The idea

I call them the AI elements. The list I am tracking so far: copper, silver, uranium, silicon, tin, rare earths, gallium and germanium, plus gold as a reserve asset rather than a buildout input. Each one has a role. Copper and silver carry electricity, silicon makes the chips, uranium fuels some of the power that runs these facilities, tin is used in solder, rare earths go into magnets for motors and cooling equipment, and gallium and germanium show up in some semiconductors and optical parts.

Substrate, not story

The part of the thesis I trust most is the substrate idea: invest in the layer every buildout needs, regardless of which AI company wins. If one model maker beats another, the wiring and the chips still have to be bought. I am more comfortable with that than with bets that depend on a single company's product succeeding.

What I am not claiming

A thesis is not a forecast. Metal prices move on mining supply, trade policy, and demand from industries that have nothing to do with AI. Smaller, specialized producers can be hard to trade and often carry risks their larger peers do not. Some of these materials could also be substituted if prices rise enough. I am watching for those cases, not ignoring them.

Where it goes next

I am building out the research on a separate site, where I track each element, the companies tied to it, and the signals that would make me change my mind. I will post updates here when something meaningful changes.

This is my personal view, shared for educational purposes. It is not investment advice. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal.

In my case first four are foundational pillars for the fifth category. High risk investments can provide unheard of returns but they can wipe you out as well so never mix them in any of the other portfolios. Manage each of the portfolio as seperate bucket.

I have divided my investment portfolio in 5 different categories.

• Long-term Goal portfolio
• Mid-term Goal Portfolio
• Short-term Goal Portfolio
• Rental Properties
• High-risk investment 

1. Long-term Goal Portfolio

Investment Time Horizon for this portfolio is 20+ years. For this portfolio, I invest my money in mostly equity based investment funds and some bond funds as well as utilities fund to mitigate market risks. I maximize tax sheltered accounts first and any leftovers will go to taxable accounts after that. In this category I have mostly 401K accounts, HSA, Roth IRA and Regular IRA. I prefer Vanguard funds for my taxable accounts. I also invest more into value than in growth. As well as more in small cap opposed to large cap.

Investment Goal in these accounts is to be able to benefit from compounding over longer duration as well as take advantage of dollar cost averaging. For my taxable accounts I make two automated purchases a month one on 8th and one on 18th of every month. I also make manual purchases when market makes significant downward movement. If market goes up and because that utilities/bond funds drop I buy those manually as well.

This portfolio consists of tax advantaged and taxable account mix and I usually do a check up/rebalancing in tax differed accounts only. For taxable accounts I rarely take capital gains but if opportunity allows me to do tax loss harvesting I definitely take that opportunity especially if I have significant earnings in mid term or high risk accounts during a fiscal year. Usually I would keep minuscule portion of an investment as a place holder if I took advantage of tax loss harvesting and rebuild the position after 30 days that way I can take the losses while maintaining exposure to that asset.

2. Mid-term Goal Portfolio

Investment Time Horizon for this portfolio is 5+ years. I hope to be able to buy new car or a new roof etc. with funds coming out of this account and not pay any short term gain taxes as much as possible. I research chart patterns for growth stocks and based on these patterns I buy stocks into these accounts.  I put stop loss orders as well as upside profit capture orders to gradually reduce positions once it hits 20% profit range.

3. Short-term Goal Portfolio

Investment Time Horizon for this portfolio is < 5 Years. Investment in this portfolio consists of High yield savings account, REIT, Short-term investment grade bonds and tax free bonds. I also keep 6 months of expenses under short-term goal portfolio. 

4. Rental Properties

While rental properties are not as passive investments as stocks or funds, they are not active as trading options either. While investing in real estate I look for about 7-8% return on my capital per year. 

5.High Risk Investments Portfolio

Here I usually trade options, returns could be astronomical but losses could be heart and back breaking too. I am still learning this and like everything else, if one can make it profitable and repeatable this could be a quick exit strategy from 8 to 5 job but you need other four foundational pillars if things were to go wrong.   

I will cover my allocation thoughts for each of these categories in a separate post but I am a firm believer in combination of time in the market and market timing. 

