9/15    Pissed off sysadmin talks about the markets late last night
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDMce1USTB4
        http://market-ticker.denninger.net

9/15    Fed now accepts equity (company stock) as collateral for loans.  Yay!

9/15    What happened to the Asian Dude in the Enron movie who loved
        strippers and bailed from Enron right before it all went to hell?
        \_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Pai
           http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2008/08/column_the_stor.html
        \_ Nothing bad ever happened to him. Moral of the story: get in
           fast, get out fast, and you're trouble free. This is true
           with everything, like real estate boom/bust, dot com boom/bust,
           etc. Your free market REWARDS people who are smart!
           \_ I like the note how he hooked up with a stripper, was "forced"
              to sell his enron stake for the divorce settlement, to get out
              before the bust.
              \_ Better to be lucky thank good, sometimes.
              \_ Better to be lucky than good sometimes.
                \_ either lucky or incredibly smart.  He wound up marrying the
                   stripper post-divorce, and kept most of his fortune.
                   win-win!
                   \_ Did he really marry a stripper? URL please.
                      \_ its in the wikipedia link at the start of this thread.

9/15    Facts are stupid things (at least to McCain)
        http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/energetically_wrong.html

9/15    I want a well meaning, smirking hockey mom in charge during our next
        500 billion dollars worth of capital going poof banking crisis.
        \_ I totally I agree.  Better than a guy who has taken huge
           contributions from Fannie and Freddie anyway.
           \_ Actually I DO agree.  I am pretty freaked out Mrs Smirk might
              become President.
              \_ What do you have against Tina Fey?
               \_ She murdered SNL's news segments?

9/15    Fed now accepts equity (stock) as collateral for loans.
        Fed now allows banks to use checkings/savings accounts to fund
        investment banking side.
        Yay!
        \_ "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our
            problem; government is the problem." -Reagan
            \_ BRAIIIIIIIIIIINS!   BRAINS!

9/15    Oil below $100--anybody noticing?
        \_ nope, its all about the financial market meltdown.
        \_ Yeah, I went out and bought a Hummer.
           \_ I hear yermom gives great hummers.
            \_ And for under $100 too!

9/15    So JPM got BSC, BAC got MER and CFC, it looks like BRK is going to
        get AIG. Who is WFC going to end up with? I am guessing WM, but it
        could be WB or even something like MS or GS. Any guesses?
        \_ BRK is not getting AIG.  BRK is getting the tasty bits of AIG's
           intestines.  Looks like JPM may be getting WM's deposit accounts.
           WFC has enough on its balance sheet.
           \- AIG is a evil company

9/15    Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis was just asked in an interview how many
        banks there would be after 5 years, down from ~ 9,000 today:
        "Gosh, I haven't, I haven't really thought about that.  But, uh ...
        maybe half."
        Keep in mind the conversation took into account mergers.

9/15    how do i marry the hot girl in MISTER FOE
        \_ First you must become worthy.  Stop being a loser.  Second,
           you must insinuate yourself into her life somehow.  That will
           take lots of $$.  Third, you must tell us her name.

