tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55426302024-08-28T21:45:45.289-05:00These are my semi-routinely updated insights and rants.Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.comBlogger362125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-88462990650427166562014-07-30T17:48:00.001-05:002014-07-30T17:54:34.144-05:00

I've sat on this post for a year for no particular reason than seeing if my opinions (apparently informed by my own 'idealism') had changed at all over 12 months.  They have not.  Without further ado... Originally written 7/3/2013 A co-worker was discussing the topic of 'idealism' and how it related to young people, their mistakes, and Mr. Edward Snowden.  To quote my

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-271263670392714832010-09-14T14:32:00.004-05:002010-09-14T14:54:01.649-05:00

I'd like to thank myself for reaching this milestone (it's a milestone to me). I managed to accomplish this by going 66% cash in March 2008 (after Bear Stearns). After sitting in a money market getting 3%, I moved 90% of my cash into my 401k's brokerage account and re-entered the market in March 2009 (Thanks to the guys at DailyWealth - Dr. Coppper said it was time to buy!)Since that time, my

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-36484603660749152932010-08-18T16:04:00.003-05:002010-08-18T16:20:52.335-05:00

See the original story at CNN. GM files to sell shares to the public Check this line: "In order to get back most of the taxpayer money spent on the bailouts, stock needs to be sold to investors."Isn't this kind of bullshit? Let's do some math. According to the article, the US government owns 60.8% of GM's 500 million common shares. 60.8% of 500,000,000 is 304,000,000 shares. Population of the

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-51601142879589563032010-06-10T14:44:00.002-05:002010-06-10T14:47:36.897-05:00

Honestly, I’d buy a Dell – in fact I have for personal use, and I make the same recommendations to any client. Reason: hardware support. With a laptop, it’s not a question of IF it’s going to break but WHEN. In the case of Dell, you can call them, and depending on the type of support you purchased, they will come to you and fix it. With all other vendors, you’re screwed. You have to take

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-52762550328178062532010-05-09T13:12:00.002-05:002010-05-09T13:25:16.805-05:00

Trans-racial adoption: that's right folks, after almost a week, I turned the TV on. And what's the first thing I see? I saw some black woman bitching that Sandra Bullock shouldn't have been able to adopt a non-white child because it would further isolate the child from black culture.Ok, does anyone else see the hypocrisy in this? For decades we have heard that blacks were excluded from white

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-53598401642285946732010-05-08T23:40:00.002-05:002010-05-08T23:42:58.005-05:00

Now that Mother's Day is here, has anyone else noticed or experienced the grand disparity between what 1-800-Flowers shows online and what the local florists actually deliver? It was so bad this year that I'm contemplating starting a campaign to run them out of business. Either 1-800-Flowers is misrepresenting their product (and stealing from me) or the florists aren't delivering (and therefore

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-89012366334941700962010-04-26T13:38:00.003-05:002010-04-26T13:48:47.323-05:00

All GPS-based navigation are stupid. They assume the world is flat and that you, the traveler, are nothing more than another 2 dimensional object traveling across this flat plane. What is the problem? More and more trucks and freight haulers depend on GPS-based nav systems to get from location A to unfamiliar location B quickly. However, an area like my home town which is dotted with low

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-43512114705366051952010-04-15T23:31:00.000-05:002010-04-15T23:32:14.951-05:00

Me being me, I kept The Man at the PA Dept of Revenue waiting for my tax return. I mailed it tonight using the Automated Postal Center. Long story short - a stream of about 10 to 12 people came in while I was mailing my stuff. Each one asked, "Is this a post office where you can mail taxes?" I replied, "Sure. If you use the APC, it will definitely be postmarked 4/15/2010."What responses did

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-82134209400735487502010-04-15T14:06:00.000-05:002010-04-15T14:07:08.112-05:00

Continuing the topic of bad customer service: I was at Sloan Ford yesterday for an issue, and I overheard a conversation. It seems someone brought a Saturn to a Ford dealership because they were having headlight issues. Since GM crashed, the local Saturn place closed. Now, the person could have taken their Saturn to a GM dealership for service, but they went to Ford - whatever. The one guy

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-20365005491791479642010-04-14T22:25:00.000-05:002010-04-14T22:26:23.235-05:00

Anyone else see the previews for Kick Ass - the new movie about common people who decide to be super heroes? Is anyone else hoping that this movie inspires the 'moronic but motivated' losers to attempt to fight crime? Maybe we can get a trifecta: 1) eliminate some stupid people (save on unemployment), 2) eliminate some criminals (reduce need for police), and 3) reduce the number of new people

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-15542441380498969782010-03-11T22:44:00.001-05:002010-03-11T22:45:27.832-05:00

Looks like this baby is in my future. Amazon is selling it for the unpublished price of $1799 while Best Buy and others are selling it for $2199.