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/equifax-data-breach-settlement

Equifax is offering is at minimum USD 125 settlement if your information was leaked during the breach. There are two parts of the settlement

1. Free Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection Services or USD 125 if you don't want to use Free monitoring/protection. I have been using Credit Seasme and Credit Karma for monitoring, both have IOS, Android and Web access . I also have put a lock on Equifax Credit report

2) Cash Payments (capped at $20,000 per person)

a. For expenses you paid as a result of the breach, like:
Losses from unauthorized charges to your accounts
The cost of freezing or unfreezing your credit report
The cost of credit monitoring
Fees you paid to professionals like an accountant or attorney
Other expenses like notary fees, document shipping fees and postage, mileage, and phone charges

b. For the time you spent dealing with the breach. You can be compensated $25 per hour up to 20 hours.
If you submit a claim for 10 hours or less, you must describe the actions you took and the time you spent doing those things.
If you claim more than 10 hours, you must describe the actions you took AND provide documents that show identity theft, fraud, or other misuse of your information.

I am going to add up all the time I spent and may be make part b of the claim as well.

You can check at the link below if your identity was impacted.

https://eligibility.equifaxbreachsettlement.com/en/eligibility

You can file claim here

https://www.equifaxbreachsettlement.com/file-a-claim

You can put Equifax report lock at link below

https://www.equifax.com/personal/products/credit/credit-lock-alert/

ou can also lock TU and Experian reports as well. 

TransUnion lock can be placed here

https://www.trueidentity.com/identity-theft...

Experian lock can be put here

https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

** Notes from the Roof replacement experience after May 2019 storm. Please share your experience/thoughts.**

Memorial Day storms in the area caused some significant roof damage and it was first claim we ever made on our home owner policy. A few things I learned along the way that I wanted to share. Please share your thoughts/feedback on my notes as well as your experience with getting a new roof.

1. After these storms all these “Roofing companies” show up soliciting Storm damage assessment and present you with the exclusivity contract up front in the hope that you would sign it for most of them Google/Yelp ratings were less than 3-stars.
2. Claim and approval process is easy when your area is declared a catastrophe zone.
3. None of these roofing company would want to give you repair/replacement estimates without filing the claims and giving them exclusivity. Filing claims usually takes out claim free discount from your home owner’s policy regardless of claim being approved or denied.
4. Do not share your claim information with the roofing company up until you have the estimates, in most cases Insurance companies (Standard insurance companies not the low-end ones) pay more than what roof will cost you.
5. Once insurance claim is approved roofer and you are in a different relationship, roofer knows how much you are getting paid and they want to spend it all regardless of the actual cost of the roofing work, its your job is to keep them honest and save as much as you can without compromising quality of work because eventually insurance premium will go up and whatever you save from the claim can be put towards the premium hike in future.
6. Approved Claim amount and actual roof replacement estimates don’t need to match. If Insurance paid more money than what it is going to cost you to fix the roof you keep the difference, if estimate from the roofing company comes back at a higher estimate you can always go back to insurance company and ask for more. If difference is for upgrades etc. they will deny, if it is for mandatory items they approve.
7. At the time of this post in 2019, Laminated Architectural Shingles seem to be the standard, difference between 30 years and 50 years is sub 1000 and if you go with 50 years next time you file the claim you are approved for 50 years shingles
8. In our construction Ice sheet covers were not put on during original roof construction since it was not required by the code up until 2005 and now it is in the village code so insurance companies pay for it.
9. Most Important lesson – don’t hand out your insurance claim paper work to roofing company, if you do they will come back with exact same pricing that insurance has approved i.e. inflating the prices of their work compared to what they would have charged you for the same work if they would not have not known about insurance payout.
10. I also learned from someone else that once you file a claim, regardless of it's approval or denial another insurance company will not insure you.

What are some of the other things that people learned/experienced dealing with roofing companies and insurance companies? Please leave it in comments.

Podcasts

1. Optimal Finance Daily (Justin Malik)
2. Optimal Living Daily (Dan/Justin Malik)
3. Sound Investing (Paul Merriman)

List of the other podcast I listen to are also published on this blog but I don't listen to them religiously.

