LUGGABLE: VWBBIE is a challenge

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Never hurts to try your “disaster”.

Out on the road, and I am dependent upon VWBBIE for inet connectivity.

(Now bear in mind, I try it EVERY Wednesday. Wireless Wednesday! From either work or home. And it works flawlessly.)

Bear also in mind that the last time I was on the road in Denver, it took at least an hour to get it configured and working.

So between yesterday and today, I’ve spent at least two hours getting it working.

Argh!

This is why I debate signing up for another two years with Verizon for this POS!

It’s faster than dial up. Doesn’t work as flawlessly. And “disconnects” frequently. Argh.

Maybe if I had just a road machine?

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MONEY: many loans are severely underwater

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/2007/12/straight-talk-on-the-mortgage-mess-from-an-insider

Straight Talk on the Mortgage Mess from an Insider
12:11:23 PM December 6th, 2007
Herb Greenberg is senior columnist for MarketWatch. His column also appears in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal.

***Begin Quote***

Values are down and these are interest only loans, therefore, many are severely underwater even without negative-amortization on this loan type. They were qualified at a 50% debt-to-income ratio, leaving only 50% of a borrower’s income to pay taxes, all other bills and live their lives. These loans put the borrower in the grave the day they signed their loan docs especially without major appreciation. These loans will not perform as poorly overall as sub-prime, seconds or Option ARMs but they are a perfect example of what is still considered ‘prime’ that is at risk. Eighty-eight percent of Thornburg’s portfolio is this very loan type for example.

***End Quote***

It appears that this mess is not even begun to be cleaned up. Remember the post 9-11 FED with its multi-year near zero interest rate? That’s the cause. Now the PREZ is going to “save us all” with some type of sub-prime bail out.

Fools! The sheep are fools. Just Fools!

It’s immoral for politicians to steal money from the productive class to bail out the unproductive class.

It’s just makes people make even worse decisions.

Hopefully, you’ve been putting away your gold coins. Perhaps, this is truly the end of the Republic.

Messing with the money is always a sure sign of the end.

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INTERESTING: how a German monk knew what South America looked like

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/peterson-brent1.html

How Much Did the Ancients Know?
by Brent Peterson

***Begin Quote***

The amazement at how a German monk knew what South America looked like before any European supposedly had been there isn’t well placed when such aspects were common of maps made at the time. We know that this knowledge came from maps that were very old when mapmakers compiled the information in the 15th to 17th centuries. There really isn’t any mystery to the creation of the maps themselves. The mystery is what is our real past? If we could ask these mapmakers of five centuries ago, they could not answer us. They were just the last in a long line of people who copied and preserved very ancient knowledge. Whatever our real history is, I know it isn’t the neat and tidy story we were taught in school.

***End Quote***

The hell with the ancients, how much do we really KNOW?

It seems that each week, we “uncover” more. More data, more information, more knowledge that indicates what we think we know is either mistaken, wrong, or just flat out wacky.

Just in the last few months, personally, I have read “Day of Deceit” that indicts FDR for inducing Pearl Harbor (If not actually, preventing its detection and mitigation). I read an article about another Kennedy assassination attempt prior to Dallas. And, see a flow of items that cast doubt about what was taught in “history”.

Certainly, maybe Mark Twain was righter than he knew. About what we think we know hurting us.

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INTERESTING: The interesting paradox of greed

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Corporate Altruism?
By Robert Ringer

***Begin Quote***

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right,
greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms;
greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked
the upward surge of mankind.”

– “Gordon Gekko” in the movie Wall Street (1987), screenplay by Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone

***and***

The fact is that greed is neither good nor bad. It is simply a human trait. Greed is technically defined as “an excessive desire to acquire more than what one needs or deserves.” And since no one has either the moral authority or omniscience to decide what is excessive (let alone what a person needs or deserves), what greed really means is desire. And everyone has desires – for wealth, power, prestige, love, understanding. No end to the list.

***End Quote***

It’s very interesting the paradox for greed.

One can only get rich by making your fellow humans give you certificates of appreciation. (Money!) The more you serve others the more certificates you earn. You can exchange these certificate for the goods and services of your fellow human.