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-9075819515428530442010-02-08T01:15:00.004-05:002010-02-08T02:02:01.044-05:00

I love late night random thoughts... and so it begins:In the US, mainstream porn is divided into two very general categories: hardcore and softcore. During my years as an American male, I have consumed enough porn to notice a few things.First, what is the big deal about porn? How can something as basic as the act of reproduction be considered so dirty or sacred while at the same time garnering

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-22272823352668620732010-01-15T15:10:00.003-05:002010-01-15T15:35:36.930-05:00

This week, a group of hackers claiming to be the Iranian Cyber Army attacked Chinese search engine Baidu. (See FT article)Doesn't that sound odd? Why would Iranian hackers target a Chinese search engine?Allow me to put on my thinking cap: I ask, "What other news do we have about Baidu this week?" Google is threatening to leave the Chinese market after failing to overtake Chinese-based search

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-65996283966656789772010-01-06T12:56:00.002-05:002010-01-06T13:00:24.558-05:00

My God, it's been almost a year since my last post. Sure, I could use the usual excuses of 'no time' and 'work got in the way', but the reality of it is that I believed that Facebook would be the end of blogging. Now I find myself almost 12 months later recognizing that Facebook, along with most other social networking sites, basically sucks. Although Facebook is the best social networking

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-66021353116377234932009-04-15T11:41:00.003-05:002009-04-15T11:43:30.885-05:00

I love Marketwatch.com

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-87184958259326232742009-03-16T17:31:00.003-05:002009-03-16T17:48:51.796-05:00

Quick post about hard drive based DVD playback on Vista (or Windows 7) Media Center.On computer / file system:Create a central DVD folder - D:\DVD\Create folder for each DVDMove all .VOB and .IFO files to the main movie folderRemove AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TSFind movie box art and save to main movie folder as 'folder.jpg'In Media Center:In DVD Library, add watch folder - D:\DVD\ (and all sub folders)

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-22016191802431368772009-03-09T21:14:00.005-05:002009-03-09T22:46:13.214-05:00

... my stream of consciousness rant brought about by a sermon I heard which started off with, "I know your future. You're all going to die."Although I come from a decidedly Christian upbringing, I was always allowed to explore all religious and philosophical concepts. In college, I continued this trend and minored in Philosophy. Unfortunately, I constantly found that people just didn't like to

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-7678339404903643092009-02-19T16:36:00.003-05:002009-02-19T16:41:04.305-05:00

One of my otherwise useless hobbies is coming up with fake band names. Doug and I had originally created Creme Brulee as our satirical 'rap / boy band' offering. Each member of the group would be nicknamed after some dessert or sweet.Today, however, I believe I topped myself. I've unofficially launched a our new satirical 'rock / metal band' named Bucket of Pudding.In the grand scheme of

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-414019451347010742009-02-17T17:35:00.003-05:002009-02-17T17:43:32.849-05:00

Over the past couple weeks, I've spent an hour or so putting together a quick and dirty application to backup some of our databases which reside on an instance of SQL Server 2008 Express. If you know anything about SQL Server Express, you know that it doesn't include or allow maintenance plans (such as scheduled backups) because MS has crippled the SQL Agent service.... hence the reason I

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-32051882299834843822009-02-12T15:45:00.003-05:002009-02-12T15:53:12.124-05:00

What are MLPs?MLPs are corporate structures that behave similar to trusts. Much like trusts are built around natural resources (oil, coal, timber, even real estate), MLPs are built around resource distribution - namely pipelines: CO2, natural gas, oil, etc. Essentially, all of their income is distributed to unit holders - aka, you. Since this is a cash distribution and not a dividend,

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-79874994312884756412009-02-10T21:33:00.003-05:002009-02-10T22:10:46.503-05:00

I had heard a conspiracy theory some months ago that the US economy was being crashed in order to 'solve' the illegal immigration issue. What does that mean? Well, the theory suggested that a crashed housing market would lead to an excess supply of construction workers - especially illegal immigrants who frequently serve as day laborers. These broken, poor illegal immigrants would then flee back

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-78034479471594854462009-02-10T14:07:00.001-05:002009-02-10T14:08:52.576-05:00

I just noticed that the vending machine at work has Caffeine Free, Diet Pepsi. My question: then what the hell is in it? Just water and caramel coloring?

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-55755851993270898082009-02-10T13:43:00.003-05:002009-02-10T13:51:24.357-05:00

Ok, I'm tired of trying to plan my blogging. To hell with that. Moving forward, I'm going to blog my rants as I think about them... no editing.This comes roundabout from a co-worker. Here's the original article:Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus PlanMy response:You know, this doesn’t surprise me. After watching Michael Moore’s movie Sicko, I knew some Euro-like medical system was going

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-86831726179142347102009-01-09T14:26:00.005-05:002009-01-09T14:37:16.335-05:00

Long story short, I was searching for something and my search brought me to a listing on Amazon. I was reading the description and came across this interesting line:This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.That quote suggests two things to me:Demand for this offering is so low that no one actually bothers to mass produce

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542630.post-66943614957849986222009-01-07T18:48:00.004-05:002009-01-07T19:00:23.883-05:00

I took 2 identical laptops and installed them side by side. The performance results?CategoryVistaWindows 7Initial install boot from CDXInstallation ProcessXInitial RunXStartupX (slightly faster than Vista)ShutdownXHibernationsamesameMedia CenterXDVD PlaybacksamesameResults?Vista3Windows 73Tie2Something else to consider: Vista enabled Aero by default whereas Win7 did not... and they still

Natehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553128397351691089noreply@blogger.com0