story. I don't invest in AAPL, never have, never will. I am just impressed with their technology. One company consistently beats all the rest, with very, very rare missteps.

Today, it is being reported that Apple retail will incorporate iBeacon into their stores. This will be fun to watch. Coincides with Apple's new senior vice-president in charge of retail stores. I was just over at our neighborhood Apple store this weekend; one had to have a walk-in reservation to buy "anything." They were that busy. Folks met you at the door and logged you into an appointment time on an iPad or iPad mini. The mini-retinas were still not available in the store; apparently on-line/in-store pick-up was working fine. I am currently padless, having sold my version 1 iPad back to Target for $200. With wi-fi everywhere, I don't miss the iPad. Yet.

"...Major Producers Such As Halcon Resources And Continental Resources." -- Work Over Rigs

I mention this infrequently, and it doesn't help that I alternate between "workover" and "work over."

Recently I mentioned that the next big story in the Bakken will be workover rigs.

Yahoo!News is reporting:

PetroTech Oil & Gas today announced that they have entered into a joint venture with Rolling Hills Oil and Gas LLC of North Dakota to obtain financing for two 20,000 foot-completion and work over rigs.

The joint venture calls for Rolling Hills to arrange funding from one of their equipment lines, and PetroTech would, once purchased and manufactured per specs, will contract the two rigs with one of the major producers in North Dakota such as Halcon Resources, and Continental Resources.

"This is an opportunity for our company to participate in a venture to secure a huge revenue source over the next Three to Five years that will exceed anything we have done to date, with no expense on our part or any additional debt to our   company." Said Eddie Schilb president of Petro Tech Oil and Gas, "These two rigs once put into production will bring in $40,000.00 per day at 24 days per month."

The most surprising line in that story was the nexus of Halcon and Continental Resources.

Folks Waiting For The Rocky Ridge-Fritz / Tyler Will Have To Wait A Bit Longer; Link Back To MRO Tyler Wells In Slope County

The first of four in this area:

• 25347, drl, Williston Exploration, Rocky Ridge-Fritz 1, Rocky Ridge, Heath, t-- 

From an earlier post:

Williston Exploration is drilling a well in this same field, at the northwest end of the field:

• 25347, conf-->rig on site-->conf, Williston Exploration, Rocky Ridge-Fritz 1,

That's all interesting, but if one is reading the tea leaves, this is the most interesting bit of trivia. Near this Rocky Ridge-Fritz 1 well, they are also drilling a SWD well which is also on the confidential list. The arrow in the image points to the SWD (on confidential list). It's my impression after following the Bakken boom for the past several years, they don't drill SWD wells just anywhere; this to me suggests they think they will be doing a lot of drilling in this area.

Devon Shire Over At SeekingAlpha: Why Warren Bought Huge Stake In XOM

Over at SeekingAlpha:

The questions many people would like answered is why Exxon and why now? I'm not sure about the why NOW part as Exxon's shares have been around this price for quite some time, but I think I've got a pretty good idea about the why.

Despite the recent media cries of an American oil glut I think that Buffett believes that oil prices are going higher in the future. How do I know that Buffett thinks oil prices are going higher? His partner Charlie Munger told me so.

Earlier this year I came across a roundtable conversation that included Berkshire Hathaway's eighty-eight year old vice-chairman Charlie Munger. Munger is one of the most rational thinkers the investment world has ever seen and he and Buffett are almost always on the same page.

Here is some of what Munger had to say about future oil prices and what he thinks should be proper energy policy:

"Oil is absolutely certain to become incredibly short in supply and very high priced. The imported oil is not your enemy, it's your friend. Every barrel that you use up that comes from somebody else is a barrel of your precious oil which you're going to need to feed your people and maintain your civilization. And what responsible people do with a Confucian ethos is suffer now to benefit themselves and their families and their countrymen later. The way to do that is to go very slow in producing domestic oil and not mind at all if we pay prices that look ruinous for foreign oil.

I remember that interview. I don't recall if I posted the link at the time. There were parts about the interview I did not agree with, but his underlying thesis was right on target.  

Oh, yes, here it is: my original post on Munger back on July 25, 2013.

Lead Story Over At DrudgeReport: A Common Theme On The Blog -- The Gap Between The "Haves" And The "Have-Nots" Widens

The Washington Post is reporting:

The income gap in America has been widening for decades and the modest three-year recovery did little to change that, according to new Census data.

The new data suggest that despite modest recoveries in many states, the middle class has been shrinking while households have been added in the lowest and highest income brackets. 

The state-by-state data compare incomes from a pair of three-year periods: 2007 through 2009, a span that included the Great Recession, and 2010 through 2012, a period that included the ongoing and modest recovery.

For years, the wealthiest 1 percent have amassed income more quickly than the rest. From 1979 through 2007, for example, the top 1 percent of households saw income grow by 275 percent, according to a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office study.

Compare that to the bottom fifth of households, which saw income gains of only 18 percent over that time. Recent Nobel Prize winner for economics Robert Shiller, who is known for creating a closely tracked home-price index, last month called income inequality “the most important problem that we are facing now today.”

And just last week, President Obama’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, called income inequality “an extremely difficult and to my mind very worrisome problem.”

Wow, wow, wow. Look at what I wrote back on October 29, 2013:

I don't quite agree that "most" people will "rocket" toward the top or drift toward the bottom. I think about 20% of educated, investing Americans -- many employed by the US government, including the military -- will "rocket" toward the top; another 47% will remain among the lower-middle class, lower class, and the "homeless"; another 40% (which we used to call the working middle class) will actually drift toward the bottom.

The upper-middle class (the 20% noted above) will disappear ( most will become rich, but not super-rich, who in turn will be different than the hyper-rich). The middle-middle class (the 40% noted above) will drift toward the lower middle class.

Counter-intuitively, ObamaCare will make the situation worse. The poor won't become any less poor, but the middle-middle class and the lower-middle class will definitely drift lower.