Blogs and Websites

1. https://www.Mymoneyblog.com
2. https://paulmerriman.com/
3. http://www.analyzenow.com/
4. https://www.morningstar.com/instant-x-ray (Use it through your library)

Apps and Web Resources

I use Personal Capital App/website to track assets and expenses. I don't buy any of their paid stuff but I like their methodology its just that I feel that I can do better with 1.89% than paying it to them.

I periodically use Morning star X-Ray to review portfolio fees as well as overlaps.

I like Motif and M3 for automatic portfolio balancing but have not been using them.

Expense/asset tracking spreadsheets - to be shared

Investments

Invest in following order

1. Maximize 401K to limits (Not only to company match, tax benefits)

Paul Merriman does 401K checkups for various plans and publishes his recommendation on which fund to own within their plans, you can request analysis of your company's 401K plan on his website

• If you are eligible for Roth IRA invest in Roth IRA, if not do backdoor IRA  (If you have any other pre-tax IRA, merge them into  your 401K if it allows it otherwise tracking/conversion will get challenging) - Nontaxable forever after roth conversion
• Maximize HAS (Tax benefits and future health care fund)
• Maximize ESPP if your company offers it
• Invest in Taxable Account - I do two automatic investments a month, it could be any amount that you can spare don't do it around 1st or 15th because that's when 401K investments are being made across US and market goes out. I have been doing mine on 8th and 18th of the month

Investment methodology

Long term - Index funds/ETFs in retirement, H.S.A accounts, some short-term tax free and investment grade bonds

Mid term - Stocks mostly NASDAQ with Symmetrical  Continuation Triangle, Ascending Continuation Triangle  and Triple Bottom pattern

Short term - covered calls, credit spreads - do not recommend it

Investment style - 65% American Stocks, 25% International and 10% bonds

American Stocks division - 50% Small cap value, 10% Large Cap Value, 20% Large Cap Growth i.e. S & P 500, 10% Small cap Growth

International Stock division - 50% Small cap value, 40% Large cap value and 10% Large cap growth

Bonds - Federal tax free + investment grade corporate bond fund

Cash Reserve - 6-12 months of living expenses - Usually in Vanguard Money Market with 2.45% yield right now.

If you are going to do stock investing you would want to use Recognia which is included with Ally as well as StreetSmart Edge

Rental properties and REIT – I have invested in both and I like doing rentals but REIT provides good returns as well but Rental properties could be fun at the same time.

Insurance

Life insurance outside of employers, LTD and STD through employer

Investment tools

Use 401K calculator to calculate based on Monthly Dollars needed in retirement

https://retirementplans.vanguard.com/VGApp/pe/pubeducation/calculators/RetirementIncomeCalc.jsf

If you want to calculate NFV at retirement - use this

https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/free-financial-planning-tools/compound-interest-calculator

This was a pet project from Mr. Hebeler of Boeing - he had some amazing common sense calculators that he put out there years ago.

http://www.analyzenow.com/Free%20Programs/free_programs.htm

Use interest rate of 4% to be conservative - stocks have historically returned 6-7% over past 90 years but you would want to under estimate and over deliver for your retirement if you could.

I will highly recommend reviewing these tables and listening to podcast located at link below

None of these things will matter if you don’t control your expenses, some of the biggest expenses are eating out, unused subscription and fancy cars. I gave up on all of them long time ago.

Happy Saving.

• Optimal Living Daily
• Grow Big Always
• How I built this

• Optimal Health Daily
• The Positve Psychology Podcast
• Self Improvement Brain
• The Thrive Global

• The Business Thor Cast
• Optimal Business Daily
• Unemployable
• UnChained

• Optimal Finance Daily
• Listen Money Matters (Not family friendly)
• Planet Money
• Clark Howard
• Sound Investing
• The Disciplined Investor
• Charting Wealth

• AWS Podcast
• OVS Orbit
• Gigacast

Information Technology world was in its childhood from late 80s early 90s, it was a teen ager mid-90s to early/mid 2000s and then it took off.

