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| 2007/12/12-19 [Finance/Banking, Finance/Investment] UID:48788 Activity:nil |
12/12 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119746804568523549.html Fed offers term auction facility to address credit freeze - Effective operation almost exactly like the Fed discount window: Banks can borrow money from the Fed at weeks to months duration - But at or near the fed funds target (instead of the discount rate) - The key feature (not discussed in the article of course) is Anonymity. Only the Fed will know who it lends to using this facility. Banks don't borrow from the discount window because it's public knowledge, telling the world that no other bank will lend to you so you had to go to the discount window. - The Fed is on the hook if the borrower goes belly-up, so it will decide who gets how much in loans for how much collateral - Starts next week for $20B and is envisioned as an ongoing program - Fed also lent $24B to ECB and Swiss central bank to help Europe's banks with SIV/CDO implosion. Central banks also relaxing collateral requirements. \_ Expect the taxpayer to get screwed in the end. \_ privatize profits, socialize losses bitch! |
| 2007/12/12-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:48789 Activity:nil |
12/12 In emacs, is there a way to delete 10 least visited files
in the buffer?
\_ Maybe this: Do C-x C-b to get the buffer list, then move the cursor
to each of the bottom 10 lines and press 'd', then press 'x'. It
looks like the files in the buffer list are sorted by time of last
usage.
\_ problem is C-x C-b TAB shows alphabetized list...
\_ What version of emacs are you using? The one on soda is
21.1.4. There is no C-x C-b TAB, and C-x C-b does display the
files in last usage order.
\_ I use Emacs 22.0.50.1 (i386-apple-darwin8.7.1) on OS X and it
sorts by order visited. I suspect the ordering of the buffer
list is tunable in your .emacs -dans
\- note: if you use frames, this may not work as you expect.
also i think buffer-menu.el was re-written around for some e22.
you can look at the Buffer-menu-sort* functions for display order.
also see midnight-mode and clean-buffer-list. |
| 2007/12/12-19 [Computer/SW/Unix] UID:48790 Activity:moderate |
12/12 In an interview last week I got hit with
"What is your best quality?"
"What is your worst quality?"
I know these are standard interview questions, and I should have
expected them, but I am pretty sure I flubbed them.
What are some good responses?
\_ just do the David Lee Roth style to answering questions:
let me answer the question this way and then start
talking about whatever the hell you want
\_ Best: I never ask stupid fucking questions like this when
interviewing people.
Worst: I hate people who ask stupid shit like this and I
would never work for idiots who do.
\_ More seriously, if you can't come up with a best (or at
least damn good) quality you shouldn't be interviewing.
It is a question that gives you a chance to prove you
actually give a damn about your work and skills. The
worst quality question is still a bullshit question and
deserves all the feces you feel like flinging at it.
\_ "I respond very poorly to stupid questions."
\_ http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/12
\_ http://csua.com/Computer/SW/Unix/?page=4
\_ http://csua.com/2003/09/17/#10220
(There are no good responses... but there are worse ones.
At least they only asked you for ONE bad quality.)
\_ Yeah, my last interview asked for 3.
\_ I told them the truth, I have fairly poor time management skills.
If I get wrapped up in one problem, I'll neglect the other things I
have to do. I got that job anyway.
\_ The problem with questions like these aren't that they're dumb.
They are not. The problem is that the people asking them usually
have no idea what a 'good' or 'bad' answer is. They just ask
because they were asked the same in the past. I assume at some
point in the distant past someone who knew what they were doing
came up with the best/worst question and it spread like a plague
from there. As someone above said, there is no good answer, just
don't say "my worst trait is <insert felony activity here>" and
you'll be fine.
\_ Worst trait: Sometimes I am too much of a perfectionist -or-
sometimes I work too hard or some other such bullshit. No one
expects a serious answer to such a question (or at least they
should not). It is also okay to list an actual negative trait
that you have that is not that big a deal "sometimes I get
excited about an idea in meetings and interrupt other people."
You better have some damn good answers to the "best trait"
question though.
\_ I once answered, honestly, that I don't react well to being
micromanaged, but 1) I didn't really want the job, and 2) I wasn't
offered the job. --erikred
\_ But that is the right answer is the manager was a micromanager.
\_ But that is the right answer if the manager was a micromanager.
You wouldn't have been happy anyway. Why would anyone try to
get a job they wouldn't like?
\_ In this case, because I was already in a job I didn't like.
Realization that the new gig was also what I didn't want hit
about midway through the interview.
until about midway through the interview.
\_ No matter how bad your current job is, don't flee it. Go
to a new job you want to have. Sounds like you made the
right call.
\_ Sounds like someone who never really had a job so
bad it was affecting your sleep, your health, and
other aspects of your life. Sometimes fleeing is
the best option.
