10/15   Holy smokes!  McCain was on Batman!
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63SRpGXBHE

10/15   Awesome McCain supporters in Bethlehem, PA (why was this nuked?)
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVuBcJ7ijP8

10/16   Joe the "Plumber" not actually a plumber
        http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/810160418
        \_ I don't have a bachelor's degree but I work at a tech firm.
           And we care because... ?
           \_ Because plumbers actually have to get certified, unlike
              software engineers?
              \_ only if his customers care. My mom always hire unlicensed
                 contractors for her rental properties because they're a
                 lot cheaper.
        \_ He *works* for a plumber.  He *wants* to buy the business, which
           would mean he'd need to be certified at that point.
           \_ he also clearly doesn't understand how business taxes work.

10/16   Google demolishes analyst estimates.  Still holds $14B in cash.
        Is almost certainly in better shape than the broad market going
        forward.  -tom
        \_ not bad.  considering advancers vs. decliners on NYSE was something
           like 600 up vs. 2,900 down on a +400 DJIA up day.
           like 600 up vs. 2,900 down on a +400 DJIA day.
           \_ Are you sure about that? Because everything I own, except for
              a few financials, is in the green.
              \_ ob great job?
              \_ sorry, that site was probably not updating fast enough.
                 final:  55% advancers to 44% decliners.
        \_ So, when is it going back to 700? When is a good time to buy/sell?
           \_ if you are looking at a 15+-year timespan, GOOG is probably okay
              to buy now as a "growth" part of your portfolio. -!tom
           \_ My goal is to buy stocks which are likely to double in the next
              5 years.  I am confident that GOOG will do that from current
              levels, barring a major economic meltdown in the US.  -tom
              \_ If it doubles it won't even be at its high for the year
                 so that's not saying much.
                 \_ if you hadn't noticed, the entire market is down.
                    \_ And? Point being that doubling from here isn't
                       exactly hard to do. Almost everything has a good
                       chance of doubling from here as valuations are
                       so low right now.
                       \_ You think so?  I think the market is pretty unlikely
                          to go up for at least the next year and probably
                          longer than that.  Do you think the Dow will be at
                          18K five years from now?  Nasdaq 3500?  -tom
                          \_ Not improbable given that it was at 14K just
                             within the year.
        \_ This puts GOOG P/E at about the right level then.
           \_ The right level for what?
              \_ For me to buy. I prefer to buy stocks that have a PEG of
                 1 or less. Since GOOG's growth rate is 26%, and it's P/E
                 is 23, it is valued about "right".
                 \_ Growth rate is about 15% going forward from what I've
                    read. 15% is the company's own internal target. They
                    may exceed that, but that's gravy. Don't count on 26%
                    every year going forward.
                    \_ Where did you read that? I would be amazed if GOOG
                       published their own internal growth rate targets.
                       \_ It's a "whisper" number. It's not published.
                          I read it in an article, but I don't recall
                          where. Here's one (not the one I read):
                          http://tinyurl.com/4vidbp
        \_ This was make or break for GOOG. If they missed the stock was
           going under $300. I was going to buy if that was the case, but
           not sure now. So what are they doing with all this money that
           they make, anyway? They don't pay a dividend and their margins
           are high. Having $14B in the bank isn't necessarily a good
           thing. No business ideas at all?!
           \_ I guess you should short MSFT, too, they have $43B in the bank.
              Google has a ton of business ideas, what rock are you living
              under?  -tom
              \_ I didn't say I would short GOOG, just that having a lot
                 of cash could mean they are out of ideas. MSFT found
                 itself in the same situation if you recall and ended up
                 paying the money out to shareholders, which was a sure sign
                 they were out of blammo ideas. In case you haven't
                 noticed, MSFT has traded flat for 7 years now.
              \_ They have search. Gmail isn't making money. Neither is
                 YouTube. What other products do they have?     -op
                 \_ As I have said on the motd many, many times, the fastest
                    growing part of their company, which is very profitable,
                    is an ad delivery network called AdSense. This is not
                    "search". Did you miss this the other three or four times
                    we had this dicussion? -!Tom
                 \_ Google Docs and the Android are two obvious examples of
                    major new products.  Not all products have to make
                    money on their own, if they bring people into the core
                    business.  -tom
                    \_ Badly MS immitation Google Docs bring people to
                       search? Really? I didn't know that. Amazing!
                       \_ Have you even used Google Docs?  It's not an
                          imitation of MS Office, it's a completely
                          different paradigm for collaborating.  The
                          applications still need some work, but the
                          paradigm is much, much better than the document-
                          centric paradigm. That's why all kinds of people
                          are using it.  But anyway, you believe what you
                          want to believe; there's no incentive for me
                          to convince you to be less of an idiot.  -tom
                          \_ you still didn't answer me how their superior
                             product will pull in more revenues when they're
                             free for starters. And a superior product rarely
                             means superior revenue. Look at Winblows and
                             the revenue M$ generates.