Lately it seems like it is going through massive product life cycle acceleration as well as business model changes. After success of Salesforce.com, ITunes store and Google App, Microsoft has finally caught up or surpassed by catching up with Office 365 and now starting to offer Windows 10 licensing under its subscription model.

Currently there are two Licensing models E3 and E5 for Windows 10 – to match main stream office 365 licensing model

In last week's significant developments in technology word

1. Windows 10 E5 became available as a subscription
2. VMWare divested it's VRealize product line by a private equity firm Skyview Capital
3. Cisco issued 6.5 Billion dollars in Notes paying 2.0%

1. I do not believe in negotiating down labor of hard working individuals

2. I do not want to be cheap and buy something that is subpar

I was looking for ways to optimize my cars, a few years ago I finally settled for standard bits and pieces and they are working out very well for me.

Below is what I use for Do It yourself maintenace

Air Filter - K & L Air flter, costs a lot more up front but performance is great and you are good for 1 million miles

Oil Filter - Mobil 1 Oil filter - Good for upto 15000 miles

Oil - Mobil 1 fully synthetic 5W30 High Mileage - There is is not the sameone that gurantees 15000 miles but I have ran it successfully for 11000 miles, now I change it at around 7000 miles

Viper blades - RainX Latitude

Other Maintenace - Seafoam every 5000 miles

Battery Terminal Protector - spray it every few months

Tires - BF GoodRich Touring from SAMs club, rotated every 5000 miles

Breakes - Advanced Autopart Weaver Platinum breakpads and standard rotors

For Oil Change purchase

I buy 5 Qt Mobil 1 Jugs for about USD 25 and I end up buy 4 jugs per year

I buy 4 filters and seafoam 128 oz from Adanced Autopart at once for 70 bucks - All of which runs me for one year between two cars, each filter roughly ends up being USD 9.00

I have found a very good mechanic nearby who charges me 15 bucks per oil change

So each of my oil change is

Mobil 1 Fully Synthetic HM 5W30 Oil - 26

Mobil 1 Filter - 9

Oil Change Labor 15

Total Cost for Mobil 1 fully synthetic High mileage Oil Change - USD 50

In Cricket - I have seen Sachin Tendulkar, Kapildev, Sunil Gavaskar, Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Greham Gooch, Martin Crowe, David Boon, Dean Jones, Clive Rice, Hansie Cronje, Sir Viv Richards, Sir Richard Headly, Gordon Grinich, Desmond Haines, Guss Logy, Geoff Dujon, Javed Miandad, Chetan Sharma, Narendra Hirwani, Anil Kumble, Kapler Wessels, Alan Border, Mark Gratebatch, Sunnath Jaysuryia, Yougraj Singh, Virendra Sehwag, Saurabh Ganguli

In Track and field - P. T. Usha

In Swimming - Michael Phelps, Katie Ladaki

In Tennis - Borris Baker, Andre Aaggsi, Pete Sampras, Stephi Graff, Monica Sailes

Football - Kurt Warner, Aaron Rodgers, Brett Farve, Donald Driver, Tom Brady, Drew Brees

In Soccer - Dego Mardona, Ronaldo

I have witnessed greatness of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros, Nelson Mandela, Mark Russonvich. Rise of Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Google.

Fall of Novell, Sun, Enron.

I have visited Effiel Tower, Hotel Taj, Sears Tower, Notredomes, Tajmahal, Karelibaag, Chopati, Navey peer, Lake Michigan, Wisconsin, Carlionas, Tensee, California, Iowa, New Mexico, Minesota, Indiana,

From technogy standpoint - I have seen invention of PC, DOS, Novell Netware, Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 97, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008 & 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2, Redhat Linux, Java, Oracle, SQL, Exchange, Azure, AWS, Wordstar, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Editor, Corel Draw, Foxpro, Clipper, TASM, MASM, TC, TC++, Java, HTML, IIS 2.0, ASPX, ActiveX, Orkut, Myspace, Facebook, Hotmail, Exchange 2016, Office 365, Developer 2K, VB

Hardware stand point - I have seen Gramophone, transitor radio, valve radio, Sony 2 in 1, Monochrome monitors, Mono VGA monitors, SVGA Monitor, Color Monitor, LCD, LED Monitor, Rotary Phone, Digital Phone, Cell Phone, Pager, iPHone, iPAD, iPhone Plus, Tube TV, LCD TV and LED TVS. 2.4K Modems from GVC, US RObotics, Shell Internet Connection with PPP

Earth quake of Jan 26, 2001, also 9/11, capture and death Bin Laden.

