[ucodegen]

I think the last two paragraphs of that reference say it all.

“Bernanke told lawmakers it’s ‘important’ for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds and stocks to rise…Paulson said the two companies are ‘essential’ because they represent the only “functioning” part of the home loan market.”

Check that out. Bernanke said it’s important for the stock market to rise (specifically Fannie Mae). How many mandates does the Fed have now?

Bernanke doesn’t seem to understand a basic principle that most stock investors do.. don’t catch a falling knife. It is ok to pick up the pieces after it fell.. but not while it is falling. Looks like he is planning to do this with taxpayer money too.

[ucodegen]

I think the last two paragraphs of that reference say it all.

“Bernanke told lawmakers it’s ‘important’ for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds and stocks to rise…Paulson said the two companies are ‘essential’ because they represent the only “functioning” part of the home loan market.”

Check that out. Bernanke said it’s important for the stock market to rise (specifically Fannie Mae). How many mandates does the Fed have now?

Bernanke doesn’t seem to understand a basic principle that most stock investors do.. don’t catch a falling knife. It is ok to pick up the pieces after it fell.. but not while it is falling. Looks like he is planning to do this with taxpayer money too.

[ucodegen]

I think the last two paragraphs of that reference say it all.

“Bernanke told lawmakers it’s ‘important’ for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds and stocks to rise…Paulson said the two companies are ‘essential’ because they represent the only “functioning” part of the home loan market.”

Check that out. Bernanke said it’s important for the stock market to rise (specifically Fannie Mae). How many mandates does the Fed have now?

Bernanke doesn’t seem to understand a basic principle that most stock investors do.. don’t catch a falling knife. It is ok to pick up the pieces after it fell.. but not while it is falling. Looks like he is planning to do this with taxpayer money too.

[ucodegen]

The MLS is a monopoly that has been closed to outside groups after massive lobbying (in english read BRIBES) by realtor groups. Some states have been banned non-full service real estate agents. Felony for broker/agents to rebate commissions.

I like this part of C.. The government has little business carving out a safe monopolistic niche for a corporation. It is actually supposed to do the opposite.

Close FDIC, Fannie, Freddie, etc. Get back to gold standard. Consumers can rely on smart/honest people at Moodys and S&P (or Weiss ratings) to help them avoid troubled firms.

FDIC, Fannie and Freddie have a purpose.. you don’t want to try to live without them.

Going back to the gold standard will not work. There is a way to arbitrage between a fiat currency and a gold standard currency with the intent of reducing a country’s gold reserves (suck the gold out of a country).

As for trusting the types like Moodys etc, just so long as there are real consequences to them (Moodys, S&P etc) misrepresenting for the purposes of gain (how about publicly flailing the CEO? Draw and Quarter the senior management?)

It seems like I differ on aspects for the Freddie and Fannie bailout. I see it simply: If public money is the lender of last resort (lender in posession) for Freddie and Fannie, the public owns Freddie and Fannie should they go bankrupt! Then all that has to happen is do the same thing that some turn-around firms (should) do, recapitalize Freddie and Fannie and sell off the shares of the ‘new’ company.. proceeds going to the public treasury.

On B:
The execs for Freddie and Fannie are not federal execs. Both of these entities are private. My simple plan is that as a penalty, the former execs of these companies are not allowed to run another company. They are to consider their golden parachute as the severance check.. Roadhouse style??

[ucodegen]

The MLS is a monopoly that has been closed to outside groups after massive lobbying (in english read BRIBES) by realtor groups. Some states have been banned non-full service real estate agents. Felony for broker/agents to rebate commissions.

I like this part of C.. The government has little business carving out a safe monopolistic niche for a corporation. It is actually supposed to do the opposite.

Close FDIC, Fannie, Freddie, etc. Get back to gold standard. Consumers can rely on smart/honest people at Moodys and S&P (or Weiss ratings) to help them avoid troubled firms.

FDIC, Fannie and Freddie have a purpose.. you don’t want to try to live without them.

Going back to the gold standard will not work. There is a way to arbitrage between a fiat currency and a gold standard currency with the intent of reducing a country’s gold reserves (suck the gold out of a country).

As for trusting the types like Moodys etc, just so long as there are real consequences to them (Moodys, S&P etc) misrepresenting for the purposes of gain (how about publicly flailing the CEO? Draw and Quarter the senior management?)

It seems like I differ on aspects for the Freddie and Fannie bailout. I see it simply: If public money is the lender of last resort (lender in posession) for Freddie and Fannie, the public owns Freddie and Fannie should they go bankrupt! Then all that has to happen is do the same thing that some turn-around firms (should) do, recapitalize Freddie and Fannie and sell off the shares of the ‘new’ company.. proceeds going to the public treasury.

