2017 in Review and Financial Goals for 2018
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 2017At 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…
Happy New Year! Fireworks Photography from Tbilisi 2018
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 batteriesTbilisi just a few minutes before New Year 2018Fireworks 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 …
Simple GPU Overclocking Boosts Ethereum Mining Profitability by 20.65% - Now Making $2.66 Daily
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…
Taverna Plateia in Mirthios, Crete
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 CreteMy one and only reference point - signboard - Taverna Plateia. If looking through my Crete discovery map, this might be the right locationQuick dinner at Taverna PlateiaCretan dolma
Lake Kournas in Crete
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 lakeLake Kournas in CreteLake Kournas, is relatively large, with a perimeter of 3.5 km. Although almost all touristic leaflets say that it is possible to…
Learning Crypto Currency Mining The Hard Way
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…
I'm Making $2.44 Per Day By Dual Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I'm NOT HAPPY YET!
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…
Thanasis - Cretan Taverna in Stavros
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 tavernaWhile waiting for our Cretan cuisine to be served made some HDR sunset photography here:Sunset photographyOne of the rare handheld HDR'sOctopusDolmaContact info Taverna Thanasis Cafe bar in Stavros, Crete
Works of Georgian Painter Nino Jikia
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…
Kavos Beach Apartments & Studios Review in Stavros, Crete
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, CreteSet 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…
Fresh Portakalada and Donner somewhere near Kandanos in Crete
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 CreteAdditionally ordered some DonnerDonnerSadly I cannot remember the…
Mining with SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon™ RX 560 4GD5 Review
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 builtCurrently, this card is installed on a desktop PC (single graphics card mining) and while it was in closed tower noticed…
I'm Making $0.98 Per Day By Mining Ethereum and Siacoin, and I want MORE!
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…
How to Install Drupal 8 with Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL, phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 16.04 - Linode Guide
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
Secure your server
Create the user, replacing example_user with your desired username. You’ll then…
Buying Graphic Cards (GPU) and Computer Parts in Tbilisi, Georgia
It should be noted that buying GPU's in Tbilisi is not a very cost-effective option, better use Amazon.com and service like usa2georgia.com to deliver your goodies to Georgia.But if you are in rush, as I was today, and you are desperate to have a GPU right now, while in Tbilisi - there are several electronic stores I could recommend.While I was still waiting for goodies from the US to be shipped to Georgia, I decided to buy an additional cheap GPU and put in on test at one of our spare office computers. Doing my due diligence I found Sapphire Pulse X560 4GB GDDR5 card at pshop.ge for GEL 499 (USD 187), unfortunately, I was not able to find this card on Amazon store, and I…
Building a 12 GPU Ethereum Mining Rig From Scratch - Part 1: Ordering Details
I love testing ideas and even more than just testing new ideas I love testing them using Minimum viable product approach.
I've been in a crypto craze for a while already - started with buy and hold, added little speculative trades, tried an ICO and now even considering to start mining. Totally insane? Well, I can only agree!
In fact, that doesn't even sound like me - you see, I like buying and holding, I even enjoy doing a few swing trades once in a while, but to run a mining rig? Totally not me. It sounds like a lot of hassle to me.
But still - starting a mining - is the latest crazy idea I've been thinking lately. And here you go, just ordered some…
Lenovo Ideapad 320-15ISK (Intel Core i3) Laptop Review
Bought this Lenovo Idepad laptop for the use at our Tbilisi office.As recently we bought a few Desktop PC's with Intel Core i3 processors for transcription projects, for me it was important to have an office laptop with the same or similar parameters.Ideapad 320 series comes with up to top-of-the-line 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processing, plus up to 16 GB DDR4 (for this model Intel Core i3 and 4 GB DDR) memory, guarantee lightning-fast responsiveness and reliable performance. Run multiple programs simultaneously, and transition seamlessly between web tabs — you'll be able to multitask with ease.Lenovo Ideapad 320-15ISKEverything about the IdeaPad 320 is designed to simplify…
November 2017 Dividend Income Report - $50.75
Welcome to the seventh (#7) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks, peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies) in November 2017. Surprisingly, but November, in terms of a passive income, turned out better, as I thought before, and generated me a dividend income of total $50.75. I didn't plan to make more than $40 this month, but increased lending rates and additional dividend payment helped to boost dividend earnings in November.Also, a super hyped month with cryptocurrencies made a nice boost to the total portfolio value.As usual, I was doing nothing much, just investing in great companies…
Christmas Charity Fair Tbilisi 2017
Annual Winter Fair (Christmas charity fair) was held in Tbilisi's Radisson Blue Hotel on December 2, 2017
It has been a tradition for us while living in Georgia to visit this fair, already since 2011. Here are a few articles from the past: Christmas Charity Winter Fair in Tbilisi 2015, Christmas Charity Winter Fair in Tbilisi Sheraton Hotel, Christmas charity fair in Tbilisi
As usual, we took a camera, backpack and went shopping, it' s a great time to buy great things and let's believe it helps charity, as all earnings made during this fair is believed to be donated to charity. It should, after all. Winter fair was organized by International Women's…
How to Send RSS Web Push Notifications to Segments in OneSignal
It has been already more than one year since I've enabled OneSignal Web Push notifications for this blog. Over the past year, the blog has acquired more than 25,000 web push subscribers. Frankly speaking - sure web push notifications are great if used the right way, speaking of me - unfortunately, or for good, as I keep writing on many topics, I still haven't found the most optimal use for web push notifications, as readers of this blog fall into many audiences and demographics.One of the use scenarios to sync web push notifications involves using RSS feed, see: How to send OneSignal RSS Push Notifications Using ZapierFor setting up OneSignal with Drupal see: …