1st black president being elected, I have witnessed Berlin wall being taken down, I have seen USSR breaking up. I have seen China evolve from nothing to an Econmic Power, I have seen Zimbabwe going downhill, I have seen Kasimr being taken away. I have seen Ahmedabad changing.

It has been a great journey thusfar!

It has snowed almost 8 inches or so since yesterday night and tonight's Real feel temprature is going to be -47! and they are saying tomorrow will be not be any better!

Had to drop a quick entry! Stay warm and be safe!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123873%28v=exchg.141%29.aspx

I had my last oil change on 10/27/2012 at 151,258 Miles and today I changed it again on 03/09/2013 at 156,654 miles, it was about 1/2 quart low after about 5 months and 6500 miles driving. Not bad considering the mileage on my Camry.

I Picked up Mobile 1 Oil Filter at Advanced Auto Parts with 20 Dollars off 50 coupon, 4 of them were 35 bucks including taxes, so about 8.75 dollars a piece. I don't do oil changes myself but get them done at Walmart - with 2.10 credit for filter it ended up being around 56.62 with tax. so for Full Synthetic Mobil 1 Oil Change it is around 66 Bucks better deal than Jiffy Lube or Mobile 1 quick change center it self they both charge around 84.99+ tax.

Someday I will do it myself which will be even more cost effective then this.

Tonight I decided to look more into it.

So far have made following changes

1. Disable SIP inspection in default global policy

2. Created translations for ports 5085, 12000 and 12001 and allowed inbound access on 5085, 12000 and 12001 to NetTalk Device

static (inside,outside) udp interface 5085 192.168.0.60 5085 netmask 255.255.255.255
access-list inbound extended permit udp any interface outside eq 5085

static (inside,outside) udp interface 12000 192.168.0.60 12000 netmask 255.255.255.255
access-list inbound extended permit udp any interface outside eq 12000

static (inside,outside) udp interface 12001 192.168.0.60 12001 netmask 255.255.255.255
access-list inbound extended permit udp any interface outside eq 12001

We will see how it works for next few days and continue further troubleshooting.

Update 2

Above mentioned step did not resolve the issues, it worked for about 10 hours and then outbound connection to 199.193.188.184 will disappear and greenlight will start blinking and then eventually turned red.

I ended up implementing DMZ on ASA updated ASA to 8.4 and so far so good since yesterday night. Now one issue I have on hand is ASA 5505 with 8.3 or higher needs 512MB of minimum ram mine has only 256 MB so looking for after market ram for ASA 5505 seems like it needs to be DDR3200 and following afer market models appear to be working

HYS64D128320HU-5-B
KVR400/512R

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps6406/product_bulletin_c25-578934_ps10744_Products_Bulletin.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3750x_3560x/software/release/12.2_53_se/release/notes/OL19594.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps12686/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3850/software/release/3.2_0_se/release_notes/OL28114.html

Below is a very good comparison between 3750X vs 3850X put together by Matt Thompson on his blog.

http://vegaskid.net/blog/2013/02/overview-of-cisco-catalyst-3850-switch/

http://us.blackberry.com/support/software/server_compatibility.jsp#tab_tab_compatibility

http://us.blackberry.com/support/software/server_exchange_ver_jan_6_12.pdf

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dbac2d40-da8b-469f-a265-1d1f948fe446%28EXCHG.141%29.aspx

http://flippingbits.typepad.com/blog/tools.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/ps6825/product_data_sheet0900aecd80404916_ps6120_Products_Data_Sheet.html

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/

They are located at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/forefront/ff793470

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315457

While reading up on it I also came across few interesting reading topics as well which are listed below

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316790

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947022

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd277429.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758169%28WS.10%29.aspx

Upon examining Application event log - I saw two different VSS errors for every attempt I made

Error:12302

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers. Please check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly.
and

Error: 5013

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Shadow Copy writer ContentIndexingService called routine RegQueryValueExW which failed with status 0x80070002 (converted to 0x800423f4).

upon running

vssadmin list writers on target I received Error: 0x8000FFFF. Inconsitency have been detected. That's it nothing else.