On B:
The execs for Freddie and Fannie are not federal execs. Both of these entities are private. My simple plan is that as a penalty, the former execs of these companies are not allowed to run another company. They are to consider their golden parachute as the severance check.. Roadhouse style??

[ucodegen]

The MLS is a monopoly that has been closed to outside groups after massive lobbying (in english read BRIBES) by realtor groups. Some states have been banned non-full service real estate agents. Felony for broker/agents to rebate commissions.

I like this part of C.. The government has little business carving out a safe monopolistic niche for a corporation. It is actually supposed to do the opposite.

Close FDIC, Fannie, Freddie, etc. Get back to gold standard. Consumers can rely on smart/honest people at Moodys and S&P (or Weiss ratings) to help them avoid troubled firms.

FDIC, Fannie and Freddie have a purpose.. you don’t want to try to live without them.

Going back to the gold standard will not work. There is a way to arbitrage between a fiat currency and a gold standard currency with the intent of reducing a country’s gold reserves (suck the gold out of a country).

As for trusting the types like Moodys etc, just so long as there are real consequences to them (Moodys, S&P etc) misrepresenting for the purposes of gain (how about publicly flailing the CEO? Draw and Quarter the senior management?)

It seems like I differ on aspects for the Freddie and Fannie bailout. I see it simply: If public money is the lender of last resort (lender in posession) for Freddie and Fannie, the public owns Freddie and Fannie should they go bankrupt! Then all that has to happen is do the same thing that some turn-around firms (should) do, recapitalize Freddie and Fannie and sell off the shares of the ‘new’ company.. proceeds going to the public treasury.

On B:
The execs for Freddie and Fannie are not federal execs. Both of these entities are private. My simple plan is that as a penalty, the former execs of these companies are not allowed to run another company. They are to consider their golden parachute as the severance check.. Roadhouse style??

[ucodegen]

The MLS is a monopoly that has been closed to outside groups after massive lobbying (in english read BRIBES) by realtor groups. Some states have been banned non-full service real estate agents. Felony for broker/agents to rebate commissions.

I like this part of C.. The government has little business carving out a safe monopolistic niche for a corporation. It is actually supposed to do the opposite.

Close FDIC, Fannie, Freddie, etc. Get back to gold standard. Consumers can rely on smart/honest people at Moodys and S&P (or Weiss ratings) to help them avoid troubled firms.

FDIC, Fannie and Freddie have a purpose.. you don’t want to try to live without them.

Going back to the gold standard will not work. There is a way to arbitrage between a fiat currency and a gold standard currency with the intent of reducing a country’s gold reserves (suck the gold out of a country).

As for trusting the types like Moodys etc, just so long as there are real consequences to them (Moodys, S&P etc) misrepresenting for the purposes of gain (how about publicly flailing the CEO? Draw and Quarter the senior management?)

It seems like I differ on aspects for the Freddie and Fannie bailout. I see it simply: If public money is the lender of last resort (lender in posession) for Freddie and Fannie, the public owns Freddie and Fannie should they go bankrupt! Then all that has to happen is do the same thing that some turn-around firms (should) do, recapitalize Freddie and Fannie and sell off the shares of the ‘new’ company.. proceeds going to the public treasury.

On B:
The execs for Freddie and Fannie are not federal execs. Both of these entities are private. My simple plan is that as a penalty, the former execs of these companies are not allowed to run another company. They are to consider their golden parachute as the severance check.. Roadhouse style??

[ucodegen]

The MLS is a monopoly that has been closed to outside groups after massive lobbying (in english read BRIBES) by realtor groups. Some states have been banned non-full service real estate agents. Felony for broker/agents to rebate commissions.

I like this part of C.. The government has little business carving out a safe monopolistic niche for a corporation. It is actually supposed to do the opposite.

Close FDIC, Fannie, Freddie, etc. Get back to gold standard. Consumers can rely on smart/honest people at Moodys and S&P (or Weiss ratings) to help them avoid troubled firms.

FDIC, Fannie and Freddie have a purpose.. you don’t want to try to live without them.

Going back to the gold standard will not work. There is a way to arbitrage between a fiat currency and a gold standard currency with the intent of reducing a country’s gold reserves (suck the gold out of a country).

As for trusting the types like Moodys etc, just so long as there are real consequences to them (Moodys, S&P etc) misrepresenting for the purposes of gain (how about publicly flailing the CEO? Draw and Quarter the senior management?)

It seems like I differ on aspects for the Freddie and Fannie bailout. I see it simply: If public money is the lender of last resort (lender in posession) for Freddie and Fannie, the public owns Freddie and Fannie should they go bankrupt! Then all that has to happen is do the same thing that some turn-around firms (should) do, recapitalize Freddie and Fannie and sell off the shares of the ‘new’ company.. proceeds going to the public treasury.

