9/24    Has anyone used an ORDBMS? Is it very different than an RDBMS? Are
        there free ORDBMS out there to play around with? I'm trying to map
        a lot of structured, hierarchical XML to mySQL's RDBMS schema, and
        it is pretty adhoc and ugly.
        \_ If you don't need to query based on the details but only store and
           retrieve the structure, you might think about just serializing the
           contents and storing that in a blob, accompanied by columns with
           whatever keys you _do_ need.  It's a real time-saver.
           \_ I have over 1 GIG of data and need to retrieve AVG and stuff.

9/24    Why buy when you can rent?
        http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/25/INGAUERPKR1.DTL
        \_ The author will not laugh at the buyers anymore when his 3 bedroom
           house in Berkeley soars to over 1 million dollar by next year.

9/24    http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb1108.html
        According to this Japan's gasoline is actually cheaper than
        Germany!!! How can that be?

9/25    My property tax for 2005, the amount I need to pay, has increased
        8% from 2004. Is this legal? I thought the cap was 2% a year
        (and it has been more/less for the past 2 years). The total
        assessed value is only increased by 1.9%, but the end result
        is a whopping 8% increase. Anyone else seeing similar things?
        This is Santa Clara county. Thanks.
        \_ Your city has been taken over by evil socialists.
        \_ Prop 13 limits the raise in assessed value to 2% per year.
        \_ http://www.hjta.org/faq.htm#I%20just%20got%20my%20property%20tax

9/25    Someone on the motd was saying that E*Trade will give you $50
        if you open a new account with them. Can you give me a URL to that?
        \_ Someone else said there's a $50 penalty for closing their account

9/25    Armed dolphins let loose by Katrina (not a joke)
        http://csua.org/u/di5 (UK Observer)
        \_ "Oh-oh. Sharks! The assassins of the sea! Oooh.  You're not sharks.
           You're dolphins.  The clowns of the sea."
           \_ Alcohol and night swimming.  Is there a better combination?
        \_ Snorky ... talk ... man ...