Upon researching further I came across following link which spells out solution

http://forum.storagecraft.com/Community/forums/p/266/991.aspx

End user had uninstalled visio from the machine so to reslove this issue I had to delete visio key located under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex\Catalogs

It is also vaguely documented on Microsoft knowledge base

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940184

1. Microsoft Active Directory

2. Exchange

3. SQL

4. VMWare Vsphere

5. VDI Readiness

6. Citrix XenDesktop

7. VMware View

8. Storage Environment - FC, FCoE and iSCSI

WSCC can be downloaded from www.kls-soft.com/wscc/. Nirsoft utilities are located at www.nirsoft.net and Sysinternals Suite can be downloaded from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/products/view.html

VMWare Knowledge Base

http://kb.vmware.com/

VMWare KBTV

http://blogs.vmware.com/kbtv/

VMWare support insider

http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/

VMWare Technical Papers

http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/

VMWare White Papers

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/

http://communities.vmware.com/community/cto/desktop/blog/2010/12/13/secure-remote-access-with-view-and-pcoip

It will be interesting to see what move will Citrix make to make their product appealing. In my opinion One of Citrix's biggest selling point was unified experince across LAN, WAN and across the internet with ICA and VMWare view always got beat up because of it's inability to route PCoIP. I have always thought PCoIP would be routable then it will be a game changer because linked clones are far superior and easier to manage than Citrix Provisioning services and far less complex...

Also both Citrix and VMWare has lacked support for virtual desktop Antivirus solution specially with non-persistent desktop deployments, with the release of VShield for Endpoint VMWare seemed to have take a leap in right direction..

It will be exciting few months. I hope VMWare releases iPad client, Anroid Client which will support PCoIP as well , that will make VMWare View far better solution than Citrix XenDesktop from user experince and cost prospective. The reason I said cost prospective is because Citrix XenDesktop is licensed per user or per device Vs. VMware view is licensed per concurrent user.

By Default Anonymous Permission group allows mail flow to internaly domains only, to allow devices authenticating as anonymous users anonymous logon needs to have ""ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient"" Extended Right which can be set by using following cmdlet, replace "External Relay Connector" with appropriate Connector.

NEVER run this cmdlet on an internet facing connector...

Get-ReceiveConnector "External Relay Connector" | Add-ADPermission -User "NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON" -ExtendedRights "ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient"

CHANGE SMTP BANNER

If you need to change SMTP banner for a receive connector following cmdlet can be used

For connector on local server
Set-receiveconnector –identity “NameOfConnector” –banner “220 I am not the connector you are looking for”

For connector on a remote server
Set-receiveconnector –identity “REMOTESERVERNAME\NameOfConnector” –banner “220 I am THE connector you are looking for”

TEST OUTLOOK CONNECTIVITY FROM EXCHANGE SERVER

if you are seeing outlook connectivity/timeout and/or password prompt issues test-outlookconnectivity cmdlet can be very useful to troubleshoot those issues below are some variations of the cmdlet which can be used

Test-OutlookConnectivity -TrustAnySslCert $true
Test-OutlookConnectivity -Protocol:Http -GetDefaultsFromAutoDiscover:$true -verbose
Test-OutlookConnectivity -RpcProxyServer:EXCHPDC01V -RpcProxyAuthenticationType:Basic -ClientAccessServer:EXCHPDC01V
Test-OutlookConnectivity -RpcProxyTestType:Internal -RpcTestType:Server
Test-OutlookConnectivity -RpcProxyTestType:external -RpcTestType:Server
Test-OutlookConnectivity -RpcProxyTestType:external -RpcTestType:Array
Test-OutlookConnectivity -RpcProxyTestType:Internal -RpcTestType:Array
Test-OutlookConnectivity -Protocol:tcp -GetDefaultsFromAutoDiscover:$true -verbose