9/15    I bought a Nikon D80 + 18-135mm F3.5 lense. After browsing around,
        I have really deep regrets. Canon has way better lens than Nikon
        for less price. I find myself that 18mm is still too narrow, not
        realizing that DSLR is really 1.5X longer than traditional 35mm
        (e.g. 18mm DSLR is really 27mm SLR). The best wide angle lens
        Nikon has is 12-24mm F4 whereas Canon has 10-22mm F3.5, for a
        fraction of the cost, with BIGGER F-stops. WHAT THE FUCK??? Canon
        has IS stabilization for a long time, and Nikon recently has stocks
        of VR available, just recently. REALLY pissed about Nikon. Fuck!!!
        \_ Crop factor is not directly related to "D" SLR.  Some DSLRs have
           full film-sized sensors (1Ds, 5D, D3, D700, A900).
           \_ Yes but they're shit these days, and there will no longer be
              any full film-sized sensors in a few years anyways. They're
              going to be like 100x100mm format in the old days.
        \_ when writing of lenses, use a lower case f. F4 is a camera,
           f4 or f/4 is an aperture.  yes, nikon has kinda screwed people
           for a while, unless price is no object. if you didnt have have
           an investment in nikon lenses, "you choose ... poorly".
           an investment in nikon lenses, "you chose ... poorly".
           \- fucking pedantic prick. at any rate, canon is better for
              outdoors and sports shooting, hands down. vastly faster focus
              speed, quieter, way better light metering. thats why 70% of
              sports photographers today use canon, and only 20% Nikon.
              i used to have the nikon F series (film) and they were the
              best in those days, but today, nikon is like mercedes to
              canon is like lexus. nikon used to be the luxury car, but
              feature per feature, comfort per comfort, performance per
              performance, canon beats nikon hands down.
              \_ I bought a brand new Lexus and it's a piece of shit. Two
                 years old and already $10K in work on it, which was
                 luckily covered under warranty. I almost filed a lemon
                 law claim and might still. I think Lexus is riding on
                 reputation. I bought a Lexus instead of a BMW (like I did
                 before) because I wanted reliability. That's a crock. My
                 next car will be a BMW again. I've had my BMW 7+ years
                 and while it has not been problem free it didn't break
                 down with 1500 miles on it like the Toyota did.
                 \_ Did you get IS? IS has a very bad reputation. GS is
                    still very reliable. ES is like Camry.
           \_ Naw. Nikon has a superior CLS flash system. You can have a
              almost near quality studio with a bunch of SB-600s and a
              commander flash. Great if you plan to do a bunch of indoor
              photography. Canon is so so wrt to lighting systems. Canon
              has better lens selections and body performance, Nikon has
              better "integrated systems"
              \_ i own nikon and i like a lot about nikon. but for somebody
                 with modest goals [i.e. a prospective D80 buyer] and not
                 investment in nikon glass, i think canon would have been
                 a better choice. i still like nikon's feel, but it's an
                 expensive premium [and i bought a lot of my glass before
                 the digital era and the tiem when nikon started screwing
                 people more and delivering less]. --pp

9/15    Hubble finds a mystery object in space:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/63f5tn [Sky & Telescope]

9/15    This is pretty funny.  In Dreams From My Father Obama's time at
        Buisness International might have been a little embellished.
        http://csua.org/u/mcy
        \_ I saw this too, but just noticed that the comments are from a year
           ago.  Why hasn't the press investigated this?
           \_ Too busy investigating Palin's children.
        \_ Uh, it looks like he didn't exaggerate anything at all, from the
           comments section. He probably did not "have a secretary" but he
           had help from the secretarial pool.
        \_ Wow, that's almost as important as McCain and Palin lieing
           about anything they feel like.  BRIDGE TO NOWHERE!
           \_ What's IMPORTANT is that they can say anything CONFIDENTLY
              and that's what Americans want.
              \_ Which explains why the economy is in shambles.

9/15    goddamit, 3 weeks ago the electoral college looked like it would go
        for Obama, no matter what.  McCain is a freakin' genius.
        \_ Who is McCain's architect? Genius. I have no idea how he
           did it. Palin probably disgusted a bunch of liberals into
           not voting anymore.
           \_ Uhh, you keep thinking that.

9/15    motd getting hella layed guy here.  I think my girlfriend is a sex
        addict.  Three times a day is not sustainable.  What should I do?
        \_ Marry her.  That'll stop the sex immediately after the honeymoon.
        \_ Take pills.
        \_ Just tell her you can only get it up twice a day and that she needs
           to find a f*ck buddy for the rest of her needs.
           \_ If she really is a sex addict she's already got a fuck buddy
              or 10.
        \_ I just installed Ubuntu instead of getting laid.  Yay!!!!!!!
        \_ You must not be pleasing her if she's dissatisfied after doing
           it twice. Take the hint.

9/15    After acquisition of EDS, HP to lay off 7.5% of combined workforce
        (half in U.S., or 12,000 employees).  Doesn't sound like much to me and
        is a smart move with a slowing economy, but chime in if you think
        otherwise.  Over 3 years.