2017 in Review and Financial Goals for 2018

2 January, 2018 | Investments | 16 seen

I'm 32 now and I have a goal to save one million dollars by the time I will turn 60. That's 28 years to go.

In today's article, I will review the past year and take a quick glimpse at the New Year. 

For me, 2017 was a year of peer to peer lending, dividend-paying stocks and starting with the second part of the year - cryptocurrencies.

Investment Portfolio 2017

At the start of 2017, I planned to invest about 31% of my annual net income, the planned amount for 2017 was $8,561, I made it up to $12,057.41 at the end of the year. Isn't that Awesome? In 2017 I was investing at the pace of about $1,000/mo. 

You know what's even more awesome than that? I ended 2017 with a 33.34% value growth, putting the net value of my investment portfolio at $16,077.05. I should mention that most of the value growth happened in December and because of cryptocurrencies. Soaring prices for bitcoin, litcoin, ripple, and ethereum being the main driven force behind.

Here is what I said a year before:

Now, I…

Happy New Year! Fireworks Photography from Tbilisi 2018

1 January, 2018 | | 6 seen

We wish you a very great and prosperous 2018!

Here at Piece of Life photo series we canceled our planned trip to Sri Lanka and stayed in Tbilisi to capture following firework photography from Tamar Mephe bridge (ahh we have made dozens of great photos from this place).

Just before the midnight left our apartment with a tripod and few spare batteries

Tbilisi just a few minutes before New Year 2018

Fireworks have always been an interesting object for me to photograph, I remember how I prepared for great firework photography 2 years ago in St. Marks Square (Venice, Italy) in 2015/2016 but missed great images because of buildings covering the objective.  I got my first successful firework photos the same year from our balcony in Tbilisi, see: Old New Year's fireworks in Tbilisi

As a lot of time has passed, it was hard to recall how to make a proper fireworks photography tonight

2018 Tbilisi fireworks

Tonight I made about 90 long exposure night photographs, just a few survived final editorial review (you can see them in this article)

Happy New Year - Tbilisi 2018…

Simple GPU Overclocking Boosts Ethereum Mining Profitability by 20.65% - Now Making $2.66 Daily

31 December, 2017 | Servers | 13 seen

Welcome to the last post of 2017, and no surprise but today I will speak about increased Ethereum (and Siacoin) mining profitability by overclocking GPU cards.

Those of you following my blog lately already know - in December I decided to build 12 GPU mining rig and ordered goodies from Amazon. In total spending about $1,147.  The total investment right now covers just the core minimum - motherboard, power supply, PCI risers, RAM, processor and just 2 graphics cards.

At the start, I ordered just one graphics card from Amazon, but while still waiting for equipment to arrive I decided to set up a test environment at one of our office spare computers and installed a cheap Radeon RX 560 card. 

Top 14 Best Selling GPU Cards 2018

The first result with RX 560 card gave me about $0.98 profit daily, see: I'm Making $0.98 Per Day By Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I want MORE!

I was pretty happy with results I got from this card, though felt kind of surprised seeing hashing power just about 10 MH/s - it didn't sound good (as I have read that others are getting about 14 MH/s…

Taverna Plateia in Mirthios, Crete

30 December, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 28 seen

Ok, this is just another roadside cafeteria, discovered by accident - meet Taverna Plateia in the village of Mirthios, on the island of Crete.

At least I believe it is located in Mirthios village, as we did our trip to Crete back in June 2017, now browsing through the huge photo archive at Adobe Lightroom, I might be wrong. Though it's worth to mention this place as we had a nice dinner here.

Taverna Plateia in Crete

My one and only reference point - signboard - Taverna Plateia. If looking through my Crete discovery map, this might be the right location

Quick dinner at Taverna Plateia

Cretan dolma​

Lake Kournas in Crete

29 December, 2017 | Lakes | 15 seen

Lake Kournas is a lake on the island of Crete, Greece, near the village of Kournas. It is in the Apokoronas municipality of Chania regional unit close to the border with Rethymno regional unit, 47 km from the town of Chania. Kournas is a fairly large village perched on a hill overlooking the lake.

We headed to the Lake Kournas in June 2017, just to spend a nice afternoon here and enjoy a mild swim in the lake water.

It should be noted that Lake Kournas is Crete's only freshwater lake

Lake Kournas in Crete

Lake Kournas, is relatively large, with a perimeter of 3.5 km. Although almost all touristic leaflets say that it is possible to walk around the lake, that is not true. At least not at the end of the rain season (winter). There is a nature preserve on the Southwest of the lake. But there is a rustic road from the North of the lake to the Hills on the West of the lake too.