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=2512052&prodTypeId=18964&objectID=c01215495

Here is the summary of from the clinic, these are rough notes as I was taking it. This one is from Part 1 - Introduction to Exchange 2010 Overview.

some of the new features introudced in Exchange 2010

Gives you ability to Deploy Services Incremntally (looking for clarification)
Health Reports
Role based Access Control (RBAC)
Self Service Support for end users
Improved Database Engine - Defragmentation Manager
Dicover Feature - Allows to search multiple mailboxes for contents
Archiving and Retention Rules
Improved unified messaging - preview of voicemail outlook, SMS capabilites when a message is missed etc.
Improved Automated Tools
Enhanced archiving and monitoring
Protected Voicemail
Enahnced Caller ID support
Text translation of voicemail in various langugages
Federated Sharing (Allows an organization to share calanders to third parties)
Need for Windows Clustering for Exchange 2010 Database High Availibilty
Redundant Mailbox servers are created such that it makes Clustering services invisible to the Administrator

Deployment Scenarios

Migration to Exchange 2010 seems easy except that as I was expecting that there will be in place upgrade from exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 - YOU CAN'T DO THAT Below are some of the things which will need to be in place to do Side by side/swing migration.

1. Exchange 2003 SP2/Exchange 2007 SP2 or higher enviroments can be Upgraded Migrated since you CAN'T do inplace upgrade to Exchange 2010, forest containing exchange 5.5 or exchange 2000 can not be upgraded directly to exchange 2010,
2. Co-Existance with Exchange 2003 SP2 or Exchange 2007 SP2 and above Only
3. Just like previous versions of exchange it needs updated AD Schema
4. Active Directory Should be in Windows 2003 Forest Functionality mode
5. Needs At least one Windows 2003 SP2 GC in each site where Exchange Server will be installed

Does NOT support RODC or ROGC
DOES NOT Windows 2008 Active Directory
Does NOT support in-place upgrade from Exchange 2003 (understandable) or Exchange 2007 (WHY)
Exchange 2010 servers CAN NOT be used as front end for Exchange server 2003

For Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 move to Exchange 2010 will need to be performed as a side by side deployment or swing migration, Exchange 2010 surprisingly DOES NOT Support in place upgrade from Exchange 2007.

Exchange 2010 can be deployed in separate AD Forest - Exchange Resource Forest - to separate Administration of Exchange from AD

Supports more clients than prior versions
Outlook
Outlook Live
Web Access
Windows Mobile
Enoutrage

some services are Tailored for Hosting partner - I will try to get more details on it.

INSTALLATION

Pre-Reqs
Need accounts with Schema Admin, Enterprise Admin, domain admins just like prior versions

Extend Schmea - setup /prepareschema
Prepare AD - setup /preparead /organizationName:XYZ (CAN'T BE CHANGED)
Prepare Domain -setup /preparedomain
Start the Setup Wizard - Setup wizard checks for following pre-reqs if they are installed it is grayed out.
Dot net 3.5
Windows Remote Management
Powershell 2.0

Localized Langugage For install and Admin

Error Reporting

Typical - HT, CAS, MB and Exchange Managment Server
Custome - HT/CAS/MB/UM/ET/EMC

Answer do you have any client computers running outlook 2003 and eariler or Entourage in your organization? if yes the setup creates Public Folders

It runs Readiness Check
Finishes the installation

EMC is similar to Exchange 2007

Guidelines for Optimizing Exchange Server 2010
Exch2k10 can not be installed on a forest that has Exchange 5.5 or 2000 servers. Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 needs to be at SP2 or higher
Ensure that Hub Transport role is installed for sending and receiving emails :).
Deploy Mulitple Hub Transport servers per site.
Consider deploying multip,e CAS in each site.

http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2008/09/how-to-prevent-annoying-spam-from-your.html

CMDLET to Prevent spam from your own domain

Get-ReceiveConnector "Incoming Internet Mail" | Get-ADPermission -user "NT AUTHORITY\Anonymous Logon" | where {$_.ExtendedRights -like "ms-exch-smtp-accept-authoritative-domain-sender"} | Remove-ADPermission

http://www.projecthoneypot.org/