On B:
The execs for Freddie and Fannie are not federal execs. Both of these entities are private. My simple plan is that as a penalty, the former execs of these companies are not allowed to run another company. They are to consider their golden parachute as the severance check.. Roadhouse style??

[ucodegen]

That was true years ago but is becoming less so as time goes on. Most major software nowadays is compatible with OSX, and if not, you can boot your machine into XP or Vista via Parallels to run whatever your heart desires.

Games are where this is an exception. To get good speed on graphically oriented games, they often talk directly to the graphics card. This makes virtualization of the hardware difficult.

True, more games are being offered for both Mac OSX and Windows.

have noticed that even on Yahoo games where it says the game is not Mac-compatible, it will run using firefox.

Welcome to Java.. write once, run anywhere. This is partially why Microsoft tried to usurp it and Sun Microsystems sued to keep it ‘pure’. I have a brokerage account with streaming quotes as well as Level II quotes. The application they bring up runs in Java and works for anything that supports the Java runtime (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Sun Workstations, IRIX(SGIs).. etc).

My PC at work seems to get replaced every 3 years.
Can you say forced upgrade cycle, loaded on with ever more bloatware (including the OS)? It helps if you get the PC with the distribution CDs and immediately re-install the operating system over the delivered OS. Most delivered Windows OS(s) are littered with unneeded crapware from the vendor.

NOTE: As part of an earlier settlement between DOJ and Microsoft (not this last one), Microsoft got the requirement that all PCs shipped must be shipped with an Operating System installed.

[ucodegen]

That was true years ago but is becoming less so as time goes on. Most major software nowadays is compatible with OSX, and if not, you can boot your machine into XP or Vista via Parallels to run whatever your heart desires.

Games are where this is an exception. To get good speed on graphically oriented games, they often talk directly to the graphics card. This makes virtualization of the hardware difficult.

True, more games are being offered for both Mac OSX and Windows.

have noticed that even on Yahoo games where it says the game is not Mac-compatible, it will run using firefox.

Welcome to Java.. write once, run anywhere. This is partially why Microsoft tried to usurp it and Sun Microsystems sued to keep it ‘pure’. I have a brokerage account with streaming quotes as well as Level II quotes. The application they bring up runs in Java and works for anything that supports the Java runtime (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Sun Workstations, IRIX(SGIs).. etc).

My PC at work seems to get replaced every 3 years.
Can you say forced upgrade cycle, loaded on with ever more bloatware (including the OS)? It helps if you get the PC with the distribution CDs and immediately re-install the operating system over the delivered OS. Most delivered Windows OS(s) are littered with unneeded crapware from the vendor.

NOTE: As part of an earlier settlement between DOJ and Microsoft (not this last one), Microsoft got the requirement that all PCs shipped must be shipped with an Operating System installed.

[ucodegen]

That was true years ago but is becoming less so as time goes on. Most major software nowadays is compatible with OSX, and if not, you can boot your machine into XP or Vista via Parallels to run whatever your heart desires.

Games are where this is an exception. To get good speed on graphically oriented games, they often talk directly to the graphics card. This makes virtualization of the hardware difficult.

True, more games are being offered for both Mac OSX and Windows.

have noticed that even on Yahoo games where it says the game is not Mac-compatible, it will run using firefox.

Welcome to Java.. write once, run anywhere. This is partially why Microsoft tried to usurp it and Sun Microsystems sued to keep it ‘pure’. I have a brokerage account with streaming quotes as well as Level II quotes. The application they bring up runs in Java and works for anything that supports the Java runtime (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Sun Workstations, IRIX(SGIs).. etc).

My PC at work seems to get replaced every 3 years.
Can you say forced upgrade cycle, loaded on with ever more bloatware (including the OS)? It helps if you get the PC with the distribution CDs and immediately re-install the operating system over the delivered OS. Most delivered Windows OS(s) are littered with unneeded crapware from the vendor.

NOTE: As part of an earlier settlement between DOJ and Microsoft (not this last one), Microsoft got the requirement that all PCs shipped must be shipped with an Operating System installed.

[ucodegen]

That was true years ago but is becoming less so as time goes on. Most major software nowadays is compatible with OSX, and if not, you can boot your machine into XP or Vista via Parallels to run whatever your heart desires.

Games are where this is an exception. To get good speed on graphically oriented games, they often talk directly to the graphics card. This makes virtualization of the hardware difficult.

True, more games are being offered for both Mac OSX and Windows.

have noticed that even on Yahoo games where it says the game is not Mac-compatible, it will run using firefox.