Catamarans for rent at lake Kournas

Seems a very popular tourist attraction here, as we didn't try one this time I'm not sure about pricing, but…

Learning Crypto Currency Mining The Hard Way

28 December, 2017 | Servers | 19 seen

It has been a couple of days since my first GPU mining rig is set up and running, making me a couple of extra dollars every day. In these past couple of days, I have learned a lot, mostly tech stuff how to install different components on a motherboard and to connect to the mining pool.

In today's article, I will share a few photos and notes what helped to get me here.

It all started with ordering details for 12 GPU mining rig from Amazon. It sounds bit insane but I spent about $1,000 just for the core minimum + about $200 additionally for getting these goodies to Tbilisi (transport and cost). As the estimate shipping time for all details from US to Georgia is about 3 weeks (I've received almost all components, except a few) and I had FOMO for crypto mining, I rushed and bought a cheap Radeon graphics card here in Tbilisi to set up and test on one of the free office computers.

Brand new Radeon RX 560 graphics card

The cat seemed very interested in this business. Once I took this card to the computer, I learned the first couple of lessons:

I'm Making $2.44 Per Day By Dual Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I'm NOT HAPPY YET!

26 December, 2017 | Crypto | 12 seen

This is a quick follow up post after previous and initial I'm Making $0.98 Per Day By Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I want MORE!. It has been first 24 hours since my core mining rig have been set up and running.

Well, more precisely, yesterday I finally received details ordered from Amazon at the start of December - motherboard, processor, power block, graphics card and other, see: Building a 12 GPU Ethereum Mining Rig From Scratch - Part 1: Ordering Details

By now all mining operations are run from my living room (instead of office) on a separate mining rig. The total investment as of day: $1,147.00 (not counting in transportation and customs tax, which is about $200).

As of writing this, the total time of ROI is 468 days, which is the reason I'm not happy yet with the results. 468 days is more than one year. And that makes me worried as we don't know what will be the future for gpu mining in next 6 months, no to speak 12 months or 468 days. Right now this seems a bit of gambling to me.

Thanasis - Cretan Taverna in Stavros

24 December, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 54 seen

Thanasis is a typical Cretan taverna located in the town of Stavros. We visited this place during our stay at Kavos beach apartment in June 2017.

Friendly staff, amazing food, affordable prices and amazing sunset views.

Outdoor deck at Thanasis taverna

While waiting for our Cretan cuisine to be served made some HDR sunset photography here:

Sunset photography

One of the rare handheld HDR's

Octopus

Dolma

Contact info Taverna Thanasis Cafe bar in Stavros, Crete

Works of Georgian Painter Nino Jikia

23 December, 2017 | Living in Georgia | 17 seen

Nino is a friend, we have been in friends with Nino for about a year. We actually met her as a cat sitter during our 10 days trip to New York City at the end of 2016

She has cat- sitted several more times since then. In case you are looking for cat minder here in Tbilisi - without hesitation - Nino is one of the best - our boys just adore her. I know that Nino is busy with a cat sitting for many other expats in Tbilisi, and in fact, she has about 15 cats at home - she just can't let little kitties alone on the street and takes them home - helping and taking care. 

Nino is a Tbilisi Academy of Art graduate and in free time still paints and performs restoration works. She asked could I help her out and take photos of her works, without thinking I agreed - it was agreed that Nino will take some of her works to our apartment and on a Friday afternoon sipping tea and eating cake we made a lovely photo session of her works.

Poppy fields in Svaneti by Nino Jikia

This painting we actually bought from Nino and gave as a gift to my mom, while she was visiting me here in Georgia at the end of November. Now, this…

Kavos Beach Apartments & Studios Review in Stavros, Crete

22 December, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 15 seen

Kavos beach apartments are among one of my favorite hotels discovered in Crete. We stayed here for a couple of nights in June 2017, during about a month long trip to Crete.

Stavros is a village and a popular beach destination located close to the Chania town in Crete, Greece. The beach and surroundings were the place where in 1964 Michael Cacoyannis partly made the popular Greek movie "Zorba the Greek" starring Anthony Quinn.

Top Hotels and Apartments in Stavros, Crete

Set amidst landscaped gardens, all apartments and studios at Kavos are air-conditioned and have a spacious balcony or terrace. They are fitted with an LCD TV, kitchenette and fridge, and enjoy free Internet access.

Kavos beach apartments in Crete

I was so impressed with the landscape here that decided to make a couple of HDR's

Rocky bay near Kavos beach

At a quiet and beautiful location on the coast of Kavos, Kavos Beach Apartments & Studios boasts views over the Cretan Sea. It offers well-designed accommodation and a large outdoor pool with sun…

Fresh Portakalada and Donner somewhere near Kandanos in Crete

19 December, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 6 seen

There are times Google Maps doesn't help (in fact there are dozen of such times) - this time Google Maps street view didn't help either - after about 6 months since we returned from Crete, I'm still postprocessing a lot of photos, reviewing places (tourist attractions, hotels, and restaurants).