10/16   Here we go...last gasp attempt to use FBI/DOJ to suppress the vote
        http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/237716.php
        http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VOTER_FRAUD_FBI?SITE=ORROS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

10/16   McCain blanketing states with robocalls
        http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/worst_yet_mccain_campaign_robo.php

10/16   why does my urine have a soapy after taste?  Is there something
        wrong with my kidneys?
        \_ Are you sure?  Perhaps you need to test more samples over a
           period of, say, a couple of months.  Yeah, that'll do it,
           quaff and swish a sample 3x per day for 3 months and see
           if it is consistenly having the soapy aftertaste.
        \_ Are you sure you swallowed his cum not some hand soap last night?
        \_ Are you sure he shot you with his cum not some hand soap when
           you're screaming "Feed me baby!" in the dark last night?

10/16   I really need to stop signing up for Sun support mailing lists
        as "Gigantic Scrotum"

10/16   ob lame star wars quote

10/15   Nope, no Republican Racism here!
        http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4a.html

10/15   Has anyone else used dnsmasq for DHCP and PXE booting?  Have you found
        a way to specify the 'next-server' option with dnsmasq?
        conventional DHCP daemons let me specify 'next-server', I can't
        figure out how to do it with dnsmasq.  Thanks - danh

10/15   Secret Service says no one said "Kill him" at Palin rally
        http://www.timesleader.com/news/breakingnews/Secret_Service_says_Kill_him_allegation_unfounded_.html

10/15   Sacramento County Republican website:
        "The Only Difference between Obama and Osama is BS: Waterboard
        Barack Obama"
        http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/waterboard-him.html

10/15   Anyone have experience with cleaning logitech trackman keys?
        The thumb button if very flakey.  Blowing air into it (after i
        opening the case) seems to only fix the problem for a little bit.
        Am I better off just buying a new one? (* Its only about 3 years old *)
        There is no info on the logitech site about this issue.

10/15   Unscientific poll on cnn's page has 72% saying Obama won.
        Has the fat lady all but sung?
        \_ It's over, unless there's a major game-changing moment between
           now and the election.  -tom
           \_ hmm.. I smell WMD in Iran.  Let's bomb Iran and launch a
              preemptive strike against Iran.  That would swing sentiment in
              Republican favors.
              \_ No, it wouldn't, but it would give strokes and heart attacks
                 to the folks who are already afraid GWB's going to declare
                 martial law before the elections, and then they wouldn't be
                 able to get out of the hospital to vote.
        \_ Doesn't http://CNN.com have a relatively liberal readership? Not that
           I'm rooting for McCain or anything.
           \_ Only if you compare it to Fox.
           \_ I think the online poll is bunk, but every poll I've seen had
              Obama winning all three debates.  -tom

10/16   You think the deficit is bad?  Look at the debt side.
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081016/ts_csm/adebt
        '"At the end of the last fiscal year, that (the national debt) came to
        $53 trillion or about $550,000 per household," he says. "We may well
        have passed the point where the federal government's total financial
        hole exceeds the net worth of all Americans."'
        \_ $53T is a bullshit number, made up by a bunch of chicken little's
           who don't know how to do economic analysis.
           \_ A number from The United States Comptroller General for the past
              10 years is a bullshit number?
              \_ Sorry Republicans, no one is buying your BS anymore.
                 \_ Actually, for the past three decades, all those presidents
                    who brought up the debt w.r.t. GDP were Republicans, and
                    all those who brought it down were Democrats.
                    http://zfacts.com/p/461.html
                    \_ But the first GBush's Read My Lips tax raise
                       was the cause of Clinton era's surplus. Don't
                       take credit without giving credit.
        \_ http://preview.tinyurl.com/2zfhkg
           "The problem with Medicare, Walker says, is people keep living
           longer, and medical costs keep rising at twice the rate of
           inflation. But instead of dealing with the problem, he says, the
           president and the Congress made things much worse in Dec. 2003,
           when they expanded the Medicare program to include prescription
           drug coverage."
           The real problem is that medical costs cannot continue to grow
           at 7%/yr without consuming the entire economy. Something that
           cannot happen will eventually stop growing, I am sure of that.
           cannot happen will not, I am sure of that.