So be as “greedy” as your miserable nasty grim soul drives you to be.

It means you are actually cooperating in the strange Kabuki dance that we call the “free market”.

It fascinates me that “greed” actually drives “social cooperation”.

You have to admire the Intelligent Designer’s sense of humor!

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TECH SERVICE: tips and tricks for the Gmail user by Bob Rankin

Monday, December 10, 2007

http://askbobrankin.com/gmail_beyond_the_basics.html

***Begin Quote***

Gmail: Beyond the Basics
————————–

I love my Gmail. In fact, I’ve been using Google’s web-based email service for over two years now, and there’s NOTHING about traditional desktop email software that I miss. If you’ve been hesitating about moving your email online, read my tips and tricks for the Gmail user who wants to advance beyond the basics of the inbox.

I cover advanced searching in Gmail, how to use labels and filters, keyboard shortcuts, and how to tweak your Gmail settings to win friends, influence people and become better looking. ;-)

***End Quote***

Maybe I’ll have to reconsider my current reliance on LookOut from MSFT!

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POLITICAL: Neat Ron Paul video

Monday, December 10, 2007

Neat Ron Paul video

*** begin quote ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-t_YD-sDhw

*** end quote ***

Energy from the youth.

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MONEY: When will people wake up about what “money” is, and is not?

Monday, December 10, 2007

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-466210540567002553&pr=goog-sl

Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve
41 min 25 sec – Jun 1, 1996
Average rating: (868 ratings)

***Begin Quote***

Description: Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood “The Monster”. But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates. Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary new film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority. Alan Greenspan is not, we’re told, happy about this 42-minute blockbuster. Watch it, and you’ll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

***End Quote***

Never?

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LINKEDIN: “a social networking tool” … maybe? maybe not!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL EXCHANGE ABOUT “LIVELINESS”

*** begin quote ***

From: GB
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 8:50 AM
To: John Reinke
Subject: Re: Has anyone tested the “liveliness” of their LinkedIn “network”?

Okay, I read and re-read this.

I am not sure what you are exactly trying to say.

I recognize LinkedIn as a social networking tool. Outside of that, the voluntary and or involuntary act of CHAT or IM exist only where there are willing participants.

I would chat if there was something to chat about.

Perhaps, if you develop a forum that you wish to chat about or subjects that you would like feedback, you might draw the sustainable interest in the participants.

Outside of that, not everyone had a 6 sigma mentality and or even the slightest idea what that entails.

I, myself, am confused at times about the ‘how’s’, the ‘who’s’ and the ‘what’s’.

But, after all, it is only social networking. Not like it is dating or any other real and tangible way to communicate…right?

How you doin’
GB

*** end quote ***

>Okay, I read and re-read this.

Sorry, I wasn’t clearer.

>I am not sure what you are exactly trying to say.

LinkedIn is a “strange duck”. It’s not “networking”. It’s probably more than a “yellow pages for recruiters”. Folks are fooled into an “activity trap”
and think they are “doing networking”.

>i recognize LinkedIn as a social networking tool.

Tool? Hmmm, not sure of that.

>you might draw the sustainable interest in the participants.

I’m not trying to “draw the sustain able interest”. I’m trying to figure out what is the proper place for LinkedIn within my own thinking.

>not everyone had a 6 sigma mentality

OK, if you’re not into 6sig. Then, let me phrase the same question in “plain English”. If LinkedIn is a tool, then what value has it provided me that justifies the attention, work, money, or time that I put into it?

>But, after all, it is only social networking.

SO, it should be considered like MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster? I bet that’s a minority opinion.

> Not like it is dating or any other real and tangible way to communicate…right?

Maybe?

>How you doin’

Get ready for the next layoff, jobsearch, and my next to last job. :-) Fatalistic. But, best not to be surprised.

Thanks for the thoughts

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Addendum:

Regardless of how solid one thinks one is in the job they are doing somewhere, it’s wise to be “aware”. I’ve pontificated often on the need of “salarymen”, as the Japanese wisely call those of us who are working for a paycheck, that you are only sure of the last paycheck that cleared the bank! It’s nice to believe in mutual loyalty between employer and employee, but, like most myths, hitting that “iceberg of reality” can put a big hole in YOUR boat. Bear in mind, it may not even be the employer’s “fault”. But even if it is, you must be prepared for when “the show closes”.