It was in the morning, we left Palaiochóra and headed towards Heraklion in our rental car. 

Somewhere near Kandanos we found this lovely roadside cafeteria serving Donner and Portokalada (I mistakenly thought it will be freshly squeezed orange juice, but it turned out local lemonade)

Portakalada lemonade in Crete

Additionally ordered some Donner

Donner

Sadly I cannot remember the place name and can't find this place on Google maps to add a pin.

Mining with SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 Review

17 December, 2017 | Servers | 48 seen

This Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 560 4GB graphics card is the first I've put on test for mining ethereum.

Bought it at about $190 at local Tbilisi electronics shop, but you could get this card from Amazon for about $130.

Out of the box, I was able to get 10.72MH/s for Ether and 85.74 MH/s for dual mining Siacoin, on average by mining with this card only I'm able to make about $0.98 daily, which gives about 190 days for ROI. See: I'm Making $0.98 Per Day By Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I want MORE!

Cat waiting for the first mining rig to be built

Currently, this card is installed on a desktop PC (single graphics card mining) and while it was in closed tower noticed following measurements for temperature and fan speed

• 75 Celsius
• 48% Fan speed

As I was not happy with +75 Celsius, I decided to remove the cover and shortly temperature and fan speed dropped:

• 67 Celsius
• 27% Fan speed

Now, I believe lower temperatures and slower fan speed will extend the total lifetime of for this card. And that's great. 

I haven't yet…

I'm Making $0.98 Per Day By Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I want MORE!

16 December, 2017 | Crypto | 18 seen

The fans are spinning and graphics cards are heating, it has been 24 hours since I started mining Ethereum and Siacoin. And in these 24 hours, I've made $0.96.

Ok, in fact, there is just one fan spinning and just one RadeonRX 560 card, which I bought a couple of days ago in Tbilisi, and decided to test the mining process at one of our spare office computers, before details for my 12 GPU mining rig arrives.

I feel glad I was so impatient and rushed to perform a test, as while doing test setup I discovered a few bottlenecks and faced some issue, also I accidentally damaged one HDD while installing Graphics card on the motherboard.

My total investment for this experiment was about $187 for purchasing the graphics card, I didn't have to pay for other items, as I already had a free system to install this card on. I believe it could take up to 190 days or little more than 6 months to get my initial investment back.

Is It Profitable Mining Siacoin (SC) in 2018?

15 December, 2017 | Crypto | 13 seen

Sia is a new approach to cloud storage platforms. Instead of all datacenters being owned and operated by a single company, Sia opens the floodgates and allows anyone to make money by renting out their hard drive. Data integrity is protected using redundancy and cryptography.

Sia uses a cryptocurrency, Siacoin, to enable decentralized payments via file contracts. All payments on the network happen in Siacoin, which is a critical component of our cryptographic SLAs. Siacoin allows us to do things that would not be possible with Bitcoin or traditional online payments. See: 8 Things Every Crypto Investor Should Know About SIACOIN

I hold a couple of thousands of Siacoins (3,374), which I've gained via my swing trade activities. The current price (Middle December) is about $0.01 per Siacoin. I keep buying and holding a bunch of crypto coins, and I should note that 2017 has been a crazy in terms of returns. Currently, my Crypto portfolio has gained a total value of 268.47%, which is the highest return I've ever seen (compared to stocks or peer to peer lending, for example, where I can get about 10% annually)

Affiliate link here: If you are…

How to Install Drupal 8 with Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL, phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 16.04 - Linode Guide

14 December, 2017 | Servers | 40 seen

In this article, you will learn how to set up a Drupal 8 with Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL and phpMyAdmin.

This article might not be complete, but you will find a lot of useful information

Update: How to Install Drupal 8 with Nginx, PHP-FPM 7.2, MySQL, phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 18.04 - Linode Guide

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 16.04 - 64bit version.
• Root privileges.

You can get a cheap VPS for $10/mo from Linode. As I've few test Linodes already purchased I'm going to use one of them

Follow basic security guide, see: Securing Your Server

I will use Putty for Windows to access SSH

Create the user, replacing example_user with your desired username. You’ll then be asked to assign the user a password:

Add the user to the sudo group so you’ll have administrative privileges:

Disallow root logins over SSH. This requires all SSH connections be by non-root users. Once a limited user account is connected, administrative privileges are accessible either by using sudo or…