Welcome to Java.. write once, run anywhere. This is partially why Microsoft tried to usurp it and Sun Microsystems sued to keep it ‘pure’. I have a brokerage account with streaming quotes as well as Level II quotes. The application they bring up runs in Java and works for anything that supports the Java runtime (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Sun Workstations, IRIX(SGIs).. etc).

My PC at work seems to get replaced every 3 years.
Can you say forced upgrade cycle, loaded on with ever more bloatware (including the OS)? It helps if you get the PC with the distribution CDs and immediately re-install the operating system over the delivered OS. Most delivered Windows OS(s) are littered with unneeded crapware from the vendor.

NOTE: As part of an earlier settlement between DOJ and Microsoft (not this last one), Microsoft got the requirement that all PCs shipped must be shipped with an Operating System installed.

[ucodegen]

That was true years ago but is becoming less so as time goes on. Most major software nowadays is compatible with OSX, and if not, you can boot your machine into XP or Vista via Parallels to run whatever your heart desires.

Games are where this is an exception. To get good speed on graphically oriented games, they often talk directly to the graphics card. This makes virtualization of the hardware difficult.

True, more games are being offered for both Mac OSX and Windows.

have noticed that even on Yahoo games where it says the game is not Mac-compatible, it will run using firefox.

Welcome to Java.. write once, run anywhere. This is partially why Microsoft tried to usurp it and Sun Microsystems sued to keep it ‘pure’. I have a brokerage account with streaming quotes as well as Level II quotes. The application they bring up runs in Java and works for anything that supports the Java runtime (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Sun Workstations, IRIX(SGIs).. etc).

My PC at work seems to get replaced every 3 years.
Can you say forced upgrade cycle, loaded on with ever more bloatware (including the OS)? It helps if you get the PC with the distribution CDs and immediately re-install the operating system over the delivered OS. Most delivered Windows OS(s) are littered with unneeded crapware from the vendor.

NOTE: As part of an earlier settlement between DOJ and Microsoft (not this last one), Microsoft got the requirement that all PCs shipped must be shipped with an Operating System installed.

[ucodegen]

I also have a Dell Precision M90 (the laptop that the HP replaced) and it was a piece of junk. Keyboard went first, followed by CD/DVD drive and the hard drive started persistently overheating.

The company I work for uses M90s very heavily, including for travel. The only problem we have seen is battery life and weight and one charging power supply starting to go bad (which was replaced very quickly). Maybe because it was purchased as a corporation, that we got notebooks that were better constructed. I do know that several companies that had support with Dell complained when Dell decided to outsource support to India. The Corporate I.T. folks were getting tired of dealing with people reading from scripts and wanted people on the other end with real knowledge (no needing to tell I.T. people how to power cycle their machines etc). The end result is that support on corporate purchases is done in the United States, not India. Suffice it to say, I buy my personal notebooks through the company I work for. I don’t need to have to work through phone support telling me how to power cycle my machine..

It was mentioned that one of the kids may bring the notebook to school. I would almost suggest 2 notebooks because of the breakage factor and the possibility of unknown software being added (wouldn’t want to put a critical machine at risk). I would avoid the large 15″ or larger screened notebooks (unless the kid is older than 16) because of the weight. I would also avoid the ‘Home’ version of Windows like the plague. The professional versions have better access control over accounts.

I agree with the comments on Apple. Nice.. but.. In addition, if you are going to play computer games or software from other vendors, your selection under Apple is going to be smaller.

[ucodegen]

I also have a Dell Precision M90 (the laptop that the HP replaced) and it was a piece of junk. Keyboard went first, followed by CD/DVD drive and the hard drive started persistently overheating.

The company I work for uses M90s very heavily, including for travel. The only problem we have seen is battery life and weight and one charging power supply starting to go bad (which was replaced very quickly). Maybe because it was purchased as a corporation, that we got notebooks that were better constructed. I do know that several companies that had support with Dell complained when Dell decided to outsource support to India. The Corporate I.T. folks were getting tired of dealing with people reading from scripts and wanted people on the other end with real knowledge (no needing to tell I.T. people how to power cycle their machines etc). The end result is that support on corporate purchases is done in the United States, not India. Suffice it to say, I buy my personal notebooks through the company I work for. I don’t need to have to work through phone support telling me how to power cycle my machine..

It was mentioned that one of the kids may bring the notebook to school. I would almost suggest 2 notebooks because of the breakage factor and the possibility of unknown software being added (wouldn’t want to put a critical machine at risk). I would avoid the large 15″ or larger screened notebooks (unless the kid is older than 16) because of the weight. I would also avoid the ‘Home’ version of Windows like the plague. The professional versions have better access control over accounts.

I agree with the comments on Apple. Nice.. but.. In addition, if you are going to play computer games or software from other vendors, your selection under Apple is going to be smaller.

[Author]

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