You always have to see the NEXT layoff in your future. It maybe next week, next month, next quarter, next year, next decade … … but be assured there WILL BE one! Sooner or later. Like a snowstorm, flood, or tornado, there’s going to be one. Salarymen must be prepared for it!

Give 100% to your employer for that is what you bargained for. Then, give 100% to finding your next gig. Never ever get caught by surprise.

In my patented copyrighted super-secret Coke-like formula for “how many months will I be burning not earning”, I have a factor for your to rate your employer. Factor is ONE for gooferment workers. (Although that may change if your work for the IRS and Ron Paul gets elected. But you get the idea.) Factor is FIVE if you work on WALLSTREET. How likely are you to get NUKED? The point is there is always some probability that you’ll get tossed out on your year. Just yesterday, I heard a senior exec at my employer tell a room full of folk “no job is safe”. So, I’d be a fool not to heeded my own advice.

:-)

And I may be a the big fat old turkey hisself and a FOWG to boot, but Mama Reinke didn’t raise no fool. (Where do you think my obsession with working comes from? Her Scarlet O’Hara-like dream of never being hungry gain!)

So, it’s get busy NETWORKING to prevent NOTWORKING!

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TECHNOLOGY: robot bomb squad are looking to automate firefighting

Sunday, December 9, 2007

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/12/meet-your-robot.html

Meet Your Robotic Firefighters
By Noah Shachtman
December 05, 2007 | 5:15:00 PM

***Begin Quote***

The makers of Iraq’s robot bomb squad are looking to automate firefighting, too.

***End Quote***

Neat! Not hard to imagine more dirty jobs going to robots.

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POLITICAL: An invite to a virtual tea party!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Join the 2007 version of the Boston Tea Party — December 16th (for those who went to Gooferment skoolz!), all us young revolutionaries will be there!
:-)

*** begin quote ***

From: Ron Paul 2008
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 1:38 PM
Subject: Message from Ron

December 3, 2007

Want to know a secret? There were two moments I especially enjoyed at the CNN/YouTube debate — despite my frustration at some of the questions, and the maldistribution of time.

First, I was pleased at John McCain’s attack, which he clearly had planned.
Not because that sort of stream-of-consciousness nonsense about Hitler and WWII — when the neocons openly want what they call WW IV! Are we to forget that the first war crime charged at Nuremberg was waging aggressive war?

I mean this: mainstream politicians NEVER attack an opponent they think is far behind. The McCain campaign, we’ve heard, is worried sick about New Hampshire, and they thought a slam at me would help. Ha! Of course, it only strengthened our forces.

Then, after the debate, Rudy Giuliani walked up to me and said, “Oooh, you sure have a LOT of supporters.” It’s only the beginning, I told him.

Indeed, he could have told that by the crowd outside after the debate. Mitt Romney had a few people, but no one else did. We, on the other hand, had about 500 enthusiastic revolutionaries, plus a boat, a trolley, and two planes towing lighted signs. As I looked out at the crowd, I thought: the establishment has no idea of what they are facing. We have an army of freedom, prosperity, and peace. As the LA Times political blog noted the other day, the British also thought they had no problem with the Americans–until Yorktown.

But we have an astoundingly short time before the first contests. The Iowa caucuses are on January 3, the New Hampshire primary is on January 8, and Nevada and South Carolina are both on January 19. We have only 30 days to stake our claim to the nomination, and to the new America that restores the ideals of the founders, and leads the world through free enterprise, a sound dollar, the rule of law, and peaceful example. Not through inflation and bombs.

Help me surprise the neocons and all the establishment with our success.
Help me build the foundation for the America we all want. Send your most generous contribution: https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate. The military-industrial complex, the biased media, the big banks, the Fed, the waterboarders, and the IRS don’t like what we’re doing. But every good American is applauding us, and daring to hope for a better future.

Please, help me give it to them, to us, to all Americans to come. Keep this revolution growing and winning: https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate.

Sincerely,

Ron

Paid for by the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign Committee.

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*** end quote ***

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