\_ Oddly enough, you're both right. It was the latter
kind of job, but I needed the benefits and the
salary, and the other job would have been even
worse. Fortunately, something much, much better
came along two months later.
\_ sounds like to you, but incorrect. the guy who
replaced me didn't last 3 months. fleeing is not
a good option. you just end up at another crappy
place. and you'd miss out on the job you wanted
like the other person here posted. i see zero value
in going from one shitty life sucking job to another
shitty life sucking job.
\_ Sounds like the guy who replaced you was
smart enough to flee.
\_ He already had another job the whole time.
This job was easy for his first three months
because I unloaded all the easy but time
consuming crap on him. Once he had to do the
real work, it was easier for him to just pick
up more hours at his other job. He didn't
flee to another job. He had one all along.
\_ So he knew all along that your job
sucked, but it took you much longer to
figure it out.
\_ No he had no idea until he had to do it.
I kept it during that time because there
were no other jobs available without
taking a dramatic pay cut *and* working
for an equally shitty place. But I'm
sure you had your choice of great jobs
in the 2001-2004 years because you know
everything. |
| 2007/12/12-14 [Uncategorized] UID:48791 Activity:nil |
12/12 Is there a difference between "Channukah" and "Hannukah"?
\_ The letter C. |
| 2007/12/12-14 [Uncategorized] UID:48792 Activity:nil |
12/12 w00t is Webster's word of the year:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/39cw3z (arstechnica.com)
\_ w00t! |
| 2007/12/12-20 [Science/Space, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:48793 Activity:moderate |
12/12 "Ominous Arctic melt worries experts"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071212/ap_on_sc/arctic_melt
\_ Global warming is a liberal lie.
\_ Isn't the antarctic ice growing?
\_ You mean like how the area of the antarctic ice shelf
has radically shrunk and huge icebergs have broken off?
\_ Yes, the edges have shrunk (hint, it's summer in Antarctica
now), but the center has grown colder and thicker, hence a net
increase in ice.
\_ Sorry, are you suggesting that icebergs of similar size
break off Antarctica every summer?
\_ Yep, every spring, big icebergs break off of A. And the
central ice /is/ thickiening--total ice in A. is
increasing.
\_ Just another effect of global warming. Some
places get colder and other places get warmer,
but the net result is a warmer planet.
\_ Antarctic net ice mass is decreasing. Please check
your facts before pulling things out of your ass.
http://tinyurl.com/kewgu (washingtpost.com, Mar 2006)
\_ Or not
http://tinyurl.com/2xgdyd (icecap, Sep 2007)
\_ It's hard to take Joe D'Aleo seriously when
he's drawing a check from Exxon via the
Fraser Institute.
\_ Yes, all the people who disagree with you
are in the conspiracy. What about Al Gore
and his carbon credit companies?
\_ If the only people saying that ice is
increasing are all paid by the same
company, doesn't that suggest something
to you?
\_ Ha! Lindzen is an MIT scientist who
has never gotten money from oil
companies. Meanwhile, GE spends more
on lobbying than all oil companies
combined, yet NBC has a "green week"
and no one flinches, even though GE
bought all of the wind farm tech from
Enron. Yah, I've seen the "if you
don't agree you're either stupid or in
on it" argument before. It's a weak
way to ignore evidence.
http://tinyurl.com/2ybkoj (NRO)
reposted here
http://tinyurl.com/2bh5se
\_ Actually it's pretty sensible way
for someone who is not an expert
to evaluate the situation. So you
have ONE MIT scientist who has ONE
study that goes against
overwhelming scientific consensus.
Could he be right? Maybe! That's
the cool thing about the
scientific method, though, yes, it
takes some time to shake out.
But, absent further study (Yes
Virgina, the scientific method
generally likes to repeatedly
check it's result), betting on the
scientific majority is probably
still a good bet. Don't be
disingenuous, it makes you seem
like a dorche. -dans
\_ net ice mass != "ice extent" (exposed surface
ice). Is that the best you can do?
\_ You think a giant area one inch thick is
better than a slightly smaller but still
giant area kilometers thick? No. Net ice
mass is what is important if you want all
that water to not flood the rest of the
inhabited continents. "ice extent" is a
useless metric.
\_ Ice extend, not net ice mass, determines
how much sunlight is reflected back to
space and not absorbed as heat. -- !PP
\_ So what? There was a time when
Antarctica was temperate. The
world didn't come to an end.
\_ Ice mass determines how much water is
free to raise ocean levels by 20 feet.
If ice mass increases, water levels
will not rise. Extent is not a useful
metric.
\_ ^will^does
\_ I prefer to split my hairs the
other way. YMMV. |